Spark Student Motivation: Accountable Talk-Live Professional Development

My students and I conducted a LIVE lesson for teachers after school for professional development. This was motivating to the teachers and my students! They love showing off! :)
My students also loved that they were part of the SURPRISE! Our faculty knew I was facilitating the professional development, but they didn't know it would be a live presentation with my students!!!
(My students were hiding in the back room of the media center.)

 

It was soooo awesome. I started the workshop with why using accountable talk is so important in our classrooms and then pretended I was going to show them a video of my class in action. Of course, since there wasn't a video...it didn't work. I acted all upset and struggled with the computer for a minute and then let them know it was ok because I had a back up plan! I walked over to the room, opened the door, and introduced my student participants! (The teachers were so surprised and excited!)

 

 

All of the teachers, all 50 of them, gathered around the group of desks and watched my students do their thing. I talked with the audience and my students at the same time explaining what I do and what my students are responsible for during this kind of lesson.

 

 

Students formed a discussion circle and used accountable talk and discussion stems to engage in a meaningful conversation with each other about a piece of text. They constantly cited evidence from the text to justify their thinking and prove their points. The stems help them lead their conversations and to stay focused with their arguments.

 

 

I wasn't nervous about facilitating the workshop or the lesson itself because I know my students' are amazing at accountable talk. However, I was scared they'd be nervous with 50 people standing around them and staring at them and they might not talk in front of that size audience.

BUT...I was wrong! They acted just like they do in our classroom! (Calling me over to show me the hearts they drew around my name at the bottom of the page, making jokes, and one even had to use the restroom during the lesson!)

 

The teachers laughed at their humorous comments and were as engaged as my students were. They were impressed with how much they pulled out of such a small piece of text.

Basically...my kids nailed it! They were so impressive. I seriously almost wanted to cry I was so proud of them. I've had these students for two years and to hear the conversations and dialogue they have between each other is beautiful. They've made so much progress together.


At the end of the lesson (my students didn't want it to end!), I allowed questions from the teachers to my students about the lesson, using accountable talk, and anything else they were curious about. Again, my students impressed me and were able to answer all of their questions with ease and with such enthusiasm. They did explain to everyone that we've been working on accountable talk for a long time and we do it often. They said they trust each other and know each other well enough to know when to include others in the conversation or help each other out. They are truly a class family.

The following is a short segment of the accountable talk lesson. You will see how my students engage in conversation with each other and build of each others' ideas and thinking.
**Ten of my students are featured in the video (I grabbed some extended day kids, teacher kids, and had a few volunteer to get picked up later). I have a variety of levels in this group including students that receive ESE and ESOL services. I wanted a mixed group to show that with practice, modeling, and the right tools, everyone can do it! :)

The materials/resources used in this video and to get my students to this level can be found here:

 

 

 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

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Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
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Spark Student Motivation: Tune Tuesday!!

Close Reading With Music?!!

That's right! Engage your students and they will LOVE close reading!

 

What better way to spark motivation than to use music in your classroom?

But how will we use music to practice close reading? Reading closely means reading for meaning and understanding. Close reading requires students to read, look, listen more slowly, noticing details, making connections, and asking questions. Close reading takes practice and needs to be practiced regularly. This is why Tune Tuesday is the perfect “scheduled” close reading practice each week.

  

NOBODY is absent on Tuesdays! :)

 We ALL love Tune Tuesdays! I can't wait either!

Several other grade level teachers have come to our class to join us during Tune Tuesday and they get just excited as the kids do! My administration loves it too. It's a fun and refreshing way to teach reading!

Close reading with music has so many benefits!

•Your students will ENJOY close reading!

•Engaging for all students

•Deepens comprehension

•Promotes student talk

•Cite evidence from text

•Analyze song lyrics (helps with poetry and transfers to other types of texts)

•Improves listening and speaking skills

•Helps struggling readers (listen to lyrics first)

•Teach multiple concepts and skills: theme, inferencing, drawing conclusions, vocabulary, author’s purpose, observing details and facts,

•Teaches to all modalities of learning

  

 

 

Music is a way of letting our emotions out and allowing ourselves to express our feelings. Music speaks to people, it inspires people, and it allows people to express themselves…why not teach with music in our classrooms?

Students can make connections with the songs and love singing along. This is such a self-esteem booster for my struggling readers as well because they listen to the lyrics and then are able to read the lyrics. This is a time for them to really be involved in a reading discussion with their peers.
 

 Disclaimer: You don't need a disco ball to do close reading with music! LOL!

 

The discussion they have with each other is simply incredible. They use accountable talk to discuss their findings and points they want to make. I sometimes forget the age of the students I teach (10/11) because they sound like adults when they pick apart the lyrics and defend their thinking.

I have been using these high interest song lyrics to engage my students since last year (I looped with my class) and these lyrics make them want to dig deeper. Practicing with these strategies transfers over to other texts we use in our classroom. It's much easier to get them hooked on a difficult process with an activity that is enjoyable and they can relate to.

 

 

Here's a peek at a lesson in our classroom during Tune Tuesday.
I apologize that the sound quality isn't that great.

YOU HAVE TO TRY IT...YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS WILL LOVE IT!
 

 If you're interested in trying this in your classroom, click on the resources.
 

 

            Set One: 9 Weeks, 9 Songs        Year Long Bundle: 36 Weeks, 36 Songs
 

 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

An InLinkz Link-up