Mind blown!

During my research on reading comprehension and how best to teach it I came across a series of podcasts that have changed my view of how best to frame the concept of reading comprehension. What is it? How do we acquire it? Can you teach it?

Dr. Sharon Vaughn is the Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead author of the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guides.

Vaughn posits that comprehension can’t be taught. Rather, we help build it for students by, first, teaching them how to read the words and knowing what the words mean – phonics + vocabulary. Then, if the student has enough background knowledge of the topic they are reading about, comprehension is the result.

Tim Rasinkski of Kent State University, corroborates this assertion quantitatively, “90% of 3^rd-4^th graders who have problems with reading comprehension also have problems with phonics, vocabulary, and...

I love an infographic!

Maybe because they remind me of a Project GLAD® Graphic Organizer. If you ever search images for  “models of reading instruction”, you’ll come up with a plethora of graphics that researchers and authors have created to illustrate the various components. From the reading rope to the simple view, they all pretty much describe the same components, and it is important to note that all the elements share equal weight.

We will refer back to these models of literacy instruction as we go through this series on Project GLAD®’s literacy strategies. It seems like the best place to start is with decoding, but I’d rather switch our focus to certain GLAD® strategies as evidence-based practices. We’ll save word study and decoding for a future issue. In this issue, we’ll cover the equally important...

OCDE Project GLAD® is a model of language and literacy. Language and literacy – these words have been in the description of our model since the 1980’s. Of course ,we know what they mean, right? Over the past several years, I have been doing a lot of reading and research on the Science of Reading, as many of us have, and reflecting how this body of best practice research fits into what I know about GLAD® strategies that support multilingual students’ development of language acquisition and literacy.

It seems the reading war is alive and well and has been raging at least since the dawn of my career in education, now in its third decade. So, I’m going to wade right in and attempt to offer an olive branch to both sides of the issue of literacy instruction.

In one camp, we have the (for lack of a better term) “Science of Reading Folks”. Their position is that students need to be taught the code of the language at the sound, letter, and word...

After a busy summer of OCDE Project GLAD® Foundations trainings we are always energized by the enthusiasm of the teachers we’ve had the pleasure to support. Oftentimes, on the last day of the demo the teachers’ take away from the PD was that the students were so engaged and motivated to learn. They want to take that love of learning back to their classrooms and start the year off right with skills for motivating students.

All Project GLAD® strategies are grounded in underlying concepts that create a safe learning environment, where student take risks with language and concepts. It starts with building motivational routines.

Three Personal Standards

When you are creating your classroom culture, communicating and reinforcing clear expectations for behavior is one of the most important things to do to start off on the right foot.

Knowing what to expect and how you will react in many situations creates trust between you...

INTRODUCING A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO OPTIMIZE TEAM COLLABORATION WITH TEAM TASKS

Have you ever been part of a team or committee where one person does all the work?  Or conversely, one person doesn’t contribute.  The same holds true for our students.  

Have you ever tried moving desks into team formation… and then reverting back to rows because it was so painful?  Yep.  We know the feeling.  

Once students are in teams we start by teaching the social skills needed for collaboration to take place. What does collaboration look like?  Sound like? (See T-Graph for Social Skills in Acceleration 101: Setting the Stage). 

Once you have teams and the T-Graph for Social Skills in place, it’s time to assign team projects or “tasks.”  

Setting up those team task for success is our insider tip for today! 

Spencer Kagan is a researcher we refer to for ideas to support...

Bell to bell instruction is the idea that everything that happens from the start bell until the dismissal bell is an academic task that engages students toward the learning goals. It is one of the characteristics of a high performing school. 

There are many ways that teachers can accomplish this, but we’ll focus on one idea. Reducing transition time! 

Let’s reflect on how many transitions there are in the average school day and how much time they take away from instructional minutes available. In the average elementary classroom, there are between 5-10 transitions a day. Come sit on the carpet, go back to your seat, go to your reading group, wash your hands, line up for a specialist or lunch, walk to and from specials or lunch, etc. If each one of these transitions, conservatively, takes 3 minutes that’s 15-30 minutes of lost instruction time a day. If we’re counting based on the reality of a 5-8 minute transition, that is...

Tone down the talking (teacher talk, that is!)

Project GLAD® has become synonymous with making content accessible and retainable for all students.  It’s known for creating positive, collaborative classroom cultures.  We tout its ability to increase relevancy and cultural proficiency in the learning process.  

Beyond all those benefits...

Project GLAD® is about learning language! 

All our students are language learners.  Whether we’re teaching in a dual language classroom or introducing content specific vocabulary in math, science, art, and literature.  

Guided Oral Practice is one of the main components in Project GLAD.  The idea is for students to learn language, they need to practice speaking that language.

The question is... 

How can we increase and guide student talk? 

How much space is there in the day or class period for students to talk?  Imagine if we took all the time we try to get students to...

I admit, I’m one of those people who wait until the beginning of a new year, a new month or a new week to launch a new habit or goal. I just love that feeling of a fresh start. 

And yes, I have dozens of half finished journals around the house. Each one heralding a fresh start with a habit I’m still working on actually becoming a habit.

If you’ve been in our coaching courses or training, we will tell you, 

“Any day and every day can be a fresh start.” 

It’s true.  But there’s nothing quite so encouraging as a NEW YEAR to push the reset button. 

As educators, we get to experience the impact of a January new beginning in the middle of our school year. 

Wherever you are in your GLAD® journey, we invite you to make January a fresh start month!  The secret is to make that fresh start something that will last longer than my unfinished journals. 

This week at Costco, I ran...

Welcome to a new school year! By now your students are getting to know each other pretty well, and you have laid the foundation for your classroom culture. Part of creating an inclusive and supportive classroom community is to understand and value students’ identities.

Every person has layers that make up their personal identity. Norton describes identity as “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future.” Identity is made up of a person’s experiences, memories, values and beliefs, culture(s), and language(s).

When educators embrace all the facets of all the students’ identities it creates the equitable and supportive environment where learning thrives. When multi-cultural multi-lingual students come to school and feel like they have to leave parts of themselves at the classroom door to fit in, it creates a dissonance...

Our school year is steadily moving along. Spring break is over and testing season is upon us. At this time of year students in all grade levels have higher expectations for the quality of writing they turn in. 

"By the end of grade x, students will be able to..." 

If they haven't met the writing standards yet, there are only a few months left before final report cards.  

Writing can be one of the more challenging skills to master, and teachers also find it one of the more challenging to teach. In many ways, writing is subjective, yet there are rules and conventions to follow. Writing style is personal, yet correct usage is important.  

A helpful distinction we can make for our students is the difference between revising and editing.  

REVISING AND EDITING 

Have you ever had a student who thought revising meant recopying their paper?

In Project GLAD® we separate the revising and editing processes into distinct lessons with the...