What are you doing this
summer? I’m doing A LOT of reading! I mean, A LOT! I have read a number of children’s novels,
the three Hunger Games books (Boy, was my husband glad when I was done!), and a
number of professional books and guides.
One of the books that I have read is by an author I know personally,
Jodi O’Meara. Jodi wrote RTI with Differentiated Instruction, Grades
K-5. It wasn’t the personal
connection I had with Jodi that lead me to read this book, it was my drive to
learn what the RTI process was really about, I mean, REALLY! Boy, was I surprised.
You see, we have been lead to
believe that remediation is RTI. Here’s
the kids test score, fix them. That’s
the impression I had with what RTI was.
Do some stuff, make a cute chart, wham-done! Now, before anyone starts “screaming” at me,
please understand my lag in understanding. During the induction of RTI in my
district, I was not in a standard classroom. I have had many wonderful teaching
experiences, and at this point, I was in the Science Lab, where I saw every
student in my school on a rotation of a 6-day wheel. During RTI training, I paid little attention,
literally, to the process and what it entailed.
That was a rarity for me. I’m
usually into this kind of stuff-but I was tuned out, literally. It didn’t have application for me in that
moment. So, I’m behind. In walks Jodi’s book, literally, in her
hands! (I'm saying literally a lot
today!)
What did I glean from this book-A
LOT (Another problem word today!)? How
the real process works, how to differentiate to help the process through and
have the time to possibly really make a difference because of that
differentiation. How to make various charts that show real growth compared to
expected and/or small group instruction, and about……drum roll please……..How to
approach conceptual skills!
I know, another thing we think we
all know! How to handle conceptual
skills? Now, here is where my first
freebee, the FCAT Specs, comes into play.
When you really look at what the medium to high complexity questions lie,
they lie in understanding at a conceptual level. How, on earth, do we get them there and
master them there, and know that they have??? And, folks, this is Common Core
in a nutshell-How do we get them there!
Jodie offers a few really good
points! Start with our thinking-how I can understand what is expected. And,
most importantly, what are the criteria for mastery then! Have we REALLY answered that for each
conceptual benchmark presented to us? Do
we REALLY know what and how kids master those?
Should we be relying on what a company tells us?? All good questions to ponder-and work
on! Do I have all the answers right
now? No!
Will I be working at it?
Yes! In fact, with my teaching
partner Lisa, we have agreed on what is skill and conceptual, or a combo of
each, for the present standards. Knowing
enough about the Common Core Standards, many of these will just transfer to
that! A real goal to work toward.
With that being said, here are two
more items that will, at least, answer that for these benchmarks.
1.
Weekly Nonfiction Reading Sheet: In this two-pack
document you will find all you need to keep kids practicing text structure
identification and text feature skills.
It can be used with any informational book.
2.
Shades of Meaning Continuum: Use any word group to have kids practice the
shades of meanings of words. I plan to
pull my words from the Book Club books they are reading. They fill in the continuum, write a sentence
for each, use one more word in a sentence, and explain which word(s) they are
going to keep on using!
Good way to assess something so conceptual!
May I highly
recommend Jodi’s book. As you can tell from the numerous post-it note flags
sticking out, there are many ideas I will be coming back to the book to use for
the school year. I will be making a
number of charts to collect data from as well.
It is well written and easy to read.
There are scenarios to help build conceptual understanding (many of the
names I recognized!), as she practices what she teaches in the text! Thanks for a good read Jodi!
Julie:O)
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