KTL Newsletter 6 - More Ideas On Categorizing

You have seen emails recently about top down webs and other aspect of Keys to Literacy, but we wanted to give you some new ideas for Categorizing. 

image via https://www.pinterest.com/keystoliteracy/

A great way to begin categorizing is to start with an everyday example. You can talk about categories for everyday items such as school supplies (have students place the school supplies in the correct bucket, coming up with an appropriate category label). You might put tools for measuring in one bucket, writing utensils in another, art supplies in another, etc.

One way to make this activity more interactive is to have buckets set up around your classroom. You can take, for example, the vocabulary from any unit of study, and have students place them in the correct category bucket. For instance, a social studies unit could have categories such as Economy, Government, Physical Features etc. of a particular area. If possible, each child would receive a term to sort appropriately, with one student in charge of making sure the others are putting the correct terms into the category. 

You can also do this with smaller groups, and have them sort all the terms and then come up with their own categories or labels for each bucket. If you want to keep it simple, you could use a worksheet to categorize; start off having students sort vocabulary/terms into assigned categories and eventually have them come up with the category label themselves. 

Finally, you can connect top down webs and categorizing by using a top down web for categorizing. This way, students can sort a list of given terms into the correct category and include visuals or short phrases with each term. The top down web with categorizing can then be used as a study guide, complete with visuals. It is an organized way to group terms from a particular unit to help them study and make connections.

Check out more classroom examples of categorizing on the Keys to Literacy Pinterest page.

Hope you find this newsletter helpful!

Please let one of us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Your KTL Coaches

KTL Newsletter 5 - When And How To Use Top-Down Webs

image via https://literacymalden.wikispaces.com/ 

I know you have recently had a great deal of information given to you regarding Keys to Literacy, so I thought this week I would send you some quick tips on when and how to use top-down topic webs.

Top-down webs may be used:

• to help students visually sort new information into familiar categories.
• to analyze the relationships between old and new information.
• to create a simple structure for thinking about information in new ways.
• to review concepts and demonstrate understanding.  

Some of the ways students can use them are:

• to organize ideas; For instance as a graphic organizer before writing a paper.
• to organize a unit so students have an overview of the unit and know what to expect.  (I’ve found this especially useful when I am introducing a new grammar unit.)  
• to brainstorm.
• to show narrative text structures.  This would be used after reading. 

Tips for using top down webs:

• If students have never created a top-down web before, start with something they are familiar with and enjoy!  
• Make sure students aren’t using complete sentences.  Have them write in phrases using their own words.  
• The topics must be placed in different shapes (rectangles, circles, etc.)  The shapes are used to emphasize different levels of topics and subtopics. It is important to arrange the shapes in a way that emphasizes these relationships (i.e., major topics should be placed at a similar level on the web). Arrows also help to illustrate how these ideas are related.
• Add color for every level!  Color can be used to emphasize the relationship between levels of topics, or to group major and sub-topics together that related. (Let’s face it; it doesn't matter how old you are.  Everyone loves to color!  Even my 8th graders like to color in their top-down webs.)  

KTL Newsletter 4 - Draw.io For Top-Down Webs

Hi all! 

I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving holiday!  As we gear up to Thursday's PD day, I thought I'd share something I found while developing top-down webs.  There is a drive extension called draw.io which is a fairly easy to use application that will allow you to create top down webs in the suggested Keys to Literacy design.  In order to find it, try the following steps. 

1. Go into your drive and tap the red box that says "new". 
2. Look down until you see "more." Click that.
3. A side popup will appear, and it will say at the bottom "connect more apps."  Click that.
4. When the popup box appears, use the search tool at the top and type in draw.io.  
5. The icon is a orange square with 3 white boxes in it.  (See image above)
6. On the left, it will say connect.  That should do it!

Advantages of draw.io include not having to erase and recreate if doing it on paper, and the ability to create an answer key version, then make a copy of it and remove the text if necessary.  At the beginning of the year, I left many text options filled in, and worked with the students to fill in the missing blanks.  As the year progresses, I am leaving many more blanks open.  At some point soon, I will only make a master key for myself and allow them to create their own. However, for students who struggle, this is a good alternative!  

Draw.io is the only app or extension that I have found that allows you to change the shape AND the color as you go. Apps like poplet do not allow for shape changing, which is critical in a Top Down web.  

