Professional Development 101 - Reading & Vocabulary (Social Studies Connection) and Math

Today I went to Professional Development.  I automatically thought of that e card about Pinterest... I would have much rather stayed in my PJ's all day, but I decided (with my husband's help) that the $200 Buy Back money was a little too important to pass up.  

The day was divided into 2 sessions.  I got to choose the workshops. 

My morning was spent in SS Reading and Writing 3-5 Grade.

My afternoon was spent in Math Adoption K-5.

I figured that I would just share my notes of what I learned, just so you can see what they are teaching teachers in California.  :)  Oh, I can't forget to mention lunch - seeing that I had an ENTIRE HOUR for a lunch break.  Let me say that again... AN ENTIRE HOUR (usually I have 40 minutes, but that also includes grading, copying, entering grades, etc)!  I ended up heading downtown with some friends and having a delightful sandwich amid all the other teachers that also never get to go out for lunch. 

SS Reading and Writing Workshop

This presentation was absolutely worth sitting in a "made for highschoolers" desk.  She broke it up into 3 parts - Vocabulary Instruction, Reading Instruction, and Assessments/Projects.

Vocabulary Instruction - Some of the big ah-ha moments were classifying vocabulary into 3 tiers.  We discussed that Tier 1 is usually the words the kids already know from babyhood, Tier 2 are academic language that they need to know throughout all the subjects & will use in numerous situations, and Tier 3 are lesson/unit specific.  We were told that Tier 2 are the perfect Vocabulary words to focus on to go through the entire steps of define, examples, pictures, sentences, etc... but to NOT worry about Tier 3 words.  To share the definitions for those lesson specific words, and just move on with our time.  From there we realized that the majority of our content vocabulary words are Tier 3, and that by taking those out of the time-eating define vocabulary practice, we then have time to focus on that academic language.  

She shared so many great strategies that I can implement right away into my classroom - focusing on both nonfiction and fictions.  Things I haven't heard lately using the Frayer Model, etc...  Then she moved onto Reading Instruction (focusing on nonfiction/SS basis).

She mentioned the strategies of THIEVES, Write Arounds, Important Words Summary, Double Entry Journal, Say Something, etc.  She had us participate (not just view from a distance), but it wasn't in a boring way.

I got a lot out of it and see how I could use these on a weekly basis.  Some of them I feel like I already have been doing, but didn't know exactly when or how I started.... like did I start because I read it on a blog sometime, or because I just started doing it myself...

We went through Close Reading (which before today I guess I was getting mixed up with Cloze Reading).  :)  I've never been trained on it before, but it's really spectacular.  Those things that I did back in college that I have been trying to teach my own kids actually has a name!  Lightbulb moment.

For the assessment section, she spoke of exit tickets, ABC books, notebooks, 4 square writing, and Top 10 Lists.  It really struck a note that I am doing a lot of these same things and maybe I'll actually know what I'm doing when we fully transition.  

Math Adoption K-5

This afternoon I spent with the publisher rep. of our newly adopted Math curriculum.  It was interesting, and I did get a lot out of it.

We went through the Student text, the Teacher's Edition, and then the Technology Aspect of it.

 I didn't take pictures of the actual curriculum, but I here are all my notes that I took...

Of course we don't actually get our own TE for a while, but it was really nice to have time to wander through the online piece of it all.

My brain hurts right now!  I hope you had a great day!