OCM-Responsive Classroom® Blog-Planning for a Successful Year…Give Yourself a Gift

The opening of the State Fair here in Syracuse lets staff developers, like myself, know our summer work is almost completed.  For teachers, on the other hand, it’s a time to get into their classrooms to begin to apply all their summer learning and plan for a new year of growth and learning.

On the final day of the Responsive Classroom® 1 training teachers read an article titled, “Getting Off to a Good Start” which is adapted from one of the best books developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children (developers of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching) called The First Six Weeks of School (Denton/Kriete 2000). 

What are You Looking For?

Looking for a way to focus teaching on the specific concepts and skills needed for independent practice, assess students’ achievement of the outcome of a lesson, inform students about what they are expected to do and know by the end of the lesson, ensure that lessons are on grade level and gain the attention of students? Then you are looking for explicitly taught learning objectives!

Explicit Instruction is a systematic, step by step approach to teaching that has been shown to promote achievement for students with disabilities. While the Common Core provides the “What”, Explicit Instruction provides the “How” for helping students with disabilities access the general curriculum and meet the educational standards that apply to all students.

What Does This Mean?

Just in time for the start of a new school year, the New York State Education Department has released the scores on the 3-8 ELA and math assessments. All kinds of efforts are being made to interpret these results and accept them as the new baseline for student achievement in a Common Core-aligned system. It is proving difficult to understand these dramatically lower scores.  Yosmitebear struggled to find meaning in the Double Rainbow he recorded in his widely-viewed YouTube video, “What does this mean? Help Me! Too much! I don’t know what it means!” Educators, parents, and students are now struggling to understand the meaning of these new, and drastically lower, 3-8 ELA and math scores.

Historical Thinking = Critical Thinking about Historical Stuff

Welcome to the end of August!!  I am just coming back from a cross-country trip to visit far-flung offspring, so I am still very much in summer mode.  I remember when I was little how the summer seemed to stretch on forever and was filled with days of endless outdoor activity: climbing trees, digging in the dirt, catching crayfish in the “crick”, playing kick the can and eating drippy popsicles outside so we wouldn’t get the kitchen floor all sticky.  (Can you tell I was a bit of a tomboy?)  Before we know it, we will be deep into the beginning routines of school.  Try to savor these last few days of summer!

Jimmy vs. Michelle: And the Winner Is…

I hate to be the one to break the news to you….but, summer is almost over.

Almost time to go back to school. Even though I am a 12-month employee, I have taken full advantage of the longer days and spent many an evening working up a sweat on the Erie Canal Trail or at our beautiful state parks. Summertime in Central New York is heaven for those of us who like to stay physically active! Like mine, hopefully you and your kids’ summer has been filled with lots of physical activity… swimming in the pool or at the beach, riding bikes, playing ball or tennis, taking extra-long walks , running in some of the 5K races going on all around CNY, or participating in a grueling potato sack race.

Project-Based Learning and Educational Reform

As educators reflect this summer on all of the reform initiatives put on their “plate” last year (the Common Core, APPR, SLOs and LATs, common formative assessments, new state assessments) those of us implementing Project-Based Learning should be sharing how PBL can BE the “plate” or the framework for implementing these initiatives more effectively.  Project-Based Learning has emerged as a student-centered, technology-based, inquiry-led, and 21^st century skill-based methodology to prepare students for college, career and citizenship readiness.  Here is some information you can share with your colleagues:

Rocky Mountain View

I had the opportunity to attend five day training at McRel Institute in Denver, Colorado last month.  First, the wonderful conversations with educators from all over are reaffirming— we are all celebrating and challenged by so very similar issues.  I worked with teams from Kanas, Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan, and Guam.  The content was Classroom Instruction that Works.    We made so many connections regarding what we know as educators we must do to support our learners to successfully encounter a rigorous and relevant curriculum.

Professional Learning Communities & School Culture: One Piece of the Reform Movement or the Flooring that Supports Change

Everywhere I turned in the last few months in my work with schools and the Race to the Top reform initiatives (Common Core Learning Standards, APPR, Data-Driven Instruction and Culture) the conversations have always turned to talk about school culture.  I’ve heard statements like: “These kids don’t have the background in the Common Core so how am I supposed to teach them (insert grade level) (insert Math or ELA)?” or “What am I supposed to do with these kids that can’t even add or subtract (or insert read or write) and they’re supposed to be able to meet the new rigorous standards and be able to do long division (or insert read complex text)?” or “What do you mean I need to teach reading and writing in (insert any other course besides ELA)?” It’s not easy being an educator today!

Getting Your Feet Wet

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are almost here… but not quite yet. They haven’t been officially adopted by New York State, there isn’t a California framework, the assessments and curriculum are far off, and many of us are still being overwhelmed with APPR, and Common Core information.   Even with so much going, what can teachers  do right now to start moving in the direction of NGSS?   They can start by embedding the NGSS science and engineering practices into their instruction and by getting students involved in engineering projects.

The seventh component, Lesson Delivery

The English Language Learners blog entries have been describing the eight components of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, SIOP. Sheltered instruction signifies that students learn English best when it is taught in the context of content instruction, and also that they learn content best when there is simultaneous language instruction. The hallmark of SIOP is its focus on both content objectives and language objectives. The seventh component, Lesson Delivery, refocuses on these dual objectives, calling for teachers to deliver instruction that supports both objectives in a manner that is both engaging and appropriately paced.