Reading Surveys: A Go-To Data Source for Creating a Focus for Instruction

It’s not unusual for teachers to survey students about their reading interests and habits at the beginning of the year. Anytime we ask kiddos their thoughts and ideas about important topics, their answers become a go-to data source for creating a focus for instruction—both in the short term and often across several weeks.

Take a look at this Reading Interest Survey and think about these questions:

1. What questions stand out to you? How do you anticipate you’d use the data you collect from those questions?

2. What questions would you revise or eliminate?

TRY THIS

1. Give students a copy of the Reading Interest Survey template.

2. Ahead of time, fill out a survey about yourself. To lift the learning across the classroom, share a few ideas from your survey with the whole class. This gives students an opportunity to get to know you AND serves as a model for how the survey answers can be shared.

3. Give students 10-15 minutes to jot down their answers.

4. Break students into pairs or small groups of 3 or 4 and give them an opportunity to share their survey answers with others.

5. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

6. Collect student surveys.

LOOKING ACROSS THE DATA

As you look across student survey results, here are some ways you might consider using the data to guide your planning. You could:

• Think about who likes to read with a partner and/or who likes to talk to others about what they read. This information could help you create Reading Thinking Partners.

• Take stock in what genres/types of reading materials students like best. This is a great opportunity to begin curating texts that students might want to read.

• Give students an opportunity to book talk [shout out or talk about] their favorite book with others by inviting them to share with the whole class or in small groups.

• Look for patterns and create a list of short text types that students like to read. Check out Chapter 2 if you want to think about launching small groups focused on students’ interests.

• Pay close attention to what students write [or don’t write] for question #11.

• Save a copy of students’ surveys. Across the year, re-visit this initial survey and ask students to reflect on their responses. Nudge: Put a note on your calendar to re-survey students a few months into the school year. Students’ interests, passion, and inquiries change across time.

Building Relationships: Would You Be Described As...Survey

Need a mid-week, get-to-know-you activity to fuel your daily and weekly plans? If so, give Would You Be Described As… a try.

TRY THIS

1. Give students a copy of the Would You Be Described As…template.

2. Explain that students should read each pair and circle the word that best describes them and why.

3. Remind students that they don’t have to write a reason why for every response, only if they choose.

4. Think about whether there are any vocabulary words on the page that students may not know or understand. If so, teach into those words by explaining what they mean.

5. To lift the learning across the classroom, share a few ideas from your survey [that you fill out ahead of time] with the whole class. This gives students an opportunity to get to know you AND serves as a model for how the survey answers can be shared.

6. Give students 5-10 minutes to jot down their answers.

7. Give students an opportunity to share their survey answers with others. Break students into small groups — pairs or groups of 3 or 4.

8. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

9. Collect the surveys and sort them. Look for commonalities that emerge. For example:

   • Who considers themselves messy? Tidy?

   • Who considers themselves as leaders? Followers?

10. Consider using the survey results as entry points for student learning such as:

    • Students gaining an awareness and appreciation for one another.

    • Graphing and analyzing the survey results with students and co-constructing how knowing these things about one another can help the learning community thrive.

    • Taking a closer look at students’ WHY statements [where applicable] and using that intel to design learning. For example, if a student says that they circled city dog because they’ve never been to the countryside, consider curating some books, stories, maps, etc. about life in the country.

Reminder: If you don’t like some of the word pairings, revise to fit the needs and interests of your students.

A TIP:

• If you are an Administrator or Instructional Coach—this works for building relationships with and among colleagues, too. This is great for PLC’s, Team Meetings, Staff Meetings, PD/Workshops, etc.

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Building Relationships: Who Are You? Game

Building relationships takes time. Since time across the school day and year typically feels limited, maximizing the time we do have is important. We can start by intentionally using the time we do have to build relationships among and between students and teachers across our learning community. One way to do that is through get-to-know-you games. One that I’ve played oodles of times with classrooms across grades 2-12 is called the Who Are You? game.

