Book Snap #7 Lessons from the book

This is such prudent advice not only in the classroom, but in life.  "...teachers can respond to problematic behaviors along a continuum based on the severity or intensity of the issue..." pg. 78. Smith, Fisher, and Frey recommend five levels of intervention: 
1) Looking - making eye contact with the student or using a simple gesture
2) Naming - talking quietly to the student, identifying the problematic behavior
3) Questioning - ask the student what they should be doing at the moment
4) Commanding - informing the student what they need to be doing instead of the current behavior and may not consequences if needed
5) Directing - physically preventing the behavior, such as separating students
Not one if better than the other, they are just measured responses that fit the needs of the situation, always with de-escalation in mind.

Marcus Aurelius had great wisdom about the problem today. Social media and information from our phones have changed our daily thoughts. They can cause us to feel negatively about ourselves and the world around us. This information (and misinformation) is at our fingertips and is so often in our daily thoughts. Those constant unsettling thoughts can then lead to personality changes (especially in our youth in critical stages of development). 

Move 6: We want our students to be able to read at a reasonable rate, quick enough to keep moving along at a fluent pace, but so quick that their comprehension suffers. Strong readers have mastered the balance of fluency, accuracy, and rate. I did learn a new term that I'd never heard before: Prosody. Prosody is a term that encompasses all the things a good reader does naturally while reading fluently -- expression, phrasing, intonation, and volume.

Move 7: "Researchers have known for years that the most important factor is good reading comprehension is how much vocabulary and background knowledge the reader has on the subject. Reading comprehension is not a single skill, but an orchestrated product of a set of linguistic and cognitive processes." Students must be able to read a text fluently and accurately in order to comprehend, and doing the aforementioned relies upon a strong foundation of reading skills dating all the way back to where reading instruction begins in Kindergarten, with letters and sounds. I am very proud of the work we do in K. We have the tools, training, and experience to build a strong foundation for our students to become successful readers.

" In the next chapter, on what schools can do, I'll make the case that all schools, from elementary through high school, should go phone-free to improve not only mental health but academic outcomes as well."

I do not work in the high school nor do my own kids attend the high school, but I like how this year the high school has created a no-phone policy during the school day. My oldest will be at the high school in 4 years and when he is there I will be glad that he can't have his phone on him during the day. They are a distraction. You are sitting in class and your phone vibrates, now you want to look at it and see who has messaged you. Now all you can think about is that message you were just sent instead of what the lesson is that your teacher is talking about. 
When that bell rings at the end of the day, you know kids are going right to their locker to grab that phone, turn it on, and check what messages they have received. With the no phone policy, for at least 6 hours kids will not be on their phones checking all their social media apps and messaging with one another.
I am happy to hear that many schools are implementing this policy.

Maintaining change will be important to continue nurturing the Growth mindset. The image I included with this snap, is a visual that Dweck provides to her readers so they can continue to understand how the brain works and remind themselves to continue forward with the Growth mindset. Success in one area doesn't mean I have achieved the Growth mindset. It is a practice to maintain and keep working on. This will be important to remember when dealing with students. Once they exhibit some Growth mindset, the work is not done! We can't just sit back and let it go. We have to keep up with the guiding questions, self-reflection, and focus on effort (not results). It is very easy to slide back into old practices and habits. The visual will help develop a daily self-check in to make sure I am on continuing on the path of the Growth mindset. The visual will help anyone- teacher or student.