The 16 Week Challenge - Week 16

 

Week 16: Dec. 9 - Practice Co-Constructing Anchor Charts

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning to co-construct anchor charts in upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on how to do that.)

What does this look like?

1. Find a lesson in which you'd like to practice it. Do this by finding a lesson in which you should co-construct an anchor chart. Internalize the lesson, finding its purpose, heart, and student work, and think about how co-constructing the anchor chart is aligned with that purpose. 
2. See how students will be using the anchor chart over time. Take a peek at a few upcoming lessons. Where do you see the anchor chart come back up? Should students be using it as a resource in some way? Will they be adding to it? Will it be a resource that's available on an assessment?
3. Plan to press for exemplar responses. Look at the teacher exemplar to see the kinds of ideas students should be contributing to it. What do you think students will say? If they don't give you a response that's close to an exemplar, what would you do to press for that level of thinking? (Cold call? Turn and talk, while you hunt and gather? Think-pair-share while you hunt and gather? Write on Post-Its and you show call a strong response?) Remember, the thinking doesn't have to be exactly, word-for-word, what's in the exemplar, but it should be very closely aligned and as complex.
4. Teach the anchor chart part of the lesson analog. This means co-create the anchor chart as designed in the lesson, on paper, without using your slides. You are holding the pen, they are doing the talking, and you are writing what they say, pressing for stronger thinking without rounding up only when needed. (And don't forget those total participation techniques!)
5. Reflect. Look at what students created, and compare it to the exemplar. How close was this? How was this different from pre-creating anchor charts? Did students do the majority of the work?

Completed that? 

Well. 

You just completed Week 16 - the very last week - of the 16 Week Teaching Challenge. Wow! Whether you completed every week or just a few, you have done the work of putting the 8 high-leverage techniques of EL into practice in your classroom, and that is a really, really big deal. 

If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here. If you'd like to go back and try the techniques of other weeks, you're welcome to do that, too. Just make sure all of your work is logged by Monday, Dec. 16, and that prize will be on its way to you in time for Christmas.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 15

 

Week 13: Dec. 2 - Co-Constructing Anchor Charts

There's a difference between a poster and an anchor chart.

Posters are visuals, posted in a classroom or in slides, that are usually premade by the teacher. 

Anchor charts, on the other hand, are public records of thinking and, by definition, are co-created with students. So, while the teacher may create the outline or headings, the chart is made from student thinking and is meant to anchor that thinking so that they can refer back to it later.

This means that true anchor charts need to be on paper, displayed, and be clearly created from student thinking and work - not in slides or pre-created by us.

So, for your challenge this week, here are three quick tasks:

1. Begin by reading (or rereading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for anchor charts.
2. Watch this video from a middle school EL classroom about anchor charts. What did you learn that might change how you approach them in your classroom?
3. Watch this video about why anchor charts are used so frequently in EL. What did you learn about how to use anchor charts, after you co-create them with students?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 15 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - Dec. 9 - for our very last week.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 14

Week 14: Nov. 18 - Practice Using Conversation Cues

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning to use Conversation Cues in upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on how to do that.)

What does this look like?

1. Find a lesson in which you'd like to practice it. Do this by internalizing the lesson, finding its heart, purpose, and student work, and consider whether Conversation Cues are already in the lesson or if you want to add them. If you want to add them, be sure they serve the purpose of the lesson. Remember, by now all grade levels have been introduced to Cue 1 and Cue 2.
2. Use the Conversation Cue in the lesson. When you use it, capture some data on a piece of paper. Which cue did you use? Did you have to use a stem? Which students talked, and what did they say?
3. Reflect. How did it work? Did it help you deepen student discourse from more students? 

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 14 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back Dec. 2 for Week 15.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 13

Week 13: Nov. 11 - Deepening Student Discourse

This week is all about deepening student discourse - how do we help kids have richer, student-led conversations that actually lead to them learning from each other? Asking questions, pushing back, and taking notes about what they learn from their peers?

