Snapshots of Mrs. V

The Influence of Workshop Philosophy

2012-01-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

I can feel workshop philosophy impacting more areas of my life than what I typically thought of as the reading and writing contexts in which I teach utilizing workshop. I have started to realize that I apply the concept of learning from mentors all over. Recently I posted on my other blog about mentors for a type of scrapbooking, Project Life, that I am doing for the first time this year. Of course, scrapbooking when viewed as a combination of pictures and text in order to preserve memories can be a writing genre; however, I did not always recognize it as such. Over the last year I have been reflecting more and more on the power of the process of scrapbooking as a valuable asset to writer's workshop.

One of my favorite workshop related phrases is, "Read like a writer, and write like a reader." Once I found out that I was going to teach university level courses, I started to view my college coursework from two lenses. On the one hand, I was paying attention to the content. On the other I was "learning like a teacher", noticing how various professors set up their courses and built a sense of community within the classroom. A couple of weeks ago was the first week of my spring semester class. As the professor was getting started, I was taking some notes of what he was doing on my computer. One of my classmates sitting next to me looked over and asked quietly, "What are you doing? Writing down everything we do?" I tried not to laugh, knowing he was a bit incredulous that I would be taking notes when we weren't really to the content yet.

Workshop philosophy prompts a powerful mindset of constantly viewing the world and experiences from multiple lenses - of being able to embrace and enjoy experiences, while also reflecting on how the experiences impact us in order to improve who we are in various capacities - as readers, writers, teachers, scrapbookers, mothers... The possibilities are endless.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2012-01-13T21:32:00.001-07:00

This week I was looking through a bin that a colleague left for me with writing samples to use this year in one of my literacy courses. I had noticed before that there were a lot of her kids' writing from their younger years in school; however, I did not realize that there were also some from when her daughter was in my class, especially from her 6th grade year.

Though the writing was not pertinent to the class that I was preparing for (emergent lit), and I had plenty of prep work to do, I just could not pull myself away from the writing. She even had the spiral bound dialogue journal. At first it felt almost like sneaking a peek at someone's diary, yet, that feeling quickly went away as I remembered that I was actually the original intended audience. I read over her thoughts that she had written in all different formats and once again found joy in all of her writing voice.

I also reflected back on those early days and months of what ended up being three years with those students (from 6th-8th grade). It was interesting to think about how I learned so much about her and her classmates through what they chose to write in their homework journals. I was also thinking about myself as a teacher.

Aside from the spiral notebook, there was also an informational picture book related to American History that the 6th graders read aloud to the younger grades. Then there was book responses and her update update of a Cinderella story with a dog as the protagonist! So many artifacts providing glimpses into what was important in that first year and validating the importance of documenting life and learning.

I will probably be glimpsing back in that bin from time to time...

Focusing on Assessment: So What Do They Really Know?

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am going to wrap up my Focusing on Assessment series of blog posts with a review of Cris Tovani's So What Do They Really Know?: Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning. Tovani's voice captured my interest in 2006 when my mentor gave me a copy of her I Read It, But I Don't Get It. Needless to say, I was very excited to hear that she had another book coming out!

Once again, her voice resonated with me throughout the book. While reading, it is easy to tell that she is a master teacher who thinks reflectively about her teaching throughout the years. I appreciate that she doesn't buckle to the pressure to do certain aspects exactly the same as some of her colleagues, but rather, she takes criticism/suggestions as something to reflect about and consider what is truly the best for her students.

Tovani started out the book talking about the current context of education and views of assessment. She also provided some thought provoking scenarios to consider the question stated in the title. This was a nice way to frame the rest of the text. Then she continued on to highlight how she uses assessment in her classroom, as well as providing insights into the journey that led up to the decisions she has made about assessments. Her assessment ideas are practical and serve multiple purposes, such as building connections with students, while also considering what instruction they need next the most, reflecting her belief about the connection between assessments and the value in getting to know students. Throughout she provided many examples of her students' actual responses, while providing glimpses into her thought process related to the specific responses. Her writing provides a vivid picture of how her classroom operates.

One of my favorite statements from the book stood out because it closely aligns with how I feel, stating, "Grading. I hate it. As a teacher, it is what I wrestle with most. I know it is one of the necessary evils of the job, but I find myself constantly struggling with issues of management and equity," (p. 129). No matter the grade level, I always "wrestle" with this as well. I was excited to read this chapter toward the end of the book to see how she responds to this struggle. I think that captures well why I love Tovani's writing in general - I can connect with her so much and I look forward to the "conversation" that I will have with her through reading her books, viewing her as a valued mentor.

Happy New Year! Enjoy continuing to think about assessments in 2012!

Focusing on Assessment: Accessible Assessment for Older Grades

2011-12-30T15:11:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week I wrote about how much I love the new resource, Accessible Assessment. I mentioned that it is recommended for grades 2-6, but that I would share ideas for using it in 6th-12th grade, as the resource still has a lot to offer for older grades.

Here are a few reasons why the resource is still relevant for older readers:

The level of reflection that it supports is valuable for teachers at all levels to consider how they can closely examine how mindfully and intentionally they are using (or not using) assessments
The concept that reading assessments should consider affective, global, and local assessments, rather than a more narrow view is still applicable
The resource has flexibility to select from their provided assessments or adapt
The resource provides an excellent framework for planning assessment throughout the year and recording data in a way that is manageable. Even if some aspects with the actual assessments need to be adapted for older grades, the helpful framework is still relevant.

While reading I could tell that some aspects were more appropriate for younger readers; yet, I thought about how that is where adaptation and/or differentiation comes in. For example, many adolescent readers that I have worked with did not need support with phonics, so I would not administer their local assessment related to this area to all students. In fact, even the authors recommend optimal grade levels to administer the assessment, rather than for all grades. Instead, it would be an aspect that I would keep in mind that may impact some of my older readers. When I notice that potential need for further support, then I would have ideas for assessments that may be appropriate.

Another potential adaptation that I thought of as reading is that the authors provide a Reading Attitude and Identity Survey. It seemed very familiar to another survey that I was familiar with and previously used with my students, Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (Pitcher et al., 2007), which was adapted from Gambrell et. al (1996). Once I double checked the article that talked about the adolescent version, I realized that they were similar because the survey provided in Accessible Assessment was also adapted from Gambrell et. al (1996) as well. Thus, teachers of adolescents who want to use the concept of being more cognizant of affective aspects in their classrooms could use or adapt the AMRP, rather than using the survey provided in the book. However, they could still use the rationale and suggestions of how to organize the data and consider teaching implications from Accessible Assessment.

The grade level reading passages included in Accessible Assessment only provide two passages each for grades 2-5, so this is another area that would need to be adapted for older readers. For the last few years I used QRI in my classroom. It provides a lot of informative information but can also be time-consuming. I had already made decisions, as suggested in the QRI text, in order to decide how I wanted to use the tool since it would be way too time-consuming to use it to its full capabilities with every single student; nonetheless, conducting QRIs still used quite a bit of class time. However, when reading Accessible Assessments, I liked some of their ideas about grade-level passages that aligned with their over-all concept of manageable assessments. Since the passages included with the resource would not be appropriate for most older readers, I would suggest trying out some of their ideas with grade-level passages from other resources.

Overall, the underlying philosophy and beliefs behind Accessible Assessment, as well as the level of deep conversations that it inspires, transcend a wide range of age groups. This post contains a few of my thoughts on how I would utilize the resource with adolescents. While I pointed out some aspects that would need to be adapted for older students, there were many other ideas that would still be appropriate for older readers without adapting. Many aspects would nicely weave into the conferring portion of reading workshop. I am sure that other secondary teachers would also notice the value and would be able to add valuable contributions to an on-going discussion about assessment at the secondary level.

Articles cited:

Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49, 518-533.

Pitcher, S. M., Albright, L. K., DeLaney, C. J., Walker, N. T., Seunarinesingh, K., Mogge, S. ... Dunston, P.J. (2007). Assessing adolescents' motivation to read. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(5), 378-396.

Focusing on Assessment: Accessible Assessment

2011-12-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

I read Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power DATA-DRIVEN Reading Instruction in order to consider recommendation for inclusion as a required text for coursework at my university. When I first heard about the text, it captured my attention, seeming like it would be a good fit with the current context of education, including the move toward the Common Core State Standards. It also seemed to recognize the need for assessments that are meaningful and manageable. Furthermore, information I read about the book provided glimpses into the scope of the assessments, ranging from affective, global, and local, an aspect that stood out, knowing that they were not narrowly defining what counts for readers. I knew that I would want to take a close look at this resource because if it was as good as it sounded, it would have so much potential.

The back cover states, "Accessible Assessment isn't like many of today's complex, time-consuming assessment programs. It combines nine informal techniques into a manageable, calendarized framework that makes sense and drives highly targeted, differentiated instruction." Once I started reading, it was easy to see that the back cover provided a very accurate description.

Another asset of the text is the strong underlying layers of support for rich discussions. Not only did the authors outline their ideas and provide rationales for the inclusion, they provided a framework and encouraged discussions for deep reflection and dialogue. They made it clear that they were not simply "selling" their assessment ideas. For example, they stated, "Users of Accessible Assessment need to keep in mind that they can decide from among the nine assessments provided, from among those they currently use, or from research-based sources to design an assessment protocol that addresses affective, global, and local knowledge" (p. xv).

The introductory section frames the rest of the book by explaining their literacy beliefs and discussing four essential questions that they bring up while discussing each of the assessments throughout the text. They also provided a strong rationale for why they think the recommended assessments can have a positive impact on teachers and students, as well as an example of how one teacher could utilize the book, modeling the active participation involved in the assessment process, rather than approaching the resource with a receptive approach.

Following the introduction, the authors detail each of the assessments in a very user-friendly, organized fashion, divided by the three types of assessments (affective, global, and local). For each individual assessment within the three sections, the authors started with their four essential questions that not only scaffold reflective teaching but also provide a rationale for the assessment. Then they provide support materials (when applicable) and clear descriptions of the assessments, as well as suggestions for how to use the data. Each of the instructional implications sections highlighted whole-group instruction, small-group reading, independent reading, and cross-content suggestions. In addition, they provided specific examples of how to make the concepts present in the classroom. The end of each section was one of my favorites - teacher and student self-assessment, yet another layer to support continual development of capacity.

The end of the book includes further explanation of the assessment beliefs that drove their decision making process while creating this resource, drawing from research and experience. The following statement caught my attention, "The beliefs are an out-growth of our combined eighty years of experiences that span teaching and assessing reading in grade levels and content areas from kindergarten through college, and with both novice and veteran teachers," (p. 153).

The more I read, the more I loved it and recognized the value of the resource for a range of scenarios: higher education coursework, mentoring, teaching, summer literacy camps, etc. Though the text is marketed for grades 2-6, many of the assessments would still be relevant for older students. I will write a future post about what I would recommend for 6th-12th grade teachers. Their range of experiences (highlighted in the paragraph above) are very present in the text making it truly beneficial for educators in a variety of positions and at different stages in their careers. I will be recommending the text to the director at the school where I taught the last three years and to my department for inclusion in course(s).

Focusing on Assessment: The Hook Behind the Resources

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

I started this post intending to write about Accessible Assessment after talking a little bit about a common thread between it and So What Do They Really Know? Yet, I realized that my writing was going in another direction. I still had more to say about just why the types of assessments we use are so vital and as a result, why both of these texts hooked me because of their close alignment to my literacy beliefs.

The current context of education definitely has a sharp focus on data and assessment, yet I am at times worried with the type of assessments that are valued and the decisions that educators make about students based on limited data and/or without considering the full student. I know that at times teachers are not allowed to control some of the decision making process, and depending on the context, they may fall anywhere on a spectrum ranging from feeling like they are treated like a technician to feeling like a professional. Yet, I still have strong beliefs that regardless of where teachers encounter themselves, the more they understand about assessment and data the better, allowing them to carefully analyze expectations and practice in order to improve as a practitioner.

My dissertation in progress is a narrative inquiry, so I have been closely analyzing and considering my personal teaching experiences including both ends of the spectrum. My third year teaching, I was in a context where I mainly taught sixth graders with scripted reading instruction with strict expectations to follow the curriculum with fidelity, leaving little room for implementing other aspects that I highly valued.

At the time I was completing a practicum for my reading endorsement, and revisiting my practicum journal has reminded me just how conflicted I felt. The way that I taught that year clashed with my personal literacy philosophy, yet I did not necessarily feel confident that I "had all the answers". I knew what I would do if given the flexibility, but I also knew that along with that, I would need to have a supportive environment that would allow for space to build capacity over time.

During that year, placements were made primarily on measures of oral reading "fluency" (narrowly defined as speed) and in-program placement tests. I knew the needs of students in my classes were very different, and Marsha Riddle Buly influenced this thought process the summer prior when she taught a course that I attended while on exchange to Mexico. She shared articles* that she had written about findings from a study she and a colleague conducted about the varied needs of students who did not meet state assessments in Washington.

Experiences with one parent in particular stand out from that year - a parent who wanted answers, wanted to know what her child truly needed to grow as a reader. She checked in with me, as well as a couple of school leaders. I did not feel that she received the information she needed to know, a true diagnostic assessment. I was able to notice a lot about her in class, but the program and in-program assessments did not really get at the big picture, and I was told to focus on instruction. However, I knew that diagnostics and instruction were intertwined. This was an area where I would want to continually grow, and I knew that in order to truly understand my students' needs and have the flexibility to adapt instruction to tailor to those needs, I needed to look for a new position.

The few years after I had the opportunity to continually build on my base of knowledge and teach in a way that aligned with all those thoughts of how I would respond to student needs if I was not bound to a scripted program. I became familiar with a wider range of assessments and data, some more helpful than others and some easier than others to manage time-wise.

Based on my experiences, that is why as I read Accessible Assessment and So What Do They Really Know? the authors' assessment philosophies stood out so much. With those thoughts in mind, I think I will be ready to continue on with a look at each of these resources in my next posts.

*References for Riddle Buly articles.
Riddle Buly, M., & Valencia, S. W. (2002). Below the bar: Profiles of students who fail state reading assessments. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(3), 219-239.

Valencia, S. W., & Riddle Buly, M. (2004). Behind test scores: What struggling readers really need. The Reading Teacher, 57(6), 520-531.

Focusing on Assessment: What Really Matters?

2011-12-26T14:08:00.001-07:00

Last week I mentioned that I would be doing a series of posts Focusing on Assessment, including thoughts about two books I just read, Accessible Assessment and So What Do They Really Know? In the next couple of days I will talk about each of these resources separately, but first I wanted to highlight one aspect that stood out right away as I was reading each of the books. Throughout the resources the intentionality behind assessments and the recognition that not all assessments and data are equally helpful for teachers was ever-present. All of the authors advocated for helpful assessments, those assessments that can truly provide teachers with data to inform instruction.

As an educator, when reading resources, it is essential to see that the authors have an understanding of the current context of teaching and of the demands on teachers' times. The authors of both books did so. The resources were distinct, yet they had that common thread of strong convictions about why assessment is necessary and the types of assessments that they value. Ideas did not represent a narrow definition of assessment, but rather a clear understanding of various factors that teachers must consider in order to really know their students and their needs.

Focusing on Assessment Series

2011-12-23T10:36:00.003-07:00

Winter break is always a chance to catch my breath and to deeply reflect. This winter break I am reading different books, but a couple of the books that I am reading focus on assessment. I thought it was a perfect time of year to have a series on my blog centering around assessment.

For the last few years winter break was a time for me to read and assess writing work samples in English and in Spanish (1 in each language for each of my students). It was always time consuming to say the least, but I always loved the process because it gave me a chance to really notice and reflect on the writing in front of me, as well as what I knew about the students and insights into them as writers and readers from classroom interactions.

This year with my position in teacher preparation, I don't have any assignments to correct over the break since the term ended. Instead, I am enjoying reading, writing, and reflecting.

In this series, I will specifically focus on the following two books:

Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power DATA-DRIVEN Reading Instruction

So What Do They Really Know?: Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning

Deeper Reading

2011-12-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

From the time I read Kelly Gallagher's Readicide, I knew that he was an educator whose writing would always catch my attention. It was a pleasure to finally read another of his books, Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12, and I am excited that I have a couple more of his books waiting to be read because once again I loved Gallagher's voice.

Last year, a colleague and I talked frequently about moving students toward a deeper level of understanding. As such, I closely connected with concepts I read about in Comprehension Going Forward this summer. As the title implies, Gallagher's book is another great contribution to an on-going conversation about moving beyond surface-level comprehension.

At the start of the book, he discusses baseball as a metaphor for the way that adolescents read. Drawing from experiences with his daughters, comparing their understanding of the game to his own, as well as watching them develop their knowledge-base over time, Gallagher made connections to adolescents as readers. Referring to his daughters and baseball, he stated, "They now read the game at a fairly sophisticated level, but they were taught how to do so. They did not acquire their skill spontaneously or randomly," (p. 3). The book continued on to explore implications for teachers to scaffold the way students read.

Published in 2004, this is one of Gallagher's earlier books; however, it is still highly relevant. While reading, I frequently thought about current discussion about the CCSS emphasizing a need for deep understanding. Gallagher's book is a blend of anecdotes, rationales for needs, and strategies to address needs. He explains each of the strategies and provides specific examples of many. It is evident that his suggestions are based on close-observation of students and intentional teaching over time. I have frequent notes in the margin of how I will implement his suggestions.

It felt great to finally read a professional development book for pleasure again. This break I am looking forward to reading more of the books that I have been wanting to read for a long time.

Teacher Educator: Who I Am

2011-12-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

This fall I did a lot of reflecting about who I am as an educator when I am not teaching in the context of middle school reading and writing workshop. It took a lot of reflecting to consider the type of teaching that I would do. I considered how other professors taught the content, and as such their course syllabi and assignments served as mentor texts. I was considering how to shift to a new teaching context and still have my teaching and learning philosophy present in my practice.

It is not like I never taught other content areas. I had taught ESL, Spanish, a 6th grade self-contained classroom, social studies, and a couple of adjunct teacher preparation courses... It was just that for the last year I had been so absorbed in workshop teaching, that it took me a while to zoom back out and closely consider who I would be as a teacher educator. I knew what I loved about teaching middle schoolers, especially with reading and writing. I knew from a course that I taught last spring that there were certain components that I loved with my middle schoolers that were present with adults, such as interacting/discussing content. I knew that one main role as a teacher educator was to frequently model various teaching practices, and to allow pre-service teachers space to construct their own understandings of who they want to be as teachers.

Thus, though I knew certain aspects at the onset, I still was not quite sure about others. I worried about aspects that I would miss. Nonetheless, over the course of this fall term, I realized that there are more aspects that transfer over to my current position than I had originally anticipated. Here were some of my realizations:

Pre-service teachers can still use support with writing. There is a place for writer's workshop. Winter term I am excited to scaffold a couple of research paper assignments by utilizing workshop philosophy. Inspired by Penny Kittle, I will guide students through examining mentors of product, and I will write with my students as a mentor of process.
Along the same lines, students need support in other areas, such as content area reading. At the start of the course, I was thinking that reading books from my favorite education publishers focusing on k-12 education would be more of a special treat, an avenue to support k-12 teachers or to consider how I could have improved what I did as a teacher. However, I did not think they would be as highly relevant to my position in higher education. I thought I would really miss that excitement of reading and seeing ideas that would immediately apply to my practice. Yet, once again, to my delight I realized that many of the ideas did still apply. As I am finally getting a chance to read more professional development books for pleasure again, I am realizing that the texts serve to inform my practice, as well as providing ideas to share with students to supplement course texts.
Just because my students are adults now, and not middle schoolers, doesn't mean that they have everything all figured out. Some still need support in balancing various aspects of life and to have effective time management. Others need support in dealing with stress. Teacher-student connections are still highly important. There is a need to get to know students and to understand their strengths and areas for growth.

As I look at my list of realizations, I think, Of course that would be the case. I am not sure why I did not think of these aspects from the onset. Nonetheless, I have been glad to notice there are more constants in education of different age levels than I had initially realized. I started the year excited for a new opportunity to stretch myself as an educators, to learn and to grow. Yet, I was also worried that I might miss my regular teaching position too much.

The initial disconnect that I felt between who I was and who I was becoming as an educator was evident in the lack of blogging throughout the fall. I thought about how for so long my blog had narrowed in on workshop teaching, that I was not sure if my new experiences were relevant to this specific blog. As I have noticed more connections, I am realizing that indeed they are.

I look forward to reading more professional development books, as well as blogging more regularly about my current experiences.

Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards

2011-12-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

When I saw that NCTE had a new series of books focusing on implementation of the Common Core State Standards at different grade levels, I could not wait to read the middle school edition. Tonya Perry with Rebecca Manery wrote Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards: English Language Arts Grade 6-8. I appreciated that the authors emphasized the language in the standards highlighting the intent for the CCSS to provide guidance in what to teach while educators can still determine how to teach it. In contrast to other resources that appear to be disseminating their ideas as the way to implement the standards, this book provided a range of scenarios and contexts.

In the introduction, series editor Anne Ruggles Gere stated, "Regardless of teacher responses, the CCSS are now part of the educational landscape. But these standards do not replace the principles that guide good teaching. Some things remain constant regardless of new mandates. [...] This book is designed to support you in meeting the challenges posed by the CCSS. It stands on the principle that standards do not mean standardization or a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching," (pp. 2-3). These thoughts encompass well what we cannot forget as CCSS implementation rolls out. We should all play a role in considering whether implementations closely examine individual contexts or whether they simply try to seek the answer in how to implement the standards.

Before highlighting implementation scenarios, the book starts with a chapter titled "Demystifying the Common Core State Standards." Last week I was sharing the book in one of my literacy classes because I read it as part of my final project. A colleague stated that a diagram provided was the best she had seen in order to illustrate the set-up of the ELA standards. The question/answer format of the chapter also appealed to her.

In the section sharing how different schools have started to discuss and integrate the standards into their classrooms, the examples are coupled with questions/exercises to prompt other educators/schools to interpret the CCSS and consider their own contexts.

An excerpt from the final section of the book, Building, illustrates once again the emphasis of the text, "[...] building with the CCSS in mind does not mean checking boxes for individual standards; it means integrating a careful examination of the CCSS with the contexts and practices of our classrooms, always putting students at the center," (p. 68).

I thoroughly enjoyed the voice and tone of this book and would be excited to read the others in the series.

Adolescent Literacy at Risk?

