This chat is moderated by Grapevine-Colleyville ISD educators where we discuss current education trends and deepen our learning. 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 8:30 PM CST September to May @msbearce @SBarkerEDU
Hello! Lilly Monson at GMS. 8th grade STEM ELA and ELA DLL. A lot of letters there! I’ve participated in some chats but never moderated. I know Sarah will help me out here. #gcisdchat
Great topic for your chat tonight. Rdg & Wrtg are critical skills that every student must possess to reach to the highest levels of mastery in virtually every content. #gcisdchat
A1: Reading and writing are skills they'll use in almost any profession. Plus, even if their jobs don't require significant reading or writing, it's important to have those skills to stay informed and civically engaged in society #gcisdchat
A1: Students have to be able to read and write to learn and demonstrate mastery in all content--it's not only the ELA teacher's job to support these skills! #gcisdchat
Reading and writing are essential to comprehension, understanding and reflection. w/o these skills Ss can’t reach high levels of complexity in their learning. #gcisdchat
A1: learners are constantly questioning how what we are learning is relevant to the real world and what skills are more necessary than reading and writing!? Increased fluency will make ss more successful in all career fields. #gcisdchat
A1 (for real this time): Reading is the basis for understanding every content. you can only learn so much mouth-to-ear before you HAVE to write things down. #gcisdchat
A:1 I love this topic. We do a ton writing for AP World History and many of the strategies we used are based on the CER format which students can relate to from science classes #gcisdchat
A1: reading and writing are a core form of communication, which is absolutely necessary for all subjects! I mainly teach geometry and one of my Main goals this year is to increase mathematical literacy with my students!
#gcisdchat
Reading and writing are essential to comprehension, understanding and reflection. w/o these skills Ss can’t reach high levels of complexity in their learning. #gcisdchat
Love that Science, ELA, and Social Studies all use the same language with CER! Great way to create consistency & understanding among contents #gcisdchat
A:1 I love this topic. We do a ton writing for AP World History and many of the strategies we used are based on the CER format which students can relate to from science classes #gcisdchat
I love that term--mathematical literacy! When I taught math we worked on "translating" math to English and vice versa. This is a much better term... #gcisdchat
A1: reading and writing are a core form of communication, which is absolutely necessary for all subjects! I mainly teach geometry and one of my Main goals this year is to increase mathematical literacy with my students!
#gcisdchat
A2: Consistently teach in a small group setting where learning is differentiated for every student as needed. Build a student up by never giving up on them! #gcisdchat
Bridget Visser, 6th grade ELA & 6th-8th Literacy Achievement & Language Acquisition teacher at Colleyville Middle. Jumping in late, but talking cross-curricular integration is my jam!! ❤️#gcisdchat
This model is something that benefits ALL students...no matter the grade level. Love to see some of our secondary teachers pulling small groups, too! #gcisdchat
A2: Consistently teach in a small group setting where learning is differentiated for every student as needed. Build a student up by never giving up on them! #gcisdchat
A2: I try to bring in relevant articles from various publications. The content is engaging, the articles are brief, and the reading level is usually a little easier. #gcisdchat
A2: so many of our resources offer leveling abilities of reading resources and we use sentence stems, writing frames, quick writes, and more to scaffold and build students skills. #gcisdchat
A2: usually with visuals and talking it out. I feel that showing, then having students use their own words has been the most effective. After they create their own versions of things I help them reframe towards more accurate verbiage #gcisdchat
A2: so many of our resources offer leveling abilities of reading resources and we use sentence stems, writing frames, quick writes, and more to scaffold and build students skills. #gcisdchat
A2: Collaborative structures! Having structures in place for Ss to talk about what they've read immediately after reading it helps them to grasp the content and also increases buy-in to read in the first place! I'll read if I know you're going to ask what I think! #gcisdchat
Q3: Reciprocal teaching is something I’ve used to make students feel like reading is less of a burden. They collaborate to clarify, and by the end are all experts on their text! #gcisdchat
