Gimme 3 Three in a Row...Gimme Tic Tac Toe!

Here and ready to play, Lori

Friends, it has been a shameful long while since I've been able to blog.  How I've missed it! 

Our 8th grade STAAR test is over, so that means two things: 

• Prepping for the re-test and lots of tutoring.
• Continuing to make every day in the classroom matter for EVERY kid.

But let's face it...teachers are tired! If Suz and I are great at anything, it's re-inventing the wheel and finding six different versions to do the same thing in a new way. 

So to keep you afloat in the days leading up the retest and even the days after, I bring you Genre Tic-Tac-Toe. 

Cruel metaphor for the school year?
(Sorry...I couldn't help myself!)

This little brain child of mine has been noodling around in my head for weeks now, but I finally brought it to fruition. It's a great way to turn a classic game into a meaningful measure of student mastery. It will help you and your kids in two ways:

1. It is your lesson for the day (maybe two). And I've done all of the planning and prep for you [except make your copies]!! At this point in the year, we're not teaching much that is new. This is the perfect time to see what kids still don't get and fix it before they move on.
2. It is your tutoring lesson! Hallelujah! If kids cannot complete their chosen squares to mastery, then you can teach a mini-lesson on that in tutoring and they can re-attempt the square. 

Download Genre Tic-Tac-Toe and you'll get three separate activities along with links to the accompanying texts. The set comes with:

• Fiction Tic-Tac-Toe--Based on a fast-paced and high-interest excerpt from Tangerine by Edward Bloor, this assignment is a crowd-pleaser.
• Expository Tic-Tac-Toe--Have you ever wondered why we all sing our ABCs? This informational article from The Wall Street Journal tackles the science behind music and memory.
• Expository and Poetry Tic-Tac-Toe--Random acts of kindness brighten our day. A lovely poem from Naomi Shihab Nye communicates the delicate relationship between sorrow and kindness. In addition, an informational article from Edutopia describes the importance of teaching kindness. 

I've enjoyed creating Genre Tic-Tac-Toe for you! It is based off of the 8th grade TEKS, but you could use it at other grade levels. Each square pushed me to think creatively and have kids do something different to demonstrate their mastery. 

Let me know how you use it in your classroom!

1000 Words

your wordsmith, Suzanne

A picture is worth...all together now...1000 words.  Good!  So what is that supposed to mean anyway?!  I don't know if I am expert enough to answer that question, but I can show you two strategies that unlock those 1000 words and practice that illusive skill...inferencing.

I thought you'd like that!

We throw around words like infer and conclude in our written and verbal questioning, as we should.  However, for a struggling reader, there is nothing automatic that fires off in their brain to approach this type of question.  That's where we come in.

This first strategy is called It Says-I Say-And So by Kylene Beers.  I can hardly talk (or type) about this strategy without chuckling.  This is one of Lori's least favorite strategies.  She struggles with it because she has strong inferencing skills.  Show off!  But that is a good take away: this strategy is not for all.  Strong readers might be frustrated by it.  Let's talk about how it can be used to scaffold struggling readers' thinking.

Show students a picture.

In our "It Says" column, students will list only the "facts" in the picture (things they can point to).  Students might be tempted to write something that goes beyond the picture.  Praise this and show them how naturally they are making inferences, but stress that this column is only for things that they can see with their eyes.  

"I Say" is where we are able to go beyond the picture.  Examples might include thoughts and feelings.  Encourage them to combine facts.  If this is your first time with this strategy, model your thinking aloud.  For example, I know that when I'm in bed with a box or tissue and thermometer, I'm sick!

Finally, we are able to combine our thoughts into an inference.  Continually point out that this inference is not something stated but is based on the clues I found.  I have to make this picture make sense, tell why is matters.

The finished product:

Ohhhh! Ahhhh!

Here's another variation:

The power in this strategy lies in the conversation.  The first time or two the teacher will largely explain their thinking.  You are creating those neural pathways for students.  (I'm sorry- how scientific did that last sentence sound?!)  Work to turn conversations over to students.  When students feel comfortable with the pictures, try either strategy with  a brief, targeted passage.

