And Now A Thought About Fluency

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

And Now A Thought About Fluency —

I have been at a lot of trainings this week. There was a part of the training that was an ah-ha moment for me. It reminded me about the literacy training I did a couple years ago. In the training I read about Fluency and how important it is leading up to comprehension. Fluency is not only how fast a text is read out loud, but it also includes accuracy and prosody. Students should read as fast as they talk. There is a WPM guide that tells us how fast that should be according to grade level, but a generally it should be as fast as a student talks. Faster than that, they are just reading as fast as they can and comprehension suffers. Accuracy brings in words, vocabulary and context and provides meaning to words students recognize as well as context to the text. If words are missed or misread, the meaning of the story could get lost. Prosody is the way stories are read. The voice fluctuation, the raising and lowering of the voice, sounding like the voices that are speaking the words on the page, and reading not only the words, but the punctuation. Storytelling. Put all these things together and we get fluency. Without each of these things, comprehension goes down. Now to the ah-ha moment. As we learned about all this, we thought about how we read books with students and listen to them stumble over words, help correct them if they say a words or sentence wrong, and in the end have them tell us what they read. If the student is reading a book they are not fluent in and are struggling reading words and do not know the vocabulary, should we expect them to understand what they read each time? They need to work on comprehension, but fluency is a big part of being able to understand the meaning of a text. So what do we do? If they do not comprehend what has been read, is the fluency getting in the way? Would choral reading help them understand better as they listen and read? Just a thought. If a student does not comprehend what is going on in a story, it might be because of their fluency. I know you are all working on amazing things with your students. This was just an moment of clarity for me. You just happen to be on the reading end of my thoughts. Thank you for bearing with me.

Quote I’m pondering —

“In order to change skins, evolve into new cycles, I feel one has to learn to discard. If one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one’s mind and psyche of yesterday. I throw away what has no dynamic, living use.”
— Anaïs Nin

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Mon. Jan 20 - MLK, Jr. Day No School Wed. Jan 22 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning) Thu. Jan 23 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning)	Mon. Jan 28 - 5th grade to Lava Ridge Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 4-5 Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 1-3
Coming up: Cultural Night beginning of February. More information to come.

Favorite Article This Week —

Quality and Effort

I love Seth Godin. There are some thoughts that have made me think about my systems.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you k-3 grade teachers for your flexibility with the Acadience testing. It is always a nightmare trying to gauge how long the testing will take for each grade level. I understand the inconvenience it places on you when these tests come up. I really appreciate third grade for moving your test to the next week. It is nice to get through these needed things and everyone just works through it. Thank you for your help and understanding. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

The Sequence of Literacy

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

The Sequence of Literacy—

What do we teach first when there is so much that needs to be taught to a student that is missing so much? This is a question I had for years after I assessed students and found those that needed everything in literacy. Here is the sequence from beginning to end. If they are missing any of these pieces, the next steps might improve, but not in any way as much as if the beginning skills are mastered.

1. Oral Language Development
2. Phonemic Awareness
3. Phonics Decoding
4. Fluency
1. Accurate Reading
2. Appropriate Rate
3. Suitable Expression
5. Vocabulary
6. Comprehension

As the first three are mastered, Fluency is the next step. Fluency is not a predictor of comprehension. It is fluency. Vocabulary is the most important factor in reading comprehension. There is no guesswork here. This is the research. This is literacy and eventual master of literacy. Starting at number 1 and mastering each area. We can’t skip any part of tis sequence. If there is a need, there needs to be instruction.

Quote I’m pondering —

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I'm looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away. Puzzling.” 

— Robert M. Pirsig

What’s Happening This Week —

Monday, Oct. 29 - Lexia Training (K-2 English Teachers)

Monday, Oct. 29 - PLC Day (DSU classes)

Wednesday, Oct. 31 - Halloween Parade. Staff Picture after school.

