Planning a Social Studies Unit

[Notes from a session with Kathleen Tolan]

Day 1 Agenda:

• Lay out some principals that can guide us when designing curriculum
• Discuss methods we can draw upon when teaching in content areas
• We will experience a whole class rally cry for the unit
• We will experience a reading workshop in the content area

Purpose for this work: Extend kids' knowledge, and work for transference

Look at S.S. time through the lens of literacy. Does it match your beliefs from RW and WW, or is it antiquated?

Sometimes in SS we aren't being responsive to student need like we are during RW and WW. Sometimes the content coverage takes over good teaching.

Principals behind guiding the development of curriculum design

• Content goals that are reasonable
• Critique it: Out of all the goals, what goals will you be addressing.
• Look across units: Find goals that spiral through the year
• Ex: You don't have a map unit, you USE maps ALL year long
• Where is the overlap in all of these units?
• Look at CCSS
• How will you assess throughout the units in authentic ways?
• What is sticking? What's not?
• What is your timeframe for your unit?
• Is it realistic? (i.e. If you only teach 2x per week)
• Vocabulary development
• What academic words do you expect that kids will know and be able to use
• Teach the words that students will use over and over and over again
• Content Words (ex: Colonization)
• Fun Words (Not big concept words, but still cool.)
• See it, hear it, say it, use it
• What reading and writing skills will you target in this unit?
• Content area is a perfect time to introduce a concept that will be used later on in reading
• Shift paradigm: Instead of reading transferring to content, think about content as a place to pre-introduce reading skills.

YouTube: Liberty Kids

http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertysKidsTV

Resources:

Videos (short clips)

Primary Documents

Photographs

Statues

Quotes

Statistics

Documentaries (short clips)

Methods of Teaching: *Most work is around an artifact (word bank, map, photos, etc.)

• Workshop/Mini lesson
• Mini Lecture
• Read Aloud Work
• Shared Writing/Shared Reading
• Read Aloud and Note Taking
• Read Aloud: Create little text sets, read aloud to kids, then have them do some rereading
• Read Aloud with copies of key pages
• Read Aloud photo/map/text features on document camera
• Seminars (Invite an expert, parent, school staff member, people sharing an experience, child in class who has experience or has become on expert)- Has artifacts, and has discussion
• Have kids who are interested to lead seminars
• Storytelling
• Centers (ex: 3 of 8 weeks are centers, or 2x per week, etc)
• If there are 6 3rd grade teachers, there are 6 centers (each teacher makes a center)
• Ex: One teacher does the Map section for ALL of the units (so you become an expert at making the unit)
• 2-3 days for each center
• Get all of your centers going, they're going to be crappy at first, and then you'll work on them! (Don't take 8 weeks launching the centers)
• Use task cards to START kids, but once they get going, they start following their own interests! Invent ways for kids to access the curriculum into ways that is interesting to kids

Think about conversations. What would you be listening for at a content center?

• Prior knowledge/Content knowledge base
• Vocabulary and level of talk (using specific vocabulary)
• Talking to understand what they've learned (Just talk about the content)
• Does their talking match the learning (Ex: "Can you show me what you read that made you think that?)
• Create a timeline

Tip: To help kids truly understand time period, create a timeline with your class

• Idea: put types of cars on the timeline to help kids understand when it was
• Add books to your timeline

Social Studies Centers Video:

Centers Around the Room in which Students Continue the Compare and Contrast Work Begun in the Previous Video (3-5) from TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.

[Video: Teacher was bringing "Point of View" from her informational reading unit into content area.]
Mini lesson happened right before this video: Looking at sources side-by-side.
-Are kids doing it because you asked them to do it, or are they drawing upon sources from around the room to drive their work?

Before you work, make a plan. Not just what you're going to talk about, but the tools that you have to use.
Seminars could be an opportunity for kids to teach what they've learned in their centers.


When you launch into a unit, what could be a drumroll that gets kids excited about getting into the work?

• Music from the time period? Dance from the time period?
• Super-important poem from the time period
• Two contrasting images from the time period (Extremely wealthy vs. poverty)
• Watch a short video clip through different angles/lenses
• Virtual tour of museums/landmarks that have a lot to do with the time period
• Snippet of a play set inside the time period
• Write around (a quote/photo) They silently write, then read others' writing, then add to it.
• (Know that they won't understand the relevance until later in the unit.)

Homework: Read and Posting for Main Ideas and Supports; Read Handout

Close Reading and Learning Progressions

[Monday morning session notes from Mary Ehrenworth's session]

This week:
-Let's think about how will work differ as we move up the grades.
-Let's look at close-reading work, practicing on a variety of text.
-Looking at argument work not just in your classroom, but across the school.
-Writing about reading.