2011-12-04T19:57:00.001-07:00

I originally checked Rebecca Bowers Sipe's Adolescent Literacy at Risk? The Impact of Standards out from the library, in an attempt to not spend as much money on books; however, I quickly realized that I would want my own copy. I already have others in the NCTE Principles in Practice Adolescent Literacy series, and similar to those I already had, this book was thought-provoking and an important voice to add to the discussion on the current context of adolescent literacy.

When one of my professors saw the title, he was worried that the book might be too skewed against standards, rather than a balanced view. I explained to him that it actually was not. Far from it, Sipe provided a knowledgeable voice sharing her rich experiences with and historical information about the standards movement. While she discusses a range of standards, one large focus in the book outlined her experiences co-authoring Michigan's English standards and then seeing implementation into classrooms.

While reading the book, I thought about how standards in and of themselves are not necessarily good or bad, but rather the process involved with implementation is vital. This will be key to keep in mind with the Common Core State Standards. As educators we need to advocate for dialogues about how to implement the standards into our contexts with a close eye on our students needs, rather than seeking one-size-fits-all solutions.

Here are some quotes that stood out to me from the text:

"As standards came to represent high expectations, it became increasingly clear that for higher standards to succeed, we could never entertain notions of standardization in our interpretation or delivery of them," (p. 11).

"The movement to more finite descriptions was intended to offer teachers of definition of what should be considered across a program of study, not a prescription for what had to happen in a particular unit of instruction. This is an important distinction, and one we felt strongly about. Standards, not standardization, drove our work," (p. 32).

"To our frustration, the message that was so central to our work--local development of curriculum based in these inclusive standards--has gotten somewhat lost along the way," (p. 33).

"Standards provide a definition of what is possible, but standards are not curriculum documents," (p. 41).

"If standards are to achieve even a portion of their early promise--and I still believe this is possible--educators everywhere must consider carefully the role of standards in curricular planning, and collectively we must avoid being bogged down in an assembly line approach to covering expectations that fails to fully account for organic and fluid instruction that good teaching represents," (p. 43).

These are just a handful of excerpts that caught my attention while reading that are even more powerful when read in context of the whole book. Throughout the text Sipe emphasized the need for dialogue.

We can all ask ourselves:

What am I doing to influence the way in which Common Core State Standards are implemented at my school/in my community?

Thinking About Standards

2011-11-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

Standards have been on my mind a lot lately, as I am sure they have been a topic of consideration for many educators. I started my teaching career shortly after NCLB was enacted, so my whole career has been during the context of standards-based reform. When I first saw the CCSS document for English Language Arts, I was not that concerned because of the emphasis of the standards providing what to teach, without dictating how to teach it. I could see how they could still align with the workshop philosophy, as well as appreciating the shift toward an emphasis on higher levels of critical thinking. I could also recognize advantages of collaboration among states.

Yet, I started to hear diverse perspectives on the Common Core and questions of whether or not it was really a step in the right direction. I also heard criticisms of professional organizations such as NCTE for accepting the standards too quickly without putting up a fight against them. One person in particular was a name that I have known since my undergraduate ESL/bilingual education courses, someone who was regarded as one of the "big names" and who I highly respect, so it gave me even more pause and careful consideration.

However, over time I have realized that I tend to agree with NCTE's rebuttal that they recognize the standards are not going away completely and that as an organization one of their roles is to support teachers with the transition. I appreciate that they are prompting dialogue and considering how teachers can participate in the process of thinking about implementation. I also recognize that they have played a role in voicing concerns, both through the process to provide feedback and through their recent Resolution on Challenging Current Education Policy and Affirming Literacy Educators' Expertise.

Recently, I read two NCTE books related to standards, Adolescent Literacy at Risk?: The Impact of Standards and Supporting Students in a Time of Common Core Standards: English Language Arts Grades 6-8. I will post about both of them separately soon, but one of the main aspects that stood out about them was the dedication to treating teachers as professionals, just as the resolution mentioned above also highlights.

Fall Update

2011-11-20T18:16:00.001-07:00

This fall I have been finding my bearings in a new context - a one year sabbatical replacement position teaching undergraduate teacher education courses. I have many of the same students in the three courses that I am teaching because of the cohort model at our university. I really enjoy the close-knit community of learners since for the past three years I have been in an educational context that valued the sense of collaboration and community in a k-8 setting.

I co-presented at my first national conference along with two of my colleagues, sharing research on recruiting and retaining teachers in rural areas with implications for administrators and teacher preparation programs. A nice bonus was that the conference was held on the coast of South Carolina, being able to intermix conference sessions with walking along the beach reflecting (and experiencing the wonder and joy of learning about something new - horseshoe crabs).

I have also been attending classes for my doctoral degree - one on large scale literacy assessments and another on quantitative research, along with working on the preliminary stages of my dissertation. Considering the Common Core and the implications it has for teaching has also been on my mind a lot lately as well.

Needless to say, I have been thinking and reflecting a lot this fall. I have missed blogging, but I am also working through what to blog about. For so long I have been blogging about teaching reading and writing, areas that I am still passionate about, but this fall my work has had a different focus. I am looking forward to winter term when I will be teaching some literacy courses, such as Children's Lit and Emergent Literacy.

As educators, it is interesting to consider how our identities are shaped over time by our contexts and experiences. I hope to blog on more consistently once again in the upcoming months.

Stenhouse E-Books

2011-10-19T18:52:00.002-06:00

I have been seeing so many new Stenhouse books that I can't wait to read. I have held off from purchasing for a while because my reading for pleasure has been really limited with my new teaching position and doctoral studies; yet, I couldn't resist any longer. Today I ordered five Stenhouse books - mostly new, but a couple of older books. Whenever time permits, I can't wait to read them. It's hard to decide which to read first!

When ordering, I decided to try out the new E-book option that Stenhouse offers. Once purchasing, it was a quick process to click on the link to download to my computer as a PDF and then transfer them onto my Kindle. The only drawback that I have noticed is that on my Kindle the font is really small, showing a page at a time on the smaller sized Kindle screen. It does have the option to enlarge the text, but it is not like regular Kindle books, instead it zooms in on a part of the page and you have to scroll around to view the rest of the page, rather than just being able to click from page to page. I'm not sure if I will be able to actually read them on my Kindle or if I will end up reading them right on my computer. It will all depend on whether I can handle the small font because I know for sure that I will not be scrolling back and forth! I am thinking that it might work better with an iPad though because of the larger screen.

Either way, I am really excited about the books I ordered. I bought three of the books because they are by authors that I absolutely love: Kelly Gallagher's Write Like This, Cris Tovani's So What Do They Really Know?, and Jennifer Allen's Becoming a Literacy Leader. Later this fall, I will definitely be getting Jeff Anderson's 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know when it is available.

Then I bought a couple of other books that captured my attention - Kassia Omohundro Wedekind's Math Exchanges and Mentoring Beginning Teachers by Jean Boreen, Mary K. Johnson, Donna Niday, and Joe Potts.

So much to look forward to...

What professional books would you like to read?

Celebrating Educators Update

2011-10-18T07:17:00.000-06:00

When I started the Celebrating Educators series, I had hoped to have regular posts for a while; however, many educators are already stretched thin with various commitments and responsibilities, making it hard to write guest posts.

Nonetheless, I have been seeing examples of "Celebrating Educators" throughout various blogs, the NCTE listserv updates that frequently have teachers sharing their stories, and in the title of IRA's annual convention in the spring titled Celebrating Teaching.

Educators are working hard every day to make a difference in a range of levels - for individuals, classrooms, schools, districts... I continue to frequently feel energized and inspired by others in the field!

Remembering the Positive

2011-10-15T07:07:00.001-06:00

This week was parent-teacher conferences, and the conference for my kindergartener really had me thinking about how much power teachers have in setting the tone in conferences and day to day life in the classroom. My daughter absolutely loves school. She could hardly wait to go to her conference, and she said, "I miss my teacher so much," as we were getting into the car.

Fall conferences are for going over goals, and my daughter's teacher had asked her what she thought she needed to work on in preparation for the conferences. However, before going straight to areas of improvement, her teacher remembered how vital it is to start with positives. I know that my daughter might not have understood every word her teacher said to us in English and Spanish during the conference but like Mari in Painted Words, I knew that she would be able to tell by the excitement in her voice and expressions that she was saying something positive about her. As such, my daughter kept on smiling and smiling.

Yes, we talked about areas to work on in the conference and about her current academic progress, but the tone continued to feel the same - supportive and a sense that she likes my daughter for who she is. My daughter left just as energized as when she walked through the door. At no point did it feel like negative, negative, negative...

The day after conferences I was reading through assignments that my pre-service teachers submitted when I came across a reading buddy assignment where students were supposed to discuss where they think their reading buddy falls on TESOL and state English Language Proficiency standards. I started to read one that had a paragraph starting out with the reading buddy's personality and highlighting the positives about her as a person before moving on to talk about language proficiency in different domains. This was not part of the requirement, yet, she included it anyway, and I thought, That's going to make all the difference in her interactions with kids and families.

Workshop Technology

2011-09-25T14:57:00.001-06:00

My colleagues have been providing positive feedback about implementing workshop philosophy into their classrooms this year at the k-8 levels. The last couple of years I thought that an iPad might be perfect for conferring anecdotal records. An iPod Touch was too small and at times a laptop was too cumbersome. I was thrilled to find out that the teachers were going to get iPads, and shortly after I found out I heard about the Confer App from Jen Munnerlyn. I couldn't get my email open fast enough to share the idea with the teachers.

So much potential...

Teachers were also excited about the paper versions of Fountas and Pinnell's Prompting Guides in English and Spanish. One teacher realized that both are available through the App store as well (English and Spanish). I instantly loved the idea knowing that rather than carrying around the prompting guide teachers would be able to utilize the iPad both to record notes and access the prompting guide when needed. The school will still have the paper copies for instructional assistants who do not have access to iPads. With technology there is always so much to explore.

Celebrating Educators Recap and Reflections

2011-09-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Each week of Celebrating Educators has inspired me and gave me a lot to reflect on. I wanted to reflect on some of the many lines that stood out to me from the first three posts.

"I loved every minute of my time at Lewis and Clark College and read the writing of so many people who helped me understand this complex thing called teaching." - Penny Kittle
*One of my most favorite aspects of going back to school for an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction was the chance to learn alongside other professionals from the student side. Prior to starting my program, I had been narrowing in on my specific school and content area, and it has been so enriching to maintain that focus while also zooming back out to broader issues in education. Through reading, writing, and discussing, we learn so much!

"Today I keep a notebook and write in it most days, I read like a wolf eats, as Gary Paulson says, and I still love teaching." - Penny Kittle
*Penny Kittle always has powerful statements that energize me as a teacher.

"For me, this career has been about risk taking and reflection. I have been given opportunities and I often didn't think I knew enough to take them, but I did. I learned along the way, challenging myself to read and think about this work in complex ways and never settle for less than reaching every student. Teachers are powerful. I work every day to use that power well." - Penny Kittle
*This year is about taking risk for me, as well as an opportunity to really reflect on my career as an educator so far. It's never easy to step outside of our comfort zones, but I love Penny's positive attitude toward learning from new contexts.

"While this is accurate, telling the story in this manner does not describe the joys that I find in being an educator; new experiences are available to me as both a teacher and learner, so long as I'm willing to avail myself of them." - Troy Hicks
*Troy Hicks reminded me of the role of being a teacher and a learner, as well as focusing on ourselves as writers in order to be a better teacher of writing. I have enjoyed writing more than ever in the last couple of years and utilize the concepts I have taught my students to continually develop as a writer myself as well. This statement also reminded me of how there is always so much more beyond the surface level with teaching, so much rich description.

"Writing has the power to change lives [...] We teach kids to become writers, and in doing so we teach them to become themselves." - Troy Hicks
*The power of writing never fails to amaze me - so much potential. Being able to experience writing alongside my students and to watch them make sense of their worlds through writing has been fascinating and so fulfilling.

"When I view myself as a leader, I can only see myself in relation to those colleagues that surround me. As I do what I can to teach them, to inspire them, and to help them become better teachers, I become a better teacher myself." - Troy Hicks
*I have been lucky to be surrounded with inspiring colleagues throughout my teaching career. Being able to collaborate within my school, on-line, or in classrooms is always energizing.

"There really weren’t many reading teachers around then. And there had never been a program before for the 7^th graders to have a reading class, thus there was no curriculum for me to follow. Nothing." - Pat Johnson
*This quote reminds me that so much of being an educator entails being determined and motivated to consider what we know in relation to our present contexts and then go through many cycles of reflection and discussion in order to continually build our capacities as teachers with a sharp focus on students and their needs. There's rarely (if ever) easy answers. Yet, it is essential to allow for this time to grow and develop, rather than pushing for an emphasis on programs vs. teachers as professionals.

"I ran a tutoring clinic in my home, and I taught myself a lot about teaching kids to read by watching one kid at a time." - Pat Johnson
*One kid at a time - I have learned so much as a parent being able to closely observe my girls and their literacy development. It informs me as a teacher, as well as my students helping me grow as a parent. I love the range of data sources available through writer's workshop - conferring, comments in discussions, writing samples... So much to learn from each individual student.

"Because I know it’s NOT possible for every person to get trained in Reading Recovery, I constantly think, “How can I help? What is it from my new understandings that I could share with other teachers?” And each year since then – through all my series of workshops at schools, through my LLG (Literacy Learning Groups that I did with Title I teachers for 3 years), through my graduate classes at George Mason University, through my two books (One Child at a Time and Catching Readers Before They Fall) – each year I try to find ways to say it better." -Pat Johnson
*Once again, the vital role of collaboration comes through. Each of us has the power to contribute to a collective discussion and understanding about content, students, and teaching. I love Pat's wording focusing on constant refining.

As educators we are on a constant journey. Where will it take us next?

Celebrating Educators: Pat Johnson

2011-09-06T05:28:00.000-06:00

Pat Johnson and Katie Keier's Catching Readers Before They Fall was released at a perfect time last year as I was trying to learn more about supporting my daughter's reading development. Since Johnson is a Reading Recovery-trained teacher and often mentioned her experiences and learning as a result of it, the book also piqued my interest about Reading Recovery. When I heard that the two authors had a blog by the same name as their book, I instantly added it to my blog roll so that I would make sure to check in with each new post. I always learn so much from their thought provoking posts. I am pleased to have Pat Johnson as the third guest writer for the Celebrating Educators series, sharing about passion in education. I love that her post gives glimpses into the recent history of literacy in the United States.

While searching the newspaper one day for an obituary of someone I knew, I accidently came across this one of a woman musician who had lived in Washington, D. C. The woman played the harpsichord, the violin, and jazz piano. Here’s part of what it said about her, “Her passion was teaching music to young children, toddlers and kindergartners. She was affectionately known as Ms. Mara, the Music Lady. Her pupils danced to the Gypsy Kings, learned about new instruments and sang nursery rhymes.” Her passion…I loved that. I loved the way she combined her two passions of teaching young children and music.

That idea of PASSION really spoke to me. I’m worried about where all the passion for teaching has gone these days. I see so much discouragement, frustration, or just plain lack of excitement about teaching. New teachers are leaving the profession by an alarming rate. Whether the cause is the testing craziness, or the leveling frenzy, or the national standards, or the overwhelming curriculum – whatever the reason for it, I thought I’d write about passion in hopes of bringing some of it back.

I have had ONE PASSION for the past 13 years. And that is… to help and support as many teachers as I can to learn about a reading processing system so that they can better understand how to support the struggling readers in their classrooms. But this hasn’t always been my passion. In fact, maybe it takes a large part of your career to come to your own passion clearly. So take a walk down Memory Lane with me, if you will, and although I’ll write mostly about my own journey it may still ring true for what’s been going on around the country.

I graduated from Douglass College, part of Rutgers University in NJ in 1972. At that time there were about a gazillion baby boomers also graduating college and many of them were teachers. Alas, there were no jobs. AND to make things worse, my degree was in teaching English, k-12, not a degree for elementary school. I landed up taking a job as a 7^th grade Reading Teacher in a Junior High an hour from my home.

There really weren’t many reading teachers around then. And there had never been a program before for the 7^th graders to have a reading class, thus there was no curriculum for me to follow. Nothing. They had an English teacher – who did grammar teaching, diagramming sentences, and the 5 paragraph essay – but the school was finding that many of the kids were not strong readers. The principal asked me to sign up for a Reading class at a local university graduate program and when I agreed, I got the job. That’s how I accidently began going for a masters degree to become a reading specialist.

At the junior high I had 6 classes a day with 30 students in each class, and there was quite a range of reading ability in every group. I was handed some workbooks that included pages on synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, prefixes, suffixes, main idea, draw conclusions, fact and opinion, and so on.

I had no idea what to teach, and I soon discovered neither did anyone else. I went across the hall one day and asked the English teacher (who had been teaching for about half a century), “Is there something else I should be doing besides these workbooks?” She proceeded to explain to me about long and short vowels and suggested I might start there.

Somehow I didn’t think that was what these kids needed. I kept thinking, “Hmmmm…. a reading class…maybe they should be reading! Reading real books!” I asked the principal for a little more money and bought tons of paperback books. I remember one was Sounder and another was Mr. and Mrs. Bojo Jones – (about teenage pregnancy, believe it or not.) I found a book called “Hooked on Books” published in 1969 (instead of hooked on phonics). I set up, as best I could, an individualized reading program. I spent that year trying to get kids turned onto reading.

Was my eye on struggling readers yet?

Not really. If I had a passion at all back then it was about surviving each day. And for any of you who are brand new teachers I’m sure you can relate!

My next three years followed along a similar path. I had moved to the DC area, got a job teaching 6^th graders this time. Six classes a day, thirty kids in each, a range of abilities once again.

My memories of my first 4 years of teaching were not very happy ones. I barely survived each day. Discouraged by my chosen career I decided to stay home when my first child was born. I stayed home for 8 years until my youngest was in first grade. I still had a passion for teaching, but I wanted to be good at it. I didn’t just want to go through the motions of giving assignments, marking papers, and giving grades. While I was home I did two things. First, I finished up my Masters in Reading and while doing so I read all kinds of professional books about teaching reading. Secondly, I ran a tutoring clinic in my home, and I taught myself a lot about teaching kids to read by watching one kid at a time. In my clinic I kept getting younger and younger students– and loving it. And I knew, when I went back to work, I was going back to elementary school. I had found my niche.

Along comes the 1985 school year, we were living in VA, and I landed my first job as a Reading Specialist in an elementary school. That was right around the time that Don Graves published his book Writing: Children and Teachers at Work. Reading teachers were busy helping classroom teachers develop authentic writing workshops. It was a most exciting time to be a young reading teacher because we were among the ones trying to figure it all out. And we were doing it WITHOUT the help that exists today. We had none of the work of Ralph Fletcher, Katie Wood Ray, Carl Anderson, or Georgia Heard. The Lucy Calkins kits didn’t exist and Giacobbe and Horn had not done their work with writing in kindergarten yet. We only had Graves, Lucy Calkins, and Shelley Harwayne at the very beginnings of their research. (And of course, Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle.) Their work was brand new. But the excitement they shared was invigorating.

Back then, Don Graves, Lucy Calkins, and Shelley Harwayne were the most inspiring speakers anyone could have heard. I can still hear Graves’ unique voice. I bet if you closed your eyes some of you can too. And we are all so sorry he’s no longer with us. But we were so lucky to work in this big county of Fairfax, Virginia, because they could afford to bring these speakers in. I heard Don, Lucy, and Shelley speak many times. And afterwards I’d go out to dinner with friends and we’d be so fired up. We couldn’t wait to get back to classrooms to help teachers with new ideas. It was all so new and classroom teachers had so many questions. Now don’t get me wrong. Many times we bumped up against resistance --- teachers who wanted to hold onto their grammar books and spelling books and not do writing workshop at all. It was a challenge, but we welcomed it. We had a passion for all this new understanding.

So was my eye on struggling readers yet?

No, I was very busy with writing workshops! And besides that, the schools I worked at had Title I Reading Teachers who were in charge of teaching all the struggling readers. (Isn’t it interesting how easy it is to say that struggling readers are someone else’s job?)

What was going on in reading at that time, in the mid 80’s and early 90’s? Well first off there was the appearance of Big Books and Shared Reading in primary grades. All of that was based on the work of Don Holdaway. But, again, schools didn’t have the wealth of wonderful Big Books to choose from that exist today. Each school was lucky if they had 10-12 to share among many classrooms.

Also, in reading, the Whole Language approach to reading and writing was taking shape in classrooms in my county and all across the country. Ken and Yetta Goodman, Frank Smith, Regie Routman and several others helped Whole Language to flourish in the U.S. Teachers began moving away from only using a basal, to using real books in the classrooms. I read children’s literature like there was no tomorrow. I was passionate about Whole Language because it came with an aspect of ‘turning kids on’ to books and into lifelong readers, writers, and learners. Whole Language pushed for bringing enjoyment of reading into classrooms and encouraged teachers to support children as they made their own choices, as they read authentic texts instead of basals and workbook pages, and as kids wrote for real purposes. And it was fun!!!

There was no talk of Guided Reading yet, no Interactive Writing, and no leveled sets of books in classrooms. Because teachers wanted to know how to work with kids who were reading their own books, my work headed in that direction. We developed many generic ways to respond to texts – we had response logs and response activities coming out our ears! Perhaps many of you can remember those days.

Was my eye on struggling readers yet?

No, but we’re getting closer. I was reading children’s literature like crazy and I was trying to get teachers to match children to books better as a way of motivating them. In fact, talk of motivation was big back then, and I’m embarrassed to say I even jumped on the reading incentive bandwagon --- reading for pizzas or ice cream parties and balloon launches. I quickly realized the error of my ways and saw the problems and the dangers of these incentive programs. Now I abhor those and want to support children in learning to read for intrinsic purposes. I always remember an article that came out back then titled something like “Are we raising readers, or just fat kids?”

But let’s get back to Whole Language. I won’t go into the details of the misunderstandings of the WL movement, how the media played a role in destroying it, but soon it became a dirty word in our county and elsewhere. Whole Language gave way to a Balanced Literacy Approach to reading and writing. And we began to understand the different contexts of a comprehensive balanced classroom that included Reading Aloud, Shared Demonstrations, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading. In writing it also meant modeling writing, shared or interactive writing, and independent writing time.

