Teamwork and Making Adjustments

 Teaching can be isolating at times. You feel the weight of trying to meet the needs of your students, keep up with the curriculum, and you want to do it all for everyone. I've been teaching for a long time and I have found that I can be the most effective when I work with others. This school year is the first time that I have been alone in the classroom for most of the day. My entire career, I have worked with another teacher for either the entire day in a co-teaching model or for portions of the day. It is a different experience for me.

As I look at the needs of my students and try to meet them all, it can be overwhelming. I've struggled to find ways to work smarter, not harder. There is only so much time in the day and so much of me to go around. As the fall has progressed, I've made some adjustments to better meet the needs of my students. One is I started up a Math Workshop model beginning in November. We do a Math Talk daily, a mini-lesson, and then we break out into groups. One group starts with me and another group does independent work. Groups rotate to a fluency station after independent work is done. I work with the other group after the first. This model gives me an opportunity to work with small groups and gives my students independent time. It allows me to differentiate and support students where they are. It has been working really well. I just would love more TIME for each station. Time is such a hot commodity each day for sure. 

Today, another teacher on my team, our AIS provider and I are starting something new to help support our students in writing. We are going to switch kids from both of our classes to form writing groups. We formed 3 groups and are going to work with them as we start our narrative writing unit. Each group will be learning the same skills, but with varying levels of support and with a different number of students in each group. I'm excited to see how this goes and believe as we adjust and grow, we can better support all of the students. 

Teaching really is about making adjustments and learning alongside our students. We can do this most effectively as we work with others. It sounds so cliche, but being a lifelong learner is a huge part of being an effective teacher. It makes it so exciting as well.   

Close Reading

 About 10 years ago, while I was teaching 3rd grade, I attended professional development on Close Reading. I loved it and developed many close reading lessons for my 3rd graders about the topics we were studying. 

It has been a while since I have worked on close reading with my students now that I am teaching 2nd grade, but I'm reading to jump back in with some of my students. 

One of the wonderful aspects of 2nd grade is the incredible amount of growth that occurs over the course of a year. Students really develop independence and also start the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. As with every other year, I have students in my class who are in a wide variety of places in this process. Some are still focusing on developing decoding skills. Others are decoding really well and our focus is now on comprehension and really exploring author's craft and looking at a text closely. Enter in close reading. 

After the Thanksgiving break, I am going to introduce close reading to several of my small groups. What I love about close reading is that after reading the entire text, we dive deep into several portions focusing on the language used, text structure, and answering text-based questions. I plan to start with an introduction to close reading I have used successful in the past with 3rd graders and then go from there. I will be developing some more close reads to be used with younger students. These are important skills that students can benefit from. 

One of my favorite parts of the day is working in small groups with students during our reading block. I love the magic of reading, the growth that occurs, the lightbulb moments as students apply the skills, and the conversations we have. 

If you are looking to use close reading, here is my plan for introducing close reads on TPT. It can be used with a variety of grade levels as you introduce the process. More updated close reading plans will be coming as well. 

Interactive Review

 As my students continue to grow in independence, I am looking for ways to build into that. In the last week, I introduced Google Docs and students have been typing up their paragraphs about different landforms and water features during our writing block if there is time. Some students are so excited, they are finishing up during independent work time later in the day while I work with reading groups. 

It is incredible how far students come from the beginning of the school year when some struggle to log into their computers to the end of the year when they are able to put together a complete Google Slideshow almost entirely on their own. 7 and 8 year olds are doing this!

To foster more independence and to review our science unit, I put together a self-correcting interactive review activity using google slides. Here is an example of one of the pages students refer to after matching up the features on their own. 

It was a lot of fun to put together and I found that I could tailor it to the needs and content for my students. This activity I will use later this week or next week as we finish up the science unit. If you are interested in checking it out on TPT, click here. I definitely will be creating more of these activities for my students!

Adjusting as we go and grow

We are settled into school routines and little by little I am seeing my students grow in independence. 2nd grade is truly a year filled with growth as students develop as learners. As the year goes on, expectations change and what students can do independently grows as well. 

October was a very busy month filled with field trips, special assemblies and events, and the excitement of Halloween. All of these things were part of learning and for the most part were fun, but they also threw off our routines. Missing Math or not having Reading Groups changes the feel of a school day. I found that this impacted my students' autonomy, particularly for independent work. 

During our Reading block, student rotate through independent activities and working with me in a small group. Some of my students, I have seen, need some more support, while others need a greater challenge. Last week I introduced some new Work Work activities to provide an opportunity to challenge and support all of my students. You can check these Daily Work Work activities out here on my TPT store. 

Some students are ready for a little more challenge when practicing our phonics patterns. Here is one example of a student's independent work. Throughout the week, there are some activities where they use color to differentiate between consonants and vowels and also use some creative ways to write the words. My goal is to provide a little more creative expression and engagement, while practicing.  

I also found that several of my students don't have the stamina to copy 10 words and then do an activity with them. Each day I have a modified activity that I provide which allows them to trace the words. Not only does this ensure the correct spelling (several struggle with that), but also fewer words and more space. These modifications provide more support for several of my students while still are working to build independence. 

I try to keep the activities the same for 1-3 months to build in predictability and independence. Once students seem to master these and are ready for a challenge, I will make up a new set. Much of education is straddling the line between providing support and opportunities to develop independence. I want my students to grow and develop pride in their own work, while supporting them and also giving them some space for trial and error, learning through mistakes and struggle. This is the essence of learning.