I'm new to the forum and just read Teaching Teenagers and the other free downloads yesterday (thanks Chris!). I also watched the videos. I think I understand the general idea of micro-lectures, etc. But, how do you use this strategy to plan a whole 45 minute Reading period for MS language learners, for example? I have a district pacing guide with standards. Help me make a connection between theory and practice! Thanks!

The idea is to take what you usually do and put a WBT spin on it. I teach math, so I can't come up with a reading lesson off the top of my head, but if you can give me a starting place I can help.

I always start with new vocabulary, or new information, and I use a lot of teach/okay at the begining of class. Then begin moving into practice. Give us an idea of a normal lesson for you, and lets figure out how to change it up to fit WBT style!

"Normal lesson"....hmmm.... This will be only my second year at this urban middle school. I was mostly flying by the seat of my pants last year since I was only given the textbooks and pretty much left to my own devices. Not to say there aren't plenty of requirements or things the district expects me to do...I just had to figure much of it out on my own. (This is my permitted whine session, so bear with me for a moment! ) Top that with an extremely challenging population of language learners, one period of which I now recognize needed the industrial strength teaching approach, but I didn't know about this site last year! And you can understand why I'm SO desperately excited about WBT/Power Teaching! I am convinced this approach will work!

Anyhow, moving on to more positive things.

I going to just give you a "for example" scenario, as well as let you know what I am required to do/have on my lesson plans to keep the powers that be satisfied....

Required Activation Strategy: (Guiding Question, Big Question): What defines home?
Objective: Students will preview and predict details and events of a fictional text.
Required Literacy Board: district mandated. Includes a word of the day , analogy, fact/opinion statement, and literacy device. [Continuing the venting: This is a mandated waste of time. I am given the materials to use and no flexibility. The vocabulary is way beyond these kids {they are language learners and are at least 2 years below grade level reading}. Analogies I understand, but again, they're not really taught how to solve an analogy. Some kids 'get it', some kids don't. And sometimes the analogy is so abstract I have to look at the answers to make sure I get it right! The literacy device portion includes all kinds of things like text structure, literary technique (hyperbole, etc). However the whole thing is just this separate little piece, not connected to anything else. Most teachers rush through the whole thing as quickly as possible and give students a grade every so often to make sure they're writing the information down in their literacy board notebook. The whole thing is frustrating to me!]

Moving on, I promise!
The teacher's guide is pretty thorough, so I would pretty much follow that. Model for students how to preview the text and how to make a prediction. Use a Prediction Chart and fill it in as I model the strategy.
Read the passage once.
I would explain what I'm going to do, and then use a Think Aloud as I read a short portion of the passage to model. Read again, and model.
Have students chorally read second portion of text.
Assign students to work with a partner/small group to practice preview/predict with sentence frames (language learner support). Sentences like: I see _____ on these pages. I read that _____. I think this means the story is about ____.
Guided Practice stage
With partners/small groups post questions to discuss. List responses on Prediction Chart
*What is text on this page about? *What do you predict the rest of the story will be about? *Were the predictions you already made correct?

There is also an application stage in the teacher's manual, but this is probably more than I could accomplish in one period anyway.

On my district lesson plans, I also have to specify what Instructional Strategies and Student Engagement strategies I'll use. Usually, I can pull those from the TE (teacher's edition). I also have to specify Closure/Closing Activity and Assessment (ie: How do I know students have achieved objective?)

Sorry for the very long post. I hope this helps!