TRY THIS

1. Give students a copy of the Who Are You? Game Template [students].

2. Explain to students that they will list fun facts, ideas, interesting tidbits about themselves on the lines provided. Explain that line #1 is where they will list their birthday and line #10 is where they will list their name. Note: If age appropriate, you can turn these two lines into a teaching moment by showing students different ways to write their birthdays [August 2, 2009 or 8-2-2009 OR show students how to write first, middle and last names vs. initials.

3. Remind students that they can write single words or phrases for their responses.

4. Give students 5-10 minutes to jot down their answers. Roam around the room to provide support if needed.

5. Nudge: Ahead of time,, fill out one about yourself too.

6. Once everyone is finished filling out their template, collect all papers and shuffle.

HERE’S HOW TO PLAY

1. Ask all students to stand up.

2. Explain that you are going to begin reading some attributes from one person’s paper. If students hear something that is true of themselves [even if they didn’t write it on their paper], they remain standing. If not, they sit down. Once they are seated during this round, they remain seated. Then, move on to another statement on the same person’s paper. If students hear something that is true of themselves [even if they didn’t write it on their paper], they remain standing. If not, they sit down. Once they are seated during this round, they remain seated. Repeat until only one person remains standing.

3. The goal: Look at all of the things that we have in common while learning specifics things about each person.

4. Play the game for a few rounds and then stop to debrief with students. You could ask:

   • What are some things we have in common?

   • What unique things did we learn about specific classmates?

5. Consider playing a few rounds of the game each day [time permitting] and across several days. Make sure everyone gets a chance to be the last person standing.

SOME TIPS:

• Once you’ve finished the game and if time permits, create some flexible small groups and give students an opportunity to share a few ideas from his/her list, going more in-depth where applicable. For example, if a student shares that he loves hiking, he could share a hiking story or experience with his small group. For more ideas on small, flexible groups, check out What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8: How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers—Not the Book.

• If you are an Administrator or Instructional Coach—this works for building relationships with and among colleagues, too. This is great for PLC’s, Team Meetings, Staff Meetings, PD/Workshops, etc. Check out Who Are You? Game Template [adults].

Building Relationships: Re-thinking Surveys [Part 2]

A great place to start when building relationships with students is to find out about their interests, passions, inquiries, and habits. Doing so gives us some the intel to serve students’ individual and collective needs. Some of the ways we get to know students—both in the beginning of the year AND across the year—include:

• Conferring 1:1 with students

• Listening in and joining in small group learning opportunities

• Giving students the opportunity to turn and talk during whole group learning

• Playing get-to-know-you games and launching activities

  • A Colorful Get-to-Know-You

  • The Power of One Word

Surveying students in ways that give students the opportunity to share about themselves in unique and exciting ways is a high leverage move for building relationships and getting to know students. In collaboration with Barry Hoonan —my colleague, friend, and co-author—we worked to re-design new ways of surveying kiddos so that we could plan instruction and learning opportunities in unique ways.

TRY THIS

1. Give students a copy of the Tell Us Your Thoughts About template.

2. Explain that students should read the question stems and select the response [1-5] that best matches their thoughts and feelings.

3. Remind students that they can select a response that is in the middle of 2 different responses [Example—marking the line between 5 and 4].

4. Remind students that if they want to elaborate on their responses, they can use the boxes or space around the outside edges to add additional information.

5. Give students 5-10 minutes to jot down their answers. Nudge: While students are filling out their surveys, fill one out about yourself too.

6. To lift the learning across the classroom, share a few ideas from your survey with the whole class. This gives students an opportunity to get to know you AND serves as a model for how the survey answers can be shared.

7. Give students an opportunity to share their survey answers with others. Break students into pairs or Thought Partners. After pairs or Thought Partners have had a chance to share, turn Thought Partners into Groups of Four to do another round of sharing. For more about Thought Partners to Groups of Four, see pages 60-62 in What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8: How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers—Not the Book.

8. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

Building Relationships: Re-thinking Surveys [Part 1]

While writing What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8: How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers—Not the Book, we knew that finding out about students’ interests, passions, inquiries, and habits was a must-do if we wanted to serve their individual and collective needs. In collaboration with Barry Hoonan —my colleague, friend, and co-author—we worked to re-design new ways of surveying kiddos so that we could plan instruction and learning opportunities in unique ways.