By the time that Balanced Literacy was in full swing, I had moved to a different school in my county and stayed there for seven years. This school had a very diverse population and we had a much larger group of kids who were struggling with reading. Fountas and Pinnell’s work was becoming very popular; they had put out their first book about Guided Reading and we were all taking note of how we could actually teach kids in K-2 better. We knew we needed more early intervention and to give all students a better, stronger start. We thought, “Why wait until 3-4 grades when they were totally frustrated and then test them and place them in LD programs? Wasn’t there something we could do to help more kids, especially in grade 1?” As an answer, our county implemented a low student/teacher ratio (15:1) in grade one, but required teachers to take a “Beginning reading strategies” class. The idea behind this was: “You don’t just get less kids. You have to be doing something different. You have to better meet the needs of individual learners!”

Around this same time Reading Recovery had also come to the county (1986) and some reading teachers were getting trained. Our county was actually the second site in the U. S. after Ohio to begin training RR teachers. When it began it actually snuck in very quietly. No one knew too much about it. Little by little a few more teachers were trained. I was a bit skeptical about it at first but only because of my ignorance. The training for it was so intense that those who were trained just didn’t feel like they could share any of it with others who were not trained. Many of us used to tease that there was a ‘secret handshake’ and only those trained knew it.

But I was reading more and more about guided reading, about early intervention, and about struggling readers needing to build their own reading processing system. I facilitated countless Teachers-as-Readers groups, reading and discussing professional books together, learning more about running records, about guided reading, about leveled texts, about teaching for strategies, and so on. I believed strongly back then as I do now that the way to support teachers is through long-term staff development – slow change over time is the best way. Eventually, around 1994, I was Reading Recovery trained. Woo Hoo, I got my Reading Recovery tattoo and learned the secret handshake!

All kidding aside, Reading Recovery changed my world! Now I look back and wonder, “How could I have called myself a reading teacher for those first 12 years if I had never taught a struggling reader to read? I’m not saying every reading has to be Reading Recovery trained, but I am saying that a reading teacher should know how reading works. A reading teacher should know about reading process. And a reading teacher should be able to share with classroom teachers, ELL teachers, LD teachers, special ed teachers, how to support their struggling readers.

Was my eye on struggling readers now?

Oh yes… clearly…absolutely. And I’ve been focused on struggling readers for the past 13 years now. I’ve been an advocate for struggling readers because I’ve made it my mission to reach as many teachers as I can and help them learn about 3 things:

how a reading processing system works
what that means for struggling readers
and how to teach in ways that support struggling readers in building a reading processing system.

Because I know it’s NOT possible for every person to get trained in Reading Recovery, I constantly think, “How can I help? What is it from my new understandings that I could share with other teachers?” And each year since then – through all my series of workshops at schools, through my LLG (Literacy Learning Groups that I did with Title I teachers for 3 years), through my graduate classes at George Mason University, through my two books (One Child at a Time and Catching Readers Before They Fall) – each year I try to find ways to say it better.

I hope my journey has stirred up some memories for those of you reading this. Or I hope that sharing my passion will help you focus on your own personal passion about literacy teaching.

Workshop Round 2

2011-09-02T07:08:00.000-06:00

Recently I found out that other teachers at my school who were not able to attend the summer reading and writing workshop course were interested after hearing everyone else talking about it, so I will be doing a second round of the training in the next couple weeks. We also invited the other teachers from another rural school who had a participant in the summer. The rest of their teachers will also be attending.

During the start of the year preparation days, teachers talked frequently about how excited they were for the workshop ideas. Those who have a partner teacher who they alternate with by week (an English teacher and a Spanish teacher) started talking about what they wanted to implement. Now they are a couple of weeks into the school year, and they are still excited.

They have been able to implement at different ranges, depending on individual classroom time frames and what the students needed most at the start of the year but all have plans for how they are going to continually implement. In addition, they have been telling me about different meetings that they have been having with each other to continually support each other, as well as to troubleshoot. I couldn't be more happy that they are continuing to collaborate.

It is so fulfilling to see their excitement and to hear how the workshop philosophy has been positively impacting their classrooms, just as I have noticed in my classroom. On a professional level, I am excited to have the opportunity to teach another round so close to the first in order to adjust and improve. When I original wrote my reflections, I had no idea that I would have another round so soon.

Celebrating Educators: Troy Hicks

2011-08-30T05:24:00.000-06:00

This second installment of Celebrating Educators features Troy Hicks, who I first heard about through his book The Digital Writing Workshop. As I was just starting to explore with technology in education, the book instantly caught my attention. I was so glad to realize that Hicks also has a blog so that I could continue to learn from his insights.

As a teacher educator, I am proud to work with and for my colleagues. Through workshops and conferences, classroom coaching and conversations over coffee, we have opportunities to collaborate and create, as well as to commiserate and celebrate. We write together, plan together, learn together. And, as I reflect on my journey as an educator at this, the beginning of my 15th year of teaching, I see that my work as a teacher educator has grown out of my continued desire to lead, grow, and change.

The simple story of how I came to be a teacher educator -- currently as an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University and Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project -- appears to be one of linearity: undergraduate English major working at a writing center, student teaching internship at a high school, teaching at a middle school, adjuncting at a community college, returning for graduate school in teacher education, and eventually earning a tenure-track position at a university. While this is accurate, telling the story in this manner does not describe the joys that I find in being an educator; new experiences are available to me as both a teacher and learner, so long as I'm willing to avail myself of them. And all of these experiences are a result of the relationships that I develop with dedicated colleagues.

In particular, I would like to focus on the relationships that I've developed as a result of participating in the National Writing Project (NWP). When I was an undergraduate, I was aware of the Red Cedar Writing Project that was housed at the Michigan State University Writing Center. I knew the teachers came in each summer for an intensive workshop, and after that they were qualified to lead other professional development events and youth programs. I knew this even as I went out into my teaching, and began my masters degree, and yet I never took the opportunity to come back and participate in an Invitational Summer Institute.

After a few years in the classroom, and participating in a variety of professional development activities, I was having a conversation with my mentor from the middle school. He knew that I wanted to move beyond my classroom walls and work towards broader goals in education. In the context of a conversation about my future, he winked and smiled while saying, "Troy, you just don't belong here anymore.” After a long mentorship, his witty insight gave me the push that I needed to call my former supervisor at the Writing Center and to reconnect with the Red Cedar Writing Project. I returned to Michigan State University that fall as a doctoral student.

After participating in my first Summer Institute, I instantly became enamored with the NWP's twin goals of having us become better writers and better teachers of writing. I was able to focus my graduate study and full-time work around professional development opportunities for our local site, as well as the state and national network. I worked with teachers to develop presentations and workshops, shared ideas for integrating technology into their classrooms, and, eventually, in my dissertation study, collaborated with a group of teacher researchers to explore how they represented their work in digital portfolios. Through all these instances, we relied on the NWP model of “teachers teaching teachers” in which we valued and applauded our own knowledge and experiences while also seeking new resources and opportunities.

As I finished my work at Michigan State and began the job search, one of the questions I was asked when interviewing at Central Michigan University (CMU) was whether or not I would be interested in starting a writing project. Of course, I was, as I had grown to know the teachers with whom I worked not only as colleagues, but as friends. I wanted to provide the same types of opportunities for teachers in the local contexts around CMU, and so I partnered with colleagues in the English department to establish a writing project. This was no small feat, as it required collaborations both inside and outside of the university, including local schools and intermediate school districts. We wrote the grant, were awarded a site, and then the real work began.

After a great deal of planning, we were able to launch our first summer invitational Institute in 2009, and have, since then, continued to invite teachers to campus each summer to explore the intersections of writing and technology, all the while furthering themselves as writers and teachers of writing. Throughout the school year we meet in a variety of continuity and professional development events, many of which now are led by the teachers themselves with me acting only as an outside coach to help inform and motivate them. Also, I am able to take what I learned to work with writing project teachers and immediate we apply it in my preservice writing methods course, English 315.

At this moment, my professional career has come to a crossroads. Not because I feel it ready for a change necessarily, but because outside forces have acted to cut the funding for NWP and made me question many of the things that I took for granted because of that support I have relied upon for so long. This puts me in a precarious situation as an educator and as a leader in local, state, and national conversations about the teaching of writing. I want to continue doing the same types of good work that we've been doing for many years, and yet I find myself -- like so many other teachers have found themselves during the last year and a half -- feeling increasingly beleaguered and under pressure from a variety of sources inside and outside of school.

It is difficult for me now to stand in front of a group of preservice teachers and, in good conscience, advise them that they are choosing the right career. I feel guilty about the pay, the status, the burdensome restrictions and supervision placed on teachers. There are times when, sadly, I can no longer try to fight against the monotony of standardized tests, the ever-increasing requirements to become certified, the demands for accountability. I want to tell them that, no, really teaching isn't all that we want to romanticize it to be.

Yet, as my work with writing project teachers continues, my colleagues remind me that, yes, indeed, these young people are choosing the right career, the right calling. Writing has the power to change lives, and teaching writing offers us opportunities to reach our students in ways that no other content can. As a teacher educator, I know I would not be able to inspire or motivate or encourage my preservice teachers to do the kinds of work that we do inside and outside of class that helps prepare them to become better teachers of writing were not for my relationship with the writing project teachers with whom I collaborate. They remind me of the reasons we teach, and those reasons are the people who sit at the desks in our classrooms each day, not any set of standards or a meaningless test. We teach kids to become writers, and in doing so we teach them to become themselves.

And so, in reflecting on my journey as a teacher -- and in thinking about the power of personal learning, professional networks, and the visions that I have for education, both broadly as well as in the classrooms that my own children attend -- it is only with continued collaboration and learning that I might move forward. It is possibly trite to say that I love my job, but it is not trite at all to say that I care deeply for the colleagues with whom I work, from rural to urban, K-16, near to far. This is what inspires and motivates me, and makes me want to learn so that I can share my learning with others.

Recently, I was asked by other faculty members at my university to lead a presentation at a new faculty development workshop. Someone asked me how to become successful and how I collaborate with so many people. My simple advice was this: leadership invites collaboration. When I view myself as a leader, I can only see myself in relation to those colleagues that surround me. As I do what I can to teach them, to inspire them, and to help them become better teachers, I become a better teacher myself.

I begin teaching next week for the 15th time. I will be proud to work with and for my colleagues each and every day of the coming year, and as they encourage me to keep learning, I will work with them for many years to come.

*You can read last week's guest post by Penny Kittle here.

Shift in Gears

2011-08-25T09:58:00.000-06:00

What's a teacher to do when the start of the school year comes but she doesn't have her own classroom? As I mentioned in earlier posts, this year is a transitional year for me as I take on a new position. Part of the sabbatical replacement that I will be doing that is starkly different from before, is that the university is on a trimester (or quarter counting summers) system and won't start classes until the end of September. That leaves me with about a month lapse between the time that my girls started school and when I will actually start classes. This is such a new experience, having both girls in school and some time to myself.

I have still been keeping busy though. Here's what I have been up to:

During teacher work week I still went into the school quite a bit to help the teacher who will be filling in for me this school year. I enjoyed collaborating with her and by providing suggestions based on her questions, it was an excellent means for me to continually reflect on my own practice and experiences teaching.
I interviewed students for the first phase of my dissertation. Again, this was another experience that prompted me to reflect. As I have been going through the process of writing memos about the data, it has been interesting to see areas that I expected, as well as some ahas.
Yesterday, I ended up taking a day around the house to catch up and organize.
Today I will sit down to write, write, write, and write some more beginning a narrative about my journey as an educator that will form part of my dissertation.

So while I still have plenty to do, there is a lot of flexibility - flexibility that I am enjoying for the moment. The weeks will fly and before long I will be on a more regular schedule. I will savor this time while it lasts but embrace the new as it comes.

Celebrating Educators: Penny Kittle

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-06:00

Ever since I read Write Beside Them, I was instantly hooked by Penny Kittle's voice as an educator. Being able to meet her at Heinemann's Boothbay Literacy Retreat and hear her read aloud from her Public Teaching was a powerful experience, and it was always a special treat to read her contributions to NCTE's Voices from the Middle. I am excited to have Penny Kittle as the first guest blog post in the Celebrating Educators series on my blog. Enjoy!

I completed an elementary education degree at Oregon State University in 1983. I started teaching in southern California just two weeks after graduation because it was a year-round school. I had third graders in a portable classroom behind the school in the desert above Los Angeles, and every day I played my guitar and we made books. I had always wanted to be an elementary teacher, so I was energized by the students and the opportunity. I was also in love, though, and my future husband finished his engineering degree and took a job in Oregon that spring. I decided to move back to Oregon to teach 5th grade in a rural elementary school near the paper mill where he worked. I taught 5th and then 7th and 8th the following year, where I was assigned everything from remedial math to physical science to woodcarving to creative writing.

We bought a house in Washington state across the river from the mill, so I moved to teach at an elementary school there. I was blessed with two years with grade 4 and those were happy times. I then moved to grade 5 for a year and finished my Master's of Arts in Teaching that spring. It was a double major: Educational Leadership and British Literature. I loved every minute of my time at Lewis and Clark College and read the writing of so many people who helped me understand this complex thing called teaching. I wasn't finished with school, though, and began considering work towards a Ph.D.

Pat took a position at a paper mill near Cincinnati, Ohio, so I applied to the Ph.D program in Curriculum and Supervision at Miami University. I had two small children by then, so it was nice to stay home with our kids and go to school in the evening. Pat's work took him within a year to Michigan, so I left the program and went to work at Eastern Michigan University. For five years I supervised student teachers in districts as diverse as Detroit and Walled Lake, and also taught the methods courses for the College of Education. I learned so much because I was in classrooms from K-12 in all content areas and each school was its own community. I am forever grateful for those years observing dozens of enthusiastic new teachers.

We moved one last time for Pat's work in 1997. We had family on both coasts, so living in the middle of the country meant for a lot of traveling. Pat was offered a job managing a paper mill in New Hampshire. I was thrilled to interview with Jane Hansen at the University of New Hampshire as I considered entering their Ph.D program, walking the halls where many of my heroes had taught and written. We decided that it was just too far with our kids so young, though, so I applied to teach 8th grade in town and spent the next three years experimenting again with reading and writing workshop.

Eleven years ago now I was offered a job mentoring new teachers for our school district. It meant leaving full-time teaching, but I was excited to combine what I had learned at Eastern to our teacher turnover problem in the school district. I have since spent 1/3 of my day teaching high school, 1/3 mentoring new teachers K-12, and 1/3 as a K-12 literacy coach. It is all demanding, inspiring work. I am grateful.

I teach for the University of New Hampshire in the summer literacy institutes and work as a consultant in the Learning Through Teaching program during the school year, offering graduate courses for teachers in my school district each semester.

I have also been writing. Since 2003 I've published four books and have a fifth due this fall. Don Graves and Don Murray were my mentors in moving from ideas to text, and they helped me believe that my voice mattered. Each time I wrote I learned something I could take into my classroom and it has enriched my work in more ways than I can tell you. The year Don Graves and I spent videotaping elementary classrooms and talking about what we saw was a year I continue to learn from. I also wrote a column for Voices from the Middle for six years, and that quarterly deadline kept me writing even when I didn't think I had anything to say.

Today I keep a notebook and write in it most days, I read like a wolf eats, as Gary Paulson says, and I still love teaching. I've spent the last few years focused on what I'm learning about teaching reading and look forward to putting all that thinking together in my next book. I still get the most energy from writing stories of my students.

For me, this career has been about risk taking and reflection. I have been given opportunities and I often didn't think I knew enough to take them, but I did. I learned along the way, challenging myself to read and think about this work in complex ways and never settle for less than reaching every student. Teachers are powerful. I work every day to use that power well.

Introducing Celebrating Educators

2011-08-21T16:56:00.001-06:00

Friday morning as I neared the school, I smiled as I thought about how I would be able to pull into the prime center lot parking reserved for parents. Little did I know that the parking lot was jam packed and I would actually be parking off to the side of the building along with other parents who had to be creative about finding a spot before escorting their kids in for the first day.

First we went to my 2nd grader's room to get her settled, and then I headed up to kindergarten. Diana instantly found her name on the table. I sat with her as she ate her breakfast, we sat on the carpet and read a couple of books, and I watched her play a bit before heading off for my comprehensive exam proposal. All the while, snapping away documenting the big day.

I pulled out of the parking lot with a mixture of emotions. It felt weird that for the first time in six years I was not in my own classroom welcoming in students and establishing a sense of classroom community. Yet, I was able to savor the start of the first day with my daughters, rather than rushing them to class, snapping a picture, and zipping back to my own class.

This year my personal career as an educator will be going a different route. Taking a year of absence from my regular position, I will be filling in as a sabbatical replacement teaching mainly undergraduate ESL and literacy courses. When trying to decide what I wanted to do, I emailed Penny Kittle, an educator that has always inspired me. She was kind enough to respond and had very wise advice, "I think it helps to consider what you still want to accomplish in teaching and how you can best do that. And then think about what you want to do beyond the classroom and how you can make that happen. All of the options have merit..." She also talked about the value of each position to provide avenues for growth as an educator.

Last year I thought often about what the future holds for me as an educator. As I read professional books, I noticed the background information about the authors - k-12 teachers, support staff, consultants, professors... As I was gearing up for the last year of my doctoral program, I was trying to decide what would be the most fulfilling as an educator - to continue being a classroom teacher or something else. Going back and forth frequently for many different reasons and hearing perspectives of various educators taught me one thing - there are so many ways to have a satisfying career as an educator, so many avenues to make an impact.

I am still fascinated with the stories behind the career choices educators make, hearing about their personal journeys. I thought others might be interested as well; thus, I decided to start Celebrating Educators. At different points throughout the year I will have guest posts from different educators sharing about their diverse backgrounds. The posts will typically be on Tuesdays, although, it might not necessarily be every Tuesday. It will be a way to celebrate that there is not one best career path, but rather various when it comes to positively impacting students.

The next three weeks will feature Penny Kittle, Troy Hicks, and Pat Johnson.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Other Possibilities

2011-08-16T07:00:00.026-06:00

Earlier I mentioned a little bit about the schedule for my workshop training and how I decided which components to include. When it was complete, I reflected on how it all went. For future trainings I will definitely start with a getting to know you (or you as a reader and writer) activity, as well as background about the current context of literacy and workshop philosophy. I will also make sure to include time for teachers to collaborate and plan. However, I may organize it a little bit differently.

I am thinking that after the morning of the first day would be very much the same, but then I would shift to planning and collaborating for either reading or writing workshop (whichever one I focused on in the morning) for the afternoon. Then on the second day I would start by focusing on the whichever I did not highlight on the first day before shifting over to planning and collaboration.

I am weighing advantages and disadvantages of both the way the training was set up and this alternate idea, thinking about which would be most beneficial, which would provide a better blend of introducing concepts, reflecting, thinking, processing, and planning.

Another aspect that I would emphasize more would be encouraging teachers to set up a plan for focusing on themselves as writers or providing a scaffold for a long term teachers as writers community. Many of us already participate in a book club (and here), which has been so fulfilling and a great learning experience for me. It would be nice to also have a writing component.

There's always so many possibilities with teaching and growing as professionals...

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Collaboration

2011-08-15T06:27:00.024-06:00

For the past three years I have taught in a small, rural charter school, being the only teacher of certain subjects at my grade level. I loved the close-knit environment that reminded me of the community where I grew up; yet, at times I also missed having other teachers at my same grade level teaching the same content that I was used to in the larger school districts where I had previously worked. In addition, workshop teaching is fairly rare in my community. Instead, I was thankful to have the blogosphere, as well as conversational style books written by teachers for teachers as I navigated my way with workshop teaching.

Nonetheless, there is always something special about being able to collaborate with other teachers face-to-face. I was thrilled when it worked out that another teacher from a nearby K-8 rural charter school was able to attend the reading and writing workshop training. It provided the teacher who will be teaching in my position next year with an opportunity to collaborate with another local teacher who also integrates workshop teaching into her classroom. While both teachers have unique contexts, one who will juggle two languages in a dual immersion setting and another who will be teaching all subjects in a 6th-8th grade blend, they will be able to learn so much from each other.

I saw other collaborations with teachers within my school, such as primary teachers watching more of the Calkins' clips and talking about how their literacy instruction would work, determining what already aligned with workshop, as well as aspects they would like to change or fine-tune. They also created anecdotal records forms together and talked about organization.

All participants know that they can check in with me for further clarification or support, but they also know that they have a valuable resource in each other. They will be able to have conversations about what is working well and areas where they would still like to grow. Whether it is on-line, through professional development books, face-to-face (or a combination of all three), I am learning that fostering collaboration and relationships for long-term mutual support are so beneficial.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Resources - Where to Start?

2011-08-14T06:09:00.001-06:00

When I was preparing the resources that I would have available for the second day that was set aside for collaborating and planning, I was unsure of how many to include. I did not want to overwhelm teachers by having too many, yet I also wanted to have whatever was most helpful at the time. I observed during that day and noticed that not surprisingly, there was not one or two resources that everyone wanted. Instead, different teachers were drawn to different resources as their initial starting points, making me realize that I was glad I had various options available.

For writing workshop the Calkins and Atwell curriculum was a definite given as being highly useful for teachers. The Daily Five, The CAFE Book, Aimee Buckner resources, Conferring, and The Continuum of Literacy Learning were also among the top choices.

In combination with the resources I was also available to answer questions. It was ideal that the training was at my school because I was able to pull up documents that I used with my students to share as examples. Teachers were able to move flexibly around the room with different resources or to lean in on others' conversations when they overheard something that seemed to be relevant to them.

Workshop teaching is about flexibility and drawing on multiple resources to continually build capacity about reading, writing, thinking, and teaching, so it was only appropriate that having various resources ended up being the right fit. However, I did talk to teachers about trying to set goals and layer in different aspects. I mentioned that some of the resources would be helpful but they would decide that they were not ready for them yet. We discussed how they could utilize the resources most aligned with where they are right now and what they would like to implement in the fall. Then as they start to feel that they are ready to further explore a specific aspect they can seek out resources that fit those needs.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: The Power of Seeing

2011-08-13T07:30:00.026-06:00

By and far one of the most powerful aspects of the training was sharing video clips of workshop teaching. I think that and being able to experience workshop first hand were the most helpful and influential for teachers. One teachers even commented that she loved the writing style for the Calkins' units of study resource, which really paints the picture of what is happening, but that she would much rather prefer to just watch it. She talked about how she is a visual learner. Even though I don't necessarily consider myself a visual learner, I can relate to the power of being able to actually see it. I loved the DVD component of Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them and was thrilled to see the Atwell resources after reading so many of her ideas.

