We Read Because We Believe We Can Read

I teach all content areas in 5th grade and very much enjoy the variety of content I get to work with in doing so; however, teaching literacy to English Language Learners is the single most rewarding thing about my job. Saying that is actually quite surprising, seeing as I personally struggled with reading in school.  Being a native English speaker from a middle class family is a blatant cultural difference between me and my 27 students, but the fact that I struggled with reading as a young learner is one connection we most certainly have. Because of this, when I see them succeed in literacy I very much understand what that accomplishment means to them and their life and the freedom they will experience because of it.

When I start each new school year I ask my students what their favorite subject is and what their least favorite subject is. This is a part of an interest inventory that I conduct in order to learn a little more about my students.  The underlying question there is “what is your best subject and your worst subject” because I've found that they enjoy what they believe they are good at. This year the data collected wasn't much different than in years past.  22% of my class reported that reading was their favorite subject. Twenty-two percent. That’s only 6 out of 27 students. What I see in that number is loads of opportunity. When I was ten, I would have been right there with them. It wasn't until I no longer feared reading that I actually succeeded. It is my goal for each of my students to leave my room with confidence in their ability to read and to no longer fear it but embrace it.

One of the methods I use to develop a love of reading among my students is Close Analytical Reading.  The purpose of close reading is to teach students to access complex text no matter their reading level.  This has been extremely successful in my class especially with the implementation of digital text. Only 30% of my class started the school year at or above grade level in reading; yet, daily I challenge them to read above grade level, complex text.  The key has been scaffolding, asking text dependent questions aimed at pointing my students directly to evidence in the text that I want them to attend to and having open ended discussion about the purpose and meaning of the text. Some days this process is brutal, but I live for the moments in the day when I see wide-eyed “Ah-Ha”s all across the room. As the year goes on, those moments come more frequently and students begin to believe they can read whatever I put in front of them.  Once that transition occurs, there is no longer a ceiling on what we can read and the depth at which we can understand it.  Some days I look out at my class and think, “Are you really ten? Can this really be?” The reality is, not only are they ten, but most of them are still learning English! They inspire me beyond words and I am truly lucky to witness their strength and determination daily.

Below is copy of a close read we did last month, an excerpt from a letter that Leonardo da Vinci wrote to the Duke of Milan… it has been one of my students’ favorites!

“Most Illustrious Lord: Having now sufficiently seen and considered the proofs of all those who proclaim themselves masters and inventors of instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use of the said instruments are nothing different from common practice, I am emboldened, without prejudice to anyone else, to put myself in communications with Your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets, thereafter offering myself at your pleasure effectually to demonstrate at opportune times all those things which are in part briefly noted below:

I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy.

I have kinds of mortars, most convenient and easy to carry, and with these can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these causing great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.

I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great that they would break them.

In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type. Where the operation of bombardment should fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi (trebuchet) and other machines of marvelous efficacy and not in common use.

In short, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.”

Practice Makes Perfect with the Math Practices

My students are becoming better at math than me! While this may seem shocking, I love it because it means The Common Core State Standards are effective and having more of an impact than standards from the past. While memorization, procedures, and “tricks” in math help people get the right answer, there are no mathematical connections that transfer into middle school algebra and higher math courses throughout one’s education. One of the most important but often overlooked parts of the new standards for math are the Standards for Mathematical Practice. While I believe the grade level standards alone are powerful, they cannot be achieved successfully without the implementation of the standards of practice.

The Standards for Mathematical Practice are as follows:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

So, what do they have to do with the actual grade level standards? Through problem solving, students need to be given opportunities to practice the practices in order to meet the grade level standards. Just like we teach reading strategies and give students opportunities to practice, we have to do the same with math. For example, in reading, students learn to examine the structure and organization of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. In math they need to learn how to make use of structure (Practice 7) in multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.

I make a daily math goal around the different Standards for Mathematical Practice. For example, when working on multiplication of fractions (4th grade Common Core Standard 4.NF.4c), The goal could be: I can find regularity in repeated reasoning. Through a word problem**, students might solve 4 x ¾ and determine it is 3. They can use this knowledge to solve 12 x ¾ by understanding that there are three sets of 4 x ¾ in 12 x ¾, or 3(4 x ¾) (Associative Property of Multiplication), or even (4 x ¾)+ (4 x ¾) + (4 x ¾) (Distributive Property of Multiplication). Once they have the answer to 4 x ¾, they can repeat that reasoning 3 times to get the answer  for 12 x ¾ (Distributive Property of Multiplication) or simply multiply their answer for (4 x ¾) by 3 (Associative Property of Multiplication). This reasoning is important because it draws on mathematical properties. At first, I identify the properties with my students and model correct representation through number sentences (which could be tied to the Mathematical Practice of “attend to precision”). These are practices students need in order to be truly successful in math.