So, for your challenge this week, we'll explore what it means to foster discourse, and how we can make sure that when kids are talking, that talk is really, really good.

1. Begin by reading (or rereading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for "deepening student discourse."
2. Read about Conversation Cues here. And really read this - there's a lot of good information packed in here!
3. Watch Eric Snider lead a classroom discussion on the Teach Like a Champion website here. How does he put into practice a lot of what you read about in Conversation Cues? 

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 13 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - Nov. 18 - for Week 14.

Gosh, we're getting close to week 16, y'all!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 12

 

Week 12: Nov. 4 - Practice Using Protocols

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning to use protocols in upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on how to do that.)

What does this look like? 

1. Explore the protocols. Explore all of EL Education's protocols here (online) or here (manual). If you want to use both, find a category or protocol you like in the manual and then search for it online. Many of the protocols online have accompanying videos, too.
2. Find a lesson in which you'd like to practice it. Do this by internalizing the lesson, finding its heart, purpose, and student work, and consider whether this protocol is already in the lesson or if you want to add it. If you want to add it, be sure that it serves the purpose of your lesson and doesn't cost you any pacing!
3. Plan to practice it a few times until you and your students get really good at it. This may take a few days for a simple one (such as turn and talk) or a harder one (such as a fishbowl discussion). The purpose isn't to "master" as many protocols as you can, but to find ways to help your kids engage with harder work faster than you would without the protocol.
4. Reflect. How did it work? Did it help you make the most of your time? Did it help more students produce high-quality work?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 12 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - Nov. 11 - for Week 13!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 11

 

Week 11: Oct. 28 - Learn About Protocols

When I first began coaching, I was overwhelmed. There were so many teachers, unfamiliar responsibilities, grade levels, and content areas, that I didn't know how to wrap my mind around anything well enough to even begin.

However, as I began figuring things out, I soon saw that I led some types of conversations over and over again. When we looked at student assessments, we had one type of conversation. When we analyzed student texts, we had another type of conversation. And working one-on-one with a teacher in a close coaching cycle was another kind entirely. I thought, "What if I have templates for these conversations I tend to have repeatedly, so I ask/do all the things I need to and not leave anything out?" So, that's exactly what I did. 

What I found was that it freed my mind up to have better conversations. I didn't have to fish for a question or think about what the next step might be. I could go to my template to move a conversation forward - and even use it to take notes so I could get thoughts out of my mind and onto paper, freeing up more space for hard thinking.

What I had unknowingly done was create protocols. And let me tell you, a good one will change your work and your life.

This week, we'll explore the roles of protocols in EL together. 

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for Protocols. 
2. Read "The What, Why, and How of Protocols" here. 
3. Find the EL Education protocol handbook here and skim through the Table of Contents. What do you notice about how it's organized? Any protocols you see that are familiar? Brand new?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 11 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - November 4 - for week 12.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 10

 

Welcome to week 10 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If you're new to the challenge, take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can opt to get caught up on previous weeks by checking out the "16 Week Challenge" link to the bottom right of this page, or you're welcome to just jump right in and join us!

Week 10: Oct. 21 - Practice Using Questions to Promote Student Learning

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning to use questions to pormote student learning in upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on how to do that.)

What does this look like? For at least 3 lessons, you'll:

1. Internalize the lesson. Be sure to identify its purpose, the heart, the student work that aligns with the purpose, and how independently that work is supposed to be done.
2. Identify a sequence of questions in the heart of the lesson. 
3. Read through the questions and plan: What will you do to ensure the questions are used to promote student learning? What will you not do to make sure a teaching move doesn't detract from that?
4. When you teach the lesson, gather the student work that was completed. Ideally with your coach, your grade level, or a colleague, consider: How do you see that using questions in this way pressed for students to learn more from the text?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 10 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - Oct. 28 - for Week 11!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 9

 

Welcome to week 9 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If you're new to the challenge, take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can opt to get caught up on previous weeks by checking out the "16 Week Challenge" link to the bottom right of this page, or you're welcome to just jump right in and join us!

