Re: [MOSAIC] getting started/procedures
Actually, Ginger, I would like to print this in our district newsletter. Would you mind? On 7/10/08 8:54 PM, Waingort Jimenez, Elisa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hey Ginger, It's great to have you back on the listserv. I love your post below and I do something similar to what you describe but I have to admit I'm not consistent and I let things go when I shouldn't. This sends a mixed message to the students and makes management of learning very difficult. I am saving your post as a reminder when I start planning for the beginning of the year. Thanks for sharing, Elisa Elisa Waingort Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual Dalhousie Elementary Calgary, Canada As many of you know, I took a years break from the listserv. I entrusted the moderation role to Jennifer and she has done a superb job. Jennifer will continue to retain the title moderator again this year. As for me, especially after attending Stephanie Harvey's 2 day institute, I am ready to reenter the arena of the talk you all do so deeply here. I am especially interested in talking about the beginning of the year stuff. I think revisiting the procedural/routine training steps and the early strategy lessons will not only help me get back into the groove of thinking school (why is it I always seem to forget how to start the year when I'm away?) but will be a support to new teachers and teachers new to this teaching. I invite you all to reflect on how you begin your year and please jump in and share! Every year I start out by laying the groundwork for my work all year. I believe very strongly in establishing clear routines and expectations. The time we take at the beginning of the year to model and practice the routines (transitions, how to sit in the gathering area, active listening, turn and talk, etc.) simply prepares our students to do the learning work with us throughout the year. To get myself ready for this crucial beginning work, I make a list of all the transitions (entering the room, lining up for specials/lunch/etc., coming to the gathering area, end of the day), and other routines we will be following all year. This helps me to be clear on what I need to explicitly teach my students. I need to be very clear on what I want in their everyday behaviors so that I can model and teach them what I am looking for. It ensures success if we teach them explicitly up front. A great book for this training phase is The Daily 5. While the book is written to help set up the structure of the reading workshop, you can easily transfer the talk they use with their students to all situations where training is involved to point to success. The very first day of school I make a ring of seats in a circle and have the children take a seat. I have an easel with chart paper already filled out with many pages of a T-chart I use (and wish EVERYONE would use, because it is SO POWERFUL!!!) that says: LOOKS LIKE on one side and SOUNDS LIKE on the other side. I teach my new group active listening first. It is a strong piece of the foundation of engagement for the year. I talk to them about how I'm sure they are so used to having to face the teacher when he/she is teaching but that now they are going to be turning their bodies and eyes to whomever it is that is speaking in the room. So I walked around the outside of the circle and asked them to show me what it would look like if they were doing Active Listening on me over here. They all rotated their bodies and faced me. Then I pointed to someone sitting over there on the carpet (say John) and said if we pretended he was sharing HIS thinking next how would it look to do Active Listening on John. (I know that is not correct grammar but you'll see why I use it in a minute.) So they all rotated towards him. I walked over to where John was sitting and talked to them about how at first this will probably feel VERY uncomfortable because typically we are not used to having the entire class facing us when we are talking. But the reason we do it is because we all believe that what John has to say is VERY IMPORTANT and worthy of our respect. That we can learn from John's thinking. That maybe what John is about to share connects with something we were thinking. That RECEIVING the thinking of our classmates is a very important part of what we will be doing all year. In order to RECEIVE that thinking best it helps to face the person sharing. Then I walked back to the head of the group and reinforced those who turned their bodies and eyes on me as I walked. For those who did not I simply say Active Listening on me now. Eyes and bodies facing the speaker. I'm the one sharing my thinking so you need to face me now. This next part I tend to forget until we get going but when I remember I also teach the person who is sharing/answering to turn and face THE GROUP and not direct his/her words TO THE TEACHER. You can't BELIEVE how
[MOSAIC] getting started/procedures
As many of you know, I took a years break from the listserv. I entrusted the moderation role to Jennifer and she has done a superb job. Jennifer will continue to retain the title moderator again this year. As for me, especially after attending Stephanie Harvey's 2 day institute, I am ready to reenter the arena of the talk you all do so deeply here. I am especially interested in talking about the beginning of the year stuff. I think revisiting the procedural/routine training steps and the early strategy lessons will not only help me get back into the groove of thinking school (why is it I always seem to forget how to start the year when I'm away?) but will be a support to new teachers and teachers new to this teaching. I invite you all to reflect on how you begin your year and please jump in and share! Every year I start out by laying the groundwork for my work all year. I believe very strongly in establishing clear routines and expectations. The time we take at the beginning of the year to model and practice the routines (transitions, how to sit in the gathering area, active listening, turn and talk, etc.) simply prepares our students to do the learning work with us throughout the year. To get myself ready for this crucial beginning work, I make a list of all the transitions (entering the room, lining up for specials/lunch/etc., coming to the gathering area, end of the day), and other routines we will be following all year. This helps me to be clear on what I need to explicitly teach my students. I need to be very