The+First+Month+of+School

====The first month of school is the time for building a positive social dimension (classroom environment) and establishing routines for metacognitive conversation (talking about thinking). If you can accomplish these two things, you'll be setting the stage for a very good year.====

1. Establish Norms
RA teachers create classroom NORMS with students. Norms are a set of behaviorial guidlines that govern the RA classroom. Norms are created collaboratively, using student voices, and are often revised as the year goes on. To begin creating norms, ask your students to respond to one or more of these prompts:
 * To be able to work together as a community we need to create some agreements about how we will interact with each other. Please think about what you need in order to learn best.
 * How can we set up this classroom to make it the best learning environment for everyone? What can you do to help us learn? What can I do to help us learn? What must we all work on?
 * Think about the best class you've ever had. What made that class so enjoyable? What did the teacher do? What did the students do?

Collect these norms on a poster and periodically check-in with them. Hold students accountable for behavior using the classroom norms and suggest revisions when necessary. For a more detailed lesson on creating norms click on this link >

2. Establish Think - Pair - Share
Think - Pair - Share (TPS) is a sharing routine in an RA classroom used to build confidence and increase student voices. Most classroom discussion begins with a TPS where students **think** individually about a prompt, **pair** with another student, and **share** their response. Students may need guidance in how to be a good partner, including appropriate sharing and listening skills. TPS is often used along with the S.O.L.A.R. listening norms shown below. Don't assume that students know how to do these things. Model each behavior for them, or have students demonstrate in a fishbowl.

3. Do a Personal Reading History or a Student Reading Survey
Personal histories help us discover what experiences have shaped our students to this point. Reading histories can be the focus, but content-specific histories can inform us, too. Below is a nice example of a science history that blends reading and content. It's a word doc, too, so feel free to adapt. If you want a comprehensive view of your students' literacy development try his student reading survey.

4. Introduce Think Aloud and Talking to the Text
These two routines are Reading Apprenticeship staples and the foundation for metacognitive conversation. However, they may not come easily to students. Start with student-friendly texts like cartoons, music lyrics, pictures, or even objects and model your process first. The bookmarks below can be very useful in helping students get started and the checklists can give them something to listen for when you do your modeling.

5. Do a Reading Process Analysis and create a Reading Strategies List.
Creating a reading strategies list is a great way to begin apprenticing students to read like you: the expert in your content area. These documents are living artifacts in an RA classroom. Create a reading strategies list early in the year and then add to it as new, content-specific reading strategies are added to your students’ repertoire. Don’t forget to add new RA strategies to the list as you introduce them.

Check out this RSL lesson plan