Teachers have long understood the powerful role novels can play when incorporated into their ELA block.
However, with state mandates prompting an increase in adoption of basal programs, novels are being quietly pushed out of classrooms in districts that are demanding strict fidelity of the adopted basal. With this approach, the ELA block is dominated by short stories and passages. While there is strong evidence and need for students to engage in a wide variety of texts, including short passages, the absence of novels is proving to be detrimental to a crucial part of student learning- deep engagement. When students are actively involved and interested in their learning, they are more likely to develop strong literacy skills that will serve them well throughout their academic career and beyond. This podcast does an excellent job of reviewing the research and explaining the need for teachers to adjust their approach to ensure students have time in the day to build a love for reading. One effective way to boost student engagement in literacy is through the use of novels. By introducing students to a wide range of genres and themes through a balanced integration of short passages and novels, educators can spark student interest and curiosity, making the learning experience more enjoyable and memorable. This engagement with literature can significantly improve students' reading comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. So how do teachers do this? There needs to be a healthy balance between short passages and novels. This can be achieved with a basal- any basal will provide a decent selection of short passages and excerpts. With that, teachers need also be given the time and freedom to incorporate novels. In 4th grade, I like to start the year with the book Frindle. This is a short read and is great for hooking kids into reading. It is a great model of story elements such as character development, conflicts and progression of plot. It also introduces students to the importance of word study, and I find it is a great book to get student buy in for studying etymology and morphology. The novel also serves as a way to introduce how to engage in a novel study, that can later be used to ensure success in small group book clubs. After a beginning of the year whole class novel (which really could be anything) novels can be incorporated into small group book clubs where the emphasis is applying skills learned in whole group instruction to an engaging novel. If you are using a basal... there will be a point that students need a break from the monotony of that. This is where I switch back to a novel somewhere around December. Novel choice is very dependent on class, grade level and need. I personally like to choose a novel that can easily integrate into other subject areas. I lean on historical fiction or... one of my favorite novels, The Wild Robot. This article, “No More Strategy of the Week”: Considerations for Connecting Comprehension Instruction Back to the Book, does an excellent job explaining incorporating novels into classroom ELA instruction. I appreciate this paragraph below as it sums up how I have always used The Wild Robot in class. "This can be done in a number of ways. One approach is to design a quad text set (Lewis & Strong, 2020). For this approach, teachers select a challenging text to serve as their focal text and then find three complementary texts that serve to hook students, scaffold background knowledge, and help students make connections. Another approach is to simply find additional texts to help complement the main reading. For example, Ellen and Tammy have used Peter Brown's (2016) book, The Wild Robot, with fourth graders. Students read the novel with their teacher and peers, but they also read shorter texts about survival, adaptations, and habitats to complement the work. By using this text set approach, students have multiple exposures to shared vocabulary across texts and can integrate common themes and ideas between texts. After implementing this approach, we found that students were able to make deeper connections and think more critically. The fourth graders in Ellen's school had deep discussions comparing the robot Roz from Wild Robot and the invisible friend Crenshaw in Crenshaw (Applegate, 2015) and if the characters could be considered living." Small Group Book Clubs For teachers using a basal program, these programs prove to be demanding of time and tasks that are less desirable for students (For example, text analysis essays after every passage) There is a place and need for that. If the mental load is heavy during whole group instruction, small group book clubs should be a way for teachers to guide students towards authentically applying the skills they learn in whole group to an engaging novel. Given the writing demands in most basal programs, I would not make this part of the day heavy on writing and annotating. Instead, small groups can be a chance to discuss concepts of literary elements with a teacher and peers. It should be a time of learning to love reading, and finding how and why people read for pleasure. If kids are behind grade level, as a team or school a solution should be worked out to ensure these students are receiving evidence based intervention AND a time to engage in a book club. For these students, allowing time with a teacher and peer to apply skills learned in intervention to a grade level book (with supports and scaffolds where needed) often is the magic needed to prompt quick and drastic growth towards grade level proficiency. So what books do I recommend? There are so many but here are some of my favs in no particular order.
