Using (CTG) Time Wisely

Hey Fast Llamas,

The Sunday decision of what to write about!  My head is full of ideas every weekend... The struggle is real to narrow it down, but here we go. Today we are going to talk about Closing the Gap time.  Let's dive deeper.

First of all, CTG is a district mandate that each week, each subject makes closing the achievement gap a priority.  And in doing so, we are to take the first 30 minutes one day a week to focus on skills.  Like everything, there are discussions of how this time will impact the delivery of (state mandated TEKS) curriculum.  Calendars are already tight, and it is difficult to cover all of the TEKS by state testing time anyway. Shutting down 30 minutes a week could significantly impact our ability to teach the TEKS by May.  This is understandable, but what do you do when you are required to do something?  Well, you make the best of it and that is what this week's blog is aiming to focus on.  

Let's look at this strategically, how can we use this time to most efficiently and effectively improve the learning that is occuring in our classrooms?  How many of us have said to ourselves, "these kids should know how to do this..." or "if kids had a better foundation, I could move them to deeper meaning and higher levels of learning".  

This then becomes an exciting prospect.  

Let's look at a simple example.  Let's say that density is coming up.  During CTG time the week before students would:

1. have multiple opportunities to compare the structure of high versus low density objects.

2. examine mass and volume 

3. practice measuring mass and using a graduated cylinder

4. practice displacement methods 

5. practice sinking and floating using prediction and observations

6. looking at and making predictions of density mathematically

7. looking at and making predictions of density non-mathematically

All of these activities would be in low stakes, low risk, non-graded situations to practice, practice practice these skills.  Next week, we can apply our skills because foundational skills have been practiced repeatedly.  Suddenly, CTG time becomes valuable time spent and I can move kids to higher levels of thinking and application and the relevance of understanding density is realized.  

Here are some other ideas or strategies that you could use:

1. Vocabulary - I love Frayer Models.  

This one is fancy...

2.  Retrieval Practice - Probably the most powerful tool we have.  Using this strategy allows kids to understand what they REALLy know in three steps.

  1. students are given time to recall (whether in pictures or words) what they remember about a topic

  2. students compare their remembering with others, adding what others remembered to their rendering

  3. teacher models what the complete memory rendering should include, students add to theirs

3.  Learning Diagrams - Students recall information using visuals only.  Love the idea of recapping the learning using visuals only and then having students interpret each others drawings.  Here is an example from Twitter user @eposthuma.

4.  Reciprocal Teaching - Practice reading strategies using this powerful tool. This tool is a way to teach students how to find important ideas from text using vocabulary, ideas and questions and summarizing.  Great for non-fiction and information from textbooks.

It's four parts include"

• Predicting
• Questioning - who, what, where, when, why
• Clarifying
• Summarizing

5.  Writing - What is you introduce a topic by having students write about what they know?  In this strategy, one student writes a sentence on an index card, then passes the card to the next student who writes a sentence and so on...

It's is structured like this:

• First....
• Then...
• Then...
• Finally...

6.  Pre-assessment quizzes.  Using a quiz as a way to see what students know and understand, then reteaching and reviewing.  Then, give a post assessment quiz... How did the learning improve?

7.  CER - Claim, Evidence and Reasoning activities.  This is a powerful strategy because it teaches cognitive and give opportunities to practice metacognitive and social skills.  Click here for a great article about how to use this to model thinking... It can be used to model goal setting and reflection.  

8.  Creating Graphic Organizers:

• T-Chart.
• Concept Map.
• Main Idea Web.
• Venn Diagram.
• Sequence Chart

Here are more ideas!

9. Study Skills and Goal Setting - Why use this time to write goals for learning and introduce proper ways to study such as:

• Spaced Practice
• Theta Scans
• Flash Cards
• Habits of Successful Students
• Pomodoro Technique - 1. Study for 15 - 20 minutes, 2 take a break for 5 to 10 minutes, 3. repeat the cycle 4 time, 4. take a longer break - have a snack, exercise

 

Taking the time to practice foundational skills is a good use of time.  Let's use it to ours and our students advantage.

Until next time...