Mechanically Inclined

After reading Jeff Anderson's Everyday Editing, I could not wait to read his first book, Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop. Luckily, I already had it on order before I even started Everyday Editing.

Initially, I thought that there would not be a whole lot new as far as background information. I wanted the book for the additional lesson ideas; however, there actually was a lot of additional information as well. Part One of the book contains four chapters of introductory and background information on Anderson's ideas and how to make them work. Then part two has six sections of topics with 4-6 lessons each, and the appendix has example student support documents that accompany the lessons.

Early in the book Anderson discussed how teachers often talk about their students' lack of ability to edit, revise, and self-correct, but in actuality it is a result of teachers not teaching their students with sufficient exposure. He also provides a list of questions for teachers to ask themselves when students are not as successful with grammar and mechanics as teachers would have hoped (10-11). I can closely relate to this because I noticed certain trends in student errors last year with my 6th graders and I provided some support to improve; however, I knew that I needed to be doing more. I just was not sure how. I did not feel equipped to support my students in making the necessary improvements. That is why I am so excited about Anderson's ideas and already have plans to regularly integrate them throughout the whole year. It will be especially exciting to see the change in student writing for those who according to our state writing rubric meet in every area except conventions, which is double weighted.

Anderson advocates brief (5-10 minutes) daily grammar instruction in order for students to internalize the structures. He emphasizes why it is more beneficial to highlight what is right in sentences, rather than a traditional Daily Oral Language program that does not transfer over into students' everyday writing (15-19).

There were many recurring themes throughout the whole book that I loved. For example, instead of getting frustrated with student errors, Anderson pointed out what to celebrate in the error and then how to move the student forward. They were typically a result of students expanding the complexity of their writing and just not knowing how to properly punctuate their new higher level of thinking. In addition, he provided many scaffolding and supports that reminded me of suggestions for English Language Learners, such as sentence frames. This again makes for a seamless transition into integrating his concepts into our dual immersion context where all students are learning an additional language. Most importantly, he is always explaining the spirit of language play in the classroom, making the lessons come alive in order to engage students. Since I am still fairly new to incorporating writer's notebooks in my classroom, I appreciated his explanation of how he sets his up (30).

I am so excited to see the positive changes Anderson's ideas will bring for my students. I love the format of the book which provides sufficient information and modeling for me to picture how to incorporate these ideas into my class. A lot of the mentor texts he mentioned are already in my classroom library, making it even easier. I also want to share the idea with other teachers at my school.

Clementine

This year during summer school I talked to my incoming sixth graders about their favorite books. One of the girls absolutely loved Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. I had never heard of the book before, but then I started hearing about it on other book sites. I decided to pick up a copy when I was at Barnes and Noble last weekend.

I could quickly see why she was such a lovable character. She reminds me of Junie B. Jones and Ramona. I love her wit and humor, as well as one disaster after another that she gets herself into.

I will be adding more Clementine books to my classroom library in both English and Spanish. They will be perfect for students transitioning into chapter books or who just want a fun read. Most of my students are stronger in one language than another in our dual immersion classroom, especially if they started the program in later grades. I can see the books being a great opportunity, especially in Spanish, to invite readers in to chapter books.

Geek High - Teachable Moments in Literature

In middle grades/YA novels it is common for the main characters to talk about school assignments. In Geek High by Piper Banks, Miranda is extremely talented in math, but she enjoys language arts more. She thinks the following when her crush who ended up dating her step-sister asked about the topic of her short story writing assignment, "This I didn't want to answer. Because my short story was about a girl whose boyfriend had been stolen away by her awful stepsister.And--other than the part where Emmett had never been my boyfriend, of course--I'd borrowed quite heavily from my own life to write it. At least, the emotions were all mine" (125). I will include this excerpt when we are doing our short fiction genre study and discussing how many authors draw on their real life experiences for ideas. In combination with author's notes at the end of fictional texts explaining connections to reality (such as Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising) we will look at this topic using different examples.

Lessons That Change Writers

I loved the glimpses into Nancie Atwell's classroom that she provided in Lessons that Change Writers. After an introduction into writer's workshop and mini-lessons that includes a nice outline of the conditions of a writing workshop (XVII), Atwell provides explanations of 76 lessons for the remainder of the book, as well as an appendix with writing mini-lessons resources. The accompanying notebook has masters for reproduciibles and overheads for the lessons that are shown in the book as a small image in the side bars to easily match up the lesson descriptions to the support materials in the notebook. In addition, the notebook also provides student sample writing that can be used as mentor texts/examples during the lessons.

I appreciated that the book also gave insights into how Atwell's writing workshop has evolved from the time she wrote In the Middle. She mentions:

So I pondered the content of mini-lessons and how to make them most effective for my kids. At first I believed that lessons must be responsive--planned day to day in reaction to what I saw kids doing and needing as writers in the workshop. It was exhausting. But then I began to see patterns of needs and information to address in the fall, in winter, and in spring: in short, a course of study of writing. Finally, I recognized that good lessons draw on a balance of ad hoc teachable moments and the teacher's prior experiences with writing and with teaching it (XII).

This is valuable information that I expect will help me have a focus as I map out my year. I will feel more prepared starting the new school year, knowing that there is a long-term curriculum map, while also having the flexibility to make adjustments as needed. Instead of having my vision fall short of my expectations because of becoming overwhelmed by too much all at once, this concept should provide a framework for the year.

Atwell also emphasizes the importance of making sure that the genres we study are authentic genres that students will find in the real world rather than "school genre" assignments (XII). Since I want to foster life-long readers who are inspired to write for reasons other than just because they have a school assignment, I was happy to have this reminder to make sure that I am helping my students engage in real world writing. Then they will feel empowered by what writing can do, rather than dreading it (92).

