Episodes
Monday Feb 02, 2015
Episode 45: Laura Robb-Vocabulary is Comprehension
Monday Feb 02, 2015
Monday Feb 02, 2015
Today I am talking with Laura Robb. She is a teacher, speaker, author, and coach.
She has taught for over 43 years and continues to teach each year in middle grades classrooms.
She has published 18 books primarily focused on reading, writing, and comprehension.
You will often find her speaking across the country and working with classroom teachers to learn how to address the needs of kids in reading, writing and text comprehension.
Laura is concerned about teachers who are “stressed out” with attempts to measure classroom success by using standardized, high stakes tests. The money and time that is spent on these tests could be better spent on training teachers to use better instructional practices.
Laura says, “One of the joys of teaching is that every child is unique.”
Our talk is primarily focused on one of her most recent works, “Vocabulary is Comprehension: Getting to the Root of Text Complexity”.
This work is filled with understandable lessons on how to connect vocabulary building and development with complex text comprehension.
Any teacher could easily take this book read sections and immediately begin to use its lessons in her plans for the week.
Some instructional works are cumbersome with their own language and information. The teacher would need a translator first before even getting close to thinking about using the information…not this book! It is easy to understand and use!
Take a look at her Big 10 and then turn to any of the lessons associated with them and you will be able to start making a difference in a child’s understanding of the text and content.
I strongly encourage you to take this information to heart and to use her book to help change your lessons to help the kids “get it!”
By the way…also, check out her foundation. She and her son are focused on getting books into the hands of children with none.
Enjoy!!!
www.teacher.scholastic.com/products/classroombooks/laurarobb
www.facebook.com/laura.robb.372
Length: 1:00:19
Thursday Jan 15, 2015
Episode 43: Learning in the Fast Lane with Suzy Pepper Rollins
Thursday Jan 15, 2015
Thursday Jan 15, 2015
Suzy is a math and literacy consultant.
She is mostly known by math teachers for her awesome course called Math in the Fast Lane.
She also was my first guest to be interviewed so check out Episode 2: Math in the Fast Lane with Suzy Pepper Rollins.
Suzy is now a published author and wow did she do it right!
Her book, Learning in the Fast Lane: 8 Ways to Put All Students on the Road to Academic Success is an ASCD hit!
Her 8 ways are …
1. Acceleration: Jump Starting Students Who Are Behind
2. Standards Walls: Transforming Standards into Clear Learning Goals
3. Success Starters: Sparking Student Success Right Away
4. Formative Assessment and Feedback: Checking Student Understanding Minute by Minute
5. Vocabulary Development: Implementing a Strategic Plan
6. Student Work Sessions: Giving Students Greater Responsibility With Valuable Work
7. Student Motivation: Creating Engaging Tasks and a Positive Learning Environment
8. Scaffolding: Providing What’s Missing Just in Time
Her last chapter … 9 is titled Why Are Some Students Still Failing, and What Can We Do About It?
We talk about her path to being a published author and then get into some of the specific details of the book.
Her book is right on the money for being a treasure chest of tools that can be put to use immediately in a classroom. It doesn't require a lengthy book study, on-line course or 1000's of dollars. She cuts through the education jargon and makes it easy to understand what the research says that we should be doing!
There is so much to learn from Suzy and her book!
One caution… If you read this book you will be excited about seeing the change in your students’ success!
You can contact Suzy at
or
(404)399-6760
Enjoy!
Additional Links:
Length 53:05
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Episode 32: Planning-A Key to Better Teaching
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Monday Sep 08, 2014
Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
This is so true in every facet of our lives and especially in the world of teaching.
Too often colleagues will act as if no planning is necessary. They will fly by the seat of their pants…...doing whatever hits them at the moment. This is a terrible way to work with kids. The better teacher needs to take time to purposefully plan and the best plan is developed with the big idea in mind.
As Stephen Covey said, “Start with the end in mind.” What is it that you want the kids to know? To get to this takes time to develop unit plans that are used to guide the teacher in working with the kids. These plans should contain at least the following six elements:
1. Essential Question (What is the point/purpose of this unit?)
2. Content Vocabulary (What words are necessary for understanding the subject?)
3. Formative Assessment (How do you know that the kids understand or get it?)
4. Engagement (What activities will you use to engage the kids in the lessons?)
5. Connections (How will you connect the topic to the real world?)
6. Use of Time (Are there any special considerations?)
It takes time to create lessons that engage kids and move them to learn and grow academically. The better teacher understands that planning and preparing leads to success in the classroom.
Bear Bryant once said, “It’s not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Some excellent resources for developing plans and understanding why you should plan with the end in mind have been developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in Understanding By Design and Essential Questions.
(Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe)
Here is a link to an overview of UbD at grantwiggins.org
Here is a link to an overview of UbD at JayMctighe.com
Here are links to YouTube clips of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe explaining Understanding By Design.
Here is a link to the excerpt from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Example of a Frayer Model for learning words...
Example of a Unit Plan
Time to start planning…
Enjoy!
Length 35:09