Now it is time to get into the details.  In Stage Three, we figure out the structures, language, social emotional learning, sheltered English immersion, as well as the specifics of the Bends and the Mini-lesson Trajectory.  With every decision, we reach back into Stages One and Two and ensure that every decision is aligned and thoroughly thought out.

 

Structures

At this time, determine what structures will be leaned on most heavily during this unit.  Of course, all structures will continue to be utilized, but some units might rely more heavily on shared reading while others rely on Interactive Read Aloud, some might units might necessitate a focus on partner or group work.  Allow the unit overview and your annotations to guide these decisions.

 

Once you have determined the structures, consider what new rituals and routines will need to be established in order for these structures to be successful.  These rituals and routines will need to be embedded in the launch of the unit.  Also connect the structure to the SEL instruction needed.  For example, if the unit relies heavily on partner work, you will likely need to do some lessons on cooperative learning, turn taking, what to do if you disagree, listening skills, etc.

 

Decisions to be made:

• Structures

  • ​Mini-Lessons

  • Interactive Read Aloud

  • Shared Reading

  • Interactive Writing

  • Shared Writing

  • Independent Reading

  • Independent Writing

  • Conference

  • Small Group Work

  • Word Work

• Rituals and Routines

• Classroom Arrangement

• Groups

  • Partners

  • Small Group

  • Whole Class

• Tools

• Accountable Talk

  • What are the speaking and listening skills?

  • Structures

    • ​Partners

    • Small Group

    • Whole Group

  • Phases of Implementation

    • Learning to share

    • Learning to build

    • Learning to synthesize

 

Skill (what)                                        Disagree with the idea, not the person

Structure (when)                              Partner conversation and whole class conversation

Sentence Frames/Anchor (how)   I disagree with the idea that the character is feeling ashamed because in the

                                                                          picture her eyes are wide and she is hiding in the bleachers, so I think she is

                                                                          feeling frightened.

                                                                          I disagree that the solution to that problem is 2/4 because the whole is

                                                                          broken into five parts.

 

Text Selection

Text Selection is an essential element of unit planning.  The right text can inspire, drive conversations and make scholars feel deeply connected with the learning goals.  There are many text selection determinations to make through the unit, such as:

• IRA/Mentor Text

• Book Club/Partner Reading

• Independent Reading

• Small Group

 

As you are making these text selections, consider:

• Text complexity

• ELL/Sped

• Cultural Relevance

• Interest

• Multimedia

Social Emotional Learning

Social Emotional Learning is essential for being a good student, citizen and worker. Considering the social and emotional needs of your students and planning supports throughout the unit is going to greatly increase the success and happiness of your classroom.

 

Pillars of Social Emotional Learning  

• Self Awareness

• Self Management

• Social Awareness

• Social Management (decision making/problem solving)

 

Open Circle Alignment with Content Unit Planning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bend 3 (rest of the year planning process)

• Determine skills students need to be successful in this unit within the structures.

• Determine data driven needs and needs based on observations as well as conferencing.

• What open circle lessons will be taught or retaught?

• Unpack the what (skill) into the how (strategic actions)and create an anchor.

• Plan for ongoing reflection/goal setting and effective feedback cycle.

 

How will the learning be integrated throughout the learning day, in all content areas and transitions, lunch etc.

 

Skill

Arrival/

morning work/other content areas

Morning Meeting

 

Open Circle Lessons

Anchor:  What and How

Reflection tools: embed in content all day, effective feedback cycle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sheltered English Instruction

• What is the academic vocabulary of the unit?  (theme, lesson etc..)

• What additional supports will be put in place for ESL learners so they can access the language of the unit?

 

Tier 1 Words

Examples: big, small, house, table, family

Tier I words are basic, everyday words that are a part of most children’s vocabulary. These are words used every day in conversation, and most of them are learned by hearing family, peers, and teachers use them when speaking. These words are especially important for English language learners who may not be familiar with them.

 

Tier 2 Words

Examples: justify, explain, expand, predict, summarize, maintain

Tier 2 words include frequently occurring words that appear in various contexts and topics and play an important role in verbal functioning across a variety of content areas. These are general academic words and have high utility across a wide range of topics and contexts.