Michael Fullen:
Systems view-Kids don't need good classrooms, they need good schools

Close reading: Fly Away Home

• Before you start, ask kids: "What thinking work do you expect to do with this?" (Remember, we're teaching for transfer) -Ask this questions of kids, and jot their answers. What do they say?
• Giving feedback (in response to what kids say): "What is specific and unusual about the characters and place? Also, start to notice, is it an emotion or trait?" [She is trying to move us into analytical frame of mind]
• Tell partner reading plan: What will you try during this reading? [Mine: Noticing what is specific and unusual about characters]
• Reads the first book of the page
• Turn and talk what you have noticed before. She walks around and coaches-in. [She shares out what she heard] Tip: Ask: Why did the author put this part in?
• Reads another page.
• Turn and Talk. Then she shares out what she heard and shares a tip: Be alert for scenes with minor characters and ask, why is this here? Also, don't only look for what about characters that is unusual, but also look for when are characters more than one way.
• Reads three pages.
• Tip: When you look for character complication, don't only look for what is different in what they do, but in what they say.
• Turn and talk
• Shares out. Asks us to think about a place in our lives that can feel really different and different moments, just like in the text. [Turn and talk]
• Tip: When you read a book in first person, you can notice what kind of voice does the character have? How does the character describe everything, and how can those words help you develop a better idea about the character?
• Reads two pages.
• Turn and talk
• Shares out.

Research: Highest intellectual work was happening during read aloud. But also, that was when the transference was the lowest. And the teacher was often doing the hardest work.

-Try to get most of conversation. Sayback vs. eliciting. Don't call on kids, just share what you heard them say, but slightly change it slightly to a more literary language. (Keeps momentum going)

What would you want it to sound like for you kids at the beginning of the book. Think about learning progressions. "A third grader might sound like this... A fourth grader might sound like this..."

It would be interesting to create a reading articulation team: What does each grade look like?

• Try a reading on-demand. Make sure you have a focused question so you can compare responses.
• Create a sample response for a strong beginning of the year student response for this prompt:
• Write down your thinking: Make a clear claim about the character's struggle or problem, and back it up with some evidence.
• Gallery walk around room to see how it differed by grade
• Look at this checklist:
• 1 pt State a clear claim about character's trouble
• 1 pt Explicit transitions (For example... Also... In addition...)
• 1 pt I use at least 2 pieces of evidence
• 1 pt Include evidence that is clear and explicit
• 1 pt Include evidence that is more hidden
• 1 pt Include specific quote or details
• 1 pt Showed different parts of the problem or how it affects the character
• Talk with your partner: What would be the quickest/easiest way to raise your response by one point.

Book Clubs-Meet with your book club and plan an assignment for tomorrow.

Small Groups, Shared Reading, and Word Study Notes

[Notes from a session with Christine Robson]

Guided Reading Small Group Video

Strategy Group is a group of kids around a same need [Does not have to be the same level]
[Independent Level]

• You know what you are teaching them
• You teach it up front
• Similar format to a mini lesson
• You should do a lot less talking than you would do during a mini lesson (More emphasis on the coaching during the practice)
• Sometimes, she'll just name the teaching point, then have them practice while she coaches in. (Those times when she's taught them a bunch of times and they just aren't doing it. She might not need to talk about the chart AGAIN and model it AGAIN.)
• Immediately after finishing a kid's running record, she thinks about the kid's next step and jots the name down on a chart:
• Meaning
• Meaning-whole text
• Monitoring
• Structure
• Visual-Beginning/Ending
• Visual-Across the word
• Carry pattern across the pages
• Self Correct (Point of Error)
• Phrasing
• Intonation
• Pace
• Literal Retelling
• Inferential retelling
• Predictions based on text
• Character feelings/Character Motivation

Guided Reading (Fountas and Pinnell model) is a group of kids at the same level that need support.

[Instructional Level]

• It's not a test. You already know they can't read it independently. So you're going to help them read it.
• Think about kids with same levels and similar needs (Not all kids at a level K need the same things)
• Put the talking back into the language of the text
• Ex: Kid says: "The horse is wet." Teacher responds: "You're right! It's raining on the horse!"
• Guided reading = 10 minutes
• Chapter books: Maybe have the kids stop after a chapter or two. (They might not ever finish the book. That's OK)
• Do a formal teaching point at the end.
• Plan a book introduction (Think through meaning, structure, visual):
  
• She is very specific about what is typical in this band of text. Ex: J/K/L/M is always about one big problem. What is the problem, and how do they solve it? Ex: Level N/O/P/Q often has several problems, and they might be problems that can't be solved.