Week 9: Oct. 14 - Learn About Using Questions to Promote Student Learning

When you think of asking questions in a lesson, what comes to mind? Kids' hands in the air, eagerly wanting to answer?  Bloom's taxonomy and a variety of questions? Getting feedback about questioning and immediately thinking you simply need to ask more?

I'd like to propose something different. 

What if we thought of questions as a way to promote student learning. Not assess learning. Promote it.

How does that change this idea in your mind?

This week, we'll explore that together. So ...

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for Using Questions to Promote - Not Just Assess - Student Learning. Ask yourself: How is this different than the way I've thought about questions?
2. Read this article by Tim Shanahan on the role of questioning in comprehension instruction. According to Tim, what is and is not the role of questioning?
3. Consider this quote from Teach Like a Champion: "The purpose is not to ask questions; the purpose is to use questions to elicit different types of thinking." (p. 271). In EL, rarely do the materials call on teachers to pose a question and call on a volunteer to answer it; rather, the materials call for the use of total participation techniques to ensure all students are doing the thinking of the lesson. How does this shift your thinking?
4. Consider this quote from Steven Goldman: "The picture of students eagerly raising their hands to answer a question is so ingrained in our mental images of what a good classroom looks like. But eliminating this practice is one of the most important changes we could make." What is your reaction to that?
5. Read this blog post from Doug Lemov on phrasing fundamentals for questions.

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 9 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - October 21 - for week 10.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge - Week 8

 

Welcome to week 8 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If you're new to the challenge, take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can opt to get caught up on previous weeks by checking out the "16 Week Challenge" link to the bottom right of this page, or you're welcome to just jump right in and join us!

Week 8: Sept. 30 - Practice Fostering a Culture of Grappling

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning for fostering a culture of grappling in 3 upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on how to do that.)

What does this look like? For each lesson, you'll:

1. Internalize the lesson. Be sure to identify its purpose, the heart, the student work that aligns with the purpose, and how independently that work is supposed to be done.
2. Identify at least 1 place where you know it could be tempting as a teacher to take away the grappling for students. Maybe this is releasing the note-catcher to pairs to truly do it on their own, while you just circulate and question. Maybe this is releasing the reading to triads as designed in the lesson, instead of reading aloud this time. Maybe this is co-creating an anchor chart with students' ideas, rather than pre-creating it. Or maybe it's posing the questions - even the really hard ones - exactly as designed, without scaffolding the language in them. 
3. Capture notes at the end of each lesson on how this went.
1. Did you use your technique to foster a culture of grappling?
2. What did you learn about your students and their work?
3. What did you learn about your instruction? 

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 8 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back after Fall Break - October 14 - for Week 9.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 7

Welcome to week 7 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If this is your first time joining in, welcome! Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can also get caught up on previous weeks by scrolling to the "Labels" section at the bottom right of this page and clicking "The 16 Week Challenge."

However, if you're ready to jump right in, here you go!

Week 7: Sept. 23 - Learn About Fostering a Cultulre of Grappling

I'm of the mind that our goal as teachers isn't to ensure that every student leaves a lesson perfectly completing the work in front of them (though that's nice), but it's to ensure that every student has had an opportunity to really and truly grapple with something. It's only when we push them to do the kind of work and thinking that they can't quite do yet that we are really successful in a lesson.

That can be hard as teachers, because it means that we'll face silent moments in our classroom. We'll see a roomful of students who look at us with faces full of cognitive wobble. They'll produce work that doesn't quite meet our expectations yet. And it's all too easy to revert back to thinking that success means a roomful of raised hands, neat papers, and quickly correct answers. 

So, this week, I encourage you to really ponder and consider what it means to foster a culture of grappling, and how that can be challenging - yet the most joyfully hard work - for teachers and kids alike.