Students were key to determining which lessons to include in this resource. Atwell requested their feedback on which lessons were most helpful and realized that those that positively impacted them as writers could be classified into four areas: lessons about topics, lessons about principles of writing, lessons about genres, and lessons about conventions, so that is how the mini-lessons in the book are organized (XIV). However, Atwell also provides an outline at the front of the book of when she teaches the lessons throughout the year by month (XXVIII-XXIX). Her explanation for conventions, "what readers' eyes and minds expect from texts, and how marks and forms give writing voice and power and make reading predictable and easy" reminded me of Jeff Anderson's resources (XIV).

While reading the book I decided to not read every lesson. Instead I skimmed through the type of information and made notes on my curriculum plan of where they would fit in naturally, as well as a list of the others at the bottom to keep in mind if the need arises during the year. For each lesson Atwell provides a sample script of what she says to her class, not for teachers to stick to the script but to get a better sense of exactly how she delivers her lessons. She explains her intent, "[...] straightforward invitations to teachers to listen to, try on, then adapt my voice and experience" (XIV). I will definitely start the year with writing territories (as well as reading) and heart mapping (3-13). I read Heard's book with heart mapping earlier this year, and loved the concept. I will do this instead of a personal Coat of Arms at the beginning of the year (I may even use the activities on alternating years so that my students will eventually do both).

I'll end my reflections on the resource with another excerpt from the book that encompasses what I love about teaching in a position where I am encouraged and supported in personal professional development, with approval to try out new ideas in order to improve my classroom:

The other advantage we gave ourselves was permission to teach as well as we could--to read research and conduct our own, develop methods that make sense and help kids move forward as learners, implement others' approaches that fill the bill, and change our minds as we learn more or when a method doesn't help kids as we wish it to. In this thoughtful, purposeful setting, as a teacher responsible for curriculum development and for classes of regular kids whom I adore, I have the power to pose questions about how lessons might help writers, develop the lessons, teach and refine them, consult with my students, and refine them some more (XXVI).

This embodies the idea of teachers as learners seeking professional development and getting to know their students in order to do the best job they can.

TeamWork Q&A

After reading TeamWork, I was excited that the authors agreed to participate in a Q&A in order to gain more of their valuable insights into the process of collaboration.

Q: In the book you discussed how the team discovered that it was more effective to accept late assignments for a lower score, rather than not allowing any late assignments. What other discoveries did the team have over the years in relation to middle school grading policies?

A: One year we noticed that we were recording too many zeros in our grade books. Zeros, of course, were the result of students not submitting their work. We realized that it was usually the students who struggled in our classes who received zeros. When we questioned our students about the apparent apathy toward their work, we most often received responses that indicated the students were overwhelmed by the assignment. Instead of working really hard and ultimately receiving a failing grade, they just didn’t try.

Of course, the problem compounded itself because once a student accumulated one zero, it was nearly impossible to overcome the mathematical deficit to bring the grade up. Once our students realized that they were already doomed for the current grading period, they disengaged from our classes. Clearly, assigning zeros and assuming that students were apathetic was punitive toward our struggling students and was not helping them to develop a true understanding of the content we were studying.

To combat both problems, we adopted the mantra, “Zeros aren’t allowed.” The action plan that accompanied the mantra included two elements. First we offered after school tutoring for our students. Each of us remained after school one day a week to assist students with their coursework. These sessions were free of charge and open to anyone on our team. Students who had a zero in the grade book were strongly encouraged to attend. Secondly, we allowed any student who attended the after school sessions to resubmit assignments for full credit. So, all students had the opportunity to improve their scores and bring up their grades. The most wonderful side effect was that our students walked away with deeper understanding of the concepts we wanted them to learn.

Q: While your team would have always been working to improve, how many years did it take for your team to run smoothly?

A: It is important to realize that “running smoothly” doesn’t mean the same thing as doing everything at once. It is possible for teams to run smoothly from the first day of formation. The key to running smoothly is to set and prioritize goals for the team. Sample goals might include establishing and enforcing common classroom management procedures across the team, using anecdotal notes to track student progress across content disciplines, creating and teaching interdisciplinary units, or establishing frequent parental contacts. Once goals are prioritized, choose one or two to work on until they become normal operating procedure for your team. Then move to the next goal and work toward it. By systematically building each component you desire into your practice and by layering each piece one at a time, your team can operate smoothly and continue to move forward.

Q: I just listened to one of your Stenhouse podcasts and heard the discussion that your team layered in new components each year. Do you have a suggestion for a teaming essential that should be the priority for the first year?

A: The first year is all about building relationships—with colleagues, students, and students’ families! This is not always easy because everyone on your team will have very different backgrounds, personalities, etc. The main goal is to develop an atmosphere in which everyone is aware of the commonalities of the team’s members and in which everyone is working toward the same goals. Here are some ideas for nurturing these essential relationships.

First learn about your colleagues. When teams are just beginning to work together, the focus must be on developing a working relationship with one another. Operating smoothly as a team is dependent upon all members of the team being on the same page. The great thing about a team is you don’t have to do it all by yourself! Have an open discussion about each person’s talents like organization, creativity, or communication skills. Begin to talk about what each person brings to the table. Though it seems tedious, teams should definitely take the time to develop core beliefs as described in chapter 1. These core beliefs will carry the teacher team through decision-making throughout the school year. Though it takes some time up front, the core beliefs will save time and reduce disagreements later in the year. It is important to remember that the core beliefs will need to be revisited often and modified as your team makes new discoveries and comes to deeper understandings about your collective beliefs concerning teaching and learning.

Secondly, develop a team atmosphere with your students. Get to know them academically and personally. Incorporate their interests into class activities. Using surveys (like the one on p.45) to get to know your students is a great way to learn about each of your students quickly. Playing games that require students to rely on one another builds camaraderie, and having students create a team name (p. 39) gives everyone a common identity and helps to deepen the family feeling among all team members.

