 It starts with what we do. It's the primary thing I'm thinking about when I'm designing a lesson. Is it going to be open enough that, no matter what the lesson is, is it open enough that everybody can participate? Is it inviting enough that everybody would want to participate? Because some of the stuff is not so inviting. Is it inviting enough that everybody would want to participate? Is it going to be worth their while doing it? Because if it is, that gives me the opportunity to move around and have those quick one-on-one conferences, those quick pieces Deb talked about, the feedback that you get during the learning that keeps your learning moving forward. That's the biggest thing that I'm thinking about when I'm planning is how is what I'm going to do, doing right now, going to allow me to get so that I can get in and touch base with those kids. Because for every case study student that Sharon studied and examined and went back to again and again and again, there were others in the classroom. There always are others in the classroom. And we teach the kids we get. It doesn't matter who they are. And as Deb talked about with her growth mindset, we believe that we can teach all those kids. And we believe that we know enough collectively to make a difference for all those kids. And so that's the piece we're thinking about all the time as we look at the one-on-one support. And you have to keep saying that. Well, you don't. If you agree with me, you have to keep saying that. When you leave this room, because if the message that goes out, and you know how sometimes things make perfect sense when you're together, and then somebody else reads a slide three weeks later with no context and thinks, oh my gosh, I knew. I knew we couldn't do it without more support. I don't think that's what they're saying. What they're saying is we have to arm ourselves to get with the people we've got, more support would be wonderful, but we have to arm ourselves with the people we've got to get as much support to the individuals in our classroom as possible. And it can't all be whole group, and it can't all be small group. We need the individual side-by-side conferences. That little checking in all the time, that's a piece that makes a difference. The second one that she talked about, feeling safe and supported. Oh my gosh, isn't that just such common sense? When did we ever walk into our schools, much less our classes, where we didn't want to work in an environment where we felt safe and supportive? And isn't it fabulous that that showed up in the results, that that deep caring of teachers was so evident, that even if the child wasn't making progress, even if the child, and you know what that means, is that not necessarily making progress. Progress probably means still is, the behavior may not be fabulous, so that you know every day they're never away from school, and that they're always there, and you're still feeling needy, and you're still feeling guilty, and you're still trying hard, but the caring never stopped. That's huge, and so we really have to make sure that that message goes out and continues. But here's the other piece that I think about in terms of caring, and I remember years ago at an inner city schools conference, years and years ago, because Gabby was a baby, and I was tired, so I really remember that, and I remember doing a keynote, and I wasn't doing many keynotes at that time, because I was way younger, and there were other people who were doing keynotes, and I was doing a keynote at the, at somewhere in the Vancouver downtown east side at this inner city schools conference, and there were zillions of people there, it seemed to me, and somebody important stood up and did an intro before I started, and talked about the most important thing we do in schools is caring, and if we do nothing but care, that's enough, especially for kids in the inner city, and I thought, oh my gosh, isn't that terrible, because my whole keynote is about how we can't stop at the caring. So then that made it worse. I was tired, there was a baby at home, this important person had just said all completely opposite to what I was going to say, and that didn't come out in the results. It wasn't about just caring, but it's also important that we talk about that when we leave this room. Caring is first and foremost, and then comes a commitment to action, because just loving the kids isn't sufficient. We've got to love them and move them forward. We've got to believe that we can do something that'll make a bigger difference. Choice, of course, of course, of course. But again, the piece comes back to how do we organize so that there's room for those kids' voices in the classroom, for all those kids? And that's one of those questions, I think, that pummels us forward as we keep thinking about, so what would it look like? And I'm a firm believer in the fact that we can do choice in a whole group lesson. And I thought it was really interesting that one of the pieces that the research showed is that one of the things about choice is that there was a hint of is there more choice in how we start sometimes and less choice in how we show our learning? And so that makes me think about so what would that look like if we added in a little more choice? This piece just rang in my ear, too. All students are receiving systematic instruction related to decoding. Everybody reported on that. And Sharon said, and so we know this part is working. Everybody's reporting on it. And maybe they're not reporting on the meaning piece so much because they think that the decoding piece is the piece that we want to hear about. But you know the first part that goes off in my brain is everybody's reporting on it. Did everybody need it? Because I don't know. It just seems to me if I were five years old or six years old or seven years old and reading was pretty complex and messy and I didn't feel really good about doing this stuff and if I thought that what it was was decoding I don't know that I'd get very excited. Because unless it's about meaning Sharon did say, you know, I don't have to talk about meaning because Fay will rant on about it. If it's not about meaning, who cares? There is not a soul in this room I would predict that didn't at some point during the summer read something that you had to reread or spend some time on because when you were reading along searching for meaning something came up that got you a bit derailed and so you pulled out some of your strategies if you cared and you tried to make it make sense but you might not have cared and you might have just kept on going and you're still all alive and well and competent and here today. And we know you're successful because sometimes, and there's lots of research on this we treat readers who are successful differently than we treat readers who are less successful and so when I saw that the thing that I wondered and I worried about is is that where we're focusing first and if so, how are we ever going to move kids to be more successful if we're not starting with the joy if we're not starting with the peace that says this is something you want to do and we all want to do this this is part of our learning journey there are things we know and things we don't know and things we're going to get better at in here but we've all got something in here and it's first and foremost about the engagement piece it's first and foremost about making sense it's