How many teachers can say they actually learn things in system-wide professional development? Before this school year, I hated them. For some reason, they tend to plan them right before school is back in session, and I can think of better/more productive things to do with my time. This year was different, though...
This school year, I actually learned something at system-wide PDs. Our new director of literacy K-12, which I thought was ludicrous in the beginning (more on this later), introduced teaching points to our counties ELA High School classrooms. This really changed how I teach; every day, I give my students a strategy related to reading and/or writing and that strategy becomes our focus. I model the strategy called the mini-lesson, students practice it, and then students implement the strategy.
This has assisted me in placing my students at the center of my instruction. I spend 5-10 modeling then the rest of the class is about students working. Also, everything that is currently in my TPT store comes with teaching points because they have become an integral part of how I teach. My classroom without teaching point is like coffee without sugar; they do not mix!
Examples of teaching points I use are:
- Good writers assess what the prompt is asking them to do by circling/highlighting verbs and literary skills in a prompt, and then completing the following sentence: the prompt is asking me to...
- Good readers effectively summarize by reading in small chunks, identifying the six most important words, and then turning the six words into a one sentence retelling.
One lesson that transformed in my classroom with teaching points was my literature circles; when I added organizers with teaching points to my literature circles, my students could no longer say they did not know what to do. They had a strategy to make their work possible.
Check out my literature circle organizers here!
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