Teachers.io - A Place for Teachers!

9/15/15
Our work together has a personal component and a social component. We have built classroom routines to develop both of these.

¥ Personal - To develop their self-awareness, students are asked to think and write on a topic for 5 minutes. This topic will usually relate to the students' reading, school work, school experience, or sense of self-efficacy. Students are expected to think and write for the whole 5 minutes, pushing themselves past the point of thinking, "I'm done."

¥ Social - To develop a safe reading community in which all ideas are respected and all voices are heard, students share their thinking with one another. During this time, we use agreed upon norms for listening, speaking, and including. These norms are posted in the classroom and include things like making eye contact, responding, sitting up, looking awake and engaged, using names, and keeping oneself involved in the conversation.