Learning about others in our learning community not only helps us create meaningful experiences, it also helps us build relationships. Surveying students and giving them opportunities to share about themselves with others is a great way to create a positive classroom culture. It’s also a perfect opportunity to host small, flexible groups. #whatareyougroupingfor

TRY THIS

1. Give students a copy of the A Little Bit About…template.

2. Explain that students should read the question stems and write one or more answers for each question.

3. Give students 5-10 minutes to jot down their answers. Nudge: While students are filling out their surveys, fill one out about yourself too.

4. To lift the learning across the classroom, share a few ideas from your survey with the whole class. This gives students an opportunity to get to know you AND serves as a model for how the survey answers can be shared.

5. Give students an opportunity to share their survey answers with others. Break students into small groups of 3 or 4 OR try a share out using Speed Dating. Note: For speed dating to be successful, students need to understand the purpose. Depending on your students’ age/level of maturity, decide if you need to have a quick conversation about this protocol and its big intended take-aways.

6. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

If you come up with unique sentence stems for your surveys, we hope you’ll share them with us because that’s what makes this work so much fun!

Building Relationships: The Power of One Word

There’s real power in one word responses—especially when those one words are shared with others. What’s even better is when we’ve created a culture of sharing that leads to conversation and an appreciation of who we are individually and collectively. As I’ve shared before, positive relationships foster:

• Trust between students and teachers

• increased student motivation and engagement

• Self-efficacy

• An asset-based culture, focused on the power of “WE”

• Better understanding of what students need, leading to improved academic achievement

There are lots of ways to build relationships—the important thing is to do it regularly and to use the intel you get from the experiences to foster relationships across a learning community and to fuel instructional decisions. In addition, this is a great opportunity to launch into small, flexible groups. #whatareyougroupingfor

TRY THIS

1. Give students the One Word template and explain the directions as listed at the top of the page. Reminder: Modify the directions as needed.

2. To lift the learning across the classroom, pick 2 stems, answer them in reference to yourself, and model your thinking in front of students.

3. Give students 5-10 minutes to jot down their answers.

4. Divide students into small groups and give them an opportunity to share. There is no one right way to divide students into small groups, this instructional decision is based on the amount of time you have to devote to this activity and your intended take-aways [hopes/goals] for this work. Here are a few ideas::

   • Share part or all of the whole grid with the same small group.

   • Share responses in rows 1 and 2 with a partner. Then, switch up the groups and share responses in row 3 with a new group—this time a trio. Then, switch up the groups again and share responses in row 4 with a new group—this time 4-6 people in the small group.

5. Encourage students to turn these one word shares into conversation starters. For example, if someone shares that their favorite vegetable is green beans, remind students that they can add on by then sharing their favorite vegetable [even if they didn’t write that on their grid] or they can ask their group member[s] what their least favorite vegetables are. Note: As the facilitator of learning—be ready for some JOY—these noisy, laughter-filled conversations will most likely make your day!

6. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

SOME TIPS:

• If students are sharing and it’s taking longer than you expected—embrace it by giving students the opportunity to share multiple times across several days.

• If you are an Administrator or Instructional Coach—this works for building relationships with and among colleagues, too. This is great for PLC’s, Team Meetings, Staff Meetings, PD/Workshops, etc. Change up the questions to fit your interests or needs.

Building Relationships: A Colorful Get-to-Know-You

Relationships matter. Period. Building positive relationships in the beginning of the year is important because the more we know about our students, the more likely we are to reach our shared goals. Positive relationships foster:

• Trust between students and teachers

• increased student motivation and engagement

• Self-efficacy

• An asset-based culture, focused on the power of “WE”

• Better understanding of what students need, leading to improved academic achievement

There are lots of ways to build relationships—the important thing is to do it regularly and to use the intel you get from the experiences to foster relationships across a learning community and to fuel instructional decisions.

TRY THIS

1. Give students a snack size M & M [or use Skittles, gummy Lifesavers, or jelly beans]. Note: if you prefer to not distribute candy, you can substitute bingo chips or colored slips of paper.

