If you know me, you know I love using post it notes (or sticky notes as ‘The Sisters’ call them). They work for a while but a better way of recording was needed. After many attempts at keeping vital information together, the Pensieve was born. It is divided into 2 sections.
Section 1 – Teacher Notes
This is for organizing and planning time with your class, noting when you will confer with individual students and small groups and track how often each student has been met with. A simple calendar is used to make appointments with each student. You may speak to individual students about another meeting time and penciling this time on the calendar.he calendar is also used for strategy group meetings
Strategy Groups Form is used to create flexible groups based on similar goals of students. These are not ability groups, rather groups made up of children working on the same strategy eg: fluency.
Section 2 – Dividers/Tabs
Each student has a section of the notebook (CAFÉ Menu, Reading Conference Form & Writing Conference Form are included). At the top of each form there is space to note each student’s strengths & goals. Space is available to record instruction provided to help the child meet the goal (individually, in small groups or with the whole class). Space is also available to record what steps the child will take with teacher assistance to meet their goal/s. As goals are achieved, extra pages are added.
I am very motivated to get this happening in my room (obviously much better than what I have been using).
What have you found works when using this style of record keeping?
Kaelene Harris
20 comments:
I have found the pensieve has improved my record keeping system dramatically! At Lisa's (great) suggestion I also keep students last running record in their tab, so I now have a detailed understanding of their reading ability and clear indication of where they have improved all in one place. This made reporting SO much easier. The recording forms for conferencing are clear and provide a great scaffold for recording information.
I love the 'Keeping track form' as it keeps me accountable - although this is only to myself it gives me the incentive needed on those mornings, when I have a thousand other jobs I could do while they're sitting so beautifully and quietly, to make sure I meet with as many children as I can. When using the calander I do still find it tricky to find the balance, as I mentioned in my last comment, between meeting with my students that really struggle and could really do with being seen every day and also meeting with those students that are coping fine and extending them.
I have yet to find the time to fit in strategy groups! I'm getting to 3ish students per day but can't seem to pick up my pace enough to fit strategy groups into our Literacy block as well - I would love to hear how other people structure their block to fit them in!!
I had always found keeping track of my assessments a challenge. Following the Sister's system has helped me so much! I particularly love keeping a calendar so I can see which kids I will aim to meet with each day. Like Amy said, this keeps me accountable too and helps me to strive to meet with 4 or more children (because I have written their names on the calendar), rather than settle for 2-3.
Because this structure is all about meeting with those who require it the most, I have found that I was focusing on the developing readers, and not meeting much with the ones that are excellent readers. This term I have made it my goal to ensure that I meet with as many children as possible so I can fit in the advanced readers as well as those who need more support. Is everyone meeting with their students during read to someone as well as read to self? I find that allows time to meet with more.
I am similar to Amy. I use the pensieve to keep all the notes in the one safe place (a purple folder so I can find it easily). I love the idea that Lisa suggested, keeping their last running record in there too.
I love the strategy form (From Assessment to Conferring)as it gives me suggestions on where I can get the students from where they are to where they need to be and the possible strategies to assist them.
I looked at Lisa's pensieve and I like the way she has used dividers for the different students in her class. This ensures she can access their records easily. I need to put dividers in my folder so I can get to the information quickly.
In the past I have had an assessment folder for each child and I keep all the assessments in the one folder. I have found this has been a good way to keep track of everything but kind of a wate of space too. At the end of the term I have this folder full of assessment sheets that i dont really know what to do with.
I'm looking forward to getting a pensieve and trying it out. From looking at the colander that is used as an example in the book it seems like she conferences more with some students than with others? Does this happen in your classes? It shows she is assessing with students everyday. My challenge will be trying to find the time with Kindy to conference with 3-5 children a day :)
I like the stategy groups and instruction form. Its a good way of organising and keeping track of each strategy and the lesson focus within.
Figure 2.5 reading conference forms are a great way to keep on track and to keep the goals clear for the next meeting.
I think Kindy will have a different set of challenges when using the CAFE system. It will probably be harder to get through 3-5 students to start with so my advice would be start with however many you can handle and as you progress you'll be able to inrease this number. I don't know what everyone else thinks, but for some students in Kindy it could be beneficial to use the conferencing time to do sight words/sounds?? I'm looking forward to getting your feedback on how you work the CAFE in with Kindy Kris! I'm sure you will do a marvelous job :)
I loved the very practical nature of the pensieve and the way that evrything is one place. The forms are so useful. I decided to go completely digital and my pensieve is in OneNote on my computer, but I am just changing it all to Evernote my iPad. It helps having a form to keep track of kids. It frees up time to sit and conference with students. I need to use the calendar more, although I do use the sticky note feature on my computer to keep track of the students that I need to conference with. I am only getting to 2 or 3 students. Strategy groups may not happen now until later in the term because of the changes that are happening in our learning space. In reference to Kristen's comments, I am just starting the process of targeting the same students, particularly those that need regular direction. The Conferencing is a very powerful way of helping students to change. as you set goals together, it means that you are able to assess if they have met them or not. It will be good to see how the strategy groups work in Daily 5 and really targeting those students who have a particular need.
Loving Daily 5 and the effect it has had the student's literacy skills. It's given them language and strategies that they know they can use.
I love that Gail and Joan ‘The sisters’ don’t just tell you what to do, but how they got to that point (successes and failures of CAFÉ)
I too am excited to see how conferencing will work in my kindy class. I think it would be great as students will be able to set new goals for their learning.
I think it’s a great idea to use the calendar to book students in so no one falls through the cracks.