A3: Allowing Student Voice to direct reading/writing topics. If students are interested in the subject matter, they will buy in to the process. Again, small group instruction allows for more student voice and choice to be made! #gcisdchat
A2: Collaborative structures! Having structures in place for Ss to talk about what they've read immediately after reading it helps them to grasp the content and also increases buy-in to read in the first place! I'll read if I know you're going to ask what I think! #gcisdchat
A2 https://t.co/mt17iEHSxO is an amazing resource for this as students can have the story read aloud along with questions and answers choices read aloud. It connects to Google Classroom also. #gcisdchat
A2: Lately, the most popular & effective one in my lit classes is simple conversation. Sit like a fireside chat & we talk through articles & literature. I think aloud & it supports their confidence & language to share their thinking before independent. #gcisdchat
A2: Take care to provide incremental support based on specific target & S need. @JennaBrosette is a MASTER at giving Ss real-time feedback focused on a specific next step. #GCISDChat
A3: One-on-one writing conferences in the hallway. I teach AP high school students, and I always see better improvement after one-on-one sessions than whole-group discussions about writing #gcisdchat
A3: so going back to A2, I recently had students in an activity first verbally coach each other in drawing a concept, then rotate partners and had students write out what was drawn. I think bringing in visuals has helped my student's zero in a little better #gcisdchat
A3: List, Group, Label strategy because it never occurred to me as a science teacher the idea of a pre, during, and post reading strategy. The idea of intentionally setting up Ss to read w a purpose was a HUGE ah-ha for me, and my students! #gcisdchat
A3: One-on-one writing conferences in the hallway. I teach AP high school students, and I always see better improvement after one-on-one sessions than whole-group discussions about writing #gcisdchat
A2: Engagement structures such as Kagan are excellent for getting students reading, writing, talking, and listening (think of the potential there for our EL students!) 100% of kids talking 50% of the time.#gcisdchat
Thanks for sharing your good ideas @DoyleGCISD! It totally makes sense that students would respond to your personal feedback. Way to make time to meet with students individually! #gcisdchat
A3: One-on-one writing conferences in the hallway. I teach AP high school students, and I always see better improvement after one-on-one sessions than whole-group discussions about writing #gcisdchat
A3: Relevance in writing is huge! When my Kindergarteners are writing for a purpose they care about; birthday cards, letters, etc. they are so much more invested! #gcisdchat
A3: I love the strategy Write Something! It's a great structure to guide Ss in having academic conversations while reading. 1. Read a paragraph 2. Write SOMETHING (Question, I wonder, Summarize, etc) 3. Share with partner 4. Repeat Link here: https://t.co/XmPn0VzAar#gcisdchat
A3: Not really sure where this fits in, but Let’s Talk Let’s Write! You know they like to talk!! So it’s a win-win! Any way we can have Movement, language & writing is great!! #gcisdchat
A2: Stop & Jots are a helpful tool for students who struggle with accessing the text. By writing a summary in smaller chunks, it will assist the reader with their overall comprehension of the text. #gcisdchat
Q4: challenging yourself to have students write everyday and using common language such as CER across content and grade level is a great way to support reading and writing fluency. Also, practice makes perfect! #gcisdchat
A3- Writing in SS doesn't just support ELA Writing is HOW students can process, make connections, and synthesize historical concepts. Writing is crystalized thought. I had a professor that used to say "you don't know what you think until you write it down." #gcisdchat
Q4: challenging yourself to have students write everyday and using common language such as CER across content and grade level is a great way to support reading and writing fluency. Also, practice makes perfect! #gcisdchat
I recently saw this writing opportunity in a Math class where the teacher had a number on the board (or problem) and had the students write the question that would create this answer! #gcisdchat
A4: An important first step in writing in all contents is understanding the difference between writing to learn (low-stakes writing) and learning to write. All classes don't have to teach how to write a full essay, but all classes should be using writing to learn. #gcisdchat
In Social Studies, having students evaluate importance of ideas is a fun way to practice writing. For example: “of the causes of the revolution which was the most influential and why?” #gcisdchat
#gcisdchat A4: all subjects can ask students to write proof for any question. This not only helps build writing skills, but helps ELLs work on language skills.