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This year, my class showed tremendous growth. While I do have a record of strong growth on measures like iReady and State Tests- even I haven't seen growth quite like this. On Twitter I simplified it all to a point of - "I used novels." - but wow was it so much more than that. So here is a brain dump of this year, what it was, the supports we had and how to maybe replicate it (**Maybe as every great educator knows results are hard to replicate and are so dependent on the year, the kids and what they need.) Here's a look at my class- simplified into one chart based on one test. We had a new student join us in April- she scored "light green" in the end of the year and is the one untested in the beginning of the year. Top look- Beginning of the year results and bottom- end of year placements. The Key to ResultsIf I had to quickly summarize what all went right this year... it feels impossible to do. That said, I would name the following as key to amazing results.
Moving Kids Out of the Red - Scaffolds for the Win4th Grade is a scary time to be far below grade level. I firmly believe that to catch kids up and get them to grade level they need intervention per whatever their gaps are after assessing AND they need access to grade level texts. Holding them back in leveled readers will never catch them up and in 4th grade we do not have time to wait and see. This year I tried something new... with my far below grade level group, I started off with leveled readers despite my disdain for them (but put them in just below or right at grade level texts) This group would come literally dragging their feet to my group after their intervention. So one day I looked at them and asked... Do you guys want to read a book instead? Cheers of Yes. Joy. Glee, Excitement. So I put away the leveled readers (for good) and pulled out Wild Robot. For many in this group, this book was far above their ability so... I used AI to give me lists of words that might be challenging to decode and/or were vocabulary words that might need preteaching. I chose 5 words and pretaught them using OG syllable divide methods. I let students guide this as they also have an OG intervention and were stoked to be the ones at the whiteboard. Since they were already getting intervention that's all I did. Of course we stopped to discuss a lot. Of course I snuck in applying skills and strategies. But mostly the focus of this group was to build confidence, give them access to grade level texts, and build a love of reading. We then read a chapter or two and wow... magic. Even my lowest kid started running to the group. All of them volunteered to read out loud and many would beg to read multiple paragraphs out loud. Their comprehension and fluency started jumping. All because they wanted to be there and they wanted to read. They finally were able to read something other than the OG decodable (which have their use too!) and they were no longer stuck in (rather boring) leveled readers. This is where I will insist until forever that the social/emotional pieces involved in reading need to be addressed. Kids need to want to read. They need to be motivated to read. They need to feel the excitement of being fully involved in a novel. The Year Summarized in a Long PostThis is the year of the Bloated Basal. My district adopted Into Reading per state mandates and boy do I have things to say about that program but thats for another day and another post. The beginning of the year, as "early adopters" we were asked to follow with strict fidelity. So I tried to. Given the composition of my class with 60% below grade level proficiency.... this proved to be a horrible fit. But the district insisted so I pushed on with - 45 minutes of Whole Group reading. This looked like reading the same passage together for 4 days. Picking it apart. Mostly me talking at kids. Lots of annotating in their books (oh we loved this part though) and lots and lots of analytical writing about the short passage we focused on for 4 to 5 days. My kids hated this and quickly began to moan every time I asked them to take their MyBooks out. Nevertheless.... We pushed on. Our reading block looked like this
It Takes A VillageAttempting to juggle 7 separate reading groups proved to be too much for one person. In January, we somehow got funding for one more para for our grade level for 35 minutes. With this we decided to change things up.
Nonsense Things that Shouldn't Matter But DoKids HATE iReady. Teacher's hate iReady. The results are nationally normed so this one small snapshot still can be used to inform instruction and decision making. It shouldn't be used to evaluate teachers but it is. So to nuetralize the disdain for iReady Testing Week here's some things I did.
Test Scores and Why they Don't Matter (But Do)I have a love hate relationship with assessments like iReady. On one hand, I appreciate the date and firmly believe that when taken with a grain of salt, as a small snapshot, it can be useful in reflecting on instruction and what a child might need to ensure success.