Despite Lori's reluctance, I love this strategy because it's easy buy in, and students don't realize what powerful work they're doing.  You know I love being sneaky!

Probable Passages...Probably What's Most Important

brought to you by Lori

My class recently began reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Correction. My class of struggling readers recently began reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. There are different philosophies when it comes to getting kids engaged in a novel. Some prefer to spend lots of time building background information so that students can build historical context. That's important! Some spend a class period walking through an anticipation guide so that students can think about major themes prior to experiencing the novel. That's also important! But the question I wondered about was...what's most important for my class of struggling readers? This is where our job is tough. We only have so many minutes in a day, and we constantly have to make decisions about what's most important. I feel good about my choice to not discuss historical context and not move students through an anticipation guide. Both are strategies and lessons I've used successfully in the past. But instruction is not one size fits all. So let me tell you what I did. 

At the Curly Classroom, we LOVE Kylene Beers. In fact, we're so excited to attend a professional development session with her on February 11th...but that's a whole other post. Anyway, the purpose of the probable passage is to show students snippets of a text prior to actually reading it. It causes them to think about the various elements of the text before reading and to make reasonable predictions about what might happen. Then...and this is my favorite part...they can re-visit those predictions as they read to monitor and adjust their own thinking and understanding. I'll be very honest with you. Even though I love Kylene, this strategy scared me. I even made Suz come to my office [Yes. I have an office and not a classroom. But I am still a teacher. It's complicated.] so that we could play with the various pieces of this multi-faceted puzzle. Even though I was skeptical, the more I talked through it, the more of a believer I became. 

I pulled my probable passage from the very end of To Kill a Mockingbird. You know it...it's that beautiful moment in chapter 31 where Scout stands on the Radley front porch and sees all of the events of the last year or so through Boo's perspective. [It's lovely. I'll get you a tissue.] I assumed Harper Lee would forgive me, and then I stole 11 key words and phrases from the text that would fall into five categories:

• SETTING
• PROBLEMS
• OUTCOMES
• CHARACTERS
• UNKNOWN--I told my kids not to leave anything in this category. Before making their prediction, they had to resolve it (through discussion or dictionary use or questioning) and put it in a category.

I like how my "unknown" category printed very mysteriously. It was totally intentional.

They did a great job sorting. That wasn't too bad. There was one that most tables were having a hard time with--"woes and triumphs"--so we had a whole group discussion and agreed about where it should go. Then. Oh dear. Then I asked them to make some observations about what they think this book might be about. Here are some responses. Make sure you look at my picture above before reading this list of "observations."

• Me: "What do you think this book might be about?
• Kid: "A man."
• Me: "Sure...what other ideas do you have? What else might it be about."
• Another Kid: "A man in the fall."
• Me: [Oh dear] "Ok well what if we start putting some of these pieces together. I know that characters exist IN a setting. Can you put a character or characters in a setting? And what will they do in that setting? Can you look at your clues and maybe come up with some problems they might face? Take a few minutes and write that in your journal. Be sure to also tell me what the outcome might be.

At first kids were frustrated. I didn't even take pictures of them because they were already irritated with me for giving them such a different assignment. Had I taken pictures, you would have seen frustration. But...some aha moments DID indeed happen! Here are some of the responses I got:

• I think this book will be about a man and his children struggling through hard times.
• I think this book will be about a boy and his sister experiencing sadness and victory. [Remember...we had talked about woes and triumphs as a whole group. I might have given them the words sadness and victory.]
• I think this book will be about a family learning how to get through hard times. [Notice how that kid moved from beyond what the cards said. He put together the notion of a family and he really understood the whole "woes and triumphs" bit. I was impressed.]

These predictions now live in our notebook. Our very next lesson focused on an analysis of the setting and I was able to revisit the predictions and ask students whether they thought Maycomb would be a "woe" or a "triumph." 

Pretty cool stuff, folks. No I didn't give notes on historical context. Because I didn't think it was most important. No I didn't do a discussion-based anticipation guide. Not because I don't think they're valuable, but because I didn't think it was what was most important. I chose to work with a probable passage because I wanted students...my students...my struggling readers...to enter the text with their own ideas. I feel good about it, and even though they were frustrated that day, they were thinking, and I was proud of them.