I could tell every time I showed a video clip that it really helped to solidify the concepts we were talking about or to open up a whole other avenue of possibilities. I shared clips from Atwell's resources for reading and writing workshop, and clips from Calkins' videos for writing workshop. It really helped to have the Calkins' resources to show how it looks k-5, while having the Atwell resources to show what it looks like at the middle school level. Teachers could get ideas that they could adapt to their grade level from every video clip, yet there was also the added value of seeing how workshop teaching can progress and the foundation that the younger years can provide for the older years being even more powerful.

I will be watching for more video resources. I was excited to see that Stenhouse has a new Patrick Allen resource coming out focusing on reading conferring. I'm sure that would be an amazing one to add to any workshop resource library!

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Launching the Workshop

2011-08-12T06:15:00.000-06:00

I gave the teachers in my Reading and Writing Workshop a taste of what workshop is like similar to the way that I launch workshop each year - with a narrative genre study. Because of the compact nature of the time allotted, I did have to explain what I would do in a regular classroom in some stages, while having them try it out in other portions.

Influenced by Aimee Buckner, I explained that I start the year with stories, reading books that I think have universal themes or experiences with which my students can connect in order to prompt their own thinking about stories they have to share. I showed them one of my favorite start of the year texts, Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories. I shared with teachers how it is a perfect fit for our community of dual immersion students since all students have stories of learning a new language.

I often talked to students about my own list of possible experiences, such as the first time riding alone in a taxi cab in Mexico when I paid the driver a 50 cent piece (thinking they only had pesos) and being confused when the driver was waiting for more money, rather than getting me my change. I talk about trying to express my confusion and the driver eventually having to take another 50 cent piece out of my hand, holding the two together to say "un peso" and my embarrassment of realizing that I had only given him half of a peso. As such, my students and I would laugh together about experiences learning languages - the joys, the challenges, the laughter...

I mentioned to teachers that I would not necessarily use this book as a start of the year writing workshop launch if I was teaching in my hometown community where most students have not yet experienced learning another language. In that context I would choose another book that would closely connect to my rural community's experience. I shared with teachers how depending on the age and stories students have to tell, it might be that students start writing on the first day or it is just fine to have successive days reading and orally sharing stories, as oral rehearsing is a vital portion of the process, waiting as Buckner says until the day when it seems that everyone in the class has a story to tell.

Then I transitioned into a narrative just for them, Penny Kittle's "of frog legs, crickets, and Superman's cape", one that I first heard when she read it out loud at the Boothbay Literacy Retreat. Just as I imagined I saw teachers smiling and laughing as I read it aloud, and after they were able to think of their own memorable moments with teaching. I guided them through listing, partner sharing, and then writing quick writes, again highlighting the importance of oral rehearsing with the sharing portion in between listing and quick writes. Then they did a whip-around share, each sharing a small portion of their quick write in order to model a different way of sharing.

Next teachers "sat in" on a mini-lesson with Lucy Calkins in her Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5, and I had teachers go back and experiment with their quick write with Calkins' lesson in mind. Then teachers shared with partners again. I heard them respond naturally to each other's writing, as well as noting what stood out to them. They were getting a sense of what it is like to be a part of a community of writers, of what they could foster in their own classrooms.

Reading and Workshop Training: Teachers as Writers

2011-08-11T06:10:00.001-06:00

One aspect of workshop philosophy that I wanted to make sure and highlight was the importance of focusing on teachers as writers, a subtle difference from writing teachers, emphasizing that teachers should be exploring, experimenting, and developing as writers right alongside their students. Based on our team builder, most teachers were more comfortable with teaching reading or read more in their personal lives vs. writing. Other teachers mentioned that they know they are more passionate about other subjects and know it is apparent for their students and would like to develop a stronger passion for writing, which will spill over into their classrooms. This seemed to be consistent with many of the teachers when I experienced this activity as a student in a writing course for educators.

Inspired by Penny Kittle, I shared with teachers about how they can serve as powerful mentors of process, while also reading like writers as a class with mentors of product (published texts). I also talked to them about supports to grow as a writer, such as Two Writing Teachers, Ruth Ayres Writes, and Laurie Halse Anderson's Write Fifteen Minutes a Day. I mentioned Donald Murray's philosophy that when it comes to writing, it is not limited to those who naturally have talent, a message that is important for both teachers and students to know.

Thus, teachers had chances to write, share, and celebrate. I would love to have something more sustained to have teachers continue to write and share their writing with peers. In this specific context where many did not have established routines of writing regularly, it would be a nice scaffold to build routines in a community.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Setting the Tone

2011-08-10T06:00:00.005-06:00

The workshop training had five participants, so it was a small group, working out well for discussions. To start the training, I decided to use a team builder that one of my professors at Boise State University used for a writing course. I started out with a ball of yarn and talked about myself as a reader and writer - sharing glimpses into my journey, areas in which I am confident, areas in which I want to grow. Then I tossed the ball of yarn to a colleague while still holding on to my piece. After each person shares, the yarn has made a web, which can be linked to the classroom community and sense of supporting each other that is vital in classrooms. Participants pull back on the yarn until it is taut to show that there needs to be a strong undergirding of support, both teacher to student and student to student.

I enjoyed starting the training with this activity. Though I knew each of the participants and already knew some of what they said, I also learned a lot. I bet they learned something new about me as well. Hearing them talk energized me as well as provided insights into what they might need to feel successful during the training.

Next we switched over to a discussion about current issues in literacy education, prompted by quotes excerpted from Richard Allington's third edition of What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. This opened up a lot of comments, prompted reflection, and gave us a chance to consider the big picture before zooming in to workshop teaching. While Allington does not specifically advocate for workshop teaching, I transitioned into a overview of workshop teaching by explaining that while reading the book, I noticed how many of his suggestions are apparent in workshop teaching, such as time to read, choice, focusing on building teacher capacity, and differentiated instruction. It helped create a stronger sense of the why behind workshop teaching.

I created a presentation about workshop teaching that had brief statements related to workshop philosophy. An adapted version of the presentation is below (the words are all the same, but I swapped out pictures of students because of permissions). I noticed that it sometimes takes a while to load up the full slide. If you click pause on the player until the present slide is fully loaded and then click play, it seems to run through all slides fully loaded.

The combination of a quick introduction of ourselves as readers and writers, followed by Allington's quotes that prompt thinking about the purpose of education, and an overview of workshop teaching seemed to work out well. At that point, I had participants pause to do a written reflection and have a chance to gather their thoughts before transitioning into thinking about themselves as writers.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Schedule and Posts to Come

2011-08-09T07:43:00.003-06:00

Last week I taught a K-8 Reading and Writing Workshop course to some of my colleagues. While planning I thought back and forth about how to organize it and utilize the time available since workshop teaching encompasses a lot. I considered the time allotted (2 days) and the timing of the year (almost 2 weeks before teacher work days begin) and tried to decide what would be most helpful. I knew that it was essential to share the rationale behind workshop teaching, allow teachers to experience workshop, encourage them to focus on themselves as writers, and be able to differentiate to different grade levels. There were many ways that I could have organized the training, but this is what I decided:

Day 1:
Literacy Team Builder
Discussion of Current Issues in Literacy
Overview of Workshop Teaching
Writer's Workshop Focus (Experiencing as Learners)
Lunch
Writer's Workshop Conclusion
Reading Workshop Focus

Day 2:
Overview of Available Resources
Time to Plan/Collaborate with Grade-Level Teams

I debated back and forth about whether to have two "instructional" days or whether to have the second day be for planning and collaborating. I am glad that I decided to allow a portion of time, knowing how it feels to love ideas in a training but then feeling overwhelmed trying to plan to integrate the ideas while also juggling other aspects. While a day is not enough time to completely plan out the year or even the fall, it provided an opportunity to reflect, set up goals, and begin planning, as well as collaborating with peers. We will have follow up meetings in the fall to continue to check in and discuss successes and challenges as they implement their ideas.

I will be doing a series of posts reflecting on the workshop training. It was a valuable experience for me thinking about what is important when thinking about growing into a role of being a literacy leader beyond my own classroom. It was also important in thinking about my own journey as reader, writer, and workshop teacher.

Upcoming Posts:

Wednesday: Setting the Tone
Thursday: Teachers as Writers
Friday: Launching the Workshop: Narrative Genre Study
Saturday: Power of Seeing
Sunday: Resources - Where to Start?
Monday: Teacher Collaboration
Tuesday: Other Possibilities

Writing as a Gift - Parents to Children Possibilities

2011-08-06T22:00:00.004-06:00

The last three years I have talked to my students numerous times about writing as a gift. They have written letters and poems to their parents, notes of appreciation, and a letter to invite someone to apply to a position at our school. I wrote the 8th graders a letter for their graduation present.

Earlier this summer a mom of one of my students shared a birthday poem that she wrote for her daughter - a powerful poem about growing and emerging into who she is becoming. I commented to her that it hit me that I have talked so often about writing as a gift and students have had experience writing it but that many probably do not get to experience writing as a gift from their parents.

I thought back to a retreat that I went to in either junior high or high school and unbeknownst to us, our parents had gathered letters from family and friends to us that they bundled into pillows with a pouch. My mom made my pillow, and it was one of those gifts that is still so meaningful today.

The parent and I started talking about the potential for weaving in a parent project to create writing as a gift for their children as graduation gifts. So many possibilities...

Reading and Writing Workshop Resources

2011-08-02T21:08:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the first part of the class that I am teaching on reading and writing workshop this week. I will post more on that later, but for now, I wanted to share the list of resources that I will be emailing to the teachers attending the class. They are some of my favorite resources related to literacy and workshop teaching (or that align with workshop teaching if not directly marketed as workshop resources).

There are so many valuable resources available, and more created all of the time, so this will in no way be a comprehensive list. I mentioned to the group and will reiterate tomorrow that with workshop teaching (and literacy teaching in general) that building capacity is an on-going process. I shared my journey of first reading and exploring as much as I could about workshop teaching and then moving into on-going areas that I wanted to understand more, such as writer's notebooks and conferring. The intent of this list is to have ideas for future areas of support since they will not be able to familiarize themselves with all resources at once.

The grade levels are where resources most naturally fits, but I have learned a lot from resources not targeted at my age group. If I have already talked about a listed resource on my blog, then I linked it here. I will be talking about the resources in our face-to-face meeting.

Primary Grades
Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum (from Heinemann)
Catching Readers Before They Fall, as well as the blog by the same name
A Place for Wonder
***I have not had a chance to read any of Katie Wood Ray's books, but I frequently hear her referenced when hearing about primary workshop teaching. I bet all of her resources are great.

Upper Grades
Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 (from Heinemann)
When Writing Workshop Isn't Working
Intermediate CAFE in the Classroom DVD

Middle School

Reading Ladders

Middle School Readers

Nancie Atwell resources:
In the Middle (from Heinemann)
The Reading Zone
Lessons that Change Writers
Reading in the Middle
Writing in the Middle

Multi-Grade Resources

Comprehension Going Forward

Igniting a Passion for Reading

Conferring

The Book Whisperer

What Student Writing Teaches Us

The Common Core Reading & Writing Workshop Series

This new series created by Lucy Calkins and others at Columbia University's Teacher College Reading and Writing Project has an individual eDoc for kindergarten through 8th grade in reading and writing that is aligned to the new Common Core Standards.

Day by Day *This book is an excellent resource for writing workshop once you already have a foundation and are looking to reflect and continually grow. The authors, Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres created the Two Writing Teachers blog noted below, as well as Ayres' blog focusing on writing. I will be watching for Ayres' forthcoming book Celebrating Writers that will come out in 2012 from Stenhouse.

Fountas and Pinnell resources:
The Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide (and the Spanish version)
The Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8 (and the PreK-2 Spanish version)

Aimee Buckner Resources:
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook
Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reader's Notebook

Jeff Anderson Resources:
Mechanically Inclined
Everyday Editing

"The Sisters" Resources:
The Daily Five
The CAFE Book

Resources to Focus on Yourself as a Writer (as well as a Teacher of Writing)
Two Writing Teachers blog
Ruth Ayres Writes blog
The Stenhouse Blog
Laurie Halse Anderson's blog (as well as other author sites and blogs)
The Essential Don Murray: Lessons from America's Greatest Writing Teacher (from Heinemann)
On Writing by Stephen King

Penny Kittle resources:
Write Beside Them
Public Teaching One Kid at a Time and The Greatest Catch

What are some of your favorite literacy or workshop resources? Please comment to share some of your favorites.

Your Child's Writing Life

2011-08-02T06:00:00.065-06:00

Lately I have been thinking a lot about education from a parenting and teaching lens. It has been fascinating to watch my daughters grow and develop, gradually approaching my comfort zone of tweens and teens. I have been paying attention to what is consistent among age groups, as well as unique differences. Pam Allyn's Your Child's Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity, and Skill at Every Age fit in perfectly with these wonderings.

Throughout the book what stood out the most was the sense of a patient, nurturing environment embedded in her advice and ideas. She also emphasizes that aside from all the academic benefits, active writing lives serve as an avenue to strengthen parent-child bonds, as well as preserving memories. There was a close match to my writing philosophy.

Allyn starts the book establishing why it is essential to dedicate time to write with our children and foster a love of writing. Then she talks about suggestions for different ages. Other chapters included helping kids work through challenges and stress with writing, mentor texts, and writing prompts. She weaves in experiences with her own daughters, as well as interactions with students through her experiences being a literacy advocate.

I especially loved her suggestions for setting up places to write and supply areas, seeing how it evolved and emerged with the growing ages. Though she often references books throughout all of her chapters, the chapter specifically highlighting twenty mentor texts does a great job of sharing about the books, as well as assets and how they can serve as springboards to writing. Her knowledge about books and skill of connecting them to kids was just as apparent as it was in her Pam Allyn's Best Books for Boys.

I would love for every parent to read this book and implement ideas into their lives. Yet, while reading, I kept on thinking about parents who would buy the book, and it seems like it could potentially be a fairly narrow range, depending on the community, considering that it would be parents who are literate in English and who seek parenting books.

Yet, I also like the potential the book has for teachers to share with parents, whether it is through book talking it to raise awareness or sharing ideas at parent meetings. For example, at our dual immersion school, teachers have bilingual parent meetings. This year I loved a writer's workshop evening hosted by my daughters first grade teachers. Any of Allen's ideas would be beneficial to layer in for the different age groups. It could also be a resource for other community organizations, such as Healthy Start and Head Start that focus on raising awareness for helping develop literate environments and family literacy, which seems appropriate given Allyn's own organizations, LitLife and LitWorld.

Comprehension Going Forward

2011-07-28T09:06:00.003-06:00

In a recent Heinemann email advertisement, I heard about Comprehension Going Forward: Where We Are/What's Next, and I was instantly excited upon seeing so many well-respected contributors, as well as Harvey Daniels as the editor. I could not believe my luck when I saw it at my university library as I was skimming the literacy area for resources for the reading and writing workshop class that I will be teaching. Last night once the girls had fallen asleep and I finished another book I have been reading for my dissertation methodology, I was already tired but could not resist at least glimpsing through the book.

Right from Harvey Daniels' Welcome and Introduction I was hooked. He stated, "In these pages, sixteen distinguished authors show what comprehension instruction looks like when it is 'done right'" (p. 4). He then described a meeting in which the contributors got together to talk about comprehension and the possibility of writing the book. When reading this I was thinking about the energy and buzz that must have been surrounding the meeting, thinking it made me exited to read the book. Shortly after Daniels stated, "I've tried to edit this book so that it feels like the meeting in Denver--conversational, energetic, reflective, principled, forward-looking, and leavened with humor," (p. 6). He also mentioned that one avenue to keep this tone was by having the contributors comment on each others writing in the margins. I thought back to how I loved that aspect in Adolescent Literacy and was glad they decided to weave that component in.

As I started reading Ellin Oliver Keene's first chapter, I could instantly connect, as it focuses on a school closely examining strategy instruction and making sure that the strategies were actually enhancing understanding, rather than students just using strategies to use them. My colleague and I had very similar conversations this year, so I loved being able to catch glimpses into the other teachers' conversations, adding more depth to the voices. It was in that first chapter that I realized, I couldn't read this book as a library copy. Pen in hand and paper beside the book, I was worried that I was going to get so engrossed in the book that at any moment I was going to fly forward with the pen to underline or make a note in the margin before remembering it was not my copy. I also thought about how I would want to have my own copy with my notes right in the book for future reference.

Instead of continuing to read page by page, I started to skim through. I noticed more and more that I loved about the format of the book, as well as noticing many engaging topics. Here are some of my favorite aspects of the book's layout:

The front flap and first page are a heavier weight of paper, containing a picture of each contributor with a quote and their signature.
The start of each chapter has the author's signature, which I liked as a more personalized touch.
Just as with Adolescent Literacy, I did love the comments aspect, but as I ran across them and saw how each comment was signed at the bottom with the commenter's first name, I loved this feature even more. It made it feel even more like a conversation among friends and indeed functioned to give the sense of energy and excitement about being part of the dialogue with each other.
At the end of the book they compiled a list of the contributors' three favorite books or articles. It is in alphabetical order with and annotation and the contributor's initials at the end.

In her annotation about why Adolescent Literacy is one of her favorite books, Ellin Oliver Keene stated, "How can you not love a book that includes writing about adolescent learning from some of the most learned and practical people in the field today? I think this book sets a new standard for edited volumes. It covers a very wide range of topics and is so reader friendly and useful," (p. 256). I thought to myself that Comprehension Going Forward did an excellent job of meeting up to this new standard for edited volumes and demonstrates many of the same superior qualities as Keene was mentioning.

I have been trying really hard to not buy books until I catch up with the piles and piles of books that I already have waiting to be read. However, the farther I moved forward in the book, I realized that there were multiple links to my dissertation, the one loop hole I put for myself in being able to buy new books. From reading the books list at the end, I decided to also buy Apple and Beane's Democratic Schools, as well as Bracey's Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality.

I noticed on the Heinemann site that Comprehension Going Forward is also offered as a book study bundle. For schools doing a book study, this would be an excellent choice for k-12.

Continuo de adquisición de la lectoescritura

2011-07-25T06:53:00.079-06:00

Yesterday I posted about Pinnell and Fountas' The Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8 and mentioned that I am excited to share it with teachers at my school. However, hearing about great resources is always bitter sweet for Spanish side or bilingual teachers. While many aspects of resources/concepts can be directly translated over to Spanish, that involves time and effort, not to mention, carefully considering aspects that should not just be translated over. It will be so nice to introduce the English and Spanish Prompting Guides and the Continuo de adquisición de la lectoescritura: Grados PreK-2: Guía para la enseñanza, alongside the English continuum resource. I am hoping that eventually Pinnell and Fountas will have a full PreK-8 version available in Spanish.

Like the English PreK-8 version, this Spanish adaptation is neatly divided by card stock dividers with tabs, though the resource is much thinner since it only has a PreK-2 range. The tabs are also for grade levels, rather than type of continuum, with the exception of one guided reading tab; however, the same seven continuums are represented in the book. The introductory and background information about each of the continua is the same or almost exactly the same, but as marketed, there are differences in the continuums, specifically tailored to Spanish literacy development.

Much like the Spanish Prompting Guide, the vast majority of the book is actually in English. At first I was surprised with the amount of English, which shifts the target audience to teachers who have a high level of English proficiency, rather than monolingual Spanish literacy teachers or bilingual teachers with a high level of Spanish proficiency who prefer a resource in Spanish. I would have liked to have seen more Spanish, especially with literacy language, as there are some words that bilingual professionals, even if they grew up in a Spanish speaking country, might not know if they have received all of their teacher education/literacy background in a US English speaking context. When I started teaching in English and Spanish, there were a lot of words specific to talking about literature and writing that I had to look up. It would be nice to have those translations already available in this resource. In some cases it is, but it would be nice to have it consistently throughout.

However, I would rather see a resource such as this that truly examines what is relevant in both languages vs. what is unique to Spanish, rather than having a full English resource directly translated completely into Spanish without regards to differences in language development. I can also see the advantage of having the explanations and background information in English for teachers who may prefer to read the majority in English but have the specific Spanish language adaptations for the continuum, as presented.

I am excited about the potential for this resource to allow for common language for grade level English side and Spanish side teachers having conversations about literacy levels in two languages. It will really help to give a detailed picture of strengths, areas for support, and aspects that students are (or aren't) transferring between the two languages. The introduction says, "The basic descriptions of behaviors and understandings to notice, teach, and support for grades prekindergarten through 2 have been revised and adapted to meet the developmental literacy needs of Spanish-speaking children" (p. 1). I love the wording notice, teach, and support, as it so accurately highlights benefits of the tool. In dual immersion settings, the continuum actually has a farther reach than native Spanish-speaking children, as it will also provide valuable insights for students who were monolingual English speakers upon entering school who are emerging as bilingual learners.

I can see how this Spanish adaptation in conjunction with their Sistema de evaluación de la lectura would be very powerful because again, for the Spanish student books they did not just translate their English Benchmark Assessment System books. Instead, they created new, authentic books in Spanish that are responsive to the uniqueness of Spanish literacy development. I look forward to checking back later to see other resources that Pinnell and Fountas develop in Spanish.

*Copy provided

The Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8

2011-07-24T13:38:00.006-06:00

Earlier this summer I got a taste of Pinnell and Fountas' Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8: A Guide to Teaching second edition through the section they included in Literacy Beginnings. As I was reading through the full book, I noticed that I was switching back and forth between reading like a mom and reading like a teacher. I often looked at the PreK to think about where my five year old is coming from and the kindergarten to see where she is heading this year, I looked at second grade thinking of my older daughter, and of course, I looked at the 6-8 thinking of my students.

I am impressed with the overall resource that is packaged much like Literacy Beginnings with the durable card stock and tab dividers for different sections. After a general introduction, the book is divided into a series of seven continuums, such as shared and performance reading, writing about reading, and oral, visual, and technological communication. Each continuum is detailed by grade level, with the exception of the final continuum Guided Reading (Level A-Z), which breaks it down by guided reading level. In addition, each continuum is broken down into further categories. Some are consistent through multiple continuums, such as thinking within text, thinking beyond text, and thinking about text. As such, the different continuums each have something unique to offer, while complementing each other well, forming a cohesive whole. Pinnell and Fountas took special care in the beginning and throughout the book that the stages are not exact as students progress at different rates, as well as the possibility of being at different places for different aspects.