On the other hand, these tests put kids through unnecessary pressure cookers and the frequency and length of the tests, in my humble opinion, take away from precious instructional time which proves to be detrimental to students. These tests in no way shape or form should be used as a single measure to evaluate student or teacher success. Scores should instead be carefully interpreted. Sometimes they truly are invalid. Sometimes they truly do not reflect student learning. But, when used as a small piece of evidence within a larger body of evidence, I find them to be useful when discussing and planning best approaches to ensure success of students in the class. On social media, I see a lot of comparisons between the teaching profession and others. Like... WOULD U EXPECT A MUSICIAN TO WRITE THEIR OWN MATERIAL?! Actually ya. The musicians we respect most in fact do write their own music. MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS DON'T JUST IGNORE RESEARCH Actually, research on menopause & standard care treatment has been largely ignored for decades? It's an issue largely talked about and ignored. But teaching and learning isn't like any other profession. Truly. I think the closest analogy we can get to is health and nutrition. It is a lot like that in some ways. We know, and have always known, more or less what we need to do to achieve our own optimal health. Eat a balanced, whole food diet. Exercise regularly. Sounds simple enough? And yet the health and fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar industry with advise swinging wildly from one extreme to another. Eat a strict vegan diet some might say. No no! Its all about Keto! No Paleo! No no... 80% veggies 20% meet and absolutely no sugar. Its aall about the Mediterranean Diet girl. What shoould you do in regards to exercise? Oh that is simple. Walk 10k steps a day. Definitely increase cardio. Decrease cardio and lift heavy! Run. A lot. Don't run a lot but do aat l east 5 days of HIIT workouts. Do not do HIIT, just lift heavy weights but like... sometimes also cardio. The contradictory advise is enough to make your head spin. And it's not far from what teachers hear constantly. We know what kids need. In 2001, what kids need was put together in this now once again incredibly popular concept known as Scarborough's Rope. We know. And yet, the advice we get to apply is at best nonsensical. Follow programs with fidelity but also definitely don't because one must teach and adapt to the needs of the students in front of them. Decodables only! Until kids master ALL phonics skills. But also that's ridiculous. Obviously they need authentic texts. Knowledge building over comprehension skills and strategies! But also definitely comprehension skills and strategies. Similar to health and nutrition advice, there is a solid path to follow. We know where to begin but... as life is... the plan is never one size fits all. What about the patient with celiac disease? Or a thyroid problem? Or Hashimoto's? What about the woman in perimenopause who suddenly is experiencing health issues she never has experienced before despite continuing an incredibly healthy life style? What about those with severe allergies? Or our picky eaters? We cannot simply suggest everyone eats a gluten-free diet. That simply doesn't work for everyone. There is no one size fits all plan for health and nutrition. And there isn't one for student learning. This is where education goes wrong. There is no solid advice when it comes to the real life students in front of us. There is only solid advice for the best case scenario. Even the best written program will not address all of the what ifs, all of the needs, all of the resources that real kids might need. And no, its often not an implementation problem. When "pendulums swing," its often a swing to an extreme. Legislation is put into place, new curriculum is purchased, and teachers are asked to teach it with fidelity. Fidelity as if all students fit into the same box. There is a refusal to acknowledge the depth and intricacies involved in teaching students. The nuances involved are such that a single program could of course give a solid starting point, but could never make up for the fact that we are neglecting so much. One single curriculum cannot fully address every issue that comes up in classrooms. We should be hiring teacher professionals (and treating them as such) to do that. A curriculum cannot address the social/emotional needs of students. This is addressed by the teacher, of course, who when given the freedom to adjust and adapt can take the base line of the curriculum and bring it to life for students. This is what students need. We now have curriculum that is deeply flawed, ignores current and past research, and is known to be culturally destructive. The lack of mirrors, windows and sliding doors in many programs today leaves inequitable gaps that simply shouldn't exist given all we know now. Our special ed system is historically and wildly underfunded. The staffing needed to make it successful is never there, rarely hired, and when they are they lack support in such devastating waays, the teachers quit for jobs with less stress and more respect. We have an unprecedented teacher shortage with teachers fleeing as fast as they can. And instead of addressing the true issues at play, the loudest voices are screaming to legislate curriculum and force it to be taught with fidelity. They are, perhaps unknowingly, screaming for an extreme solution that simply wont work. Because like nutrition, our students need balance. They need us to have a solid jumping off point, they need us to be experts in the rope. They need us to be consumers of current research and best practice. And they need us to allow our teachers to use their best judgement to adapt to their needs. I have been lucky to have been surrounded by incredible talent throughout my two decade career as a teacher. The teachers I know have a skill level worthy of awards. The work they do every day in their classroom is incredible and truly changes lives. Despite this truth, one thing that continues to strike me as odd is the persistent presence in educators of what some might call Imposter Syndrome, the internal belief that despite evidence of success, one maybe really isn't truly successful. It is defined as the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills. This false belief runs rampant in educations and is a symptom of a society that demands expertise in the field but refuses to treat the professionals as the experts.