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for Fostering a Culture of Grappling.
2. Read this blog post that answers a teacher's question: "How can I foster a culture of grappling in my classroom?"
3. Read this piece from a third grade teacher on the Open Up blog about empowering children to grapple.
4. Take 5 minutes and jot a few notes to yourself answering these questions: 1) When I'm at my teaching best, how are my students grappling? 2) Looking at tomorrow's lesson, where are places I would be tempted to take away the grappling, and why?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 7 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 30 - for Week 8.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 6

 

Welcome to week 6 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If you're new to the challenge, take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can opt to get caught up on previous weeks by checking out the "16 Week Challenge" link to the bottom right of this page, or you're welcome to just jump right in and join us!

Week 6: Sept. 16 - Practice Total Participation Techniques

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning for and using at least 1 Total Participation Technique in at least 5 upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's post if you need a refresh on them.)

What does this look like? For each lesson, you'll:

1. Internalize the lesson. Be sure to identify its purpose, the heart, the student work that aligns with the purpose, and how independently that work is supposed to be done.
2. Plan at least 1 total participation technique for each one. Keep this super simple, and I even advise you to try the same one every time. The point isn't to entertain kids; it's to get every student actively working and thinking in a lesson.
3. Capture notes at the end of each lesson on how this went.
1. Did you use the CFU you planned?
2. What did you learn about your students and their work?
3. What did you learn about your instruction? 

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 6 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 23 - for Week 7!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 5

Welcome to week 5 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

Is this your first time checking in? I'm so glad you're here! Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can also get caught up on previous weeks by scrolling to the "Labels" section at the bottom right of this page and clicking "The 16 Week Challenge."

However, if you're ready to jump right in, here you go!

Week 5: Sept. 9 - Learn About Total Participation Techniques

And that's just what they are - teaching techniques that help to promote active, engaged thinking and work from every single student in a lesson. Here's what you can do to complete this week's challenge:

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for total participation techniques most closely.
2. These techniques are based on the work of Drs. William and Persida Himmele in their book titled - you guessed it - Total Participation Techniques. Take 10 minutes or so to visit this page on their site and watch videos or browse a blog post or two. 
3. Then, explore EL's protocols for total participation here.

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 5 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 16 - for Week 6.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 4

 

Welcome to week 4 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

Is this your first time checking in? No problem. Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can also get caught up on previous weeks by scrolling to the "Labels" section at the bottom right of this page and clicking "The 16 Week Challenge."

However, if you're ready to jump right in, here you go!

Week 4: Sept. 2 - Practice Checking for Understanding

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by planning for and using at least 3 checks for understanding (CFU) in at least 3 upcoming lessons. (And feel free to revisit last week's reading from EL if you need a refresh.)

What does this look like? For each lesson, you'll:

1. Internalize the lesson. Be sure to identify its purpose, the heart, the student work that aligns with the purpose, and how independently that work is supposed to be done.
2. Plan at least 3 checks for understanding in the lesson. This means you'll identify at least 3 places in the lesson where you want to pause, check for understanding, and plan for any needed adjustments based on what you learn. For each, you need to:
1. Know the exemplar response you are looking for.
2. Decide what you will check. It must be visual or verbal. Will you look at an annotation, check white boards, look at the first box on their graphic organizer, check their gists, or listen for an ideal spoken response?
3. If needed, decide who you will check. Are you going to check every student, or a representative sample? If a representative sample, who is that going to be?
4. Plan what you will do if you do or do not get the ideal response. Will you have a student who got the ideal response share with the class through a show call? Will you drive them back to a specific place in the text and check again? Will you have them turn and talk and then revise their answers? Will you ask a quick follow up question to press for all-the-way-there right? ("That's strong evidence, Cathy. Can you explain how it supports your answer?") Because you know what's coming up, will you move on and keep an eye on how they do the next time this kind of thinking pops up? Will you move a bit quicker because they are with you solidly?
3. Capture notes at the end of each lesson on how this went.
1. Did you use the CFU you planned?
2. What did you learn about your students and their work?
3. What did you learn about your instruction? 

