All this talk about social emotional learning may make you nervous. Sure, you say, I’m a professional…but I’m not a professional therapist. Fair point, but emotional intelligence can be taught–and you are a professional teacher. All this to say that this next skill, labeling emotions, is the easiest to teach using traditional (read: non-therapy) teaching methods. Labeling emotions comes down to developing and using an extensive emotional vocabulary. And whomever you are (assuming you’re a teacher), you have a lot of experience with expanding student’s vocabularies. Labeling Emotions: What it Means & Why it’s Important We label an emotion when we describe it using the most precise word we can…
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Sketch Your Genre Unit in 6 Steps
If you want to teach your reading curriculum through a series of in-depth genre units (if you want to implement genre study), here’s your planning mantra: Collect, Immerse, Teach, Notice, Define, Analyze. In this post, I’ll summarize each of the six steps and explain how you can organize your lessons (all lessons, even the ones that aren’t genre-specific) logically across a unit. Here we go! Six Steps to Genre Unit Collect Quality Texts: This part is all you, the teacher. When you begin planning your genre unit, collect a big ol’ stack of grade-level picture books from the genre (bring one of those plastic crates on wheels to the library…or…
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Understanding Emotions, Social-Emotional Learning (RULER, part 2)
Once we’ve recognized (noticed) our feelings, we can try to understand them. This can be more difficult then it sounds, especially at school. Classrooms are busy and emotional resources are stretched thin (1 teacher:26 kids). Understanding takes time and energy, and both can seem like limited resources at school. But there are things we can do to help ourselves and our students increase our capacity for understanding. Here are some tips: Ask Thoughtful Questions & Listen to the Answers Sometimes we need to talk through our feelings in order to understand them. When kids are overwhelmed by their feelings, they may need an adult to scaffold this conversation for them.…
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Genre Study = Automatic Spiral Review
I don’t know about you, but I feel overwhelmed by the phrase “spiral review.” Sure, you want to give students opportunities for meaningful review, but “spiral review” brings to mind convoluted spreadsheets. You chart out a complicated course only to find yourself constantly treading water. But there’s good news, if you’re a reading workshop teacher (especially if you use genre study), you can engage in meaningful review without the spreadsheets. All reading instruction falls into a few broad categories. In genre study, each genre unit addresses these broad categories and fills in the details according to the genre you’re currently studying. Here’s an example: Instead of having a “text structure”…
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The Role of Inquiry in Genre Study
Inquiry is one of those things we know is good for students, but sometimes avoid because it seems like more work. I remember being very “pro inquiry” as a student teacher and slipping into more of the “demonstration” camp once I was an actual teacher. Inquiry brings to mind more materials, time and uncertainty than sit-and-get methods. Once again, enter genre study. Before, I hadn’t thought much about inquiry in regard to reading (it was mostly a “science thing” in my mind). But Fountas and Pinnell taught us an inquiry approach to genre that was structured, engaging and low-prep. Here’s how it works: Genre Immersion: Students read examples of the…
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How Do You Feel? The Mood Meter + A Vocabulary Challenge
Like I mentioned, I’ve been inspired by Marc Brackett’s book Permission to Feel. In the book he points out that most of us have a pretty puny vocabulary when it comes to emotions. Beyond “sad, glad, mad” we’re lost, and so we usually just stick to “fine.” Brackett suggests several tools for enhancing our emotional vocabulary. The more words we have to describe emotion, the better we become at understanding emotion. One tool is the mood meter: The mood meter is composed of four quadrants. Each quadrant corresponds to high/low energy and pleasantness/unpleasantness: Red: High Energy + Unpleasant Emotions that are fear or anger-related belong in this quadrant. Blue: Low…
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Can Emotional Intelligence Make Me a Better Teacher?
I love the elementary school aesthetic. Primary colors, tempura paint, jewelry made of macaroni “beads”—I love it all. But cheerful decor (and Instagram posts) not withstanding, school isn’t always the safe, uplifting place teachers and students would like it to be. Sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions, it’s the opposite. Ever witnessed a shouting match unfurl in front of an adorable bulletin board? Yeah, me too. Teachers and students spend a big chunk of their lives at school, and classrooms are the site of a lot of negative emotion. Consider this: According to Gallup, nearly half of teachers report high levels of stress at work. They are tied with nurses for…
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Using Genre to Frame Your Reading Workshop Curriculum (Genre Study Intro)
A few years ago I attended a Fountas and Pinnell conference on year-long genre study, and it transformed my reading workshop. Genre was this little gem that I’d been undervaluing. Once I dug it out from its hiding spot in my cluttered curriculum, I had a tool that put all my literature analysis lessons into perspective. Because I think it really enhances reading workshop, I’ll be doing a series of posts on genre study. The easiest way to begin is to compare year-long genre study with a short, one-time genre unit or lesson (you know, the kind where you put a “Genre Bulletin Board” together with ready-made examples and definitions).…
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Visualize Your Ideal Reading Block Using the Time Management Matrix
A Time Management Matrix helps you prioritize tasks that are most aligned with your long-term goals. This leads to progress toward those goals and a sense of satisfaction. The matrix is a great way to organize your own time, but what about your reading block? The Time Management Matrix (Eisenhower Decision Matrix) can help you answer these questions about your reading block: How do I want students to spend their time? What do I want them to do daily? What should they do weekly? Monthly? What prevents them from meaningful reading, writing, etc? How can I support students through routines, expectations, and preparedness? Here’s how the Time Management Matrix might…
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Helping Kids Keep a Journal During COVID-19
Now is a great time to encourage kids to practice habits that are truly useful in their daily lives. And nothing is more daily than a daily journal. Keeping a journal helps students process a confusing time, record history from their perspective, and remember a significant time in their own lives. A journal also helps kids reflect on how their personal lives are impacted by global events, and share their feelings with adults who care about them. Want your students to keep a journal? Here are some tips to help them get started! Make it Manageable: A basic structure helps kids get started, but too much structure makes writing burdensome.…
