Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Dynamic Teaching #cyberPD


Thanks to Cathy Mere and Michelle Nero  for hosting our conversations as we learn from Vicki Vinton‘s latest book Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading. 

I have to admit I was slow to jump into the book.  I wanted to take Vicki's advice and jump right into Section Two of the book - What things look like in action.  I had to start and restart several times; however, each time I found another nugget that encouraged me and especially made me think deeper.

Encouragement Nuggets:

  • ..."often results in teachers crossing the boundaries between scaffolding and rescuing..." p. xviii
  • "When we focus on pieces or scaffolds too much, we rob students of fully experiencing that power and gift." p. 10
  • "making students stay within the four corners of a text gives them a sterile and narrow view of reading" p. 17
  • "when the goal of teaching is for students to engage in more complex thinking, planning is focused on readers and they need to engage in that thinking." p. 23
  • "repurpose the components to meet those more complex means." p. 24

Thinking Deeper Nuggets:

  • I am thinking deeper about how I scaffold my lessons. My desire is for all 28 students to have an entry point. Last year's learners' skills were tremendously varied.  When I presented a new concept, I thought about my learners and I knew if I had an opening at a lower level for a few students most other students were "bored" and if I entered at a "higher" level I automatically lost some of my learners.  I still don't have the answer and would appreciate any comments to help me with my thinking.
  • Repurpose the components of workshop was powerful for me.  I am always thinking about time and this summer I've already had conversations about how to use my read aloud and reading logs differently.  Thanks to Mary Lee who helped me with a little dock therapy. My biggest shift for next year is that I am not going to think in 1/3 (reading, writing, word study) I am going to think a whole.  I am shifting to from 3 spirals to one spiral (Language Arts).  In the real world I don't compartmentalize the three so I am not going to ask my students to do that either. 
I appreciate the conversations and the twitter feed that supports #cyberPD. It's satisfying to know that when I place my thinking on my blog that where will be an active conversation.  I am excited to leave comments for other bloggers and continue to learn side by side with you. 










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7 comments:

  1. Hi Maria. I enjoyed reading your post. I like how you organized it by "encouraging nuggets" and "thinking deeper nuggets". When I read your first thinking deeper nugget, some ideas popped into my head from reading chapters 5 and 6 in Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading:

    - select more than one text that presents the same problems for readers and let students choose a text that fits
    - give students opportunities to turn and talk after different chunks of text so they can think creatively and develop ideas first and discuss the work they are doing as readers to understand
    - ask these two questions: What are you thinking? How did you figure that out?
    - notice and name thinking that students are doing so others can try it out
    - ask if anyone figured it out another way to encourage multiple ways of thinking
    - use "What we know, What we wonder" chart to help everyone understand the thinking that goes into figuring things out

    Not sure if this really helps/addresses your question but I thought I would give it a try and take the opportunity to review what I learned in chapters 5 and 6!

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    1. This helps me and I am excited when I start reading the future chapters. I love the questions you posed. Thanks for your support.

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  2. Maria,
    I love the whole idea of mini-lesson. Teach and practice quickly at one level - less than 10 min. & then send students off to do that same work in their own book.

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    1. The part for me is "mini" I'm still working on that.

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  3. Ahh...dock time! If only I lived 5 minutes away!!

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  4. Maria,
    I'm so glad you are joining us again. I always appreciate your honesty and deep thinking. It is tricky to meet the needs of so many diverse learners. When we focus more on the whole, maybe that diversity becomes an asset. I had to smile when Vicki mentioned Making Learning Whole. I think it was your advice that put that book in my hand.

    Smiles,
    Cathy

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