Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Response to Video (Gettysburg Address)

Share and discuss new learning that you acquired from the "Reading Closely" video on the Gettysburg Address.  How will you use this new learning as you develop future lesson plans in our journey to the Common Core?



Post your response in the comment box.  When finished,  choose Name/URL from the drop down box..  Enter your name, do not enter anything in the URL box.  Click  publish.  Follow the same process to post a reply to a colleague's post.

Remember, we all have something to share and we all can learn from each other.

107 comments:

  1. Depth over breath will be the new philosophy vigorously and rigorously!

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  2. Increase the rigor of reading assignments as they relate to concepts being taught.

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    1. Word to your mother!

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    2. Read it more than 12 times!

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    3. Rigor. Rigor. Chunk. Vigor.
      Read a book.
      Get your brain bigger.

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    4. Who is this Dr. Seuss?

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  3. Increase rigor and decrease breath. Less is more.

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    1. My thoughts exactly!

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    2. Agree! You can never cover everything! Cover what you can well and hopefully the students will be compelled to dig deeper into those areas that most interest them.

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  4. Our lessons need to be more in depth and we need to spend longer on one topic or text to help students gain a deeper understanding. We need to teach students to read challenging texts more closely and incorporate independent writing within the lesson on the text.

    Posted by Early Childhood Team

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    1. You're my hero!

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    2. I agree, but so many of our students lack the skills to write. We need to continue to teach those skills students need in order to respond appropriately.

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    3. Reading and writing should go hand and hand for student to fully engage in the lesson.

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  5. We will need to coordinate with other teachers to schedule units on certain topics, such as The Gettysburg Address and relate the topic to music from that time.

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    1. Great idea to integrate the language arts with other content areas like music!

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  6. We are going to need to coordinate with other teacher's in order for our lessons to accompany the topics that are being discussed. We will then use the collaborative information to plan our future lesson plans so that students are "reading closely" across the curriculum.

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    1. Teacher collaboration is definitely going to be key in order to create challenging lessons and cover important vocabulary.

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    2. We also, as a district, need to work on vertically aligning our curriculum, while we're looking at it and realigning it!

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    3. I agree completely.

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    4. We will need to collaborate and share materials.

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    5. I agree that it is very important that we have time to meet with other teachers across the board in order to better plan instruction.

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    6. This is so important and yet we never have enough time .

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    7. Although a duanting task to redo COS to relate with other disciplines, what a great way to make learning more relevant to students and to make them better critical thinkers.

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  7. by better coordinating with other teachers in other areas.

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  8. Lessons will be a lot more in depth and last over several days.

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  9. This is an example of how technology is used in lessons. Increse the rigor

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  10. Look into topics more deeply and with more rigor to accomplish a better understanding of topics. Students need to want to understand topics that are challenging by digging into these topics instead of dismissing things that are confusing to them.

    CTW

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  11. In my future lessons, I need to be sure to use a combination of scaffolding and independent work. Students need to be provided with challenging tasks, while I help support them as they go through vocabulary and try to comprehend the text. While I do need to provide support, I also need to allow time for independent work so students can show what they have learned and challenge their own thinking. Vocabulary is a key aspect of a unit and needs to be included for students in order to develop a better understanding of concepts.

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    1. You're an excellent teacher, Stacy

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    2. Giving students independent work time is a great way to make them accountable for their own learning!

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    3. Allowing them to be more independent is great; however, we need to ensure that they are producing the high quality work that is expected of them.

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  12. The idea of going deeper, going slower, to absorb more is what education is all about. You cannot "cram" a bunch of information is their brains and expect them to be able to explain, explore, and be evaluated this information.

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    1. Agreed. "Cramming" is what leads students to forget what they learn. The know if for the test and then forget it.

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    2. I completely agree, it is obvious that students are not fully grasping the concepts that we teach in such a short amount of time.

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    3. More time for one skill or lesson is extremely beneficial rather than teach it one day and assess the next.

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  13. AnonymousMar 6, 2012 07:54 AM
    The idea of going deeper, going slower, to absorb more is what education is all about. You cannot "cram" a bunch of information is their brains and expect them to be able to explain, explore, and be evaluated this information.

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    1. Good point, Melissa. Often times too much gets covered, but there is not enough depth to it to challenge students and get them to use higher order thinking skills.

