2014-15 PDU Title Professional Development Unit

1. By: Richard Huggett Cole Arts and Science Academy Kindergarten Teacher 2014-15PDU TitleProfessional Development Unit

2. During the course of this PDU, what three instructional strategies did I implement? What strategy worked best? Why? Throughout this PDU, I tried to focus on my students’ ability to communicate with one another effectively and express their understanding of what we had read. The book Great Habits Great Readersoffers a number of strategies intended to facilitate just such a conversation. Implementing these methods in kindergarten took quite a bit of patience and much trial and error, however, each one was effective in its own way. The three instructional strategies that I implemented were: • Encouraging students to use “The Power of Prompting” in order to facilitate discussions (not so effective) • Creating more effective read alouds by choosing a text to match a skill • Using small group work (specifically turn and talk buddies and putting hands down to listen when a peer is talking) to monitor understanding

3. How did I apply the PDU strategies in my classroom/practice? (examples) Who did I collaborate with during the PDU? Discuss the ways you collaborated while implementing the PDU strategies. I applied the PDU strategies primarily in whole group, although I found them very helpful in small group as well. Most of the strategies encourage children to share their ideas and their understandings based on the texts that we read – something that is difficult to do with books that kindergarteners can read independently. As a result, all of the strategies implemented occurred in small or whole group reading activities. Each week I met with the kindergarten team to discuss successes, challenges, and next steps having to do with implementation. As we did not all choose the same areas of focus (but did share which ones worked), it was beneficial to use each other as a sounding board. The most beneficial part of the collaborative progress for me as an educator was having two other teachers listen to my strategies objectively and offer positive feedback. It was especially nice to discuss the use of the strategies with people who know the make up of my classroom as both individuals and a group.

4. What did I learn to do differently as a result of the PDU and strategy implementation in my classroom or in my practice? • The largest takeaway from this particular PDU was encouraging students to not only think about their own ideas about a text, but to also be able to listen and attempt discussions with one another. Instead of children holding hands up for an obscene amount of time, waiting their turn to say exactly what another child had said, children were encouraged to listen to one another and comment on one another’s ideas. It took a long time for me to get used to this strategy (definitely as long as it took the children) and implementing such a strategy with fidelity became more important as texts were chosen to fit a certain skill. • In thinking about how to encourage quality discussion among students, I had to be much more intentional about which texts were chosen. That was pretty rad.

5. Why is this PDU action research process important to my students learning and to my growth as a professional? • In terms of student learning, the importance lies in the students’ ability to discuss a text with another person. In kindergarten, the hardest thing for any student to do is listen to a peer without immediately acting on his or her own thoughts. While discussion prompts were not as effective, even when consistently referred to, their ability to talk and listen to one another. • In terms of professional growth, the PDU has helped me to set up better structures that encourage young children to discuss their thoughts with one another. It is possible, although difficult, to have small children discuss higher level thinking with one another with decent prompting.

6. PDU Data AnalysisReflecting on the data you have collected, how did this experience impact instruction, progress monitoring, student performance, and your own practice? • Instruction: I tried to pick out better and more effective read aloud books which lent themselves to specific skills. • Progress Monitoring: As children discussed questions with specific turn and talk buddies, monitoring became easier. Students stayed in place, used specific skills, and the teacher was able to listen to numerous discussions to gauge the effective parts of the lesson in an efficient manner. • Student Performance: while turning and talking became successful, maintaining focus and attempting to extract more thinking was not as effective. • Practice: Killed it.

7. How will I apply my new learning in the future to further my practice? What are my next steps? • This new learning, picking out texts that match specific skills and then encouraging discussions about those skills, will help immensely with both whole group and small group reading in the future. My next steps are to scaffold listening to one another and turn and talks from the beginning of the year, so that our class has structures in place from the beginning of the year.

8. #1. Encouraging students to use “The Power of Prompting” in order to facilitate discussions (not so effective) • While asking kindergartners to share with one another and listen can be constructed effectively, getting them to prompt one into asking more probing questions of one another is not as simple.

9. #2: Creating more effective read alouds by choosing a text to match a skill • Lessons that require children to use a specific skill (identifying the main components of fiction texts) and use anchor charts and previous learning to assimilate that knowledge. Chart featuring sight words we need to work on from books that we have read. This served as a visual data tracker useful to both teachers and students.

10. #3:Using small group work (specifically turn and talk buddies and putting hands down to listen when a peer is talking) to monitor understanding We added a buddy board to avoid too much movement or argument about partners. This led to faster conversations that were easier to monitor.

11. Exit Ticket • As a support, I would like to have more guided PDUs that are text based and that continue across the year. • 2 things: 1. Be more selective with the texts that I pick and the skills that those texts are used to support. 2. Encourage students to talk to one another about their thoughts and justifications (even at this age, they can do it when guided) • Constructive Criticism: The book Great Habits, Great Readers is a wonderful text to focus on for PD. Please use this book more and dig into it deeper across the year, so that we can continue a school wide development of literacy understanding.