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 4 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 9 - for Week 5!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 3

 

Welcome to week 3 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

Is this your first time checking in? No problem. Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can also get caught up on weeks 1 and 2 by scrolling to the "Labels" section at the bottom right of this page and clicking "The 16 Week Challenge," but you're welcome to just jump right into week 3 if you prefer. 

If I were to choose only one thing to improve my craft as a teacher, checking for understanding would be at the top of the list. It's that important. So, here's this week's challenge!

Week 3: Aug. 26 - Learn about Checking for Understanding

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for checking for understanding most closely.
2. Next, read this excerpt from the chapter on checking from understanding from Teach Like a Champion.
3. Then, read this document from EL about checking for understanding. On page 2, consider which of the tools and protocols would help you check for academic understanding, and which are self report. Both can be important, but only the academic ones will help us know whether students are understanding what they need to.

Last, choose one (or more if you want) of these videos to see checking for understanding in action:

• Scott Wells: Grade 4 ELA
• Matthew Gray: middle school ELA
• Denarius Frazier: Grade 11 math
• Courtney Huber: Grade 4 ELA

Completed those 4 tasks? Phenomenal! You just completed your Week 3 Learning Challenge. If you want (and you want to qualify for that lovely little prize I mentioned in the Launch), you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 2 - for Week 4!

P.S. Missed a week and want to get caught up? You absolutely can. Just go back, complete those challenges, log your success, and join us again next week!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 2

 

Welcome back to week 2 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

Is this your first time checking in? No problem. Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here, and get caught up on the Week 1 Challenge here. 

If, on the other hand, you're ready to begin, here's this week's challenge.

Week 2: Aug. 19 - Practice Learning Targets

The challenge is to put into practice what you learned last week by actively using learning targets throughout lessons. (Revisit pp. 152-153 of last week's reading if you need a refresh.)

What does this look like? The method is up to you, but it should look like revisiting them throughout a lesson so you and students know what you're trying to accomplish and how close you are to it.

That could look like:

• Inserting learning target slides before each new section of a lesson
• Internalizing a lesson to plant Checking for Understanding opportunities, and fronting them with a quick learning target reminder.
• Or - my favorite - simply writing the targets on the board so they are ALWAYS visible to kids and revisiting them as often as you and they need to.

So, choose an idea, try it out, and see what impact it makes on your teaching (Does it improve your clarity? Your pacing?) and your students' learning (Do kids know why they're doing what they are?),

Completed that? Yay! You just completed your Week 2 Teaching Challenge. If you want, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - August 26 - for Week 3!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: Week 1

Welcome to week 1 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If you're wondering what's going on, take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. If, on the other hand, you're ready to begin, here's this week's challenge.

Week 1: Aug 12 - Learning About Learning Targets

1. Begin by reading (or rereading) the list of EL Education's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices That Empower Students to Own Their Learning, and read the row for Learning Targets most closely. 

2. Then, read the document Using Learning Targets. I encourage you to approach this with fresh eyes; we've heard the term "learning targets" so much, it's easy to have a bit of an "expert blind spot" about them. Print this out, mark it up, and reflect on what this adds to or changes your thinking about learning targets. What new did you glean from it?

3. Last, watch this 5 minute video of a teacher using learning targets at the beginning of a lesson. What do you notice about the teaching? What do you notice about the students?

Completed those 3 tasks? Congratulations! You just completed your Week 1 Learning Challenge. If you want, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - August 19 - for Week 2!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The 16 Week Challenge: The Big Launch!

 

Welcome to the official launch of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge! 

The whole goal of this series of teaching challenges is to revisit the learning we've already done as a district (especially EL 201: The 8 High-Leverage Practices of EL Education) and focus our first 16 weeks of school on getting really good at the things we already know to do. Getting meticulous about the fundamentals.

Nothing new. No long PD session. Just quick learning and easy-to-implement, evidence-based ideas each week that can help us get better at teaching so our students get better at learning. For 16 weeks. 

