Meeting Students Where They Are: DIY Literacy Ch 5-6 #cyberPD

It's the final week of #cyberPD.  Our community is reading DIY Literacy by Maggie Roberts and Kate Roberts.  This week we're discussing the final chapters:  chapter 5 & 6.  These two chapters helped me to solidify my thinking around using these tools to "tailor teaching (p. 71)" and to effectively shape the tools we use with students.

In both my time in the classroom in large learning communities and then in supporting readers reading intervention, I continually worked to differentiate for learners.  No two learners are ever the same, and as Kate and Maggie remind us this can be challenging to balance in classrooms.  Using tools like charts, demonstration notebooks, micro-progressions, and bookmarks help to not only make learning more concrete for students but also allow for greater differentiation and personalization.  These tools help to develop "a sustainable practice that meets kids' needs (p. 72).  Working to meet the variety of needs in a classroom takes thoughtful practice.  The authors help us to see how tools can not only support students who need help, but they can also extend learning for students who need more push.  

These chapters reminded us to:

• Look for signs tools are working:  use, struggle, shifts, growth, engagement
• Look for signs tools can be removed:  automaticity, awareness
• Build effective tools:  co-create; use popular culture, metaphor, kid language, space, color, branding
• Be intentional about location

Thinking About Tools to Support Learning

I created this visual representation of key points from the reading.

In Closing

I can't thank the #cyberPD community enough for all they have shared during this event.  I'll be weeks browsing through the posts and will return throughout the year for the many ideas that have been shared.   

Thanks again to this amazing cast of #cyberpd! You are inspiring! Don't forget our final chat! Next Wednesday NIGHT! pic.twitter.com/aw0bSVMHlP

— Michelle Nero (@litlearningzone) July 21, 2016

My Past Posts

Becoming Strategic Chapters 3-4

DIY Literacy Tools Chapters 1-2

Becoming Strategic: DIY Literacy #cyberPD Ch 3-4

We've all been there.   That moment when we feel like our teaching just isn't working for our students.  Such was the moment when Evan looked at me as he was reading his new book, pointed to the word, and said, "What's that word?  I don't remember."  As a reading support teacher, it isn't uncommon to realize that I need to adjust my teaching.  I equate phrases like "I don't remember" to "I need to sound it out" (another phrase I never say, but somehow pops into student response).  Those are the lines that make me pause and take the deepest of breaths.  These are both important phrases because as Katie & Maggie remind us in DIY Literacy, it really means students don't know what to do and that I need to find a way to support their next steps.

Becoming Strategic and Developing Automaticity
In chapters 3-4 there is much talk about remembering and rigor.  I often find when students "don't remember" something it is more likely they don't have the strategies to work through what I'm asking them to do.  When students don't appear to be working at the edge of their learning, I often find I need to help show them what is next.  Both remembering and vigorous work come from understanding, strategic action, and authentic learning opportunities.

These two chapters show us how to use micro progressions (as well as charts, demonstration notebooks and bookmarks) to make teaching more explicit and help students discover the next steps in their learning.  Katie and Maggie remind us (p. 62), "We encounter trouble when we teach too much to hold onto, too much to remember."  They share the way tools can help students prioritize, choose essential skills, and be accountable for new learning.  As we read we are reminded that adjusting our language, working together, differentiating instruction, making goals explicit, and providing authentic learning opportunities can help students work toward independence.  Through these opportunities we can say to students, I "hope that you will fold some of [these] lessons into your reading forever, that some of these strategies will become a part of you (p. 58)."  It's the side by side time with our community, in daily conferring, in small groups, that help us to listen and adjust our teaching.

DIY Literacy
I've been trying to think through how this might look for our students in communities of inquiry.  I used Lucid Charts to try to show the way tools might fit into a cycle of learning.  (It's a work in progress, but I think it begins to show the way tools might fit into a unit of study and support student learning.)

This post is part of the #cyberPD book talk taking place this July.  Stop by the community to read more reflections of participants.  

Summer #cyberPD: Call for Professional Stacks

It's almost time for the 4th Annual #cyberPD event.  In 2011, Laura Komos, Jill Fisch, and I decided to start an online collaborative book talk with colleagues about a common professional read.  We were inspired by the power of the conversations across the event and the depth of learning so we have hosted #cyberPD each July to continue to grow as educators.  Each year the event has grown and the learning has helped us to improve our work as educators by considering the thinking of those participating.  The books ground our conversation, but the reflections exponentially grow our understandings.