Implementing the content grade level Common Core State Standards and the Standards for Mathematical Practice has taken my math instruction to a whole new level. It has been a learning journey for me and I am constantly finding ways to improve my math instruction. I would be lying if I said it was easy, but in the end, my students benefit from my hard work...what more could I ask for?

**Word problems are posed with a variety of number choices so students can try easier or more difficult problems based on differentiation.

Example: Ms. K is making ______ peanut butter sandwiches. Each sandwich needs ¾ of a cup of peanut butter. How many cups of peanut butter does she need? (4)    (12)    (16)  (18)

Setting Goals for a Bright Future

The end of winter break always comes too soon...or at least that is what I read over and over again on my Facebook feed the night before winter break ended. I found myself joining the masses and even finding humor as my co-workers and I shared some back to work groans. I didn't want to drag myself out of my warm bed early in the morning, kiss my one year old daughter good bye for the day, and come to work. The end of break seemed utterly dreadful until 7:30 a.m. That is when students who had been standing in the cold for a good 40 minutes got to finally enter the building. Suddenly, getting up in the cold early morning, on little sleep, after a late night of baby cries immediately had purpose and being at work suddenly seemed like the only place I could be. Before I could utter a simple "Good morning", I was being hugged by a student and I was being given the detailed rundown of his Christmas break. The best part about it all? He isn't even a student in my class. I only get to see him for 45 minutes a day for language instruction and yet still there he was telling me how much he missed me and how he was happy to be back at school. Then came my own classroom full of students. There were a good handful of students who came with a light jacket, and some with no jacket at all despite the below freezing temperature. As I surveyed my first grade classroom and received my hugs and joyfully listened to Christmas tales, my heart could not help but hurt for the quiet students, the ones without smiles, and the ones with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep and hungry bellies from lack of nutrition over the break. This is why I let my daughter spend the days with her Grandma instead of me, this is why I stay up late perfecting lesson plans, and this is why I drag myself out of bed no matter how tired I am.

With a renewed sense of purpose I began to feel excited about the day ahead of me. I knew we would be setting new goals for the semester today and reviewing our progress from our previous goal. In August our class had set a big, audacious goal of having 17 friends on grade level in reading by December. Now 17 out of 24 students may not seem like much until you consider the following facts. We began the year with only six students on grade level in reading as measured by the Measures of Academic Progress or MAP assessment. Many of the students were reading at or below a kindergarten reading level. Of these 24 students, 19 are English language learners and all but 3 qualify for free or reduced lunches. These students and their families have barriers that so often get the blame for stopping student progress, but these kids didn't let those barriers get in the way. Although the goal was lofty, my students were determined and by December we were able to raise that number to 13. 

I was so proud looking at the data. I could not wait to show the students. We graphed the class scores and celebrated our growth. When students were asked what our goal should be for the spring semester my sweet Jonna quickly raised her hand and suggested our goal should remain at 17. Since we were creating a class goal I asked the other students to weigh in on Jonna's suggestion. Most students agreed with her. Then suddenly from the back of the room Kenneth raised his hand, "I disagree.", he said respectfully with a smile. When I asked him why, he simply said, "I think all of us should be ready to read." I could not resist the urge to test Kenneth's enthusiasm and so I asked, "Are you sure? That will be a lot of friends to help get ready to read." Not only did Kenneth hold to his opinion strongly, but all students, even Jonna decided to join Kenneth. When I asked them why it was so important to them that we all know how to read they answered with responses like, "So we can get a job." and "So we can go to 2nd grade." This wasn't our first talk about the importance of being a good reader.

We wrapped up our goal setting with talking about individual student goals that would help us reach our lofty class goal. Each student met with me or my intern to discuss their MAP data. They were given multiple choices for their individual reading goals. When I asked Jamie to come and sit with me she said, "Well, sometimes I have trouble you know, stretching out words. So which one will help me with that?" We quickly decided that she would choose blends and digraphs as her goal to help her improve her reading. All of my students were not only eager to pick a goal but they were also excited to share their goals with others. 

Remember those barriers I was talking about? Setting our goals high and working together as a class and as a school chips away at those walls. Suddenly 24 out of 24 kids being on grade level in reading did not seem so unrealistic. Not only am I teaching my students to celebrate little successes even if our goal wasn't met, but my students are starting to realize the importance of goal setting. This is a skill that will help them break down even more barriers as they get older. The lessons I learn from them daily about perseverance in a world that expects to see them fail will never cease to amaze and inspire me.