In just 5 days, I’d have to wrangle my rowdy group of 8th graders into a lesson that wowed my admin.

It was mid-December and blinking Christmas light necklaces and Santa hats filled my eyes as I scanned my classroom.

Kids weren’t focused, I was going on minimal sleep and yet somehow I had to prep for my 2nd formal observation.

Added to this stress was that I also had to give a summative assessment before vacation. Whatever I did for my observation lesson needed to be directly related to the story we were reading.

Topping off this crisis was that on the date of this scheduled observation, my class would be starting the summative review. Boring to watch, right?

How Could I Pull This Off?

I wracked my brain, thinking of the Comprehensible Input techniques I’d used before during observations with great results.

• Special Person interviews = huge positive response, but wouldn’t fit this lesson

• Running Dictation = huge positive response, but this same admin saw me do this one the year before….sadly couldn’t re-use it…kids loved it…would be perfect for review…😩

Agh! I needed a way to get the kids re-reading the text. I needed it to be an academic review.

My Lightbulb Moment!

What is it about BRILLIANT ideas springing into the minds of exhausted teachers while in the shower at 5 am? It seems to happen to SO many of us! Thankfully, ZAP like lightning, the solution came to me.

I could just tweak of the much-loved Running Dictation to get the kids RE-READING the exact text - like, searching in it, studying it, using it…

Here’s what I did: The FLIPPED Running Dictation.

Step 1. Create 8-10 questions about the story. I use small font so kids can’t just read from across the room.

Step 2. Label the questions “Pregunta A, Pregunta B” and so on.

Step 3. Hang them up around the room or hallway.

Step 4. Give groups of 4 the recording sheets. (Keep reading for a FREE download!)

Step 5. Explain roles. Each turn, the group members rotate roles of runner, writer and answer finder and answer writer.

Step 6. (Optional) Work together to translate answers to English.

The first group to have everything complete and correct WINS!

One Little Change - Big Impact!

Yes, essentially rather than hang up images or text for kids to run to scavenger-hunt style and then dictate to a scribe, I hung up QUESTIONS about the story. Groups had to then SEARCH THE TEXT, find and dictate the answer to a group member, and record the page number.

So, did I get a good grade on the observation, you ask?

Yep, 🙌 IT WORKED! I earned a 4 in each domain. It was a super effective strategy to get them inside the text, and my students loved it too. Since then, I’ve used this for various class novels, movie talks - it works for anything.

More thoughts and a Free Download….

Admin Said to Differentiate:

In the pre-observation meeting, my admin asked how I’d be demonstrating differentiation in this lesson. Since it’s a race, he was concerned there could be a disadvantage to groups needing more processing time which would to discouragement and checking out.

So, I created different difficulty levels of questions. Questions A - H were advanced, and I - P were simplified. I gave advanced groups recording sheets aligned to questions A - H, and groups needing more processing time got questions I - P.

😉 Pro-tip: You don’t have to tell kids WHY the groups have different questions; just explain that you created enough so runners wouldn’t crowd up at the questions and make them hard to read.

I’ve attached a FREE EDITABLE DOWNLOAD of the Flipped Running Dictation projectable instructions and printable recording sheets when you sign up for the newsletter below.

If you try this, pop back here and let me know how it goes!

Wishing you all the very best,

Catherine

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