Habits

Habits....

I'm trying to create some habits. I have some apps (Productive, Rally, Fit Bit) to help me with those habits. I have to say....the eating fruit habit is not going so well! So why do I think habits will work in a classroom?
Research says that it can take up to 8 months to create a habit! Yikes! We only teach 180 days a year! So how can we create automaticity (habits) in our students? It might help that they are a little, lot, younger than us. Also, repetition is a key element. (More fruit, more than once a day!)

A blog,http://sourcesofinsight.com/50-repetitions-to-make-a-habit-stick/ talks about repetition and habits.
Also, when thinking about creating these fundamental habits in a classroom, it will get much easier, and virtually unneccesary in upper grades, if all teachers follow these same routines and procedures.                                                         

Once again, primary teachers SAVE THE DAY!!

Chapter 1 in Great Habits, Great Readers focuses on the procedures and creating of habits in your classroom. (The READERS part of the title needs to be ignored for now. This will work in ANY classroom, all day long!)

Why do you want to establish procedures?

It will save time...and I don't mean minutes. It can save DAYS, y'all.  Think back to your transitions - from carpet to desks, desks to carpet, station to station, desks to door, etc. Tick...tick...tick...tick..

Core ideaYou can't add more hours to the week, but you can add more hours of INSTRUCTION . Just build tighter routines. 

Give high priority to efficiency in the systems that happen most frequently over the course of the school day.

Core idea

Time lost to systems is time lost for learning. 

Some of these time eaters are on the teacher: Are materials ready and at your teaching spot? Do you have activities ready for children, learning and practice they can do on the carpet as they are all getting to their spots?
(If I am your coach, I would be more than happy to come and time your transitions for you! It seems like it would be really difficult to do on your own!)
Some of these time eaters are on the kids: "That's my spot!" "I can't find my crayons, pencil, eraser...." 

You can hear them now. 

                                You can see them now. 

Quick, back to summer!!!

While you are working on that new recipe (for whatever summer delight you are concocting) think about making thoughtful and intentional transitions, to make transformational instruction possible.

The book tells about two ways to make the greatest gains in student learning.


1. Setting up the room.

Core idea
The best classrooms don't just encourage student learning; they're designed for it. 

Set up space and resources to intentionally maximize time whenever possible.
*It took me a few years, but I hated dismissal time. It ate a LOT of time. I put half of the mailboxes on one side of the room, and half on the other side. So at dismissal, instead of having 24 kids trying to get to their mail at once, I had 12. Easy, peasy!
Have resources at your small group table. Make sure students know that learning is occurring at all times.
Great Habits, Great Readers lists the top seven materials to have on hand.

Core Idea:
Pay attention to materials before the lesson....so you can ignore them during it.

I have these pictures because I took pictures
as we learned procedures, printed them
out the first day of school, then made
procedural anchor charts which were used
all year.

*Also, I avoided line-up time gobblers, by giving students assigned-ish places in line. Depending on the age group I taught, I had ways to line up. For instance, I always had a leader (front of the line) door-holder (2nd in line), light person (2nd to the last person in line), and caboose (last in line). The caboose job was very important during field trips. They had to make sure we had everybody!
*Also, in kindergarten, I taped shapes to the floor (triangles, rectangles, etc), and had shapes on the tables. Triangles would line up, etc.  Needed math vocabulary AND procedures!! 
*In first and 2nd grade I had students line up in ABC order by 1st name. (This would change every week, because my helpers changed weekly. That kept them on their toes!) Every 6 weeks I would rotate...last name, first name, etc. Until the last 6 weeks of school...then we lined up by MIDDLE name! The excitement!!
*I assigned carpet spots....yes I did. 

I taped their names on the carpet, using name plates. Let me just say...the counselor, principal, visitors to our classroom loved that. And now that I am going in and teaching lessons to 80-100 different children a day...I would love that, too! It's a really great way for visitors to call kids by name. 

You can kind of see the sight word cards
taped to the carpet.

I also had sight words on yarn necklaces, and sight words taped to the carpet. When the students came in to the classroom, I would greet them, they would sign in (attendance/lunch count), grab a necklace, and that was their spot on the carpet for the day. They would read the word to their neighbor, it was their job to write that work in interactive writing, find they word and highlight it in shared reading, etc. I didn't start this until I had enough sight words for each child...usually the fourth week of school.

You could also use the carpets with letters (first or last name, vowels/consonants, etc.).

And if your carpet doesn't have squares already....duck tape, y'all! 

2. Habits of effective transitions. 

Core idea

To make great transition work, you must first take the time to practice them.

Tightly scripted....every single transition....every single time...with a positive tone (and a little hint of challenge!)
The videos that are included with the book are amazingly insightful!
Also...gradual release:  I do (10%); We do (60%), You do (30%)

Key tips in effective transitions (as quoted in the book):

• Teacher location
• Instructional materials
• Designated pathways
• Economy of language (none is best)
• Immediate start
• Chanting (optional...but fun!)