first and foremost about wanting to do this it's first and foremost about finding joy because if there's not again if we go to us as a group and we're all kind of committed like it's still August and we're all here kind of happy and interacting with others and going on so it's kind of a specialized group but why can't these kids be in that same group if we expect that what we're doing is going to be something that they want to participate in we can call that play-based we can call that invitational we can call that differentiation we can call it anything we want but why the question is one of those old questions in Odana which has been ranting about this too that some of us who've been doing this for a long time are thinking about is that why is it that it suddenly becomes so onerous what happened to grab a book flip through the pages see if it looks good who cares at first if you know the words go for gist go for looking at the pictures tell your friends about some of the stuff that's there because then you'll care enough to want to know more about those words and you'll care enough to want to figure out how you use the strategies to make those words make sense because if we start with the bits first I don't know that we get to the good stuff afterwards because I think it's too hard to get through those bits if they're not fitting into something that's holistic and fun and has an end it's all about a goal Deb talked about the goal our goal is to create what we can read and who choose to read and I don't know that we're going to get that unless we start, we keep that in mind all the time can read choose to read, want to read find joy in reading, find purpose in reading we have to keep that first and foremost and up there in the front of our heads the other piece I guess it's about the choosing is that when we're thinking about the engagement and we're thinking about choice and we're thinking about purposes and we're thinking about why would you want to and it shouldn't have to be a condition until you can read fluently when I was really, really young and starting to teach I remembered that there was a time when if you didn't have a certain number of words you couldn't get a book that was a long time ago half of you weren't not only not born weren't even thought of but we don't want to be going anywhere near that again, that you've got to have these pieces done, you have to know these letters no, the first day you walk in why can't you have a book why doesn't everybody have a book? I read lots of things that I didn't understand didn't read the whole thing but I just read little bits and pieces and sometimes I thought ooh, no way, not coming back to that I'll have to talk to somebody else who can translate that some of us there were a group of us in this room that got an insurance form and the emails went back and forth around to them and people saying did any of it make sense to you? the words but I didn't get it, didn't make sense to me either okay, let's all quit and somebody else can translate it no, it's all that same piece but because the engagement that's where the engagement is there but it's the piece that I keep thinking about is choice, choice, choice and having a just right book in your hands isn't always the most important thing it is important some of the time, every day you need to be reading something remember, Alling has talked to us about it that you can read with accuracy and fluency so that you can get better at that piece but you also need to be reading something that you'd like to read and how many I bet you can all picture what your classroom looks like when you've got kids lying all over the floor and they've got books in their hands and they're talking, you can't get them to be quiet because reading is never quiet in grade 1 and grade 2 and they're talking to each other about what they're reading and they're in depth on those pictures and they're maybe trying to find a word that matches up to those pictures and they're taking that book over to share with somebody else that's reading that's what reading behavior is about and we absolutely have to make sure we keep that in mind and yes we need the decoding and yes we need those pieces but they're there to support that behavior that says come and see what I found out that's the piece that's in our mind all the time I managed rant say something to the person beside you please but I'll give you learning intentions for what we're going to do this afternoon here are the things we're thinking about the first is I'm hoping in the next hour that you're reminded of some practices that you engaged in last year that really made a difference in creating readers in your school some of the things that you did so you're starting off the beginning of the year thinking these are the things that I'm going to the wall for I'm not letting go of them, I know they made a difference what were some of the things that you did that are supported by research as making a difference the second one is I want you to be thinking about the mental model of reading one of the things that worries me and you've heard me say this before is whether or not we carry within ourselves a model of what effective teaching of reading looks like now we're finding it all the time we're building it, we're polishing it with others but we've got a picture in our head of what does it mean to be an effective reader and what does an effective teacher of reading look like and if we don't keep that model in our head we're easily distracted by those wretched wretched scripted reading programs that have nothing to do with the student who's sitting in front of them okay it's not a rat it's just a statement of subtle opinion you know as professionals how to teach the children and you need to be relentless in your pursuit of the teaching and not give them the kids away to something that is glossy and sexy looking and published and marketed and perhaps on a computer that gives instant feedback on discrete skills to kids that the computer can't actually recognize you're more powerful when you sit side by side with them so don't give up on the piece that's about how important you are as part of the mental model of reading you have a third goal an enhanced view because we all have lots of skill in this area but enhanced ideas about how to polish getting that one-on-one support getting that differentiation getting that peace in in both whole group construction and small group construction so what can I do to make what I'm doing even better what can I learn from samples that others are doing to make it even better and of course I want to be leaving with a question and a plan because it's always about action and to continue to think about because that's what keeps that practice that we're engaged in better and better we had fabulous results this year teacher's work was outstanding but we've still got some kids that we want to work with to continue to close the gap and to do that we need that whole collective energy and wisdom of what we have in this room and beyond and so we want to keep going with that question about what else could I be doing that would make a greater difference so here's what this afternoon is going to look like I'm going to do a review and as Maureen said mining deeper into the Allingtons Pillars piece okay that's our research foundation what does this look like we're also going to look a little bit more closely at small