Debbie Diller Workshop!

Emily and I got to attend a Debbie Diller Literacy Stations Workshop today.  After reading many of her books, it was great to see and hear her in person.  Here are some ideas I especially liked:

1.  Take digital photos of kids using stations.  Send to parents as a way to show them what kids are doing during Literacy Station Time.
2.  Take one station at a time and highlight it in your classroom blog or newsletter.
3.  Have students take notes while watching a video because it's usually easier with a video than a book.
4.  Have a testing station-I especially liked the Question Maker Station for this.  Students read test passages together and answer questions about it.  Next, they write their own questions.  Your advanced learners can not only write their own questions but create the answer list too.
5.  Use a Research Station.  I know my kids would love, love, love this!!
6.  Use a Science Station with topics related to science and math.  Love a way to incorporate STEM ideas here!
7.  Debbie suggested using Community Journals in stations as a way for students to record their thinking. 
8.  Use audio in your Fluency Stations.  Tape record students and let them listen to themselves read.  I have Flip Cameras that I think I might use for this. She also recommended having a fluency rubric in this station for students to assess themselves.
9.  Create "I Can" statements with students not FOR students. (I'm so guilty of the FOR thing!!)
10.  Assign "Station Inspectors" jobs.  Your two "Station Inspector" students evaluate stations after they have been used and report their findings to the class. 

I am going to be evaluating my Lit Stations to decide what changes I want to make for next year.  What works for you?  Tell me your favorite station that you use in your classroom!  What changes will you be making in your Lit Stations???? 

Differentiated Core Cards

We have only four more days of school!  How many do you have?  We are super excited to have the summer to create more teaching products.  Our latest product is the brainchild of our evaluation! Yes, I said it-our evaluation.  Differentiation was an area that we could "grow" in!  So even though, in my classroom, I prepare 20 different individualized spelling lists weekly, make five levels of fluency passages for my students, work with small groups in reading, writing, and math, I still need to grow.  And I know that Emily also differentiates a lot.  But grow we will!!!

Anyways, we decided to make task cards but we wanted our task cards to be different. We wanted three levels of task cards so we made 12 cards per level. We also wanted an Exit Slip so we created one for each level.  We started brainstorming names and graphics for our cards and ended up with the name Differentiaton to the Core. We loved the apple graphics at Scrappin Doodles and decided to use them to create our differentiation code. Let me show you the code that we designed (with the help of our friend and colleague, Becky Butler). 


The full apple represents your group of students that are not quite up to "core". 
These students need more of the apple to grow.

This symbol represents your "core" groups of students or your students at grade level.



This symbol represents your "above core" group.  These students need only half of the apple
but also need more seeds planted to continue making growth.

 You might be wondering how we came up with the levels and pictures.  We specifically did not want students to be able to identify the levels by looking at the apples.  We wanted students at the lowest level to see a full apple.  By placing the "core" in the middle, the levels are very tricky to distinguish.

 

I used the cards for the first time and I can't wait to tell you about that but I'll save that for tomorrow's blog post. 

 

 

P.S.  Here'a link to our latest product just in case you want to check them out.

Differentiation to the Core-Inferencing Cards