Finally, reach out to your students’ families. Early in the school year, make an effort to contact each student’s parents with specific, positive information about their child. These contacts may include phone calls, handwritten notes, or invitations to conferences at the school. Be sure to emphasize your desires for their child’s success. These initial positive contacts will create a bond between you and the parents so that later contacts will be more comfortable for all of you even if the conference involves an uncomfortable situation. Continue to keep parents informed by creating a team website, maintaining a team blog, or by sending weekly email updates about team activities. Once your team is comfortable with the way your team functions during a routine school day, consider inviting parents to participate. For instance, invite parents to observe student presentations, tutor students who need extra help, or attend field trips. One of our favorite methods for involving parents is through student-led conferences (p. 48), in which our students and their parents discuss the students’ academic progress and set goals for the future.

Putting the first year’s emphasis on relationships helps a team to focus on the one thing that truly unites us as educators—our students’ success. Building relationships with colleagues, students, and their families provides a network of people who will help to ensure that every child on your team is successful!

Q: I like the idea of student led conferences. We have two school-wide conferences scheduled a year. This year our first conferences will be early in the year, just one month into the school year. I was thinking that might not give us enough time to for the students to get settled and then do all the preparation for an effective student-led conference. What do you think?

A: This would depend upon the purpose of the student-led conference. If the purpose is for students and their parents to review work samples, then there will probably not be enough work for students to share and certainly there would not be enough time for your students to be trained and complete the necessary preparations. However, if the purpose is to involve parents in setting academic goals for each student, then the early date could be beneficial. If establishing goals is the purpose, then we would suggest adding at least one more student-led conference to your school’s schedule so that parents and students could review work samples at least twice during the year and monitor student progress toward their goals. (See goal setting on p. 76.)

Q: I appreciated your tips for staying focused during team meetings to best utilize the time together. My team teacher and I both have less prep time than we were accustomed to. Do you have any suggestions for balancing time preparing for our personal classes as well as meeting as a team?

A: We always found that anything we accomplished as a team benefited our individual classes, so the time we had to plan was not perceived as less, it just occurred in a different setting. Though it is difficult to perceive team time as “part of” your individual planning time at first, the trick is to avoid thinking of team meetings as something separate from your personal planning. Though your meetings may not focus on your specific curriculum, they should result in taking care of other components that would consume at least some your personal planning time. For instance, as a team, you will handle discipline problems, conduct conferences with students’ parents, and plan for integration of units. If meetings are run effectively, your team will be doing the work of the team rather than “talking about” the work that needs to be done. Team meetings should reduce the work you do rather than increase it.

However with that said, there will be tasks that must be completed after the meeting is over. In teaming, trusting that your teammates will follow through on their assignments is critical. For instance, if a team member volunteers to create a schedule for a special event yet doesn’t get it done, time will be wasted and ultimately more work will be added to the plates of the other team members. Holding one another accountable and placing a high priority on the team’s functionality helps. Just as we always respect individual planning time, we carefully guarded the sacred time we set aside for team meetings. We always planned carefully as to what would be discussed during meetings by setting an agenda, made critical individual assignments, and started and ended our meetings on time.

We discovered that the longer we worked together, the more we relied on each other, which really helped all of us have more prep time to handle our individual classes. The overwhelming part of being a teacher, the juggling of a thousand tasks, became less stressful. For instance, during research paper time, when Monique is swamped, Amanda took over the task of making copies required for everyone’s classes, and Kathryn took over completing all parental communication. In this way, our team duties throughout the year ebb and flow so that we can assist each other in becoming more effective in our perspective classrooms.

Breathing Comments Cont.

Yesterday I just posted about the wealth of teaching points available through Breathing. I emphasized one of the key opportunities being the use of dialect in the book. I was just skimming over old entries on Cheryl Renée Herbsman's blog and realized that she talked about the same concept of dialect and perceptions.

Literacy Menus

One of the projects I have been working on while I am gearing up for the new school year is my literacy menus. While I know that I will adapt and adjust as needed, I am planning on jumping right in and trying out the concept.

For reading I am using The CAFE menu, although I decided to just call it Reading Menu since the acronym does not end up being the same in Spanish and so that it complements the writing menu title better. I highly recommend The CAFE Book to learn more about the reading menu. I already created the poster headers for the menu, as well as each individual strategy that I will add on to the wall visual as the year progresses and they are introduced through mini-lessons. This is one place where I strayed from the book, I am pre-making the visuals rather than having students write them on sentence strips. When I was reading the book I got the idea of also creating a writing menu.

I am using our state writing rubric and guide to revision as the basis of my writing menu. It was easier to translate to Spanish because the state already provides the rubric in English and Spanish. Because part of my plan is for students to become more familiar with the state's rubric, I decided to stick closely to the language they use when introducing concepts. In the conventions area, there is not always a direct translation since the rules are not always the same between the two languages.

Below is my rough draft writing menu in English and Spanish. I may end up changing some of the wording, but at least I have a starting point. I will be introducing most of these concepts with Jeff Anderson's ideas/format. While I want to stay closely aligned to the writing rubric language, I may alter it at times if the current language does not fit the mini-lessons I see necessary to move my writers forward.

Writing Menu Handout

Breathing - Teachable Moments in Literature

I recently wrote about not wanting to stop my reading for pleasure to take note of teaching points and the idea of having some of my favorite authors in mind to skim again for certain areas. I just thought of another way as well - I will start doing teachable moments in literature posts for books that really stand out to me with endless possibilities. I will kick off the concept with Cheryl Renée Herbsman's Breathing.