group reading or guided reading one of the things we found around the province and Maureen kept saying to me I can't believe how many people are doing guided reading I had no idea it was so popular she said it's hugely popular she said it is but it's so different everywhere we go and I said it is and some of the differences are more different than others and so we're just going to look a little bit about what some of that because again we don't have time to waste when we're working with our kids we want to be as effective as possible and so it's not just about trying hard to make some choices that make as big a difference as possible then Paige is going to talk a little bit about weaving in assessment for learning you know she's brilliant at that piece and Laura is going to layer on her wisdom about embedding Indigenous principles of learning at the end and I'm going to try and do a little tiny bit so that as we go to so here we go first thing remember them every child every day turn to the person beside you you have exactly 30 seconds can you remember go I'm timing so we're just going to go through these as a quick dance and again what I'm trying to do is present different examples from classes around the province that show where teachers are taking these principles and trying to put them into practice with their kids and the piece that I'm hoping that you're thinking about as we go are some of those big ideas that Sharon pulled out that piece about this is based around caring and supportive communities this is based around how do we get to the individuals within the class this is based around choice and personalization this is based around are we doing things that kids would want to do that would help them improve as readers and writers and thinkers so first one choice now we have here a classroom we've actually got this classroom and I don't see how could this be when you're done your job is to choose one of the books today you may choose a fly-dive book or you can choose one of the dog books or I know some of you like the chapter books we were reading so your job is to choose a book from the pile and read, read, read because remember if you want to get to be good readers we have to do lots of good reading so when you're done this book you're going to put it back in one of the more books you would like to read Ella ah sure I'll put spoon alright Chloe can you put up these yes you can get the one that you started last time absolutely get the one that has the bookmark in it alright so there you go everyone take your spot spread out there we go there we go alright I know here we go okay so here's a guided reading group Michelle is a teacher librarian and resource teacher at a school in Richmond they've gone through their book today they've had their little lesson this is a group of kids at the end of the year in grade one this is a group of students that the resource team and the classroom teachers said at spring break this group is not making the progress that we would like them to make they are the most at risk group we have right now and so they increased the amount of support that they got from spring break until June and so one of the things they did is that they started getting small group reading instead of twice a week in the classroom with the classroom teacher and the resource teacher teacher librarian they went together four times a week and two of those times Michelle took them to the library and they had their reading time there now you look at this group of kids and what do I notice when I'm there and Lisa and I were there in June videotaping them they all wore their good clothes because they knew they were going to be videotaped but there were more girls you'll see them again in other little segments more girls than boys they looked like our little boy this morning there's a totally different group than the group of kids that do with his representing but the piece that I want you to really think about in here is that anybody can be a reader at promise and in our school building we think about who needs the support and how do we support them to become better readers now they have their little guided reading lesson together then they do with a common book and then you can see that they're moving around on the floor the shelves reads next with each and every one of them and as soon as she goes around to make sure she has a little read with everybody and then as soon as they finished reading their book they go to the book group of books that they really want to read and they bring them back and they read now here's the piece that really made my heart sing when I was in there every one of those kids reads for 30 to 45 minutes and they don't want to leave please can we stay for recess I'm still reading my book and all of those books in that box some of them are just right books some of them are not just right books they're just right for their hearts they're just right for their passion they're not just right for their reading level Spoon which you'll see later was a book that they had happened to read as a read aloud in the classroom and so that's where the question came from Spoon in there because they've connected to it emotionally because I'd like to read Spoon again later and you know the piece everybody from the beginning of time wants to read a chapter book that's how you know you're successful even if it has two words on a page so long as it says chapter one at the top and chapter two at the next page that's all it takes Terry in your next set of books all the chapter books but those are the markers but if you're not there with your eyes on print it doesn't make a difference and so it's just that subtle change in the choice piece there's different ways of incorporating choice that's one of them here's another piece this is just choice in where you're sitting like how simple is this grab your book and find a place on my stomach on my back against the wall this is one of the reasons they keep reading now we don't always have the luxury of all those different places always have to be around a little table with everybody tightly behaved sometimes yes and sometimes we have to get to that part before we can get to this piece but just there's that little let's think about it because where do you like to read is it always sitting at a chair at your desk or do you sometimes read I heard somebody say today at my table that they actually were a bit jealous of their daughter Patricia because she was reading on the porch on a couch actually when she was supposed to be working which is a true sign of a good reader but there's a piece in there about thinking about these are just subtle ways to bring in choice that doesn't have to overflow everything else that's going on okay every child also needs to read accurately yes, yes, yes you have to have a just right book in your hand you have to be doing some reading with it and remember how much the accuracy is it's really high but you have to be reading a whole lot okay intensity and volume count and we're going to come back to that with tied into something else in a moment we also need to be reading something that you understand every day that's the piece we keep coming back to everybody every day it's one of the things I worry about we see that we're doing such lots of work around letters and decoding and all of that is good but I bet in Carol's kindergarten that everybody gets a book in their