Shared Reading

Interactive Read Aloud: Comprehension

In Shared Reading We Can Work On...

• Word Solving: M, S, V
• Monitoring and Self Correcting
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• High Frequency Words in Context
• Word Study

(In second grade, maybe balance it with shared writing, but don't skip it!)

(In third grade, she might do shared reading with a small group)

Great Source for Shared Reading Texts: http://www.hameraypublishing.com

A Big Book is not necessarily a Shared Reading Book!

A true shared reading is not going to just look like an enlarged book.

Look at assessment: What do kids need? Pick a few books and do it.

Think about using content during shared reading!

Think about using shared reading to teach visual literacy!

A few tips on book selection for shared reading...

• Engaging
• Relevant
• A level or two above

Can't Find a Good Book? Make one!

Think Outside of the book:

• Poems
• Songs
• Charts

Use shared reading to put what we are learning back into context. Show how word study gets put back into reading and writing. Shared reading is a way to transfer skills back into context.

Word Study

Not just one program

Best practices from a lot of places:

-Words Their Way

-Fountas and Pinnell

-Patricia Cunningham

-Dianne Snowball

Start with spelling inventory, then put into groups (If you think a kid might be different than where the inventory suggests, use the qualitative writing checklist)

Teaches routines during the first 4 weeks so that kids can work in word study centers

(Teaches to the middle during the first few weeks as she teaches routines)

Sort Routines:

    1. Say each card

    2. Set aside?
    3. Say and Sort

    4. check

    Do steps 1-4 3x

    5. Ask, why do I do this?

[Follow up activities: Beat the clock. Beat the teacher (Teacher does it and times it, then writes time. Sort and Write in word study notebook. Blind sort. Blind writing sort.)]

Day 1: Whole Group Sort

Day 2: Partner Sort

Day 3: Whole Group Word Hunt

Day 4: Partner Word Hunt

Day 5: Game

10 day plan:

(She didn't see the transfer during a 5 day plan. It felt more like a drive-by)

Mon high Frequency (did everyone)

T=teacher 

IW=Interactive writing

Sample 10 Day Word Work Plan

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Early Letter Name	High Frequency	Teacher: Assess/ Intro a short	Partner: Sort Draw and label	Read/ Make/ Write	Teacher: Shared reading/ Interactive writing	Word Hunt	Partner Sort/ Word Study Notebook	Teacher: Phonemic Awareness	Vocab	Games/ T
Late Letter Name	High Frequency	Read/ Make/ Write	Teacher: Assess/ intro a sort	Partner Sort/ Word Study Notebook	Word Hunt	Teacher: Shared Reading/ Interactive Writing	Making Words	Blind Sort/ Writing Sort/ Hunt Words	Games/ T	Vocab
Middle Within Word	High Frequency	Making Words	Games	Teacher: Assess/ Intro a sort	Partner Sort/ Writing Sort	Word Hunt	Teacher: Shared Reading/ Interactive Writing	Vocab Writing	Making Words	Blind Sort/ Writing Sort/ Word Hunt

Nonfiction and Small Group Session Notes

[Notes from a session with Lindsay Mann]

Think about your nonfiction resources: Mini lessons don't matter if they don't match the books your kids will be reading.

Nonfiction:

• Big skills: key details, main idea, compare/contrast
• Kids need to hang on to key details across the text
• Kids need to be asking questions as they read, but also trying to answer those questions (across all of the pages)
• From what we think we know to what we learn!
• Tony Stead books
• What do I think I know (Kids think they know a lot, and that is usually what sticks)
• Use "Think, Confirm, Revise" chart to hold post-its or as a whole class chart during a read aloud



Think, Confirm, Revise Chart

• What did I actually learn from the text that I can support with my text evidence
• Noticing, Marking and Talking off the text!

In order to know what to teach, try reading the books your kids will be reading. Spy on yourself as a reader and pay attention to what you are doing as a skilled reader. Turn what you are doing into a teaching point. Think about doing this at a staff meeting!

Know the Facts!

• Assessing big skills of readers
• On-the-run
• Stop and Jot

Teache the Importance of the Illustrations!

Stop and Notice how the picture supports the words on the page

Pull Strategy groups using:

• Running records -- Are there a bunch of kids that need the same strategy (Does not need to be same level)
• Comprehension work -- Stop and jots during read alouds

Small Group Strategy Lesson

Who: Kids on various levels

What: Gather them with baggies in hand and provide a quick demo and then coach into their independent reading

When: When you notice that kids need the same strategy!

