If you’re a teacher, I don’t have to tell you how busy and overwhelming the back-to-school season gets. It ranks right up there with the hectic holiday season. Let’s focus on what we can do to help ease the anxiety and feel optimistic about the new year ahead!
Four steps to calm the overwhelm:
1 – get a notebook or planner to jot down your ideas and thoughts because they’re going to come at you like a tsunami. Having one place to write everything down will ease your overwhelm.
You can take this a step further and label some pages with topics.
Here are some examples. Use the ones that work for you.
*room set-up
*room decor
*organizing tasks
*curriculum things to do
*meetings & important dates
*routines/procedures to teach (watch for my next post about these!)
*first week activities
*first day activities
*organization needs
*classroom supplies
*stuff to make
*stuff to buy
*stuff to copy
If you’re like me, when you’re busy working on one thing, you’ll think of an idea or something you need to for another category. Instead of interrupting yourself and getting off track, you can note the idea on the appropriate list and keep on going, knowing that your ideas are written down for when you can get to them.
2 – when you find yourself running around like a chicken with its head cut off, just STOP. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Or maybe several deep breaths. (My favorite is 4-7-8 breathing. Inhale for a count of four. Hold your breath for a count of seven. Then exhale for a count of eight.) Imagining yourself in a relaxing place helps too.
3 – when you feel calm again, ask yourself three important questions about your current tasks:
*Is this a must-do task (in other words: does this HAVE to be done before students enter the building on day one?)? If so, put a star beside it.
*Is this a would-be-nice-to-do task? (That bulletin board would be really cute, but for right now I could just put paper and border on the board and add the other cute stuff later.)
*Is this something I could delegate or drop altogether, or save it for later when I have time? (Tasks like cleaning out file cabinets or organizing a closet. They might be great things to do, but do they really have to be done before students enter the building?)
4 – organize your to-do list before you set foot in the building.
Here’s how to do that:
*Take those must-do tasks and plan when you will do them. Be realistic, knowing that you’ll also want to visit with school friends (but try to keep those visits brief) and that you’ll be sitting in meeting after meeting.
*Add those would-be-nice-to-do tasks to the list, but in a separate area (so you don’t get them confused with your must-do tasks).
*Before you walk in the door every day, have your list made for that day’s work. Put a star beside your top three tasks for the day. When/if you finish those tasks, then choose another task. Continue for the amount of time that you are in the building.
*Speaking of time, set time limits for yourself. You know as well as I do that school tasks expand to fill the time available. If you set a deadline (and a timer!) for yourself, you are more likely to work like a beaver during the time you’ve set.
*Make your to-do list public. Write it on the board! This way, when folks come into your classroom, they’ll see you working and they’ll also see your list on the board. It’s a subtle reminder that we all have a lot to do so visits need to be brief!
On my Instagram Stories, I asked teachers what they love best about summer. I got lots of replies and it made me wonder – how can we keep the summer vibe going as we begin another school year?
First – think about what you love about summer.
Here were some responses to my IG story.
Longer stretches of time to work on tasks or projects
More sunlight
More time outside
More time with family or friends
More sleep or rest
Time to watch movies/TV/Netflix/etc.
Time to read books for fun
Time to read education books I don’t have time for during the school year
Time to scroll Pinterest and Instagram and find great ideas for next year
More leisurely mornings with coffee and a book
Less of a schedule
Now think about how can you keep some of this in your schedule/routines when you go back to school.
Here are ways to do that.
To have more time to work on personal tasks or projects:
Plan your week at home. While you will definitely have less time during the year, scheduling even 15 minutes once a week will help you make some progress and feel like you’re getting a chance to work on projects that matter to you.
More sunlight and time outside:
Arrange your day to take advantage of hours of daylight.
Could you get up earlier and spend a bit of time outside before you go to school?
Could you walk around outside at some point during the school day?
Could you eat your lunch outside or do some of your planning/prep outside?
Set a “stop time” for work every day (or as many days as possible) so that you can come home earlier and take advantage of daylight hours.
