As a board member of NapaLearns, an amazing non-profit committee that supports Napa County schools, I have the privilege of visiting a different school each month. Yesterday our meeting took place at Donaldson Way Elementary School in American Canyon, California. Part of our meeting involved visiting classrooms and seeing first hand what students were working on. I saw the small poster in the picture below in a first grade classroom there. Something on the poster caught my eye. Do you see it?
Procedural steps for reading time for both the students and the teacher.This is a poster that shares the steps for the Procedure to follow when it is reading time.
This is a poster that shares the steps for the Procedure to follow when it is reading time. Students are reminded to –
Read quietly
Stay in one spot
Read the whole time
Work on stamina
Get started right away
The step that caught my eye was the one that asks students to “work on stamina.” I thought I had a grasp of what the procedural step was wanting, but just in case I asked a first grade student to explain to me what “work on stamina” meant. The student didn’t hesitate and described how it takes practice to read for longer than a few minutes, but that the class was doing better at it. The goal was to sit still and quietly read for like, a while.
I was excited about this approach for several reasons, all of the reasons in some way having to do with choice theory.
Reason #1
Procedures help things run smoothly. When lots of students in a classroom need to do lots of different things at lots of different times, Procedures just help everything work better. Procedures aren’t like rules where students get in trouble for not doing them. The Procedures are reviewed and practiced, and when students forget them they are asked to do the Procedure correctly. In the spirit of choice theory, this is such a humane way to create important routines in the classroom. As teachers we have expectations and we state these expectations to our students, yet there is a way to teach expectations without turning them into a power struggle.
Reason #2
The step that asked students to “work on stamina” acknowledged that 1st grade students don’t automatically know what stamina is, nor do they have great amounts of it when it comes to reading. The teacher anticipated that her students wouldn’t have a lot of reading stamina, but that it’s ok and they would work on it. No need to get frustrated at students or worse, to get disgusted at them for their poor habits. No need to try and control them or force them into quiet reading time. Stamina is something that can be learned. It is so choice theory to recognize the age-appropriate abilities of students, and to support them as they work to grow and improve those abilities.
The remarkable reading data chart.
Reason #3
When I had a chance to talk with the teacher about the “work on stamina” step, she pointed to a poster next to the window that tracked the students’ progress. It’s the picture above. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I honed in on this simple, yet remarkable data. She explained that they were tracking how long everyone in the class, when it was time for reading, could quietly read in one place. The chart shows that the first day some students could only make it for one minute. The second day, though, all the students made it for at least two minutes. The third day they all read quietly for almost five minutes. By day six, all of them read quietly, in one place, for 22 minutes. Think about it. A full classroom of active, diverse 1st grade suburban kids and all of them reading for 22 minutes. Obviously, the teacher presented the Procedure in such a way that the students themselves bought into it. They wanted to improve; they wanted to read more; they wanted the bar on that chart to go higher. It wasn’t a behavioral issue. It was simply about working on and building stamina.
Student books waiting to be read.
It would have been easy, common actually, to try and discipline these young readers into reading quietly. But the results would have been far different than the results in this classroom. Criticizing, blaming, nagging, threatening, and punishing would harm the relationship between the teacher and the students, and the students would most likely grow up to not enjoy reading. I like the Procedure and data chart a lot better.
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Send me an example of how choice theory is showing up in your classroom. I would love to see it or hear about what you are doing!
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The teacher’s chart is very compatible with ongoing assessment for both the benefit of the student and the teacher. This teacher gives immediate feedback about the progress of the students, thus keeping their attention to the goal that will help each of them become stellar readers. The second benefit is that this teacher can use this graph as data to validate her teaching methods. It comes in really nicely when parents or someone such as yourself, Jim, comes to visit her classroom. There is visible evidence of moments (many minutes actually) of success in this classroom. Thanks for sharing. By the way, stamina is gaining more attention in a wide array of self awareness dialogues. It is a new word I am coming across in bereavement literature. It is also found as one of the components that assists one person over another when facing life’s difficulties. Just wondering now if it can indeed be taught rather than a trait one might be born with. Interesting . . . .
I think stamina can be taught, or maybe I should say that stamina can be learned through practice. Especially when the practice takes place within a supportive environment like the classroom I visited. There was no worry or fear in the room for doing something incorrectly, just a desire to do it better. I, too, am seeing the word stamina in the literature, at least the education literature. It was good to see an example of it first hand yesterday.
Wow – that’s exciting Jim. Those kid’s are among the very fortunate to have a teacher like that.
I agree. I was taken with the atmosphere in that classroom. I wish that all of our teaching candidates could see it first hand, too.
This teacher appears to be using the Daily 5 / CAFE framework by The 2 Sisters. They have amazing information based on educational research. I’m still wanting to observe an actual classroom using these ideas. Nice to hear your positive feedback, Jim. The stamina concept is critical to their framework.
I love this! I feel like I could use this with my high school students. It could even be something they do individually. I will have to think about how it could work. I especially love that they can see their progress really clearly on the chart and be proud of their own efforts.
How many procedures are posted? Do you have any more pictures that you can share of her other procedures? As well, it goes along the same line as, “More is caught than taught”
That’s it for pictures of Procedures from this classroom. It was such a great learning environment!