Past #cyberPD Events

• 2013 Who Owns the Learning
• 2012 Opening Minds
• 2011 Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop 

Share Your Stack
It's time to select the title for the July's #cyberPD event.  To do this, we'd like to peek into your professional book stacks to see what titles return across stacks.  This will help us to select our 2014 title.  We're hoping you will find the time (and we know how crazy busy it is) to share your stack.  You can:

• tweet a picture of your stack with the hashtag #cyberPD
• tweet favorite titles with the hashtag #cyberPD
• write a blog post about your stack
• find a convenient and/or creative way to share your summer professional reading list

Here are some of the 2013 professional reading stacks.

Anything goes!  

Stacks need to be tweeted at #cyberPD or linked to one of our blogs by Saturday, June 7th.  (You do not need to share a stack to join us in July.)

We'll be sharing the selected title, and the July event dates, on Sunday, June 8th.  We hope you'll join us.

My current professional summer reading stack:  "in progress"

"Conferring Ain't Easy"

Today is the final day of our cyber bookchat about Conferring by Patrick Allen (#cyberPD).  I'm a bit disappointed to see it end.  This summer I really wanted to take time to reflect the purpose and effectiveness of conferring in Reader's Workshop.  I had planned to read Allen's book, but I hadn't planned to learn so much from so many others reading it at the same time.  If you haven't had a chance to read all the posts, you'll want to find time to do so. 


Previous Conversations:
Entire conversation is here:  Conferring the Keystone to Reader's Workshop
Part I:  What Brings About a Good Conference Anyway? 
Part II:  What Are the Essential Components of Conferring?


Today we are discussing Part IIi:  “What emerges from our reading conferences?”.   Today's conversation is hosted by Laura Komos at Camp Read-A-Lot.  You’ll want to stop by to join the conversation.


Conferring Ain't Easy, But It's Important
Yesterday one of the participants in #cyberPD had been talking with a friend about conferring, likely sharing her excitement.  The friend replied, "Where's the research on conferring?"  Questions like these make me shake my head, not because they're not important but, because they're often asked to avoid change.  When I read the question I wished I was at school where I could get my hands on research, but in reality I know the difference conferring makes for my young learners.  I also know that the success of conferring has a lot to do with factors beyond just placing myself in a chair beside one student. 


Quick Shifts: In Support of Conferring
Yesterday I was reading the Mac page my computer opens to and realized a new operating system, OS X Lion, is coming out (yes, I live under a rock).  Now as a learner I could read more online to figure this out.  I could take a class to learn about the new operating system.  I could sit with a small group and learn about the system.  OR I could sign-up for a Mac one-on-one session.  Yes, I will learn in all of these situations, but I will learn a lot quickly sitting one-on-one with a knowledgeable instructor.  


The challenges:

• Online learning:  I'm going to have to spend a great deal of time reading and searching to find articles, videos, and conversations that answer my questions.   There will be a lot of information within these I do not need and may not understand.  There will not be someone close by to answer questions.
• Large Class:  Have you ever taken a technology class?  If so, you know the challenges.  There will be learners in the room wanting to know how to turn on their computer, learners wanting to know why they need to change, and learners who are trying to learn how to reprogram OS X.  
• Small Group:  I might be able to find a small group learning about OS X.  Here I will likely be able to find some answers, especially if the leader is knowledgeable.  However, the needs of each person in the group will have to be negotiated. 
• One-to-One "Conference":  Sitting down individually with an "expert" would allow me to have my questions answered.  The "expert" would be looking at my computer, s/he would be able to consider the way I use the computer as s/he answers my questions, s/he would be able to show me the way the new operating system will most help me do the work I do.  I could learn a lot quickly in this instructional context.  

I'm not saying any one of these instructional contexts do not hold merit in a classroom.  They each provide important avenues to learning and growing, however time vs. learning conferring has to be important.  If we look at some of the times in life we have learned the most we will likely find it was sitting beside an "expert" in something we like to do.  In Fires in the Mind, students tell us "some encouraging person guided them past that point [of frustration] by giving them an engaging task that lay just beyond - but not too far beyond - their skill level." (p. 44 eReader version)  

"The people who sit next to you have a big part in how you get better at something." Janiy (student FIM, p.16) 

The Whole Game and Conferring 
Recently I read, Making Learning Whole by David N. Perkins.  I found it interesting how much workshop models parallel playing "the whole game" as he calls it.  In his book, Perkins tells us, "In a setting of learning, a whole game is generally some kind of inquiry or performance in a broad sense (p. 35)."  He shares a few indicators of the whole game in a learning setting. The Whole Game:  "Walk-Aways"   Perkins states (Making Learning Whole pp. 35-36 eReader version):

• It's never just about content.  Learners are trying to get better at something.
• It's never just about routine.  It requires thinking with what you know and pushing further.
• It's never just problem solving.  It involves problem finding.
• It's not just about right answers.  It involves explanation and justification.
• It's not emotionally flat.  It involves curiosity, discovery, creativity, camaraderie.
• It's not in a vacuum.  It involves the methods, purposes, and forms of one or more disciplines or other areas, situated in a social context.

