The Cycle of GRR

Pictures say more than words!  So, here is a quick representation of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Cycle.  The standard shown in the image is RL.2.5- story structure through beginning, middle, and end.  We have found that these steps help our students truly reach their highest potential. It allows each student to take full ownership of their learning.

We always start with a pre assessment to gather the base line for each student's prior knowledge and to form collaborative groups based on such knowledge.  The second step involves a hook - a fun way to engage students and introduce our learning targets.  In this lesson, for example, we took students on a virtual roller coaster ride (this hook related to our structure strategy as well as the mentor text we chose for this lesson).  The learning objectives are wrapped into "I Can" Statements or statements like Readers Can ...  We find it important to introduce these goals for every lesson as well as the academic language and important definitions.  This practice has allowed our students to expand their reading and writing vocabulary as well as understand the content at a higher level.  Plus, having a clear goal helps our students reach it.  Mini lesson (usually between 12 - 15 minutes) follows with a very explicit teacher modeling of thinking and the use of a specific, standard-related strategy.  Then, students are invited to apply the new knowledge of the strategy through partner practice.  While students are engaged in partner practice, we walk around the room, take notes of the conversations, questions, use of academic language, and student discussions.  We continue the same observations while students work in collaborative groups  (we add a step of asking essential questions related to the content and the standard).  After ample practice time (depending on how quickly each student grasps the skill/strategy) in collaborative groups, student work on an independent activity before moving onto the post assessment.  After each post assessment, we grin with amazement on how much knowledge growth occurred in our classroom.  We realize over and over again that the method of GRR madness is worth the effort...every time!

You can find all the activities, grouping guide, and assessments by visiting our TPT store here.