clear on what I want in their everyday behaviors so that I can model and teach them what I am looking for. It ensures success if we teach them explicitly up front. A great book for this training phase is The Daily 5. While the book is written to help set up the structure of the reading workshop, you can easily transfer the talk they use with their students to all situations where training is involved to point to success. The very first day of school I make a ring of seats in a circle and have the children take a seat. I have an easel with chart paper already filled out with many pages of a T-chart I use (and wish EVERYONE would use, because it is SO POWERFUL!!!) that says: LOOKS LIKE on one side and SOUNDS LIKE on the other side. I teach my new group active listening first. It is a strong piece of the foundation of engagement for the year. I talk to them about how I'm sure they are so used to having to face the teacher when he/she is teaching but that now they are going to be turning their bodies and eyes to whomever it is that is speaking in the room. So I walked around the outside of the circle and asked them to show me what it would look like if they were doing Active Listening on me over here. They all rotated their bodies and faced me. Then I pointed to someone sitting over there on the carpet (say John) and said if we pretended he was sharing HIS thinking next how would it look to do Active Listening on John. (I know that is not correct grammar but you'll see why I use it in a minute.) So they all rotated towards him. I walked over to where John was sitting and talked to them about how at first this will probably feel VERY uncomfortable because typically we are not used to having the entire class facing us when we are talking. But the reason we do it is because we all believe that what John has to say is VERY IMPORTANT and worthy of our respect. That we can learn from John's thinking. That maybe what John is about to share connects with something we were thinking. That RECEIVING the thinking of our classmates is a very important part of what we will be doing all year. In order to RECEIVE that thinking best it helps to face the person sharing. Then I walked back to the head of the group and reinforced those who turned their bodies and eyes on me as I walked. For those who did not I simply say Active Listening on me now. Eyes and bodies facing the speaker. I'm the one sharing my thinking so you need to face me now. This next part I tend to forget until we get going but when I remember I also teach the person who is sharing/answering to turn and face THE GROUP and not direct his/her words TO THE TEACHER. You can't BELIEVE how powerful it is when the child looks into the group (or faces the direction where most of the class is sitting) and talks to THEM rather than turn to the teacher and respond to the teacher. It is a HARD habit to break, especially the older they are, but doing this changes the feel of the responding. So when we get going and someone is asked to share back we all do Active Listening on her and SHE looks at the kids NOT ME when she shares back. It is SO cool! We then chart what Active Listening LOOKS LIKE and SOUNDS LIKE on our T-chart. LOOKS LIKE: bodies turned toward the speaker hands quiet faces toward speaker eyes on person talking mouths closed ears listening person
Re: [MOSAIC] getting started/procedures
Ginger I can't resist jumping in here... When you explictly teach children how to listen to each other and how to respond to each other you are setting up the climate for intellectual engagement that Ellin describes so eloquently in To Understand. Ellin describes the conditions needed for understanding and one of them is conversation with others. I teach turn and talk in a similar fashion...I think I learned how from a previous post and also from the Comprehension Toolkitwhich is a really good resource for newbies by the way! I plan to take this one simple but important step further next fall and integrate in my modeling some time to think. I will directly talk to the kids about the importance of silence and time to think as well as the time to converse with others. we'll talk specifically about what we understand AFTER some time to think and turn and talk that we didn't understand without doing those things. I will be making an anchor Chart showing not just what the literacy time should look like and sound like but a second chart with showing what we learn about understanding. SOOO glad to have you back on the listserv... Jennifer In a message dated 7/10/2008 11:35:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I teach my new group active listening first. It is a strong piece of the foundation of engagement for the year. I talk to them about how I'm sure they are so used to having to face the teacher when he/she is teaching but that now they are going to be turning their bodies and eyes to whomever it is that is speaking in the room. So I walked around the outside of the circle and asked them to show me what it would look like if they were doing Active Listening on me over here. They all rotated their bodies and faced me. Then I pointed to someone sitting over there on the carpet (say John) and said if we pretended he was sharing HIS thinking next how would it look to do Active Listening on John. (I know that is not correct grammar but you'll see why I use it in a minute.) So they all rotated towards him. I walked over to where John was sitting and talked to them about how at first this will probably feel VERY uncomfortable because typically we are not used to having the entire class facing us when we are talking. But the reason we do it is because we all believe that what John has to say is VERY IMPORTANT and worthy of our respect. That we can learn from John's thinking. That maybe what John is about to share connects with something we were thinking. That RECEIVING the thinking of our classmates is a very important part of what we will be doing all year. In order to RECEIVE that thinking best it helps to face the person sharing. Then I walked back to the head of the group and reinforced those who turned their bodies and eyes on me as I walked. For those who did not I simply say Active Listening on me now. Eyes and bodies facing the speaker. I'm the one sharing my thinking so you need to face me now. **Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com! (http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus0005000112) ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
