Self-Regulation is an integrated learning process, consisting of the development of a set of constructive behaviors that affect one's learning. These processes are planned and adapted to support the pursuit of personal goals in changing learning environments. WOW what a mouthful!
What does this mean to you the teacher and how do you transfer this to the students? As I went through the building and had conversations with teachers I began to develop and synthesize the information. Frankly, it's focusing on the goal; defining what it looks and sounds like and then making it happen. Students are developing habits of inquiry and choice within reading and writing. You use the language workshop as a place where students see strategies and behaviors used by specific authors. I would ask you to review page 41 of Teaching For Deep Comprehension. Linda Dorn writes; ...we must keeping mind the differences between strategies and behaviors, which are external. Strategies are cognitive reactions that require the reader/writer to activate prior knowledge to think beyond the text.
The language workshop is the vehicle or crossroads where reading and writing meet. You need to ask students, how will you use this in the reading workshop and writing workshop. This is another component of launch. Making sure students have the rationale and purpose of each workshop.
As I coach I would ask my swimmers to visualize the race. See youwelf completing each stroke, turn and finish. As you begin to visualize what this looks like in your classrooms you may need a model to consider first. Take a look at these photos of co-constructed charts from 2/3 classroom. What do you see? How has this teacher "TAUGHT" behaviors within the context of authentic genre study? I'm asking that you comment to this post. It will allow me to get a window into your understanding.
Henry Ford said, "If you say you can or you can't you are usually right." So let's say we CAN!
Have an excellent and productive week!
I like the monitoring comprehension and fix up chart. I had a discussion with my students about why we write things down....they could all answer that it helps us when we are stuck. I think it also helps us to put into words what some of the students might or might not already know...it always helps to verbalize it, it makes it seem more concrete.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the question of "Why?" was huge this week after I read last week's blog entry, and I really tried to incorporate it into my classroom in all areas. It actually amazed me at how much more students used response journals and post-it notes to flag when they were told and actually made the connections to our classroom discussions. We are always heavy on classroom discussions in my room when it comes to our learning, and it was very obvious to them just how keeping records during their independent time assisted their ability to join in. It was a fun shift for me to be introducing a new concept during launch and have one of my students raise her hand and say: "Mr. D, why will this help us?" After explanation and a brief conversation, pretty much every student was on board with the idea. Such a simple question, but so powerful. I know it goes off of last week's blog, but really has been showing it's reward in their self-regulation and work ethic.
ReplyDeleteI have really taken the time to teach my students the meaning of each workshop this time around. It's easy to get ahead of ourselves and want to move into the strategies to be taught in each workshop to get things going, however, I see the initial focus being that of teaching students the "why" and "how to" of those expectations in which I have set and will ask of my students. Yes...it's the behaviors and tasks that come first and foremost. And yes, the charts above specifically reflect the conversation 2/3 teachers had during team meeting. I have also done some transforming in my teaching by taking a step back to discuss why we flag and use sticky notes, along with how to monitor comprehension after finalizing my conference notes from each student thus far. I want students to take time in their thinking and value inquiry for it's purpose--to be self-regulated learners.
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ReplyDeleteI have also been working on changing the direction of my instruction by ensuring students understand the why piece of a given concept. I truly believe self regulated learners need to process material internally in order for the learning to be meaningful. I've always been discouraged when I see students, from what I see, carelessly omit capital letters so I chose to complete a lesson where students found where capital letters were used, how, and why. The conversations students had about the "why" went beyond what I had expected; something that I always see as the biggest reward when I turn the learning over to them. :)
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I have also been working on changing the direction of my instruction by ensuring students understand the why piece of a given concept. I truly believe self regulated learners need to process material internally in order for the learning to be meaningful. I was able to use this thinking to help me create a language lesson based on an area of writing that I've always been discouraged with when I seeing students, from what I see, carelessly omit capital letters. In my lesson I had students share investigate where capital letters were used, how, and why they were used. The conversations students had about the "why" went beyond what I had expected; something that I always see as the biggest reward when I turn the learning over to them. :)