Well, after four
days of watching our two exceptional Project GLAD trainers from California
teach a first grade class using the strategies, I am ready to go back into the
regular classroom so I can teach thematic units again. Not really, but it was
so energizing to watch their whole process unfold over the past four days. On
Monday, this class of 23 students, who are approximately one third LEP, were shy and not quite sure what to expect
from these new teachers and about thirty observers in the back of the
room. However, by Tuesday they were
amazingly familiar with the routine in place and highly engaged.
One of the strategies I loved was
the use of a signal word for all transitions from one activity to the next. The
signal word is the word introduced on the Cognitive Content Dictionary (CCD), a
new word being taught. Our word was "classify" with the hand motion
to make a group repeated three times. So, every time Ms. Chavez would say
"classify" the students would say group,
group, group using the hand motion. I have often used signal words before
and seen other teachers use them, but our words have always been silly words
like popcorn or peanut. By using a signal word from the CCD you are building
language since some students need to hear new information many times before
mastery. The hand gesture made it more kinesthetic, as well. Mrs. Hernandez,
the other trainer, recommended we download the app for American Sign Language
to create more authentic gestures.
Another aspect of this strategy was
to have the students predict what they thought the word "classify"
might mean with their table team. They were instructed to put their heads
together to collaborate. After each teams prediction was noted on the CCD chart
Ms. Chavez moved on to another strategy. After teaching a unit on reptiles
which included a lot about the word classify over the next several days they
returned to the CCD to determine the final meaning of the word. Again, the
students were instructed to put the heads together to collaborate the final
meaning. Once the final meaning was determined, Ms. Chavez noted it on the
chart. Finally, she gave an example of how to use the word in a sentence.
Students were then instructed to put their heads together to collaborate about
their own sentence using this word before sharing out once again.
There are so many other strategies I
plan to put into practice as soon as I can figure out how to incorporate them
into the Guided Reading groups and Leveled Literacy Intervention groups I am
now working with. I recommend this
training to all teachers who want to learn a multitude of best practices
strategies that offer differentiation, scaffolds, increased metacognition, intentional
language focus, as well as a writers' workshop demonstration like I have never
witnessed before.
Thanks for reading
my post!