2. Ask students to sort their treat by color.

3. Project the image below onto a screen or distribute the note catcher Get to Know You: Colors to each student. Reminder: Change the color choices depending on what treat/item you choose.

4. For each color, students will share the number of answers based on the number of items. For example, if a student has 4 red M & M’s, they will share 4 things that they label as a favorite such as:

   • My favorite ice cream is chocolate

   • My favorite color is blue.

   • My favorite team is the NY Yankees.

   • My favorite day of the week is Saturday.

5. Give students time to jot down their answers.

6. Divide students into trios and give them an opportunity to share. This is a great opportunity to launch into small, flexible groups. #whatareyougroupingfor

7. As students share, listen in [or kidwatch] so that you get to know students as they are getting to know their peers.

SOME TIPS:

• If students are sharing and it leads to some conversation—embrace it. The more kiddos know about one another, the more they can learn with and from one another.

• If you are an Administrator or Instructional Coach—this works for building relationships with and among colleagues, too. This is great for PLC’s, Team Meetings, Staff Meetings, PD/Workshops, etc. Change up the questions to fit your interests or needs.

Making the Most of Reading Workshop

Written by Julie Wright & Barry Hoonan

The beginning of the school year is a great time to take stock in workshop—analyzing how we spend the learning time that we have during the reading block. If you want to launch and sustain small group learning opportunities, prioritizing a big chunk of time dedicated to student work time is key!

What Does Workshop Look Like?

• The Launch is quick, 5-7 minutes of orienting to the work of workshop.  This is a great time to activate schema and build excitement and purpose around the purpose of the work.  

• The Minilesson is the time where we teach, model or show students something that will help lift their work on that day or across the learning progression, lasting approximately 9-11 minutes.

• The Work Time is the time during workshop when students do the heavy lifting of reading, writing, thinking, talking, making, creating, designing and doing. This is when students practice being readers and writers--for real purposes and preferably a real audience. This is also a perfect time to meet with half groups, small groups or one-on-one with students.

• The Debrief at the end of workshop gives students the opportunity to bookend bookend their thinking and learning through a 5 minute share out..  This is a great opportunity for students to talk and reflect about how they spent their reading time, new ideas that emerged, things they figured out, and plans for moving forward. 

Here’s an Example

Let’s take a look at a week-long learning progression where the goal is for students to read widely and deeply about a topic/inquiry of interest.  

For more about workshop, check out Chapter 1 to learn more about high leverage use of time during reading workshop in https://www.amazon.com/What-Are-You-Grouping-Grades/dp/154432412X.  To analyze how much time readers are actually working, download this form http://resources.corwin.com/sites/default/files/01_how_much_time_0.pdf

Kidwatching 2.0: Top 3 Moves for Real-time Assessment to Meet Every Student’s Needs

Kidwatching 2.0 is one of the BEST real-time assessment moves to meet every student’s needs. Click the link to read about 3 ways to bolster kidwatching!

Kidwatching 2.0: Top 3 Moves for Real-time Assessment to Meet Every Student’s Needs

For more on Kidwatching—along with other moves to help create & sustain small group learning—check out What Are You Grouping For?

Short Texts, Big Engagement

This was a joy to write and share with others!

NCTE Build Your Stack: Short Texts, Big Engagement

Short Texts: Inspiration for Writing

Short texts can be the inspiration behind student writing projects—and it doesn’t have to be complicated or take weeks to complete.

AN EXAMPLE FROM THE CLASSROOM

Earlier this week, I was working in a 3rd grade classroom. The week was choppy for both kiddos and teachers—1 day off for a holiday + 1 day of professional development + 1 fun field day. Part of our goal was to keep kiddos reading and writing, regardless of the schedule changes.

We read aloud Pencil A Story with a Point by Ann Ingalls. 3rd graders loved the kid-friendly puns woven across the pages! This word play opened up opportunities for pop-up, flexible small groups to discuss the meanings behind the words and phrases. It was exciting to see all of the meaning making happening across the classroom! As I listened into small group discussions, it became clear that kiddos might enjoy giving this a try through their own mini writing project. The result—beginning drafts of some pretty cool short stories using our read aloud as a mentor text.

Here’s a strategy for using a short text as inspiration for writing.

