The opening statements to this chapter sounded so familiar. Teaching can be exhausting and overwhelming in so many ways. One Routman’s goal when she works at a school is, to make their lives easier. Teachers should be able to have a life and not live in their classrooms or stay up all night grading papers. I can remember my first teaching job and how I felt compelled to grade every worksheet and activity that we completed. Little did I know that there was a better way to do things. Even though I struggle still today I understand that students benefit more from me sitting and working with them than me copying a worksheet, them doing it and me grading it.
Routman again provides a list of questions to keep in mind when you are planning.
· What do I want them to know and understand? Expectations, content, curriculum, big ideas, skills, strategies, standards.
· How can I help them know and understand it? Provide necessary background knowledge, demonstrations, guided practice, appropriate resources, differentiated instruction, supportive language and reteaching.
· How will I know when they know and understand it? How will students know that they understand and let me know that they do? Observations, conversations, conferences, performance assessments, tests, evaluations, self evaluations and reflections.
· What are my new expectations for students? Goals, action plans, lessons demonstrations and resources.
She continues to encourage simplicity when planning and with the work that students will be completing independently. Working with students and assessing at the same time must be at the forefront of each day. When this takes place no time is lost in giving lengthy assessments and then having to grading then and finally planning for the next days activities. Streamlining is key and will take some work because I am not used to assessing as I teach. I tend to forget things so I will have to become better about writing things down so that I can refer to them at a later time.
The chapter continues by covering key items in planning. She covers the pace that lessons should flow, how to combine activities so that participation and learning are maximized, creating more time for students who struggle and use transitional times to quick learning moments. This book will truly become a resource with its many examples and appendix that is filled with great ideas and information that will help explain the work that I hope to do in my classroom. Best practices fill its pages and I look forward to implementing and sharing ideas and strategies with my colleagues.
I cannot wait until you share these strategies with us. I have read many of your blogs and I think this is a really good book. I struggle with having time to plan and grade. It seems like I never have time for everything.
ReplyDeleteI am also eager to learn these strategies. I hope you'll continue to write following the assignment deadline.
ReplyDeletePlanning is a huge part of teaching. Simplicity and streamlining are critical to planning with limited time and resources available to teachers. I'm pretty challenged in this area and this information enlightens and inspires me!
Thanks so much!
I forgot to mention that I love these questions for planning! What a fantastic checklist to support the process!
ReplyDeleteDidn't you love this book? It gave ideas that felt very appropriate and easy to implement. I found great advice for reading instruction in my classroom and sounds like you did too. Of course, if it was as easy as reading a book, we'd all be able to do it with flying colors. Anyway, I think each part we take away from Reading Essentials will benefit not only us, but our students as well.
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