Spotlight on Lone Oak:

Using Technology to Meet Students' Needs

Spotlight on Lone Oak

These words are posted prominently on the door outside of the literacy leader classroom where Candace Miller, the literacy coach at Lone Oak Elementary school along with several interventionists meet and greet students who are doing their very best to grow as readers this year. In my conversation with Candace earlier this year she shared that while 2020 has brought it's share of challenges to their school, their students have been brave enough to try new reading strategies that are outside of their comfort zone to grow and their educators have been brave enough to try new instructional strategies that are outside of their comfort zone. Last week, I was given an opportunity to see how Candace and her teachers across grade levels are using technology in innovative ways to effectively meet their students' needs as learners.

In the short video to the right, Candace shares how after reviewing their students' beginning of the year STAR data she knew that students would benefit from differentiated instruction. Candace worked to support her teachers in developing ways to meet their needs in the classroom, trying out different structures and strategies for small group literacy stations and guided reading. As Candace said they are learning and adjusting as they go and are excited about this year's journey.

*A big THANK YOU to Christina Crosby for collaborating on and helping to troubleshoot all of our instructional technology ideas!!

Candace Miller Interview.MOV

Innovation in Action

Please take a moment to view how first grade teachers, Mandie Allen and Ashley Skipper are using Google Meet, Chromebooks, and web 2.0 sites to help provide students with small group instruction in the classroom while also keeping students safe. Take a look at how second grade teacher, Kimberly Harris is using her promethean board and doc. camera to ensure that interactive read alouds can work without the carpet gathering space and rocking chair we normally use. See how fourth grade teacher, Kim Riddle has a morning meeting that combines her students who are at home learning with her students who are in person. Last, but not least, take a look inside virtual kindergarten teacher, Latrice Darnell's classroom and see how she incorporates music, movement, and massive amounts of energy and enthusiasm to engage her youngest learners.

Mandie Allen 1st Grade.MOV

Ashley Skipper 1st Grade Video 1.MOV

Small Group Instruction in 2020

One of the biggest obstacles facing us as educators during this 2020 school year has been small group instruction. In a pre-Covid classroom you could observe a teacher's balanced literacy block and see a teacher working with a small group of students at the kidney shaped table at the back of the classroom, while other small groups of students gathered at the carpet to check out and independently read books from the classroom library, while other groups listened to stories being read aloud on their laptops, worked in their writing notebooks, and engaged in word work activities to build their phonological awareness. This year, with the safety of our students as a top priority, we have to literally, think outside of the box (or plexiglass) to help ensure our students are engaged in the skills they most need to grow as readers and writers.

Check out the videos to the left to see how first grade teachers, Mandie Allen and Ashley Skipper use Google Slides to create a small group rotation schedule with websites hyperlinked so students can easily access through their touch screen laptops. You will also see how they both use Google Meet to connect with students sitting in desks across their classrooms to provide targeted small group instruction.

*If you would like to view and use the Small Group Stations Google Slides that Candace Miller created for her first grade teachers and students to use, just click the link below and click "File - Copy" to make a copy to modify and use with your students.

Lone Oak First Grade Small Group Stations

What Our Teachers Have to Say...

To hear first hand from our first grade teachers about why this work was important, how they went about structuring it, and most of all, how it has impacted student learning click the links to the video interviews below.

Mandie Allen Interview.MOV

Mandie Allen's Interview

Ashley Skipper Interview.MOV

Ashley Skipper's Interview Part 1

Ashley Skipper Interview 2.MOV

Ashley Skipper's Interview

Part 2

Mrs. Harris Interactive Reading.MOV

Mrs. Harris Interview.MOV

Interactive Read Aloud Tech Tips

To hear from Mrs. Harris on how she used a document camera to project the pages of the book on her promethean board and how this engages her students click the video link above. Please know you don't have to have a doc camera to make this tech tip work. This can easily be done with a web camera and a flexible arm from Amazon that can flip the camera up for live video or flip it down to serve as a document camera. Many teachers do this without either one of these devices. They simply take the text and scan the pages on the school's copy machine and send it to themselves via email. You can either pull it up on the promethean board directly from your email or you can copy each page on a Google slide.