If you'd like to join in the fun, here's what you do:

1. If you want, check out the "EL 201 Revisited: Meticulous About the Fundamentals" year-at-a-glance on my professional learning menu here to see the big picture.

2. Put a reminder in your calendar to check the blog each Monday at 8:00 a.m. beginning August 12 for the newest learning or challenge.

That's it! Easy as that.

Each week you complete the challenge, you have the option to enter your success in a Google Form here. There's no outside accountability for this - just good teaching fun on the honor system. 

You can complete the form each time you complete a week's teaching challenge. Complete at least 12 of the 16 challenges and log them on the form, and a very small (but lovely) prize will find its way to you. Miss a week and want to get caught up? You absolutely can. Just go back, complete those challenges, log your success, and hop right back in.

I can't wait to see all we learn and do this fall.

Here's to simply teaching well,

The Book of Quotes

Once again, I am excited to share a guest blog post written by Tonia McLane, a 5th grade teacher in our district. Here, she shares an idea that came from digging deeply into our EL Education curriculum and how it drastically changed the culture of her classroom. Enjoy!

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I remember playing school with my brothers growing up – grading their papers and helping them learn to read and write. My passion for education continued into college at Trevecca Nazarene University, where I majored in education. As one of the older students in my graduating class, I graduated in 2008 when I was 28 years old, and I began my teaching career at Metro Nashville Public Schools. I spent one year in third grade and the rest of those teaching years in fourth grade. 

In 2015, I started working for the Murfreesboro City Schools District as an ESL teacher, which I adored. It gave me a new appreciation for different cultures and allowed me to meet some fantastic students and their families. In October 2019, my principal asked if I would consider taking over a fifth grade class. After discussing it with those closest to me, I agreed and never looked back. 

I've been teaching professionally for 16 years, and it is my passion. My class this year has had challenges, but we have also overcome so much. In the beginning, I struggled to connect with them. There were some I "clicked" with right away, but others seemed more distant.  My group this year needed a little extra encouragement and to realize they were so much more than a name on my roster. This group is full of big and bold personalities, and they would often add extra stress on themselves when it came to testing and comparing themselves to others. Creating the kind of culture I knew they needed was hard. 

Then I ran across these words from Ron Berger:

 

“When a student completes her schooling and enters adult life, for the rest of her life she will be judged not by test scores, but rather two things: The quality of her work and the quality of her character.” 

This quote adorns the back of his best-selling book A Culture of Quality, and it changed everything for me. I saw that we needed a daily dose of inspiration tied to the quality of our work and character, not test scores and stress.

Like most teachers, I have a daily message with information for the day. I came across the book There is More in Us Than We Know, A Book of Readings while looking for other books to support my use of our EL curriculum. I quickly fell in love with the words of wisdom it portrayed throughout its pages and decided to add them to my daily messages. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel," by Carl W. Buehner was the first quote I used. We were having a challenging time in class, so it was a perfect way to start our morning meeting discussion. What a great discussion it was. 

I continued to choose quotes for my daily message until a student brought me a quote they had found and asked if I could use theirs.  The quote from B.B. King read,  “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” It was perfect so I added it. This led to other students looking for quotes to add to our daily message.  One student chose to use, "We can choose to be a character in a story written out by someone else, or we can choose to be the author of our own story," by Ruby Garcia. When I asked the student why they chose that particular quote they told me, “I'm tired of following the crowd, I'm ready to do my own thing.”  As a fun aside, my husband occasionally asks if my students have any excellent weekly quotes. Luckily for him, I have a fellow Star Wars fan, so his favorite comes from Master Yoda, "Do or do not. There is no try."

 

About a week into doing this, several students would come to the carpet for our morning meeting with their quote of the day written on an index card. When I asked them why, one said, "It helps me remember something positive." Another one said, "It was something I wanted to remember forever." I was floored. I was amazed that something so simple, like choosing a quote for my daily message, evolved into something so personal for my students. 

