Classroom Non-Negotiable Focus: Lesson Includes Independent Practice

This week's Lyon Academy Instructional Blog Post post focuses on the classroom non-negotiable of Independent Practice.

Independent Practice provides an opportunity for the teacher to assess student mastery of a skill or objective and is usually attached to some sort of formal evaluation or grade. This is the "You Do" portion of a lesson where the teacher evaluates a student's progress toward a learning target.

This week I observed several excellent examples of Independent Practice throughout the building. In Mr. Wolfenden's class, students responded to "Quick Write" prompts. Posted around the classroom, Mr. Wolfenden posted a generic description sheet for these tasks as well as a rubric for what a 2 point, 1 point or 0 point response includes. This helped students understand their task but also made the evaluation objective.

In Ms. Colacino's class, students worked to prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessment by completing a performance task. The task included reading, watching a video, recording notes, and completing a graphic organizer to record their findings (see copies of student work below). Students completed their final draft responses using their iPad after the teacher provided feedback and support throughout the process. 

It is important during Independent Practice to differentiate the process and product for students. Here are some strategies that can be implemented to support Independent Practice effectively by using differentiation:

• Create leveled questions for assessments.
• Include a bonus section of challenging questions.
• Prepare different Do-Nows, worksheets, and so on for students at different levels.
• Use data to determine the degree of scaffolding and extra support each student needs.
• Group students according to the skills they need to develop.
• Communicate and collaborate with special education teachers to develop appropriate scaffolding and tasks for special needs students.
• Implement station work.
• Create individual "work contracts" so students have a clear path of what they are working on.
• Use Do-Now, exit tickets, and interim assessment to drive small group re-teach sessions.
• Create assignments with menu options by level (easy, medium, hard)- students can choose or the teacher can assign.
• Have observers sit by lower-achieving students during an observation to provide extra support.

Homework is another form of Independent Practice that can be used to gauge student performance and mastery. All students should receive some form of homework, which counts for 10% of the final grade. Here are some tips and strategies that can be used with Homework in your classroom:

• Develop homework center targeting specific skills identified by assessments.
• Review problem areas within homework assignments in class soon after an assignment.
• Have students fix homework errors and teach them how to scrutinize errors.
• Make tracking sheets for individual skills.
• Incorporate spiraled review in homework assignments: include questions and tasks from previously learned standards.
• Create leveled homework (student specific).
• Design homework that is aligned to the state test, interim assessments, etc.
• Use homework as "open book" quizzes.
• Encourage homework completion with classwide or schoolwide competition.
• Include above-grade-level challenge problems.

Hopefully these strategies and ideas will help you as you push your students towards mastery of objectives as we approach the MAP assessments! 

What's Happening Around Lyon Academy? March 26th, 2015

Take a look at the sampling of student work, anchor charts and classroom items that have recently been posted around the building. 

If you see an anchor chart, student work, or something else in the building you would like showcased for the staff, please send it to Tyler.Archer@slps.org.

Ms. Colacino's students completed research projects in honor of Black History Month about famous African Americans, completing the entire writing process! 

Mr. Murphy's students presented their knowledge of series and parallel circuits through a poster project. 

Ms. Nertilus' students created sample triangles as a part of a geometry unit. 

In Ms. Jones' middle school resource classes, students completed a Middle East project that included a map, writing component (with rubric) and Inquiry chart from the Weekly Instructional Strategies! 

Ms. McPherson utilized the Engage NY curriculum to provide feedback to students on rigorous problem sets. 

Students in Ms. Richards' class generated equivalent fractions in small groups and contributed to anchor charts. 

Mr. Phoenix had students complete a formatting task as a review of word processing skills. 

Mr. Schwerdt's anchor charts make the expectations for behavior clear in the gym during PE. 

Students even write during PE class! 

Spanish students in Ms. Mosby's class created a foldable to represent new knowledge. 

During MAP review days, Mr. Murphy has students solve complex problems then reflect on their learning using a rubric to evaluate peer work. 

Ms. Weininger's students used graph paper to represent the geometric concepts they are learning in 6th and 7th grade Math. 

Ms. Latta provided specific feedback to students on a writing task and gave praise for improvements from the last assignment students completed. 

Second grade students in Ms. Tuthill's class described different parts of their day while learning to tell time. 

Three great anchor charts are being used in second grade classrooms to help students with difficult concepts-- "Ways to Move a Shape!" and "Measuring Time" in Ms. Tuthill's class and "Measurement" in Ms. Latta's class. 

In Ms. Salmo's class students reflected on the St. Patrick's Day holiday by writing about a prompt, "Who is worth more to you than gold?"

Ms. Cleland's students wrote a reflective narrative about their Spring Break. 

Ms. Colacino helps her students to think about proper responses to misbehavior. A great topic for morning meetings! 

Did you read all the way to the bottom? Be one of the first four people to read this far and send Mr. Archer an e-mail to receive a coffee next week! 

Classroom Non-Negotiable Focus: Lesson Includes Guided Practice

This week's Lyon Academy Instructional Blog post focuses on the classroom non-negotiable of Guided Practice.

Guided Practice provides an opportunity for the teacher to provide feedback to students without grading. Guided Practice is a central part of the lesson that is both student-led and differentiated. This is the "We Do" portion of a lesson where the teacher provides supports but allows students to work with some autonomy.

Today, I observed an excellent example of Guided Practice in Ms. Tuthill's classroom. After modeling a non-fiction reading task of identifying the main idea with a text on the Smart Board, Ms. Tuthill divided her students into instructional groups who followed the same procedure using a different article.

Each group of students read a different article, then created a poster presentation. One strategy to incorporate during Guided Practice is teacher and peer feedback. During student presentations, Ms. Tuthill and her students had a chance to ask questions and critique the student work. What an awesome higher level task!

Total Participation Techniques (TPTs) and Kagan Strategies are great for incorporating at the Guided Practice stage of a lesson. Resources for these strategies can be found on the Professional Development website.

In Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov outlines two powerful Guided Practice strategies that can be used throughout the lesson:

• Technique 16: Break it Down: One of the best ways to present material again is to respond to a lack of clear student understanding by breaking a problematic idea down into component parts.

• Technique 17: Ratio: A successful lesson is rarely marked by a teacher's getting a good intellectual workout at the front of the room. Push more and more of the cognitive work out to students as soon as they are ready. 

Here are some other Peer-to-peer support strategies that can be implemented to support Guided Practice throughout the lesson and make the "We Do" portion of the learning more effective for students:

• Observe student work carefully during independent work- enlist strong students to help weaker students determine right answer during review of assignments.
• Have students teach parts of the lesson to small groups of their peers.
• Have students run stations.
• Train peer tutors- teach student tutors how to ask questions in stead of giving answers and how to get the tutee to do most of the talking.
• Think, pair, share: Have students think of the answer, talk with a partner, and then share as a large group. 
• Turn and talk: students turn toward partner and explain answers to a question.
• Peer to group: student models think aloud.
• Implement peer editing and revision.
• Develop study groups that jigsaw activities and content.
• Create mentoring relationships across grade levels.