Do You DARE To Revise?

Now that I'm halfway through the amazing book Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning by Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., I decided to try out some of the strategies I've been collecting for increasing student learning.

I knew my first Creative Writing unit needed to be revised, so that's where I decided to focus my efforts first. Since the unit includes targeted lessons on revision, I'll be practicing concepts I want to teach as I revise the unit. Way to make it gel!

Here are the steps to my revision attack plan.

1. The first step in revising a unit (or a piece of writing) is to gain some distance. You can't revise a piece you've just finished writing because you're too close to it. So, put the manuscript in a drawer and walk away. Take a two-week vacation. Then you can come back to it with fresh eyes. I've done this by finishing my unit draft and teaching from it last fall, then setting it aside for almost a whole year. Let's just say, my eyes are fresh.

2. The second step is to reread the unit or draft with an eye for revision. Specifically, look for elements that can be deleted, added, rearranged, or exchanged. Notice that these verbs form the acronym DARE. I'll be teaching my students this acronym, but I need to apply it to my unit plan as well.

• Delete: I deleted a few activities that did not support student thinking about the unit's essential questions. While the activities are fun and do promote creativity in writing, I wanted to zero in on my standards and EQs more precisely. So that meant some things had to go.
• Add: I added several opportunities for retrieval practice, a topic I'm learning about through Powerful Teaching. Low-stakes and no-stakes retrieval activities allow students to show what they know and get feedback without fear of losing points. Retrieval practice is a learning strategy, not an assessment strategy. Since I want students to remember concepts like the steps in the writing process for the long haul, I needed to add practice opportunities that reduce the need for cramming. I also added a unit assessment in Google Forms, including feedback for both incorrect and correct answers. Feedback is another of the "power tools" from Powerful Teaching, so I know I'm helping students learn and retain understandings.
• Rearrange: In my original unit draft, my lesson on individual revision practice came before my lesson that allowed the class to work together on a revision. Clearly, students would benefit if I placed the "we do" lesson before the "you do" lesson. I also shuffled some of the standards around, rearranging them to accurately reflect what students are learning in each lesson of the unit.
• Exchange: In some cases, my learning objectives were vague or did not clearly match expected outcomes. I spent some time honing each objective to exchange vague words for specific ones and to match the objective's verbage to its expected outcome in the lesson.

3. Ideally, the third step would be to seek peer feedback on the unit or draft. If you are the only teacher in your department because your school is so small (yeah), it might be more challenging to find a peer reviewer. This is where networking at teacher conferences and harnessing social media can help. Connect with friends, ask for help, and get another person's fresh eyes to read your revision. And if you're teaching throughout the revision, see how the revised unit works in the classroom. Seeing which lessons succeed and which lessons flop is valuable feedback. Put that feedback to work for you!

4. If you have the luxury, step four is to put that manuscript back in that drawer for another two weeks or a year and come back with fresh eyes for another round of revision. Okay, we're teachers. That would be ridiculous. But just as we tell our students, "You are never done." There is always something we can delete, add, rearrange, or exchange to help students learn.

I'm almost ready to tuck my unit away again and not look at it until fall. I'm much happier with the strategies and the structure, and I believe students will benefit from my efforts. All it took was a chunk of dedicated time and the daring to revise.

For more on revising a unit, check out this past post.

What are your favorite revision strategies? Share in the comments!

Enjoy this free download from my store, Brevity!

Visit Brevity on Teachers Pay Teachers for more free encouraging eCards.

Idaho Coaching Network, Year Two

I'm excited to be attending training meetings this week for the Idaho Coaching Network. It's my second year, so I'll be mentoring a "newbie" to the program and helping her with planning and drafting a unit, among other tasks. This year I'm the only teacher from my district participating in the ELA branch of the Network, but I get to hang out with (and learn from) lots of generous, dedicated, experienced teachers from other districts. Our coaches are wonderful, and I can honestly say it's been the best teacher training I've ever received.

One of the biggest benefits to me has been my growth as a presenter, whether it be in professional developments (PDs), conference sessions, or the public speaking aspect of classroom teaching. I've learned to give more meaningful feedback and to plan and write engaging, meaningful units that align with the standards. And I'm seeing myself as more of a teacher-leader, which encourages my administrators and colleagues to view me in that role, too.

If you teach in Idaho, consider learning more about the program and asking your district to let you participate next year. It's a time commitment for sure, but the training and research will stretch you as a professional. Continuing ed credits are available through Boise State University.

Visit the Idaho Coaching Network for more information and lots of free resources. If you're on Twitter, join the conversation at #IDedchat.

Planboard, a Really Good Free Online Planner

The 2015/2016 school year, now blissfully over for my district, was the first year I used an online teacher planner exclusively. Planboard by Chalk.com has been user-friendly and efficient. (See my comparo to Commoncurriculum here). After a full year of Planboard lesson planning, I'm still a believer. A plus I'm appreciating today is the easy migration of one year's plans to a new year. Allowing that I'll be tweaking those plans here and there, adding standards, etc., my plans for the whole of next school year are ready to go.

The only major negative with Planboard is that it (still) does not allow you to print or share unit plans. Today I emailed their IT about the matter, and Planboard's people promptly got back to me: They're (still) working on it.

Unit plan sharing aside, Planboard is free and has lots of bells and whistles, while remaining intuitive.

This year I plan to use the Sticky Note feature to paste a Bible verse at the top of my plan for each day. It'll take a little time, but that word of encouragement for my teaching day will be worth it. What favorite verses should I add to my planner? Please share!

ESV Single Column Journaling Bible, Summer Garden