Brainstorming

Hey guys....so I've been thinking about a lot of different stuff - which I think most of us have.  We each have different thoughts, different priorities, and different interests.  I think that if we are really going to move forward, we are going to have to take as many opportunities as possible to share ideas and critique each others' thinking.  So I've decided to begin a post on some of my thoughts with the hope that others will chime in with their own . Remember, I set everyone up as authors, so you can either comment on this post, or you can create your own if it is a different subject.

My hope is that we can begin our thinking and dialogue before we actually meet.  Hopefully this will accomplish two things: 1) make our meeting time more efficient because a lot of these ideas will already be out in space for us to chat about, rather than using meeting time to introduce ideas, and 2) we will each have more time to mull over and respond to others thoughts without jumping in with initial reactions before we've had the opportunity to really digest it.

So here we go:

Scheduling
During the meeting last week with Lynda, she gave us a lot of freedom with scheduling.  I think this is going to be great.  I also think that our initial thoughts from last Wednesday might prove doable.  Of course, this would just be a jumping off point.  We will still have to consider Tier 2 and Tier 3 and where they would happen.  In case you don't remember what we were batting around, here it is again:

8:00-8:30 Morning Meeting/Advisement
8:30-9:10 5th Specials, 4th Writing
9:15-10:50 Reading Village
11:50-1:50
-40 minutes (4th science, 5th writing)

-80 minutes math village

1:50-2:30 5th science, 4th specials


We had discussed on Wednesday possibly having 4th grade using the 40 minute block after lunch for more writing.  The more I think about it, the more I think we need to amp up the writing pieces in our Reading Village and figure out if there are things that need to happen to maximize the instruction during the morning writing block.  However, I think the 4th graders need to have their science block.  Just as we don't do an extra science block for 5th grade, I don't think it is advisable to do an extra writing block for 4th.  I know we want to do the best job possible for our students, but taking science out of their day isn't the answer, in my opinion.

Along with that, I think it would be better to do the Math Village right after lunch/recess and do the 4th science/5th writing block second.  Again, just my opinion - nothing is written in stone.

Math
I think that we need to do the best we can to make a hybrid out of Everyday Math.  We don't have the time to reconstruct the entire curriculum.  However, I think we can restructure it so that we are doing units of study together.

For example, Units 7 and 9 in 4th grade and Units 5, 6, and 8 in fifth grade all revolve around fractions.  We can take these units and meld them into a 4/5 Unit on fractions.  I think we can construct some assessment systems to help us figure out where students are what they need.  Then we can harness the power of 8 teachers (including the interns) to split things out so students are getting what they need.  We don't allow anyone to only work way below grade level, but we do make sure students are being served at their level.  Here is one thought of how it might work:

Teacher 1: Working with students who are above/well above 5th grade level in their understanding.
Teachers 2 & 3: Working with students who are on 5th grade level
Teachers 4 & 5: Working with students who are on 4th grade level
Teachers 6, 7, & 8: Working with small groups of students who are below or significantly below grade level.

This doesn't necessarily mean that teachers 2 & 3 are teaching the 5th EM lessons and teachers 4 & 5 are teaching the 4th grade EM lessons.  We may need to look "beyond" the book in the sense that we aren't counting on just "following the EM script".  However, we can assume that the vast majority of kids are going to be "on level" and need instruction to match.

None of these groups are for the full 80 minute block.  Rather these would be the "mini-lesson" groups.  There would still be games, math boxes, projects, etc. that students would also be working on. Also, the fact that teachers 2, 3, 4, & 5 are working with larger groups doesn't mean the instruction is necessarily large group.  It may be multiple "medium" sized groups.  A lot of that can be worked out as we move along.  These groups can also be very flexible according to need.  It is likely that the students who are well above and those who are well below won't change much, but the movement of those in between could vary a lot based upon the skills.

Again, all of this is coming out of my head and is simply my thinking.  I haven't worked it all the way out.  But I think it is important for us to really push to make math different.  It should not be us dividing back out and teaching lessons is isolation just because that is more familiar.

Science and Writing
I think it makes sense that Science and Writing are the two areas we split back into grade levels.  My thinking here is multi-faceted.  First, this allows us to use the times when the student are in Specials to work on these topics.  Second, the fourth grade writing curriculum is very specific and the fourth grade teachers can be really focused.  Third, we have our science units from last summer and they are based on grade-level standards.  And finally, we can't re-invent every wheel next year, and  I think it is more important for us to tackle math first.

Reading Village
I think we should use the units we are building, obviously.  I think it makes sense to use the Reading Village to do several things.  First, our core should center around our Toolkit lessons in conjunction with our Social Studies topics.  However, I think Autonomous Time can be more focused and use small groups to a greater extent including Tier 2 and Tier 3 as well as some novel studies and other ways to push our gifted/high achieving students.  Again, I think we need to be more intentional around our pieces in that regard.

Environment
I would like to find a way to set up some speakers in the Commons to have peaceful music playing for Autonomous Time as well as possibly "Good Morning" music and other genres as needed.

I think we should draw straws to choose desks - it is the only truly fair and impartial way to do it.

We also need to be thinking about our givens for Morning Meeting, expectations for students moving around the LC during AT and other times, storage of materials students normally need to access (pencils, tissues, band-aids, etc.) and everyone's givens around those pieces.  Many of these are topics we will be working on this week during our Responsive Classroom piece.

Your Thoughts
As I stated above, these are my thoughts.  I want to know what others are thinking.  As you know, I think about this stuff all the time.  But I also know that many of you think about other pieces that I don't.  Feel free to comment on my thoughts, add your own, disagree, whatever.  I just want a conversation to start so we can have more progress when we meet face to face......