The Secret of Change

Today's post is contributed by Andrea Reichenberger.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Socrates

In additional to all we do as literacy leaders and coaches, there is one very important aspect of our job that I fear we often overlook--taking the time to reflect on how far we’ve actually come on this spectrum of change. We are in an era in education in which we are asked to make many changes and to make them quickly. Change is difficult and with it usually comes a whole slew of issues that need to be handled delicately. In order to keep my own sanity and to help protect the sanity of our teachers,  I decided I needed to take notice of the elements that weren’t in place in our school three years ago and ask, have we made any change?

Classroom libraries were a rarity. Now, several have been developed or revamped with modern and engaging young adult literature from a variety of genres including nonfiction and magazines.  We have steered away from the whole class novel, developed themes and purchased a wide variety of texts that align to those themes. Word walls and anchor charts are not only posted, but also referenced throughout the lessons.  There are more tables and less desks, but the desks that still linger are grouped into pods.  Students are provided the time and guided to have conversations using academic language.  Teachers are setting a purpose for learning,  they are modeling their thinking, and they are using formative assessments to drive their instruction.  We are becoming more student centered and less teacher centered. We are making change.

Recently I was in a classroom and I asked the teacher what she thought was going well in her classroom. She didn’t hesitate when she answered, “the classroom environment.” She went on to specify that it was the group interaction which has improved because she has added consistency to the process, yet she also  included a component that adds variety.  She created three different grouping scenarios and has named each of them. (One of the groupings is purposely organized by mixed ability level and the others are random.) She writes the grouping on the whiteboard so when the student enter the room, they know where to sit. Tomorrow they might be in their “This Is How We Do It” group and the next day they may be directed to gather in their “Everything is Awesome” group.

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked this teacher to reflect on how her instruction has changed over the past three years and she confided,  “I am more conscious of how they (the students) need to learn rather than just the content. I focus on the goal I want them to achieve by the end of the class and I plan the activities to match them. I feel my students are learning more now than they ever have.”

Yes, we have definitely made change!

A Bit Like Bungee Jumping

Today's post was contributed by Lisa Weiss.

I am excited and terrified about this year! I have a literacy-focused professional development plan in place for all 6-12 teachers, which I am certain, explains the previous sentence. I’m anxious, in a good way, to see what results from everybody pulling in the same direction, but I am also biting my nails, anticipating what will be challenging for teachers! My blogging plan for the year is to document the good, the bad, and perhaps a few happy accidents, of our laser-like focus on the intentional use of literacy in the service of our contents. Love that phrase...thanks Doug Buehl!

First things first. For a variety of reasons, I wanted to move away from focusing our school improvement goals on reading. The assessment we use as a screening tool is not sensitive enough to measure the incremental growth we are looking for, and at times I think we oversimplify what it means to have a reading focus. In worst-case scenarios we hear things like, It’s not my job to teach them to read, or I assign reading, so I’ve done my part for the school improvement goal. If only it were that easy!

In moving toward a focus on writing, I can:

• set teachers up to elicit meaningful writing from students in their contents
• model how to model the writing we hope for in our content areas, using the gradual release of responsibility
• facilitate sessions where our purpose is to study student writing
• show teachers how to identify strengths in writing, and give feedback that continues to challenge our proficient writers
• demonstrate how to coach students through the areas of writing that are not yet meeting the standards, and
• show the connection between the reciprocal processes of reading and writing, and how we can assess reading through writing!

The original plan was to make sure that each 6-12 building had a minimum of one  literacy-focused professional development session each month, and that is how the plan worked out at the middle schools. The high schools are a different story; the principals had an even more ambitious vision for the frequency of literacy-focused learning sessions! There are  three literacy-focused professional development sessions each month, beginning in November. With dates identified, I was ready to move to the next step: sharing the thinking and the year-long plan (and how this professional development ties to the school improvement goals, and could tie to SLO’s), with the department heads.

Let's Get Back to Basics

Today's post is contributed by Julie Schwartzbauer.

Here we are, another school year off to a great start!  I am very excited to share this year’s coaching plan for my school district. Before I do that, I would like to share some background information on how the coaching plan for my district was created.

Three years ago my school district fully implemented the use of balanced literacy within the workshop model.  Some of the teachers in the district had been “doing” balanced literacy for years and for other teachers, balanced literacy was brand new.  With having 16 elementary schools in the district, I have had the opportunity to observe in many different classrooms.  I have found varying levels of expertise in delivering the components of balanced literacy.

However, I struggled to find one component of balanced literacy that was strong across the district.

As I was reflecting last May on the 2013/2014 school year with my colleague, we decided that we needed to go “Back to Basics.”  What this meant was that we would create a plan for building Literacy Coaches to implement with consistency across the district.  We would select 4 to 5 components of balanced literacy to focus on for the 2014/2015 school year and create a coaching cycle for our building coaches.  