No matter how successful, knowledgeable or acclaimed a teacher is, society continues to paint the opposite picture. If it isn't being done blatantly in the press, even implicitly painting teachers as lesser than, not capable of the intellectual prowess needed to make the right type of decisions to ensure student success is damaging to the entire system. Teachers constantly are painted as being weak minded. The trust in decision making is taken away from them and more often than not, the media and journalists suggest important decisions should be "left in the hands of experts." Are teachers somehow not the experts? There have been several articles and podcasts out in the last few years that bring up valid concerns with curriculum, but then quickly point the finger in the wrong direction, at teachers. Even if it is not blatant, any undertone that suggests teacher's are not capable of spotting curriculum that isn't worthy of being in schools perpetuates the belief that teacher's are not experts in their field. However, not only are teachers the true experts in education, the key to solving the most complex issues faced in our school systems can be found by simply trusting them and involving them in important conversations. The truth is, teachers have and continue to sound the alarm about curriculum that isn't up to par. We wave red flags begging for anyone in power to listen and instead are silenced. We are told to teach with strict fidelity because someone who has probably never stepped foot into a classroom claims the curriculum will ensure success. Those of us that are brave enough (or have supportive districts) are given room to apply our expertise, our art, our knowledge to the curriculum and students thrive because of it. Others are left floundering under the heavy weight of a boxed curriculum that could never live up to its claims of being aligned to evidence, because it never was. No program can be or will be perfect but some are so deeply flawed they never should have been on the market. Instead of allowing teachers to take part in these conversations, the continual silencing of the true experts in the field, the teachers, has lead to legislators and big corporations making sweeping decisions that are in the best interest of no one but themselves. The district or school that allows room for teacher voice and discretion is becoming increasingly rare. And far more often teachers are bludgeoned with the belief they are lesser than. In the eyes of the loudest in our society, they are not the experts. Their years of experience, their masters degrees, their doctorate degrees mean nothing. They and only they are at fault when a company Sells a Story and millions are spent on something they truly had no say in. When teachers bring up that they tried to say something, they tried to sound the alarm about (insert any failed initiative over the last several decades) they are hushed or worse, bullied into silence. The best of the best are leaving and finding jobs where they are treated with respect, as professionals. They are finding the Imposter Syndrome they were weighed down with was a weight put on them by society. And with that weight taken off, they are allowed to thrive in their workplace knowing that they are capable, they are intelligent, and they are worthy. We are losing teachers at an unprecedented fast pace. The teachers we need in schools, the experts among us are fed up. They are leaving. They are tired of being treated as lesser than. They are tired of feeling defeated. They are tired of feeling Imposter Syndrome imposed on them by a society that refuses to acknowledge teachers for the true experts in the field that they are. There are a lot of mixed feelings in education in regards to the use of AI. But its time for the conversation to move beyond "kids use it to cheat," and "it might replace teachers!" We need to move on towards discussing and finding ways to best implement it. Love it or hate it, AI is here and it's here to stay. From the Teacher Lens Approach with Caution The Cons - AI is still in its beginning stages and it is flawed. From the perspective of using it as a professional and through the lens of allowing students access to it considering the following.
The Pros-Overall, AI can be used as a tool to save time on tasks that can be automated to then move focus to student engagement, interaction, and building lessons that are both authentic and engaging to student learning. Align to the Science of Reading For many teaching professionals, the Science of Reading has created a strong shift in their teaching. A shift that requires materials that sometimes, at least in upper grades, are not engaging, not relevant, or simply non existence. AI provides teachers with a tool to quickly provide resources to use in the classroom. Need a list of words that match the morpheme you are teaching? Done.
