((I apologize if it was my week to post for the book blog. I don't actually remember deciding who would post.))
I had my first Aha! moment when I went through the hero writing in the Writing Essentials book today. As I read through the five day lesson plan, I realized what you need to do in order to create a gradual release of responsibility. Before it was this concept that I have heard about, and it was something I heard in a different way as "I do... We do... We do... We do... You do..."but I was unsure of how to create it in a lesson plan myself or a class discussion of things. Then I thought back to the idea of bringing in adults to watch a book club and how it would show many different students about how to participate in a book club/class discussion. After looking at this I realized that I might need to make some changes to my lesson plan ideas so far. I would like to pose this to you as well, what are you doing in your lesson plan to create a gradual release in responsibility? Do you think it's completely necessary for there to be a gradual release in your lesson plan? Does it work when you have explicit instruction?
Hey Danielle, I don't think we actually did talk about who was going to post. So thank you for doing it this week! I just want to touch on what you said and then something that I pulled from this weeks readings to help with my lesson plans. I don't think that in the course of one lesson, it is possible to be able to have that gradual release. I think that gradual release (at least for the 3rd graders) will take months. For my kids to be able to stay on task and be given the responsibility of the gradual release will take explicit repetitive direction. I noticed though, for my lesson plans, that every lesson, I offer students new questions to focus on. One day it was what is the author's purpose. The next day is "how does sequencing affect characters?". I noticed by prompting students will a question before they are able to think about what we are reading. Then from there, students can think-pair-share. As a whole group, my students do not do well of respecting each other. I think will a lot of practice, students can absolutely achieve that release, but I think prompting them with questions to think about first before they read, can help keep them on track, starting small. Remember, the gradual release doesn't need to be accomplished in a single lesson.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this response. There was something that we went over in Dimondale's Professional Development session of how a lot of times teachers do follow the "I do, We do, You do" model but there should be A LOT more We do. This is a tough situation given time constraints with trying to fit in many different models.
ReplyDeleteDo you feel that by asking all of those different questions each day there will be a better understanding of what the students should be looking for in the book? I do really like the idea of focusing on a different thing each day. Are you planning on putting up at anchor chart or something to help the students remember all of the different questions they focused on?