hand at some point during the day whether they know any letters at all and they talk about those things and they act them out and they dance them and they turn them upside down because those are the initial steps into reading so it's like let's not forget about those pieces most of the time, two thirds of the time is spent on reading and re-reading and even when we pull in our systematic decoding and function and looking at phonics and phonemic awareness and sound relationships and letters and knowing all those things we do it the more we can do it embedded into why would we use this and how does it all work together the easier it is for those kids who often struggle with transferring a skill to a new situation to do that transfer piece as we come in so let's just sort of look a little bit about what that can oh we won't get to look about that for a minute because I just have to put this one up I don't know why this one got in it may come up again I heard that come up at some point no fun grade one really like oh my gosh it might get worse as you go through school but why is it not fabulous in grade one we've got one teacher in this province that walks in thinking there will be no fun in my grade one classroom today because we have stuff to do but if the feeling that they have is that they have to get stuff done that this is the important year that you might play in kindergarten and you might get a choice in books and you might get some fun things to do in two and three but in grade one I have to make sure you're ready we're giving the wrong message to people because if you think back to primary program I guess not all that far away and it actually should still be alive and breathing in our classrooms young children develop differently our goal is to have them able to read the text that they come up with as they go through the years not to have everything done by the under grade one so we've all taught kids that took longer in grade one and sometimes grade two and grade three blossomed we worked really hard in primary program not to have those markers come down too quickly and in too tight away and so we need to keep remembering that some of those kids the gap closed in that first year that's remarkable because everybody knows that if you're struggling and this is really hard for you to do and somebody else is not struggling they're going to make faster progress than you are that's just kind of a given because you're not working in that same way as they are but given enough time if we look at this as a two or three year plan what's going to happen to those kids so I'm thinking about these kids that we tracked so carefully this year and my question to those of you in the districts is what are you doing actually this is Kathy champions question last week and I thought very very smart question what are we doing to keep track of those kids next year in our districts because I bet some of those kids if we keep up that relentless pursuit of achievement with them achievement and joy with them we're going to see more kids who are closer to where we'd like them to be because it takes longer for some of us when we first get started all of us have things that it's taken us longer to get started on than somebody else and so it's not just a one year piece we'll have a new group this year but you know in our districts for the district people who are there how are we watching those kids to see if over time we're making a difference because we need to take that pressure off grade one teachers of getting it all done they need to know their letters they need to know their sounds they need to be able to do this they need to see themselves as readers they need to want to stay with the pursuit of continuing to be a reader they want to stay with the pursuit of not learning to read and that being different from reading to learn they want to be reading to learn right from the beginning and that takes all of us whether we're in grade one or two or three or support or admin or wherever that comes to that united piece that says together we're working to say how do we instill the fun into grade one to reinstill the fun and it's not everywhere but it came up a lot it came up a lot and I think it's because we're there's a lot of us working really really hard and we're working so really really hard to get all the stuff that we think needs to be done that we've forgotten in our attempts to do that that the joy would make the engagement higher so but it's not a single person thing that's a community and a school that works on that so I know all you may some of you might be able to read this I didn't actually mean to leave this in as a slide but it's easier to use the teacher's words she didn't leave her name it's a grade one two teacher and one of her letters who was talking about how do you find time to give the one on one support to look at some choice to get that engagement and joy so the synopsis of this piece because you can multitask while it's up there the child that she'd identified was in a program at the local library where they had a therapy dog and for six weeks in the library program the child read to the dog loved it came back to school, talked about it a lot of enthusiasm she didn't have a therapy dog to bring into the school but she thought so what could we do that would be similar and she got a fish now fish even I can have a fish pet she got the fish and not only did the little girl read to the fish other kids read to the fish and it became one of the choices of what you could do you could go with your partner and you could read to the fish and they practiced so they could read to the fish they re-read to the fish and the feedback you get from the fish is not a lot of over correction so it's a good audience now so this child was just how do you get those opportunities now is that not joyful and it's not high maintenance in most cases but to have that fish in there and of course what that then did was that because the fish was there it sparked writing so it becomes that circle again of how you build in those pieces as you're going through so this is a piece you can have this about the accuracy you can take your just right books you can read your just right books that you're really excited about you could read the books that might not be just right but you're excited and tell the fish what it is you've been learning and you can take a partner there but you've got all those opportunities that become highly encouraging to come in and pull them as we go through okay every child every day writes about something personally meaningful it is not about the what did you do on your summer holidays it's not personally meaningful when you tell somebody eye to eye and face to face and you get to wave your hands and talk about it but no I bet most of us have not journaled all summer about the events of our day or waited until Labor Day so that we could have a reflective right on how our summer was it's just it's not the engaging piece Sharon kept reminding us engagement engagement but I also believe that we can convince kids that they want to be engaged in almost anything so it's the piece of saying how do you do something in the classroom that's engaging enough that they want to participate and writing is just so simple so here's just a tiny tiny example so this is in DePutter's room Miracle Beach Devin okay this is Devin DePutter and she's in grade three in Miracle Beach