Week+2

=Week 2/ Chapter 2=

Quote to Ponder...
"Children, like anyone learning something new, vary in their levels of acquisition. Our job as teachers is to to discover where children are along this spiral of acquisition and to meet them there." --Shanna Schwartz

Discussion Questions:
1. "The stickiest mini-lessons meet children at their readiness point by conveying a big skill and a small tip." Think back to the mini-lesson you tried out last week. Did you teach a big skill using a small tip? If not how could you rewrite your plan to incorporate this? Remember to ask yourself, "Can I give my children a small tip that will help them do this?"

2. Discuss how you can be sure the strategy you teach is big enough and small enough at the same time.

3. How does the structure of the mini-lesson scaffold students? Discuss the importance of a "gradual release" of responsibility and how you see this taking place in the structure of mini-lessons.

Try-Out
Take a skill you are trying to teach your class and create a skill-ladder by making a list of all the possible tips you could imagine teaching to your children to help them do that skill. Cluster the tips by difficulty. (We will be working in partnerships to add to these skill ladders in our next group meeting.) Use your skill ladder as you confer with students. When you think a child is ready to increase the sophistication with which she uses a skill, consult your skill ladder to choose what to teach next.

See the suggestions on page 31 to "make an active engagement more supportive." Go back to the mini-lesson you wrote for last week trying to make your active engagement more supportive. Please write in your revisions and bring them with you to our next group meeting. Be prepared to share "how it went."