More time with family & friends:
I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but plan your week at home! When you do this, you can build in some time every week to do something fun with friends or family.
Sad to say but if you do not schedule the time, it won’t happen since school work will always seem to take precedence and will fill the time available.
More sleep or rest:
While we won’t be able to stay up as late as we want or sleep in as long as we want, we can still think about ways to get more sleep during the school year.
Think about how much sleep you absolutely need. It’s probably around 7 – 9 hours (although I’ve been guilty of trying to get by on six hours).
Think about a bedtime and wake-up time for yourself that will ensure you get the rest you need. Now make it a goal that you will stick to those times as many nights as you possibly can. You might also schedule time for a nap on the weekend if you can manage that!
Time to watch movies/TV/Netflix, etc.:
Keep a running list of the shows you want to watch. When you do have an evening to yourself, you’ll have a list and won’t waste the time scrolling through your options.
Even if you don’t get a chance to watch anything during the school year, you’ll have a list for your weekends, long weekends, or your next break!
Time to read books for fun:
Keeping a running list helps here too. It also helps to plan to read for a few minutes at bedtime. You probably won’t get through any book as quickly as you can during the summer, but at least you can carve out a little bit of time to read for fun.
Time to read education books:
In my first year of teaching, a wise older teacher suggested that I give myself 10 minutes three days a week to read something related to education. It could be a book, a blog post, an Education Week or Edutopia article, whatever.
I started doing that and I have been amazed at how much reading I am able to do during the year when I devote that time. This may not work for you, but if you can carve out a few minutes of time (even five minutes), you’ll probably be surprised at how much you can read!
Scrolling social media for classroom ideas:
I love doing this too. The problem for me is that I can easily let 30 minutes go by and not even remember what I’ve seen.
So I have a couple of suggestions here:
One suggestion is to set a time limit for your scrolling – 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Whatever you can spare.
Another suggestion: if it’s an Instagram post, set up a page in the Notes app of your phone and share the link to the appropriate note. If it’s Pinterest, you can pin it.
Then the last suggestion is to schedule a time to look at the fun things you saved or pinned and decide if you want to use the idea.
Leisurely mornings:
I am a big fan of having time to drink one (or two) cups of coffee, reading a devotional (Just Rest by Melanie Redd is my current book), and just generally having time to get my day started without feeling frantic.
So I started thinking about all the things I would like to do before my teaching day starts and how long these tasks would take (if I weren’t taking my sweet time, that is). I then developed a morning routine that gets my day started in the right way for me. (If you want my tips, here’s a link.)
School mornings will never be as leisurely as summer or weekend mornings, and that’s okay. But starting my day with routines that help me get the day off to a positive and productive start helps a lot.
Less of a schedule:
This is a hard one to keep in your school year routine. I try to look at this as just part of the rhythm of the year. For instance, I love it when everything slows down when school ends. But I also try to see getting back into a “schedule” as a positive part of the late summer/early fall routine.
I live in a college town. When the students leave in mid-May, suddenly the traffic eases up, we can get into our favorite downtown restaurants much more quickly, and everything seems quieter. Then – just when we’re getting bored with the quiet – the students return in mid-August and there is new energy to the town.
I try to look at the positive sides of both times of the year. So enjoy your summer with less of a rigid schedule, but also look at how you can keep the fall schedule from becoming insane. Limit your kids’ after-school activities to one or two, try not to schedule too many appointments or meetings in any one week, and leave some “white space” or buffer time in your calendar so that you can have time to do whatever you want to do.
Enjoy what remains of your summer and let me know which one of these tips helps you!
As a teacher, you know all about planning for school. But what about planning for your life outside of school? If you find yourself struggling to stay organized or get to all the things that you want to do, try some weekly planning for your personal life!
During my second year of teaching, I reached a breaking point. I was spending hours every day after school on teacher work (which expands to fill the time available). Then I was returning home to piles of laundry and an empty fridge. I was forgetting about meetings at work and social events and birthdays at home.
