with  
Lenny Sánchez                 Kevin Shrum   
Bloomington, Indiana          Aurora, Colorado   

    MaryAnn Whitfield                  Geri Williams       
               Hutto, Texas        White River Junction, Vermont

 TRANSCRIPT

The postings listed below are not in the order in which they were received. For your
convenience, we have relocated the responses to questions so that they appear directly after the questions posed.

We hope you have enjoyed this discussion as much as we have and will join us in our
next discussion.

                                                                                               Richard Owen

Good evening folks,

Welcome to another scheduled conversation on TLN that focuses on current ideas about teaching and learning.  We are delighted to have with us for the next three days Geri Williams, MaryAnn Whitfield, Lenny Sanchez, and Kevin Shrum. 

All four of our guests have a long involvement with The Learning Network--as teachers who have had support, as teacher leaders (coaches) who have supported other teachers, as administrators who have been leaders in their building or district helping support change, and as coordinators responsible for training teacher leaders and supporting schools. 

We are here this week to discuss the Teaching and Learning Cycle, a construct central to the work of teachers and teacher educators involved in The Learning Network. This conversation will investigate the elements of the teaching and learning cycle and will introduce examples from work with young children, work with secondary students, and work in professional development environments.   If you did not read the document at the website that describes the T/L cycle, I encourage you to do it now.  It is brief and barely scratches the surface, but it might prompt questions and thoughts you will want to share with the guests. 

Good teaching, as we know, is not about programs that tell the teacher what to do, step-by-step.  Good teaching is not about insuring that all learners are on the same page.  Good teaching is not about passing a high stakes test.  Good teaching involves providing the best possible support to help every learner become enthusiastic, confident, and successful.  It requires professionals who can make judgments based on meaningful evidence that helps them determine what they will teach and how they will teach it.  The teaching and learning cycle is a tool for the teacher, the school and district administrator, and the teacher educator to help her or him make professional decisions. 

My request for our guests:  I would like to get into this discussion by hearing you talk about your experiences with the T/L cycle--assessment, evaluation, planning, and teaching.  Please talk to us about the circumstances, the audience, the frequency, the outcome, and any other consideration that comes to mind.  You can talk about working with six year olds or 14 year olds or teachers or about watching coaches use the cycle in their work.  Give us some insight into why you use the T/L cycle and how you use it.  My hope is your comments will generate lots of questions and exchange with listserve members and prompt a lively discussion that will take us several layers into the elements of the teaching and learning cycle. 

My thanks to Geri, MaryAnn, Lenny, and Kevin for agreeing to be with us.  I know your schedules keep you busy and that your first response might not occur until Monday.  Regardless, we are eager to hear your ideas, your thoughts, and your responses to subscriber comments and questions.

For all new subscribers:  If you would like to reply to a listserve message, click reply.  If you want to send a new message, click compose and address your message to TLN@listserve.com.  If you need to unsubscribe, please follow the directions at the bottom of each listserve message or write to me offlist at richardowen@rcowen.com.

I look forward to an engaging conversation.

Richard

                                                                             Lenny Sanchez

Greetings All!

Thank you, Richard, for starting such a wonderful discussion on something that is so important for all of us to always keep in the forefront of our minds – the Teaching Learning Cycle.  I believe you asked us to share about our experiences with the TLC.  I thought that I’d first begin by sharing how I became “comfortable” with the TLC in my classroom.  While the TLC is a construct that can be applied to multiple contexts, when I began to understand it most deeply was when I deliberately “tracked” my assessing, evaluating, planning, and teaching with a small group of students in my classroom.   Being able to devote focused amounts of time on what just a small group of children were doing in my classroom helped me to better understand (and appreciate) how assessments can guide my instructional decisions.  When I started teaching, I was familiar with the traditional relationship between planning and teaching.  I understood that I needed to plan before I taught; however, it wasn’t until support from The Learning Network (and specifically help from Carolyn Matern who is a part of this listserve) when I began to truly understand the role assessment and evaluation also have in planning and teaching.  As I learned about different ways to assess kids’ reading and writing and how to evaluate those assessments, that is when I believe the TLC impacted my teaching in even more ways.  That is when I understood that a “simple” construct, such as the TLC, is not so easy after all, but impacts classroom practice in powerful ways. 

Lenny

                                                                                          Geri Williams

Good morning,

Thank you Richard for arranging this wonderful dialogue centering on the Teaching Learning Cycle. This is a concept that is dear to my heart and I find myself using so automatically that it becomes a part of everything I do as an educator. The educational literature is full of articles and books on Differentiated Instruction. Many schools are trying to implement this concept.  I work in several areas of the country and I see the attempts but rarely see the implementation. For me, the Teaching Learning Cycle is the missing piece. 