Right away I noticed main character Savannah's southern dialect in narration. When I went on exchange to University of Rhode Island my junior year in college for a semester, one of my professor's there sparked my interest in dialects. He told us about how linguists view all dialects as equal, but people often judge others based on how closely their language aligns with Standard American English. Since then, I have loved the area and most of my remaining major undergraduate projects and my Master's literature review all revolved around the area and the balance between having students see value in their dialect, while also preparing them to be successful. Breathing is an opportunity to both show how the use of dialect brings the book alive, as well as discussing academic vs. social voice in writing. Students will be able to see the advantage of understanding when it is appropriate to use their various registers and seamlessly move from one to the other depending on the purpose of their writing.

The book is also one more great example of using personal experiences to inspire fictional writing. Although I do not know how much of Herbsman's real life crossed over into the book, there is a cute picture of her and her husband as teenagers on the beach when they were dating. It also mentioned that they carried on a long-distance relationship as the two characters in the book.

When talking to students about adjusting their reading to match their purpose, this excerpt will be perfect:

In the summertime I generally like to read trashy books. [...] I never read that stuff during the year, but come summer, I can't help myself. For school I'm always having to get through the likes of David Copperfield or Romeo and Juliet, books where the English is so thick you've got to go over every paragraph six times before you understand what it is they're aiming to say. By the time summer comes around, my brain needs a rest (14-15)

It is also a great dialogue opener into enjoying books from different levels of difficulty and choosing books based on the match up between the level of support needed and the support available.

There is also a fun description of how Savannah and her brother Dog got their names. This will be perfect for Aimee Buckner's idea of History of a Name as part of launching a writer's notebook that she mentions in her Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook (15). I will use it along with an excerpt from The House on Mango Street.

One final lucky find was that Herbsman has a blog, and I just saw a post where she gives insights into her conversation about dialogue at her teen writing class.

Summer Packet Reflections

This summer I have been reflecting a lot on my first attempt of giving my students a summer packet. I still don't know what I will find on the first day of school when students are supposed to return their packets. Regardless, from reflecting throughout the summer, I will want to do the packets differently next year. This year I wanted to make sure that everything I asked the students to do would go along with my belief that they should have choice with their reading and writing. More than anything, I just wanted them to continue reading and writing. That's it. While reflecting, the packet was probably more detailed than it needed to be.

In order to simplify the process, yet still meet my goal of continuing to foster a life long love of reading and writing, students will just read and write with a little bit of scaffolding. This year I was closest to that with reading. Students could read any book they wanted at least four days a week for thirty minutes. However, they also had a reading reflection. Rather than a weekly requirement, I have been considering that it may be more beneficial to have them do an open reflection as they finish each book. The number will be different depending on the student. My recent reflections from revisiting Nancie Atwell's In the Reading Zone influenced my decision of how I could make sure I was not adding unnecessary busy work to reading for pleasure.

With writing, I will have a similar weekly requirement. I am still not completely sure how I will set this up, but I am considering sending them with a spiral notebook with a list of types of writing taped on the inside that they would be familiar with from the support they received in class throughout the year. I am mulling over whether I should have it be an open entry a day or if I should aim for a certain number of entries per week plus a complete longer piece that they could work on over the summer.

I look forward to see students' feedback about the packets when they return. I will consider their thoughts and keep the packet in the back of my mind throughout the year. Then when May quickly comes around, I will have a clear sense of the best way to continue supporting my students throughout the summer.

A final area that I have been considering and one that was difficult this year was that I made packets for both my incoming 6th and 7th graders. My 7th graders were with me all year and had a better context of what I was talking about. However, I ended up making the packet more generic in order to include the 6th graders. I wonder if next summer I will only create it for my returning students and network with the incoming class' teacher to see if she will give them a summer packet or if I will end up making separate packets, one for returning and another for new students.

There is still a lot to think about before making my final decisions for next summer.

Revisiting The Reading Zone

For my last post (for now) on revisiting The Reading Zone, I wanted to make a list of ideas that I will incorporate from the book:

*Have a books we love section in our classroom library (33).
*Set aside pages in the front of students' reader's notebook for a Someday page with book titles that they would like to read eventually (68).
*I loved the quote from one of her students Forrest who said, "With girl characters, I am watching the 'movie,' but with boy characters, I am the star" (22). I am going to share this concept with my students while discussing the pleasures of being in the zone.
*Work toward her goal of having at least 20 books per student in my classroom library and continually look for ways to make my library grow. Even if I have just one particular student in mind when I see it - it's worth it (31).
*Talk to students about three levels of books: Holidays, Just Rights, and Challenges (40).
*I will put a copy of her "Some Questions I Ask as I Roam Among Readers" in my binder that I will carry around while conferring as a reminder to revisit it frequently and to reflect on how I confer with students (93).
*I am going to discuss with my teaching partner the idea of sending notification to parents each time there is a missing assignment and scheduling a conference once a student has three (28).

Searching for sentences

When reading Jeff Anderson's book Everyday Editing, I remember him mentioning that we should not have students looking for example sentences as they are reading a section of their books for the first time. It would be too distracting. Instead, we should direct them to skim sections they have already read when we ask them to search for examples.

I realized that as a teacher looking for example sentences, I want to do the same. As I read when I think about stopping to make note of the page and enough to remind me of the section, it becomes too much of a distraction, just as I discovered that recording my thinking process as reading a full novel for the first time pulled me out of the reading zone.

I recently read Wintergirls, and I saw so many excellent examples. Laurie Halse Anderson is an outstanding author. Then a thought came to me that I can always skim recently read books when I am looking for a specific type of sentence, but I can also have some core authors to skim. For example, I have always loved Halse Anderson, Sharon Creech, and Pam Muñoz Ryan. I can also think back to books that have really stuck with me, and it is a guarantee that they will be goldmines for excellent examples to share with students. This way I can have my cake and eat it too - I can enjoy great middle grade and YA literature without the distraction of stopping to take notes, but I will also know where to look when I need to find sentences for instruction.