A4: An important first step in writing in all contents is understanding the difference between writing to learn (low-stakes writing) and learning to write. All classes don't have to teach how to write a full essay, but all classes should be using writing to learn. #gcisdchat
A4: Lucy Calkins UoS kits in many grade levels have SS & Science content units. 2nd has a super engaging one called Lab Reports where Ss experiment with forces and motions. I believe each of the 3-5 kits has a SS unit of some kind. Very valuable resource. #gcisdchat#tcrwp
In Social Studies, having students evaluate importance of ideas is a fun way to practice writing. For example: “of the causes of the revolution which was the most influential and why?” #gcisdchat
I love that you mentioned this! It is a challenge with 47 minutes and so much to cover, but imagine how much more efficient we are when we all use common language & practices!! The learning really sticks when the Ss make the connections across content! #gcisdchat
Q4: challenging yourself to have students write everyday and using common language such as CER across content and grade level is a great way to support reading and writing fluency. Also, practice makes perfect! #gcisdchat
A4: Lots of practice (not always for a grade)! For instance, yesterday in my Government class I simply asked my students to free-write about their opinions of a couple of executive branch topics, and then I read many of the responses aloud (anonymously) #gcisdchat
A4: Lots of practice (not always for a grade)! For instance, yesterday in my Government class I simply asked my students to free-write about their opinions of a couple of executive branch topics, and then I read many of the responses aloud (anonymously) #gcisdchat
A4: I think this is the wrong question. The real question should be, how do we all support students in the best way. And the answer to that is for all contents to stop seeing themselves as silos and to highlight and integrate all contents where ever possible. #gcisdchat
A3: My favorites are when both skills are utilized WITH collaborative opportunities! 30 second expert, GIST, Musical Writing Chairs, carousel writing, 10-2-2 notetaking... aka WICOR strategies #gcisdchat
I agree @GypsyMishoe! Even as an adult, writing something down gives me a product that I can examine and see if I've really captured my thinking or I need to tweak it. And if you can't write something about your learning, you may not really have learned it yet! #gcisdchat
A3- Writing in SS doesn't just support ELA Writing is HOW students can process, make connections, and synthesize historical concepts. Writing is crystalized thought. I had a professor that used to say "you don't know what you think until you write it down." #gcisdchat
A4: I think this is the wrong question. The real question should be, how do we all support students in the best way. And the answer to that is for all contents to stop seeing themselves as silos and to highlight and integrate all contents where ever possible. #gcisdchat
Making time to build the stamina can be tricky and this is where the freedom an electives class has can come into play. (Looking at this through my lens as a former Ap Lit Teacher.) #gcisdchat
A5: Putting things in your own words shows understanding. Want to make sure students understand your writing prompt? Have them re-write it in their own words. #gcisdchat
A5: they are pieces to a puzzle. One cannot happen without the other three! I often times get lost thinking the content is too difficult, when really vocabulary is the road block. #gcisdchat
We LOVE some Writing Musical Chairs!!! ❤️ #gcisdchat They beg to do it and now they ALL want to share or read their stories to the class. If only we had the time all of the time. 😍
A4: low risk writing opportunities can be embedded into any content area! After your lesson, a reflective quickwrite on what stuck or what they struggled with #gcisdchat
We LOVE some Writing Musical Chairs!!! ❤️ #gcisdchat They beg to do it and now they ALL want to share or read their stories to the class. If only we had the time all of the time. 😍
A4: In Pre-K we are learning to read & write everyday in every subject matter. Reading and writing are just that important, plain & simple.
Subjects aren't taught in a stand alone manner, every subject is woven throughout our day's schedule like a beautiful tapestry.
