CEL 5D Tier 1 Instruction Promising Practice Spotlight

In this edition of the Wayfinder, we are pleased to spotlight Star Lake Elementary 5th grade teacher, Cherie Blair! Mrs. Blair’s class recently completed ELA, Module 1, Unit 2 Stories of Human Rights. They read an article and wrote multiple paragraphs aligned to a human rights challenge and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

1. Together, each scholar team read the text following the close reading process, answered questions and identified key vocabulary.

2. Then, each team wrote a paragraph response to the question, “What was a human rights challenge that the family faced?” The idea was for team members to support the learning of one another through this process.

3. Using the gallery walk protocol, each team reviewed the work of the other team: What did they notice? Did they notice clear evidence of a topic sentence, conclusion? Did they quote from both texts, etc.

4. As a next step, each scholar independently followed this process.

Below is an excerpt from this lesson with evidence of SE5: Student Talk and some evidence of SE1: Quality of Questioning:

Teacher (T): So, we’ll spend some time on this one, do you guys have a noticing and wondering? Think about those 5 lenses.

Student (S) 1: I really like how the…(inaudible) it looks like they had a really good group project.

S1: I wonder why they think they turned the potatoes into a black lump violation?

S2: They never specified if someone did that, it would be a violation of…

S1: I like your idea, I think it kind of makes sense because they probably didn’t give them enough money…

T: Where in the paragraph do they explain their thinking?

S2: In the pink.v

T: In the pink, what does the pink say?

S1: (References chart): This is a violation of article 25 which states that you have a right to whatever you need so that you and your family do not fall ill and go hungry.

T (to S2): Does that answer your question as to why they might think having black lumps in their field?

S1: That’s their food pretty much

S2: We don’t know why they took that...