Hot tears filled my eyes and my heart was pounding as the anxiety built. Everyone else seemed to have their act together, but I did not. I knew this was not sustainable. Sound familiar?
The biggest game-changer for me was when I started planning my week outside of school. How big of a game-changer was it? I was surprised when I started seeing the benefits that very next week.
1 – I was more productive at school because I knew exactly what I needed to do AFTER school.
2 – I was more productive with all the chores and tasks I needed to do at home.
3 – I scheduled time to “pay myself first.” (More about that later!)
Getting all the “stuff” done gave me more time for myself and my family.
One important thing I have learned about productivity: it’s not about getting MORE stuff done. It’s about getting the MOST IMPORTANT stuff done.
Planning for what you need to do and deciding when you will do it helps reduce your decision fatigue throughout the week. Deciding once means you will have the energy and motivation to get to all the most important things that matter to you.
With that in mind – let’s get started! In this post, I will show you how I go about planning my week in advance. I’ll show you how I do this step by step, so it looks like a lot. But I promise you that it really only takes about 15 minutes.
TIPS TO GET STARTED WITH WEEKLY PLANNING
*Make this time into some kind of pleasant planning ritual. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, sit somewhere pleasant (outside if the weather is nice), and use some kind of pretty notebook or journal. Make this into an enjoyable ritual.
*Choose a day and time to do your planning. Some people prefer Sunday afternoon, some prefer first thing on Sunday morning. I have recently been doing my weekly planning on Friday afternoon. That way, I go into the weekend with more of a sense of relaxation, since my next week is already planned. It cuts down on the “Sunday Scaries” for me. But experiment and find the day and time that work for you.
*If your head is constantly spinning with all the tasks to complete, start keeping a running “brain dump” list. Your brain dump list doesn’t have to be pretty or organized. This is a running list of whatever comes to mind at any time during the week, not just during your weekly planning time.
This list helps your brain stop spinning. You will know that everything is written down, you don’t have to keep obsessing about it, and you can get back to the task at hand.
*One place to start your brain dump list: clean out your email inbox and make a list of things you need to do or where you need to follow up.
(I actually do this at a separate time. I clean out my school email inbox on Fridays and my home email inbox on Sundays. It doesn’t matter when you do it, but choose a day to go through your inbox and add those tasks to your brain dump list. Then, when you’re ready to plan your week, that list is handy.)
WEEKLY PLANNING – 5 STEPS
CHECK YOUR CALENDAR
1 – So now you’ve got your brain dump list, including any tasks or follow-up tasks from your email inbox.
First, review your calendar for appointments, meetings, and other scheduled tasks or obligations. Include work-related meetings that take place after school like faculty meetings, PLC meetings, IEP meetings, etc.
You will need to plan your things to do around these scheduled events because they have specific times. (If you have a lot of these, you will need to put fewer to-do items on your weekly planning list. More about that later.)
Make sure you include family obligations that you do daily or weekly, even if they’re not written on your calendar (child care for instance!)
What about weekly errands, such as grocery shopping? Think about when it’s best for you to do tasks like that.
Now you’ve got your calendar events and time blocked off for appointments and meetings.
PAY YOURSELF FIRST
2 – Next thing to plan – how you’re going to pay yourself first. This is how you’re going to create boundaries between the things you HAVE to do and the things you WANT to do for yourself.
Schedule your personal self-care time and your relationship-building time. These do not have to be huge blocks of time, but go ahead and schedule them first.
Scheduling these tasks helps to make sure they actually get done!
If you’re a runner or you go to the gym, when will you plan to do those things?
Add time for the important relationships in your life. Maybe that is a weekly date night or a night out with friends. Maybe it’s a weekly family event like family game night or visiting a park. Schedule whatever helps you stay connected to the most important people in your life.
And finally – make sure to schedule rest or downtime for yourself. This might be a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, time for a long nap on a Sunday afternoon, time when you’ll take a break from your family and spend time by yourself. Whatever will help you to get the rest you need, schedule that!
