Tips, Tweets & Advice from Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst, Authors of Disrupting Thinking

It's been a while since my last post, but I am back. With the school year's end, there are more minutes in my day for relaxation, reflection on the year's journey, and READING (my favorite)! If you haven't read Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst, I glowingly recommend you do. 

I know...I know. I'm repeatedly recommending professional books to anyone and everyone. However, this book is now on the top of my resource pile for ALL teachers. It has genuinely disrupted and elevated my thinking, as well as caused me to further reflect on my practices as a Reading Specialist and soon-to-be Literacy Coach. 

The questioning techniques shared in the book place classroom discussions into the hands of students. Who wouldn't want a more student-centered approach to literacy? If you desire looking at teaching practices through an alternate lens and aspire to evolve your perspective on students' reading, writing and speaking habits, grab and devour your own copy! 

I love everything these authors have written. I'm quite confident you won't be disappointed. Listening to them speak a handful of times was very enlightening. They are funny, too! Below is a picture from the 2016 Illinois Reading Conference. My good friend Leah was with me in the picture. She's just as much of a die-hard fan of these two as I am! :)

Moving on. We all know there has been a shift in education since the introduction of the Common Core State Standards. The standards return the focus within the four corners of the text and away from personal connections. However, Beers and Probst view reading as a transformational experience and believe REAL reading encourages readers to be responsive, reflective and responsible. 

The authors put a strong emphasis on readers having the opportunity to respond with how they feel about a text. Try asking students, How did this reading change who you are? Have YOU ever asked your students that question? Here's my answer to that exact question (the rest of the questions and my responses are at the end of this post):

Like I said, this book has completely disrupted my thinking in a transformational way. I'm thrilled to have my thinking challenged. That's one way to grow as an educator and as a human being. Right? Before we jump into the tips, take a peek at Kylene's tweet regarding 9 research-based reasons for why reading is so important taken from p. 134 in the book.

Okay, bring on the quick tips, tweets and advice from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst:

• Pay attention to who’s doing the talking. Teach more by talking less.

• Value change in the classroom for both teachers and students.

• There is value in approaching reading as a transaction.

• Encourage and allow students to reread texts that interest them.

• Read from the book, the head, the heart.

• Give kids choice to empower them as readers.

• Allow students to read the same book, but be leery of reading the book the same way.

• Discuss books with students they haven’t read and offer strategies on the best way to do this.

• Both teachers and parents are encouraged to talk with students about what they don’t understand.

• Understand what non-fiction means and teach students to assess the quality of non-fiction texts.

• You can’t improve competence unless you start with confidence.

Discover any new insights? If you are on Twitter, my all-time favorite platform for impromptu professional development, you can track down some outstanding content. 

Check out the hashtags #readDTchat and #DisruptiveThinking for details, guidance, enlightenment and differing perspectives on the book.

I am actually participating in a slow chat within the hashtag #readDTchat. New questions about the book's content will be posted each week. Participants have the full week to answer the questions, unlike the format of a quick-paced 30-60 minute chat. Below are the questions and my responses (A1: is above) to week one, if you're interested. 

Questions on Canva created by @MargaretGSimon on Twitter

One last mention: There will also be a #G2Great chat moderated by Dr. Mary Howard alongside Kylene Beers and Robert Probst regarding their book on Thursday, July 20th. Check it out! 

Happy transforming! 

THANKS FOR THE SHOUT OUT, KYLENE! 

A Peek into the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention Kit (Throwback)

Happy New Year to all!  Are you ready to be even more successful in the upcoming part of this school year?  I sure am.  I've been working on my #growthmindset by seeking new ways to learn and improve as an educator.  I have a feeling this will be my best year yet! 

In hopes of helping other teachers out there who are new at using the Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI), I've decided to republish a throwback post.  I continue to get inquiries from fellow bloggers about the LLI Kits, so if you or others from your school use this intervention for struggling readers, take a peek below. I share some ideas to keep things fresh and to incorporate a bit of technology, too.  

Enjoy the new year!

Hello all! I've been on a little break from blogging for the past few weeks, since I have been Winter Benchmark assessing Kindergarten through 5th grade students in my school with the assistance of the Reading team.  There's not much time to contribute to blogging when you're waist-deep in assessment.  However, I would like to share with you a little peek into Fountas' and Pinnell's Blue Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Kit, since I use it most often to support my struggling RtI students compared to the other colored kits. 

If you are not familiar with the LLI kits, they are ideal resources to support below grade-level students who are struggling in reading and writing.  The kits are used in a small group setting with 3 to 4 students, depending on the grade-level of the students.  RtI students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade (Orange, Green & Blue Kits) require groups of 3 students for fidelity of the program, while the 4th grade and 5th grade levels (Red & Gold Kits) allow for 4 students per group.  

LLI is scientifically-based and designed to prevent literacy difficulties. The program (along with teacher guidance, of course) provides students opportunities to extend comprehension through discussions and writing, to learn and apply phonics and word solving skills, to increase vocabulary and processing strategies, as well as improve fluency and phrasing through rereading.  Since the groupings are so intimate in size, I'm easily able to model appropriate reading behaviors, in addition to prompt for and reinforce effective reading strategies.  Fidelity of the program definitely correlates to student success.  I have seen much growth in my students' reading abilities, since I began using LLI in the early Fall. 

