1. Pedagogy and Student Ownership 101
Saturday, September 15th
SUPPLIES:
Chart paper for each group
Markers for each group
Grade-level groups of 4
Uploaded texts & mini-units for ELA teachers to reference
<Insert Date Here>

2. 3 minute: Think Time 2 minute: Share with a friend
Opening Reflection
Diagnose Yourself
What are your students spending most of their time in your class doing?
What’s hard about incorporating and teaching all aspects of your ELA vision?
3 minute: Think Time 2 minute: Share with a friend

3. We have to make mistakes to have conviction and certainty about the path we take.
1 min -Within this session, we’re going to build upon the 1st unit planning session we had at the Kick Off & the progress sharing session we discussed last Pro Sat in order to build our skill at analyzing progress in order to plan a mini-unit from scratch that reconciles various contexts & our personal visions for what we want for our ELA students.

4. Why this course? Why Now? Build foundational skills
Differentiated support
Focus on trends that are applicable in 1st year ELA classrooms

5. Objectives:
ELA teachers will analyze a text to derive a student-centered text vision & daily objectives.
ELA teachers will reflect on all components of ELA-vision in order to craft a mini-unit calendar that moves students significantly forward on all fronts.
ELA teachers will deeply believe that reflecting on student progress to vision and setting forth a clear unit vision/ calendar to achieve a measurable change is critical to achieving success with students.
ELA teachers will feel much more confident analyzing text, modifying district plans, and advocating for full-literacy education.
Go through objectives (brief frame – let them read the objectives independently)

6. 1 2 3 4 5 Agenda Reflection and Self Diagnosis Agenda and Outcomes
Text Analysis Unit: Text Talk 4
Grammar, State Test, IR Unit
2 min
This means that we will work together to build skill in analyzing text, thinking through a mini-unit holistically, and struggling together. 5
Reflection Discussion

7. Text Talk
Research shows that students need to discuss and share ideas to reach deeper understanding.
Teachers need this too!
Reaction to text
Think through framework
Generate a potential final question
Put your thoughts on the text on chart paper in a group of 4
The foundation of our mini units are always going to be the text & the questions that the text pushes our students to talk & think about. This is true even in writing-only classes since students should still be writing to emulate or respond to a text, to ensure that writing is purposeful. So, we’re going to start mini-unit-planning by analyzing our text.
Research shows that students need to discuss & share ideas when reading texts to reach deeper understanding, and similarly, we believe you’ll reach a deeper understanding by working with a small group & in some cases a partner to help you work through this planning process. You’ll also have time for individual reflection throughout the session if you are someone who likes to have individual thinking time. This is why we picked a single text for each grade level band to discuss & plan today.
We’re going to start out by just having a text talk about the text. You’ve already had a chance to read this text & think about these questions on your own, and now you’ll work with your group to get even clearer.
No Islands!

8. If you have time to create objectives than try it!
Text Talk Time
20 minutes
What were your initial reactions to the text? What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? How do you think your students would react to the text?
What is the author trying to convey?
What devices does the author employ in order to convey the message?
What background knowledge & skills will your students need to be able to do to understand the message and the literary devices?
Given this, what final question would you want your students to answer in order to prove that they deeply understand the theme and how the author built towards the theme?
20 minutes – Discussion
5 minute tour of other groups thoughts
If you have time to create objectives than try it!

9. Tour other group’s thinking!
Walk around and consider other group’s analysis.
What is similar? What is different?
5 minutes

10. Look through the sample now…
How do the ideas & skills in these objectives this compare to what you discussed? What is similar? What is different?
2)What tweaks or changes do you want to make to what your group did?
3)Make sure you have your textual analysis objectives (whether you use the example or tweak them based on your discussion).
After this work time, CMs get to discuss the first “layer” of unit plan that has the textual analysis objectives for M-F (or however many days it takes). Then, CMs have time to independently or with a partner/group reflect
You’ll need to ensure that CMs understand there isn’t a “right” answer – but, they likely will be in the ballpark of this example & must be able to justify their choices.
Have a few groups share out similarities and differences.
It isn’t about being RIGHT or WRONG. It is about making BETTER decisions for STUDENTS.

11. 1 2 3 4 5 Agenda Reflection and Self Diagnosis Agenda and Outcomes
Text Analysis Unit: Text Talk 4
Grammar, State Test, IR Unit
Transition: While text analysis is a large part of our vision for how our students will be different by the end of the year, that isn’t all that we want for our students.
Now that you have your textual analysis objectives, which will be the core of your daily lesson, you’re going to build in time for the other aspects of your vision so that your students develop as powerful readers & writers (including getting ready for the state test). 5
Reflection Discussion

12. Going Beyond Text Analysis – 20 minutes
Quickly reflect on how IR is going and add in time for independent reading, including anything that you want to reorient or focus their students on given where kids are (e.g., tracking pages read mini-lesson or reviewing what is expected in their readers’ response journals)
Look at a small sample (2-3) of student writing & determine what skill they want to either re-teach or introduce in terms of writing (e.g., claim statement, finding evidence, etc.) and decide what day(s) they’ll incorporate this. You’ll also have time to do this during LT time- if you don’t prioritize doing this right now.
Consider your pacing guide or school expectations to choose 1 grammar skill that you will focus on teaching during that week.
Reflect on how this text already fits into what you want for your students holistically. Where could you push student engagement and discussion?
Transition: While text analysis is a large part of our vision for how our students will be different by the end of the year, that isn’t all that we want for our students.
Now that you have your textual analysis objectives, which will be the core of your daily lesson, you’re going to build in time for the other aspects of your vision so that your students develop as powerful readers & writers (including getting ready for the state test).

13. Reflect on Similarities and Differences
How did our reflections on the state of student learning affect our unit-visions?
How do your reflections differ from ours?
How did we ensure that our unit plan represents all components of our ELA vision?
Have a few people share similarities and differences. Note that they can also ask questions about the samples because we have the names of those that created them!
6th – Sarah Franzen
7-8th – Mike Bienkowski
9-11th: Kate Eisenpress (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
12th (Brit Lit) Shannon Wenck

14. Celebration!
Take a couple minutes in your group to reflect on ONE concrete way that each person in the group made the work more enjoyable & moved the group forward.
Have a few people share/celebrate each other

15. The Final Survey
How has this discussion shifted your approach to unit-planning- if at all?
What will you need to do to make sure that you have a comprehensive plan for moving your students closer to your vision in the upcoming weeks?
Give us feedback on the course! The questions are standard so think through how this session affects you in the short and LONG term.