From the Student Lens Cons
Explicitly Teach Critical Literacy and Being a Critical Consumer of Information In today's world, we have to teach students how to be critical consumers of information, and why that is so crucial in today's world. This of course goes beyond just AI, but in its current state is especially critical to the use of AI by students. With a tool that is known to amplify bias, they must be taught to question what biases might be present and what perspective is truly being represented. This again is crucial in any type of reading they do. Currently there are many reading curriculum on the market being adopted by districts for their supposed alignment to the science of reading but at the same time, the curriculum have been evaluated as being culturally destructive. Biases are present in most of the information we consume and we gave to proceed from a lens of teaching students how to critically analyze any information they are given. Preventing Cognitive Atrophy If used inappropriately without explicitly teaching how to use it as a tool to harness creativity and expression, students could easily develop what is known as cognitive atrophy. If we present it as something that will only help a kid spit out an essay without thought, we will be on quite the slippery slope. However, if presented in ways that will help strengthen their cognitive muscles, we can ensure that we prevent over reliance on it. We can sure that students are using it to enhance the way they think about and see the world. If we stop and reflect, who wouldn't use a tool that could bust out a well written five paragraph essay in five seconds? We need to stop, reflect, and ensure our students are experiencing AI in ways that enhance their reading, writing, and critical thinking. Re-frame Purpose of Assignments There are so many opportunities to simply have fun. In the past, I have had kids write songs to display their learning in content area (for example, a rap about Plate Tectonics) to be blunt, the level of skill this requires is immense and often too much for 4th grade. After years of teaching it became an option or an extension and not something I did whole group until... AI. Now the song can be created with prompting. Students still must use their knowledge in the prompt if they want the song to truly display their learning. The assignment then becomes a practice in building fluency for whoever needs it, continuing to practice and memorize the content, creativity, public speaking and enjoyment. Enhance Writing Students absolutely need to be good writers in order to properly prompt AI. A wonderful example activity is having students create a fictional animal. Students must use their descriptive writing skills to then prompt AI to generate a picture of their animal. This can and will lead to many revisions and often to the realization that AI is imperfect. AI can also be used (with caution) to provide instant feedback to students. The issue here is you must explicitly teach how to analyze the advice as it may not always be valid. Focus on Creativity, Expression and Communication Students will be given so many chances to simply create. In situations where they are prompted to create their own business, they can now easily prompt AI to create their own logo. They will be able to use their voices to animate cartoons, write scripts that can be brought to life with background images they create with descriptive prompts... its an exciting world out there. And I personally cannot wait to jump farther into it all.... with caution. Basal Reader Program and its lack of alignment to actual evidence based practice got you down? Feeling overwhelmed and confused by click paths? Unsure how to reframe culturally destructive passages in ways that will benefit all children? (Okay for this one... just throw those passages out. Unapologetically. I will be writing a post soon for 4th grade on how and what to replace)
Same. So I decided to start this series- a survival guide if you will. To start- here are some free, supplemental resources specifically for areas that Into Reading is lacking.: Morphology - The Syntax Project Spelling/Phonics - UFLI (Free grades K-3) Common Lit (Free grades 3-12) Great resource for teachers, schools and districts to turn to when needing to replace texts that do not live up to rigor needs and/or are culturally destructive. Scaffolded Essay Frames - Ensure your students can answer those beginning of the year performance tasks! Coming Soon... I am finding a way to share what I have done to rewrite the program where it lacks. I will definitely be posting writing lessons for those who need something that is more explicit and meets the needs of all student. I will also be posting things I am doing to engage my students and make the mundane day to day existence of following the TE a more exciting and fulfilling experience. I will be posting resources here, and on instagram along with some tricks and tips that helped keep my students engaged. (And 100 things that kept this working momma of a kindergartner and newborn sane!)Hurray! It's the 100th day of school! Which of course means we made it... someone give us a gold medal... We survived 100 days of distance learning. How? I don't know either but here we go... A list of 100 things that helped get us through. (Pictured - My daughter's work space/classroom/left over decorations from her birthday party. What a fun way to celebrate our 100 days of this thing we call Distance Learning!)
