6. Submit a Log

The Unit Organizer introduction provided a nice way to bridge the information from multiple training opportunities I have had with this group of special education teachers.  Previously teachers had been trained in LETRS on how the brain learns to read, phonology and phonics. The DIBELS measures assess these components and the complete organizer gave an at a glance of the big buckets of skills that we need to assess and respond to.  The organizer gave them big ideas to discuss as we made our way through modeling and practicing scoring the measures.  It helped us to not get lost in the details of the scoring rules etc. and keep our eye on the purpose of the assessment. 

They did have trouble generating the self-test questions about the organizer.  I think this was because they weren't planning to necessarily revisit the content, nor were they expected to take a test. For students, I think this would be easier if a unit test was upcoming. 

I presented the UO twice.  The first time, my recording stopped in the middle of the lesson!  I of course, did not know that until I went to upload the lesson!  So, I had the opportunity to present it again.  That, in itself, was a positive. I know that, although I am certainly NOT fluent in this routine, the more you do it, the better you will be, is most likely true!  This routine is a little more challenging because the numbered boxes are not all in order.  I have to remember to go up to box #4...the Bigger Picture...to make that connection.  I feel that I made the connections and asked the participants to engage during the completion of the document. The most challenging area to me is the Unit Relationships/Self Help Questions.   It might be helpful to have a list available of the various ways to look at the Unit Relationships so that participants have some examples and something to hook it to.  I am sure, that when using this on a regular basis in a class, the students would then become familiar with the types of relationships and then be better able to generate the Unit Self-test questions  Overall, the participants in both groups like the UO and could see the benefits to this tool.  

What went well - Why?
Participants were engaged in filling out the information on the unit organizer.  They did a wonderful job looking at the unit relationships and connecting them to the content.

What was a challenge - Why?
As before, the unit relationships and questions are the most challenging in this setting with colleagues rather than with academic content with students.  I'm not sure why it's a challenge other than we're trying to look at it through two lenses - how this will help students as well as learning content ourselves.

What you will do next time?
Think of a question to add to the ones there already - again, time was a factor.  After completing the framing routine and then moving onto the Unit organizer, I felt it was taking a lot of time and we weren't going to get to all the content planned for the day. 

What adjustments you made?
To save time, I talked though some of the relationships more than having the participants talk through as much as I would have originally.

My experience was with introducing the Unit Organizer and co-constructing it with a 5th grade English/reading class that included 3-4 students with disabilities.The students were exceptionally attentive with the introduction of the Unit Organizer. As we co-constructed the organizer, I was able to include all students in responding to prompts for input, and participating in completing their individual devices. The students were very receptive to using the Unit Organizer and engaged as the Expanded Map was completed in subsequent class periods. The most significant challenge I experienced was not being able to re-visit the classroom on each day a new topic in the unit was introduced, but the classroom teacher did an excellent job in completing those parts of the expanded map with the students. Additionally, the classroom configuration was such that some students had to turn around to see the screen showing my copy of the Organizer. Because I was in another teacher's classroom, I did not change the seating arrangement.