The majority of the students I service are in grades 2nd and 3rd, which is why I use the Blue Kit most often.  It encompasses guided reading Levels C through N.  There are 120 lessons.  Each lesson has 4 colored copies to use while in group and 6 black and white copies of each book for students to take home for additional reading practice.  Canvas bags are available to keep the Take-Home books in good condition.  In addition, a Prompting Guide and the resource book When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works are accessible in this kit.

The Prompting Guide supplies a variety of prompts for each targeted reading behavior.  A few prompting categories and examples are below. 

• Early Reading Behaviors "Say it slowly and move your finger under the word.", "Show me____ (a high frequency word) on this page.", "Point to each word as you read."
• Using Information "Can the picture help you think about this part of the story?", "You said____. Does that sound right?", "Are you thinking about what will happen next?"
• Solving Words "Get your mouth ready for the first sound.", "Cover the last part of the word.", "Look at the middle of the word.", "Do you know a word that starts with those letters?"
• Monitoring and Correcting "Why did you stop?", "Does the word you said look like the word on the page?", "It has to makes sense and go with the letters.", "Where is the tricky part?"
• General Problem-Solving "That won't help you.  This will help you .", "Try that again.", "Try it another way.", "Think about what you know." "What can you do?"
• Maintaining Fluency "Listen to me read.  Can you read it like that?", "Make a full stop at the period.", "Make your voice go up when you see a question mark.", "Take a short pause when you see a comma (or dash)."

The lessons are 30 minutes in length (45 minutes in length for the Red & Gold Kits).  There is a nice variety of fiction and nonfiction texts for the students to read.  For each set of 10 lessons, there are 5 instructional texts and 5 independent texts.  The routine for the lessons alternate depending on the lesson number.  Odd-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), introduction of New Book at the instructional level (15 mins) and additional Letter/Word Work (5 mins), if time permits.  Even-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books and Assessment of the instructional text (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), Writing About Reading (15 mins) and introduction of New Book at the independent level (5 mins).  

Rereading Books and Assessment:
At the start of each group, students are required to reread the new instructional-level book and independent-level books from the previous lesson or lessons.  During this time, you *listen in* while the students softly read, which allows you to support them with any needed prompting.  This is when the prompting guide becomes very handy.  Keep in mind, there is absolutely NO "Round Robin" reading, as was common before research confirmed it as a very unproductive use of time.  Not all of the students in the small group need the same prompting, so students taking turns to read aloud while peers wait for a turn is an ineffective strategy. 

Moving on...Face it, most struggling readers are unmotivated to read, which is why they're struggling in the first place.  It's such a viscous cycle.  Don't you agree?  Well, for those slightly unmotivated students,  sometimes a little *magical touch* is needed to spark interest.  I  have trinkets available for my students to use when reading, including whisper phones, "eye-lighters", sock puppets, hand pointers, magnifying glasses and holiday-themed knickknacks.  In addition, I supply fix-up strategy book marks as a visual support for students.  

In regards to the Assessment portion of the lesson, only one or two students' reading is coded using running records on a particular day, so students being assessed must rotate throughout the week.  I take running records weekly for each of my students because they are well below grade level.  I then alter my teaching and prompting based on the students' running record miscues.  The instructional-level text from the previous day's lesson is used.  Fountas and Pinnell have a (paid-subscription) Literacy Online Resources site containing all of the lessons' materials, including running record forms for each instructional-level text.  I pull up the running record form for the lesson being assessed and code the students' reading behaviors on notebook paper using the Coding and Scoring form below.  Cute binders from Target keep my running records organized.  In order to help save beautiful trees, I do not print the copies of the running record forms.  

Phonics/Word Work:
During this portion of the lesson, students are explicitly and systematically instructed on how language works.  The LLI kits provide an Alphabet and Consonant Cluster Linking Chart, poems, letter & word games, and lists of suggested words that can be documented on anchor charts with students.  Magnetic letters with cookie trays, beads with pipe cleaners, letter stamps with ink pads, flyswatters and paint strips of various colors are also available in my room to assist in our work work activities.  In addition, I often use iPad Apps to boost interest in recording the words being taught.  Some easy-to-use Apps include Screen Chomp, ABC Magnetic Letters, Doodle Buddy and ShowMe.  However, on occasion the students participate in QR Code activities focused on the phonics skill being practiced.  In that case, they use the SCAN App. :)  

New Book: 

When introducing the new instructional-level book, students are provided the gist of the story.  They are also given the opportunity to *walk~through* the text with guidance looking for tricky words, new vocabulary, language structures and important text features when necessary.  Previewing the text should only take about 3 or 4 minutes.  It's very similar to the routines of Jan Richardson's guided reading routines.  As mentioned in the Rereading Books section, teachers use the prompting guide while *listening in* on the students during this portion of the lesson, too.  (Remember, NO "Round Robin" reading!) Once the students have been given time to read the book in its entirety, a group discussion takes place referring the students back into the text to support their answers to questions asked.

