End of the Year Student Engagement

Hi All! Happy End of the week!  I can't believe we are in Dibels Season and starting to think about end of the year review. I thought this would be a good time to think about upping engagement to help with focus! 

Check out some of the ideas below!  

What is Learner Engagement?  In a nutshell, Learner Engagement is the measure of a potentially successful learning experience for everyone concerned. It measures the quantity and the quality of a learner's participation. It also takes in account the interaction with co learners & instructors.  

What does an engaged learner look like?

• Active in their Learning
• Eager to Participate
• Willing to Expend Effort
• Motivated
• Inspired

I like this simple video about student engagement and the framework it explains. 

There are 3 levels of engagement:

1. Cognitive:Taking an active, committed approach to coming up with learning strategies. Such as mnemonics to remember content. 
2. Emotional:Feel connected to the material and or group.  Low levels of anxiety.
3. Behavioral: Completed tasks and always show up for lessons.  

So, we have learned quite a bit about learner engagement.  Let's jump into some ideas that will help you up the engagement in your classroom. 

Engaging Test Prep Ideas: Testing season is upon us and I know we are all working to get some review in. Up the engagement with some the the ideas below! 

This BLOG is FILLED with simple quick ideas that will help you up the engagement in your classroom. 

Be Creative with Content: You know the standard that we are working on.  Get creative in how you deliver it.  Ask students to weigh in on what interests them.  Get that SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES going in your lessons. Nonfiction is a GREAT way to up engagement and if the students have some ownership in what they will be learning about you can double on that engagement.  Use a survey about the next animal you will learn about for example. 

Hit lots of learning styles during your lessons. Add visual, music and movement to your lessons. 

Reward Learners:  This is always touchy for me.  I only want to reward extraordinary behavior not behavior that is expected.  But if this is an area that is really holding your students back, I always like earning a group reward.  Meaning building toward something.  Or adding in a bit of competition such as Cohorts competing for all assignments turned in. In PLCs, this week, I heard some great examples of earning raffle tickets for a class store and even giant Pixie Sticks. We all know that we are not in a normal situation and with that, we may need to do things we would not normally do.  This video is a JACKPOT of ideas for rewarding your kiddos! 

Check out these FREE rewards below!

Whole Brain Teaching: Get that call and response going! Even in the virtual world! Check out this video below modeling the SCOREBOARD!  I love to use this as a way to earn a "reward!" 

One of my favorite blogs, Cult of Pedagogy, has a great post about engagement!  Read it by clicking the image below!

Another great one from Cult of Pedagogy.  This is defiantly one to think about! 

Next steps from ENGAGEMENT to EMPOWERMENT!  GOALS!

Leveled Readers for Writing

Hi All!  I hope you had a wonderful SHORT week back to school!  I can't believe it is the end of April!  Next week is going to be busy with Dibels starting but we are in the home stretch now. 

I have been thinking lots about the leveled readers, specifically the predictable texts, that I know we have a surplus of and what we can do with them.  It is tricky because with what we have learned about the SOR we need to keep our students knee deep in decodables as they are learning to read.  

Some of the higher levels can be used for comprehension in the older grades.  Or sorted into to theme book tubs for students to choose from.  

I ran across this site over in a SOR reading FB group and I LOVE that the suggestions are how we can use the text to support students in writing & language with these leveled texts.    

This video is a QUICK refresher why we have moved to decodable text!  Great resource to share with parents if they are having concerns about book levels or lack there of! 

I am over the moon excited about using our predictable text to support our writing instruction! 

The Right to Read blog has a GREAT post with ways to look at the text and decide how they can be best used.  

Such as these ideas below.  

Once you have identified how you will use your text, school below and you will see different activities ideas that you can click on to support the text type.

Like this simple on for rewriting the sentence on the page! Use Post it tape to cover the words.  This would be so fun in a literacy center and then read the text to the class! 

Reading Rockets has these activities organized in a different manner.  

 

I know we are moving toward the end of the year but I thought these ideas were worth playing with at bit.  Finding ones that we can use next school year to bring more to our writing & language lessons.  

Have an awesome weekend! 

LETRS Update

Happy Weekend!  I hope you all have something relaxing and fun planned.  Spring is in full swing and I know things are going to start getting busy after our up and coming break.  

This Friday, I had a LETRS training about the first unit and what will be expected of us next year.  I thought this would be a great time to review the program and I will share more about our plan in PLCs next week.  

Check out this video! 

This video is a great example of why the state chose LETRS.  I am excited to get started with this program! I also LOVE that in the video, the teachers state that it can be layered over most all programs.     

Here is some light reading on Unit 1, session 1. 

What is LETRS Training?

Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, which is a product of Voyager Sopris Learning, Inc. (VSL, Inc.)

LETRS addresses four critical outcomes for effective literacy instruction: understanding the science of reading, converting research to practice, enhancing teacher effectiveness, and transforming instruction. By understanding the “why” behind science and evidence-based research, educators can effectively know how to aid students in learning to read.

Who is required to attend LETRS Training?

The state is providing funding for the following staff members to participate in LETRS® training:

• homeroom classroom teachers working with pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students, including CTE preschool teachers,

• one administrator per school who will support/evaluate for alignment,

• one instructional coach per school

• lead teachers working with children in the NC Pre-K program and onsite administrator (including NC Pre-K in child care and Head Start settings)

• elementary EC Resource Teachers

• elementary ELL Teachers

Let's Dive in!

We will be trained on 8 different modules through an interactive virtual interface.  

If you are interested in learning more about the training, please join in on one of the webinars provided.   Click the image below. 

Here is a great brochure that will help you understand the training process and how it will help enhance our teaching.