Turn off the faucet!

brought to you by Lori

We recently attended a Lead4ward training session called "Figuring Out Figure 19." If you're in Texas, you'll recognize this as our inferencing standard and our process standard. Essentially--this is the basis for all levels of deeper reading--regardless of grade level. 

Our facilitator for the day, Gayla Wiggins, said something that Suzanne and I have quoted many, many times since that day. In regards to the number of children in the state of Texas currently in need of some type of acceleration, she said that "we're so busy mopping the floor when we should just turn off the faucet." Over lunch, Suz and I later quipped that we can't turn off the faucet because we're drowning in all the water. Do you feel our pain? Are you there? 

But Gayla didn't leave us feeling entirely washed up. While she did a good job of articulating much of the current problem that we face with ELAR instruction, she also did a nice job of explaining the layers of our process standard and where the breakdown might be. As educators, we often talk about gaps, but she helped us to think about those gaps in very concrete ways and how we might move toward possible solutions. Hold on to your hats...this is good. 

Here are my notes from the session. I've also included a Lead4ward link. To get a complete look at the Lead4ward breakdown of Process Standards, click here and scroll to pages 14 and 15 of the PDF for ELAR. The format is different, but it will get the job done.

To think about the layers of Figure 19, Gayla split it up into three rows. Pay very close attention to ROW 1. By the end, you might have an aha moment. 

• ROW 1--THINKING WITHIN THE TEXT--Adjust fluency according to purpose; use context clues; establish purpose for reading; ask questions while reading; monitor and adjust for comprehension

Basically, ROW 1 is a TOOL TO KNOW. It outlines all of the tools that make a reader a fluent reader. You ask and answer questions of the text and of yourself. You clarify meaning in your own in your head. This process is...for the most part...an invisible one. Not only is it invisible, but it takes a different shape for each individual reader. 

• ROW 2--THINKING BEYOND THE TEXT--Summarize information and maintain meaning; make inferences and use evidence to support those inferences; make connections across texts and genres.

ROW 2 is also a TOOL TO KNOW, but the process is slightly more visible. We can discuss connections across texts and genres. But think about summarization. All good readers summarize in their head as they move from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. So much of good reading is indeed an invisible process. 

• ROW 3--EXTENDING THE THINKING--Summarize the message of fiction; explain controlling ideas in expository texts; Draw conclusions; Evaluate how well the author's purpose was achieved; Synthesize to make logical connections; Compare or contrast different author's writing on the same topic. 

Ok. So maybe you didn't even finish reading ROW 3 because it scared you. ROW 3 is scary. It is a WAY TO SHOW mastery of ROWS 1 and 2.

And that's where things get really scary. What if kids have not yet mastered ROW 1? If kids haven't mastered the art of reading fluently, then they cannot consistently and successfully use the tools from ROW 2 and they certainly can't begin to show any depth to their reading in ROW 3. (Have you looked at high school reading scores across the state?)

Here's the good news/bad news. The bad news is...maybe our faucet is POURING because we have too many kids at the high school level who are not yet fluent readers. While I'm not telling you anything new, I'm certainly acknowledging the problem right along with you and encouraging you that we can use the layers of Figure 19 to identify those gaps. 

And here's the good news. If it is an issue of fluency, then there is a solution. It's not a quick one. But, if your faucet is drip, drip, dripping and you can't seem to stop it, the answer lies in an elementary reading specialist. They are trained to teach children to read fluently, trained to teach them fix-up strategies, and trained to teach them to monitor their own comprehension. My number one suggestion to you is to find the best elementary reading specialist in your district and steal her away and bring her to your campus. 

It's time to return to the basics. It's time to address the gaps. It's time to turn off the faucet. 

Today's the last day to enter our giveaway for English II Shared Readings!  Even if you've already entered, you can tweet and share about The Curly Classroom giveaway for two, count 'em two, entries each day!  Check back to see if you're our big winner tomorrow- good luck!!