I love that the resource gives teachers a chance to intentionally think about various aspects of individual students. For example, this would be a powerful resource to use with reading workshop to consider which support would be most appropriate for any given student, as well as really pinpointing strengths and areas of growth. I can see how there would be aspects on the continuum that teachers might not have thought of but upon skimming through, the information could give valuable insights, automatically making perfect sense once the continuum brings it to a surface level of awareness. Over time the resource would definitely be a valuable tool to continue building teacher capacity for meeting student literacy needs.

This is another resource that I am excited to share with teachers next week in our reading and writing workshop course, as well as keeping in mind as I talk with teachers about literacy. Tomorrow I will be posting about the Spanish version for PreK-2.

*Copy provided

Atwell Workshop DVDs

2011-07-16T15:15:00.002-06:00

I have mentioned Nancie Atwell's Reading in the Middle and Writing in the Middle DVDs a few times but still have not done an official post of them as a resource. I highly recommend buying the DVDs as the bundle unless you only teach one of the two subjects. Each of the resources comes in a folder with a DVD, a CD with additional resources (including reproducible forms and student examples), and a facilitator's guide. The folder also outlines the titles and times of the different clips, ranging from around a minute to fifteen minutes in length. The reading set contains more than 20 resources on the CD, while the writing set contains more than 45. The facilitator's guide shows how the DVDs and CDs complement each other well, in addition to providing a sample organization and discussion questions.

Both DVDs start and end similarly, showing Atwell setting up her classroom and then reflecting on the end of the classroom. There is some common language in these introductory and concluding clips before shifting to the specific content. A large portion of the video footage is from the start of the school year when Atwell is establishing procedures, but there are also some features that show the progression later on. I love that it showed glimpses from different points in the school year.

Even though I watched the DVDs in the spring when I received them, I just viewed them again to take notes about each section as a future reference, as well as notes about when I might use the resources to supplement the facilitator's guide. With this next school year I will utilize this resource in various contexts. First, I will use it as support materials for a reading and writing workshop training that I will be doing in August. Additional clips will also be beneficial for my colleague that will be filling in for me next year, and I will also use them for the children's literature courses that I will be teaching next year for pre-service teachers. Last spring I showed one of the book talk clips to the children's lit class.

It is always nice to see concepts in action, especially when it is a teacher so highly regarded as Nancie Atwell. I appreciated seeing her calm, yet firm demeanor to set up the ideal workshop environment. This is a great resource to complement the other Atwell resources already available through Heinemann, as well as her Scholastic book, The Reading Zone. We are able to see how her years of experience, teaching intentionally and learning along with her students to determine how to continually improve, have fostered the respectful, stimulating environment of readers, writers, and thinkers shown in the DVDs. This is one of those resources that has value for a range of previous experience, from those who are just familiarizing themselves with workshop to those who are veterans.

One additional aspect is that all royalties from the sales of these resources goes toward tuition assistance for students at the school that Atwell founded in Edgecomb, Maine, the Center for Teaching and Learning. That of course made me happy!

Making Time for Writing

2011-07-09T09:21:00.003-06:00

Earlier this summer I received a forwarded message via email of our state superintendent's updates, and my heart sank when I read the following paragraph:

In this budget, the legislature has suspended the writing assessment at 4th and 7th grades and has limited the high school writing test to one opportunity in the 11th grade. This will result in a significant cost shift to districts at a time when they can least afford it and will result in fewer opportunities for our students to demonstrate their mastery of writing. We know that writing is a key predictor of college and career success, and starting in 2013 all students will be required to demonstrate their proficiency in writing in order to meet new graduation requirements. These cuts to the writing assessment mean that we are making it harder for students to earn a high school diploma. Because of this reduction, we will need to ask more of our districts and schools in order to provide the supports and opportunities critical to student success.

While dismayed, I was not completely shocked. In the previous years I had seen the state go from two raters in grades 4, 7, and 10 to only single scores in 4th and 7th grade to save money. I had heard teachers in Idaho talk about how their writing assessment had already been eliminated. Immediately I also thought, "What's tested is taught," and I sent an email to a team at my school explaining that I hoped we would maintain a focus on writing, despite this change, to the benefit of students long-term.

As I was looking for a link to her announcement, I noticed that back in May Susan Castillo had talked about why she did not agree with proposals to eliminate the assessment. In the article, Kimberly Melton wrote, "But some state lawmakers say they must identify more cuts, including scraping the state writing assessment, a move they say could save the state nearly $3 million. Writing is the only state assessment not required by the federal government." And there it is, confirming my initial thoughts, the logic that if it is not tested, why do we need it? As if writing was not pushed to the side enough already with the majority of the attention shifted to math and reading. I fear that without assessments at different points along the way, there is a big danger that writing just won't happen in many schools (or at least not taught enough).

Balancing time is always a big area of reflection. Recently Ashlee asked me:

How do you integrate the use of a notebook in middle school? We don't get a lot of time with the students as it is, so how do you schedule writing time? Every day? Bellwork time?

About three years ago when I shifted over to being a mainstream teacher (as opposed to ESL and reading pull-out support in the first three years), I started to read voraciously about writing and teaching writing. I remember early on reading about how it is not too uncommon for some schools or teachers to push writing up until the assessment and then not include writing as much or at all. I remember the author(s) advocating for the place that writing has in the curriculum all year long. This highly influenced me, and I have tried to always keep this in mind. Nonetheless, as Ashlee mentioned in her full comment, time is often an issue in language arts when there is so much that it could encompass.

Throughout the years my schedule has changed. Two years ago, I had longer class blocks. Last year it was shortened to about an hour to an hour and twelve minutes, depending on the class period. It was a difficult juggle trying to decide how to incorporate all that I thought was important in a shorter period of time. Nonetheless, I was dedicated to incorporating writing every single day of the school year. In the very rare occasion that we did something out of the ordinary of our regular workshop schedule, such as watching a Teach for Tolerance film during our Take a Stand Unit, then students did not have writing workshop per se, but they did write a reflection on the video.

This year, in a typical class about 45 minutes was spent on reading, while around a half an hour was spent on writing. With regards to notebooks, I introduce them early on in the school year and emphasize them as a tool to gather ideas and explore. I also emphasize the power of slice of life stories. As far as whole class, guided activities with writer's notebooks, I typically utilize them more at the start of a genre studies, as we collect and share ideas together before moving into drafting. However, during writing workshop, I let students know that they can always use their writer's notebook to gather more ideas or to aid in other stages of the writing process.

In my first year of teaching, I did have my high school ESL students start with independent reading, followed by a daily prompt response in their notebooks, but I have not done this since. I have read about others using writer's notebooks for prompt quick writes and would like to experiment with that on a consistent basis again because I think about how I appreciate and grow as a writer because of Laurie Halse Anderson's Write Fifteen Minutes a Day or Ruth Ayres' new discover. play. build. prompts. There are so many possibilities with notebooks...

Next year the class blocks may be even shorter. Regardless, language arts is always a delicate balance - considering how to integrate everything that we value. I remember reading once that it is essential that every component of language arts serves multiple purposes and to emphasize the link between reading and writing to maximize the time available. I am a firm believer that decisions need to be based on considering the big picture, thinking about the purpose of education, as well as what we think contributes to well-rounded individuals, rather than simply focusing on the narrow range of what is tested.

What Really Matter for Struggling Readers

2011-07-08T08:34:00.045-06:00

This summer as I am reading away for my literature review, I have realized that Richard Allington is one of my favorite literacy researchers. While reading his book, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, so much of what he said resonated with me. I appreciate his convictions that he backs up with quality research, while also providing suggestions on how to be critical consumers of research.

Often when thinking about assessments and student growth, I think about whether or not those assessments are measuring something that I value most highly. In the introduction to the What Really Matters Series, it says, "Our aim is that all children become active and engaged readers and writers and that all develop the proficiencies needed to be strong independent readers and writers" (p. ix), which aligns with what is most often in the back of my mind when evaluating the merit of different opinions on literacy. Throughout the book Allington comes back to this concept often as the title "really matters" implies.

While reading it is easy to see that Allington is an authority in the field, having a strong grasp on the current educational context, as well as the historical roots. I appreciated his thorough explanation of research and policy, as well as the impact of different stakeholders not paying attention to the research. He complements the research with many examples of school and classroom implications. Most importantly, he shares his thought provoking expertise with an engaging voice that makes for an enjoyable read.

Flipping through the book my notes and underlinings are everywhere. If I had to choose one book for literacy teachers to read, this might just be it!

Moving the Classroom Outdoors

2011-07-07T20:09:00.003-06:00

New from Stenhouse in both paper and e-book versions is Herbert Broda's Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action. I was excited to read more about the possibilities of outdoor learning, a topic that I do not know much about. In fact, the main experience with outdoor learning that I remember as either a teacher or a student was at UNLA, a Mexican university while on exchange. I always loved sitting in one of their two outdoor classroom meeting areas.

As a teacher, I have never utilized the outdoors that much. Very occasionally we would go outside to read or write, but that was about the extent of it. Toward the end of the school year we were talking about outdoor learning as a staff, so I was excited to have a chance to read Broda's book and I will also be sharing it with my co-workers.

Broda divides the book into different chapters followed by spotlights of different people who have incorporated outdoor learning in their schools. As a novice to the concept the book was perfect to highlight the range of ways in which teachers can include outdoor learning. Yet, I think it will also have a lot to offer for those who already incorporate outdoor learning but are looking for new ideas.

Broda emphasizes that teachers should not see it as one more thing to squeeze in, but rather a powerful opportunity to teach aligned to content standards. One of the aspects that I loved the most was that Broda had frequent photographs, as well as expressing possibilities that would require different amounts of time, resources, and involvement levels. While reading I was mainly thinking about my colleagues, thinking it would be more relevant to their content areas; however, the more I read, I realized that there were a lot of language arts possibilities.

Broda did an excellent job of sharing ideas for different content areas, as well as cross-curricular units. He did not just spark a lot of ideas, but he had tips in order to effectively integrate in outdoor learning including planning (both realistic short term and long term goals), organization, safety, and communication. His son, Matthew Broda, also wrote a chapter about how to weave technology into the concept of outdoor learning.

This summer for one of my doctoral courses we visited two schools in Boise, Idaho, and coincidentally, they both had outdoor learning components. ANSER Charter School incorporates expeditionary learning. A professor in one of my previous classes talked about how his children who are now in at the secondary level still remember a project they did as kindergarteners focusing on birds that the school does every year. The kindergarten classroom is in a portable outside of the main school building. What stood out to me the most was that it was very welcoming and inviting, instantly making me think about my Mom's yard and the hours of joy that my daughters spend in it when we visit. There is a beautiful archway as well as a wooden fence that a parent made in the shape of different birds. What lucky kindergarteners! The general playground also has a gazebo. Another school, Taft Elementary, has a beautiful garden that the school community has been developing in different stages with square foot gardening. It was impressive to see how far their garden had come, as well as hearing about future plans.

Reading Moving the Classroom Outdoors soon after visiting these two schools helped me to picture even more some of the many potential ways to integrate outdoor learning at different levels: individual classroom, cross-classroom, whole school, and community levels. While reading, I also thought about how this book complements Georgia Heard's A Place for Wonder well. I look forward to seeing the role that outdoor learning will play at our school.

*Copy provided by the publisher

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Writer's Notebooks

2011-07-02T07:00:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I shared which Heinemann resources I will use for an upcoming Reading and Writing Workshop Training. A huge portion of the workshop will focus on teachers as writers, as well as experiencing the workshop setting from the learner side. As such, I will be using writer's notebooks to model the process of gathering ideas, mirroring the process that I use with my students.

Back in 2007 I went on a summer exchange for educators to Mexico (now located in Argentina) through AHA International and had a course with Dr. Marsha Riddle Buly. Through the class, I was introduced to writer's notebooks and am so thankful that I attended the course as it has definitely been a pivotal experience for me as a literacy teacher. I continue to value the power of writer's notebooks that she introduced to me.

After Dr. Riddle Buly sparked my interest in notebooks, I began to read more and more, as well as integrating them into my classes and learning through experience. Amy Buckner's book was highly influential, as well as posts on Two Writing Teachers.

I also absolutely love Ruth Ayres new blog that focuses on her as a writer, giving frequent glimpses into her writer's notebooks. I will be highly recommending this site, as well as participating in Two Writing Teacher's Slice of Life Story Challenges.

Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Heinemann Resources

2011-07-01T09:25:00.003-06:00

This summer my to-do list keeps on growing, but one of the items that I am most looking forward to is putting on a training for teachers at my school and potentially a couple from another school in the area focusing on k-8 reading and writing workshop. I will be posting about my planning, as well as how it goes, but for now I wanted to post some of the main Heinemann resources that I will be utilizing.

From Nancie Atwell:

Her DVD bundle Reading in the Middle and Writing in the Middle (I still need to post about these.)

Lessons that Change Writers

It looks like the school will end up being able to get Lucy Calkin's workshop resources. I am crossing my fingers and can't wait to actually preview these materials in preparation. I think Calkin's resources will be the perfect k-5 support, while the 6-8 teachers will be able to utilize Atwell's Lessons that Teach Writers that the school already has.

Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum

Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5

Tomorrow I will be posting about writer's notebooks in relation to the training.

The Spanish Fountas and Pinnell Prompting Guide

2011-06-22T07:15:00.046-06:00

Yesterday I talked about The Fountas and Pinnell Prompting Guide, and now I am going to talk about the Spanish edition and what it has to offer.

The Spanish version has explanatory text in English but provides the student prompting example dialogue in Spanish. Thus, the target audience is bilingual teachers, rather than monolingual Spanish teachers. This is also apparent when looking at the front covers and seeing the blend of languages on the Spanish cover. The tabs of both resources are exactly the same with writing in English for both versions. In addition, everything I loved about the crisp, clean lay-out of the English version, is also the same. Much of the introductory text is also the same in both versions, although there are some subtle differences appropriate to biliteracy in the Spanish edition.

Though not the main intended audience, the resource still has the potential to be a powerful resource for monolingual teachers, as well as a scaffold for Spanish speaking parents to become more involved in their children's literacy learning if schools provide sufficient background information to guide parents on how to utilize the tool.

The English and Spanish versions have much in common, but what stood out to me about Fountas and Pinnell resources provided in Spanish is that the authors don't just translate the English version to Spanish word for word. Instead, they make sure to consult with many native Spanish speakers to have high quality translations and they intentionally think about what is unique to biliteracy in comparison to literacy. For this specific resource they also have a statement in the introduction explaining the need for teachers utilizing the guide to be cognizant of regional variations of Spanish and the vocabulary that students will understand. Yet, they took it a step further by providing lexical variations in parenthesis throughout helping to raise the level of awareness for teachers while using the guide. I appreciate that they did not choose to just go by one variation of Spanish but instead took the time to really think about what would be most beneficial to students as individuals.

In my position at a dual immersion school, I teach in both languages, as does the kindergarten teacher. However, the rest of the Spanish immersion teachers only teach in Spanish, as they have a teaching partner that does the English side of the immersion. While Spanish immersion teachers would be able to take high quality resources in English that are relevant to Spanish and translate them (and often need to do so), it is so nice to find high quality resources already translated for bilingual teachers. It can often be draining teaching solely in Spanish in the United States, when there is such a disparity between resources in Spanish vs. resources in English. Thus, even though teachers could have taken the English version of the prompting guide as a scaffold for Spanish literacy instruction, I am grateful that the authors and Heinemann took the time to provide bilingual teachers will a little bit more support, especially since they are not just providing a word for word translation. I am excited to share this resource with teachers at my school.

Copy provided by the publisher

The Fountas and Pinnell Prompting Guide

2011-06-21T07:00:00.059-06:00

In The Fountas and Pinnell Prompting Guide: A Tool for Literacy Teachers, Part 1 the authors provide a resource for teachers to aid in getting to know their students as individual readers and writers and then intentionally make instructional decisions to meet the needs of students. In the introduction they explain, "Your role is to notice each student's precise reading and writing behaviors and provide teaching that supports change in what she can do over time. As you infer from the behaviors how a reader or writer is building a system of strategic actions, you can make effective instructional decisions" (tab 1). I love that the authors refer to it as inferring from behaviors; I had not thought about it with that term, but it is precisely what teachers do when closely paying attention to students.

The guide is constructed on thick paper with a cover that can be used to set the guide up on a table for teachers to easily flip through it utilizing the convenient tabs during instruction. The tabs provide various summarized focal teaching points for both reading and writing, including left/right, voice-print, word beginnings, rate pausing, placing words, and monitoring/correcting. In addition, each tab lists the broader goals such as early reading behaviors, general problem-solving, and constructing words.

The pages have an easy to follow lay-out that is simple in order to avoid making the page too busy. Each section provides a brief introduction and instructions for teachers about what to observe in students. They also have headings with the full versions of the focal teaching points, as opposed to the condensed versions on the tabs. The pages are divided into three columns under each heading that mirror the cover words and color scheme: teach (in purple), prompt (in red), and reinforce (in green).

It is clear that Fountas and Pinnell decided to keep a clean, crisp layout to match their purpose of classroom utility vs. other professional development resources meant to provide detailed explanations. While the resource on its own is powerful, it would be even more advantageous for those using it to have a rich foundation in literacy learning as well. Luckily, the authors provide a list of professional references in the introduction which will be valuable for teachers who do not yet feel confident with their level of understanding behind the teaching points in this prompting guide.

The product is marketed as a scaffold for k-6 teachers. While some of the tabs are definitely relevant only to emergent literacy, such as reading left to right or the verbal path for letter formation, I agree that many of the other tabs are appropriate and helpful for the upper grades. As a mom, I appreciate the resources for younger grades because it is farther from my comfort zone when it comes to literacy. For example, the verbal path for letter formation is helpful because I have never had to explain how to form letters as my students already know how, so it is a tool that will help me as a parent.

Fountas and Pinnell also have the prompting guide available with Spanish components for bilingual literacy teachers. Tomorrow I will post more about that version.

Copy provided by the publisher

Inside School Turnarounds

2011-06-20T08:46:00.001-06:00

Last night I finished the third book on school reform for my summer school course, Inside School Turnarounds: Urgent Hopes, Unfolding Stories by Laura Pappano. The author is a journalist who has a lot of experience writing about education and tells the stories of various schools focusing on school turnaround efforts mainly in a narrative manner.

Although Pappano discusses many schools and their efforts, the main focus of the book is on Hartford, Connecticut. She explores turnaround from various angles, such as regular public, as well as charter schools and talks about the complexity involved in turnaround. Among charter school efforts, she frequently references KIPP and Achievement First.

In Pappano's words, "School turnaround--this adrenaline-charged movement that we are presently in--is about rapid and dramatic improvement not just in test scores but also in culture, attitude, and student aspirations. It is marked not by orderly implementation but by altering a lot at once and being willing to step in and change--and change again. It is a new paradigm for education, one not about trusting the process but about seeking results, both measurable and immeasurable" (p. 3).

Throughout the book Pappano discusses that each school is unique and it is not as simple as simply transplanting one successful model to another school and expecting it to work without intentionally considering each unique context. She explains that reform is messy and rife with complications. In addition, she brought up the need to consider both theoretical school design and implementation.

The focal schools discussed are still deeply entrenched in their reform efforts - thus the "unfolding stories" aspect of the title. It is too soon to know for sure what the long term effect of current reform efforts will be. Through the book Pappano brought up many relevant and timely issues in education, considering different points of view. I appreciated that the quick read left me with a lot to ponder and think about with regards to our current educational context.

Learning from Others' End of the Year and Summer Blog Posts

2011-06-17T09:45:00.000-06:00

I always love this time of year when I am able to see so many ideas of how teachers wrap up the school year, as well as reflections and goals for continual growth in the summer.

Today the guest post on Two Writing Teachers by Lindsay Reyes shares insights into the cycle of writing in her classroom and how she brings closure at the end of the year with a sense of independence and hope that students will continue on their own.

I am also very excited for Ruth's (of Two Writing Teachers) new website where she is going to focus on herself as a writer, as opposed to the teaching focus of TWT, as she explains here.

Sarah at The Reading Zone also recently posted about her summer professional reading goals.

These are just a few recent examples of many. One of the reasons that I love blogging so much is that it is such a powerful avenue for reflection and growth, as well as building a sense of community among professionals.

Fulfilling Moments

2011-06-15T09:05:00.000-06:00

As educators, there are often fulfilling moments, sometimes it is related to the day to day aspects of teaching, such as funny comments or actions that students do, leading to a communal laughter. While other times, they are quick comments that people make reaffirming our personal teaching philosophies. Sometimes it is those personal aha moments, realizations that something we do has an even farther reaching impact than we had initially imagined.

As I think about my career so far, here are some of those moments that make the profession so valuable:

My first year of teaching one of my students was resistant to being in my class all year long because it was supposed to provide additional academic support, and he (like many others) would have preferred to be in the "normal" classes with all his peers. Close to the last day of his senior year he mentioned that another teacher complemented him on his writing. Then he thanked me and said that he thought his improvements were a result of the regular writing we did as a class. Six years later, I still frequently think back to that student and all that he taught me throughout the year.
I had read books and blogs of various teachers talking about the power of workshop teaching and its capabilities for inspiring a love of reading; yet, I don't think hearing about it could have ever prepared me for how good it feels to see students who previously did not care for reading to become engaged, passionate readers and to be a part of that process. It is equally fulfilling to have students who already were engaged readers become even more avid.
I was expecting to impact my students as readers, but this spring one of my student's moms thanked me for all that I had done in my classroom to instill a deeper love of reading in her daughter and then also shared that through her daughter, I had impacted her as a reader. Through the books her daughter was reading, she added more books to her TBR list. When her daughter placed Scholastic book orders the stack was usually composed of books for parents and children in the family. Previously I had thought about the advantages of impacting older siblings who would hopefully be models of reading for younger brothers and sisters; however, it had never occurred to me that the impact would also reach to parents, though it makes perfect sense that it could. I have always loved the idea of fostering family literacy. I just overlooked the impact that individual classrooms have on whole family units.
I always think about reading as a safe place for students to explore how different characters navigate obstacles and challenges in life, and I think of writing as an avenue to sift through emotions, to learn from life's experiences. I had not thought of the power of writing to teach older selves. This year I noticed how my students' realistic fiction was a means for students to think through the what ifs and realized that sometimes those what ifs end up impacting the students' lives. I would like to think that by writing and exploring those emotions it helps to prepare students in the event that something similar actually ends up happening.

What have been some of the most fulfilling moments in your career as an educator?