I also liked the idea of spicing up The Pensieve (Conferring Notebook) so you know where it is and students feel special being in it.
I certainly agree with what Jessica said – that the wonderful thing about Gail and Joan is that they explain how they got to where they are and in the process share what worked and what didn’t work.
I have used the pensieve with a section for each child so it is easy to keep track. Yes Amy, it did make reporting so much easier.
The Strategy Groups and Instruction Form is of the greatest interest to me at the moment and seems to deal with the question of how to see all the children that need seeing as often as they need to be seen. In the example given in Fig 2.1, Joan has 21 students. In the period of one month, she sees all the children ranging from once to six times. Now, it was interesting to note that the child that was seen six times was only in one strategy group. The one that was seen once was not in any group at all, presumably because she may have been on advanced strategies.
The SG&I Form is the natural progression after assessing a child – or so it seems to me. Once there are four or five students needing the same strategy, they can be seen together despite the difference in their reading levels. I think we will quickly find out the beauty of the strategy groups. Like all things Daily 5, only those who need to be in a strategy group will be in one. I think things will get much clearer once we are into chapter 3.
The Pensieve….hmm.. …who thought H.P could bequeath such an important word to literacy?
and i forgot to ask....is there any chance that spelling can be moved to LS3? It seems such a shame to interrupt various levels of stamina in various activities - reading, writing or word work just as the students are getting into it. Plus on a day that you need to pack away ipads or ipods ...... that 25 extra minutes in that block would mean so much. Just a thought.......
How do others feel about SRA time impacting on the stamina building in the morning session?
Great analysis of those forms Veronica! One thing to remember is that the school day in the US appears to be much longer...by 1-2 hours a day! ( somedays I'd like that idea...others I'd loath it! ) so the examples given have more time for getting to students. It was interesting to see the disparity between the number of conferring sessions with individuals....this is a BIG change in thought for those of us who are into equity in time. It brings me back though to the research in the first chapter which stated 'less effective teachers thought that fair meant distributing instruction equally to all students regardless of their needs. Exemplary teachers thought far meant working in ways that evened out differences between students'. Also, to Daily 5 which really changed our thinking on getting out of the kids way! So if that student who was only seen once and didn't appear to be in a strategy group was doing so well and presumably was working on their own set of goals......who are we to interfere and think they need us an equal amount of time....we are letting them be self motivated engaged learners....who don't need us so much for instruction but for quality feedback! Wow, that changes our long held idea of our role and job description of what it is to be a teacher doesn't it!
What are everyones thoughts on moving SRA to after recess? How does that impact Maths sessions? In many schools I've taught at in the past, it's worked like this....Literacy morning session and for ES1-S2 an additional half hour Literacy and then Numeracy for the rest of the middle session and everything else afternoon sessions. Of couse we have BOS minute guides to comply with. Can we be flexible and more creative with our minute allocations in terms of integration? I look forward to the BOS rejigging of time frames in relation to the Aus Curriculum docs which should see a rightful increase for ES1 - S2 for Literacy and Numeracy.....but until then.....how do we fit it all in?
Regarding SRA moving to recess,
I wouldn't mind. I find that on some days there isn't enough time in the morning, however, on others there is. Not sure how RFF programming would work though.
My only concern is SRA running over time in some classes and eating into our class time.
I like that we have the recess bell that ensures we all stop SRA at the same time.
@Debbie :) I'm pretty happy with the structure of SRA at the moment. The 10:00 time is really easy to remember and the kids are in a good routine of this at the moment. I guess I just work my D5 around it, but could easily adjust to a new time. Open to whatever.
I'd be happy to change to 3 days of SRA but think that it works really well to have SRA for four days at the start of the year til end of semester 1. I think this enables the kids to get through the content and then cut back semester 2 to allow for increased time for Daily 5.
oops - forgot to tick the box!
I agree with Kel. I like the idea of cutting to 3 days in Semester 2. Starting at the beginning of Term 3 would be easy for the kids to adjust to, and then it gives us two days of the week where we can have the solid Daily 5 block in the morning.
Three mornings a week sounds really attractive. I'll also just put this out there - Kate and I have found two learning sessions where we can focus on writing - I think the sisters call them writing workshops. This has also been largely due to the fact that we found writing requires quite a bit of scaffolding. Instructing, and talking with the kids, brainstorming and then giving them time to write was not happening in daily 5. So in those separate learning sessions, they can actually start and complete a piece of writing, which is great! They still get time to write their own creations in 15 or 20 minute slot of the D5 rotations.
With your 2 extra writing sessions, Veronica and Kate, are these your modelled/guided writing sessions where you teach students text types etc? Or do you have additional writing lessons for this?
I was going to ask the same thing Veronica.. is this where you teach the students about text types?
I am happy with 3 days a week at 10am. We do Daily 5 until 10am on and then after recess we usually do writing and then Maths.
Sorry Georgia/Lisa,
I cannot seem to get updates from this blog directly to my email - don't know why. So it takes me a while before I remember to check. Yes, those two lessons are the main ones where we focus on text type writing. In the course of the week, like when we are doing Read Aloud, we will use the text we are targeting. For instance, over the last week and a half, we have been teaching Information Reports. We have focused on reading aloud (for about 10 minutes)and discussing a text on the Big Ben. We have read it four times and the students are getting a good idea of what an information report is. We have used it to model the D5 strategies and at the same time teach the parts of an I.R. We have then been able to spend 2 lessons gathering information for the students to write their own IR. Don't know if this helps.
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