Revisiting The Reading Zone

While reading The Reading Zone, so much of Atwell's ideas made perfect sense. One area that stumped me however, was her comments against some of the strategies and literacy practices including metacognitive strategies from educators and resources I had come to trust, such as Cris Tovani, The Mosaic of Thought, Kylene Beers, and Harvey Daniels (pp. 17). (Note: Atwell did not say anything against these educators' ideas or resources specifically, her comments just reminded me of concepts they had advocated that made sense to me.)

As I continued to read the book I tried to sift through different references to the subject to determine exactly where Atwell draws the line. When referencing lessons incorporated in her reading workshop she mentioned, "Each involves kids in a discussion of good books and good things that smart readers know" (42). I thought about how this idea matched up with why the other educators advocated strategies in order to help make a successful reading process more transparent for those who were not avid readers yet.

Later, she further clarified for me by stating, "[...] to make distinctions between study skills that do help readers gain concepts in science and history, and metacognitive strategies that may interrupt children's processing of stories and distract them from the pleasures of the reading zone" (51). In the margin I wrote about how I could relate to this. Right before I came to this section for the first time I had just read Becoming Naomi León and kept notes about different places where I could model comprehension strategies that I had. I thought that if I recorded them the first time reading through it would be more authentic. However, I was distracted from the process and sometimes wanted to just read the book.

Atwell then discussed how she integrated cognitive strategies into her classroom only to regret it. "The sticky notes intruded in the zone, disrupted the flow of a great story, ate up precious hours that could have been devoted to living inside another great story, wasted their time as readers" (54). Furthermore, she explained, "[...] directing story readers to activate comprehension strategies may hurt their comprehension" (56). Another comment against the strategies was, "The problem is that when we tell kids they have to seek connections as readers, we're teaching them to stop engaging in stories and start looking for distractions. And no one can be engaged and distracted at the same time" (59).

Later in the book Atwell makes a distinction between comprehension strategies in the reading workshop and in content areas such as science and social studies where she thinks teachers are responsible for making sure the content is accessible to their students, which may include teaching strategies (61).

Atwell gave me so much to consider, especially in reference to the many resources I had connected with that seemed to go against what she was saying. I ended up making a note to myself in the margin, "I appreciate this as I am developing my sense of quality reading instruction. A lot to ponder - can see her point." My struggle was I that while I got her perspective (it was easy to get why it is not ideal to bump students out of the zone), I could still get where the other resources were coming from and the validity behind them.

My Latest Conclusions
When skimming through this last time I decided that I still agree with the multitude of resources, even though they seemingly contradict each other. As much as possible I will stay out of my students' way this year to make sure that I am not unnecessarily bumping them out of the reading zone, especially when they are already established readers. However, with students that are not established readers I will gather as much data as possible to try to understand what their roadblocks are to becoming life-long readers and I will utilize a portion of the reading workshop to meet with small groups. Each time I will try to be very intentional and aware of the two sides of the debate to make sure that I am making the best decision for my students and the long-term effects my decisions will have on their reading. With avid readers I will still pull them into small group meetings (albeit less frequently) to include them in book clubs or to engage them in reading a book that challenges them but provide support to do so.

I have also found it helpful to have students complete general responses to reading after they complete assigned reading, rather than encouraging them to stop as they find examples. This way they think about what stuck with them. They have heard about the specific strategies, but I often allow a free response rather than stating they have to use a specific strategy. However, sometimes if I am working with a group of students or a student on an individual strategy that seems like it will help them have a breakthrough to be a more successful reader, I may prompt for a response directly linked to instruction.

I wonder what I will think on the topic when I revisit The Reading Zone again in the future, which I am sure to do.

Revisiting The Reading Zone

One of the books I revisit and skim again frequently is Nancie Atwell's The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers. I decided to do a few posts with my reflections on the book. One of the topics that I ponder every time I look at the book (as well as in between times) is whether or not to use a reading log. I love the lure of her thoughts on just checking the page where students are during independent reading time and then using whether or not they have been progressing as an indicator of if they are doing their homework reading or not. I have been so close to switching over, and thought it over again this summer.

I take the concept of making sure that the components of my literacy block reflect what real readers and writers do. I know keeping a reading log would drive me crazy. I enjoy blogging about books I read, but I would not like having to record the pages and time I read each time I do. I even ditched the record keeping that I started filling out with my girls for the library's summer reading program. I realized that I just wanted to sit with my girls and enjoy the experience of getting into the reading zone. They are filled with excitement each time we go to the library and pick out a stack of books that we read together and they look through on their own multiple times before switching for a new batch of books. Watching the clock was taking away from the experience for me, and I also did not want to add in the extrinsic motivation with the rewards the library provided if my girls are already intrinsically motivated. By giving up the reading log for the reading program, I was not forfeiting anything important in the long-run for my girls and still focusing on an environment that will create life-long readers.

I am sure many of my ravenous readers feel the same way. One of my most voracious readers sometimes forgot to hand in her reading log, but there was no doubt in my mind that she had read well over the minimum requirement. For readers like her who are already well established, I would like to get rid of the log. Another student would usually read on the bus ride home but always forget to record what she read once she got home.Then I also think of students who are not yet avid readers and how the reading log is one more tool to keep track of their reading behaviors.

My biggest road block to giving up reading logs is that students do not necessarily always read the same book in school as they do outside of school. Just as I often read one book during independent reading time and other books at home, so do my students. In addition, our dual immersion setting means that sometimes students are reading a book from each language at a time. Other students read to where they need to be for their book club, when applicable, and then continue reading in their other self-selected book. My next thought was that again, students juggling multiple books may once again be avid readers who I would not need to worry about as much, but there are some students who are not necessarily established readers who read books with their families for their at home reading requirement and a different book while at school. Checking their progress with their in-class book may or may not reflect whether or not they did their home reading.

I would love to hear your thoughts on reading logs and whether or not you have found it realistic to skip the record keeping piece while still maintaining the follow-through on the students' side.