It all starts with assessment. Whenever I walk into a school, no matter my role, I am immediately taking an assessment sample.  Are the hallways filled with work of students?  Is it art work only or does it represent the learning in all content areas? Do the teachers here understand the importance of publishing work with no errors?  What is the role of the principal? Is she "too busy" to show me around the school?  Where is the data for the school published? Can I see that this school is open to showing the public how they are doing?  As I enter the classrooms, I am also taking an assessment sample. Does the classroom reflect the work of the children or is it filled with the latest Frank Schaffer from the Teacher Store? What are the students doing? Are they reading and writing and making mathematical discoveries. Are they sitting still in their seats and listening to an adult? Are they engaged?  Then I talk to a student. Tell me what you are working on here. How did you happen to choose this book to read? What are you writing? Who decided what you would write?  

In a few minutes time, I have gathered assessment samples. Then I start to evaluate "on the run." What do I see as the strengths of this child, this school, this classroom, this district? Where do I see some next steps for learning or talking or sharing? Then so what, what will I do about it? How will I plan for things to change?  How do I use the data (the assessment sample) to take learners to their next level of learning?  

Assessment is at the heart of everything we do in schools and it is often the neglected piece. How do you see this working for you? What are the challenges you face?  

We look forward to a provocative three days!  

Geri

                                                                                                          MaryAnn Whitfield

Thank you, Richard, for organizing this discussion about the Teaching and Learning Cycle.  I wanted to make a quick comment before going to work this morning.  Right now one of the challenges teachers are dealing with is high stakes testing.  I think as work with the data (assessment) from the tests we can get trapped in a mind set of summative assessment (assessment of learning).   

The Teaching and Learning Cycle supports a teacher in understanding and organizing his or her thinking around the process of using assessment when planning for teaching.  To do this I need to look at assessment that I've gathered or need to gather related to the learning targets that I'll be teaching.  The assessment I use for planning is formative assessment (assessment for learning).  I want current information about what the students already know and can do and what they are attempting. 

For example, if summarizing is my learning target, I could ask students to summarize a paragraph or a short piece of text.  I might ask them to write their summaries. I might ask them to summarize orally sharing with a partner, and I'll listen in as they share their summaries.  From the information I gather, I'll decide what I need to do with my class, with small groups, and with individuals.  I'll know what kind of support is needed, such as demonstrations, guided practice, and independent practice.  As I teach, I'll continue to gather assessment that will help know how to adjust my support based on student need, how to group students, and how to select resources.

Before I was introduced to the Teaching and Learning Cycle, I would usually plan with little information about my learners and teach as though they all had the same needs.  At that time assessing had more to do with testing and grading.  Seeing the arrow on the TL/C that points from assessment/evaluation to planning has helped understand that knowing the needs of my students is a key part of the planning process. 

It's off to work now.  I look forward to the continued discussion for the next three days!
 

MaryAnn Whitfield
Instructional Coordinator
Hutto Independent School District

                                                                                                                      Toni

Some school districts seem to require summative assessments (assessment of learning) to gather data on students in their schools and across the district.  Without knowing specifically what these assessments look like, would you say that it might be possible to use these in a formative way - as in assessing for learning - the TLC?    

Toni

                                                                                                                      Lenny

Hi Toni,

One of the differences that I think about between the use of formative assessments and summative assessments is that summative assessments take place 'after' the learning and formative assessments take place 'during' the learning.  In this way then, formative assessments impact right away what (and how) I'm teaching and what (and how) my students are learning.   Because of this difference, I'm not sure that district summative assessments can serve the same purpose as what my classroom formative assessments can.  The summative assessments can inform my instruction, but they will most likely impact my teaching in a much different way.  For example, the district where I first taught gave district reading tests every quarter.  The information on those assessments did not exactly reflect what I was doing in the classroom and I only received the results of those assessments 4 times a year.  Because of those factors, I could not use them to guide my instruction in the same ways as my daily Running Records, small group reading observations, and one-on-one reading conferences.  While the district assessments might have been somewhat helpful to gather comparative data at specific points along the year, they played a much different role on the TLC than did my formative measures.

Lenny

                                                                                                           Geri

I work with several schools that are using formative assessments that can become summative assessments. The first purpose is formative. What does this student understand and what does he need to learn next?  Formative assessments such as student writing pieces can be used as summative assessments as well, with a focus. How many students are using details in their writing? How does the voice come through in these samples of student work? What do students understand about writing to a prompt?  Running records are another way of formative assessments that can be used as summative assessments, as well.  What does this whole class look like at this point in time as readers? What kind of errors are students making? At what levels are students reading?  This kind of information can be the beginning of a constructive dialogue.

