TEACHING AND LEARNING ALLIANCE

Virtual Workshops Designed for You!

11/12/2020

We are pleased to present two Virtual Institutes launching in 2021.

These virtual institutes are designed to support reading specialists and instructional coaches. If there are others that we've not provided, let us know! We'd love to design a learning experience for you.

Reclaiming Joy, Inspiration & Possibility

We've customized this Coaching Summit just for you! We'll have guest speakers and workshops, panels and roundtables you won't want to miss.

Learn from powerful keynotes from authors Kathy Collins & Liz Hale
Collaborate with coaches across the country in a multi-day summit
Inspire potential as we solve problems of practice together

Virtual Institute for Reading Specialists

Looking for opportunities to collaborate with other Reading Specialists across the country?
Reimagining ways to strategically accelerate student achievement because of lost reading and writing time?
Hoping to learn and try out new ways to assess and deliver reading and
writing instruction remotely?
Interested in finding ways to collaborate with teachers to support the growth of the students and the literacy vision of the school?

This unique learning experience is not to be missed! Reading Specialists will refine teaching practices by deepening understanding of in person and remote literacy instruction. Cost $400/per person

Readings Specialists will leave with:

Ways to assess students virtually and in person
A deeper understanding text bands and learning progressions
New colleagues, collaborators, and thought partners from all over the country

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From Mini Lesson to Micro Lesson

10/6/2020

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by Rebecca Ward, Project Manager and Staff Developer

Short, Explicit, & Robust ... but Recorded

Do you remember a time when you listened to a teacher drone on and on about a subject? Have you ever (unwittingly) been that teacher yourself? Mini lessons used to be a good answer to that struggle. However, this year especially, with our hybrid and remote school settings, we are adapting our practice to make our mini lessons more clear and concise and as engaging as possible. So, like many teachers we know, we are making our mini lessons --- MICRO!

If you've ever heard us talk about mini lessons before you'll recognize these three words as keys to making a mini lesson engaging and effective:

With micro lessons these same three principles still apply.

Short: When we were live in the classroom short meant 10-12 minutes, but with our micro lessons we are aiming for 5-6 minutes of a recorded video.

Explicit: This is the I DO portion of any lesson, so it's the time for the teacher to be as clear as possible. Tell the students what you want them to know and understand. Explain for students what that looks like and sounds like. Then model for students with your own thinking.

Robust: Just because the lesson is micro doesn't mean you need to water-down your instruction. In fact, you can be precise and purposeful in the standards you address. Choose to record strategies that have high leverage in your students learning.

So what does this look like: Watch the video below of a micro lesson only 3 minutes and 53 seconds long. What do you notice?

Did you see how the teacher keeps the student engaged with brief changes in the video formatting? Simple techniques like cutting back and forth from videos of her face, to showing the text, and then embedding some still images help keep the viewer engaged while keeping the content of the lesson front and center.

The video was created in about 10 minutes with a simple iPhone App called "Clips". Shout out to Jennifer Serravallo and her newest book "Connecting with Readers Online". This app was recommended in a chapter on microlessons and we have found it so very intuitive to learn and use.

Whether you use the app or record your lessons with your computer or other digital platform, we hope that you will try out recording micro lessons for your students. Keep it simple, laugh a little as you try, and let us know how it goes!

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Virtual Workshops Designed for You!

Reclaiming Joy, Inspiration & Possibility

Virtual Institute for Reading Specialists

From Mini Lesson to Micro Lesson

Short, Explicit, & Robust ... but Recorded

TLA Staff

Archives

Virtual Workshops Designed for You!

​Reclaiming Joy, Inspiration & Possibility

Virtual Institute for Reading Specialists

From Mini Lesson to Micro Lesson

Short, Explicit, & Robust ... but Recorded

TLA Staff

Archives

Reclaiming Joy, Inspiration & Possibility