On-going Reflections & Workshop Components

2011-06-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Throughout the year, I am always reflecting. This year I realized that each change in order to seek refinement is not necessarily better than previous years. Instead, I found myself reflecting on what was working better, as well as aspects that I shifted away from that I needed to weave back in. For next year I will be moving in to a mentoring role as I take a leave of absence in order to fill in as a sabbatical replacement. This summer I will be working closely with the teacher who will be teaching language arts next year. Even though we are just getting started, I am already enjoying having a chance to work as a collaborative team.

Below are some components that I told her I have realized throughout the different years are most important, which we will discuss in more detail throughout the summer. These are considered some of our starting points for dialogue.

Focus lesson:

Each day there should be a focus lesson in either reading or writing. Depending on your schedule, you may have a focus lesson for each every day, but this all depends on the amount of time that you will have for each class period. For reading, these focus lessons might focus on aspects such as: choosing books, purposes for reading, reading strategies (modelling/think alouds)... In writing the focus lessons will vary, but Nancie Atwell's resource (Lessons that Change Writers) is great because it provides a lot of support, including suggestions with examples of what she says to her students. In general, focus lessons will be on genres, looking at mentor texts, talking about the 6 Traits (on the Oregon scoring guide), focusing on a specific area, such as leads, transitions, conclusions... There will also be focus lessons where you are guiding students through writing activities with writer's notebooks and times when you are sharing your own writing with students.

Independent Reading:

During independent reading students choose a book to read, while the teacher walks around conferring with students. I recommend starting independent reading with a status of the class (from Nancie Atwell's In the Middle) to find out the title and page that each student is on. This helps give you a quick snapshot of how students are progressing. For example, you can see if they are sticking with the same book and progressing well vs. picking up a different book each day. You can also see if they are reading the same book but making very slow progress. This is also an ideal time to have book clubs at times. We can talk about setting up book clubs later, but they are a great opportunity to create a better sense of a community of readers and to see how different students interact with the same text.

Independent Writing:

Similar to independent reading, students will all be writing while the teacher goes around to confer. In the past, at times it is hard to get students used to the idea that they need to write the whole time. They are never simply "finished". This goes back to start of the year writing workshop launch, which we can talk about more together, but students should know the expectations for workshop time and know that though they have options, they should always be writing. I typically have one writing that is due that is the first priority, such as a personal narrative or an imaginative short story, but students know other options in case they finish that. You can also start independent writing with a status of the class to see which phase of writing students are starting with and the topic of their writing. This helps to see trends in their progress and growth over time.

Word Study:

I did not end up doing word study this year because of the time crunch, but I realized many students still need it, so I recommend finding a way to weave it back in this year. Again, we can talk about this when we meet.

Everyday Editing:

This is a way to focus on conventions of writing in context, but it also extends to other traits. This can be incorporated into writing focus lessons or something separate on its own. I can show you the Jeff Anderson resource texts for this from Stenhouse.

Read Aloud:

Read aloud was another area that I did not do consistently all year long for the first time this year because of some challenges with the amount of time and with switching between languages. I think that Nancie Atwell's idea of sharing a poem a day together would be a great way to have the balance of sharing a text. I can explain more about this as well as other read aloud options that I have tried.

Reading Response Letters:

Students can complete reading response letters weekly either with time provided in class or as homework. I have done both, and I can talk to you about advantages/disadvantages of both. This has seemed to be the best way to have consistent insights into students as readers. I can share with you the rubric that I used this year for their reading response, as well as talk about logistics. You can either respond to all of their letters or you can do a combination of teacher/peer responses.

Writing Sharing/Celebrations:

This is an area that I consistently do not do as well as I would like to as schedules seem too packed, but we can talk about ideas to make sure that students are sharing and celebrating their writing on a more consistent basis. It is also fun to do class books, and when I have done this, students have enjoyed reading each other's writing during reading workshop.

What have you found to be some of the most essential components of your classrooms?

Writing as a Gift

2011-06-05T13:55:00.000-06:00

Throughout the last three years with my students that just graduated as 8th graders, I tried to weave in writing as a gift at different times, including letters of appreciation, poems, and scrapbooking. When I was thinking about their graduation, I decided to give them a gift of writing mixed with a tool to work toward their long term goals. Earlier this year I ordered writer's notebooks from Office Depot. I wanted to have designs that were different than the standard marbled composition books that we use in class.

The designs that arrived were mostly different than the example pictures on the site when I placed the order, so I was a little disappointed. Yet, the students seemed to like the different designs, which is what was most important. They each picked out a style (without knowing what it would be for). On the first page I glued in a letter to my students in an envelope and on the second page I glued in a separate envelope with notes that they wrote to each other, stating what they appreciated or highlighting best qualities that they see in each other.

The intent of the notebook was for them to record different activities that they are involved in as high schoolers, as well as recording their everyday ups and downs as inspiration for future scholarship essays (as well as the benefits of documenting their lives). I also gave them fun sized chocolate to go with it and to celebrate their sweet successes. Though I know that not all students will use them and they probably appreciated them at varying levels, I was glad that I was able to do something small in order to show that I appreciated having them in my classroom as well as providing them a tool to get themselves one step closer to their future goals. I have also considered offering a scholarship essay writer's workshop for them when they approach their senior year.

Here is an excerpt from the letter that I wrote to them, which in many ways ties back to a lot of our classroom discussions:

I look forward to hearing about your future successes. As you get ready for high school and beyond, here are some thoughts that I have found to be essential, as I have navigated different levels of school and through life experiences:

Always try your hardest, and be content with your best. Nobody can be the best at everything, so realize that you will excel in some areas, while other areas can be just for fun. Celebrate in your individual growth, even if it does not seem like much in comparison to others. You too will have areas in which you will shine. Never allow fear of failure to be the best hold you back from experiences and opportunities where you can grow and contribute.
Decide what is most important to you and work hard to set your priorities in order to work toward your goals. Surround yourself with others who will support and encourage you along the way as well as help you to make positive decisions.
When you meet challenges, take a deep breath and think about different areas of support. List out all you need to do and prioritize them so it does not feel so overwhelming. Spend time with family and friends. Laugh hard. Cry. Focus and refocus on what is important, and no matter how difficult it seems to reach your goals, keep on making steps toward accomplishing them. Eventually you will get there.
Words are powerful. Use them to make your community better and to inspire others to do the same.
Above all, remember who you are and what is important to you.

These last three years have gone by quickly, and in the same amount of time you will find yourselves as seniors in high school – almost ready to make another big transition in your educational careers. During your senior year you will have an opportunity to apply for scholarships. A couple of essential components for scholarship applications are essays and lists of your involvement in a wide range of activities in and out of school.

I hope that you will take the time to use this last writer’s notebook from me as a tool to document your life, which will aid you in writing your eventual scholarship essays. You can reserve the first few pages to list out different activities in which you are involved. Often committees want to know how you have been a productive member of your school and community, such as clubs, sports, and community service. I had not realized that when I was a freshman and it was a little bit hard to go back and try to remember everything. With the rest of your pages, you can record your ups and downs – your strong emotions, those defining moments in your life along with the everyday slice of life stories. Consider how you face challenges and how you stay focused on your goals. Let your personality shine through.

The Practice of School Reform

2011-06-01T22:02:00.003-06:00

The Practice of School Reform: Lessons from Two Centuries by James Nehring is the first of the four books that I will be reading for one of my summer school classes. From reading the book, I can already tell that I am going to love the class and its discussions; I think it might be one of my favorite courses in the program.

In the first paragraph of the foreword, Larry Cuban describes Nehring as being, "a thoughtful, passionate, progressive educator who prizes well-being of children and youth while seeking ways to counter existing antihumane, test driven school policies and advance social justice. He wants to subvert traditional schooling because the prevailing ideas that drive the existing system squelch what he prizes" (p. ix). The literature review of my dissertation is going to have a focus on the impact of testing on curriculum, so these introductory lines caught my attention.

Continuing with the same topic, Cuban mentioned, "Nehring lays out a map for 'mindful practitioners' to crack the 'mindless adoption' of traditional practices in district offices, schools, and classrooms that squelch students' inquiry, creativity, and desire to learn" (p. x). As a teacher, I always want to be able to explain the theoretical background for any component of my classroom, with a strong focus on making intentional decisions based on what I know from research and experience to best serve my students. As such, mindfulness, has always been a top priority, a concept that my undergraduate courses instilled in me before I even stepped in the classroom. I know how frustrating it can be to have to utilize a mandated curriculum, so I truly value teaching contexts where I am able to be a "mindful practitioner". Thus, before I even got to Nehring's own words, I was hooked. I could tell that the book was going to focus on areas of interest.

Throughout I enjoyed the tone and content of the book. Nehring describes five different schools at various points of history demonstrating how many of the present reform efforts actually go far back in history. He takes a close, analytical look into the historical and cultural components contributing to education in our country. Each school was a focal point of a chapter, and the portraits of the schools that he shares illustrate one of his six conspirators against thoughtful schooling. The chapter focusing on the sixth conspirator, the failure of generosity and justice, revisits each school to examine from this lens. Then Nehring concludes the book with a summarizing the main points.

I appreciated the range of contexts for the schools that Nehring selected to illustrate various reform efforts, as well as their levels of success (or lack there of) and factors contributing to their long-term impacts. Furthermore, I liked that he mentioned areas in which the schools excelled, as well as downfalls or obstacles to carrying out their visions.

He also did a good job of taking different stakeholders into consideration, as illustrated when he referred to Michael Fullan's thoughts saying, "[...] it is the height of arrogance and insensitivity for initiators of change to deny to others the emotional response that they themselves have experienced. Therefore, one important key to the successful initiation of change is to grant room for the emotional response to work itself out" (p. 47).

Nehring emphasized the importance of thoughtful professionals, and his book gave me plenty to ponder. I am glad that I am taking this course later on in my program since I have a much stronger foundation in curricular decisions from a historical and big picture perspective than I did a year ago. One week from today I will commute for our first class session. I can't wait to see what my classmates were thinking as they read the book. I have also been enjoying reading opinions on similar topics on the NCTE Members Open Forum emails, Susan Ohanian's news emails, and Diane Ravich's and Deborah Meier's joint blog Bridging Differences, as well as always appreciating dialogue via blog comments.

Literacy Beginnings

2011-05-31T08:53:00.000-06:00

Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas is one of those books that surprised me with its size when I pulled it out of the box. Though I often notice page length when I am looking at books, I must not have with this one. As soon as I received it, the handbook part of the title was apparent. With 462 pages and 8 card stock weight pages with tabs to divide the sections, the book is a comprehensive introduction of main concepts, as well as organized in a way that it is user friendly.

The chapters are quick and concise with a Key Understandings to Think About and a Notes section at the end of each one. There are many pictures and illustrations to support the text, including a color insert showing various pictures of classroom set-up and student writing samples. Each chapter starts with a quote from educational and literacy leaders. A little less than half of the book is set aside for the appendices, which has a plethora of support to the ideas mentioned in the earlier sections of the book, including nursery rhymes, poetry, and songs, inquiry projects, literacy and language lessons, lists, and templates. It is apparent that the authors and Heinemann carefully thought out how to package the resource in order to make it highly useful.

I love the book for all of its possibilities! I was reading it more from a parent angle, looking for ideas for summer learning with my daughters (almost 5 and almost 8). While reading I was noticing that many of the ideas and the philosophy behind them reminded me of the Marie Clay resources that I have read, including her newest set of three books. I was going to write myself a note about this toward the front of the book, and coincidentally the first page that seemed to have enough space to write my note was a dedication page to none other than Marie Clay.

As a secondary language arts teacher, I loved that I could see how this resource aligns with the reading and writing workshop that my students do as 6th - 8th graders. I appreciated that I could envision the strong foundation that the ideas Pinnell and Fountas suggest would build for prekindergarten students before they even start kindergarten. By valuing children as readers and writers, even when their reading consists of talking about the pictures or retelling what they remember from a favorite book and their writing is mainly drawing, children will continue to grow into confident readers and writers.

Most importatntly, by following the books ideas, teachers will work toward a life-long love of reading and writing, rather than relying on drills and rote memorization that while it might show desired results on standardized testing will not necessarily mean that they are highly skilled readers and writers. Though the target teaching range is prekindergarten, I also believe the resource would be valuable to primary teachers for its literacy philosophy, balanced literacy in the classroom, and possibilities for workshop teaching in the younger grades components.

One final note is that I already know my daughters are going to love what we do this summer inspired by this book. Last night I called my younger daughter over to do the letter recognition sheets with her (pp. 432-433). Of course it ended up not being the best scenario because my older daughter ran over and though I told her that I wanted to see what her younger sister knew, she still would not provide sufficient wait time and started either blurting out or whispering letters to my younger daughter a lot of the time. Nonetheless, when we were finished, my younger daughter wanted more. I thought to flip to the front of the appendices and told her that we could sing some songs together, which she loved. This morning as I had the book to the side of the computer so that I could type my review, she just came by, saw the book and said, "Hey, can we do more fun stuff from your book?"

I am looking forward to blending some of their ideas with mine, as well as differentiating for my older daughter this summer. I think that we are going to start with a focus on food since the handbook had many ideas throughout, and summer is a perfect time for the concept. My older daughter was saving her apple seeds the other day, saying she wanted to plant them, which lends perfectly to many literacy and inquiry activities. We also receive a lot of produce each week from Bountiful Baskets, so we talk about all the different fruits and vegetables. They also enjoy cooking and baking with me, and we will have more time for that during the summer.

I highly recommend this comprehensive resource to parents, prekindergarten teachers, and primary teachers - another great book from Heinemann!

Summer Emphasis

2011-05-22T08:00:00.041-06:00

Tomorrow is the first official day that I would have been in class if the school year were still in session. Later this week I will go back for our teacher work day (we have a couple of days off in between as furlough days), but we don't have any more student contact days. Just as school years can, summers often fly by.

Here are some areas of emphasis for the summer, and I will see how much I am actually able to do since I can already tell that my "vacation" plate is already filling up quickly.

Summer School
Both of my summer school courses will focus on school reform. I do not know the texts for the second course yet, but these are the books that I will be reading for one of my classes.

The Practice of School Reform by James Nehring

Inside School Turnarounds by Laura Pappano

School Reform from the Inside Out by Richard F. Elmore

Rallying the Whole Village edited by James P. Comer, Norris M. Haynes, Edward T. Joyner, and Michael Ben-Avie

I'm really excited for all of these books and the classes in general.

Emergent and Early Literacy

I mentioned earlier this school year that I have been increasingly more interested in emergent literacy and early literacy as a mother of almost 5 and 8 year olds, as well as the insights that various phases of literacy having implications for better understanding the wide range of my adolescent students.

I already have a couple of books that I can't wait to read, as well as other resources that I would like to revisit. I am also planning on paying close attention to my daughters as writers and keeping a writer's notebook about what I notice about them as writers as well as how it can inform my practice as a writer and a teacher of writing.

Here are the two books that are sitting in my TBR pile:

The Castle in the Classroom by Ranu Bhattacharyya

Literacy Beginnings by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas

Literacy Support

As I am moving further along in my doctoral program and getting ready to shift into a one year sabbatical replacement position, I continue to think about my long term goals as a literacy leader. I am lucky that in my school teachers view themselves as learners and are continually involved in professional development - many are working on various phases to further their education. We frequently support each other in sharing what we are learning and implications for improving our practice/school programs.

Right now I am thoroughly enjoying Nancie Atwell's DVD resources Reading in the Middle and Writing in the Middle, and I will be posting about them soon. Even though I am shifting out of my regular position for a year, I still could not resist buying these resources and it aligns with my new focus of literacy leadership and continually building up my book and DVD resource library to support colleagues and continue to develop my knowledge of the field.

This summer I want to revisit the following two books:

Jennifer Allen's A Sense of Belonging

Katherine Casey's Literacy Coaching

Dissertation

I am also shifting focus toward my dissertation, which will focus on adolescent literacy. I am still firming up my questions, and I am excited to start working on my review of literature with many articles, books, and resources before moving on to data collection during the school year.

What are your goals or reading plans for this summer to continually grow as an educator and leader?

End of the Year & Beyond

2011-05-21T12:08:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was the last day of school. As with other years, it was surreal. It did not seem like it could possibly be the last day of school. However, this year was unique leading to it seeming all the more hard to believe. Monday through Thursday I went on a trip with our 8th graders (the students that I have had for three years) on a college and coast tour. It was a perfect way to spend extra time with the students before the end of the school year. Friday the two teachers who had been with the 6th and 7th graders the rest of the week continued with them while a colleague and I prepared for graduation with the 8th graders. In the evening, we had a nice celebration of the students, and I am not sure when it will fully hit me that the school year is over and they are each moving on to the high school. Yet, I am thrilled for them to be moving on to the next stage of their educational careers and look forward to hearing about all of their great successes!

As far as the 6th and 7th graders, I did not have as strong of sense of closure with the end of the school year since I did not see them as much on our last week. However, it was great to check in with some of them on Friday to hear about their week as well as plans for the summer. The school was buzzing with excitement yesterday and it is always fun to see that flurry of activity.

Yes, another school year has come and gone - an especially busy school year with historical moments in our school's history of having its first graduating class, of shifting to being a 6th-8th language arts teacher as the school grew, of balancing teaching with pursuing my doctoral degree... The year was full of reflections (even though I was rarely able to blog about them), and I continue to reflect on the three years at my school watching our programs become established and grow. I have been considering what has been working well and what I would like to improve. I am paying attention to aspects that I did not include this year as I was trying to juggle various priorities into a shorter time period and realizing that some need to be woven back in. I am celebrating successes of improvements.

This summer has a different feel because next year will be different. I have accepted a position to fill in as a year long sabbatical replacement at a local branch campus of the college where I attended for my undergraduate and master's. There will be aspects that I will miss about being in my classroom, but I am also excited about what is to come and the possibilities of next year. Most importantly, I am looking forward to an opportunity to examine my practice and our program from a different angle. I will still be working closely with the teachers and students at my school, including collecting data for my dissertation.

Pam Allyn's Best Books for Boys

2011-05-06T06:00:00.052-06:00

Growing up in a family of all girls, boys were always a mystery to me. As a teacher, I have had to make a conscious effort to get to know my boys as readers and to build up my classroom library to make sure that I have balance so that there are multiple books that will catch the attention of my varied readers. Through book clubs, conferring during independent reading, and other avenues such as reading response letters, it has been a pleasure to get to know my students as readers and to watch thir interests emerge and grow. Last summer I specifically focused on boys and books for my YA Lit class.

I was thrilled to be able to read a copy of Pam Allyn's Best Books for Boys: How to Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives since it focuses on an area of strong interest. Before I started reading the book I looked at Pam Allyn's website and was inspired by the work she has done world wide to advocate for boy readers, LitWorld and LitLife.

Allyn's expertise developed throughout the years of working with boy readers is apparent in the book. She begins by laying a foundation for why it is essential for people to focus on developing a lifelong love of reading for boys, followed by a series of question and answers, which were well thought out, relevant, and closely aligned with my personal teaching philosophy.

The bulk of the book is recommendations for books that will hook boys categorized in a variety of ways, such as: expeditions, humor, mechanics and technology, nature and the animal world, and sports. Each section is further sub-categorized into books for emerging, developing, and maturing readers, categories that Allyn explains along with the need for teachers to consider them in flexible ways. Each book has a brief explanation, while some books have a list of other similar books that students will most likely enjoy which made me think back to Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders. Select books also have discussion points to get conversations started, as Allyn explains the important role of dialogue in fostering literate lives. After the section of books, Allyn also includes a list of magazines and web sites with notes about their assets.

Throughout Allyn sets the tone that boys need to feel safe and valued as readers, highlighting the importance of working toward helping boys discover who they are as readers. She also mentioned the link to reading impacting students as individuals by noticing the human experience in reading, which I thought Smith and Wilhelm addressed well in their Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements.

Pam Allyn's Best Books for Boys is an excellent resource with a wealth of information for parents, educators, and community members who would like to make a difference in the literate lives of boys.

*Electronic review copy provided

Well Spoken

2011-05-03T07:02:00.000-06:00

When I received Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students in the mail, my first thought was, "Yes, just in time for our annual speech work samples!" As soon as I opened up the book it did not take me long to see that such thoughts are exactly what Erik Palmer would like to change, as he would like teachers to see the value in supporting students in becoming better speakers throughout the whole year.

I loved that the forward was by Kelly Gallagher, one of my favorite Stenhouse authors. I always love to see what he has to say, and I admire him for his insightful thoughts that advocate for what is best for students in the long run vs. focusing on test performance. For this particular context, he said, "Multiple-choice assessments have driven deeper reading out of our classrooms, and writing has been pushed to the back burner. But of all the language arts, there is one that has been especially shortchanged by this blind adherence to state testing: the art of speaking" (VII).

I loved Palmer's argument that aligns with Gallagher's thoughts, such as, "[...] the mission of education should not be to make students better at school but rather to prepare them for life" (4). Palmer continues on to explain how vital speaking is as a life skill.

After laying the foundation for a rationale for dedicating classroom time for speaking, Palmer breaks speaking down into two portions -- building a speech and performing a speech. Then he has a section to explain different classroom strategies and procedures to implement his concepts.

I appreciate that Palmer focused on showing that speaking is important all year long. While I do integrate speaking all year and remind students of speaking expectations, both for speakers and as audience members, I could be much more intentional, so Palmer's ideas are an excellent resource for those who would like to improve in this area.

I have been able to use the ideas that I was reading in helping my own students build their speeches, and today we are going to transition into focusing on preparations for strong deliveries. His thoughts align closely with my state's speaking rubric, which also aligns closely with our writing rubric. I always start by emphasizing the connections between writing and speeches before focusing on how speaking is distinct from writing with the delivery trait. However, I look forward to seeing how Palmer's ideas will enhance my teaching of and in effect, the students' performance of their speeches. I have already seen an improvement based on his ideas for building a speech that enhanced what I was already doing.

*Copy provided by publisher

Homestretch

2011-04-30T07:33:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a busy, busy day at the school - our annual Día de los niños celebration. Starting with an assembly that included some teachers doing a few zumba songs was a change from previous years of more traditional entertainment such as regional dances from Mexico or mariachi music. It was one of those moments as a teacher when I was stepping out of my comfort zone, knowing that in two weeks my students would be doing their own dance performance for an even bigger audience with varying levels of comfort. It is always good to put myself in a situation where I can empathize even more with my students. When I would glimpse the 8th grade boys in the corner with their serious faces showing that they were oh so impressed with us, I had to hold myself back from laughing.