Geri

                                                                                                           Geri

I remember Peter Johnston's words many years ago, here in a conference in Vermont. Assessment is all about purpose. What does the superintendent need for information? What does the principal need? What does the teacher need? What does the child need?  What does the parent need? What does the community need?  What does the state need?  

All of these purposes are legitimate. How can we efficiently gather useful information that serves different needs and purposes?  I think the important thing for me to remember is that the assessment is FOR learning, no matter who the audience is. So, if I gather data, what do I do with it? That is where the Teaching Learning Cycle comes in. We need to take whatever assessment sample we have and evaluate it and then plan for new learning to occur, no matter who the audience is.  

Geri

                                                                                                           Dana

Hi MaryAnn, 

How do you assess before planning with a curriculum like C-scope?  Last year, I would introduce the lesson and then informally assess and direct my teaching that way.  I am not sure with the pace of C-scope how that would look.  Would you do this for every lesson?  If so, with lesson plans being turned in a week ahead, there is a lot of rewriting of plans. I do use the TLC but I am not sure if I am really assessing first and then planning, or planning, teaching, assessing and re-teaching, or moving on quickly if students have gotten material. 

For now, what I am trying to formulate is how this looks when doing lesson plans. 

Dana Dillon :)

                                                                                                         Deb

I know I'm not MaryAnn....  thinking aloud (my favorite pastime!) in this response... 

For me I can't do lesson plans per se until I have figured out where each child is with regards to the content I think I'm supposed to teach.  If they already know the stuff then what good does it do to teach it again (review ok but re-teach is too redundant) and if they don't know it then starting at a point other than where they are is just too frustrating for them and you.  It begins to label them as not up to the task of learning when they are.   

I can introduce a topic and begin to get them to show me what they know.  Then I begin to structure lesson plans.  Is this a hard and fast rule?  Pretty much but it depends on the students I am teaching.  

The format for the lesson plans is found in Reading Strategies:  Focus on Comprehension 2/e  (Goodman, Watson, & Burke) and a Richard Owen publication.  These lesson plans do not look like traditional plans. 

Again, food for thought or thinking aloud or .... 

Deb

                                                                                                         MaryAnn

Hi Dana, 

You have great questions about something that challenges all of us as we use our curriculum documents.  Here are some thoughts about how the Teaching and Learning Cycle fits within the use of curriculum. 

An important aspect of assessing for learning (formative assessment) is to know what students are expected to learn.  Our state and district curriculum provides that information.  Since we work in the same district, I know that our district's curriculum also lays out a scope and sequence of instruction for the year.  So I'd start by looking at the current curriculum unit to see what concepts and key understandings the students are expected to learn (this would be the beginning of my medium term planning).    

I'd be working with my team at this point to make sure we are clear about the learning targets for our students.  Sometimes we discover that we need to seek help from other teachers, teacher leaders, and/or our administrator to clarify the learning expectation or to better understand the concepts in the unit.  As teachers we're assessing our knowledge and skills and seeking support where we need to learn as part of our own teaching and learning cycle.  

Then I'd be thinking about what assessment I may already have that would give me information about what students already know.   Once again this is a great time to work with my team to have support in this part of my planning.   The information about what my students already know will help me communicate with my students to help them activate their prior knowledge and build on their strengths.   Knowing what they already know will also help me make links from the known to what will be new to them.   

Now I'm ready to consider what I need to find out about my students knowledge and skills that I don't already know.  The good news is, Dana, the curriculum you are using begins with lessons that are built on the 5 E Model which begins with Engage and Explore experiences.  These experiences are a great time for the teacher to observe, listen, and gather information about what students already know and what they don't.  From that you'll be able to determine which students will need more support, how you'd group students, and which students will be able to work independently or may need enrichment opportunities. 

As to lesson plans, what I start the week with are my short-term plans and they are the bare bones of what I expect to do.  They will serve as a guide and reference during the week.  I want a lesson plan format that will let me add what is needed, draw arrows to reorganize and mark through if I find I don't need something.  I wouldn't be rewriting them, but they could be pretty messy by the end of the week.  

I have read several books by Shirley Clarke that have really helped me learn about the relationship of planning and formative assessment.  You can order her books from Richard Owen Publishers. 

How do others on the listserve work with their district's curriculum using their understandings of the Teaching and Learning Cycle?  