#gcisdchat
A5: reading inherently requires processing. But you can read words on a page without understanding. You have to WANT to know it. A personal connection to the material makes this much easier. #gcisdchat
This isn't an answer to a specific question, but just a cool fact! AVID refers to ALL students as Academic Language Learners. A.L.L. students!! Student's don't come to us knowing how to read rigorous texts, write and comprehend.. so it is our job to teach them! #gcisdchat
Q5: Comprehension is key! Cornell notes is a great way for students to break down the content and truly absorb the material and also question their understanding throughout the process. #gcisdchat
A5: This is not a fancy, technical response...but you can tell what a student actually learned by a quick write after the lesson almost 100% of the time! They communicate what they understood or feel was important. #gcisdchat
I think having intention about using culturally relevant texts that engage our students is important! As is offering low-stakes opportunities to 'mess with' content before it's shared to the entire class #gcisdchat
A6: I think building schema and frame of reference is important for ELLs. This is done through pre-teaching vocabulary and providing safe spaces to practice writing without consequence! #gcisdchat
Q4: Cross-content reading can be an excellent way to help students discover authentic author’s purpose that goes beyond surface PIE, but truly analyzing why an author wrote something from a certain perspective, used a diagram, etc. #gcisdchat
A5: This is not a fancy, technical response...but you can tell what a student actually learned by a quick write after the lesson almost 100% of the time! They communicate what they understood or feel was important. #gcisdchat
A5: Pondering. What I have so far...Studying mentor texts supports our understanding in becoming strong writers, trying moves that famous authors have made. Writing about topics we love, being given that choice, frees us up to understand abstract writing skills. #gcisdchat
A6: Build trust so that they feel comfortable taking risks in their writing. They need to know that it's a judgment-free zone and that you're completely dedicated to helping them #gcisdchat
A6: By making the words they're learning more available to them! I've gotten a word wall (which needs to be updated but sshhh) as well as repetitive visual demonstrations. Would love to hear if anyone else has accessibility tips for words! #gcisdchat
Q6: I agree that the safe space is key-also allowing students to bring in their culture as a part of their reading and writing assignments is crucial #gcisdchat
A6: scaffolding, visuals, preteaching, interactive word wall make an impact but building a relationship with the Ss is the most important for him/her to trust and take a chance reading and writing #gcisdchat
A6: Using familiar environmental print, words with pictures, read alouds w/ books that have strong connections between pics/story, artifacts, audio books, labeling, word walls w/pictorial representations, books/poems with repetitive text... #gcisdchat
A6: Teach new content using shared experiences and Ss interests. Allow Ss to turn and talk. Use gestures whenever possible. Repeat your teaching point/language multiple times. Add chunk by chunk to anchor charts each day. Use concrete objects. Think aloud. Etc etc etc #gcisdchat
A6: Use inclusive language to build relationships and have a language-rich classroom. Inclusive: avoid generalizations, stereotypes and negativity. Language-rich: Sentence stems for everything! Always answer in full sentenecs using academic language, Ts and Ss alike! #gcisdchat
A7: Having items that align with student choice at that current moment. Bringing content to life without hands on materials that are of current interest to a student makes for a challenge. Just keep being creative in the use of your resources. Never give up! #gcisdchat
A7: my own assumptions! I make too many assumptions about students skills when they enter my classroom. I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m teaching tiny humans, not myself! Just because I know it doesn’t mean they do. #gcisdchat
This is true-many times the academic language keeps students from arriving st the answers and not their lack of knowledge. Love that acronym! #gcisdchat
A7: my own assumptions! I make too many assumptions about students skills when they enter my classroom. I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m teaching tiny humans, not myself! Just because I know it doesn’t mean they do. #gcisdchat
A7: For AP Social Studies, the way we ask students to write is usually different than the way English teachers ask students to write. Getting students to re-wire their writing brains as they switch from one content to another can be challenging #gcisdchat
A7: When a S struggles to express thoughts or coherently write, it’s one thing in an ELA class. Add difficulty in a core content area as well, and it becomes a web of needs to address quickly to support the S to be successful. #gcisdchat
A6: constantly building on their academic language, incorporating CRT, and creating a safe space for them to take academic risks... I wonder how @AVID_Excel would look like in @GCISD 🤔 #gcisdchat
A7: a lack of perceived or actual capacity to know how to support students’ reading needs due to limited or absent training for secondary teacher or in non-“reading” contents. #gcisdchat
