I'm Back

            Today I decided to pick up my pen and write a blog post.  Oh, I’ve written about ten this summer-all in my head!  You know how summer is, run around, do things, relax, try not to think of school, think of school CONSTANTLY, and avoid it like the plague, all at once!  I have thought and thought about what to write, have dozens of ideas, and get side tracked by family and fun.  This summer fun included something I’ve haven’t done in year, and something simply for me-sewing.  I have currently created 4 skirts, 1 shirt, 1pair of pants, and one dress.  Up on deck-1 jacket, 1 skirt, and 4 dresses!  Will I be finished before August 12^th-yes!  That’s my goal!  My first official day back is August 12^th, so I better get going on some blogging!  As you can see though, there is now some fun and beneficial competition for my time!  (And my wardrobe is going to be awesome!)

            First, I’d like to share that I am going to be moving to first grade.  Wow, there it is.  There has been a part of me who doesn’t want to share that yet, or make it official.  I didn’t ask for the move, but part of me is very grateful.  I have taught it for one year and I don’t feel like I’ve completed that cycle in my career.  I don’t think I’ve finished my fourth grade cycle either.  To be honest, I was just getting my grove on!  I have figured things out and had gotten a game plan together.  My test scores came in in a BIG positive, and I’m grateful for that.  And, at the same time, I’m very grateful not to have to have that pressure again this year.  It is a LOT of pressure.  I also wasn’t thrilled about teaching to the test. Yes, let’s just put that out there.  We, as a society, are definitely teaching children simply to take the test.  I swore I wouldn’t do it, that it mattered more for kids to learn simply to know and have knowledge.  To push them further than what was needed to pass a test.  I can now tell you that is an impossible feat in todays education game.  What matters to everyone is how they score, what that means for the school and the district and the state.  That is a sad reality of today.  So, to be honest, I’m not sad about stepping out of that.  What I am sad about is that I don’t get to test run great products that I have developed for next year.  I’ll share more on that in a moment.  What it does mean is that I get more opportunity to create great things that I’ll leave up to my now Book Buddy teaching partner, Lisa!  I’ll just get her to do the hard stuff, take some pics for me to post, and go from there!  Thanks Lisa!

            Now, let’s talk reality!  This year Florida will be getting on the bandwagon with Common Core writing activities and testing.  They recently released their Test Specification.  If you are from Florida and haven’t viewed them yet, you MUST!  You want to know the secret to knowing what to teach, you have to go there, get them, and study them!  Here’s the bad news-there is no rubric yet!  That’s right!  They have no idea how they are going to grade these.  I would suggest looking at Utah-click here-because we bought $5million dollars worth of their test data bank!  Anyways, back to Common Core and the writing tests that goes with them.  Here is what I noticed when I checked each one-Smart Balance, PARCC, and AIR (FL consortium).  They ALL have 3 reading parts to them.  Now this can vary.  What this means is that it can be two readings and a video or three straight out reading pieces.  This means that you can have informational pieces or narrative pieces that kids have to read.  They ALL require kids to take notes.  While they are reading, they have to gather information.  From what I’ve seen, this is done in the computer-based activity.  Read and type at the same time. (Holy Cow right!)  They ALL have write for information or opinion writing.  Notice there wasn’t any narrative.  I haven’t seen a testing sample of a narrative prompt yet.  This, I believe, is expected to be mastered and perfected before 4^th grade (GULP for me!) and they want the students from 4^th grade and up to be growing and mastering opinion and informational writing.  When we look at what is expected in the higher grades, this makes sense.   But, again, WOW!  They ALL are timed, yet not!  That seems weird, I know, but that’s what I’ve discovered.  The time expected on these seems to be around 70 minutes, but some say that kids can take more time than that.  This seems open ended.  (There is no indication on FL time amount yet.)  They ALL focus on content, organization, and grammar/spelling.  This is an all-encompassing assessment.  The rubrics I’ve looked at are heavier on the first two, but the convention piece is still a key component to the work! 

