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Follow-Up Action: Putting the CAR in the CROWD

Work with the adult reading partner to plan lessons.  

Put the CROWD in the CAR Example: Before the shared reading observation Mr. Q.  indicated to the coach that some of his students were now able to engage without extrinsic rewards, interact with the book and reader, and initiate comments. Therefore, Mr. Q was planning to begin using CROWD comments.

The coach then paid specific attention to the types of CROWD comments Mr. Q. used throughout the lesson.

When they sat down to debrief, the coach asked Mr. Q. to pull up his preplanned comments and questions so they could review them. As they went through them, Mr. Q. noticed that many were either WH-questions or Completion comments, but he had none of the other types. After further discussion, the coach and Mr. Q. decided that they would co-plan the next lesson and co-construct all of the CROWD comments and questions in order to support Mr. Q. in thinking through when and how each of the different comments and questions could be used across the text. 

Co-teach or support the adult reading partner throughout the lesson to demonstrate priorities from debriefing session. The coach might help the adult reading partner focus on one aspect of the guiding statements. 

Put the CROWD in the CAR Example: Mrs. A. had several students in her shared reading group that needed the CROWD approach to shared reading and a couple of students who still needed the CAR approach. She asked the coach if she would come and be an active participant in the lesson to demonstrate for her how to implement the guiding statements: 1) if students didn’t initiate or respond, the adult asked them to tell her/him about the pictures or words in the text and2) if students did not respond to the adult’s comment or initiate on their own, the adult asked for their participation using a CROWD comment or question.

The coach took this opportunity to not only demonstrate the guiding statements but to better understand the dynamics of the group. Mrs. A. and the coach then debriefed about the lesson and set priorities for the next lesson. 

Tar Heel Shared Reader provides additional activities that focus specifically on the Big Ideas and guiding statements presented across the professional development modules. These additional activities help the adult reading partner think about and apply the concepts they are learning.

The content activities may be used flexibly by the coach in three ways:

  1. when the coach observes an adult reading partner and think there may be a misunderstanding about specific Big Ideas and/or guiding statements,
  2. when the coach and the reading partner determine a Big Idea and/or a guiding statement as a focused priority,
  3. when the coach wants to review specific Big Ideas and/or guiding statements during a community of practice.

In a community of practice, the content activity is meant to refresh ideas and encourage collaboration and discussion with colleagues.

Put the CROWD in the CAR Example: The coach was observing a shared reading lesson in Ms. S’s classroom and noticed that since she had begun putting the CROWD in the CAR, she was no longer pausing to allow students to take the lead. During the debriefing session Ms. S. agreed that she had forgotten about pausing because her students were so much more active throughout shared reading. The coach told her that she noticed that a couple of the students almost never initiated comments who had previously done so in the past. The coach decided to pull up the content activity Pausing Supports Students in Taking the Lead to address the guiding statements: 1) the adult paused and looked expectantly at the students before reading each page, the adult paused and looked expectantly at the students after reading each page, and; 2) the adult paused and looked expectantly at the students after making each comment. This activity would help the coach frame the conversation around why adults pause, when adults pause, and how that fits into the CROWD approach.   

Activities to be completed with the adult reading partner are listed under each guiding statement.