Indicators

sticking with gumbo and gianna as focal students and added in grace (leader)
thinking about leader-follower dynamic in partnerships
tried more modeling and then specific task for conversation - not working

listening to grace and cassidy very naturally have a great conversation -
"she wants us to go deep but how can you go deep about Jand the GP?" - conversation used structure of book to recreate story "what if it was a x?" "how did they get in that peach in the first place?"

Sonya: how are partners chosen? do they change over time? how does a leader bring up a non-leader?

what are they doing?
- asking non-surface level questions
- putting themselves in the place of the characters
- imagining alternative scenarios based on book
- naturally interested in talking about the book

what makes grace and cassidy able to do this?
- personality? social skills? collaboration skills?
- both had read the same book, both had chosen the book

what would happen with different partnerships?
what would happen with short stories?

data from gumbo and gianna
- reading same book now, but its not helping them go deeper
- just giving the answer to the prompt in order to complete the task
- they are excited about the book, about reading it, but not excited to talk about it

kids don't like writing post its and other things they are being asked to do

What Im Thinking Now:
How can I infuse the fun and lightness that G&C had into everyone else's conversations? Take it away from the Common Core tasks. I wonder if I need to train more on types and parts of a conversation, asking questions, following questions... Feeling frustrated and tired out.






3.18.14
Today I listened to a conversation from Grace and Cassidy. They are pretty much the top of the class in terms of conversation.  So in this conversation, they went off on this silly tangent where they kind of imagined another story that was similar to this one. I'm not quite sure how it started, but it was like riffing. One would come up with an idea, and then another would add on. It was like that game yes, and.  But, the most amazing part, was when they got to a part that one of them was confused about, from the real book, they went into a discussion of the book.  It reminded Cassidy that wait, how did they get into the peach in the first place. They also thought about whether this story could be about an orange, a berry, a grape.  Then one is like, there's no bushes in James and Giant Peach, so it would have to be some fruit from a tree.
This brings up a couple things for me.

1. that you can have deep conversations about books even when they don't think you can- or when they don't think they are.

2. that imaginative play can lead towards deeper understanding about a book.

3. Conversation deeperns understanding (which I already believed, but haven't seen much evidence of in my class yet).







Types of participation.- teach those specifically.


Well, to return my focus to the indicators they were
-I, yes they can all do this.
II. sort of, but I think I need to focus on how to improve upon this.
III. No, except for my new addition of a focal student who is amazing.
IV. No, except for my new focal student.

So, I don't see much forward progress, except that I think that I see Gombo trying to have a real conversation, but his partner is usually distracting him.  Maybe we just really need to focus on how to listen to each other and ask questions about what they say.  I think they can make the claim, but they can't really have a conversation.

This post has very little, I realize.  I think I'm really stuck with how to push past management issues and get buy in from kids to have a deeper conversation. Do I need to make the case for why a conversation is helpful?  ahhh, I feel so lost.

Indicators	Student Initials ______G.B.____________	Student Initials __________J.W._______
I:  Makes a claim, or states a theory	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially What evidence of student learning do you see in the student work?	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning:
II: Uses evidence to back up that claim	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking: “And now she’s like this shoplifter”
III:  Conversation stays on the same topic with more than two back and forth.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:
IV: Helping each other move forward.