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    2. I agree, we will be able to teach meaningful material rather than just content.

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    3. This is so insightful, Melissa!

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    4. I am going to agree with Anonymous. This is very insightful.

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  14. The concept of not moving so fast is a great idea because it allows students time to internalize the information. When students are allowed to spend more time on a subject will let students see more in depth of a given lesson.

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    1. I think this will help students internalize more of what they learn.

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    2. I agree, I sometimes feel like I have to move quicker than what I would like to, just to get all of the standards covered.

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    3. I agree taking time is a great need, I just hope we have the materials to make it meaningful.

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  15. it seems like this new approach is built on covering less but going deeper. but it seems like this in-service is covering a lot and not going very deep. when is lunch?

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  16. I feel violated.

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  17. Are students going to be bored? How to keep the information engaging? There are many concerns. What about resources available?

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    1. Rereading the same text (12 times) can be boring. It will be a big challenge to vary instruction and keep kids interested. I already struggle with differentiation for my gifted students at times.

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    2. My worry as well, I am a very engaging teacher but we will have what we need to keep them going??

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    3. If we are going deeper into the text, the students shouldn't be bored because they should be focusing on a specific topic or skill each day to help them go deeper in the text. So they will still be engaged, just in different ways, and they won't have to worry about learning a new text on top of it. They can focus on the skills being learned to go deeper in the text.

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    4. We struggle with differentiation for all our reading levels also. We will need to find similar topics for small group reading instruction also.

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  18. How will you use this new learning as you develop future lesson plans in our journey to the Common Core?

    Developing lesson plans that include "Reading Closely" will not only take a while to perfect but also research, thinking, and creativity to develop and implement in the classroom.

    -4th grade team

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    1. "Reading Closely" will require more efficient collaboration building and developing these lessons.

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  19. That we need to read closely and write clearly.

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  20. The lessons will go more in-depth, and the students will have more of an opportunity to learn things to mastery. It's vital that students master concepts and go to the higher level thinking skills needed to go in-depth to better prepare for Career and College Readiness. More time for lessons and for students to explore and develop ideas independently with a facilitator instead of being force fed information.

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    1. I totally agree.

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    2. I think it will be great for the students to think for themselves. They will be able to read and really understand and apply it to all subject areas.

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  21. I think students will benefit from the so called "inch wide, mile deep" philosophy. Often times, teacher feel the pressure to cover so many standards and indicators. This will allow teachers to teach more in depth and increase the rigor of a specific topic.

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    1. I agree, we have been so fast paced trying to cover everything. I am glad we get to slow down, and look closely.

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    2. I agree. It will be great to really be able to dive into topics instead of just skimming over them.

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    3. I believe that unless administrators understand this way of teaching, and teachers to not feel the pressure to teacher to the OAA test, this will be difficult to accomplish. It may take some time to get used to, but may be worth it in the end.

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  22. Love slowing down the pace! We will need more resources to keep students engaged.

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    1. I am going to enjoy slowing down the pace as well.

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  23. Reading closely will allow students to explore many different strategies while understanding in depth one passage. I feel it will be extremely helpful for the lower level students in your classroom to allow them to explore and fully understand the text they are reading. However, how does it challenge your higher level students so that they do not get bored with one text over multiple days?

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  24. The idea idea of slowing down will be very beneficial to our students. We need to teach them to read closer. Having enough materials will also be an issue.

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    1. I think having a lack of resources will always be an issue when we are constantly changing the curriculum and what students are expected to learn.

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    2. How can we ensure that the materials we get are connected explicitly to the Common Core? I personally don't want to get anything that is not connected to what I am supposed to be teaching!

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  25. Read closely is great. Rereading is important. More resources will be needed. I like the idea of slowing down and spending more time on concepts.

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    1. I agree that more resources are needed. I hope that we can find texts that engage all students.

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    2. We are going back to the way we taught years ago!!!

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    3. Interesting - looking back?

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  26. I am glad we will have more time to get into content area but I think we will need more activities to keep the children engaged. I am still a firm believer in hands on activities so with all this digging deeper I need to keep the children engaged and I am hoping to have materials to match all these deep lessons.

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    1. Sounds like an art classroom!