Article of the Week

Kelly Gallagher's DVD Article of the Week is an excellent resource for teachers who were inspired by the concept that he presented in Readicide and would like to share it with their colleagues. The video format gives a chance to help other teachers visualize the concept. It shows Gallagher explaining why he started doing Article of the Week, as well as him and his students going through the process. In the short, concise DVD teachers can see why the process is beneficial and how to implement it successfully.

Even though the information presented on the DVD was familiar for me since I have already read the book, it was still beneficial to see it in action. Aside from seeing Gallagher's role as a guide to building comprehension and discussing text structure and features, I also loved seeing his classroom. I always love to skim the big picture of teachers' rooms with all the various components coming together, such as: student layout, bulletin boards, and organization.

The DVD comes with a workshop guide to facilitate the intent of using the DVD in professional development settings.

TeamWork

While reading TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9 it hit me that this year will be my first year working on a cross-content area team. Previously I have always been on a team with the other teachers who taught the same curriculum as I did, such as ESL or reading. This year I am excited to work with a partner teacher with whom I will share students, and we will be able to collaborate together in order to create a more positive experience for our middle schoolers. I enjoyed reading TeamWork as I am getting ready for this new venture because it reminded me of certain concepts to discuss with my teaching partner.

From the beginning of the book they emphasized the importance of building relationships as a key to making collaboration work. They suggested meeting together to determine the team's core beliefs based on each member's non-negotiables, listening to each other's perspective when there was a conflict (p. 13). They listed their core beliefs that were pertinent to middle school in general, rather than content specific (pp. 14-16).

I especially liked how the team looked at each grade level and set goals for the year, depending on the strengths and needs of the specific group (p. 12). They did not just think of it in terms of 7th grade goals, but rather the current 7th grade class goals. Because each class is different, I appreciated how they not only considered state standards, but also what each group needed to succeed.

Another section of the book that I loved and marked to remind myself to discuss as a team was about establishing team classroom procedures (p. 23). When I started at my school last year I met with a couple of the teachers to see what their current procedures were in order to continue successful procedures that the students were used to. My new teaching partner and I have already started our dialogue about common procedures that we want to have. We can skim the list together and make sure that we have not forgotten anything.

They also provide forms and examples that will be especially helpful, such as making sure that they stayed on task to best-utilize the time they had to meet as a team (pp. 26-27) and inspiring students to set goals and be reflective of their learning (pp. 76-77).

A large portion of the book focused on collaborative units to help students make connections across content areas and to build anticipation, as well as the importance of reflective teaching. I loved how the book was full of collaboration in various forms specific to a middle school level, while also reflecting on how they were helping their students be prepared for a smooth transition to high school.

My First Podcast

Here is my first attempt at podcasting. It is very basic, but I will start experimenting with different options as I go along. Originally I thought I could use Garage Band by itself, so I chose that option since it is already on my Mac. However, once I created my podcast I realized that I had to use an Internet provider to host the audio before I could put it into Blogger, so I decided to go ahead and set up my Yodio account where I then uploaded my file that I switched from Garage Band to iTunes. With my students I am planning on having them use Audacity and then upload it to Yodio so that they will not have to use phones to record their podcasts.

Summer Reading Wrap-Up

This summer I have enjoyed reading so many great books that will contribute to shaping my curriculum this year. Best of all, they complement my literacy philosophy and will improve what I was already doing rather than a total overhall of my beliefs of best practices. The countdown is on, and I officially have just 26 days until the teacher return date at my school. This weekend I decided to read three more professional development books, while continuing to revisit previous materials as I have been synthesizing concepts from multiple resources.

Here are the remaining new books, and I read a little bit from each last night. I just could not choose which one to read since I am interested in all of them.



Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop by Jeff Anderson

I got a lot out of Anderson's Everyday Editing, so I am excited to see his first book where he originally presented his ideas. The two books are invaluable resources, and I can't wait to see the difference in my students' writing once I introduce his ideas this year. It will even help me to be more conscious of "good" writing as I am modeling writing for my students.



TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9 by Monique D. Wild, Amanda S. Mayeaux, and Kathryn P. Edmonds

This book just came in the mail along with Mechanically Inclined yesterday. Since my original blog focuses on balancing time between career and family, I am interested to see the tips that this book will have to best utilize my time at work.



Lessons that Change Writers by Nancie Atwell

Earlier this year I was very excited when my director fulfilled my request to get Nancie Atwell's mini-lesson bundle through Heinemann. I have always loved Atwell resources. During the year I was able to start implementing the other half of the bundle Naming the World for poetry. I also just bought In The Middle again. Last year I checked it out from the library, but I decided that I would want my personal copy to refer to frequently. Lessons that Change Writers looks like it will be a great complementary text because it shows how Atwell's classroom has evolved since she wrote her previous books.

Classroom Blogs

Yesterday my teaching partner and I embarked on our classroom blog journey. Sitting side by side in the computer lab, we bounced ideas off each other as we got started. We did not get too far. It was the first really hot summer day so far (around 105), and the heat seemed to shorten the amount of time we could focus on trying to navigate something new. We did accomplish setting up our own edublogs, choosing a template, and starting to familiarize ourselves with how edublogs work.

Since I am familiar with Blogger, it will take a little bit of time to switch over to the Wordpress framework that Edublogs uses. At least many common concepts transfer, and Wordpress is not completely foreign since some of my favorite blogs use Wordpress. My first mix-up was that I thought that I could create multiple pages with posts on each one. I learned quickly the true intent of pages, and verified it before deleting my pages that I had created for each subject area. I will have to rethink just how I want to format my classroom blog.

As soon as my classroom is complete, I am going to change the generic picture on the classroom header to one from my room. I also need to think about which posts I want to add to my site first. I already started drafting my great sentences posts in English and Spanish, but I will leave them unpublished until I introduce the concept to students. For now I am thinking of drafting up a Welcome post that I will leave up as the sole post until the year is underway and to demonstrate to parents at our parent meeting a few nights before the first day of school.