Another way to think of Tier 2 vocabulary is as cross-curricular terms. For example, the term “justify” and “predict” frequently appear in Science, Social Studies, and English texts.

 

Tier 3 Words

Low-Frequency, Domain-Specific words

Examples: isotope, tectonic plates, carcinogens, mitosis, lithosphere

Tier 3 words are domain specific vocabulary. Words in this category are low frequency, specialized words that appear in specific fields or content areas. We anticipate that students will be unfamiliar with Tier 3 words. Beck suggests teaching these words as the need arises for comprehension in specific content areas.

 

Plan for Supports

Who? What structure?

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening

Unpacking Each Bend of the Unit

Define the work of each bend and how they come together to get students to attainment of the big skill.  

 

Whole to part to whole!!!

 

Bend 1

Structures

 

Bend 2

Structures

 

Bend 3

Structures

 

Unit Kick Off

How will you kick off the unit to build excitement, engagement and a shared vision for the new work of the unit?

• Use visioning language

• Use multimedia

• Create a unit hook, theme song

• Use inquiry and investigation

• Give a preview of the celebration.

 

Unit Celebration

How will you celebrate when scholars are skillful at the end of the unit?

• It should shine a light on the learning journey (reflection)providing a forum for scholars to share how they have grown and changed.

• Balance process with product and connect to the purpose.

• Audience:  Peers, parents, community

 

Mini Lesson Trajectory

• Name the “what” (skill) and the “how” (strategic actions usually represented on an anchor.

• What whole group lessons will ALL scholars receive?

• Use the trajectory to fully plan mini-lessons using the mini-lesson template.

• Use data to inform needs for deleting or adding additional mini-lessons throughout the unit.

• Scholars learn by doing and through the effective feedback cycle the mini-lesson only names the new work.

 

• Teaching Point

• What

• How

  • Include the plan for the anchor?

  • Is it a new anchor or a part of one that is being built over time?

• Active Engagement

  • Text

  • Tools

  • Structure

Infuse Consistent Thinking Vocabulary

• Predicting

• Picturing/Visualizing

• Noticing

  • Read Closely

  • What does the text say explicitly?

• Wondering /Questioning

• Connecting

  • Analyze two or more texts

  • Cite specific text evidence

• Figuring it out

  • Interpret words and phrases

  • Analyze text structure part to whole

  • Assess point of view and purpose

  • Integrate and evaluate content

  • Delineate and evaluate the argument and claims of the text

  • Analyze meaning of text using knowledge of literary concepts and genres

• Make logical inferences from the text

 

Differentiation

 

Use what you know about scholars to differentiate:  process, product and content before you begin the unit.

 

Scholar/Group

Process:  

Learning experiences which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content.

Product:

Culminating projects that ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what he or she has learned in a unit.

Content:

What the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information.

Environment:

The way the classroom works and feels.

Interactive Read Aloud

 

What does the big skill look like and sound like when it is modeled in text?  

 

How will the big skill be represented in notes across the wall?  

Student note taking etc…

Intellectual Preparation

 

Interactive Read Aloud Title

Tier 1 Vocabulary

Tier 2 Vocabulary

Tier 3 Vocabulary

Planning to layer in or explicitly teach vocab.  (video/morning work etc)

 

 

IRA Title:

 

Big Thinking Job: (lesson, theme, author's purpose etc.)

 

Predicted Response:  (write this out)

 

Thinking Journey:  Reread to determine stopping points and structures so scholars can construct deep meaning from the text.  What does the reader need to notice and wonder to figure out the big thinking job?

Page

Structures

• Think Aloud (lift)

• Text dependent Question

• Partner Conversation

• Whole Class Conversation

What you will say and do?

What you are over-listening for?

What are the accountable talk goals?

 

Notes Across the Wall:  A Concrete representation of a repeated meta-cognitive thinking process(big skill)

• Accumulation of textual evidence (in the text work)

  • Sticky notes across wall to show chronology/order of thinking

  • Story grammar

• Create theories/revise theories(beyond the text work)

  • Lift out evidence to support (boxes and bullets, compare and contrast, etc…

• Gradual release to students across the unit (think aloud, partner conversation, whole class conversation, stop and jot, write long etc.)  The goal is for scholars to own the journey but also see the big skill modeled by an expert reader.