We knew that our biggest hurdle would be to get everyone on board, including the principals.  I am including a document that shows how my district interprets balanced literacy within the workshop model.  I have highlighted the areas of focus for the 2014/2015 school year.  In my next post, I will share the coaching cycle for the “Back to Basics” plan.

Use GoogleDocs to view the document below as a PDF.

Implementing Comprehension Focus Groups at the Middle School Level

Today's post was contributed by Heather Zimmerman.

My role as a literacy coach changed a bit this year.  Instead of coaching at two middle school buildings, I am only at one building.  Yay!  But my new role involves both coaching and teaching two of our literacy skills focused classes.  One of these classes is at the seventh grade level, and the other class is at the eighth grade level.  I also push into a sixth grade classroom to work with struggling readers.  With the shift in my role, I am trying to learn how to balance both of these worlds. It is a difficult task to find the time to give 100% to both positions.  I am sure many of you can also relate to the feeling of knowing what is best for kids now as a reading specialist and feeling the need to be able to accomplish this on a daily basis with my students from amazing lesson plans to data analysis.

I was debating if I wanted to talk coaching or teaching, and I decided to go the teaching route.  I know literacy coaches have very different roles and some might appreciate my thoughts, either as a teacher or as a coach working with teachers.

This summer the grades 6-12 literacy coaches in my district went to a training by Carla Soffos on Comprehension Focus Groups (CFG).  This would be the set-up for our literacy skills classes. Besides reading a little blurb on CFG in Interventions that Work, I knew very little about CFG.  After the training my colleagues and I quickly started talking about how this might look at the 6-12 level. Besides collaborating with colleagues, the internet is usually my best friend when it comes to planning. From what I found though, there is very little out there on CFG at the secondary level.  I hope to share with you my journey this year with CFG.  I hope this provides a starting point for you, ideas to possibly implement, thoughts to think about, or probably some mistakes to avoid that I learned from.

I knew I wanted to use Notice and Note as a resource and implement Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s signposts.  Since I read that book last year I was looking forward to working with teachers in using the signposts in their own classrooms.  I decided to teach all of the signposts first.  I was wondering if this was too much for my students.  I also was learning with the students, which was helpful and exciting as we started pulling out our first signposts together.  I liked that I taught all the signposts at first because it gave them many different options to look for.  It was also helpful because then the next day they could look for the signposts in their choice books, and I had time to do beginning of the year assessing.  (Of course we took some time establishing routines to make this successful.)  Studying the signposts also gave me insight on various mini-lessons I wanted to start with including theme, plot, and point of view.  I had to reassure my students that we would continue practicing the signposts and they would be easier to spot.  As we entered the first CFG my students were starting to find the signposts on their own.  I still go back and forth if I would teach all the signposts at once, but I feel the process is allowing for success in different ways.  I was able to finish testing by allowing them time to dive into their choice books and practice finding signposts, and students are now having time to work on finding the signpost and digging into the anchor questions. After looking at the advantages and disadvantages, I plan on keeping this part the same for next year.

In my next blog post, I will dive deeper into the first CFG.  After spending weeks looking for texts, I hope you will find some of my ideas helpful!  

What Are You Reading: December 2014

1. Data Wise. Jamie says - The RtI Lead Team in my building is reading this book together to help better our school improvement planning.  It offers a pretty laid out process to use for using assessment and classroom data to enhance conversations and improve the teaching and learning in our building.

2. Thrive. Diane says -  This book is from the business world. Ariana Huffington is one of the co-founders of the Huffington Press.  The content is a twist of how she as a woman in business was trying to do everything to become a success when she reached the point  to say there has got to be more than 80 hour weeks.  The book is a redefining of what it means for success in a woman’s life and creating a life of well being, wisdom and wonder. 

3. The Mysterious Benedict Society. Diane says - This one is a young adult novel. If you like Harry Potter you may find this series has a similar sense of discovery and excitement.  This book has a great story line of four children who are gifted and intelligent in their own ways who take a special test to get into the mysterious society.  It is packed with mysteries, puzzles, word play, and problem solving around every corner.

4. Open Mic. Barb says - This is the January 2015 selection for Read On Wisconsin. It includes nine short stories and one long poem about teens living between cultures. The introduction includes guidelines for using humor to talk about race, but my favorite selection was Naomi Shahib Nye's "Lexicon." Open Mic is a quick read that could yield a short story or two for use in classrooms.

5. Mind in Society. Barb says - Yes. I'm reading Vygotsky. It was an assignment for a class about sociocultural literacy. Scaffolding and zone of proximal development are important parts of what I believe about working with learners. It was interesting to read about the theory from the original source.