Where: On the rug or at a rainbow table!

Why: You can reach more kids as they read in their independent books!

Think of a small group as a sprinkler: Spray, move, spray, move, spray, move

Go around your group giving little "sprays" to each kid

Let small groups be more powerful than mini lessons. Don't just divide your class up. Small groups can do better!

Do not force a kid into a group where they don't belong! In reading workshop there is no need to! If a kid doesn't belong, confer!

Consider creating small groups "On the Run!"

• Create a checklist of things you might look for, quickly find kids that need help with on of those things, and pull a small group right then and there.

Guided Reading Small Group

Who: Kids on the same level (A-J)

What: Select a book on their level and plan

Sample Schedule: (1st/2nd Grade)

8:15 Morning Meeting (15) -tuck in a read for fun

8:30 Read Aloud (15)

8:45 Word Study (30)

9:15 Writing Workshop (45)

10:00 Reading Workshop (45)

10:45 Shared Reading (3 days/week) OR Interactive/Shared Writing (2 days/week)

11:00 Lunch (45)

11:45 Special (PE, computers, etc.) (45)

12:30 Math (45)

1:15 Science (3 days/week) OR Social Studies (2 days/week) (45)

2:15 Read Aloud or Storytelling (

Planning for Units Across the Year

• Overview
• One unit for 6-7 wks
• Growing Readers
• Important to have units, but don't forget what your kids need

Clarifying Text, Clarifying Talk; Helping Readers Deal with Difficulty, Learn New Words, and Graph Information

[Notes from a session with Lindsay Mann]

Focus on nonfiction informational texts and addressing the big work that is called for with the standards.

Determine what kids already do and say (assessing)

• Determine the big skills your readers need (Where are they going?)
• What does [insert word] mean? How do you know?
• Listen in during read aloud, partnerships, club conversations and as you confer
• Collect post-it notes to capture student thinking! (Independent reading, but also during read aloud)
• Take notes! (During read aloud too!)
• Notice the strategies that your kids use (What strategies are they already doing to try to figure out the main topic and main idea)
• Ex: Are they naming the distracting/interesting fact that they

Then Figure Out the Next Steps!

Standard: Using Domain Specific Words
If... a reader is trying to figure what a new word means but is having a hard time, then... You want to try to teach them domain-specific words

• Use the pictures to see if they give clues
• Use the glossary
• Think of other words you know that the word reminds you of
• Think of what you already know about the topic
• Look for clues hidden int he words that surround the new word
• Use NEW WORDS that you have learned when talking about the text

Standard: Identify the main topic

-Main topic

-Main idea (authorial purpose)

Listen to a section of a text through read aloud. Ask: What is the main topic of this chapter/topic? In other words, what is this part mostly about? How do you know? You can also give some examples.

If... a reader is struggling to hold on to the main idea, then...

• Use repeated words/phrases/ideas across the page
• Notice how the words connect to the pictures
• Connect the text back to the heading or title (How does it fit with the heading? How does it fit with the title of the book?)
• Be ready to explain the clues used to determine the main topic

Standard: Using Pictures to Clarify Text (Kindergarten)

Read a page or part with picture support. Ask: What does this picture teach us?

If...  a reader does not notice what can be learned from the picture, then...

• Look at the picture and say how it connects to the title of the book or the topic on the page
• Notice all of the details in each picture to see what new facts you can learn! Stop and notice how the picture supports the words on the page, and then ask "Does it teach me anything else?"
• How does the picture relate to the big topic? What details do you notice that connect to the big idea
• Notice pictures that seem to teach and talk about what you notice with a partner

Conferring

[Notes from the afternoon session with Christine Robson]

Reading Workshop:
1. Mini lesson
2. Private reading
3. Midworkshop Interruption
4. Partner reading
5. Teaching share


Private and Partner Reading:

• Think about teaching, in a mini lesson, what kids will be doing during this time. What will they do during a conference? What should they do if the teacher is conferring and they need something? How will they be independent? 

Nuts and Bolts of Conferring:

• Where should I confer?
• Take the conference to the students (It makes your presence known, Other kids might listen-in to conferences, It allows kids to own the space)
• Use a conference to settle the room (If a side of the room needs redirection, go do a conference in the middle of it)
• How often should I meet with each student?
• You must see all of your kids every week, but it might not necessarily be in a one-on-one conference (Balance it with small groups)
• How do I confer when everyone needs 
• Why do I need to keep notes?
• There is no way you can keep all of the information in your mind
• You won't be able to check back in with kids, for accountability, unless you wrote it down (If you don't follow-through, kids will learn that they don't need to do what you ask they do)
• To communicate effectively with support staff (to make sure instruction matches)
• Helps you evaluate what types of conferences you are conducting (Do you tend to always do fluency conferences? Do you never teach any synthesizing?)