Unfortunately, a major drawback is that it is *not* iPad friendly. At this point, I am creating them on my laptop and printing them out for students, or projecting my completed key.  I have been in contact with them and hope to see an app, or an iPad friendly chrome version soon. 

If you need any help with draw.io, please reach out and ask!  It takes some trial and error, but now that I have it figured out, I won't go back to paper and pen!

KTL Newsletter 3 - Two Column Notes

I hope you have all had the opportunity to use Two Column Note-taking in your classes.  I find it to be a wonderful tool to help students organize their thinking about specific content in readings, lectures, videos and media presentations. 

You can use Two Column Note-Taking in a number of ways. Here are just a few ideas if you want to spice things up:      

• Important quotations  / meaning of that quotation
• Pro argument / Con argument

• Facts / opinions
• Argument / supporting evidence

Helpful hints to give students:

• Omit small, unnecessary words
• Keep the meaning clear
• Don't write full sentences (abbreviate)
• Not all paragraphs have new main ideas
• Not all paragraphs have new details
• Some paragraphs have implied main ideas and require more time to identify
• The more room you leave, the easier it is to edit
• Details should be recorded in same order as found in reading

KTL Newsletter 2 - Categories… Organizing… Finding the Main Idea by Looking at Details

Hopefully at this point you’ve tried a top down web, and found a way to take notes in 2 columns. You may have noticed your students still have trouble identifying the main idea.   Or maybe you are starting a new topic and want to launch it with some detailed observations about the main concept.  Below are some ideas you can use to make your lesson more engaging and easier to prepare.  

Practical Sorting Tips!

*Getting ready to categorize- you are faced with the following situation: 

25 students, 5 groups, 3 buckets each group, and sets of vocabulary or concepts for each group.          

Where to start? 

1) Type up your words.  

Use color to help to keep words in the correct groups.  

Try one of these:

• Color the text.
• Color the back of the paper with crayons before you cut.
• Use colored paper and print a set for each group.

2)Put each set in a ziploc bag for re usability and safe keeping. 

3) Distribute to groups with the focus of looking at the words, sorting them by common traits to find the main idea. The main idea is the label on the bucket!

The goal of finding the main idea can be put into these 3 simple steps. 

A) Identify the details.

B) Compare the details to determine what they have in common.

C) Use your own words to paraphrase what they have in common. 

Spend time reflecting on some of the details and how they effect the main idea.  

Ask, “Is this main idea too vague, too detailed, or just right?”

This is the Goldilocks Rule. 

Optional - *Label a bucket or two for your students, and let them label some on their own.  

Sort- share-compare

*Remember there are buckets you can use housed in A1 for your Keys to Literacy activities at MSMS.

*If you want to challenge your students with daily observations, check out the site http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/page/2

They create daily photos of items organized neatly! Enjoy. 

Your Keys to Literacy Coaches

KTL Newsletter 1 - Top Down Webs

I know we are all busy with the many things required of a teacher, but I wanted to give you a couple reminders and tips for implementing strategies from the Key Comprehension Routine.

This week's focus is on top-down webs. 

Just a few reminders...

Teachers must be careful not to overwhelm students with too many different types of graphic organizers. Students are more likely to use them independently if they are exposed to just a few basic formats. The Keys to Literacy programs focus specifically on a top-down topic web format because it is flexible enough to be used with any subject matter and clearly differentiates between broad main ideas and supporting facts.

Topics webs can be generated on any size paper, and colored markers can be used to emphasize the relationship between ideas.  Here is a link to the Keys page on topic webs

Keys also has a blog with you which is a great resource for you to get easy, quick ideas to use in your classrooms. To receive a notification about a new blog post, click on the link below and subscribe.


Here's a short article about disciplinary literacy (content literacy) from the blog that helps to sum up what we are doing and why we are implementing Keys in the content areas.


A huge thank you to all the Keys Coaches for modeling lessons last week- they did an amazing job! We are fortunate to have coaches at BHS and MSMS who are very knowledgeable about implementing the strategies. Please be sure to reach out to one of them or me if you have any questions, ideas or need support.

Also, thank you to all of you who attended the modeled lessons. I hope you found it as helpful and useful as I did!