This chapter discussed reviewing units of study and the role of the literacy coach. The chapter states that a unit of study is a set of related activities that focus on a main topic; usually using genres. The chapter also states that grade-level teams develop these units collaboratively. With the implementation of CCSS, units of study should include fiction, non-fiction and informational text along with other sources of literary texts. Units of study should be developed to focus on multiple standards. This way of developing instruction requires a lot of time, it takes the majority of instructional time and the units are reused for multiple years.
For a literacy coach, the purpose must be set with a clear understanding of what the unit's focus is and when the students are engaged in order for it to be effective. It is important that the LC is supportive before the unit, during the unit and after the unit.
Before the unit is taught, it is important for the LC to review the unit carefully and clarify any questions if the unit is already developed. Or if a unit is not developed, a LC should meet several times with the grade-level team to develop a unit based on standards. Also before the unit is implemented, a LC should share the unit reflection log, encourage teachers to write notes on this form and ask teachers how you can support the teachers.
During the unit, LC should provide any support that the teachers have requested. They should also check in with the team members after the unit as been implemented for a week to answer any questions that the teachers may have. Also, if the LC is not involved in any coaching strategies, the LC should at least observed the classroom and take notes.
After the unit, the LC should facilitate a meeting to review any changes or revisions that the unit may need LC should provide open ended questions that allow the teachers to reflect on their comments and how they fit in with their unit. Finally, the LC should send out a summary of the updated summary plan to the team members.
I know that I am a teacher but I have yet to collaborate with my team members the way the book has described. I have not sat down with a team and developed a whole unit of study. The teachers I have worked with have usually used the reading curriculum the district has provided, then the teachers used it word for word. The closest I have gotten to developing a unit of study with a team member, is my through my coaching experience. One of the required writing strategies that our first graders are assessed on is narrative writing. Some of the essential questions we wanted the students to answer were, how can we get students away from writing sentences from "I like...I like...I like..." and helping them develop new ways to begin sentence writing. "What standards would we like to implement?" Another question was, "what resources can we provide students in order to better understand what narrative writing is?" Also, we asked, "how can I help them provide detail to their writing in order to "spruce" up a sentence?" Lastly, we asked, "how can we help the students through the writing process while writing our personal narrative."
I think answering the questions from the form I would say, not all the essential questions were appropriate. I think that we could be more specific with them. I think the standards are critical to the unit. I feel that a summative assessment could be made in order to provide data that would allow for better feedback and revision of the plan.
I think that I would like my team (if we created a unit together) to provide feedback on data results to help with the development of ways to help struggling students. I also think I would like them to give suggestions of resources that they have used that were effective for them.
Question:
I feel that I have always heard from teachers (and the reading specialist) , I don't have the time to sit and plan together. As a LC, how do you get teams to sit down and collaborate to this extent. What suggestions would you provide to me to get my team on the same page? ( I have been guilty of not "having time")
Support obviously is key to helping teachers and teams. What other important aspects of a LC do you think are key in order to create an effective unit of study?
I was fortunate to have a team that sat down every week to plan. Seems like it would take a lot of time out of the day to figure out planning and that end the end would be longer. I found that we set one planning time a week to meet as a group. We also met in the summer to decide out units and plan them all out. I am really big on meeting and deciding which units will be taught what week and planning the math,science, and social studies according to what is being taught in literacy the summer before. It cuts a lot of extra planning out. Now I know plans don't always go as planned, but that's why we met every week to see if we needed to stay longer on a unit or move on. Then we could just differentiate the work if we needed too. Since everything was basically in a tentative plan, when we met we'd just decide little tweaks that need to be changed. Since we were already doing literacy first, the reading was differentiated based on assessments and small groups. But this type of meeting took a lot of administration support and follow through. It also took team members who saw the importance of meeting weekly and how it benefited us. Our time we used efficiently too. Therefore I can't imagine planning without a team It really cuts out on having to think so hard and do everything on your own. We also rotated material which helped. Therefore we only had to make a certain amount of different things, which cut down on time. Therefore the key is to have everyone on board. Also have to have someone who organizes a lot of it and gets it going.
ReplyDeleteWell said Kaitlin!
DeleteKaitlin, that sounds amazing! I really love the idea of rotating materials. I am constantly making new materials for my units. It's been an ongoing battle since this is m first year teaching 1st, last year I taught 2nd and the years before Kinder. I'm constantly making materials and planning new units! Maybe I can talk my team into meeting during the summer and planning. Also, suggesting meeting once a week. I can see how that could cut down a lot of time!
ReplyDeleteIf you have a planning time already, then you can just set aside that 45 minute period. We always met on Wednesdays. That gave you two days to get read for the meeting, then two days to get the next week ready. At we got pretty good at planning at times we could knock out two weeks at a time. Everyone had a job though. Some came with center activities, other came with art ideas, another would come with literacy ideas, etc. It does take a LOT of team work, but all of us loved the idea of getting out of school at a descent time so we made it work! It can be done, it just takes a team. But if you can find one other person on your team to work with, then try that. The others will see how efficient you two are and want to be apart.
DeleteI think Kaitlin shared great ideas for planning! It sounds like everyone is invested and working as a team. Erin, I hear that from my teachers frequently..."I don't have time". I really like Kaitlin's suggestion of meeting once a week and keeping in touch during the summer. I think it's also important that teachers actually have adequate time during the week to plan without students present. Do grade level teams have the same planning period? How does that work?
ReplyDeleteI agree that once a week planning time of at least 45 minutes is key. It is nice if everyone can meet in summer, but you may need to have a leader to brainstorm ideas for units and then use time before school starts to do more indepth planning.
DeleteMy grade level team had a plan at the same time each day. Therefore we basically got 5 hours to plan. One was spent planning together. The other 4 hours I spent getting the following week ready.
DeleteI know that I could provide 45 minutes of meeting time each week. Would you ladies suggest I met with my teachers each week, once a month..... what would you want your administrator to do?
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on your school. I know my grade level team met weekly and then also met as a grade level with LC. Sometimes we did this every week depending on if we needed it. We told our LC the time each week we'd need her. So for example, my team would grade level plan on Wednesday. Then we also set aside Thursday to meet with LC. She left that time open for us. We'd just let her know a day a head of time if we needed her. Then we were required to meet once a month, that's when we discussed data. So I think it depends on the needs of your teachers and what season your school is in. IF that makes sense?
DeleteAbsolutely makes sense! That gives me ideas on how to go about beginning planning sessions for staff. Thank you!
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