From the assembly we had a flurry of centers with a lunch break inbetween. And to the boys' defense, most of them talked to us about the zumba songs with smiles afterwards. A group of 8th grade girls were spreading their joy as they donned the black frames of 3-D glasses that they had popped the lens out of with coordinating "kids" hairstyles.

At the end of the day, as I was walking one of my 8th grade boys to his truck in the pick up line it hit me - Monday the 8th graders will start their last Spanish week with me, followed by an English week, and then we will be off to a four day trip to tour three colleges on the other side of our state and the coast.

One side of me is thrilled for my students, excited about their next steps, while another side is getting more and more nostalgic for the students that I have had since they were sixth graders, and the only class that I will probably ever teach as a self contained class. Such a blend of emotions.

I have an outline of the last two weeks and what they will entail, and all along, I need to keep telling myself to slow down, to make time for closure and to make sure my students know just how proud I am of them, as well as my excitement for their futures.

Check-In

2011-04-11T19:28:00.001-06:00

This year I have been blogging considerably less on this particular blog. I was thinking over the weekend, that I have been writing as much as ever, but a lot of my reflective writing has been in various writer's notebooks instead of in my blogs. With my doctoral classes and other possibilities it has been a year to pause and reflect, trying to decide what is most important with my career and with balancing being a teacher, mom, and doctoral student.

I will try to get back into blogging on a more regular basis, especially with posting about professional development books (I have so many great ones in my TBR stacks). In the meantime, here are a few quick, random notes:

As a student...

I have been absolutely loving my doctoral classes. It is always fun to get back into a classroom as a learner.
Statistics was the class that I was most dreading because I was afraid that I would be way out of my comfort zone, worried about sinking. Then an amazing thing happened. I had my first class and my professor put me at ease. His teaching style was perfect for that particular class with students who do not necessarily have strong statistically inclined backgrounds. Rather than being stressed out all semester, I have been enjoying the class, and it is pretty satisfying to realize how much I have been learning. Of course, we are just scratching the surface with the course, but I am feeling increasingly more confident. The experience has had me thinking on how important the climate the teacher sets up is. This is not something new, but it really hit me with this course since I have had a very positive experience in a content area which could have very easily been the opposite extreme given another professor.
I am realizing that my courses are helping me to zoom back out to the big picture. For the past three school years, I have been digging deeper and deeper into my specific school, students, and position. It has been beneficial to step back with my courses to consider education in general throughout the United States.
Reading through various articles and considering topics for my dissertation, I have realized that there are so many options. It has led me to carefully examine what is most important to me within my passion for literacy, especially in a workshop setting.

As a teacher...

I am constantly reminding myself to step back and reevaluate. This is the hectic time of year where it seems like there is always someone doing one form of testing or another combined with other spring events. Rather than having all students present for instruction, I am often adapting for time missed for state assessments or for shorter weeks because of other interruptions to the typical schedule.
As I have shifted over the three years from all content areas with one class to teaching social studies/language arts to two classes, and eventually to teaching language arts to three classes, I realized that the teaching time often seems too short. As a result I do not feel like I have the best balance. I am trying to make the most of the weeks we have left in the school year (currently only 5 more weeks before I leave with the 8th grade class on a college/coast trip for their last week of school while the 6th and 7th graders finish up the year with a substitute teacher). With these five weeks, I am going to pay special attention to: spending more time conferring in both reading and writing and allowing time for students to share their writing. I want to slow down to celebrate spending time together as a classroom community of learners and to celebrate successes. Making a commitment to write with my students as a mentor of process (as Penny Kittle suggests in Write Beside Them) is also at the forefront of my mind right now. I need to consider all that I wanted to finish this school year and what is realistic while still spending time to focus on students, rather than getting caught up in the constant whirl of activity.
Right now I am dedicating a large portion of time with the 8th graders to reflect on their experiences in our school. We are reading, discussion, reflecting, and doing a writing as a gift project that has been going really well. With 6th and 7th grade we have been reading widely about different people who have stood up for their beliefs (mostly through non-violent means). Next week we are going to shift into writing expository essays around our unit's theme.
I am constantly trying to plan and slow down so that I can savor these last five weeks, giving my best effort until the end of the school year that is quickly approaching, intentionally planning out each week reflecting my priorities as an educator.

Día de los niños Books

2011-03-13T18:28:00.001-06:00

The morning of conferences I went to school early. I decided to start listening to Jeff Wilhelm's webinar that I saw on My View From Here's blog. However, once I finished what I was doing, I could not move on to any of the other immediate items on my to-do list since I wanted to do something that did not require a lot of focus until the Webinar was over. I decided to pull out the books that I have been collecting throughout the year for Día de los niños to give to my 6th-8th grade students.

Of course, as soon as I had them spread all over my counter and table, the webinar was over. A couple of co-workers asked me throughout the day what all the books were for. I laughed with one co-worker about how no matter what, before I went home I was going to match the books to different students so that it would not have been a waste of time unpacking them all.

I always love this time of year - matching up books to students to give the gift of reading, a tradition that our school has that I absolutely embrace. Though we won't hand them out until the end of April, I was able to match each student with a book with the exception of a few students who I could not find just the right book for as the options dwindled down. Rather than giving them a book that did not seem quite right for them, I made myself a note and ordered books for them on my last book order. Next up, I need to put the labels in them to say: Día de los niños 2011. Then I will box them back up and wait for the big day!

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

2011-03-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the requirements for my undergraduate education students in my upcoming Children's Literature course is to read ten picture books suitable for older readers. While I was meeting with the professor who typically teaches the course to plan for next trimester, I noticed the book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís on her desk. It caught my attention because of remembering Peter Sís as the illustrator for Pam Muñoz Ryan's The Dreamer. I borrowed the book to read over the weekend and ended up loving the possibilities.

The book has a unique format. I was only a couple of pages in when I realized that I couldn't read the book as I am accustomed to - reading all of the words on one page before moving on to the next. It was breaking up the story line too much.

Instead, I realized that there were different levels of complexity. I ended up reading through with just the brief words, phrases, and sentences on the bottoms of the pages, seeing that it was one way to read the book. Then there was the other layers, where a reader could go back and re-read for the other details and descriptions available on the page.

I love that for younger students solely reading the bottoms of the pages is enough to tell a story, while older readers can dig deeper, especially with the overview from a first read of the one layer. The book has a fun range of layouts. While most pages are similar, there are other pages that have a big two-page spread picture with words scattered across the pages labeling certain components. Other two-page spreads have journal entries from the time frame.

This book lends itself well to many teaching points, including:

Multi-genre texts
Reaching multiple age ranges
Different ways to tell a story
Allowing for multiple readings to understand different layers of text
Historical contexts

A Nation's Hope - Sifting Through Reader's Response

2011-03-07T06:00:00.080-07:00

When I heard about A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis mentioned on Matt de la Peña's blog, I was instantly intrigued. I had high hopes for the book since I really enjoyed Mexican Whiteboy.

Right when I pulled the book out of the box, I began reading it. Though I was not expecting it to be written in verse, it had a nice flow and my excitement continued to build, especially with the beautiful illustrations by Kadir Nelson.

I found myself feeling swept away by Joe Louis' story and loved the description of his personality, humility, and perseverance. Yet, somewhere along the way, I started to notice something that bothered me about the book. I realized that while Joe was typically mentioned by name, his opponent, Max Schmeling, was more often than not referred to as "The German" or "Hitler's German", rather than by name.

It made me wonder more about the back story of the matches between Louis and Schmeling. When I did a quick web search on Schmeling, the first site to come up was the Wikipedia reference. Albeit it is necessary to take Wikipedia sources with a grain of salt, and this particular one even has a notice that the article needs additional citations for verification, I knew that it would at least help to orient me a little bit more to get the context of the book. I also skimmed Louis' page.

In Schmeling's description, I noticed the explanation of how he was portrayed in the United States as well as in Germany, in contrast to who he really was as a person. I was most interested in the following sentences, that did not have any citations,

The clash of politics, ideals, and countries that often symbolically accompanied his biggest fights only took place within the perceptions of the audience; they had nothing to do with what happened in the ring. Instead of being respected for his multiple accomplishments in the ring, he spent much of his life derided in the USA as a Nazi and dismissed in Germany as a disappointment. It was only in his later life that his status as a fighter, apart from his cultural symbolism, could be clearly analyzed.

I am not sure if digging deeper and doing more research would support these claims or not, but these sentences made me wonder about the angle of the book. I also thought about how for me as a reader, the way it was described in some ways took away from what I otherwise would have enjoyed as Louis' story and his triumphs. By almost always referring to Schmeling as "The German," instead of treating him like an individual person, it created an aversion to the book. Yet, I wanted to like the book. I wanted it to be a celebration of Louis and who he was without the questions over Schmeling's portrayal. There was also so much more to love about the book's layout, such as the fun author/illustrator bios on the back flap with the boxing ticket.

Trying to sort through my conflicting feelings about the book, I reread it, as well as the jacket flap information, and part of a sentence stood out to me, "[...] for much of America their fight came to represent the country's war with Germany". That is when I started to think about the angle of the book as showing it through the perception of many at the time, rather than today looking back. I was able to set aside some of my aversions to the references of "the German". It also made me consider the teaching points to discuss, such as perspective, a curiosity to uncover multiple sides to a story, the power of words, and reliability of narrators.

On Amazon, the recommended age range is 4-8; though, I can see it as being appealing to older readers. Because of the illustrations and the various avenues for analysis, the book is lending to thorough discussions and debate. Aside from learning more about Joe Louis, students can talk about perceptions, representations, and shades of truth.

Pathways to Early Literacy Series: Discoveries in Writing and Reading

2011-03-06T12:42:00.001-07:00

Following along with my curiosity into early childhood and primary literacy development, Marie Clay's new series, Pathways to Early Literacy Series: Discoveries in Writing and Reading, including How Very Young Children Explore Writing, What Changes in Writing Can I See?, and The Puzzling Code caught my attention. Once I received them, I read through them quickly as they are brief, each only 52 pages or less. Though there is some cross-over, such as having the same first pages to give the series overview and introduction, each book has its own specific focus.

One aspect that was emphasized throughout all books and that closely aligns with my philosophy was the image of parents and teachers as close observers - setting up the stage for children to be curious about reading and writing, helping children build a strong desire to explore, celebrating new attempts, and gently introducing new avenues for continual growth. While reading, I was often thinking back to my own daughter and how much her literacy has taken off this year, about how glad I am that I resisted having her switch into a special education pull-out model where she would have received scripted instruction, about how she just needed more time and space to develop at her own pace, in this frantic, data-driven educational context.

Lately my daughters have been fascinating me - two distinct individuals, at two different stages (almost four and almost eight). Earlier this year I started to officially document their literacy growth and what I am noticing in a writer's notebook. I have been reflecting on what I notice and how my experiences with them and my teaching experiences are reciprocal, both supporting each other. I was thrilled to see Clay encouraging parents to do what I had just barely started - dating and collecting writing and noticing growth and new explorations, as well as observations about their awareness of print.

I wish that every child had a caring adult noticing, observing, celebrating, and encouraging as Clay recommends. In the spirit of parents' role in literacy development I just read a post for the Slice of Life Challenge that goes along so perfectly with the intent of this series with Kevin explaining his son presenting him with his first comic. I love how well he captured his son's mannerisms.

I appreciate that the series of books are short and to the point, while providing many examples of student explorations at various stages. Each one can be read as a stand-alone or as a group of three. Through reading the book I received affirmations of what I am already doing, as well as additional suggestions to support my daughters' literacy development.

Because the intended audience is parents, caregivers and teachers of preschoolers and new entrants, I know that not all readers would have an education/literacy background. I think the length and format of the texts is ideal for the audience as an overview and foundation of literacy philosophies. My sister has a kindergartner and an almost three year old, so I would like to share the books with her and see what she thinks.

I am excited to continue learning alongside them. Soon I will be reviewing more books focusing on early literacy, including another book that I just received from Heinemann, which is much more detailed and comprehensive, Literacy Beginnings, as well as some Stenhouse titles.

Mentoring Teachers - Reading Priorities

2011-03-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

When I met with my supervising teacher the spring before my fall of student teaching, she recommended that one of the best ways that I could prepare for working with her in a 7/8 language arts classroom was to start reading middle grades/young adult literature. I remember going into the local bookstore in my community and looking through all the beautiful covers and reading about the intriguing range of topics. Throughout the summer and into the fall in her classroom, I discovered the joys of reading MG/YA books.

Reading Donalyn Miller's post about her priorities as a mentor teacher to create space to inspire a love of reading made me think back to my own supervising teacher and how valuable that advice has been throughout my whole career. Buying various books, book talking, participating in book clubs with my students - I absolutely love teaching in a reading workshop environment.

Right now I am gearing up to teach a spring trimester children's lit course for my alma mater's local branch campus, and this summer I will be co-teaching a YA Lit course for the university where I am getting my Ed.D. I am excited about the possibilities of being able to share my love of reading and to teach a topic that I love so much.

Kid Blogs and Student Led On-Line Book Clubs

2011-02-21T10:35:00.005-07:00

Earlier this fall I was talking about deciding on the best forum for my students' on-line book reviews. While I ended up choosing Google Sites, I am thinking that Kid Blogs may have actually been a better fit, at least as an initial introduction to on-line book reviews and reflections of learning. While younger students are still getting used to blogging I have realized that it can be quite time consuming for basic posts and I have not been able to integrate in many of the features that Kid Blogs does not have and that I saw as a reason to choose Google Sites over Kid Blogs.

However, with experience I am seeing how Kid Blogs would be an excellent introduction to blogging and probably does have everything I need, especially for 6th and 7th graders. With Google Sites, even though the announcement page works as a micro-blog, I don't like how all users are able to edit posts, rather than just being able to post a comment (one difference between wikis and blogs).

When I started to do my first multi-age on-line book club of the year, I decided to have students do it on Kid Blogs. While we did on-line book clubs last year, this was different because I decided to have 8th graders lead the book club discussions. In partners the 8th graders did a post for each discussion day and the 6th and 7th graders added comments to discuss with their group. It has been going very smoothly. As I had known from before, it was so easy to set up and the students were quickly able to transition to using Kid Blogs since they were already familiar with posting and writing comments.

For now, I would recommend Kid Blogs vs. Google Site and re-evaluate when it seems like students are ready for more than Kid Blogs has to offer. This will change year to year as students arrive at my classroom with more previous experience with technology. Earlier this year our director and a couple of teachers wanted to do some book blogging with 2nd and 3rd graders, so I helped them set up a Kid Blog, and they have loved it. Once those students are 6th graders, they will already have a foundation in blogging and may be ready for a more advanced format - or not. I guess I will just wait and see each year, considering which technology tools are available and which are the best match for the students. Always so much to experiment and explore with educational technology!

Writing Reflections

2011-02-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

This quarter I have been having students write more reflections. Last week I loved reading through their writing reflections in Spanish that they submitted with a working draft, answering two questions:

1. How does this piece of writing demonstrate your growth as a writer?
2. What would you still improve if you were going to revise this piece of writing?

Before writing their reflections, I reminded students of the level of depth I would like to see in their reflections. While reading through them, I realized that it was as enjoyable as reading book letters; I loved seeing their insights. While reading, I underlined certain words/phrases/sentences in order to remind myself of what I want to discuss while I confer with students about their growth as writers. I also noted trends in areas where students mentioned that they still want to improve as writers. For example, this year we had already focused on improving leads. Many students commented on their growth with leads but mentioned that they were not happy with their conclusions. For my cognition study that I recently mentioned, the teaching point will be conclusions. While this was already a natural focal concept that I had been planning on, my students' candid reflections reaffirmed that this will be relevant to their current goals as writers.

Pairing up their reflections with a working draft also helped to see how students' view of their progress matched up with the actual transfer into their writing. There was a range of levels to which extent the drafts actually matched up to reflected growth. While some students seemed to be using the teaching point language as buzz words that were not actually apparent in their writing, others actually demonstrated the growth. The important part to remember is that wherever the writers are, it is okay. Those who are talking about the teaching points but not yet showing it consistently in their writing are at least showing a heightened level of consciousness with the teaching points but just need more support and reminders, while other students are working at more independent levels.

It only took about ten minutes for the students to write their reflections, and it was time well-spent. It is always interesting to have a combination of written reflections and conferring - both providing a slightly different piece to the puzzle of who students are as readers and writers.

Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements

2011-02-13T20:59:00.001-07:00

Since a lot of my educational reading this year has been for my doctoral classes, I have not been able to read (and consequently post) about professional books for pleasure. Right now I am at various stages with about four other books, but Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters About Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme by Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm was the first book that I have read through completely lately.

I read most of Reading Don't Fix No Chevys this summer and I have heard a lot about one of the authors because he is a professor at the university where I am getting my Ed.D., so I was familiar with the authors and interested to see their latest book. When I saw them talking about transferring learning on the Amazon preview, I could not resist purchasing it right away. I could tell that their philosophy aligned with the well-known workshop, "Read like writers and write like readers."

For my cognition class this semester, I had been thinking of doing my research project on whether or not writing to learn journals seem to have an impact on helping students facilitate what they notice as readers into their own writing vs. solely discussing what they notice. When I got the book, I realized that there were many mentions of cognition and it actually pointed me toward investigating situated cognition further. I always love it when a book aligns even more closely with a current focal area than I had anticipated.

Aside from the cognition and transfer aspects, in general I just loved the book. Toward the end of last year I was realizing that students were getting comprehension strategies that I had focused on a lot over the last couple of years but that they were not prompting students to deeply analyze texts, so I began considering how to scaffold students' abilities to move toward analysis. This book has many ideas on how to work toward that goal.

Most of all, one of my favorite aspects was the frequent mentions of the value of studying literature as a means to help students develop a stronger understanding of themselves and their worlds which leads to a positive impact on their overall long-term success. A key component of achieving this is through inquiry units. I started out the year intending to have inquiry focal questions all year long but it has not happened. The book was a good reminder to layer that essential component in for the remainder of the second half of the year.

The book provided me with plenty to consider with cognition, analysis, and inquiry, so I look forward to trying out some of their ideas and then revisiting the book again later in order to remind myself of other aspects that I will not be able to immediately implement.

Technology Balance

2011-01-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to stand back and see how teaching beliefs emerge, are shaped, and refined. In my first years of teaching, technology did not play a huge role. However, throughout the last couple of years I wove in a lot more. Right now I find myself reflecting and reconsidering to think about how much technology is ideal and how it varies by grade level.

If it was back at the start of the school year and I knew know what I knew then, I would have held off on the technology with 6th graders until I had a chance to really launch writing workshop and given my students ample opportunity to explore and experiment in their writer's notebooks, as well as building our sense of community as readers and writers. Though my 6th graders love utilizing the various tools in their Google Accounts, at times it seems like the technology has slowed down components of the classroom.

It is hard to know exactly when would be ideal to start layering in technology and to what extent, but I would focus first on building community and confidence in writing, as well instilling a passion for reading. I would focus on book letters and in class book talks vs. books read posts on their blogs. Then about mid-way through the year or toward the end of 6th grade I would start weaving in technology components. I would progressively weave in more as they transition to 7th and then to 8th grade.

With teaching it is natural to think about the concept of wishing for the return of the start of a school year in order to improve based on new learnings and understandings, but that would happen repeatedly even if re-starts were possible. Instead, we have to start sifting through long term thoughts for fresh starts for new years and improvements to implement in current school years. Thus, for the second half of this school year, I am still thinking through what would be an ideal balance, but for now I am backing off of the technology a bit.

I will still have my students type their final drafts on Google Docs (they get to choose whether to draft on the computer or paper) and we are doing some on-line multi-age book club discussions, so it is not like I am completely throwing out technology. The concept of balance, development and growth in the 6th-8th grade span will continue to be a main topic to ponder throughout the rest of the school year. With a strong focus on my top priorities, I will reflect on what is in the students' best interest in order to develop a life-long love of reading and writing, as well as the capabilities that will provide a strong foundation for future high school and college success.

The Lost Saint Giveaway

2011-01-20T17:17:00.001-07:00

Right now I am hosting a giveaway for Bree Despain's The Lost Saint on my Middle Grades/YA Lit review blog. For those of you who love to read teen paranormal romances (or have students who do), you can sign up on my form below. I always love adding beautiful glossy hardcovers to my bookshelves at home and at school! As long as you are at least 13 years old and have a US address, you can enter. I will mail out the books to two winners on January 31st, and then I will delete the Google Doc with the addresses.

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Drawing From Personal Experience to Think Aloud Approaching Texts

2011-01-20T14:27:00.001-07:00

This semester I am taking my first statistics course. Though I have been nervous for the class for quite some time because it is so far out of my comfort zone, I felt fortunate to have a professor who lowered my affective filter on our first class this Tuesday. It also helped that my classmates also seemed to feel insecurities when it comes to statistics when compared to other classes in our program.

Gearing up to read and reading through my first readings for the class, I was thinking about how it is always beneficial to stretch ourselves as readers in order to put ourselves in the shoes of our students to then share how we approach texts with them. While before I had texts that were challenging, I think this is one of the first texts in a long time where I truly knew that no matter how many times I read it, I would not start to really understand it until I go to class next week. These will definitely be texts where I need scaffolding from my professor. Luckily, he mentioned to the class that we would feel this way at the start of the semester. We'll see if by the end of the semester I am able to be more independent following the gradual release of responsibility model or if the content is still too new to feel that sense of ease with the texts.

Last year I wrote about a writing to a prompt as a genre unit that I am doing again right now with my students. This year I am also going to do a short test reading genre study as well. It is still coming together in my mind exactly how I will map it out, but I know that I will focus on the importance of reader's/writer's purpose, making the connections between what we are highlighting for our writing to a prompt genre study and our test reading genre study. I will also be talking about how reader's adjust depending on the type of reading they will be doing.

