KELLY GALLAGHER - Passion for Learning
KELLY GALLAGHER
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A. Reading
-1 in 4 high schoolers cannot read a textbook
-easier to test for facts than understanding
-no more recruiting in China: think outside the box? Question?
-
-what does the text say? What doesn’t it say?
Statistic
-background knowledge cartoon
--only 3 things to say about any reading: 1. What does it say? 2. What does it mean? 3. What does it matter? So what? You need to understand the first two in order to answer the third…but it is the most important.
--why classics? Kids can’t read them alone and get much out of them. Keep them in the curriculum.
--Books provide “imaginative rehearsals for the real world” (Jeffrey Wilhelm)
- test for what you value wytiwyg (“witty-wig”)
“Standardization only leads to sameness, not necessarily quality, and rarely to excellence.” T. Newkirk
“Creating multiple choice thinkers in an essay world.”
Ask: what does each question value?
Tell the students the essay question before you begin a novel. Keep coming back to it.
“If the only reading our kids do is IN school, they will never do enough to be successful or lifelong readers.”
How much reading is actually being done in programs for struggling readers? Why is a kid in reading support class in gr. 3, 4, 5, all the way to 10, 11, 12?
Lack of prior knowledge is THE problem, not the deciphering of words on the page.
Word poverty by Kindergarten….a 32 million word GAP!
“Your level of literacy in kindergarten is an indicator of your level of literacy at graduation.”
AOW Article of the Week Plan
1. Highlight where you are confused. Don’t hide it. This is where learning occurs. Ok to be confused. It’s my job to help you understand it.
2. Show footprints on the page---show we are thinking---questions---tttt
3. Write a 1-page reflection on it in Writer’s notebook (writing = deepest level of cognition) Give AOW on Monday. Reflection collected on Friday.
Same AOW to whole class. Can find list of them online. All English teachers use the same one each week. (Can’t cheat and use another student’s previous work)
Do not necessarily “grade” them. Flash check---quickly.
Or
Collect 5 reflections from a student---students puts the 1 he wants to be graded on top.
AOW could be a graph or an editorial. See The Week magazine for possibilities.
Teachers all find AOWs, share. It is now school-wide. Purpose: to inform, not to entertain!!! For building prior/background knowledge.
Now Math has Graph of the Week.
[prefrontal cortex – developmental window of birth to age 20 years. Exercise it or lose it!
David Sousa, brain expert: Have to have routine---Reading Minute, Sponge activity, Work…but change it up sometimes. Be creative. Brain seeks variety, novelty. Throw in Top Ten list writing, model everything.]
SSR Kids who read the most, read and write the best.
Reading Minute---every day
He reads something to them – 1 minute---offbeat, interesting, entertaining; he does it till Halloween, then they take it over.
Classroom library
Book commercial; interrupted book report
We have to put the focus back on books and reading.
Teaching a Novel---
Overteaching----a gazillion pos-it notes! Vs Read To Kill a Mockingbird and then discuss racism of today. Make it relevant and real.
Underteaching-----assigning reading without direction, purpose.
Find the sweet spot. How much to they need me? How much do I turn over to them?
Set the stage---what we do before we begin a book. Can’t just give an assignment. Anticipation. Importance of framing. Motivational. Get them to want to read it. Augment the textbook. Gets them ready for the book. Novelty but purposeful too.
Palmer, Parker. The Courage to Teach.
We teach because of the beauty in our content area. Our job is to help kids see it too.
Gallagher is going to teach Romeo and Juliet by dividing the class into Capulets and Montagues! Shakespeare is meant to be heard---uses only professional recordings, can’t ask a student to read it aloud and do it justice!
Jago, Carol. President of NCTE. (Has a new book on being “pro classics in school”)
--idea of “guided tour” of first several chapters, then transition to “budget tour”
Teacher is the best reader in the classroom. They need you there.
Use of an outline of a chapter---with blank bullets for students to fill in….
Give a purpose for reading the text as a homework assignment. “Read chapter 4 tonight and focus on……xxxx…..” Come with a question and a comment in your writer’s notebook.
Teach 1-3 things in each book, not all things in 1 book. Symbolism, setting & context, theme, conflict, etc. 2 months on a book? No way! (He seems to have same class for full year; sometimes he has same students gr. 9 AND 10.)
Idea: Group by tables and then each group can be assigned to read through a specific lens, then do a presentation to the class.