so here's what the lesson looked like I'm the teacher the teacher has said my kids are loving to write they're getting really good at writing they're good at building criteria but I'd really like to work on building some depth and description into the writing and so we're in there doing one of those demo classes here's a simple simple lesson I start and I write in front of them and I say to them here's my writing your job is and it's a really quick write and I'm doing it just as I'm thinking in my head and I'm hoping it's going to be a good example that day because there's a lot of people watching but it's something that you can do really easily and I'm talking to them about what's going on and the thinking in my head and I'm saying things like oh I hope this is going to be interesting because I'm really concerned about my audience because if you think it's boring you're not going to want to read my writing and so that's not so good and so it's a setup because I'm modeling for them and I've said hooray it's sunny I hate running in the rain my toes get cold and squishy and wet and squishy when it's raining I hope I run as fast as my friend Lester because I don't like being pokey and slow so I'm talking about this as I write and we're talking about have you ever been doing something that you know you really kind of like to do but then there's parts of it that you're not so sure about because of what's going on and what do you notice about my writing because they're going to give me some feedback and so they say that they think I doubt about emotion and had some feeling that I did some detail and that I painted a picture which I thought was most generous of them but I was willing to accept any praise that they gave and as I've been saying I'm trying to make sure you can see what I'm doing so they can sort of get that little hint as we're going and then we all thought of something active that we liked to do that we could tell a story about that had some challenge or push or excitement to it and then we sat very simply in partners here's what it looks like I sit next to Malia and I and this is timed I have one minute to tell her my story and she listens silently being a very supportive audience but not saying a word for a whole minute and I'm timing them and then she has 30 seconds to give me some feedback ask me some questions what about this I really like that idea and then she has a minute to tell her story and I have 30 seconds to give her feedback and then you have a little walk around the room just to get your thinking going and then you get to come back and you tell the story that you'd like to tell in writing as simple as that usually you model what that conversation is going to look like so that the kids can get a sense of what the behavior is like in there but 2s and 3s no problem this whole thing was about an hour in full length 4 or 5 of the kids had computers or iPads because for them to get and as Alan said 2s or 3s for them to get their ideas down quickly and easily it was hard to do it with a pen and pencil but not so hard with a computer or an iPad now nobody paid any attention to the fact whether you were working on paper or whether you were working on a computer there was no fuss about that it was just who's doing what as they go forward so here's one of the ones that came through look at the difference think about what that child would be doing if they were struggling with a pencil and a piece of paper in terms of engagement snap went my bindings as I clicked my feet into my bindings as I pushed like I was ice skating I maneuvered my ways over to the easiest hill pushing off the hill it felt like I was going so fast much better content than the model had been much better content and this is one of the kids who's needing some extra support in the writing same piece in this one but here's the piece that I want you to notice because it said how do you put out the choices of what kids are going to do and this ties to Deb's comments about assessment so we talked about remember here's the things you're going to try and do emotion and feeling, paint a picture whatever the third one is that I can't remember maybe details when you're finished would you find the sentence that you think is the most powerful it's a standard job what's the sentence or the phrase that you think is the most powerful and mark it up so that you can find it when it comes time to share doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter what the spelling is I don't actually care now about your sound symbol I want to know what you care about in terms of meaning in your writing and everybody needs to have one something that you really care about and then is there something else in there that you'd like us to notice that you think you did a really good job on that was tied to our criteria so there's jobs to do when you're finished that keep those goals in mind and participate and come in now that doesn't take me a long time to plan for but if it becomes routine then the kids are doing it all the time and they're saying to each other I say I've really done a good job in descriptive words way better than she did really good on descriptive words and look at the ones because those goals are in their head so it's taking it back to oral language it's taking it back to what do the shared values for what we're doing look like in here and how do we keep this so all can participate every child talks with peers about reading and writing now a couple of examples of what this can look like one is now this is Tori from that little reading group remember the thing about can you put in spoon Tori was the one who went because she wasn't the one who suggested putting in spoon and she thought she wasn't going to get spoon because Ella had suggested it and Ella got it first because this is a piece now again we can think of this as play base we can think about this as community building we can think about this as being socially responsible but it's wanting to do what others are doing in your group in the classroom listen to Tori when she talks about why she chose this book hi Tori I was wondering if I could ask you a question today sure why is it? I would like to know why did you choose the book spoon to read? that's because a girl named Ella I asked to have it and she said yes and I like the spoon so much that's because this is a key to introduce the spoon to my classroom and after Ella read it I asked if I could have it and this is how I got spoon and the favorite part of spoon for me is when he wants the spoon with his mom and dad now remember Tori's here not because she's one of the most skilled readers in the class she's in this little group because she's one of the kids they were worried about she's one of the kids that wasn't making the progress that they expected and they were trying to make sure that everybody was reading by the end of the year great oral language and she's going to organize the world when she gets through as she fixes her hair but she wasn't connecting with print because different kids come in in different ways and so is this a book that's actually just right for her? absolutely not but she's going to read it and reread it and get better and better and better and she likes the part about spooning with her parents and that connects in the book that's the piece in there talking about your reading and writing sometimes can be talking about feedback that