"Annual growth at Washington Elementary is built on inviolate instructional time (120 minutes reading block) plus quality instruction (direct, eye-ball to eye-ball, energetic, highly interactive) using rigerous curriculum."
We are right on track with the 120 minute reading block but do you think we are meeting the "quality instruction piece"? I see us as being energetic and interactive but what do you think they mean by eye-ball to eye-ball instruction?
I like how they said "Instructional time is treated as a critical commodity". They also "look for students getting instruction from the teacher, not working alone". How do you think we can get reading groups in and still have this "eye-ball to eye-ball" instruction when students are always being instructed by the teacher?
I know this was more than one question, but am VERY EXCITED to hear your ideas!
Thanks again for all you are doing!
Vickie
**click on () comments in the bottom of this box to respond to my questions.
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When I hear eyeball to eyeball, I think of "Don't shoot til you see the whit of their eyes!" This type of direct instruction would focus on the same, eye to eye with the students. I had a thought about reading groups that maybe they could take the place of the Science and S.S. time slot. We could include books across those content areas to not drop completely. This would allow for the 120 minutes of "eyeball to eyeball" instruction which has proven to be so effective (perhaps in the a.m.) then reading groups and "practice" in the afternoon in another block. The K schedule has several large chunks of time this year where this could be done. IDK, just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI think of the "eyeball to eyeball" approach to mean that you may be doing more whole group instruction. I'm not sure if that is what it is referring to, but that is the first thing that came to my mind. I think we need to engage kids in our teaching approaches so that everyone can get the main concepts and then break it down to the individual needs in the smaller groups. OR...We would need a lot of support to accomplish multiple groups working with teachers in a room at one time so that every child is getting the eyeball to eyeball focus they need for growth in reading.
ReplyDeleteI feel the eyeball to eyeball instruction is better explained in Chapt. 4 where the authors give an example of how the teacher spends her 120 minutes of direct instruction especially the 1st hour when she only has 6 kids in her group while the rest of her students are with other adults. Even when the children are practicing with a workbook pages, etc. the author makes a point of stating the teacher is actively moving up and down the rows checking students work and providing individual attention.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to you question if we are meeting the "quality instruction piece" I would say yes we are providing quality instruction but Mathys and I have often discussed whether or not our instruction is consistent across the grade level and then from grade level to grade level. Even though we are teaching the standards, there are skills we teach in kindergarten that are not in the content standards but because of years of teaching K we know these skills are needed. I can see it being somewhat overwhelming for a 1st year teacher even with the grade level maps we've created.
Hey, Connie thanks for the info on chapter 4, I will go back and look at that part. I didn't remember that. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI agree that "eyeball to eyeball" instuction is probably face to face instruction. It was an eye opener to me when I thought about the fact that if I did 20 minute reading groups with 6 groups (1 hr. 40 min), that each student only received 20 minutes of direct instrucion. With knowing that direct (eyeball to eyeball) is so important what are your ideas on how we can fit 2 hours of that in along with 5-7 reading groups?
ReplyDeleteI do believe we are meeting the “quality instruction” part of the book. We are energetic and concept driven. However, I would hate to add up the amount of minutes per student eye ball to eye ball to see if they added up to 120 minutes. My class doesn’t do that many worksheets and yet it seems that every time someone comes into my room we are at the carpet.
ReplyDeleteI agree according to the book that we are indeed right on track with a 120 minute reading block. I was under the assumption that our 2 hour block was for literacy – reading also including writing. The teacher in the 4th chapter switched after the 120 minute instruction to her writing. Am I misunderstanding that North Union’s view of the literacy block is reading AND writing?
I also agree that “eyeball to eyeball” instruction is very important and am torn with the logistics of implementing it along with appropriate time in reading groups having students work on their own. For every child to have face to face time with an adult as our scheduling fits would basically be whole group instruction. We all know that those that understand the concepts participate willingly in group instruction and those that don’t fade into the background hoping to be hidden. Group instruction doesn’t necessarily engage each and every student equally all of the time. If I understand the text correctly, when meeting with individuals or groups to verify and instruct on their level, the other students would be doing “something else.” The “something else” whether it be centers, group work, etc. is not considered part of those essential 120 critical minutes. The book had other adults working with the students which we don’t have.
I agree with Melanie to incorporate Social Studies and Science more during read alouds to help make best use of our time overlapping the subject areas. How would this work with achieving work from this towards grading? Group discussions are fine but grades can’t all be based on discussions. Could we focus all instruction using this way incorporating SS and Science into literacy and math then not actually give grades in K-1 or 2 for only SS and Science?
Linda, you are correct in thinking that our literacy block covers reading and writing. I always taught both in my classroom, but sometimes had to add time in the afternoon for writing.
ReplyDeleteI think “eyeball to eyeball” direct instruction is probably what we do most in K. We do not start guided reading until Jan. so the first half of the year is almost completely direct instruction. I think that includes read-a-louds, shared reading, modeled, shared and interactive writing, phonemic awareness activities: poems, chants, songs. When they do a worksheet or writing we are patroling through the tables otherwise they are sticking their pencils up their nose or their neighbors nose. Now, If eyeball to eyeball means looking into the faces of a small group of students then I think we may have a problem. There aren’t enough staff to cover small groups in K-2 and I doubt you could get enough parent volunteers on a daily, consistant basis.
ReplyDeleteAs for how we get in 2 hours of direct instruction and still find time during the day
ReplyDeletefor guided reading I agree that using read alouds to cover our science and SS is a great way to free up time in the afternoon. There are a few other things that we could do to make sure that our 2 hour block in the morning remains undisturbed though: Making sure that students eating breakfast are kept on task and get to the rooms as soon as possibe, not allowing parents, grandparents etc. to come to the rooms in the morning, ( often in K a parent will walk a student to the room and then want to chat about something for 10-15 min.) and getting strong support from the admistration when we have disruptive students in the classroom. There should be a plan in place to remove those students quickly so the disruption doesn't affect the instruction of the other students.