Big chunk/little chunk philosophy---Move them to dealing with longer books.
Animal Farm = 2 weeks.
Kids want to read “1and done.” Need more close reading. Read certain passages several times.
Value comes with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th readings.
No such thing as a lousy classic. It has endured, it has stuff worth struggling with. Like it? Who cares?! Recognize its value.
Common Core Standards
for English Language Arts and
Literacy in History/Social Studies &
Science
Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of
the Standards
K–12 Schooling: Declining Complexity of Texts and a Lack of Focus on Independent Reading
B. Recreational Reading
50/50 approach
Goal: strive to discover reading flow, coming up for air, a sign of maturing as a reader
“universal calamitous falling off of reading” at age 13, 8th grade. Not hormonal: it’s brain change. (?)
-“Are you reading and writing enough to compete?”
What is enough? Reading Reasons chart
Pre-requisites to keeping the grade student has earned:
1. Read 1 recreational book/month (self-selected)
2. Write 5 pages/week in writers notebook – not graded
3. Write a monthly one-pager (samples in Readicide)
Accountability: how do you know if they read? Check on them, but don’t overdue it. Don’t kill the recreational aspect of this. AND Monthly book report, the one-pager. They also sign an oath with each one. Reading log.
“They all like to read: they just don’t know it yet.” Gallagher.
C. Writing
On-demand writing is a gate-keeping skill for all careers; it can keep you from a job or a promotion; more than ½ the positions in the Fortune 500 companies require writing
Timed writing: start with longer times, work down to the ACT 30 minute limit.
How you spend the first 5 minutes is crucial
One exercise: fluency---a race---who can write the most! If you know where you are going, you can write a lot!
Practice and model and practice ABC before writing, D if time permits
A Attack the prompt -- Practice with lots of prompts but don’t write the essays themselves. 1 minute with practice
B Brainstorm a list of topics. The hard part. Takes 5 minutes.
C Choose order of your response, organize. Chart/map. Less than 1 minute.
Write sentences.
D Detect errors (proofread) If there is time.
Sample approach for teaching this over a year:
1st quarter Learn A, B, C
2nd quarter Write 3 timed writings---all are turned in, grade only 1
3rd quarter Same for 4 timed writings
4th quarter More
Gallagher’s students do the actual timed writing when he is out of the classroom lecturing. When they know A, B, C, they don’t need him there to watch them write.
4:1 ratio. Students should read and write more than teacher can possibly assess.
I.e., 10 activities on a book. Turn in all 10 components. Student picks one to be graded, teacher chooses the other. 2 grades, 10 writings.
He will send me 501 writing prompts.
Spend more time on the Craft of Writing, less on the mechanics (grammar). What do good writers do? Try different intros, shifts in time, strong verbs, etc. Use writer language as you talk about and study writing---parrot the students, reword what they say in professional terms. “attribution” “analogy” etc.
Understand what was said, then look at how it was said. Much more student involvement with his technique. Infused with writing opportunities.
Tell me what you think…write it in a notebook…then they will speak up. Sometimes you have to think before you think…and we think by writing.
Does not go through the “writing process” every time they write.
Metaphorical response = not literal
---need it for understanding advertising, politicians!
---see MLK The World House ---every kind of metaphor there is!
See “T” chart---
What is it we want kids to take from this article? Might get a list of 10 things (region, enormity of problem, power of story, source, adoption, UN, math, genre. Students may get 3-5 on their own, teacher might focus on only 1-2 purposes.
No peer editing…only peer responding.
Writer’s Notebook: each student is provided with a 200-pg spiral-bound notebook (all the same). Divide into sections:
p. 1-20 What should I write?
p.21-50 Sentence of the Week (grammar, editing)
p. 51-65 Craft mini lesons
p. 65-100 AOW Article of the week Reflections
p. 101 + Writing Section
D. Grammar
Combine exercises and practice with lots of authentic writing (application)
SOW Sentence of the Week
Post samples. Students copy into journal section. Notice/discuss what they notice. (Model this first!!) Write their own examples: imitate. Then students have to collect three examples of this while doing their other reading (AOW or other reading). Write the sentence, source. (This is like editing)
Weekly quiz.
SOW--- write example of….grammar lesson
AOW
Big chunk question
Uses a stamp sheet system. 4 + 1 writing = 5 stamps. If you use the grammar skill of that week, 2 more points.
In their portfolio, students highlight where they used the various “rules” of grammar.
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