MaryAnn Whitfield

Hutto Independent School District
Instructional Coordinator

                                                                                                                    Kathy

Hi MaryAnn,

In our District we are just getting to the point where teachers are ready to really look at and develop their understandings of formative assessment and TLC.  Over the past five years we have developed curriculum maps and assessments called "Guaranteed Learning Opportunities" or GLOs for short.  We are continuing to work with these maps and assessments and with our new outlook and with the TLC clearly in our vision have discovered that all of our assessments are summative.  Many of them can easily be used to inform our instruction by simply changing when they are administered or increasing the frequency of when they are administered--really taking a look at the purpose of these assessments.  For example, first grade teachers initially decided to use a RR at the end of grade one to see if children were at an appropriate level for the end of grade 1 (RR are taken much more frequently but were not a formal  part of the Map).  Just by rethinking  and rearticulating the purpose for doing the RR teachers have increased the expectations across the district for giving running records, have clearly stated the purpose and how the info gathered will be used to inform instruction, and by making the expectation a part of the formal document used by the district there has been a shift from summative to formative without too much resistance.  The construct of TLC gave teachers the model to follow and has also given the administration something to hold on to as they wrap their brains around the concept of formative vs summative assessments.  So far so good.

                                                                                                         MaryAnn

Wow, Kathy, you've given us something really important to think about:  Many assessments can be changed from summative to formative if we change when they are administered or increase their frequency.  I also appreciate the point you made about really looking at the purpose of the assessment.  By truly understanding what the assessment can tell us about the child's strengths and approximations we will have much richer information to use for planning our instruction and monitoring the progress of our students.    

I'd like to add that if we look at the summative assessments that are in our curriculum they can give a clearer picture of what is expected of our students at the end of our instruction.  From there we can work backward and consider how and what we'll be assessing and evaluating along the way to make sure are students are learning. 

Thanks Kathy for deepening our discussion about curriculum and the TLC with the examples you've given! 

MaryAnn

                                                                                                         Kevin Shrum

Good morning everyone.  Thank you Richard for putting this discussion together.  I am looking forward to the comments, questions, and discussion over the next couple of days.  Like MaryAnn, I wanted to make a quick comment before running off to a workshop. 

For me, the Teaching and Learning Cycle is all about assessment FOR learning.  Using evaluated assessment data to plan intentionally with each student in mind and then teach accordingly.  When I first started teaching my view of assessment was more linked to assessment OF learning.  The Teaching and Learning Cycle has helped me focus on quality assessment in order to really understand what my learners (adults and students) are able to do, attempting to do, and what they need next.  

For the last three years I have been a district instructional coach working with administrators and building instructional coaches.  My assignment this year is taking me back to the classroom - 6th grade literacy.  I am excited to be with students on a daily basis.  I am also somewhat nervous about the change - some times I am just an anxious guy.  Going into the new school year I know my understandings around the Teaching and Learning Cycle will help ease the transition.   

OK, I will return later this afternoon.  I look forward to where the discussion take us all.  Have an excellent day.                      

Kevin Shrum

                                                                                                                     Yvonne

One of the things I point out to students is what I notice they do well. Another biggie is modeling the thought process. I strategically offer something I've noticed or ask a question aloud. Modeling is a powerful tool. Lots of experts discuss the power of modeling and thinking aloud. 

Yvonne

                                                                                                                      Mark

Yvonne, 

I have been working with a physics teacher who has done a lot of modeling of "thinking" and "questioning" who has now got his students to an independent level.  I think this process is missing in many classrooms that I observe.  We (teachers) do the thinking for our students rather than the opposite. 

Mark

                                                                                                          Priscilla

I am so glad to see this topic come up with the group.  Too often assessment is something that is done TO students as part of reporting and/or accountability measures.  I'm not going to get into a discussion about the validity of said measures being used currently in the name of accountability - I prefer the discussion focus on assessment FOR learning that involves students.  Richard Stiggins has written quite a bit about this topic and talks about how domains of learning such as reasoning skills or dispositions about learning cannot be adequately assessed using constructed response types of measures such as multiple choice or true-false. 

As Beverly Falk commented in her article, “Testing the Way Children Learn,” assessment should always be in the service of learning.  Her book, The Heart of the Matter, expands on this idea.  Our students need to be involved in the assessment process so that they take ownership of learning, understand where they need to go, as well as learn how to get there.  If the only assessment they know is done to them, how will they ever develop the inner control to become independent, life-long learners? 

Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez
Outreach Specialist
Center for Information, Training and Professional Development
New Mexico School for the Deaf

                                                                                                                   Geri

I agree.   If we aren't assessing for learning, why are we assessing? I have worked with students and teachers helping them to look at constructed response in a different way. Constructed response questions are simply open-ended questions and students all over this country are having difficulty doing this. That is the evaluation of the sample. I do agree that the state test questions are many times not valid assessments of our student's learning. I also have to wonder why our students are not able to do this kind of writing. What can they do well? What is it that they don't understand? What do I need to do as a teacher to scaffold the learning so they can be successful? This is the Teaching Learning Cycle in action.

                                                                                                                  Yvonne

How about having the student ask the questions about his/her learning?

Yvonne

                                                                                                      Geri

I do agree that students need to ask questions, all day long!  Our modeling helps them to learn how to ask the questions and what to look for. How often do we ask students to find their "best piece of writing" and then support them to think through why they think so?  I remember asking this question of six year olds and at first the response would be, "It's about cats and I like cats." Later, this same child could talk about the effective lead or the use of dialogue in the writing. It is valuing the questions, encouraging the questions and modeling other questions and responses that will really produce "critical thinking" in our schools. 

Geri

                                                                                                      Lenny

Priscilla, 

You said,

Our students need to be involved in the assessment process so that they take ownership of learning, understand where they need to go, as well as learn how to get there.  If the only assessment they know is done to them, how will they ever develop the inner control to become independent, life-long learners? 

Thank you for raising such a great reminder.  It is too easy to think about our role as the teacher when looking at the TLC, but thinking about the students’ role during each of the “stages” of the TLC is so important as well.  For example, as you mentioned, not only are we as the teachers monitoring the students’ learning, but that is something we should be supporting them to do as well.  The students’ own perspectives hold great implications for the ways that we assess, evaluate, plan, and teach.  I can think of too many times when I used to let the data (student work, monitoring notes, etc.) "speak for itself"  without consulting the children to gather their interpretations as well.       

Lenny

                                                                                                                     Lisa

Lenny said,

…not only are we as the teachers monitoring the students' learning, but that is something we should be supporting them to do as well.  The students' own perspectives hold great implications for the ways that we assess, evaluate, plan, and teach.  I can think of too many times when I used to let the data (student work, monitoring notes, etc.) "speak for itself"  without consulting the children to gather their interpretations as well.

Lenny's words above deserve a great deal of attention. As we try to support students with making the TL cycle their own, we should constantly engage them in conversation. My own high school age children and my elementary students have voiced negative feelings about portfolios and reflection when it was "given" to them as another task to complete and did not feel "helpful" to them. If we don't address these feelings and concerns then no matter how "good" the student reflections look, they carry little meaning for the learners. 

Lisa

                                                                                                                     MaryAnn

Thank you Priscilla and Lenny for pursuing this area of assessment and evaluation.  If our goal is to develop independent, life-long learners, it seems this is a key area for educators to understand.  

Would someone be willing to share how you develop this process with your students or how as a coach/teacher leader you develop the process with teachers or teacher teams? 

MaryAnn

                                                                                                                     Kevin

Wow!  There are some great topics of discussion being brought up out there. 

I have worked with a couple of high school teachers (being developed as building instructional coaches) who have seen the Teaching and Learning Cycle come alive in their work.  I think a lot of us here have seen that happen.  What's incredibly cool is seeing how those teachers have used the Teaching and Learning Cycle with their students.  They have "tweaked" the construct so that it is a "Learning Cycle" the students use to help them think about what and how they are learning in class.  Assessment is there, evaluation is there, planning is there, and learning is there.  Students use the "Learning Cycle" in a reflective way to think about their own learning.  The one area the teachers found that students struggle with is planning.  So, the Teaching and Learning Cycle is a construct that can support any learner.  Have others seen students using the cycle?                           

Kevin

                                                                                                                     Geri

Can you share with us more specifically how you tweaked the TLC for students--The Learning Cycle? What does it look like? How do students use it? Can you give us a concrete example from a classroom or school? This is great thinking.

Geri

                                                                                                                    Kevin

You bet.

Here is how the high school math teacher reworked the Teaching and Learning Cycle so students could use it as a tool for reflection.  She started with the Teaching and Learning Cycle with the students and had their help in putting it in student friendly language.

The Learning Cycle

Assessment

Collecting information about my progress (homework, quizzes, previous tests, etc)

Determining the concepts that have been "covered" during learning

Evaluation

What types of questions can I do all of the time by myself?

What types of questions do I know the process for but get stuck on some steps?

What types of questions do I not even know where to start?

