I left our group thinking that this seemed to be on the forefront of our discussions. What is next. ? We are taking the time to have the study groups, having teachers try out the different strategies in their classrooms and doing the reading and having the conversations...but what next? What book next? Where do we go from here? How do we do this with the McGraw Hill and help people step outside of their comfort zones?
Going back to where we started is one idea. Having teachers re-think and investigate their own thinking processes is someplace we need to return to over and over again. This is the place where we are reminded of our own thinking, and it is our thinking that we need to model to our students! Practice, practice and more practice is what we need to do. The more we practice and make these strategies visible to ourselves, the more we have to draw upon to help make them visible to our students. The more we practice identifying them the easier this teaching becomes. In fact, it becomes increasingly more difficult to simply focus on one strategy at a time.
Finally, I again must praise the work you are doing! I cannot even begin to tell you the difference it makes in the work I am doing with teachers. We are going so much deeper!! Thank you! See you next week at your groups!
Tomasen
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2 comments:
I am thinking teachers need time to talk with other teachers to help them sift through all the information we have shared. I know for myself, being the 2nd year implementing this, it takes time to absorb the strategy work as well as find a way to give the strategies life in your class. How can I manage this into the schedule I have and the curriculum I must address? How can I integrate this into other content areas? These are questions I regularly ask myself. It’s a lot of balancing, shifting focus, basically a lot of thinking. Just as we need to give kids time to read, talk, and share, teachers need that time too. When people feel rushed, they reach a breaking point and eventually won’t play. Sooooo, a next step needs to be more teacher reading whether that is with STW or Reading With Meaning or something else. I’d be interested to hear how the other groups that have had more of a book club format keep the implementation evolving.
Karen,
I agree this time is critical and from what I saw in your group yesterday, this seems to be happening. The fact that all of those teachers were there until almost 5 was so exciting. What will it take to keep that community of learning together? Time yes, and also commitment such as you have this year. Are you talking about more time to talk?
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