we're giving to each other as we're looking at the writing what sentence did you underline those kinds of pieces but it's also a piece that's that natural piece in the classroom is there time for kids to talk about what they're choosing to read and if somebody likes a book it flies especially somebody with status it flies through the classroom and this started because the teacher introduced the book and then somebody else wanted the book and then somebody else wanted the book that's a piece of sharing here's another piece this is Halina and I don't know how to say her last name this is from one of the Sanich case studies what you can see them as they go it's the link listen and learn so the kids have reading goals so they're talking about their goals they've got their goal behavior they have a one or two minute popcorn party where they wander around the classroom and they talk to others about what their goal is that they're working on today now who do you know that wouldn't want to participate in a popcorn party names make a big difference but they're talking about a goal so they wander around and they talk to at least three people which helps them solidify the goal so that they really know what it is they're doing and then they do the triple L link listen and learn and they find a partner they link up with their partner they find a place to quietly read to each other and this time they're working with their just right books because it's important to do that every day and when they're together they tell their goal their first job is to listen to their goal and to give them some advice about how well they're doing on their goal so they can both learn together and then they switch roles and on they go now isn't that seamless and isn't that brilliant okay from a popcorn from a goal to a popcorn party to a triple L and you know she says like as she continues with her writing she said it took a while to learn all these pieces but now that it's there in the classroom that just keeps on going the last one everybody listens to a fluent adult read aloud every day different kinds of texts with some kind of commentary so a fluent adult doesn't necessarily always mean I start at the beginning and I read without interruption through to the end in fact I have a very hard time doing that at all though I do you know one of my goals that I can do that at some point in time so I just want to model a couple of ways to do that with different kinds of texts so again it's the piece that if we're thinking about joy in the classroom and taking these pieces back and building the expertise in our practice without drowning in the prep that we think about accessible ways in so I'm going to start but actually I think you have to say something first say something to the person beside you what's on your mind there's another piece and I'm not going to have time to talk about this one a lot but there's a piece in here and I'm going to give you this as a hook one of the other books that's in the series that I just thought was gorgeous is called we greet the four seasons and one of the reasons I liked the book was the language in it was exquisite and so when I was reading this book with the kids the choice of language that Terry used when she put together the book there are four seasons spring summer fall and winter in each of the four directions of the medicine wheel each season is greatly respected for all the gifts that are offered who thought of respecting a season that's different than what I thought about before with the kids I think about oh it's fall or it's autumn the leaves are going to change it's going to get wetter in Vancouver but this is talking about respect for a season that's different isn't it now I wonder what it is they're respecting I wonder if we move on if we can find out why it is it's about respect and what we'd find out about in here and what are the gifts that a season brings that's a change in my thinking I hadn't thought about that piece Terry said oh there's a brilliant way she didn't say brilliant it is brilliant way to use this medicine wheel to start a class she'll tell you about it if you go by because you've got to keep moving forward here's one of the things that is a goal no matter the age of the kids we need their eyes on print 30 minutes a day minimum not just reading to me not just reading to the dog not just reading to the fish not just reading to another teacher the resource teacher in the room out of the room we have many many kids who won't do this reading when they're at home they need 30 minutes of reading with their eyes on print while they're with us at school so how are we organizing for that throughout the day in some cases it might be all at the same time in other cases it's going to be spread throughout the day but how do we organize to make sure that there's time time time for them to get together and have eyes on print so here's an example this is one of the books that's a follow up at the same level as bad luck duck so if I've been doing some work with bad luck duck and I've been doing some phonemic awareness with it and I've been doing some sound symbol and talking about letters and trying to sort of pull that across the room with the group of kids that I've got I'm also going to take some of the books that are about the same level introduce them a bit to the kids and leave them there for choices for kids to read so here's an example I just have to show you this one because I just want to see if you make a connection to anybody in the room when you look at this look at the web so I'm actually thinking of the lovely lipstick and the bright hair on the left hand side and I'm not going to give any hints about who I think it might be but there's you see these level books come and they have fiction and they have nonfiction and what would happen if after we'd done and this could even be in a guided reading group if after we had done our whole group or our small group piece if we said to the kids you can read a fiction book here's an example or you could read a nonfiction it's controlled choice it's only two books instead of one as your follow up and would that make a difference as to who grabbed a book and would some always go to the fiction and some always go to the nonfiction because choice you know we can do that they're similar enough they've been controlled written so that there's you know not going to be inordinately difficult compared to the way you've been introducing them but that would be a simple choice and it wouldn't take again forever to prepare at night so you had lots of energy to work with the kids and to come in now just again you see it's down the side so if I'm new it gives me some ideas of what I could do here's how I could do it the first time because those of us who've been doing this for a while some of it's just intrinsic you think oh this is what I'm going to do this is what I'm going to do this is what I'm going to do and some of those new teachers who are 24 and 25 years old are thinking how do they know that how did you ever figure that out because they haven't gained the experience yet we learn a lot from our experiences now just again so you get a sense of what it is in the kitchen and again you can have all that conversation around it and the pictures are great look at the web now you need to know that Maureen is very very neat so this is certainly something that she could be doing and it goes on