Friday, Nov. 2 - Utah Food Bank after school

Friday, Nov. 2 - PTA iParent Meeting at 8:15 am

November 12-15 - SEP Conferences

Favorite Article This Week —

Oprah Winfrey starts every meeting with these same 3 sentences

Focusing our meeting to make them more effective will benefit our students and our focus. These are three great questions to use.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you 2nd and 3rd grade teachers. Thank you for taking extra time and working with your students that need a little extra attention. This has been a hard couple of months for you and we know how hard you are working. You are putting in a lot of extra time and effort to plan and work through the new program in two grade levels as well as work with very active students. Thank you for all you do for them. You are so important to our school and especially to our students.  Thank you for all you have done. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

Find the Purpose

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

Find the Purpose —

When we are planning for our lessons each day, how purposeful are we in the outcome we want from that lesson? There is a lot to get through in one year so we need to make sure everything we teach has a purpose and an outcome. This is why we have GVCs and Learning Targets. If the outcome is not ending in a GVC’s then why are we teaching it? And if we need to teach it, why is it not a GVC? Every school needs to purposeful in their lessons, but in the drive-by teaching we do in our school, we need to be more focused on the outcomes and purposeful in our delivery. More is not better, more is more. Less and deeper is more of what we need. How will this apply to our students’ lives? How will it create opportunities for them and a drive for them to want to keep learning. We will never be able to teach them everything, but if we engage them in learning and create a love of learning, they will keep learning themselves and they will learn everything they need to know. And if they need to know something we did not teach them, they will know how to find it and be able to learn it for themselves. Be purposeful in every lesson. Know your outcome and scaffold the learning so it builds to the next learning opportunity. 

Quote I’m pondering —

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will, through work, bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea’.”

-Chuck Close, American artist who achieved fame as a photorealist through massive-scale portraits

What I’m watching —

How our friendship survives our opposing politics

We live in a world with differing opinions. How do we teach our students to listen and learn from different opinions. This TED talk is a good example with good stories about how we can respect other ideas without ruining relationships. Not to show to students, but something to think about. 

Favorite Article This Week —

The 1 Word to Delete from Your Vocabulary if You Want to Succeed

I need to work on deleting this word from my vocabulary. It really does hold me back from what I could really do.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Jana, Cindy, Kathy, Cristin, and Lisa. You have taken and tested students on a variety of different tests that give us the data that we need to help our students. Now after you have started your LLI groups we mention how we might change things up a little and what we got from you was, “whatever you need.” We sure appreciate you great attitudes about doing what is needed to help each of the students at Dixie Sun grow. We sure appreciate all you do behind the scenes and all the little things you do that make such a big difference. Clubs, library, GT, lunch duty, kindergarten lunch duty, and everything else you do at the drop of a hat. Thank you. We appreciate all of you. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. 

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

The Improvement Plan

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

The Improvement Plan  —

Our grade has dropped from a C to a D as a school. What does that mean? It means we need to help our students go deeper and build their successes. As Kim and I reflected on last year we found a few  hints we needed to adjust to make students more successful. The first hung we needed to do was find time for interventions. With our schedule it is not easy to find that time in our limited day, so the thought came to build in a club time for all students to participate in. This gives students intervention time as well as an extension for every student sometime throughout the year. The next thought we had was we needed to change up our English strand classes. This would take extra help moving students into a couple different classes as well as changing schedules around. This is still a work in progress, but the idea is that it will give everyone an opportunity to learn and it would mix the classes up in a way that every student succeeds. Scheduling has been an interesting challenge, but in he end it should provide great results. The third idea that came up was that Shelly needed help with the science. 30 minutes a week with every student does not build science mastery, or even come close. So we thought that science needed to be more prevalent in the classroom in the form of informational ready, which everyone is doing anyway. Adding more science practice, background knowledge, and science vocabulary in the classroom will help students be more successful in understanding the world around them. And the last idea was one that came as we read through what you wanted as teachers in the survey last year. More PD for Phonics, Language, reading comprehension, and writing. So we called in the big guns, Jennifer and Sara. Actually everything we reflected on came from thoughts teachers had as we talked about how to make our school a better, more successful learning environment. One last piece that we think will help us providing snacks and Tan’s Treats for our students. These programs will give food where it is needed for our students. I don’t like to say that we are teaching to any teat. What we are trying to do is make our school a more successful place for students to be successful in, especially as they leave us. We want them to be ready for everything life will throw at them. Education is a game changer for many students. Anything we can do to up their game is a bonus. If you have any ideas or thoughts about this plan, please let us know. We are always up for ways to make our school better.  