            So, where am I going with this?  Creating opportunities to practice this form of writing is key to generating successful writers!  And, how do we do that-by creating products that can help.  That’s the other part of my summer!  I’ve been busy writing in a different format, and I LOVE it!  I mean the writing is fun and informative to me as the writer.  Plus, I get to make them available to you as a buyer too!  Here is what I have currently available in my TPT store to help you out. 

Back-To-School Pretest:  This product is created to help you get a good handle on how the students perform in the area of writing to inform.  The reading is super easy-they range from a 2^nd grade reading level to the beginning of 4^th grade.  The idea is to see if they can take notes, synthesis the information, and create a writing piece-and it’s FREE!!! 

My Super Hero is Super:  This product is designed to practice the skills necessary to be successful in the area of opinion writing.  Plus, there is a fun craftivity to go with it!  They read a piece called What Makes a Hero, watch a video on the Hero’s Journey Myth, and hear a super hero story.  They are responsible for taking notes and then, here comes the fun part, make that super hero AND a comic to go with it!  They then write an opinion piece proving their super hero IS super!  (I will be doing a blog post to share the process with pics too!)

What is a Prairie?:  This product correlates to the Florida Standards Assessment and is a companion piece to A Land Remembered.  (If you don’t use this book to teach Florida History, you are missing out!)  Students need to understand the prairie that Tobias and Zec are traveling on.  This three-piece reading and writing activity will build background and allow for students to practice the important steps needed for the writing FSA in the spring! 

So, you can see, I’ve been busy!  I am working on two more right now-Interesting Animals-an opinion writing activity and Pioneer Women of Florida-a write to inform piece that goes with A Land Remembered as well.  Tons of ideas are floating around in my head, and I’d love to hear what you might need too!  So, leave a comment if you are interested in have a product created that might fit your, and other’s, needs!

Great Data Day!

Here it is, the Friday night before school starts, and what am I doing-writing!   I can’t help myself!  I feel totally motivated because something amazing happened today!  At my school we are beginning to dive into data!  Real data-data we can use and how to use it!  We are new to this, and it will take a little while, but it will have real impact.  So let me tell you about today!

Our presenter was the Director of Middle Schools, Mrs. Saunders.  During the summer, when she was hired, I read over her credentials and was very impressed.  Today, I am even more impressed!  She gave us an incredible presentation about what is really going on within the state and how our district will, finally, begin to remedy itself of the neglect that has gone on in our curriculum knowledge.  For many, this might have been overload.  A month ago, this would be overload for me! Today, it was CONFIRMATION! 

Our first activity was……put kids into the correct level of FCAT success!  Wait, I think that sounds familiar.  Next, determine what it takes for the students to gain points/levels that will cause even more success!  Exciting!  Use your new knowledge to determine remediation-BINGO!  I was secretly dancing in my seat!  Even more fun-I got to use my handy-dandy chart I made this summer!  And so did my whole team!  We were data recording like crazy!  And in a way that made sense and was usable!  We can target kids and KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE CRAZY NUMBERS!  The greatest part-new knowledge coming-we know what it takes to raise the lowest quartile students-the ones and twos-to get them to make a years worth of growth!  AWESOME!!!!  Can I say, it felt really good to be there mentally, and I really think I need to thank Jody O’Meara’s book RTI with Differentiated Instruction for that!  She really got me thinking and diving into what needed to be done!  A successful day for sure!  

Our district may be in a tough spot right now, but, for the first time I can see how putting a person who is strong in data, strong in character, and strong in her convictions can make a true difference.  I still know it will hurt a little, or a lot, but I think I’m ready!  I’m glad I have five great team members to go with me on this journey!  Thanks Lisa, Emily, Teri, and Keli for going with me! 

P.S.  Today I made a Math Data Chart to record the FCAT scores on.  You can find that here.

Summer Reading with a Lesson on Conceptual Development

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)