The Big Fresh December 6, 2014 Watchers

It was early fall, and I was observing Carly Ullmer lead her seventh graders as they learned writing response routines they would be using all year long.  Carly was giving a minilesson on how to access the work of classmates in Google Drive, and the assignment during literacy workshop was to quietly type a paragraph or two of their writing into a document and then test out the different features for collaborating online. “After you finish typing in your text you can start reading your independent choice book,” Carly explained. “My cue that it’s time for us to move on to something else will be when I look up and see almost all of you are reading silently.”

One of the most prized goals in classrooms is independence — helping students acquire the skills to monitor their own work, as well as the initiative to organize and complete it on their own without prompting from the teacher. As I listened to Carly, I was struck by her language. She wasn’t saying, “Watch me.” Carly was saying, “I’ll watch you. Just do your work, and I’ll take my cues from you when it’s time to move on.”  She could have said, “Look for my silent signal sometime in the next 10 minutes for our transition” or something else that cued her students to continuously monitor their teacher. Instead, Carly kept the students focused on their reading and writing.

How often do you say “Watch me”? How often do you say “I’ll watch you”? Shifting language and cues from students focusing on you to you focusing on students is a subtle way to build independence among readers and writers more quickly.

This week we present multiple perspectives on student independence. Plus more as always — enjoy!