Now you’ve got your scheduled events (step one) and your time for yourself and your important relationships (step two).
DAILY DAILY ROUTINES, & BUFFER TIME
3 – Schedule your daily planning time, your morning and evening routines, and buffer time. When will you plan your week (like you’re doing now)?
When will you do lesson planning, unit planning, and daily planning for school? (Hopefully, you are getting that done at school. If you need help with your teacher to-do list, here’s a link to my post about that.)
When will you make your daily to-do list for your time outside of school?
What time will you start your morning routine and what will you do each morning to be ready for a great day?
What time will you start your evening routine so that you can get the rest you need for the next day?
Finally, schedule some buffer time because nothing ever goes as planned! I try to schedule one afternoon a week with nothing planned so I can catch up. I also like to schedule some time every day, when possible, even if it’s just 15 – 30 minutes.
Now you’ve scheduled your events and appointments (step one), your self-care and relationship time (step two), your planning time and some buffer time (step three).
TIME FOR YOUR GOALS
4 – Next, think about your goals and what you are working on in your life right now. If that goal is still important to you, schedule time to work on it or it will not happen.
Start with just scheduling 15 minutes every day. (You can always build up time later.) Is 15 minutes too hard right now? Start with five minutes.
Is your goal to do some writing, organize your closet, study the Bible, or read to your kids every day? Whatever it is, make note of it and plan the times when you will work on that goal.
A goal doesn’t have to be related to your home or your family. A goal could be something that is just for you.
Are you crafty and want time to create? Schedule that 15 minutes.
Are you thinking about starting some kind of side business (like selling your teaching resources on Teachers Pay Teachers) or an Etsy shop? Schedule that 15 minutes. You get the idea.
You’ve now scheduled events and appointments (step one), self-care and relationship time (step two), planning time and buffer time (step three), and time to work on your personal goals (step four).
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK
5 – Finally, the tasks that remain will be listed as “Things to Do This Week”.
You have scheduled all of the most important stuff. Now it’s time to think about how (or if) you can get to other tasks on the list.
Why have a weekly list? Because some days are better than others in terms of your energy or how much time you have to do something.
This list allows for that by not locking you into having to do certain things on certain days or completing a certain number of tasks each day. It helps you see the big picture for the week.
It also helps you be realistic about what you can actually get done and what might need to be postponed (or rescheduled) for another week.
One way to be more productive and effective with this list is to cnsider “batching” some tasks. Try getting all of your errands done on one day, for instance.
Other things to consider as you make your weekly to-do list
*Is this a week filled with lots of appointments or meetings?
If so, put fewer things on the “Things to Do This Week” list.
*What are the top projects that need to be done soon?
Put these tasks at the top of your list or indicate their urgency with some kind of symbol. Maybe a star or exclamation point or the letter A.
Examples: packing for a trip, prepping for hosting a social event at your home, getting ready for a move, etc.
*Does this really need to be done?
Honestly – can it just be eliminated? What is the point of doing it?
If I keep writing something down on my list, but don’t actually ever get to it, maybe it’s time to rethink the importance of the task. Does it still matter to me? If so, I’ll make it a priority to get it done. If it doesn’t matter to me as much now as it used to, I just eliminate it.
*Does this need to be done by me?
Can you delegate it, or get help with the project?
Some examples: can you form a carpool to get kids to and from extracurricular activities? Can you schedule a grocery order to be picked up or delivered instead of actually going to the store?
*Does it need to be done right now?
If not, leave it on the brain dump list for another time OR put it on your calendar for a future time when you might have more time or energy for it.
An example: I’m working on cleaning out my attic storage areas. Summer might seem like it would be a good time for this since I have bigger blocks of time, but it’s way too hot. So I schedule this for fall or spring when the temperatures are not as extreme.
The bottom line question to ask is:
*Does this task really matter right now, in this season of life?