Writing:
LLI involves students extending their understanding of texts through writing in 3 forms: Interactive, Dictated and Independent.  They record their writing in My Writing Book. The writing books are available in yellow, purple and red.  There is no particular reason for the colors for the exception of allowing for some student choice.  Giving *choice* to students is always a good thing!  On a side note, in the Red and Gold kits dedicated to the upper grades, the writing books are different and provide a word study portion. 

Interactive Writing:
During interactive writing, students compose a text with the teacher.  I ask students to write words or parts of words on the board as I offer guidance and support.  The students LOVE participating in interactive writing! 

Dictated Writing: 

My little ones often have trouble with dictated writing because they miss some of the spoken words in their writing.  I generally use some sort of manipulative such as beads, holiday-themed erasers, buttons, etc. to support students in counting the number of spoken words needed in the dictated sentences.  It supports 1:1 correspondence of spoken and written words.  We count out the manipulative together as I dictate the sentence.  The students must then make sure to have as many words in their sentence as beads/erasers/buttons in front of them.  For instance, a student writing the sentence "The boy walked to the park with his friend." would need 9 counters in front of him or her.

Independent Writing: 

Independent writing may take several different forms depending on the students' needs.  Students may write lists, labels for pictures, sentences, paragraphs, etc.  On days the students are required to write independently, I often supply them with graphic organizers or response activities to guide them in responding to their texts.  Those organizers or responses are then placed into their writing books.  The writing books become a keep-sake for them and a place to document their growth throughout the year.  If you're interested in fiction and nonfiction guided writing ideas for Levels A-I and J+, click the poster below. :)

Well, there you have it...a little peek into the F&P Leveled Literacy Intervention Blue Kit.  Do you use the LLI kits with your students?  I'd love to hear your story, if you do!  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. 

P.S. Thank you to the following graphic artists for the backgrounds, clip art and fonts! :)

  

The Jackpot for Common Core Resources!

Ever used DePaul University's Common Core Resources site?  I consider it the jackpot of Common Core resources.  If you are in need of lesson plans, ideas and/or materials for vocabulary, poetry, assessment, genres and more to raise the rigor in your classroom, check out this site.  Guides and graphic organizers to support PARCC are also included.  

Below are a few images of the links provided for teachers.  If you click on any image in this post, you will be brought to the site.  Once you're there, each click of your mouse brings you to even more links.  You will find paired fiction and nonfiction articles, as well as anchor chart examples that can be created with your students.  Carve out a little time in your day to sit back and peruse!  

    

 

Hope you find this information helpful.  If you know of any other Common Core resources for teachers, please share in the comments below. :)  

Enjoy!

Hello, March. I'm Feeling Lucky! March *Currently*

Ahhhh, March.  This month always brings along a few bonuses: longer days, warmer weather, Spring Break and leprechauns!   Because of these, I'm always happy to welcome March.  Anyway, the fantastically fab Farley is hosting another Currently.  I'm linking up to share #widn and to find out what my blogging friends are up to on the first of this month.  

Listening: In the background, I hear my kiddos playing with one another on this sunny March morning.  Lately, *Super Heroes* is the name of the game in this household.  Ever since we checked out Super Hero ABC from the library, they've ditched the princess and pirate costumes (for now)... 

Loving: I recently ordered Beyond Leveled Books from Amazon. I've only just begun reading it and am already loving the book.  It explores the uses and limitations of leveled texts in primary reading instruction.  It's a very easy read and includes a good deal of practical ideas, as well as sample mini-lessons that are worth putting into action.       

Thinking: Yay, the time gets to *spring forward* next weekend!   Even though we'll lose an hour of sleep, the thought of knowing spring is near makes me happy.  When the sun still peeks above the horizon after 5 P.M., I know warmer weather is on it's way.

Wanting: It's fun being an Irish gal, especially when I live 20 minutes west of Chicago.  I'm wanting to celebrate my Irish heritage on March 17th.  I love heading into the city to watch the parade and see the river being dyed green.  It's something I've done with my family and friends ever since I was a kid.  It'll be a nice tradition to start once my own kids get a little older.  

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in school with the students is entertaining, too.  When I taught Kindergarten, First and Second Grade, I loved *brining a little magic* into the classroom.  The students' faces spotting chairs tipped over and little green leprechaun feet all over the room was priceless.  Now that I'm a Reading Specialist, it's not quite the same, since I don't have my own classroom.  However, I do love reading and discussing St. Patrick's Day themed books with them.  A few of my favorites are below.  

Needing: I'm needing a vacation and am ready for Spring Break to arrive...STAT!  

Spring Break Plans: My husband and I are both teachers, but unfortunately our breaks don't coincide this year.  Even though this saddens me, I am looking forward to some time to ??? while my husband and kids are at school.

Okay, okay, all kidding aside.  For all those out there who know me, I can't allow myself to do absolutely nothing.  Most likely I'll spring clean the house and do a little closet organizing.  After that, I'll surf some remarkable blogs for classroom ideas and continue to read the professional books I purchased on Amazon and checked out from the library because...

Well, happy March and don't forget to link up with Farley!