 

The following week, they asked if they could create our very own Book of Quotes for our class. Of course, I said, "YES!"  We started by having six students take turns writing the quotes in our class book, and I noticed they were adding their own quotes to the pages of our book. Some were ones they found, some were things I said in class, and my favorites were the ones they wrote or created independently.  I was often amazed at how the quote they pulled was something I needed to read at that moment. One in particular that stands out is Nelson Mandela's statement, "It always seems impossible until it's done."  

When state testing rolled around, and we were all feeling the pressure that comes with it, they would look through our Book of Quotes pages before we began testing, and you could almost feel the stress fall off. This book allowed them to reflect on their words of wisdom and affirmations to help ease the stress of state testing. I often find myself grabbing the book and flipping through its pages when I need words of encouragement.  

 

Last summer, I attended a Literacy Institute created by Dr. Cathy Pressnell, a five-day program where we took the time to dig into the EL curriculum. On day three, I had my big “aha” moment. You see, each module is divided into units. In units one and two, we build our students' knowledge and guide them along the way. When they get to unit three, that is their chance to shine, because at the end of each unit three students have a performance task, which includes a writing piece or a multimedia presentation. So, fellow EL Education teachers, "DON'T SKIP UNIT THREE." The Book of Quotes is now a part of my unit three. I empowered them with words of wisdom; in return, they took it and ran with it.

Our class Book of Quotes has impacted me more now than when we began. They do more than inspire me and my students; they enable me to create a connection with my students that goes beyond just the curriculum, and our book brought our class together in ways I never thought possible. Our morning meetings are more genuine and meaningful, and the relationships we built were more substantial and sincere. This could be your answer if you are looking for a small way to make a significant impact on your classroom community. 

What an amazing example of empowering students to lead their own learning, Tonia!

Here's to simply teaching well,

The Power of Curriculum

I am thrilled to share this guest blog post written by Jessica Codispoti, a 3rd grade teacher in our district. Here, she reflects on her use of curriculum and what she's done this year to get even better. It's a fantastic example of how a strong curriculum in the hands of a reflective teacher is a powerful force for change in classrooms. Enjoy!

Over the last 15 years, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow from the many different curriculums, (or lack of curriculums) that I’ve been asked to teach. My first year of teaching was intimidating and stressful as I tried to figure out how to communicate with parents, manage classroom behaviors, and frankly just teach! Luckily, my school used a basal reading program that told me exactly what to do. We focused on one text and one concept (main idea, vocabulary, character traits, etc.) each week. At the end of each week, there was a comprehension assessment on the same text that determined if students learned the concept of the week. At this point in my career, I was stressed, but happy to have a curriculum to follow.

A few years later, schools started to realize that the basal programs had some gaps in covering standards because students weren't performing well on state assessments. We were asked to supplement the program to fill those gaps. This left me searching each evening for material that I thought would cover those standards. At this point in my career, I was unsure and confused if I was addressing the missed standards successfully and never felt as though I was doing the right things for my students. It wasn’t a great feeling!

Just as I was getting this down, wouldn’t you know it, education shifted again. I was now asked to abandon the basal reading program altogether and become a curriculum writer myself (not something I was trained to be). I had to search for a science or social studies text every week that would align with my ELA standards and that I could write tasks to. Students would read the text the first day and spend the next few days working through different tasks with the text. Tasks might focus on vocabulary, character traits, main idea, etc. The final day had students take a comprehension assessment on the text. That assessment was written by me and mirrored questions on the state assessment. I was working harder than ever! It took hours to find a text that I thought was rigorous enough, but not too hard, write tasks, and write assessments. The real problem was though, I never knew if what I chose was grade level appropriate, if the questions I was asking were on track, or if I was doing what was best for students. This time in my teaching career was EXHAUSTING!