Record Keeping System Tips

• Fast and easy
• Write only what you will use
• Create a system that will allow you to see individual students as well as patterns in groups of students
• Be consistent
• Idea: Think about mini lesson/next step ideas (1 or 2 words: Helps you see patterns in whole class)
• Maybe include teaching points across the top

Compliment Conferences/Table Conferences

• Often at the beginning of the school year
• Walk around room and interrupt the whole table, then share something one reader at the table did well
• Great opportunity for using a checklist with skills/behaviors/engagement/stamina to get a better read on the room
• Great for helping plan mini lessons and small groups

Conferring

Major 2 types:

1. Research-Decide-Teach Conference (Works better in higher level texts (J and above))

2. Coaching Conference (Works better in lower levels (I and below)

Research-Decide-Teach Conference:

• Research
• Stand back and just observe what they are doing. Can you notice any evidence of monitoring? (Jotting notes, looking up and thinking, etc.)
• Reading under J? You will probably ask them to read aloud a bit
• K and above? You might not always need to hear them read (unless it's a fluency issue)--It might be more around the work of comprehension
• Some research will happen outside of the conference (ex: Running Records)
• Might look through their reading notebook while they keep reading
• Looking through post-its in books that are finished
• Look through reading bags during small groups as kids are transitioning (You might find the kid reading at a level D with a Harry Potter in his book bag)
• Compliment
• Tell the reader something specifically that they can keep doing (Name it directly)
• Behavior issues: "Oh my gosh! This is great! Billy was all done with his book, and I can tell that he was JUST ABOUT to grab another book because readers know they go right from one book to another. That is SO smart!"
• Teach
• When demonstrating with a book, make sure you use a book the student already knows (You want the focus to be on the teaching, not on the content)
• Demonstrate it, then have the student try it
• Link
• Leave  a little artifact for them: Jot on a post-it note what you want them to keep working on

Coaching Conference: (A, B, C, D, E readers) 

[Decoding is already so much work. Don't take them out of the book into another book as you demo. Coach them in their own books.]

• Prompt students "on the run"
• Help them get started
• Use lean, consistent prompts
• Ex: Baseball
• First coaches would teach how to swing a bat and hit a ball
• During the baseball game, the coach wouldn't teach how to swing a bat (Demonstration). The coach would just shout from the sideline:  "Eyes on the ball!" and "Level swing!"
• Match prompt to the miscue
• Let the student do the work!

Planning for Mini Lessons

[Notes from a session with Lindsay Mann]

Teaching Points, Objectives, and Learning Targets:

• What is the purpose? As adults, we just fluently read. Teaching points break down the process that we are naturally doing and make the metacognitive process visible.
• A teaching point isn't an objective. We don't assess the teaching point. We assess the skill that the teaching point is addressing.
• We have to get all kids to the objective, but how they get there doesn't really matter.
• Ex: We need to get kids to subtract
• We need to get our whole class to subtract
• Some kids will simply look at the numbers and solve
• Some kids might need to draw a picture
• Some kids might use their fingers
• Some kids might use a number line

Teaching Point Pointers

• What are we teaching? (Skill)
• How are they going to do that thing? (Strategy)
• Why is it even important? (Purpose)
• We, as teachers, NEED to know WHY. If you don't know why, you aren't going to do a good job teaching it.

What we know that works for kids: It has to feel purposeful and authentic for kid. Be precise, but don't let your teaching points sound too robotic or scripted. Make it sound authentic.

Where can I find Teaching Points?

• TCRWP curricular calendars
• Read books that your kids might read and spy on yourself as a reader
• When you notice that you do something, stop and ask yourself what made you think that. There's an idea for a teaching point!
• 
  
• Assessments
• Look at your Running Records--What do my kids need to do?

Mini Lessons

Architecture of a mini lesson:

• Connection
• Teach
• Active Engagement
• Link

The "Teach" is the meat of the lesson. Don't get caught up explaining the book. If you find you have to spend too much time explaining the book and it gets you away from what your are trying to teach, then don't use it. Think about using a book you've already used during read aloud so you can quickly lift an excerpt. Then kids aren't wondering about the book; they are listening to the teaching. (Maybe don't do that with prediction)

Nonfiction

• We often focus on the text features
• We often forget about teaching how to use the text features
• We often over teach features that aren't in the books they are reading
• Big Skills from CCSS:
• key details
• main idea
• compare/contrast