Here are my takeaways from this week’s chapters:
- Tools can help students learn, grow, and engage, but perhaps more importantly, become independent.
- Memory (too much too fast), rigor (who’s working hard?), and differentiation (meet the needs of all students) are struggles with which tools can help us.
- HOW we use these tools is so important, not just what the tools are!
- Tools help make teaching clear
- Tools help BIG ideas come to life
- Tools help learning to STICK! Visual, concrete, repetition
- Teaching charts: Repertoire (list of strategies) and Process (steps)
- Collaboratively creating these charts with students is BEST
- Demonstration notebooks: interactive lessons & strategies
- A “before” work sample, name the focus, & space to work, cards with strategies & prompts, “after” work samples created by students & you
- Use with individuals, small groups - makes clear how to progress
- Micro-progressions: models of work that moves from one level to the next
- Allows for students to self-assess
- Clearly shows ways to improve
- Bookmarks: personalized learning, created by students
- Helps show students how they can accomplish their learning
How to find strategies:
- What does this child need right now?
- Find your people - in your building or online - your PLN - be connected! This is one of my favorite things. Being in the library is a solitary endeavor sometimes and my virtual PLN is a life saver.
- Professional reading!
- Search online, but search wisely
- When writing your own strategies: THE WHAT + THE HOW + THE WHY
- I am excited to think about learning in the library that I can use this
- I can see where it would be easy to put too much into a strategy - I loved the warnings they include!
What stands out for me is the focus on creating and supporting students as they become more and more independent. I am fascinated by Burkins & Yaris’s book, Who’s Doing the Work? I haven’t read it yet, but I think this is an important shift. In the library, there are many areas that these tools can help my students learn. Immediately strategies for notetaking, for reading informational text, for selecting books, for using technology tools come to mind.
Here is a link to my Amazon Professional Book list with a number of Sketch note/Doodle books.