Quote I’m pondering —

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, ‘What else could this mean?’”

― Shannon L. Alder

What I’m watching —

Imogen Heap's Mi.Mu gloves will "change the way we make music"

I love Imogene Heap’s music. When I saw a video about Imogene using gloves to make music I had to learn more. This, to me, is what our students are going to be doing in the future. Creating something to make life better, or more fun. I also wonder how this might change how we teacher or how students might learn…with a pair of gloves.

Favorite Article This Week —

Why Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains

This is our students. They have strong brains. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you. It has been a busy year so far and as we get deeper into the year I see how amazing the teachers and staff are at Dixie Sun. Working with many different staffs over the years it has been hard to get some engaged in trainings. There has been many times when the teachers would not get up and engage in the activity we were involved in. Not so here. We realize that if we expect our students to be engaged, we should also. When we are learning, we need to be learning. I appreciate the support you give whomever is teaching the PD. We get comments from everyone that comes to teach us that our teachers are engaged and wanting to learn. I just want you to know that you are amazing teachers. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. 

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

Addendum: I was reminded that another part of the plan was to add Mindset to our learning in the classroom. Teaching students and teachers about a growth mindset helps each understand more about how the brain works. It also builds persistence and that it is ok to make mistakes. Growth Mindset can increase learning in everyone because of their outlook on learning.

And Now A Thought About Fluency

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

And Now A Thought About Fluency —

Kim and I have been going to a Literacy Training. There was a part of the training that was an ah-ha moment for me. I read about Fluency and how important it is leading up to comprehension. Fluency is only how fast a text is read out loud, but it also includes accuracy and prosody. Students should read as fast as they talk. There is a WPM guide that tells us how fast that should be according to grade level, but a generally it should be as fast as a student talks. Faster than that, they are just reading as fast as they can and comprehension suffers. Accuracy brings in words, vocabulary and context and provides meaning to words students recognize as well as context to the text. If words are missed or misread, the meaning of the story could get lost. Prosody is the way stories are read. The voice fluctuation, the raising and lowering of the voice, sounding like the voices that are speaking the words on the page, and reading not only the words, but the punctuation. Storytelling. Put all these things together and we get fluency. Without each of these things, comprehension goes down. Now to the ah-ha moment. As we learned about all this, we thought about how we read books with students and listen to them stumble over words, help correct them if they say a words or sentence wrong, and in the end have them tell us what they read. If the student is reading a book they are not fluent in and are struggling reading words and do not know the vocabulary, should we expect them to understand what they read each time? They need to work on comprehension, but fluency is a big part of being able to understand the meaning of a text. So what do we do? If they do not comprehend what has been read, is the fluency getting in the way? Would choral reading help them understand better as they listen and read? Just a thought. If a student does not comprehend what is going on in a story, it might be because of their fluency. I know you are all working on amazing things with your students. This was just an moment of clarity for me. You just happen to be on the reading end of my thoughts. Thank you for bearing with me.

Quote I’m pondering —

“I not only use all the brains I have, but all the brains I can borrow.” -Woodrow Wilson

What I’m watching —

Decorah Eagle Camera

I have been watching this pair of eagles for about 5 years. They build their nest in January and February. Mom lays 2-3 eggs the middle of February, about 3-4 days apart and the two share their time siting on the eggs. Good lesson on sharing. Both boy and girl sits on the eggs. About the middle of March they hatch and we get to watch the parents feed fish and rabbits and other yummy foods to their young. Then about the middle of May the little ones start to stretch their wings and by the last day of school they are off and the nest is empty until January. And it is all live. They do have saved videos in two hour segments that they post so you can see what happens at night, or when something special happens you can refer back to it. Amazing.

Favorite Article This Week —

Dad’s Special Lunch Bag Drawings Help ‘Shy’ Son

These are some of the most amazing drawings, and they are on lunch bags. This is an amazing, talented dad. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Alma. Seriously you have done amazing things with our school. The coaching that happens when you put your magic touch and persistence on a situation. I have learned a lot from you. You have taught us all amazing things. It does take willingness and hard work on the part of the people you work with, but the fruits of your labors are evident and priceless for our school and the students. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.