6. The Formative Assessment Action Plan. Bobbi is reading this book about creating practical formative assessments.

7. Rock and the River. Heather is reading this young adult novel.

8. Student-Centered Coaching. Julie is reading this.

9. Read, Write, Lead. Lisa says - This is a book about "literacy and leadership; ...about hope, learning energy, and possibilities; ...about effective literacy practices and becoming literate; ...about how good teachers become remarkable teachers; ...about effective leadership practices; ...about how dedicated principals can become outstanding instructional leaders; ...about stories, struggles, solutions, and strategies; ...about the joy in teaching and learning."

10. Rigorous Reading. Carrie says - I'm using this book to review close reading strategies and techniques. This tool provides some of the best resources for both close reading newbies, as well as seasoned close readers looking for ways to get students to dig a little deeper!

11. TDQ. Andrea is reading this.

12. "Connect, Then Lead" - Heather is reading this article.

Use the comments to continue the conversation by telling us what you're reading.

Small District + Big Goals

Today's post is contributed by Carrie Sand.

Small District + Big Goals = Varied Roles for a Literacy Coach: 

How to provide effective and efficient coaching when time is tight?

Another school year means tweaks to and changes in my role as a Literacy Coach. Depending on the semester, my work as the District Literacy Coach (4K-12) may also be in addition to teaching classes of intervention and high school English classes. Such is the schedule of a small district employee; no longer does the budget allow for single area experts, but calls for teachers and coaches who are adaptable, flexible, and knowledgeable about best teaching practices for all students.

While I love the wide range of experiences, students, and situations I encounter within the scope of my job, and the mental demands always keep me challenged and sharp, I am constantly think about new and improved ways I can be more effective and efficient as a coach. As I reflect on the upcoming year, I think about goals that will help me continue to develop and grow. This year, these goals include:

• What formats best allow me to deliver professional development that is meaningful, engaging, and timely?
• How can I create a system of observation and beneficial feedback when I am limited on time and responsible for a large amount of classrooms?
• In what ways can I help implement a district-wide standards based universal curriculum, delivered with best instructional practices in literacy, which ensures all students an equitable literacy experience?
• How can I support the continued development and use of formative and summative data to drive meaningful instructional decisions and intervention options?

Like many, I am striving towards reaching big goals on a small budget (of both time and money)! For this reason, I  am going to spend my year reflecting on effective and efficient coaching practices. Over the course of the year, I invite you along on my journey as I try out new ideas, share successes, and reflect on improvements for next time. I look forward to the adventure ahead.  

We Can Do It!

Today's post was contributed by Jaimie Howe.

I believe today’s current reality for most educators is a tremendous overwhelmed feeling.  With the significant amount of initiatives across the state encompassed with an extreme sense of urgency to prepare all students for post-secondary success, teachers are worn-out.  

For example, take a peek at the chart below.  I wanted to have a visual showing the changes teachers have been up against over the last few years in education.  These are new initiatives that have happened in my district over the last 4 years.  I’m sure I am missing some, but this still clearly shows what we as educators have been faced with.

2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
-New ELA Curriculum -CCSS -PLCs -New Master Schedule ·   (to provide more opportunities for collaboration) -Monthly ELA Collaboration -AIMSWeb -DRA2 -WTW Inventory -Common Assessments -New Standards Based ELA Report Card	-Intervention Block -2x week grade Level Collaboration (1 math/1 ELA) -Data Roll Through Meetings 4x per year -PALS (KDG)	-Universal Coaching (K-1) -New Writing Curriculum -PALS (1st) -Progress Monitoring	-New Math Curriculum -Educator Effectiveness - PALS (2nd) -SBAC -New Standards Based Math Report Card

This chart alone indicates a total of 24 NEW initiatives in just four years.

So how do we manage all of this?  Believe me, it is hard work.  24 new initiatives in 4 years is in no way ideal nor recommended, but we can do it.

Just like we want our students to do, we need to start looking at the connections each of these initiatives have and how they fit together. When we treat everything as it’s own entity, it IS overwhelming. Stop, take a breath, and find the connection between all of the initiatives and in turn it will give you reason and purpose for following them.  When we understand the purpose for why we do things, it makes it so much easier. So, whenever I am faced with a new initiative, I always ask myself, “How does this fit in with the whole RtI framework?”  Every single time, I am able to place the initiative into one of the framework categories:High Quality Instruction, Collaboration, or Balanced Assessment and then the initiative starts to make so much more sense and has a purpose.

As a literacy coach, we need to remember to make these connections for teachers when we are introducing a new skill, strategy, or way of teaching.  When we have purpose for what we do, it makes it all worthwhile.