Planning

Determine the best way to address my needs found during evaluation

Talk to my teacher

Set up study group

Look over old questions

Flash cards

Learning

Whole group, small group and individual settings

Active engagement by asking questions and making connections 

Her students were heavily involved in portfolio work - collecting pieces of work, analyzing work to find evidence of mastery, knowing what skills are required to meet standards, etc.  Students wrote goals based on their work and evaluation of their assessments.  Like I said in an earlier post, students fell apart (not completely) with the planning stage.  They were not sure what it took to improve, change their process, get the practice, etc.  They needed much more direct instruction and modeling with this.  The teacher has a goal for the coming year of working on the planning piece with students. 

Hopefully this helps illustrate how students can use the Teaching and Learning Cycle. 

Kevin

                                                                                                                     Elisa

This reads very much like a math assessment that I tried using this year developed by Tanya Braybrook.  You can Google her to get to her website.  Basically the kids do the assessment and after it is marked and the questions and responses are reviewed, the kids graph their scores.  Since there are always the same number of questions on the assessment and each question is always on the same math topic in that grade's program of studies, the kids can see over time how they are doing in a particular math topic and I can see how well I am teaching that same concept.  Then, the kids use this information to plan for their learning (similar to what is posted above under "Planning") and I can plan for my teaching.

I hope this makes sense.

Elisa 

Elisa Waingort
Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual
Dalhousie Elementary
Calgary, Canada

                                                                                                                                Geri

Hi Elisa,

Thanks for sharing your experience. When you say you use it for your planning, can you give us a little snapshot of what that looks like? Thanks.

Geri

                                                                                                                     Elisa

If I see that there are students who are having trouble with patterns then I would set up an invitational group made up of those children and then I would also invite anyone else who wants to work further on patterns to join us.  Does that answer your question?

Elisa

Elisa Waingort
Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual
Dalhousie Elementary
Calgary, Canada

                                                                                                                   Dana

I am trying to think about how this would look in young children.  In writing they could select a piece from their portfolio and analyze what areas in the writing process they find challenging.  I find in revision stage young writers have a hard time wanting to add or take away.  Maybe this could be a focus for them.

Assessment: Collecting several pieces of writing from their portfolios

                    Checking the steps of the writing process and what target skills have
                    been taught

 Evaluation:  What steps do I feel confident in doing by myself all the time?: selecting a
                   topic, pre-writing, revision(adding a color word, a vivid verb)

                   What target skills do I hit?:  editing (underlining words I did not know
                   and going back to find the correct spelling etc.)

                   What am I having challenges the most with?

Planning:      How can I make sure to hit the target skills I have been missing (room
                   resources, partner resource, sign up for teacher conference). 

Just throwing some thoughts out there.  I think Kevin has illustrated a wonderful outline that could be used to plug in any subject area.  Although with math would you have the time to do this?    

Dana

                                                                                                                     Lori

One of our district collection pieces at several grade levels is a reflection written on a self-selected piece of writing.  Lots of the teachers introduce students to this process with HELP, which I gave to them only after unabashedly swiping it from someone else.

H—What was hard about this piece?
E—What was easy about this piece?
L—What did I learn about writing?
P—What am I proud of?

So you might hope to get responses like this...

I had a hard time with the ending.  I didn’t like the one I wrote at first and I couldn’t think of a way to end it.  My friend Max read it and he gave me the idea for...

It was easy for me use lots of different kinds of sentences. I like the way I used short sentences after really long sentences I got that idea from...

I learned that sometimes a friend can give you ideas for your story and that it is okay.  

I am proud that my mom liked it.  She even laughed at the funny spots.  She says it is my best story ever.

We are finding that this has to be modeled, so now I begin to see lists to help kids with the reflection pieces.  

Things that might be hard
Getting ideas
Trying out a new craft
Making paragraphs
Deciding on a title
Revising an ending
And so on... With more kid voice, I am just trying to give examples

Lori

                                                                                                                      Dana

Love it.....I will definitely try these questions out with my students! 

Dana

                                                                                                                     Geri

Thanks so much, Lori, for sharing the specifics with us. These teaching episodes help us all to push our thinking to the next level. These are great assessment samples.  They give us a glimpse not only into the knowledge of writing itself but also into the writer's knowledge of process. I do agree that we have to model how to talk about the writing and support student's to know how to write and talk about their writing. "Show not Tell," Murray's words are embroidered into my brain. It works every time. 

Let's take one example and see if we can use TLC to take this child to new learning.

"I had a hard time with the ending. I didn't like the one I wrote first and I couldn't think of a way to end it. My friend Max read it and he gave me the idea for ... 

What does this assessment sample tell me?   