First let me say that, it is amazing to me to have a class of first graders sitting quietly for 22 min in the first place, let alone reading. I also believe that stamina can be taught and is kind of on the same lines as patience. The biggest thing that I picked up in this was the point where she got the students to buy into a procedure. I believe that this is key. If a student does not believe in what the are being taught, then in more cases then not they will not care. Now I know that this was for first graders and they are excited to come to school and learn, however, I believe the principal is the same throughout any age.
You have expressed your views very well. And I agree with you when it comes to the importance of student buy-in.
I think practicing stamina is such a key concept and procedure for children just beginning school. I think it is really fascinating how the teacher has taught this procedure to have reading time last for a long amount of time but I am even more impressed how the teacher has modeled a valuable moral lesson to show students to keep practicing when they do not succeed initially. However, I am curious to how she taught this procedure.
The best part about this procedure is the feedback it gives to the students. I have found with my placement in 7th grade that feedback is one of the most crucial parts in teaching. I have noticed that the students want to know how well they are preforming and I love that this is a visual chart for them to track their progress. This chart is not empty words of encouragement, it is visual proof that they are succeeding. I also really like that it is feedback for the whole class. Calmer classmates could motivate the squirmy ones to sit still and read a little longer so that they can watch their progress improve. This procedure motivates the class to work together towards a goal and skill that they will need their entire lives. Super cool!
I really liked how the teacher incorporated building up students reading stamina into the procedure. I am curious to know why she thought to incorporate this idea into the procedure. I think it serves as a positive motivator for young students, not only to they built up their reading stamina, they also work on developing their reading comprehension at the same time. This will benefit them greatly throughout their academic careers. I feel challenged to think of any other procedures in which I could incorporate something similar to the the stamina building this procedure calls for, which help students develop other skills.
I think that the ability of the first grader to explain what it meant to “work on stamina”. This shows that the teacher has thoroughly explained the procedures in a way that was age appropriate for the students to understand. I think that it is very important for students to be aware of the procedures and be able to explain them and justify them to others on their own. It is an important procedure to have students work on and it shows that the teacher has been practicing and rehearsing it. I also like how the teacher made the progress chart simple and age appropriate for first graders. There are not a lot of words but it explains a lot. It is easy to follow and understand once the parts have been explained. This chart also serves a huge purpose, to show that the students are improving and are successful in their stamina building.
The progress the students made in time spent reading silently was mind boggling. The fact that no one was punished or pushed toward reaching a specific goal, just encouraged to improve and to continue to try harder, what ever that may look like, was respectful of the students. The system rewarded progress, not arbitrary goals that may be unrealistic for the students to attain. I was encouraged by this practical display of the principles of choice theory in action.
I think it’s pretty cool to hear about lower elementary procedures. I was always worried about never being able to hear a good procedure for lower elementary grades or preschool. It is tougher to think of good procedures for these children because in not all of the grades can you write them out and have them pinned up on the board, since not all of the younger grades can read well. I enjoyed the idea of building up the children’s stamina. The feedback given is also visual for the children and they can push themselves to reach goals since they can see their own progress. They can track where they are at and learn to set their own personal goals. The method used not only positively motivates the children to succeed, but also helps them with their reading skills and that is a life long tool everyone should have mastered.
I found this procedure to be quite fascinating. It amazed me how well these children progressed in their length of stamina within a short amount of time. I think it would be a great procedure to use in the classroom and the chart can children visualize their goals for reading
I think it is amazing to see such young students grasp the concept of stamina. This procedure gives them a chance to work on themselves and provide their own internal motivation. When students see they can do better; such as actually having a chart like in the picture above, they will try to do better. This procedure is also great because students who are able to read in longer periods can influence students who may have a harder time staying still and doing one thing. This procedure challenges the students in many forms and expands their knowledge on different ways to learn and practice certain skills.
Wow, that’s a lot of progress in a short period of time! I really like a procedural look at silent reading time (which can be a challenge, all the way up to high school) but even more impressive is that the teacher realized that her students probably wouldn’t be able to just read silently for a long period of time at first and that it was a skill they could develop. It reminds me of a conversation I had recently with the teacher in my middle school lab; she pointed out that standardized testing requires both unusually long periods of silent reading and unfamiliar test forms. Rather than ‘teaching to the test’ to improve scores she works on reading stamina with her students, and familiarizes them with different test forms.
I Like how the progress wasn’t focussed oi the amount of reading done but rather the amount of time spent reading. I feel like this is a less stressful way to create an environment in which the kids will both want to focus on the content of their reading as opposed to skimming as quickly as possible, and feel successful about their individual and class achievements.
Definitely goes in the category of “ideas to imitate in my classroom”!
I think it is a great technique which could be used in many different areas. I think kids like having “objectives” or “missions” to accomplish. Having the kids know that they have to work at something prepares them for so many aspects of life, having them see the progress they are making is great.
I commend this teacher for her out-of-the-box idea! It’s great that she was able to teach them this step and how to do it, all the while tracking their progress. This is a great way to show children how they are succeeding.
I really like the idea of keeping a progress chart, it not only keeps students on track but they can see how much progress they’re making and i think thats always a huge encouragement to student and it makes them want to keep it up and do better. I also think that the teacher was really smart in knowing what to expect from her students, i think that being able to do that is not always an easy task.
The approach here seems really powerful and is a very different application of choice theory then I have previously thought about. Simply inviting students to work on what would normally be seen as a discipline problem seems like a very effective way to sort of letting students “get in” on the learning process. I like this a lot, and I think I would like to employ something similar in my classroom.