“What have we been studying in kindergarten this spring?” Heather asked her students. “Things that hatch!” They sang. “And how have we been doing that?” Heather asked. A jumble of ideas poured out of them at once, and fingers were pointing to different corners of the room, where a bunch of creatures were in the process of hatching: “Today, we’re going to take the next step in our learning. We’re going to become researchers.…
Today’s post is the second in a series relevant to the learning that has transpired in Lockport teacher Heather Bitka’s kindergarten classroom this spring. I introduced Heather in this post. The prologue to this learning experience, which explains our work as co-learners with greater depth, can be found here. This post speaks to the common questions that began provoking us right from the start and what the adults involved hoped the kindergarteners would know and…
Last week, I introduced you to Heather Bitka, a Lockport Elementary Teacher that I have been co-planning an integrated writing unit with this spring. This experience enabled Heather, myself, visiting instructional coach Sheri Barsottelli, and classroom aide Kay Shanley to pursue a variety of questions as learners. Who were our teachers? A classroom full of very curious and energetic kindergarteners, who were pursuing very similar questions themselves. Here are the prompts that guided every learner…
Just a quick post to update those who are interested in learning more about the WNY Young Writers’ Studio and what we are up to this spring: First, registration for our fourth season is now open. You can register online or download our snail-mail form right here. Information about who we are, what we do, and how our fellowships work can be found at our website as well. Next, we’ll be leading some fun activities…
In recent years, I’ve come to know a number of instructional coaches and quite a few people near and far who may not own that particular title, but who function in ways that are very much like an instructional coach. This is challenging work for a variety of reasons, and while I’m grateful for the guidance provided to me by standards, the work of experts I admire, and my own learning community, what I’ve appreciated…
“Asking kindergarteners to conduct research, to revise their thinking and their work, and to write fact-based stories independently is pretty challenging work. This could be pretty messy. If we aim this high, we can assess along the way and provide support to those who need it, though. If we set our expectations too low though, we run the risk of never finding out who really can do this kind of work.” “I think that a lot of my kids want…
Last week, Lou Cercone introduced me to his 9th grade English students at Lockport High School, and we spent two short days beginning to define what quality idea development looks like together. Writing instruction is a district-wide learning focus, and Lou was interested in observing a lesson that was reflective of what we’ve been learning for the last several years. He asked that I position myself as the leader of this coaching experience. This is…
Fellow literacy coach Sheri Barsottelli and I visited with Heather Bitka and her kindergarten students at Roy B. Kelley Elementary School today, and when we got there, we learned that THEIR CHICKS WERE BEGINNING TO HATCH! As you might imagine, this made for quite an exciting start to the morning. What was even more fun was watching the kids’ reactions when they learned that they could Skype into Molly Koelle’s first grade classrooms to announce…
Lockport High School Teachers Lou Cercone and Joe Spero It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Wednesday. I’m spending some time coaching in Lockport City Schools, and I’m hoping to share my reflections from this work here over the next few days. In the mean time, I wanted to introduce you to two of the talented WNY educators I’ve been working with this week: Lockport High School English Teachers Lou Cercone and…
Last night, I attended Doug Fisher’s presentation Feed Forward: Taking Action on Formative Assessments at Buffalo State College. Resources and materials from that presentation and many others are here. Some quick take-aways that have yet to settle but will no doubt inform future discussions with teachers and administrators: It’s very popular to apply solutions to perceived reading problems before we’ve accurately defined what the problem may really be. For example, it’s easy to assume that…