A6: constantly building on their academic language, incorporating CRT, and creating a safe space for them to take academic risks... I wonder how @AVID_Excel would look like in @GCISD 🤔 #gcisdchat
I struggled with this too! Adding in Quickwrites at the beginning of each class and closing activities at the end of each class helped me keep track! #gcisdchat
A7: unawareness of reading level We must know what our readers are capable of independently so we know how to offer scaffolded support to move them to a place where they are capable of being independent in grade level text. We just don't know what we've yet to learn. #gcisdchat
A4: Design daily, low-risk opportunities for this to occur! And provide/dissect exemplars. Ss won’t have a chance to hone skills w/o the opportunity to practice #GCISDChat
A7: unawareness of reading level We must know what our readers are capable of independently so we know how to offer scaffolded support to move them to a place where they are capable of being independent in grade level text. We just don't know what we've yet to learn. #gcisdchat
This is EXACTLY what we've been spending time on at GMS! It's been SUCH a game changer to see student's reading levels and then design our lessons/scaffolding with this knowledge in mind. #gcisdchat
A7: unawareness of reading level We must know what our readers are capable of independently so we know how to offer scaffolded support to move them to a place where they are capable of being independent in grade level text. We just don't know what we've yet to learn. #gcisdchat
A8: with reading in particular, student voice is everything. As an adult I’m an avid reader, but if I’m not interested it’s hard to get through a book. If we can grab students and let them read at their level, their passion will grow! #gcisdchat
A7: Sometimes we become content rich and strategy poor-finding strategy rich thinking partners-no matter what content they teach -can help remove this obstacle and bridge the content, teacher & learner #instructionalcore#gcisdchat
Socratic Seminars, Philosophical Chairs, and Debates are some of my favorite ways to weave in inquiry, reading, writing, AND student voice! If you've never done one of these before -- try it out! You'll be AMAZED at your student's voices! #gcisdchat
A8: If it's a student's voice being heard by the Teacher, then all content areas should be an easy buy-in for students. Level of interest increases with each student choice of learning topics/methods/procedures.
#gcisdchat
A7: Sometimes we become content rich and strategy poor-finding strategy rich thinking partners-no matter what content they teach -can help remove this obstacle and bridge the content, teacher & learner #instructionalcore#gcisdchat
YES! I tell my kids all the time to experiment, play with the style of an author you’ve read and loved. See if that works for you. Imitate it. #gcisdchat
A8: One of the things I love about the Revised ELAR TEKS is the Multiple Genres strand. Let Ss have a voice in the genre. Topic: baseball; Narrative-first time I hit a home run, Persuasive-why it's the best sport; Nonfiction-all about baseball, etc. #gcisdchat
A7: Not having high expectations for our students. Pushing and challenging our students to take these risks is part of establishing the culture that they CAN achieve higher levels of thinking! #gcisdchat
A8: Writing to learn is a powerful tool to increase student voice! It takes 1 minute to ask students to write down what they think about a topic/concept. Maybe 2 to have them write what they think using academic language. Student voice + increasing literacy all in one! #gcisdchat
A7: Sometimes we become content rich and strategy poor-finding strategy rich thinking partners-no matter what content they teach -can help remove this obstacle and bridge the content, teacher & learner #instructionalcore#gcisdchat
A5 #gcisdchat my former department lead used to say, if you can think it, you can say it. If you can say it, you can write. If you can write it, you can read it.
A8: I often fell into the trap of not giving students much choice about their topic, ex. "Today we will all write about what we did this weekend." It was easy for me, but I definitely could have utilized student choice by asking what topics they really care about. #gcisdchat
A:8 I love quick writes. It helps builds confidence in so many ways. I think often times my students get overwhelmed with the dredded letters”D.B.Q.” #gcisdchat
I had students add Google Slides with Writing topics paired with a visual aid. They loved coming up with questions they wanted to write about. #gcisdchat
Is it an achievement gap we have or an expectation gap? ALL students are capable of achieving at high levels -- we just have to expect it of them! #gcisdchat
A7: Not having high expectations for our students. Pushing and challenging our students to take these risks is part of establishing the culture that they CAN achieve higher levels of thinking! #gcisdchat
I had students add Google Slides with Writing topics paired with a visual aid. They loved coming up with questions they wanted to write about. #gcisdchat
I had students add Google Slides with Writing topics paired with a visual aid. They loved coming up with questions they wanted to write about. #gcisdchat
A9: I need to learn more about some of the techniques that were mentioned earlier in the chat! It looks like there are a ton of great teachers in this district who are doing awesome things to help students with reading and writing #gcisdchat