Core Idea
Repeatedly teach your students to be the class you want. Excellence is not an act but a habit.

So go, relax, dream of your perfect class. 

Now...what changes do YOU need to make to make that dream a reality? 

Summer List

I love summer! My list is full of things that make my days happy, and my school year easier.

1. Read

 I try to read a book a day! When I lived in Amarillo, the public library had a book sale. You could fill a grocery sack full of books for $5. You know, those grocery bags that you are SUPPOSED to take to the store to cut back on waste. I use those....for books. Several bags means many books. Then I bring them home and put them, in alphabetical order by author (of course), on shelves, in drawers, inside trunks. During the summer I read them, in a sort of alphabetical order. One A....then one B, etc.  I can't just let my OCD tendencies go for the summer. And I read until the end.Sometimes the books are completely forgettable. Sometimes, the characters are old friends, come to visit for the summer. 

2. Clean

....the house, the closets, the pantry, the washing machine. (I do all of the following between reading!)

3. Cook

because I'm cleaning the pantry, the freezer. Also, I have time. And, I double cook, freeze, and have meals to get me through those first, time-consuming weeks of school. 

4. Spend time with friends. 

It's on my calendar. But nothing is planned yet. I need to get on that! 

5. Fish -boat - spend time outside.

It's been raining, so the boat ramp is closed. Still, it's only the first week of summer.

6. Catch up on doctor's appointments

Dentist yesterday - rest today!

However, that colonoscopy I've been putting off....still haven't made that appointment. 

7. Spend time with family

My parents just left. We need to get to Houston to see our sons. And we need to meet Austin's fiance's parents. But, have you ever driven in Houston??? Courage is needed. And a lot more rest. 

8. House projects

Touch up paint

Hang curtains

It's a new house....so that shouldn't be too difficult. I can definitely do this between chapters!

9. Pinterest projects!

Pinterest overwhelms me. I've taken to creating a to-do this week board, and I put about 7 pins on it. One of which is a drink recipe. And a house project!

10. Go to professional conferences, workshops, coaching book study. 

( A typical teachers "summer off",)

11. Read a professional book and blog about it!

So, the book I'm reading is Great Habits, Great Readers by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Aja Settles, and Juliana Worrell. I'm thinking I can read a chapter a day!

And I'll blog about what I find interesting. Which is what THIS blog is really about!

Great Habits, Great Readers

Today I read the introduction. Let me say, I believe this book can change classroom landscapes. I feel like it takes all those pieces of the literacy puzzle, and puts them together in a meaningful, usable way.  (It also includes videos!)

• Students reached extraordinary heights because they have all developed extraordinary habits: a deeply learned database of skills and strategies that they can access automatically when they read. Automaticity is important...in reading and writing! That's why we work so hard on letter id, letter formation, and high-frequency words. But reading automaticity can be taken to the comprehension level, the discussion level. Isn't this exciting????!!!
• Habits are the product of the choices their teachers have made. Make reading lessons about learning the right habits. Targeted instruction!
• Every student can be taught.
• Repeated actions build our habits, our habits build our skills.

Core idea

Key determinant of success is the number of practice opportunities participants have. So...reading ONE book a week (around 36 books) or FOUR books a week (around 164 books). Hmmmm......

• Reading proficiency....higher rates of graduation and college enrollment, depth and breadth to one's understanding of the world. (Plus....what do you do in the summer if you don't READ?)
• Teach on grade level. 
• Radically reduce the amount of time spend on transitioning, looking for pencils, etc. to increase the amount of time spent on practicing key skills.
• Guided reading allows students to read, engage in rigorous comprehension conversation with their teacher and peers, each moment cementing a great reading habit more deeply. It ensures that every practice opportunity is a perfect practice opportunity. Guided reading also ensures that students are always working on the skills they most urgently need to master.
• The best teacher carefully and routinely tailor their instruction to the skills their students need the most. They differentiate. They adapt. 
• When a child gets something wrong, leverage that instant to begin forming the habits that will help him get it right. I always taught my students that when they were WRONG, they were learning something. And, it helped me know what to TEACH! (Which was my job.)

Habits are started at the moment of error, 

not at the moment of success. 

Core idea

• Content area instruction is vital to the literacy block. Is departmentalization a good idea?At what grade?
• Balance informational and literary texts, creating a staircase of text complexity. Build vocabulary as you increase the complexity.
• Require text based answers.
• Write from sources. Writing becomes the critical first step to grasping meaning from a text. Writing drives comprehension conversations. 

I can't wait to read more! Please feel free to post comments, if you are or have read this book. I feel the need for discussion...to cement my learning!

Now, to another item on my list. Okay....I'm going to read another chapter of my literary text! I love summer!