This year is hard. I am thankful for all of the teachers out there helping other teachers with free resources so will be posting resources I’m using in my distance learning classroom online! Checkout the Distance Learning Resources tab for all of the resources I have been dependent on and some of the resources I have created. Most of these resources are in hyperdoc form!
Enjoy! If you like my resources, I was going to add a buy me a coffee link but instead, buy one of your teacher friends who needs some extra love some coffee. This year is HARD. Teachers need each other to get through 😭❤️❤️❤️🥰 For in person resources, more of my resources are on Teachers Pay Teachers for cheap, if not free. When I started my career, everything in my classroom was purchased by 23 year old me out of pocket. I strive to price my materials fairly keeping that in mind and post things for free whenever I can! All of my resources are things I created and use in my own classroom. To the parent making impossible decisions as the start of school approaches...
I feel you. This is impossible. As a parent, spring distance learning felt like the 7th ring of hell and I am here to tell you every educator in the country felt the same pain. But we need to all acknowledge some truths. That was not distance learning. That was not caused by a lack of training. That was not caused by a system that failed due to incompetencies. What we all felt was a sudden, unexpected, unprecedented global trauma caused by a pandemic. The world was turned upside down overnight, without warning, without any way to prepare and that left us all (especially our kids) spinning in disbelief. Even the best distance learning system would have failed under those conditions and here is why. 1 - Children cannot learn when they are in a state of trauma. There is a strong, ever growing body of evidence indicating all of the reasons a child cannot access academic learning when they are in a heightened state of stress. When schools were abruptly shut down with no warning, our kids were processing their own grief over the loss of their normal and were processing their anxieties over global issues that are far to large for children to process all at once. We were all experiencing the same global trauma. As a teacher here is what I saw every single day during our daily zoom call.
All kids thrive on routine. This was ripped away from them suddenly and unexpectedly. Again, we all woke up one morning to the news that school buildings were closed and our reality was now some new uncharted world that felt like chaos. My kids missed their routine. They spent August-March learning and perfecting a routine that worked for them and their style of learning inside of a classroom. They knew exactly what to expect and when. They had made leaps and bounds of growth... and then BAM- covid threw a brick wall in front of them. They now had to learn a new routine somehow set by one adult who somehow had to coordinate 30 other family schedules during a global pandemic in which every. single. family was struggling to make things work at home, while working, with kids, who were expected to learn through a computer. I offered resources and suggestions to set schedules that resembled some sense of normal but there simply was not a way to meet every family's needs and to make a consistent and coherent plan that worked for every family. Families were exhausted, they were scared, they were fighting through what we now call Corona-fatigue and the emotional chaos caused by the rug being ripped out from underneath us without warning. We were all thrown into an impossible situation. There was no was schooling was going to survive through it. So as educators, administrators across the country came up with the best on the fly solutions that they could to meet the various needs of families who were now collectively facing the crisis caused by the pandemic shut down.
How did anyone expect all of that to go WELL in spring. Of course it failed. But parents, I assure you, this isn't spring learning any more. I see parent's now fleeing their public school for online schools or homeschooling options with an expectation of coming back to in person learning when things get safe but here are some realities to consider before you do that. The assumption is that spring failed because of teachers. Not because of the collective trauma we all experienced. Before you do that I urge you to consider the following.
Regardless of what you choose, know that you are making the best decision for your family. It is a hard, impossible decision to make. We are all doing our best and when this is all over... our kids will be okay. Phew! We made it. This certainly was not ideal, I would be lying if I said it was. But I truly feel we made the best out of it all, and now it comes to an end!
Typically the last week of school involves fun and bonding so, I have been wracking my brain to make that happen for my kiddos online. Digital Memory Book We will be finishing up a digital memory book together, reflecting on all of the good times (even online!) that we had together. I do not have access to a printer, but the file can be printed for kids or parents who prefer. Currently, I edited this one from Teaching with a Mountain View. Fun and Games Every year, we end with some fun and games. I tried my hardest to convert some of that into an online experience and made this Google Slides Minute to Win It Activity using materials kids could find at home. Click the link to automatically make yourself a copy! |
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"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." - Alexandra K. Trenfor |