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    2. I think hands on activities allow students to go more in-depth. The students will have a real-life experience to pull from their schema to be able to relate to when they need to bring it back to the information they are building. It also helps the students who learn by doing instead of just seeing and hearing.

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    3. Materials are essential. How do we get them?

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  27. Reading closely is important and vital. It takes more time to digest and go deep. Students need to support their answers from the text. On the video he mentioned making the learning/reading your own (student ownership) to make the reading more meaningful, I hope that we can find text that engages all students.

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    1. I think the students connect to the text better if they can make a connection!

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    2. Students struggle to support their answers from the text. Making students responsible for their own learning is important for learning.

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  28. I like the idea of going slower and digging deeper. Concerned about getting the materials needed to keep students engaged and keep it interesting.

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    1. Lets learn to make video games to teach our lessons and we will be all set!

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    2. We absolutely need materials!!!!

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    3. I agree. Keeping the kids engaged and interested is going to be the hard part and having materials to use with the students.

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    4. Materials are a must. The mimos in place are wonderful are we still going to keep those. What wonderful tools hate to waste those.

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    5. The learners must be engaged! The use of technology and real world experiences are crucial components in this process.

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    6. I agree that having the needed materials will be a challenge, especially with the building alignment. Having the time to gather materials and collaborate with others is a must!

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  29. The whole idea of slowing down and going deeper is a great concept. I am in total agreement with this idea. Reading slowly is a skill that needs to be modeled bc we are so used to going fast to cover all the standards/indicators. Let's do this!!!

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    1. You are onto something! We have to model skills to our students.

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    2. Modeling is essential in this process!

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  30. Read closely to write clearly. We will need more resources and technology. Going slower and creating themes will help students to dip deeper.

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  31. In my lessons, I need to spend more time letting the student really get into the text and discuss it, instead of just "skimming" it and pulling out the key information for them. I need to let the students "read closely" deciding what is important, pulling out key vocabulary words, and really discuss the text.

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  32. You are right on point--nobody ever learned anything from cramming.

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  33. We generated a lot of good discussion within our grade level about digging deeper to facilitate student learning. It will take a team effort to implement these standards into our curriculum.

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  34. Reading closely is essential. We must take more time to have our students dig deeper into the text, respond with discussion and written expression to make the learning individualized. When allowing our students the time to dig deeper, we as educators are not expecting our students to regurgitate what the teacher's knowledge about the content is, we are giving them the skills to facilitate their learning, with guidance. They become empowered in their learning experience. However, we need the resources in which to make the learning differentiated for all learners.

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  35. I worry that re-reading a text up to twelve times will kill students desire to read. In the early grades we are trying to build the foundation of becoming life-long readers. The idea of having more time to spend on subjects sounds wonderful. I worry about the idea that students will be automatically intrinsically motivated. Teacher collaboration will be very important in this being successful. How will we assess?

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    1. I TOTALLY agree! I have found that the element of choice has had the biggest impact on keeping my students motivated to read and apply what they have learned through the the anchor texts. I rely on my anchor texts and then watch as my kids "have at it" independently. I don't want to not wish my kids "HAPPY READING" each day :(

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  36. I am excited to be a learner again with the CCR. I am going to be learning right along with my students! My concern is that I am not seeing where we are developing students independently as readers without offering them choice in what they read. Are these lessons being used as "anchors" or is the Gettysburg Address the ONLY thing students read for 3-5 days? Shouldn't they be applying what they learn by reading the Gettysburg Address in their own personal reading??? HELP :)

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  37. I still feel that 1st and 2nd need to build a foundation for learning how to read. I'm not sure the components of the Gettysburg lesson will work when they are this young. They still need modeling and direction.

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  38. teaching more on smaller chunks of materials will help the students understand better. And it will allow us to focus on the most important aspects of the material instead of trying to rush through a large number of readings to get them finished.

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  39. The idea of going in depth and getting students to critically think and process and question is wonderful. I would like to observe a unit taught this way. After listening to the man in the video talk about about how the unit can cross subject areas, it seems to me that a lot of time and work would need to go into common planning across disciplines to do this well.

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  40. We feel that going deeper into the content is important but the speed needs to be adjusted according to the student population.
    Fifth Grade Team

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