 

Vocabulary: Word Wall (explicit teaching, construction, ongoing accumulation)

As you construct vocabulary with scholars you will continue to add words, definitions and pictures to a Word wall.  These come from conversations with students, from student work and from a real world context.  Once named the words are used often orally and in writing with students to reinforce the meaning and provide models of context for the words. 

 

Shared Reading/Interactive Writing (K-3)

Foundational skills in the context of connected text.

 

Text/Topic:

 

Foundation Skill Focus:

Page

Structure/Tools

What you will say?

Effective Feedback

 

Close Reading

In a Close Reading, readers transact with text through annotation, discussion, and written response.

The readers’ focuses on what the author had to say, the author’s purpose, what the words mean, and what the structure tells them.

TEXT IS BOSS – the text comes first!  Our ideas come to bear when we make meaning of the text.

Close reading is a careful and purposeful RE-reading of a text to make meaning.   Frey

 

Planning for Close Reading

     In order to effectively facilitate a close read you must be intellectually prepared.  What that means is that you must read and reread the text annotating as you go.  You should be clear on the gist of each paragraph and identify potentially challenging vocabulary.   You should also read the text with the target question in mind identifying the important details that will support your answer.  Finally, you should write a short answer to that TDQ including evidence from the text.  When you are intellectually prepared you can spend your energy on gathering data from your scholars throughout the experience and using that data to provide the appropriate amount of scaffolding for your scholars.

• Select a text – a short piece of text (can be taken from a longer work) that is highly relevant to the unit of study (possibly a portion of an anchor/mentor text)

• Read the whole text to get the gist and determine the purpose, with the CCSS and big skill of the unit of study in mind

• Re-read to annotate for textual evidence that supports the purpose

• Connect the evidence/details to the purpose/TDQ by writing a short essay response.

• Re-read a third time – this time to identify possible scholar misunderstandings and barriers to understanding.

• -Text Structure/Complexity

• -Tiered Vocabulary

• Article /Text

  Structures

  Annotation Goals

  Tiered Vocabulary

 

Literacy Centers (K-2)

Independent or scaffolded application of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills with conferencing/effective feedback.

 

Center

What?  Skill

How Strategic Actions?

Effective Feedback Cycle--Connect to the Big Skill of the unit

 

Independent Reading

All units focus on IR and scholars continued growth in foundational skills, fluency, volume, rate, breadth and depth and comprehension development.

 

How will you plan your conferences to include the big skill of the unit as well as the individual needs of scholars?

How will use your conference data to inform instruction?

 

Reference Reading Strategies:  Goal 2 Teaching Reading Engagement (handed out at the 6/12 pd.)

 

Scholar Name

IR goal/focus

Conference Plan

Who?  How often?

All

Using a reading log

• purpose

• Ritual and routine

Daily flash conferences to provide feedback and establish the logging habit.

All

Building Stamina--staying focused and engaged

daily flash conferences

set class goal

use timer

track daily progress on a graph
 

 

• What type of conferences will be most effective in each bend of the unit?   

  • Flash Conferences

  • Table/small group conferences

  • Individual Research, Decide Conferences

 

Keep in mind that it is critical that all scholars are in just right books and reading the WHOLE time.  There is not any other more effective way to improve reading skills than by increasing time in just right text!  When you add in effective feedback it becomes even more impactful.  

Text Selection(Just Right Books):  Be mindful of the three elements of text complexity:  Quantitative (Lexile Level) Qualitative (considers other factors besides word and sentence length) Reader and Task (world knowledge, language etc )  Most readers can read within a BAND of proficiency not just at the level they benchmarked at.  It is critical that you provide effective feedback around text selection often to ensure that readers are fully engaged and successful during independent reading (refer to PLC binder for more information on text complexity considerations).

 

Professional Learning Needs

• What skills do you need to develop in order to confidently execute this unit?

 

• What PL structure would support your development of the skill?

 

Professional Learning Need

Structure

Timeline

 

Professional Learning Structure Menu

• Weekly PLC

• Coaching

• Observation and Feedback

• Peer Observation

• Residency

  • Model a small or larger part of the work

  • Followed by debrief, goal setting and ongoing effective feedback around the new skill.

• Professional Development

• Book Club/Study Group

• Vertical Team

• Professional Resource library

  • Video

  • Books/articles

• Other