It's Getting Closer...

The realization hit my teaching partner and I earlier this week that we really do not have that much time until school starts. We go back to school on August 14th, so we are just about a month away from our official return.

While my girls were at a craft camp for a few hours today, I met at the school with my teaching partner to complete a few items on our to-do list that we needed to do together. This evening we went shopping for a few school supplies, including binders that we will use to keep our anecdotal notes and student data. I will be using some ideas from The CAFE Book to help organize mine.

Friday we will get together again to try to complete our team to-do list before both working independently off an on before the back to school rush begins. This year especially I am going to try to have as much as my curriculum ready to go before our return, knowing that I will want to spend a lot of my energy getting settled into my new classroom. It is coming right along. This week they painted, and I am really excited about how my accent wall turned out (it is a dark blue). I can't wait to move in and share some pictures.

The Role of Oral Storytelling in Writer's Workshop

Yesterday I was just reviewing the comments that I made as I read Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook last summer and skimming certain sections again. I had forgotten about her suggestion to launch writer's notebook with oral storytelling. She says, "Oral storytelling allows children to tell about themselves and their experiences, and helps me take note of oral language skills while learning about each child" (p. 9). She then explains how she reads a lot of picture books and helps students make connections to the texts. While she is sparking student interest, she is taking notes so that they see her as a model of utilizing a writer's notebook to record thoughts and ideas, which might later inspire writing. Finally, she waits until all her students are ready to burst with a story to tell, and then she introduces notebooks to her students (pp. 9-11). She notes, "That's the secret to getting kids into notebooks. Have them tell stories to each other, keep notes and ideas in your own notebook, share them with your kids, and wait for the right moment, when it seems that everyone has a story to tell" (p. 11).

One of the activities that my students wanted to do a lot throughout the school year was something fostered in their younger grades, What's on top? or on Spanish weeks ¿Qué pasa? Students would share whatever was on their mind. It included big events, their weekend, something to look forward to... Often stories that one person would share would evoke someone who had already shared to beg to say just one more thing that a classmate brought to mind. As I was reading Buckner's concepts it hit me that I had missed an opportunity all throughout the year to strengthen their writer's notebooks. Now this year I will start out with the idea from the beginning and remind students at different points during the year to record ideas of their own personal stories in their notebooks.

Tonight, coincidentally, Ruth over at Two Writing Teachers was talking about her own epiphany with oral storytelling. As different pieces of my literacy block are coming together I always love to hear similar topics from multiple perspectives because each person adds their own personal touch. Ruth is giving me more to consider about how much I utilize personal storytelling. Her post gave many ideas on how to focus on oral storytelling from the beginning.

Everday Editing blog

Before I read Everyday Editing, I had looked at Jeff Anderson's website and followed the link to a blog, Notable Sentences...for Imitation and Creation, featuring great sentences that model various aspects of grammar to promote discussion and learning with students. Originally I thought it was Anderson's blog, but later realized that Lauren Wolter, was the mastermind behind the blog, creating a resource to help teachers network to compile sentences to then facilitate easier implementation of Anderson's ideas.

As I was reading Everyday Editing and saw how Anderson emphasized celebrating student discoveries and writing and then posting them around the room, I thought about how it would be empowering to add a section to also post them on our classroom blog. It would also be a working writing resource for students, as there will not be enough wall space to leave up what we post on the walls year round. This summer when I create our Edublog, I am thinking that I will have a tab with a framework similar to Wolter's where students can leave comments of sentences they find or create. I will start it out pretty basic and add in types of sentences as we introduce them in class. However, from the beginning I will have a category along the lines of amazing sentences so that students have a place to record sentences that really stand out to them even if it is not necessarily modeling one of the areas that we have discussed in class. This ties in well with the literature circles role of literary luminary.

There are so many reasons to be excited for the new school year!

Everyday Editing

Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer's Workshop by Jeff Anderson is another gold mine from Stenhouse. Luckily, since I had high hopes for the book I ordered his other one, Mechanically Inclined, before even starting to read Everyday Editing. Now I won't have to wait as long for it to come in the mail, since it ended up exceeding my high expectations.

As with most of the resources that I have been so excited about, it is a perfect fit for my vision of what a literacy block should be like. I chose the book because this year I noticed a trend that a group of my students still lacked command of areas such as sentences and paragraphing, and many changed very little between drafts. While they made improvements throughout the year, it was an area where I wanted to improve as a teacher. The strategies that I had in place were not comprehensive enough to produce the results I desired.

Because of the inclusion of editing in the title and the subsections listed in the chapters I was expecting this book to mainly cover conventions. However, as I started reading I realized that Jeff's concept of focusing on good sentences to teach grammar ends up encompassing so much more. My excitement built as this realization hit me early on in the book. I started to write a note off to the side listing the other areas of our state writing rubric that his ideas would positively impact: voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions... Then I started to laugh realizing that I was basically writing down all the areas on the rubric, and that is how right at page 10 I knew that I had found an invaluable resource. Further reading through the book confirmed this initial feeling for me.

Another aspect that stood out to me was the way Jeff made grammar so much fun. I could tell that his ideas would inspire long-lasting grammar learning and a fascination with language, rather than dread. I already have a lot of ideas in mind on how I am going to implement his ideas in the classroom both on English and Spanish weeks. While the book provided me with many ideas to use in English, I am going to work on developing some in Spanish over the summer. Of course, there are some that he explains in English that can be covered in the same manner in Spanish.

Jeff Anderson's ideas will be a huge piece to my writing workshop puzzle, and I feel so fortunate to have found out about his ideas.

