Modifying the Standards & a Little Bit of Ourselves

Sometimes the best remedy for an exhausted teacher is a few days of R & R.  Does the soul good. Am I right?  And then comes Sunday evening when you can barely turn your mind off, thinking about the week to come.  "How can I change this from last week?"  "How can I help 'fill in the blank' really get this?"  These thoughts, my friends, are on every teacher's mind on most Sunday evenings.  It's how we roll.

Well, this particular Sunday evening I was mulling over a standard that is loaded with necessary skills for students to master  RL 4.9.  This standard requires students to compare and contrast treatment of similar themes through the pattern of events.  WHAT?!  I love my littles, but these littles aren't the deepest wells that were ever dug.  And are they supposed to be?  Mind you, they're 9.  9!  Identifying theme was challenge enough, let alone thinking about how authors display them in different ways?

Sheesh. 

I showed my littles a strategy that worked best for my brain.  I had plotted events, color coded circles, it all made perfect sense!  Or so I thought...what seemed so clear to myself and others in the classroom, was just too much pizazz for my low and high students.  I needed to simplify.

The solution?
I took a step back and thought, "Well, what do they know?"  and "What's the simplest way for them to show me what they know?"  The more I reflected on my current teaching strategy, the more I realized it wasn't the standard or CCSS expectations that was hindering my students.  It was my color-coded conundrum that was holding them back.  For my low students, there was far too much to process and the task needed to be broken down for them.  For my high students, I was requiring too many steps for an already simple task for them that they could complete in their head.

Simple and to the Point

I began teaching additional strategies to help my students learn to compare and contrast what they were reading.  My color-coded master piece wasn't a one-size fits all strategy, and I had to start looking at it as one of the many...NOT the ONLY.

I'll walk you through a few texts that helped me reach my lower and higher level students that struggled with the whole group lesson strategy.  All texts used can be found on Reading A-Z.

Strategy 1:  One Skill Focus
My lower level group struggled comparing and contrasting all at once.  We focused on comparing two texts to find only the similarities as their modification.
Here's how it went:

1. Read two texts that share the same theme:  working together gets the job done.            (Where'es Whiskers? & What Can We Do?)  
2. As reading each text, highlight evidence that shows the characters working together
3. Repeat for the second text, highlighting evidence that shows the theme
4. Brainstorm ways that both stories show this theme (orally) and jot down notes on a post-it

Strategy 2:  Cut to the Chase 

My higher level group was beginning to get bogged down by the "paper-work" of creating an organizer to show similarities and differences.  The skill was easy, but showing their thinking was taking up most of their time.  This group was ready to apply the standard skills right after reading.

1. Read two texts that share same theme:  trick others and they will want to trick you right back.  (Coyote and Beaver & Coyote and the Salmon) 
2. Read 1st text and plot major events from the story and debate theme shown
3. Repeated with 2nd story--plotting and discussing similarity between theme
4. Collect similarities between events in both stories on a post-it
5. Collect differences between events in both stories on separate post-it

After we made these adjustments in classroom strategies and modifications, my students were more confident in the standard itself.  I had been humbled.  Sometimes it's not the standard that gets in the way of our students' learning.  Sometimes, it's just our one-shoe-fits all mindset.  

How do you reach your littles when they just aren't getting it?  Comment below to share your strategies!