Geri

                                                                                                                   Kevin

Hi Dana, 

As teachers, we use the Teaching and Learning Cycle across content areas and across grade levels in our own practice.  The example of students using the Teaching and Learning Cycle I gave was specific to one content and one grade level. It seems that there could be a generic student learning cycle that would fit with any content and any grade level using student friendly language.  That way the student can transfer the understandings gained from the learning cycle from class to class, year to year.  I haven't taken the time yet to look at this, but it sure seems like it could be done.  What a powerful approach for a staff to take to build reflective thinkers. 

Kevin

                                                                                                                      MaryAnn  

Dana, I agree that Kevin's outline provides a supportive structure when thinking through and planning what it would look like to intentionally involve our students in TLC.  It's obvious that you are keeping your students at the front and center of the learning, which seems to be a theme that is running through the conversations on the listserve.   

I really appreciate the work you've done to figure out how you'd plan for this so that when you are working with your students you can help them truly understand their role and how this will help them learn.  

I hope you'll keep plugging in different scenarios.  What do you think about doing this with your team?  It seems like the collaborative discussion would be a support to everyone and consequently all the students at the grade level would benefit!    

Thank you for sharing your hard work with all of us!  I'll be eager to hear how it works with your students.  I hope you will share what you are working on with the teacher leaders at your school.  I know they'll want to be learning alongside you. 

MaryAnn

                                                                                                                      Deb

I'm thinking aloud here while I'm giggling at this line you say "...young writers have a hard time wanting to add or take away."  This is so true and yet ... we keep asking them to change a story they think is perfect.  I would be livid if asked to do that.  Besides isn't it really the author who owns the writing?  

Perhaps we need to take a different stance with them.  I'm not sure right now what that would look like exactly because the kids would dictate that.  But I keep getting a nudging that in focusing on the 'skills' they are to learn we are silencing their voices.  I think they will get the skills just by reading and writing a lot - a ton of reading and writing.  But telling them to add more details to the story they think is perfect doesn't seem to be right.

I've not even asked the normal questions here...what age group are you talking about when you say young children?  preschool?  K-2?  All of this goes with everything else.  But if we are focusing on the standards and skills then aren't we moving away from the students as the center piece in the teaching and learning relationship?

Deb

                                                                                                                      Dana

Being a new teacher, my experience is in second grade.  I don't ask, I suggest that maybe here we could add a color word to make our reader see more vividly what you as an author are seeing.  I do believe they need to read and write a lot but if they are not guided and asked to evaluate their work to improve it then when will this occur?  I see with my 12 year old daughter, who is a wonderful writer, but does not know how to edit her work so there are no repetitive sentences, etc.   I began to wonder how much better her writing could be if the teacher assessed, planned, and evaluated. I see with her it has become a habit, more than being upset, not to want to change anything.   I believe all writers have editors.  In the end, I do believe that they need to write without constraints. I did find this a struggle last year.  This year I will be introducing quick writes in the morning so they can generate ideas without considering the writing process.  I know my students last year really enjoyed writing and most were up to the challenge to work on their writing pieces.  Most of my lessons were from a book called Teaching the Youngest Writers A practical Guide by Marcia S. Freeman.  A great book celebrating young writers.  

Dana 

                                                                                                                      Geri 

It's like a giant puzzle now, isnt' it?  That is why the construct of the Teaching Learning Cycle is so critical in our classrooms, no matter the age. The learner becomes the center through our assessment and evaluation. As teachers one of the many things in our toolboxes are the standards, the knowledge of the reading and writing process, and the ability to use the data to plan for new learning for our children. We should be able to say at the end of the day, John learned this today. This is the purpose of schooling: to continue to learn more and more. If I know what John knows as a writer, then as his teacher I also need to know what he needs to know next to become an even better writer. I need to plan intentionally for his learning. A good example comes to mind from my own neighborhood. A little eight year old lives next door. She went into kindergarten reading Junie B Jones. She came home every day with her coloring worksheets and we continued to read at home. I would do a running record every now and again and sometimes just listen to her read. Somehow, she had figured out the graphophonic system and that reading was supposed to make sense but she didn't know she was supposed to read with fluency, pace, and expression. So we worked on that for a bit. Then she started to read much more fluently and at a very quick pace. So we had to learn to go back and reread and make sure it made sense. Carrie was a reader and was reading everyday at home, lugging bags of books home from the library and being read to four or five times a day. At school, she was shuffled around with another small group, the old Joplin plan from one first grade classroom to another. It was clear to me that they didn't know what to do with this child to continue to scaffold her learning as a reader. She was just supposed to read. Well, she did that and she also needed explicit instruction.  They did one reading assessment at the beginning of the year and that was it. This is in 2008! She will score exceptionally well on the state test and she still has much to learn as a reader.  