Although, I was becoming a better curriculum writer and knew my tasks were better than the basal program, I still needed experts to write a curriculum where the text was at the center and students worked through many tasks to make meaning of that text. Enter…..EL Education! I was given this curriculum, which was written in the manner I needed, however, there…was…so…much! There were 4 teacher manuals, 4 supporting material books, 4 student work books, 4 additional center books, and 4 student center books. On top of all the books, we weren’t given a whole lot of professional development on how to implement the curriculum. It was overwhelming to look at and not something I was excited to read. So, I turned back to my previous experiences and began searching for something to make it easier and less time consuming. What did I find? Premade PowerPoint slides that went through each lesson. I was SAVED (or so I thought)! I followed the slides for each lesson and thought I was doing a great job. However, when assessment time came, my students were failing. Instead of thinking about how my teaching was affecting those assessments, I started reaching out to coaches and explained that I wasn’t covering the material that was on the assessments and I needed to change them (because after all, I’m a curriculum writer, right?) That’s what I did, changed the assessments to meet the needs of the PowerPoint slides. Finally, I thought I had it all together.

Then, Cathy Pressnell asked me to attend a summer literacy institute that changed my world! This institute focused on all things EL Education. I learned why the curriculum was written the way it was and then dug into everything within the lessons. I looked at the purpose of each lesson and how that purpose was taught through tasks. During this institute, I realized that by only following the PowerPoint slides, I was missing the purpose of each lesson and that my students weren’t learning what they needed to. I also realized that my questioning wasn’t quite what it needed to be either. I was asking great questions and getting great responses, but the questions were not guiding the students toward the purpose of the lesson. I also realized that because I was missing so much, this was affecting their assessment scores and causing those failing grades I mentioned before. This week of learning made me realize that I needed to change my thinking and dig in to that teacher manual if I wanted to get the most growth and learning out of my students.

So, that bring us to this year. 

I made a commitment to myself at the end of the literacy institute that I was going to teach the curriculum the way it was written to the best of my ability and that’s what I’ve done! Here is what I’ve noticed:

• Students are doing the work! I'm no longer standing in front of the class having students copy what they need on those graphic organizers. Students are doing the work, finding evidence to support their thoughts, and writing their thinking on the organizers.

• The lessons actually make sense! By following the close reading guides and what is written in the teacher manual, I'm actually teaching the purpose of each lesson and my students are able to connect ideas from day to day much easier.

• The assessments were perfect BEFORE I changed them! By following the manual, asking the scaffolded questions, and following the guides, I found that the assessment questions were appropriate and aligned to the learning done in the lessons. So, I started giving the original assessments and found that students weren't failing them anymore! They were prepared for them because the lessons did teach the concepts!

• Digging into the lessons and really figuring out what I'm teaching is not taking as much time as I thought. When I was first presented with the curriculum, I was overwhelmed, but now, after really teaching it for the last 6 months, I've found that it's not taking as long to read and figure out what I'm teaching. There are many parts within the curriculum which repeat or use the same format and that make planning easier now on the tail end of the year!

• Following the teacher manual instead of the PowerPoint slides has increased my class involvement and has given me more time to spend with my students asking questions and listening to their thinking. I'm no longer standing in front of my class running through slides. I'm at their desks listening to their thoughts and know more about what they know than I did when I was teaching from slides!

• Students are growing and learning more! I've noticed a new confidence in my students. They understand what they are learning and are applying that new knowledge to benchmark assessments. My iReady scores are higher, their goals are higher, and I've set higher expectations that they are reaching! It makes me excited, them excited, and their families!

I know the stresses that come from teaching and know that teachers don’t need one…more…thing…but if you are willing to take on one more thing, let it be to dig into that teacher guide! Following the EL Teacher Guided Curriculum has not only changed the way that I teach, but it has changed the way my students learn. It was a long a road to get here, but one that changed who I am as a teacher and one that I wouldn’t trade for anything! At this point in my career, I KNOW I’m doing the right thing, I KNOW I’m teaching the right way, and I KNOW I’m changing the lives of my students for the better!

I couldn't have said it half as well, Jessica.

Here's to simply teaching well,