During busy back-to-school time, for example, I eliminate or postpone or delegate tons of things because I know that my time and energy will be stretched to their limit.
This doesn’t mean that cleaning out my closet or making a doctor’s appointment isn’t important – it’s just not important right now, in this season. (By the way – it’s a good idea to ask yourself this question as you make your daily to-do list as well.)
Remember that the point of your to-do list is not to overwhelm you or to schedule yourself like an airport runway.
Your to-do list:
*helps you do the things you have to do (chores, etc.) more efficiently
*helps you schedule time for yourself, your important relationships, and your time for rest
*helps you focus on what really matters to you.
Keep your list manageable and focused on what really matters!
With that in mind: every week will not be the most “productive” week in terms of completing tasks.
If you get sick, or if a family member gets sick, and your time is spent caring for yourself or someone else, lots of tasks may not get done. That is totally fine! Your top priority – in that week, at that time – was to get well or to help someone else get well. That is the most productive use of your time, NOT all the other things.
Finally – and this is the most important thing: your weekly planning is meant to HELP you, not be the boss of you!
Things happen, emergencies come up. Give yourself grace when things don’t go according to plan.
Use your weekly planning as a way to focus on what is most important for you to do in THIS season of life.
Remember that you want to be productive, yes, but also effective – doing what is most important to do right now.
To recap:
5 steps for weekly planning:
1 – scheduled appointments, meetings, events, work responsibilities, family/child care time
2 – pay yourself first – time for yourself and time for your important relationships
3 – daily routines and buffer time to catch up
4 – time to work on a goal
5 – “things to do this week” tasks
I can’t wait to hear how these tips help to make you more productive and effective, doing the things that are most important to you!
It’s the end of another school year and your to-do list is probably a mile long. Besides all the final grades, finalizing student records, and end-of-year activities and celebrations, you have to close down your classroom for the summer. Who cares about next year? You’re just trying to get through the rest of this year!
I get it. So this checklist is meant to only take a moment (because that’s all you have). First, grab a journal like this one or grab a notebook. Keep it with you.
Next, read the tasks on this checklist. As you are doing all.the.things to finish up this year, think about these questions. Reflect and think about what went well this year and what you might want to do differently next year. As you think of ideas, jot them down in your journal or notebook.
When you’re ready to start thinking about next school year (whether over the summer or not until teacher workdays begin in August), your ideas will be captured there for you. Even if you don’t use them all, having them written down keeps your ideas “safe” until you are ready to use them.
Here are the eight checklist tasks.
1 – Procedures & Routines – Think about your classroom procedures and routines. Start at the beginning of your school day and think through the entire day. What procedures and routines will you keep? What would you like to set up differently next year? You don’t have to actually come up with new ideas yet – jot down whatever comes to mind. (Hint: this is a great one to reflect on while you are dismantling your classroom.)
Another thing to think about is seating arrangements. How did you arrange seats or tables this year? What other arrangements have you seen in other classrooms that might work for you? Jot them down now! (You’ll never remember them in August. Ask me how I know.)
2 – Classroom Displays – Do you have ideas for displays that you want to create for next year? Make a list of what was helpful this year, or what you might have wanted to have on display. Do you have a cute idea for a welcome display for next year’s class? Any other decoration ideas? How about your classroom library or reading area? Do you want to add some lamps or rugs?
3 – Do Better – Think about what you want to do better next year. Would you like to implement guided math or more math centers? How about hands-on science activities?
My school implemented a new ELA initiative this year. We did a pretty good job with the management end of things (it uses a pretty complex website), but many teachers have talked about wanting to get into a better routine for that part of the program next year. This is a perfect thing to start thinking about now. What routines or schedules could you create for yourself that you might want to implement next year?
4 – Relationships – What did you do that helped build student relationships or your classroom community this year? What would you like to try next year? What were some things that got in your way with regard to classroom community? Who are some teachers you learned from this year? Who might you want to learn from next year?
