May+7,+2010

Try-it Sharing: (Headlines from small groups)

 * "Less is More"
 * Read one sentence only and have students visualize what they heard
 * Helps them really focus on small details
 * Use really small paper for visualizing – more manageable, lifts quality of work, less overwhelming, less space to fill
 * Visualizing without the text available was a little harder than orally
 * "If teachers take the words away, they give you the words back"
 * Draw pictures of what you visualize when you listen to music
 * Some used music with words, some without words
 * Kind of dramatic, scary, music (from Mussorsky)
 * Demons coming out of the mountains and dancing at the bottom of the mountain
 * “I was scared up on the roof.”
 * thunderstorms
 * Turned backs to the circle and just listened silently (so they couldn’t see each other’s body language)
 * Small paper for visualizing
 * Children who don’t always speak or have a lot of language had at least one sentence to share.
 * Choosing a song with less of a clear theme led to more diverse representations of what they visualized
 * Were able to explain their pictures with more details by first listening silently, then drawing silently, then telling the story – helped them access the oral language
 * When they listened to songs with words, they drew a concert – musicians with instruments
 * The last group (different practices)
 * Math problem for K students: if you have 6 marbles and 3 holes, how many marbles can you put in each hole in order to fill the holes equally?
 * Visualized the problem:
 * I see three big, black holes with marbles in them.
 * One marble in each hole.
 * Two marbles in each hole.
 * Used a KWC: what do we know, what do we want to find out?
 * Made connections to try to solve the problem
 * found materials in the classroom to act it out (3 cups and 6 tiles)
 * Made a real-life story about sharing 6 sandwiches between 3 people
 * Whether they gave the right answer or the wrong answer, Mia didn’t say if they were right or wrong, just listened to their ideas.
 * One student drew 3 cups and 6 squares, with arrows showing that there are 2 squares in each cup.

Whole-group sharing of extensions to the reading:

 * Three-column chart: the unknown word, what you infer about it, how you figured out what it meant
 * Schema: using the word with students and have them understand what it means
 * Repeated exposure to mathematical concepts: why do we think in math they should get it with only a few exposures, when in reading we read the same thing over and over and over again?
 * Predicting the pattern in counting (in K), so they see what is happening with the numbers – at the end of each decade, what happens? What patterns do you see in the numbers as you count?
 * Metaphors peak in humans at the age of 4 – our students are less concrete than we think they are
 * In Asian languages, the names of the numbers support the understanding of place value, ie. 17 = ten seven. Same in fractions: one third is “of three parts, one.” This gives them a 2-3 year advantage over English-speaking students in math concepts.
 * Making inferences about words, using a book with a glossary in the back so you can confirm or revisit words you made inferences about
 * Readers can determine the meaning of unknown words using schema, by paying attention to meaning and picture cues. Picture clues can help students build vocabulary.
 * Model (with a think-aloud) how to infer the meaning of an unknown word – your metacognitive process. Then have students make a list of what you did to infer what the word meant.
 * The authors want the reader to take something away from the book and be thinking about the book – tell the children that so they can figure out what the author wants you to learn or think about as they read. Try to do it without pushing your own interpretation on them.

What we will try this week:
Two- or three-column format for inferring unknown words: Model your own process of inferring word meanings: Introduce the idea of schema to students: Predicting what will happen next in a pattern in math: Modes of language: reasoning, describing, reflecting, explaining: Distinguishing between questions you have to infer the answer to vs. questions that are right in the text: Sharing inferences with partner during reading: Talk about textual evidence / connections for inferences / predictions: Talk more about the difference between inferring and predicting:
 * Keshia
 * Samara
 * Rachelle
 * Isabel
 * Jenna
 * Pam
 * Annie
 * Shakera
 * Jessica
 * Jenna
 * Priscilla
 * Liana
 * Jen
 * Heidi
 * Jean
 * Jill
 * Merry
 * Miala
 * Jessica

Plan for the next few weeks:
Lynn and I are suggesting that on the 14th we will do Determining Importance and Synthesizing together. She and I will combine and shorten the readings by Monday. Then for the 21st, the homework will be to come with an idea for what you will systematically implement for the last month of school, and having re-read a chapter, more in-depth, that will help you think about how to do that. On the 21st, we will work in small groups to brainstorm and develop the implementation, developing the question, and thinking about how to measure results. We will have some guiding questions or a template to help you do this. Classroom and grade-level teams can decide if they want to do an inquiry question all together or individually.

Plus / Delta
Pluses: No Deltas
 * Visual aids that people brought
 * Routine: starts on time, well-planned, people bring their stuff, everyone knows what they are supposed to do – feels good to be in the routine
 * Richest PD in years at YA because of planning and preparation
 * Everyone is pulling their weight and participating
 * Even though some just want to be helpers, not teachers, some are feeling drawn toward teaching
 * Every week I go back with something
 * Good to keep mixed groups of people who read different books
 * Making connections between reading and math
 * Good mixing us, K-2 grade
 * I am learning that math has a lot of connection to reading