Geri

                                                                                                                      MaryAnn

I think that one of the things that really helps our students develop as writers is to understand early on in their development that writing can be shared with others/audience and that as writer I want my writing to be clear to my audience.  To do that I get my ideas down on paper, and as I do I reread (to myself and to others) to see if my ideas are clear.  I may discover that I need and want to add a bit more to make my writing more clear. 

As the teacher, I need to show myself as a writer for my students.  I write in front of them everyday so they can see how I reread my writing and ask others to listen.  I want my students to know that as a writer I want to know if they have questions.  From the questions they ask I can decide if I need to add a little more. When I'm modeling I want to show my enthusiasm for making revisions.  I want children to see that a writer doesn't expect their writing to be perfect as s/he is getting the ideas down. 

My students were eager after being part of these demonstrations to go back into their writing to add a bit more.  I think writers do need to own their writing so I have to help my students develop an attitude about writing that makes them want to work on more than just getting their ideas down. 

I find that the standards help me know what students are expected to be learning.  When I know that, I can gather information and evaluate that information to determine what they already know and what support they need in order to learn. 

Sorry this got a little long-winded.  Even though I've been rereading and revising, I'm not really sure I've been clear so does anyone have questions? 

MaryAnn

                                                                                                                      Lori

I think there is often a way to do this without making writers livid.  Often if they can talk the story first, then read the story, you have a way in.  “Mary, when you were telling me the story you made it come alive for me when you told me how silly your little sister looked with all that frosting on her face. Let me see, I wrote it down...oh, yes, you said she looked just like a clown!  But in the story, all you said was she had frosting on her face.  I am wondering if other readers might enjoy it more if you added that bit about the clown. Hmm, it might sound like this...She had frosting on her face and she looked just like a clown. If you would like, I can show you a writer’s trick for adding that bit without lots of erasing.” I honestly think part of the problem for young writers is the very act—the physical act—of writing is intense and draining.  If our ideas of revision suggest erasing or rewriting in total, that can play a role in why kids resist.

Lori

                                                                                                                      Deb

Yes, this is one way and thanks for reminding me of it.  There is also the way of looking outside their writing to literature.  How did this author storytell his/her story?  What language did he/she use...do we do the same thing? 

Absolutely right that writing is draining both emotionally and physically for writers (any age) and especially so with young writers.  So why not have them use the computer, too. 

Anyway, thanks for reminding me of how to do this and not impinge on the writer’s authority. 

Deb

                                                                                                                      Kathy

Lori, 

I believe those are exactly the kinds of conversations we have to have with kids about their writing.  You demonstrated using the child's own voice and ideas, and "reminded" her of what she had said initially.  Being very specific and concrete illustrates for the writer just what you mean by revision. She gets to keep ownership and you get to model for her what the audience may be thinking when reading her piece.  Also as previously mentioned we are teaching the writer not the piece, so if Mary chooses not to add to this story she will have your voice in her head when she writes her next story.  What an excellent use of your monitoring notes too.  Thanks.

Kathy

                                                                                                                      Nancy

Assessment: Collecting several pieces of writing from their portfolios

                    Checking the steps of the writing process and what target skills
                    have been taught

 Evaluation:  What steps do I feel confident in doing by myself all the time?:
                   selecting a topic, pre-writing, revision (adding a color word, a vivid verb)
                  
                   What target skills do I  hit?:  editing (underlining words I did not know
                   and going back to find the correct spelling etc.)
                  
                   What am I having challenges the most with? 

So then, is the assessment just the gathering of a collection of items from the student to evaluate with? And evaluation is the analysis of the assessment?

                                                                                                                      MaryAnn

You're bringing up a great discussion point, Nancy.  This morning Richard talked about consistent language and questions provide an opportunity to share how we are defining the terms of the teaching and learning cycle. 

I'll share my definitions, which I developed through collaborative discussion with other teachers at my school after we had attended the Literacy Learning in the Classroom Institute as a group.  They are very much in line with what you've articulated, but I'll elaborate a little more on evaluation. 

Assessment--information about the learner (gathered by teacher and learner) 

Evaluation--analyzing the information to determine the learner’s strengths and what the learner is attempting/approximating.  From that information a focused next step can be determined that builds on the learner's strengths and moves the attempt to a strength.  (In the evaluation, I'm looking for the zone of proximal development.  The attempts/approximations are showing me and the learner what is close to being learned) 

I'll go a little farther... 

Planning--Using what is known about the learner (evaluated assessment of learning targets) to determine the support that will be needed for learning to occur.  (Focused objective, grouping, resources, and instructional approaches) 

Teaching/Learning--Providing the support