A Student-Friendly Checklist for 9th and 10th Grade ELA Writing

It's challenging to find user-friendly checklists for the Common Core standards. This year I've been playing around with some formats to help my students keep track of how they're doing. Here's my new student-friendly checklist for 9th and 10th grade ELA writing standards as a Google doc. I plan to use the same format to create check lists for the other standard sets I teach.

Obviously, teaching something once is not enough to merit a check mark. How has the student demonstrated understanding of the concept? For a brush-up on assessing understanding, read Edutopia's excellent article, 'What Exactly Is "Understanding?" And How Do We Assess It?'

Have a great resource to help teachers and students track understanding? Please share!

Leadership in Band of Brothers Unit

Now available from Brevity on TPT

It's been about a year in the making, but my Leadership in Band of Brothers unit is finally complete. Writing a Common Core-aligned unit was the main requirement of the Idaho Coaching Network class I took throughout the last school year, and my unit for the class was inspired by binge-watching the documentary film series Band of Brothers with my husband. While I wasn't sure some of the material in the film itself would be appropriate to show in class, I knew that the story of the 101st Airborne and Easy Company would be highly engaging to my sophomores.

The motif of Leadership often comes up in everyday conversations with high school students, not just when it's prompted by literature studies. Kids want to be leaders, and they need vivid examples of real-life leaders to emulate. Maj. Richard "Dick" Winters of Easy Company fills those shoes perfectly. Leadership in Band of Brothers gives students the opportunity to learn from the D-Day heroism of Winters and his men and to reflect upon leadership traits in their own lives.

I test drove the rough draft of the unit this past spring with success, though some areas needed to be revised afterward. Now the revision is done, and it's finally time to make the unit available on Teachers Pay Teachers! I feel like a proud Mama.

Here's a snippet from the TPT description:

Designed for 10th grade Social Studies or ELA classes, the plan is ten pages with links to some 30 additional pages of materials. Students will read Chapters 1-5 of Stephen E. Ambrose's bestselling nonfiction book Band of Brothers, the basis for the documentary film series. Students will also engage in learning activities such as Document Based Inquiry, close reading, script writing, reflective self-survey, and recording a radio broadcast.

Classroom tested, Common Core aligned, and ready to teach. All you need to provide is the book Band of Brothers or access to the first five chapters. High quality unit lasts three weeks or more and pairs well with other WWII readings such as The Book Thief.

I hope the unit finds a home in lots of Social Studies and ELA classrooms. Now to finish prepping for conference day! Have a great weekend.

The Christian Teacher's Close-Reading Superpower

One of the hot topics in education is close reading, or "reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension" ("Closing in on Close Reading" by Nancy Boyles). In order to meet state standards, particularly in Common Core states, teachers are introducing close reading skills as early as Kindergarten.

Some approaches to close reading are:

      Examining meaning thoroughly and analytically
      Directing attention to the text, central ideas, and supporting details
      Reflecting on meanings of individual words and sentences, and
      Developing ideas over the course of the text (The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, quoted by Nancy Boyles).

When I attend my professional development class twice a month, the instructor teases me because when she assigns a passage to read, she can trust me to close read it. The first time she pointed it out, I was a little surprised. I've always thought of myself as "a slow reader," though a good reader. I have to go slowly so I can extract the fullest meaning from the text, be it Pride and Prejudice or the book of John. Sometimes, I'm enjoying the author's techniques so much that I couldn't speed up if I wanted to. In a PD setting, this close-reading habit can get me into trouble because I may still be reading long after my colleagues have moved on. It can also cause me to fall behind on assignments. Still, I appreciated my instructor's assessment. Seeing my own close reading for what it was helped me to think about how to teach close reading strategies to my students.

What are some close reading strategies that work? Nancy Boyles outlines the following in her article:

      Work with short texts
      Aim for independence
      Teach students to ask the questions
      Focus on observing and analyzing

Boyles goes on to suggest the types of questions teachers need to teach students to ask. She also states that teachers need to be prepared to ask text-dependent questions while students are getting the hang of questioning the text for themselves.

What stands out to me as a Christian learning to teach close reading is the way the suggested text-dependent questions resemble the questions I ask when I read the Bible, particularly the more challenging passages.

For example, Boyles suggests teaching students to ask the following four basic questions:

      1. What is the author telling me here?
      2. Are there any hard or important words?
      3. What does the author want me to understand?
      4. How does the author play with language to add meaning?

If I'm reading a text like Matthew 8:11-12, my mind is swarming with questions just like these. What important truth is Jesus teaching here? What does he mean by "many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob"? This looks like a prophecy. Why is it tucked in here between hearing the Centurion's story and healing his servant? What does the prophecy mean? Who are the "sons of the kingdom" who will be cast out into the outer darkness? What bearing does this short passage have on the miracle Jesus performs? On my life?

In the case of the passage above, I was so motivated by my unanswered questions that I consulted a commentary and read up on one theologian's interpretation. More often, I'll seek answers by comparing the challenging passage to another in the Bible (one of my college professors reminded his students constantly that "the best commentary on the Word of God is the Word of God").

This is studying the Word. This is meditating on it. This is treasuring its wisdom as David urges believers to do in Psalm 119. In the public school setting, it's just close reading, and the text and the purpose will be different. Instead of seeking to know the author of the Bible more intimately, we are seeking to become better readers of any complex text. Sometimes we are also seeking to make proficient on a standardized test. Still, Christian teachers who themselves close-read short Bible passages every day of their lives are experienced analysts of the finest literature ever written.

Close reading--and Bible study--do take practice. So does teaching close reading. But don't put yourself in a box (like my "slow reader" one). Understand that you bring skills to the table. Ask God to unleash your close-reading superpowers.