and on and on as it goes through until it comes to near the end and it has the patterns it's all about the spider and there's a look at the look at the here's the spider and he's in three different rooms and then look at so you're getting the repetition you're getting the pattern and the pictures that you can yak about a lot which takes you back into the book and then the spider goes on and it does just a little bit more now again we come back and we think about so during the day what are all the things that we're trying to do with our kids to give those opportunities we want to have read aloud now it says read aloud once you probably want to have read aloud two, three, four times during the day let me just read you this little bit and leave it as an invitation let me just read you this little bit and leave it as an invitation it doesn't always have to be the whole book you're thinking aloud and you're doing shared reading because that invites the kids in and their voices to participate in making meaning what does this piece look like you think about what's the individual practice going to happen to be if you don't get the individual practice of having an independent practice to making an independent choice it actually works for you that you need all those pieces each day you need some writing every day where you're getting some feedback about what it is you're doing sometimes the writing is shared writing and sometimes it's independent writing but throughout the day when you're looking at your day plan you look at those plans and how those pieces come together one of the things I worry about is just to have small group reading if we've forgotten about any other aspects of teaching reading throughout the day that all of our energy is going into the small group and we're not doing that whole group piece we're not having that whole rich conversation that's helping kids move from being strategic learning strategies to becoming strategic readers it keeps them involved in the conversation of what all those big pieces look like as they go through there's a danger in becoming too tight in what we're doing and not making sure there's enough choice in there for kids, okay, it's that same thing of everybody fitting into the same piece you may have seen because they've been around for a while I think in sort of 94-95 we made a series of primary literacy videos that are stored on the Campbell River website I did three on writing strategies squiggles, it's all in the bag and something else which must have been oh, clustering from text there's one on talking tables and that was the best of my knowledge first started bubbling up in Rupert is where I first heard about it so there's a lovely one on talking tables there's one on at promise and Marnie McMahon did a lovely lovely one on teaching a guided reading lesson and at that time in Campbell River they taught the formula for doing this lesson the pattern for doing this lesson to all the grade one teachers all the grade two teachers all the support teachers and all the administrators so that everybody knew how to follow this particular pattern in the lesson and then they could go away and work with it but they had a common pattern so that all the aspects of reading that they were trying to work on as a district came through and sometimes it works seamlessly and sometimes it doesn't but you're probably smarter at that than I am that is well, well worth watching Marnie's video now that's a piece that shows a very structured organized tight intervention or intervention is probably the wrong word guided reading group the kids have all been benchmarked they're in discreet levels the important pieces in my mind is that they met as a team and said what are the parts that we want to cover and then they made sure that everybody knew how to do the lesson so that it was common practice and they covered them as they went through their lesson pattern, this is all up there went through from rereading known text, high frequency writing introduce a new book, picture walk reading the text, responding to the text skills in context, interactive writing so if you were there, that's what the formula for the lesson looked like no matter who was teaching it and you see what that looks like and notice how tightly the timing is it's tight, it's organized and that's one example of what guided reading small group reading can look like so and that's the way you can access it now there's if we swing to sort of the opposite to that sort of along the pendulum because one of the pieces I want you to think about is there's not just one right way to do guided reading either this is right one way it's a very smart way and it's a very good match for some of us and the little clip I'm going to show you the little bit I'm going to talk about about Michelle is another way, it's a very smart way and it's not a very smart way for all of us and all of us need to figure out where are we between this way and this way and how does it match for our kids without feeling guilty about where we are along the continuum because it's not a right or a wrong it's not a from and a to but they're different choices and that choice piece is important I'm going to skip that part so Michelle is teacher librarian and resource teacher she's new in her school this past year she met with the grade one teachers and the two grade one teachers said yeah I think maybe we could do this guided reading it's brand new to us we don't have a big fancy what will it look like she said well it's probably best twice a week but the first thing we need to do is we need to set up literacy stations because the kids need to know how to work in the literacy stations so they can be in literacy stations while others are in guided reading groups you can do literacy stations when I'm not here because I won't be here all the time and here's the trick about our literacy stations every one of them is really going to just be reading they're going to have a beach literacy station where the kids put on sunglasses and lay on their blankets and their beach blankets and that's one literacy station there's a literacy station where you can listen to a book on tape there's a literacy station when you can read with a buddy on a different kind of matter inside the hula hoop but the literacy stations are really just all different forms of getting together and reading but they all seem different that makes a big difference so we teach the kids that first and what we're going to do is we're going to take the books we've got and we're going to put them in piles hard, harder, hardest and when we've got three piles of the books then we're going to take each pile and we're going to divide it into two hard and harder and we say to the kids we're doing it with hard, harder and hardest because they know that they want to read the hard books so you don't want to say these are the easy books because nobody wants to go to easy books these are the harder books, these are the hardest books and then you divide them within that and then that's how it's really different than benchmarks and again it's not that this is right and this is wrong but somewhere along there you need to find your fit for yourself now they came twice a week they all worked together in the classroom as much as they could sometimes one of them would take the noisiest group into the hall but not it wasn't that as the resource teacher you're out in the hall