TRY THIS

1. Grab a short text [picture book, short story, infographic, 2-page spread].

2. Read the short text, stopping along the way to give students opportunities to discuss the text in small groups. NOTE: If your students are new to pop-up, flexible small groups, model how this looks, sounds and feels before having them give it a go. For more on small groups, check out What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8: How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers - Not the Book.

3. To activate students’ writing muscles, brainstorm ideas together. Note: For Pencil A Story with a Point, we brainstormed a list of supplies that could become main characters in a story. 3rd graders came up with things such as tape, super glue, chalk, colored pencils, stapler, 3-hole punch, etc. We also brainstormed problem/solution ideas. We noodled around about questions such as:

   • Will the supplies get along or have conflict?

   • Will the supplies solve a problem or experience something new together?

   • Where will the story take place [setting]?

   • What are the different ways you could begin the story [once upon a time, dialogue, asking a question, etc.]

4. Invite students to pick their favorite writing tool [pen, pencil], their favorite writing spot, and give them time to write! Note: Create a shared agreement with students regarding how long they will write. Give them a few minutes to settle in and then set a timer.

5. As students write, use the classroom to collect data [observations, student work samples] AND respond by hosting small groups or one-to-one conversations as needed. Think about:

   • Who is on a roll with their writing? Who is slow to start?

   • Who has an interesting beginning that could be used as a model to help others?

   • Who needs to talk their ideas out before writing?

   • Who needs to draw some pictures about their ideas before writing?

6. When the timer signals, give students 2 minutes to finish up their thoughts. Survey students to see who wants more time to write during a future workshop. Plan accordingly.

MANY ASK—Should these types of writing opportunities be edited? Published? Shared? That is up to you and your kiddos! Stay tuned—more about these questions will be forthcoming.

Short Texts: Increasing Eyes on Print

It’s a fact. The more we read, the better we get at reading. The more we increase the amount of time students’ eyes are on print, the better chance we have at impacting their reading muscles. If you want a quick strategy for increasing eyes on print while also piquing students’ interests, grab a short text!

TRY THIS

1. Grab a short text such as You Gotta Be Kidding! The Crazy Book of “Would You Rather” Questions.

2. Read a few “Would You Rather” questions to the students, asking them to share out their preferences with the whole class or in small groups. NOTE: If your students are new to sharing out, model how this looks, sounds and feels before having them give it a go.

3. To pique students’ interests, read the ditty on each page that gives readers a little more insight or information about the questions posed.

4. Invite students to read more short pieces from this text during small group or independent reading time.

AN EXAMPLE FROM THE CLASSROOM

During a quick, short text read aloud, I shared You Gotta Be Kidding! The Crazy Book of “Would You Rather” Questions with 3rd graders. Kiddos were wrestling with the question:

Would you rather have a third eye in the middle of your forehead OR have three arms?

In small groups, kiddos worked on two things while sharing their preferences.

1. Quickly sharing their response with group members, including their reason(s) for their choice.

2. Actively listening, including showing respect for differing opinions.

After our share time, I read the ditty at the bottom of the page which talked about a reptile called a tuatara (which resembles a lizard and snake put together) that has a third eye on its head. A few 3rd graders said they’d like to learn more about this reptile. This is exciting because this short text might lead to some students reading more about reptiles—increasing eyes on print AND adding new and exciting knowledge for students to carry forward.

Inspiring Student Ownership & Self-Efficacy: Start With Planning

Written by Julie Wright & Barry Hoonan

Looking for ways to inspire STUDENT OWNERSHIP and SELF-EFFICACY?

The proof is in the planning!

TRY THIS: When you are designing or co-designing instructional plans, size-up--or take stock of-- how the structure of time is being used across the workshop.  If your goal is for students to own the majority of the learning time, then look closely at what students will be up to (and how much time they will be spending) during the Work Time portion of the workshop.  We want to make sure that kiddos have at least 60% of the time so that they can read, write, think, talk, make, create and design = making their learning visible.  For more, check out Chapter 8 & 9 on planning in What Are You Grouping For?

FREE DOWNLOAD HERE— How Much Time Are Readers Actually Working?