Gradually Learning to Let Go

This year, our whole staff is reading a book titled, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. According to Euclid's MTSS Team:

🍎First BEST Instruction is key. Meaning, deliberately planning and preparing for the Skill/Strategy being taught for the content areas. Our MTSS team last year chose to select Gradual Release as our Instructional structure for delivering lessons. Our book, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching, highlights the importance of Gradual Release of Responsibility and how to best support students.

Since this happens to also be my evaluation year, I decided that I would focus my chosen form of evaluation, an action research project, on mastering the gradual release approach expounded by authors, Fisher and Frey.  I am cordially inviting you, my blog readers, to join me on what I anticipate will be a roller coaster of a learning journey. In fact, the longer I'm in the classroom, the more I realize that there is so much more for me to learn!

Just as it's essential to plan for an actual excursion, it's equally important to plan for a learning journey. So, here's my "To-Do" List:

1) Read the book. Check 👍. 

2) Set aside an area to display my focus areas (as described in the book). 👍 

3) Begin incorporating new learnings. I have made a deliberate decision to proceed slowly as I institute this new framework into my classroom. 👍 

As I mentioned in my September post, this year my class's G.A.T.E. Universal Theme focus is CHANGE. Item numbers 1, 6, and 7 from this handout that I shared with my students really resonated with me. They highlight where I'm at in this journey.

I am going to hold myself to the high expectations that I hold my students to. High expectations are vital, but so is embracing a growth mindset. I am going to make mistakes. That's natural and expected when learning something new. I am going to try new things and try again when things go awry. But I'll get there eventually and you can keep me company along the way. 

Still learning and growing,

Lola E. Jollie

Universal Theme: Change

    Years ago, I attended a G.A.T.E. training that challenged me to think deeply about universal themes. According to the site Envision Gifted, "A universal theme is an organizing concept that transcends time and place, and brings focus to learning across subject areas." I had never heard the term "universal theme," uttered in any academic setting, and, to be perfectly honest, I struggled to understand what the presenter was discussing. Sure, I nodded confidently as she delved deeper into the concept, but the truth was that I needed to let the concept simmer on low for a while in my mental crockpot.  

     Lately, after listening to multiple learning podcasts by Justin Sung ("...a former medical doctor, full-time learning coach, and consultant...), I've come to realize what my experience as a learner and teacher has already revealed to me: learning is messy and not necessarily linear. Every year I understand the concept of universal themes just a tad more than the year before and am better able to integrate facets of them into my instructional planning. 

    Using universal themes enables me to unify instruction across content areas. Here are examples of questions that spark conversations about the universal theme of change:

• Math: How do numbers change when we add to them or subtract from them?
• Science: What is the process by which a caterpillar changes into a butterfly?
• Social Studies: What changes occur in cities when the population increases or decreases?
• Reading: Would using another word in place of _____________ change the author's intent?
• Writing: How would your writing change if you used a more powerful term instead of ________ to indicate how you are feeling?
• Word Study: How does the meaning of ______________ change if we add a prefix or a suffix?

       

Introducing my students to a universal theme at the beginning of each new school year has impacted my instruction as well as student learning in a positive way. Perhaps the greatest impact has been on the cohesiveness of my instruction. In my classroom, I have a poster prominently displayed that reads: Your brain is ALWAYS working to build meaning one connection at a time. Anchoring lesson planning and instruction to a universal theme enables students to frame their learning so that their brains can easily build meaning and make those connections. 

Still caring and sharing, 

Lola E. Jollie