When I compare this list to Allen's "walk-aways" (Conferring pp. 158-162) it is easy to see the value of conferring.  As I begin the new year with conferring on my mind, I will be recording conversations to see what the "walk-aways" are for my young readers.  My hope is to improve the power of these conversations as the significance (and likely the research) isn't in the fact that I am sitting beside a student, but in the learning conversation we have together.  

Conferring: Improving Conversations with Readers

“There is something lasting about sitting down next to a child and having a conversation as fellow readers.” Patrick Allen p. xv

Today is Part II of a cyber bookchat about Conferring by Patrick Allen (#cyberPD).  Last week, the conversation began here as we discussed Part I:  “What Brings About a Good Conference Anyway?”.  You’ll want to visit the Part I posts at our Conferring Jog.  Today we are discussing Part II:  “What Are the Essential Components of Conferring?”.  Today’s conversation is hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion.  You’ll want to stop by to join the conversation.

The Importance of Conferring

It has been several years since I changed the structure of my Reader’s Workshop and moved away from a workboard (students at centers while I worked with groups) to using a structure similar to Writer’s Workshop. It just seemed to make sense that if I wanted my students to be readers they needed more time to read.  Reader’s Workshop allows more time for children to read independently, to enjoy books with friends, to talk together about books, to develop the strategies we are learning, and to grow their reading lives.   

The Structure of Reader’s Workshop:

• Focus Lesson:  Each workshop begins with a focus lesson. 
• Independent Reading:  Then students read (Allen calls it composing time) while I confer with readers and work with small groups.  During this time you will find students reading alone, with a partner, discussing books, thinking, learning, writing, etc..
• Share:  Our workshop always ends with time to share and reflect.  

Reader’s Workshop not only gives me time to work alongside readers in a variety of contexts, but it gives me the opportunity to get to know them as readers.  There is no doubt that conferring is an important part of my Reader’s Workshop.  Reading Allen’s book has given me time to reflect on how significant this time really is for young readers, for learning, and for teaching.  Last week Mandy Robek shared all she has missed when she was not conferring, and I’m going to post this in my classroom as a reminder of the significant work occurring in these small moments.

Mandy said:

I have missed regularly conferring with students.  I have missed...

-"Purposeful conversations that provided me with meaningful instruction-rich in strategy, inquiry, vocabulary, and skills.

-"...conversations that stretched my thinking and monitored my understanding."

-"Purpose is uncovered during the reading conference,..."

-"Conferring helps me find out new things about the reader and provides an intimate opportunity for a shared "coming to know"

-"Conferring helps me uncover a reader's learning in a manageable, thoughtful way while leading to documentable data..."

Allen shares his reasons for conferring (p. 34).  Reading his book has given me an opportunity to really think about the importance of conferring.  Time to confer provides opportunities to:

• Establish a trusting relationship with the student
• Get to know each reader
• Reinforce and/or extend focus lesson conversations (differentiate)
• Learn what the reader is “thinking”, wondering, “discovering” p. 99
• Record progress over time
• Address specific needs that are more targeted to the reader
• Teach at the edge of student learning
• Empower the reader with new skills, strategies, and understandings
• Shape the life of a reader
• Smile, laugh, cry, wonder, discover, and learn from authors, characters, story events, and books together --- reader-to-reader

The Challenges of Conferring

Though I find conferring in Reader’s Workshop to be worthwhile, I do not find it to be easy.  For some reason, conferring in Reader’s Workshop is more challenging for me than conferring in Writer’s Workshop:

• It is harder to stay consistent with time spent conferring in Reader’s Workshop
• Reading work (more in the head) is not as concrete as writing work (more on paper)
• In writing conferences I seem to be more comfortable letting students take the lead
• It is easier for me to choose teaching points in Writer’s Workshop (perhaps because I keep more to the focus lesson conversations)
• It is easier to name concepts, strategies, etc. in writing than in reading (again because work is concretely in front of us)
• Writing conversations seem to be more forward thinking with goal setting, clear expectations
• I seem to use reading conference more to find out about student thinking, but writing conference more to move writer forward

The Change

The reason I wanted to participate in this professional opportunity to discuss conferring is I wanted the time to look – really look – at conferring in Reader’s Workshop.  What do I need to change to make it more effective?  How do I help readers move forward in these small snippets of time?  How do I help young readers to develop ownership of their reading and learning?  What can I learn from others to make conferring in Reader’s Workshop more effective?  What can I learn from writing conferences that would improve reading conferences?