While reading my statistics this week, I realized or had some thoughts reaffirmed that I can share with my students about difficult texts:

It is important to think about level of familiarity with the content of a text before beginning in order to think about how to approach it. With my statistics readings, I know that I have very little background knowledge. That means that I will always need to read it (or at least ideally): when I am well rested, when there are no or very few distractions, and when I do not feel under pressure (such as a time crunch). I also need to go into it realizing that I will need to slow down, but at times, speed up when I realize that I am at sections that are still beyond my comprehension.
Realistically with this text I was able to get some of the big ideas. Classmates who took the introductory statistics course said that even with high levels of confusion with the readings, it was still helpful to "prime the pump" for class instruction. Knowing that was the expectation, I was able to relax and clearly identify where I had some understanding and where I felt completely lost and knew that I would need to listen very closely to class discussions in order to fill in those gaps.
It was also essential to try to sift through the information to try to categorize the priority level of the information. I watched for key words that pointed toward what would be major take-away points. For example, it talked about the purpose of certain distributions. I know that one of the program goals for students is to at minimum be able to understand the statistics that we read in research, even if we are not going to conduct quantitative research. Thus, knowing the purpose of each distribution will be key in being a strong consumer of research, so when I saw those key words, I knew to slow down and grasp on to anything I could.

I am glad that through statistics I will not only learn a whole new content area, but it will also provide me an opportunity to reflect on what I do as a reader, how I can piece together information as I navigate unfamiliar texts, and have to work hard to build background knowledge and then apply it to future readings. It is also valuable to share with students my own vulnerabilities as a reader and that it is more important to recognize confusion and seek strategies to patch up gaps in comprehension (either independently or with the assistance of someone else, depending on the situation), rather than being too proud to express confusion.

Educational Advantages of Kindles

2011-01-16T12:28:00.001-07:00

I recently got my first Kindle, and so far I have been loving it. Last night I was reading Lorraine Zago Rosenthal's debut novel Other Words for Love. Though I have no qualms with underlining and making notes in the margins of my professional books, I would never make notes in novels, and post-it notes can get cumbersome as well. Last night part way through the novel I started highlighting with my Kindle and making brief notes about different teaching points as I went along. Mentions of plot technique, writer's craft, and literary devices, as well as my own reader response to show insights into the way that I thought as I read along.

In the future, it will be easy to do searches for specific types of teaching points and have authentic excerpts within my reach. Just as keeping a blog recording the books I read has been an invaluable resource in order to recommend books to students and refresh my memory of the different books I have read, my Kindle notations will add another level of benefits for teaching.

Another example advantage of being able to capture my thoughts long term is with different grade levels. This particular book is probably better suited for high school readers, rather than my current middle school age. Yet, who knows what the future will bring. Now I have my thoughts documented so that when I am working with high schoolers or college students, my thoughts on various points of the book will still be fresh.

I am excited to continue unlocking the potential that having a Kindle implies for enhancing my teaching.

2nd Quarter Wrap-Up

2011-01-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Another quarter has come and gone, and I have reached the half-point of the school year even though it is hard to believe. I remember how the time after Christmas break typically seems to go exceptionally fast, so I am gearing up for the end of the school year to suddenly sneak up on me.

With all three grades it was a relaxing last day of the quarter. All of the assessments/assignments for the quarter were due yesterday or before, so today we were able to have some independent reading and a writing celebration for students to share their imaginative writing from the quarter and provide positive feedback for each other.

My co-worker and I were also pleased with the way the new system that we set up to organize and document our conferring with students has been working. We have found a better balance of prioritizing check-ins, as well as weighing the importance of record keeping vs. the time it takes to do so depending on the student.

Next quarter the first two weeks I will be doing a writing to a prompt genre study, and then in the third week my 7th graders will do their state writing assessment, while the other two grade levels complete a writing work sample. This year the 7th graders will do their assessment on the computers for the first time (I was able to choose between paper/pencil or computer versions), so I will include focus lessons about computer formatting in my genre study.

With my 8th graders a lot of the second half of the year will focus on their long-term goals, gearing up mentally for high school, and reflecting on their experiences at our k-8 school. I also want to try out having some 8th graders host book clubs on their Google Sites for the younger grades for the first time. I will probably pilot it with no more than three eighth graders.

With sixth graders, I want to step back with writing and dedicate more time to writer's notebooks - gathering ideas and documenting everyday life, as well as focusing on details that catch and maintain readers' attentions.

Now until the end of the year will also be busy with a lot of state testing. Some of my students have already taken their first round of the reading assessment, but the rest of the students will do their first attempt the week after writing assessments. Then students who do not meet in the first round will have two more opportunities, as well as having three opportunities in math. Then there is the English Language Proficiency Assessment and science for the eighth graders. Even though all of the testing does not directly impact my classroom, the other teachers and I do coordinate so that students are not doing multiple tests at the same time so that they do not get burnt out of testing.

Let's see what the rest of the year will bring!

2010 Wrap Up

2010-12-31T11:36:00.001-07:00

2010 has been an eventful year professionally, and it has provided ample time to reflect on my teaching career. I'm now in my 6th year of teaching and enjoying my students as much as ever. I have been with my 8th graders for three years, my 7th graders for two, and enjoying the fresh personalities of my 6th grade class. Each unique class pushes me in my teaching, and it has been fulfilling to better understand the 6th-8th grade range of readers and writers this year.

While doing some winter break organizing I have also been thinking about students from the other two (four counting student teaching) schools where I have taught. Each placement has been unique, but the one uniting theme has been the joy that students bring.

Aside from the everyday moments in my classroom that I often mention in my slices of life, here are some professional highlights from 2010:

Being able to attend the Boothbay Literacy Retreat will be a highlight for years to come. I hope that someday I will be able to financially afford to go back. So many inspirational people in one place...
I started my Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction this year; I have been growing as a professional because of it. I love spending time with my classmates talking about education, reflecting on my experiences, and further strengthening my own personal philosophies.
Implementing Push-In reading support with one of my colleagues, aligned with both of our literacy philosophies.

I have a lot to look forward to in 2011 with my students and in my Ed.D. program.

Day by Day Update

2010-12-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

I had eagerly been awaiting the release of Ruth Ayers' and Stacey Shubitz's Day by Day: Refining Writing Workshop Through 180 Days of Reflective Practice. I imagined dropping everything and reading it cover to cover as soon as I got it. Then when it arrived, I finally got the full significance of the title. I realized that it would be better to read in smaller chunks, leaving ample time to ponder and reflect. I am not sure how long it will take me to read it, but I wanted to at least do an updated post to mention some of my first impressions.

First, I was surprised at the size of the book. It is pretty thick at a little over 300 and regular textbook size compared to the size of most typical Stenhouse books that I have read. When I skimmed the table of contents, I realized that the size was a good thing - allowing for a comprehensive resource. I immediately thought of the 4/5 teacher at my school who has mentioned wanting to learn more about writing workshop. The day after it arrived, I excitedly showed it to the instructional coach at my school who was also impressed with her initial impression and wrote down the title to order her own copy.

As I was able to read more, I realized that it is not an ideal introductory text to writer's workshop for my colleague. It is perfect for people who are more at my stage who already have a foundation in workshop teaching but are looking to reflect and refine. This is exciting for me as I am able to think through different categories of workshop resources - introductory overviews, those focusing on one component, and now books like Day by Day that help teachers zoom back out to the big picture in order to continually improve.

The same voice that I have loved on the Two Writing Teachers blog is consistent with the tone of the book. Overall, I am thrilled with the resource and am savoring each page. I am enjoying slowing down in order to fully absorb and reflect on their ideas. For the same reasons, I think it would be perfect for a school-wide or department book club/book study. Depending on how I progress through the book, I may do multiple posts at various points, rather than waiting until the end of the book.

Push In Support 5: Present Goals

2010-12-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

As with any venture in teaching, a co-worker and I have been excited to do push in reading support this year as opposed to the pull out model that we did last year, but we know that it will be a continual process. We have been pleased with our progress but constantly have present areas of focus in order to improve, especially in this first year.

Right now we are still focusing on documentation. Since we recently refined our anecdotal records process, we are monitoring to see how the new system is working and to make any adjustments as needed. One huge advantage has been that my co-worker is very organized. I have always considered myself as being organized, but she sets a whole new standard for organization. That has been instrumental in our discussions about how we wanted to organize certain components.

Thus far, my co-worker has not been teaching focus lessons which was our original intent. It ended up working better to layer in different components though, and I think that we will be able to add in having her teach some of the lessons soon. Nonetheless, she has been doing an excellent job weaving in teaching points to book club discussions and conferring sessions. It is one more example, where we are able to talk about current goals for the classroom and collaborate to have multiple layers of support for students.

I am excited to see where our collaborations and discussions will take us in the rest of the school year. I feel so fortunate to work with a colleague whose literacy vision is so closely aligned to my own. I can tell how we push each other's thinking and keep each other grounded on our highest priorities for the literacy environment that we want to create for our students.

¡Sí Se Puede! Learning from a High School That Beat the Odds

2010-12-20T08:49:00.002-07:00

This weekend I read Úrsula Casanova's ¡Sí Se Puede! Learning from a High School that Beat the Odds. The title caught my attention because coincidentally I had just titled my pilot study with ¡Sí Se Puede! as well. One reason why I wanted to buy it was because classmates in my doctoral program have talked about wanting to see more resources about what works in regular public schools, after seeing an overemphasis on charter schools in Waiting for Superman. I was also intrigued because it shares the story of a school with a high level of success throughout the school's history (a little over 20 years).

Casanova shares the story of Cebola High School, discussing its inception, as well as how it has evolved over the years. It was interesting to read about what the district did in order to provide the first leaders of the school with a foundation of success, such as talking to the first principal, Jon Walk, close to two years before opening the school, allowing for careful planning. Casanova detailed Walk's process of planning and leading the school in its first years. She also discussed the integral role the guidance office played, lead by the first director of guidance, James Sullivan. The high level of thought that went into the initial stages of the school, set the school up for long-term success with a strong foundational vision and core values. Though the leadership and staff recognized the need for change with time in order to improve, they stuck to their original vision and core values.

Though the book was repetitive with some phrases/sentences throughout the book, it is a valuable contribution to the body of school reform literature, especially at the high school level.

Push In Support - Post 4: Mid-Year Update

2010-12-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

With the last week before the break, I got behind on my intended schedule for my push in support series of posts. Today I will pick back up by discussing how the year has been going since the TOSA at my school and I realized we had a shared vision about ideal reading support for students. One aspect that has been highly beneficial in making our push-in model be more successful is being able to meet together to debrief and plan. It works out in our schedules to meet two times per week during my prep period for about 45 minutes. We still meet on my Spanish weeks when needed to get ready for the next English week. We use the planning time to talk about whichever area of growth is most necessary at the time or to prepare. Topics have included:

Conferring
Book clubs
A system for anecdotal records
Discussing what we notice about students to collaborate on what we think would be the next best step
Talking about data from multiple sources to determine which students are ready for the earlier rounds of state testing in reading

The year started off a little bit slow, as it typically does because I needed to do running records/QRIs in Spanish and English. However, it was so nice to have the TOSA in my classroom because she was able to begin conferring. Through her notes, I felt like I was able to get to know my incoming 6th graders' reading habits to a deeper level than I typically am able to during the time where I am mainly administering the start of the year assessments. Having access to her anecdotal records, along with my observations in class and during assessments and based on standardized test data was very beneficial. For returning students, I was able to tell the TOSA some background information about students based on what she was noticing as well. This was my TOSA's first year conferring, so the start of the year was also supporting her with conferring. I loaned her my copy of Patrick Allen's Conferring, and she quickly bought her own copy. She is a natural at conferring, and it has been a smooth transition.

Aside from being able to get a jump start on conferring because of the push-in model, she was also able to get started on book clubs with some students. We met to talk about different ways to group and select books, as well as the routines in place for selecting book club meetings and due dates for sections of the book. I shared my evolving philosophy of book clubs, and last year I had shared Kelly Gallagher's Readicide with her. This quarter, we have been able to have each student meet in a book club.

Our most recent meetings have centered around refining our anecdotal records process. We began with a Google Doc so that we could both access it at the same time and so that we would have access to it from home. The accessibility was ideal, but there were glitches with Google Docs that I had not noticed since I started using it last year. At times we would be typing and there was a big delay in the words showing up, and we could not move on to another column in our table until the words caught up. In addition, it was cumbersome at times because the area on the screen where it showed the cursor was not really where the words would start typing. At times this would be solved with a refresh, but other times it was not.

Thus, we revisited and reflected many times how we could be effective with our anecdotal records. We recently prioritized our students into three groups: those who need the most scaffolding, those who still need support to be highly engaged readers, and those who are voracious readers with a variety of genres. We also recreated some forms for anecdotal records, going back to a paper/pencil version and keeping them in a binder with a conferring tracking chart in the front (students sorted in alphabetical order and by our priority levels). For now, we are only going to keep conferring anecdotal records on the two groups of students who need comparatively more support. For the students who are highly engaged and proficient readers, we will continue to confer with them on a less frequent basis without anecdotal records unless we observe something that we really want to record. These students often initiate informal conversations about the books they are reading as well. Much of the interactions with these students will occur in book clubs. For book clubs we created a rubric, as well as an anecdotal record form to store in our binder.

Overall, it has been a smooth transition into having push in support, rather than pull out support of previous years. We still have areas in which we want to improve, but are both satisfied with the way the year is going.

Research, Research, Research

2010-12-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was the last class meeting for my fall semester courses. As I mentioned before, one class was a qualitative research course, and it inspired many different directions in which I could go for my eventual dissertation. Today is my first official day of winter break, and I have so many books to choose from for my two week break...

Among the books are some to continue thinking about research, looking at others' research and thoughts about research as mentor texts in building my own identity as a researcher. Here are some books that I have been revisiting recently, as well as others that that I just received and will be reading for the first time:

Revisiting

Literacy and Bilingualism: A Handbook for ALL Teachers by María Estela Brisk and Margaret M. Harrington, 2nd Edition

Language and Identity in a Dual Immersion School by Kim Potowski

Becoming Biliterate by Berta Pérez

New Books - Just Arrived in My Mail Box this Month

¡Sí Se Puede! Learning from a High School That Beat the Odds by Úrsula Casanova

Learning and not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools by Guadalupe Valdés

We ARE Americans: Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream by William Perez

Senate Live Feed & Senate Vote Update

2010-12-18T08:19:00.001-07:00

Eagerly anticipating the outcome of the DREAM Act vote, I was just looking on the Internet and realized that CNN has a Senate live feed from their Politics page. Today is the long-awaited day to find out what will happen!

UPDATED:
The Senate did not have enough votes to bring the DREAM Act to a vote. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the hard work of all those advocating for the DREAM Act. Though it appears it will be more difficult in the coming year with the newly elected Senators that will take office in January, I am still hopeful that eventually it will pass.

The Time is Now - The DREAM Act 4

2010-12-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

The time is now. I have mentioned in posts since last weekend that right now is a critical time for the DREAM Act. I talked about why I believe in the Act, as well as including links from Administration Officials' blog posts on the White House blog. The three most recent are from Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, Eric Holder, Attorney General, and Chris Lu, Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary.

Tomorrow the Senate will be voting on the DREAM Act. You can make a difference now by calling 1-866-587-6101 to be connected with a senator still wavering on the DREAM Act. I am crossing my fingers for good news tomorrow!

DREAM Act 3

2010-12-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

The White House blog now has two new posts advocating for the DREAM Act, one from Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano and the other from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Dr. Clifford L. Stanley.

Push In Support - Post 3: Shared Vision

2010-12-14T15:00:00.030-07:00

As I mentioned on Sunday, it did not take the TOSA and I long to realize that we were on the same page about push-in vs. pull-out support, so our conversations shifted to the ideal scenario, as well as a rationale. The following is some of our main discussion points that reflect our literacy beliefs.

The TOSA would provide push-in support in a team teaching scenario. It was essential that if we were going to be doing push-in, it could not be that she was simply teaching the "pull-out" students in an isolated fashion within my classroom. Rather than having a separate curriculum for students who needed additional support, we would work together to differentiate teaching points based on our state standards.
It was essential to work as a team. Students needed to view us as both being their teachers, not that I was the teacher for all students, while she was only the teacher for those who had not met their reading benchmarks. She could lead some of the focus lessons/whole class instruction, and it would also be important that she interacted with all students.
If she was going to provide English instruction on Spanish weeks to target students, it would negate the hard work we were doing to intentionally blur the lines between "met" and "exceed" students from those who had not yet met. We decided to advocate that by close collaboration on English weeks, we would be doing more good than we had last year every week with pull-out.
Just because students have met standardized reading assessments does not mean that they would not benefit from additional scaffolding/support in order to continually develop a higher level of engagement and analysis with texts. Having a push-in model would give us the flexibility to truly consider the full picture rather than an arbitrary single data source. We can use our professional judgement to balance the level of support that each student needs as well as working towards goals for each student.
The groups would need to be flexible. Just because students have not met their reading assessment does not mean that they have the same needs in order to improve as readers. Therefore, at times students would be grouped by need, while at others, they would be grouped by interest. It was up to us to do a lot of intentional planning behind the scenes to make sure that we were providing sufficient support to students without drawing attention to groups of students.

Now we are three school weeks away from the half way point in the year. We have continued to try, reflect, and refine. We have goals in place for continual improvement. Thursday I will give an update on how it has been going and what we have been learning.

The DREAM Act 2

2010-12-13T20:09:00.001-07:00

Saturday I posted about the DREAM Act and why I think it is essential and could have a positive impact for many students. I have been pleased to see the support for the Act coming from the White House blog, which is currently doing a series on the Act. If you would like to hear more why the it would be beneficial, I recommend you seeing the posts from Secretary of Education - Arne Duncan, Secretary of Labor - Hilda Solis, and Secretary of Commerce - Gary Locke.

I am also impressed with the students who have been working hard to raise awareness for the cause through marches and hunger strikes. It takes a lot of courage to draw attention to oneself knowing others will criticize you. Yet, these students are working not only for their own futures, but also for others who would benefit from the Act.

Here's to hoping for a good outcome in the Senate this week!

Push-In vs. Pull-Out

2010-12-12T08:00:00.009-07:00

For this first post in my push-in support series, I will talk about how one of my colleagues and I ended up trying push-in support this year.

Over the summer I talked to various people for advice on how to best set up the time anticipated that I would have alloted for language arts this year. One of my main concerns was how to best accommodate that some students would inevitably be pulled out for additional reading support. Time and again, people said one powerful word - why? As I was explaining about our failed attempt at push in last year, as well as the challenges of alternating between English and Spanish each week when the push-in support was English only, I had a nagging feeling that it was not good enough to just accept that pull-out was the way it had to be.

Throughout the summer I was thinking through what would work since the year before we had a failed attempt at push-in, as well as why it was important to fight for it and make it work. Before I even got a chance to approach my director and the TOSA who provides additional support, the TOSA contacted me. She was taking courses for her Master's in literacy over the summer and was doing some reflecting of her own and wanted to meet with me.

Our philosophies aligned. We reflected over successes, as well as areas where we could improve in order to provide our students with the best possible literacy opportunities. While she created some excellent learning opportunities for students in previous years, we worried about the negative impact of the stigma of pull-out instruction, as well as the message that some of the policies/procedures with pull-out instruction sent to students. Most importantly, we worried about the over-emphasis on meeting state reading assessments over a genuine love of reading. Albeit unintentional and against the literacy philosophy at the school, it was apparent that many students perceived it this way. We were also worried about the disconnect between mainstream and pull-out.

Tomorrow I will share our vision that came out of our meeting in order to make positive changes in the new school year, walking out the door of the coffee shop with a bounce in our step knowing that we were moving in a direction that would closely align to our literacy beliefs.

The DREAM Act

2010-12-11T20:32:00.003-07:00

I have been hearing about The DREAM Act since I was an undergraduate, and I always get excited about it potentially passing. Now, more than ever, it seems like it might finally become reality. Last week the House of Representatives passed the DREAM Act, and now it is up to the Senate. From what I have heard, this is a crucial time because if it does not pass now, it is unlikely to pass anytime in the near future. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote a post on the White House blog emphasizing the importance of the Act, and there have also been press releases about it (here and here).

As a teacher I am inspired by students every day - their drive, their dedication, and their dreams. Yet, I know that for some students all over the United States, their opportunities will be limited upon graduation because of their status as undocumented immigrants. Many who find themselves in this scenario were too young to be able to make the decision to come to the United States, yet as adults they have to deal with the consequences.

After dedicating my career to helping all of my students realize their potential and set high goals for themselves and watching students give their best effort, it is frustrating and disheartening to see them having eventual obstacles to becoming productive, contributing members of society. As a professional, I have also seen the injustice first hand with a classmates in college whose family poured all of their energy into supporting their child through college without any federal help, only to realize that she would not be able to utilize her degree upon graduation. She had so much to offer, and sadly, she is not alone...

Secretary Duncan explained the situation well at the end of his post:

The students of the DREAM Act are some of the country’s best and brightest. They were raised and educated in America. They are valedictorians, star athletes, community leaders, and are active in their faith. They text and go to the mall. They are Americans in every sense of the word. They have deep roots here and are loyal to the country that has been the only home they’ve known. They are our future pediatricians, teachers, and engineers — if we give them a chance. They are exactly the type of young people America should be embracing.

But, unlike their classmates, DREAM Act students are in a bind. It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents. But thousands of young people find themselves in that position. We can’t let them continue to live unfulfilled lives of fear and squandered hopes. We need to act before we lose this generation. It’s who we are as Americans, at our best. The time is now.

President Obama's comment in one of the press releases also describes the importance:

The DREAM Act corrects one of the most egregious flaws of a badly broken immigration system. A flaw that forces children who have grown up in America, who speak English, who have excelled in our communities as academics, athletes, or volunteers to put their lives and talent on hold at a great cost to themselves and our nation.

I also congratulate the House for moving past the tired sound bites and false debates that have pushed immigration rhetoric into the extremes for far too long. The DREAM Act is not amnesty; it’s about accountability, and about tapping into a pool of talent we’ve already invested in. The DREAM Act is a piece of a larger debate that is needed to restore responsibility and accountability to our broken immigration system broadly. My administration will continue to do everything we can to move forward on immigration reform; today’s House vote is an important step in this vital effort.

I urge those who are in favor of the DREAM Act to take the time to contact senators in this crucial time for the Act. For those who have not heard much about it, you have the opportunity to make a big difference for numerous students by seeking out information about the Act and taking action to support it if you find it aligns with your philosophy as an educator and sense of social justice.

Push-In Support Series

2010-12-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last Monday was my official last meeting of fall semester for my Ed.D. classes. Now I will have a little bit of extra time for about a month. With the break approaching it is a great time to relax, reflect, and post about some topics that have been on my mind this fall.

This week I will be doing a series of posts about push in support. Here is what I have planned:

Sunday - Introduction to push-in vs. pull-out

Tuesday - Shared Vision

Thursday - Progress

Saturday - Short Term Goals