Hello, Arts Family!
Why did I title this week's installment "Planning, Preparing, Pushing Progress?" Well, here's why. I was in Tracy Duarte's ELA grade 6 classroom at Talbot this week looking at exactly these things while teaching literary devices and setting up for a writing prompt. It's always good to peek into a colleague's classroom who DOES NOT teach within the fine and performing arts, to see what teaching looks like in other areas. Let's dig in and while we do that, think about how we can do/also do this in our rooms!
Planning- Tracy planned for student interaction and engagement with the work. She had the task on the Promethean board, interacted with it and with students, and planned for their accountability as they had to "hand in" their work on the GC.
Preparing- She set up the learning- preparing for those who didn't have Chromebooks by having a paper version, and also planned for different ways for kids to engage with the concepts before they went into the text to answer questions. No down time in that room!
Pushing- Tracy "pushed" for students who were not readily responding to raise their hands, and stretched the thinking as they had to think about how these literary devices are around them in everyday songs they hear! Push their thinking!
Progress- She made a point of going back to a student who shared and got it wrong, and then had him answer the question again after engaging with the supportive video.
I LOVE to steal. There. I said it. I steal ideas all the time, tweak them and make them my own. And there is so much you can steal from the professionals around you. Today in Ms. Duarte's class, I stole:
- Using hand signals for agree, disagree, and build on what another student is saying- Tracy had students agree with other students during a prompt for the class, and the routine was that they use the agree sign if their thinking was parallel.
- They used the "build upon" sign for when they wanted to add to what another student said (two hands in fist on top of one another).
- When releasing to the class to respond, we usually get the same kids- she said "I want new customers this time" and also said "I need two more friends."
- She used wait time to allow students to respond, and then if they needed a "lifeline" they could phone a friend.
- She used a phrase when asking the students to dig into the text to respond to a prompt- (sang it to "Turn the Beat Around") "Turn the question around... Answer, text source, ex-plain!"
- Instrument Rental Night
- PD Day Monday- On Monday, October 3rd, the district will have professional development set up for you in the afternoon. All schools get 30 min lunch, and then 4 hours of PD meeting time. Please see your building leaders for details.
- Van/Chrissy- You should be with Stone
- Orch/Band- You will be at Durfee in Music Office
- Durfee F&PA Team- you'll be with me, and have an agenda coming from admin with details
- Self Assessments, SLG, PPGs- K-8: Chelsea and Rochelle will be working with teachers during the October Dept Meeting to make sure we are all good to go with goal setting. Please have at least a draft ready for these meetings so that you have a starting point (some have completed them). Any questions, ask Chelsea for music and Rochelle for art.
- October Department Meetings will be coming up- check your calendars for dates and details
- October 3rd- Early Release PD Day
- Columbus Day- No School Monday Oct 10
- Self Assessments, SLG and PPG due in TeachPoint- October 21st
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