When a Plan Comes Together

Sometimes a plan comes together...an instructional plan, that is.

Sometimes your kids do what you want them to do, what you had in mind when you planned this lesson.

For me, today was that day.

We are getting ready to start our new novel, Nothing But the Truth by Avi. It is a great multigenre novel that explores point of view and our natural biased tendencies.  A great anticipatory set is a multigenre gallery walk. This is a chance for students to get out of their seats and move about the room and examine the various genres that they encounter on a day to day basis. I post several genres about the room, and students complete a graphic organizer examining the purpose, the characteristics, the supports, the challenges, and the strategies students employ when encountering this type of text.

A gallery walk involves students of their seats. There is definitely some collaboration involved. Collaboration leads to talking...talking can lead to the edge of a cliff where there is no point of return.  Especially with my overly active class of on-grade-level students.

But today, a plan came together. Conversations were on topic, to say the least. Students were really having conversations with one another about the various characteristics about the variety of text they were being faced with. Students were generally thinking about the strategies they employ when faced with challenging text. Students were moving from text to text examining the words, the structures, and the characteristics, and having genuine conversations about their learning.

Sometimes, a plan comes together perfectly.