or as the classroom teacher you're out in the hall the activity you're going to be doing you could leave the classroom but it was co-planned together like that's the piece that's important as they were going and then when they met as a resource team because resource teams do this they said at spring break in the one class there's a group of kids who are not going to be readers by the end of the year so let's figure out what we can do so they changed the support and bumped it up to four and she just did that one group of kids got two extra guided reading times so that by the end of the year they were all reading all reading within expectations as they were going through now here's what their piece looked like word work then a little bit of work with sight words then lots of talk about what are the strategies that good readers do so they could look for evidence of those when they were working on them read alone, read with the teacher choose another book to read aiming always at during that time eyes on print for 30 minutes eyes on print for 30 minutes as they went through so again you see those same parallel pieces but some changes coming back and forth as they go is that making some sense you're thinking about where you are in the continuum can you imagine having a reading group when you hadn't benchmarked your kids can you imagine having a reading group and benchmarking your kids those are sort of the two biggest differences that I see as I'm going around the problem in some places we can't imagine starting until everybody has had a benchmark level and in other places people are saying what is a benchmark that everybody is talking about I'm doing a small group but I don't know what it is so you need to figure out the part along there about what's making the difference to get those kids to the place you want them to be joy, engagement invitation, can do growth mindset now here is the last little piece that I want you to just have a chance to reflect on at the end so this is just a little snippet of the three teachers at the end of the year thinking about what's happened and how the collaboration worked because tomorrow Randy and I are going to do some work around collaboration but the piece that we keep coming back to and thinking about is it's all that you know it's who helps you I believe that everybody who is still excited about teaching later after they've been teaching for a while is still excited about teaching because they talk to somebody else about their teaching and that if you've got nobody to talk to then it's harder to stay excited and so it's that piece about how does that working together make a difference now I was lucky to work with Michelle several years ago I would say the key for us too is just having those small groups and you knew you were doing a lesson at their level which is so that's never been in my practice before I've never been able to have kids learning at their level I'm doing a lesson just for those kids because I know that's what they need those kids don't need it so they're not in that group kind of thing which I've never had that experience before so I mean to have that to have that is just totally opens up your world and really what you do tomorrow is based on what they did today so it's saying okay this is what they did well and this is what I need to work on and you also like I was worried at the beginning I was gonna have to do so much planning I was worried okay I don't know like usually it's like I'm following a reading like a program and I have to teach this lesson this is all there for me but with this I knew I had to make up some more of my own things but it just came it just it was very fluid like I knew what I was gonna do tomorrow because I know what we did yesterday I know I could do this because it was only like little 25-minute groups you had them for so it was easy to sort of come up with what you wanted to do next because you only had and he backing on that it was so easy to fall in their interest as well the little group was like so interested in dealing and then you do that and then you had that flexibility we're just doing one book for the whole group so I think that was intimidating for me at the beginning I mean I have to plan for all these different things but it didn't turn out that way at all very surprising little lessons come out of just little tiny things whiteboards and pens and just them exploring a little bit so can you make your comment again Michelle about the literacy about taking the clips at the beginning you should have had video clips in the beginning because we did have vulnerable readers and I think the important thing is I wish we did video take these kids at the beginning because we did have vulnerable readers we had kids that had the red stick rock that we knew we were going to have to focus in and at the end of the year they all can read and I think it's really a result of direct instruction in reading and I think yeah it's confidence in themselves too and all of them see themselves as readers and read confidently and pick up a book and if you ask them are you a good reader every single one of them would say yes and they're not afraid to say that's not at my level even when we're doing iPads is this website at your level nope okay well let's not use that one then finding good books to play they know their level which is kind of neat so the last thing I want you to leave with as I turn this over to Paige is the first and most important piece trust your professional expertise okay you know a tremendous amount and the people in your building know even more tremendous amount when you put all of your collective wisdom together and continue to ask questions about what it is you're doing so when you head out today keep thinking about what's my mental model of reading what do other people think about in here what do I know how to do and don't give away your most vulnerable kids to somebody else's program right think about what you need to know and how capable you are and how important that caring piece was remember how the caring comes out it's hard to get bonded with a computer or even an iPad stick with the piece about how do you keep building on the piece of what you know and how important that piece is your most important piece is following the lead of your children Rowena said they liked Amelia Badelea so we did Amelia Badelea it might not have been a perfect match in the level but if that's what the group wants they'll read Amelia Badelea way faster than they'll read something else about bears if they're not into a bear mood just now and if this is in that piece especially around the small groups give them some latitude build in that piece that goes not just with the skills but with the interest in the motivation and the most most important piece that you want this is going to be my major yearly rant no program exists that can replace you not any program there is not a shred of evidence in any program that passes the what works clearing house that's an outside program that has evidence that says this is better than what a classroom teacher would have done with this child the pieces of things that you pull in but the piece that's the most important by far in the classroom is you with the relationship with the kids and the decisions you make based on the needs that they bring in so we saw spectacular results this year we will see even more spectacular results next year