If you’re interested in learning some about some of my favorite classroom community topics, here you go:
5 – Learn – Think about what you want to learn this summer. Are there certain teacher books you want to read? Would you like to learn more about the science of reading? You can always start with Twitter (searching for experts you want to follow or topics you want to explore), then go from there with their suggested reading. Even if you’re not up for reading an entire book about a teaching topic, many articles online are shorter and super helpful. Edutopia is a great place to start.
6 – First Day/First Week – How about the first day and first week plans? Review your plans from this past year and think about what worked well and what you want to keep. How about books to read aloud? If you can go ahead and set those books aside somewhere, that will save you some time in August!
Here are some of my posts about the first day and week of school:
7 – Supplies – Begin making a list of supplies or things you want for your classroom next year. Maybe you need a new electric pencil sharpener or a new birthday poster. You don’t actually have to purchase anything, but having a shopping list (or a list of supplies to get from your school) will put you ahead of the game in August.
8 – Habits & Teacher Routines – Think about yourself and your own energy and self-care. What worked well for you this year? What would you like to do differently next year? What habits and routines would help you to take better care of yourself next year? Think about these things now and try to create a plan before those busy August workdays!
Finally – if you’re in the market for a cute new teacher planner, here are some options! Sometimes it takes time to find the perfect planner for you so take a look at all your options.
We all know we need exercise. We can name all the benefits of it and some of us might actually enjoy doing it. But finding the time (and energy) to get to the gym, especially after a long day at school, can be a challenge.
While exercise is an important form of physical activity that can burn hundreds of calories at a time, other forms of physical activity, called non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), can play a significant role in helping to maximize the total amount of calories burned in a single day.
Here are 10 ways to get more exercise throughout the day WITHOUT setting foot inside a gym!
1 – Get more “steps” into your day. If you have a FitBit or an Apple Watch, you’re probably already aware of tracking steps. Think about ways you can move more often.
Can you walk to a co-worker’s classroom instead of sending an email? Can you take your dog for an extra walk, even a short one? Can you take the recycling bin to the curb instead of asking your spouse or kids to do it? Can you park farther away from your school (or workplace), grocery store, or Target? Even just walking through Target counts for adding more steps to your day!
It doesn’t seem like much, but all that extra movement adds up! Wearing comfy shoes like Rothy’s or All Birds makes getting all those steps an enjoyable experience!
2 – When you’re watching TV, think about moving around more during the commercials. Get up and walk around, stretch. Do some calisthenics like squats, curl-ups, push-ups, or jumping jacks. You can even develop exercises to add to other tasks you do throughout the day. For example, you could do calf raises while brushing your teeth, wall push-ups while waiting for food to heat up in the microwave, or squats and lunges before you hop in the shower.
3 – Trying to find the time for a 60-minute workout (or even a 30-minute workout) might seem impossible, but what about five minutes? Or seven minutes? You could try something like Obe Fitness, SOTO Method (my new favorite), free workouts on YouTube, or the Scientific 7-Minute Workout. A few of these mini workouts per day make a big difference!
4 – If you want to try to fit in a bit of movement before your day begins, try getting up 20 minutes earlier. And if you get up 20 minutes earlier, you also need to go to bed 20 minutes earlier. Sleep is just as important as movement.
5 – Cleaning your house or doing yard work counts as a workout! Try to save up several chores and do them all in one session for the best effect.
6 – Doing yoga poses throughout the day gives you energy while stretching and strengthening your entire body. I love the Office Yoga book.
7 – Stand up while you’re working! Can you use a standing desk? Or place your laptop on some kind of counter or stack of books so that you can stand and work at the same time?
8 – If you do need to sit while working, can you use a stability ball or a wobble seat? Both of these work your core while you’re sitting.
9 – Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to get up and move around every 30 minutes.
10 – Instead of parking close to your school (or store or Starbucks or your favorite shopping area), try parking farther away. This is an easy way to force yourself to get more steps into your day! Another tip is to take the stairs whenever possible.