Ms. Harris has also worked with her literacy coach, Ms. Miller to create a Must Do...May Do Google Slide that has hyperlinked student literacy station activities so she can also conduct her small guided reading groups. If you'd like to access and make a copy to modify for your students, please click the link below.

Ms. Harris Must Do May Do Literacy Stations

Interactive Read Aloud 2.0!

While things may look just a little different in Kimberly Harris's second grade classroom, her interactive read aloud sounds exactly the same. She may not be sitting at the front of the room in a rocking chair with students gathered closely around her on a colorful carpet, but they are still hanging on her every word. Her enthusiastic teacher read aloud voice still commands the attention of every student around the room. Her intentional questions strategically asked throughout the book connect students to the strategy she is teaching explicitly in her reading workshop. You will see in the video the purposeful way she works to ensure that this is a time students are able to connect with the text, but also with each other, pausing in the middle of the read aloud to invite students who have not yet participated with an oral response to share their thoughts. At the end of her read aloud, you will also see how Mrs. Harris bridges the interactive read aloud with a reading response that allows students creativity and a written opportunity to share their thoughts about the text.

Mrs. Riddle 4th Grade.MOV

Morning Meeting That Makes A Classroom Community

In Kim Riddle's fourth grade classroom, you will see how she purposefully conducts a morning meeting that includes both groups of students...in person and those e-learning at home. Mrs. Riddle knows that engagement is crucial to student performance on independent work and that while her fourth graders are growing independence, it is helpful to begin the morning together where she can review the expectations of their independent work and provide an opportunity for all of her students to greet each other, to see and interact with each other and her with them before starting their day. While we are all hopeful that soon all of our in person students will be gathered together in our classrooms for five days a week, we also know that in any given week we may have students who may be absent. Mrs. Riddle's innovative thinking can help students who may have to be home, feel a part of the classroom through her digital morning meetings.

Mrs. Darnell Video 1.MOV

Mrs. Darnell Video 2.MOV

Movement, Music, and Making Our Time Together Matter

In her virtual kindergarten class, Latrice Darnell makes every moment count. While teaching virtually offers it's own set of unique challenges Ms. Darnell, is making sure her students don't miss out on the high quality instructional strategies they would be provided in school. While it is a little different seeing students on the screen rather than in person, she is able to engage her students in the same sing alongs to build their math and language skills, the same movement to interact with the content, and most of all the same enthusiastic conversations and interactions around concepts that build readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and historians.

Take a look at a snapshot of Ms. Darnell in action. You will notice in the first video how she intentionally greets her students, providing them with clear expectations for what they will need and what they will do in her math lesson this afternoon. She also communicates compassionately with her students making sure that their needs are met. In the second video you will see how Ms. Darnell utilizes a gradual release of responsibility model moving from "I Do, We Do, You Do" where students practice counting together with the sing along and the guided math counting practice before she provides them with independent work. This gradual release model is an effective structure for both ELA and Math. Take a few moments to watch the video on the bottom left of Ms. Darnell sharing her experiences as a virtual teacher this year.

Gmail Video by cloudHQGmail Video by cloudHQ

While the transition from face to face teaching to virtual hasn't been easy, it has been full of valuable learning opportunities for Ms. Darnell and her students. While I was videoing her in action I noticed that one of the vocabulary words she had planned to use in her interactive read alouds this week was the word, confidence. This year, none of us would have used the word, confident to describe how we felt about teaching in 2020. There were a lot of uncertainties and a lot of new learning experiences for all of us: teachers, students, and families. What we do know is kids! It is clear from watching Ms. Darnell that she knows her kids and she is using all she knows to connect and engage them virtually. As our experience grows so will our confidence and our confidence is directly tied to our students' confidence. Please know that we appreciate each and every one of you as you work to try out innovative instructional strategies and technology this semester. If you have a strategy that you would like to share, please send me an email at mitchelld@spart6.org We are in this together!

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