When I worked as a literacy coach conferring with readers in classrooms was hard.  It was easy to make conferences about “the reading” and not about “the reader” because I lacked the knowledge of history.  I didn’t know the conversations shared, literature read, strategies taught, or learning discussed.  To me, conferring as a classroom teacher has the potential to be much more powerful for learners because I have the knowledge of history.  I know the conversations the community has had about reading.  I know the books we’ve read together.  I have seen the progress of the reader sitting beside me.  I know the strengths of the reader.  I know where the reader needs support.  As a classroom teacher, it is much easier to have a conference that is about “the reader” and not the reading.  Still there are changes I need to make to make improve conferring in Reader’s Workshop.

The Plan

• Change my conferring structure from listen, reflect, teach to listen, reflect, teach, PLAN.
• Learn to let readers lead reading conferences (listen more).
• Never, never, never compromise conferring time.
• Be more explicit in plan, purpose, goal setting part of reading conference.  This is the time Allen calls (the P in RIP) plan, progress, purpose.  (pp. 102-104)
• End the conference with an intentional plan.  p. 102

The Take-Aways

• Teaching doesn’t always come from telling it often comes as we name what readers are doing. 
• “When a student leaves a conference, I want her to have something in mind that may help her remember, understand, extend meaning, or make her reading experience memorable.” p. 104
• “Keep the conference and teaching short enough to accomplish something important, meaningful, and applicable.” p. 129
• “We want to think carefully about the language we use with readers from the moment we sit down beside them.  And we also have to remember that often that language comes from the student.”  p. 137
• “The reader is better served if his voice, his thinking, fills the airspace during a conference.”  P. 148

Still Pondering:

• While I have found a recording system that works well for me, I’m wondering about adding a student-recording component.  Katie DiCesare’s post, School Shopping: Blank Books, has given me more to think about here.
• Like many in this #cyberPD group, I am wondering about switching from my notebook to recording conferences using an application that would allow me to take pictures, use audio to record student conversations, and continue to record observations. 
• This year I plan to record more conferences to look closely at who is doing most of the talking, the true structure of the conference, the power of the teaching points, the types of conversations I’m having, patterns, trends, etc..
• I also want to compare the conversations I have with different types of readers.  I want to be sure that my readers needing the most support are having high level conversations about books, reading, and thinking.  

Join Our Blog Bookchat

"Conferring" Book Blog Chat

Working your way through your professional reading stack?  Wishing you could chat with someone about all you are reading and thinking? Join us for a blog book chat about Patrick Allen's book, Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop.

Recently a cyber-conversation between Jill Fisch (Summer Reading), Laura K (Summer Reflection and PD), and me (What Are You Learning?) spun wildly out of control into a plan for action.  As we realized we had a few common books in our professional reading piles we decided we would learn so much more if we could talk together about the book as we read.  We thought we'd learn even more if we could get more educators to join us.  

We decided to try a blog bookchat - a cyper-chat of sorts.  Recently I had hoped to participate in a professional reading party started at PreK pages (you might want to check out "Literacy Beginnings Party").  I thought it was a terrific idea, and a similar plan might work for us.  We wrestled with how best to share our thinking and have a conversation.  Here's the plan (and we are hoping you'll join the conversation):  

July 6th:

Part I:  What Brings About a Good Conference, Anyway?

Hosted here at Reflect and Refine

July 13th:

Part II:  What Are the Essential Components of Conferring?

Hosted by Jill Fisch at Primary Passion 

July 20th:

Part III.  What Emerges from Our Reading Conferences?

Hosted by Laura K at Camp Read-A-Lot

July 21st:  

Join us for the final conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  

Read Jill's post 
Read Laura's post

How to Participate:

On your blog:  As you read each section of the book, write a post to reflect on your reading.  Then link the post on the event date to the hosting blog in the comments section.  Your link will then be moved into the hosting post.  

In the comments:  No blog -- no worries -- you can join the conversation by commenting on the host blog.

Twitter:  Comments along the way, applicable links, and other information can be tweeted with the hasthag #cyberPD.

To Purchase the Book:

Conferring:  The Keystone to Reader's Workshop  Click the "preview online" button to read sample

at Stenhouse (an eReader version is available here as well)

at Amazon (a Kindle version is available here)

So grab a comfy seat, your favorite cool drink, and your book.  Then join us for this learning adventure.