Little bits of movement like these can really add up. I hope you’ve found some ideas here! And I’d love to hear any ideas for how you have added more movement into your day.
Keeping students engaged during content area reading or a literature study is a challenge. Everyone is at different reading levels, yet we all need to understand the content.
How do we get every student to stay engaged? Try one of these five strategies and see how it works for your class!
1 – Teach your students how to annotate the text.
Here’s how to do that.
~Explain what annotating is (highlighting or marking important information) and what it isn’t (highlighting everything!).
Not everything is important. Rereading to deepen your understanding IS important. Annotating helps your brain focus on what you need to reread, understand, and clarify with others.
~Here are some examples of things you might annotate:
*evidence for a writer’s claim or opinion
*identifying character traits/motivations (or those of a person)
*summarizing different sections (then putting all that together to get a summary of the entire article)
*identifying main idea & important details
*identifying & defining key vocabulary
*looking for patterns or how events are connected
*putting a question mark beside sections that are confusing
*circling words that are difficult to define from the text
*putting a star beside sections that they want to discuss with others
~Model your own annotating WITH students at first. Depending on the age of your students, you might need to do this several times.
~When you first allow students to annotate on their own, consider having them share their annotations, understandings, and questions with a partner or small group of three or four students.
2 – “Save the last word for me” strategy
~Put students in small groups of four. One student should be the timekeeper and one should be the facilitator who starts the discussion.
~Give everyone a copy of the text and have them either annotate the text or fill out a graphic organizer if the text cannot be marked.
~Read just one section of the text. Everyone reads silently and annotates or takes notes.
~The facilitator starts the discussion by sharing their thinking about the text. (Set a time limit for each person to speak, based on the length of the text or the amount of time in your class. Usually, 30 seconds to one minute works fine.)
~When time is up, the timekeeper indicates it’s time to move to the next student.
~The next student can comment on what was shared before and then shares their own thinking.
~When time is up, the next student will share and repeat. Continue until everyone, including the timekeeper, has had a chance to respond.
~The facilitator then gets the “last word”. They can share how their thinking changed after listening to others or they might re-emphasize their earlier points.
3 – The 1-3-6 Protocol
~This protocol helps students develop their own ideas and opinions about a text or a topic. Here’s a video that shows it in action.
~First, give students an article to read.
~Students then individually write their responses to the article. You might ask them to write five of the most important facts, character traits about a character, something they learned or wondered about, or something that surprised them.
~Next, put students in group of three to share their ideas. The small groups will group their ideas together and write a list (on paper, a whiteboard, a small poster, etc.).
~Now put two small groups of three into a larger group of six. Have the students share their ideas in this larger group.
~That group of six will also write a list of their ideas and put them together.
~Finally, share with the whole group.
~This is an especially helpful protocol to use with students who are quieter or who have more difficulties with language (ELL students, for example).
4 – Finding the gist & unfamiliar vocabulary
~Have students individually read the text once, all the way through from start to finish.
~Then have them reread a section of the text and think about the “gist” independently. They should also underline things they DO understand or know about, and then circle any words they don’t know.
~Now put them into pairs or small groups and have them discuss their ideas with their partner or group.
~As a group, they should write the gist of the section on a sticky note.
~Then have them reread another section and repeat the process.
5 – Say Something (a paired reading strategy)
~Assign reading partners.
~Assign a portion of the text for students to read (or have partners decide how far they will read) before they stop to “say something.”
~Give students some ideas of WHAT to say when they get to their stopping point: they might ask a question, summarize what they’ve read so far, ask for clarification about a key point or an unknown word, point out an interesting idea, etc.
~Model the “say something” first.
~Have students read the text silently, then each of them will “say something” when they get to their stopping point.
~Continue the process until the reading selection is complete.
~Have a whole group discussion of the text.
A #sustainableteaching tip: choose structures that are simple to implement (like the ones I’ve shared), but which have a big impact on your students. Then stick to those structures. Finding what works and making it your tried-and-true, go-to strategy will simplify your teaching time!
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