Thank You Debbie Diller

Earlier this spring I read and thoroughly enjoyed Debbie Diller's Spaces and Places. I had already been reflecting on how I wanted my new classroom to be set up and the book gave me more ideas to consider. Lately I realized just how handy it was. Because of her suggestion to create a classroom map on paper (which I had done previously) with sticky notes (a new idea for me) I jumped at the chance to enlarge the section with my room off of the floor plans. I made a few copies for future reference and set to work with my sticky notes.

Luckily, my director has let me go see my room throughout the stages of construction so that I could see it visually. I realized that my first idea of how I was going to place my student desks was not going to work because it was too narrow. However, since I had used Diller's post-it idea, I was able to quickly rearrange the desks in a new way. This way I did not have to sacrifice the vision of my room having a meeting area at the front by my computer and the Smart Board to facilitate integrating technology in with my reader's and writer's workshop.

Pre-planning is vital in my situation because once I make decisions having to do with some of the pieces of technology I will be locked in to certain configurations. For example, once they put in data drops from the ceilings, the desks will have to be arranged in those areas. Thus Diller's post-it planning has been an essential piece at making sure that I was able to allow a classroom set-up that will help me to implement ideal teaching practices.

Once I had my plan my director and I were able to go into the room and mark up where I wanted certain components with chalk. For example, we allocated the space for my teacher desk, Smart Board, white board, and pods of student desks. This will help make sure that data ports and phone lines are set up according to how I want my room to be. I was lucky that my director was so creative in giving suggestions with my plan. She pointed out areas that I overlooked and suggested we draw an arc around the room so that my pods of desks would be aligned.

I can't wait for my classroom to be ready. It changes so much day to day. I feel so lucky to have this unique opportunity to be able to have a brand new classroom and to give so much input.

Wall Quotes

Recently I was back home since my sisters were visiting my parents' house. We stopped by a local coffee shop, and I loved how they had quotes around the shop. Some were on boards, and others were directly on the wall. I asked the owner where they got them, and she said they were through Upper Case Living.

I know that I want to have some quotes on the wall this year, and if I have them custom made through Upper Case Living they will definitely look better then if I just print them out and mount them on colorful paper. There is also a mom at our school who made signs for everyone's door with similar stick on lettering, so I will check in with her first as well to see if she has any ideas.

I would love to have the following quotes on my wall:

"Reading is breathing in. Writing is breathing out." -Lester Laminack
(I saw this quote on Stella's blog.)

El niño aprende a leer leyendo y a escribir escribiendo.
(This translates to: A child learns to read by reading and to write by writing. I cannot find who the quote is attributed to, but I heard it a lot in Mexico when talking to teachers.)

Read like a writer and write like a reader.
(This is another one that I hear a lot, but I am not sure if it is attributed to someone specific. If you know, I would love for you to leave a comment.)

If I want to put the quotes directly on the wall I would need to get permission, but at least they can be removed. Otherwise, I could have them mounted on boards.

Thank You Mark Overmeyer

Mark Overmeyer recently did a blog tour for his book What Student Writing Teaches Us that is available for review on-line on the Stenhouse site. I really enjoyed the sections that I read on-line and cannot wait to get a hard copy since I do not like to read full texts on-line.

On his blog tour I asked questions at most of the stops, and Mark provided thorough, in depth and helpful questions. I will be referring back to his responses frequently.

Here's a recap of the tour:
1) The first stop at Creative Literacy has an interview with Mark as well as answers to questions from two readers about daily oral language and on-line writing scoring.

2) Next Mark stopped over at The Reading Zone and answered a question about managing writing assessments with a large number of students in middle school, and my question about improving students' conventions without taking away from other areas in writing.

3) At Teaching that Sticks he answered four questions about a variety of topics, and gave me a lot of helpful advice for a question that I had about planning for my writing block over the summer.

4) He concluded the tour at Two Writing Teachers. They explained that he wrote both of his books in 15-30 minute chunks of time over many months. I was encouraged by this comment and can see how writing his books not only provide us the benefit of having a glimpse into his knowledge, but I would imagine it also positively impacted him being a reflective teacher.

He also answered my question about grading. Coincidentally my director, partner teacher, and I had just been discussing grading as we build our middle school program. I had forgotten that I submitted the question. His response gave me important thoughts to consider not only for grading in writing, but for all of my classes. It came at a perfect time and I forwarded his comments onto our team so that we can discuss them together.

I appreciate how Mark gave so many insights along the tour and look forward to reading What Student Writing Teaches Us in its entirety.

Congratulations Two Writing Teachers!

Stacey and Ruth of Two Writing Teachers just announced their exciting news that they have signed a contract with Stenhouse. The book will support teachers in successfully implementing writing workshops. I can't wait for the book to be ready for publication. I know that I will be pre-ordering it as soon as it is available. Looks like it will be another invaluable resource from Stenhouse.

Student Writing Motivation

Last summer when I was planning my curriculum I wanted to have a newsletter throughout the year where students would report about different components of our classroom. I envisioned it having Spanish and English sections but not necessarily direct translations. I also wanted to have pictures of the students and keep track so that all students would have their photo shown evenly throughout the year. I even had a fun name for the newsletter, Las colonias, to play off our classroom base groups.

However, with the first year (in a new position) rush once the school year started, I never introduced this piece I was so excited about a year ago. As I reflected on the school year the newsletter was something that I added to the top of my list of something that would be perfect for writer's workshop. I thought about how both 6th and 7th graders could participate, but that maybe some of the 7th graders could take the leadership role as editors. There will be so many teachable moments to tie in to the project. I have also considered how this could fit in to our classroom blog.

The last week of summer school one of my 7th grade girls was walking around with a notebook telling her classmates about her idea to have a school newspaper. She was getting the students to sign up for different sections in which they would like to contribute writing. I could not have been more excited. I let my student know that I had wanted to do something similar and that they could get classroom credit for their work. I am looking forward to the new school year to introduce the concept, especially now that I already have student buy in. Plus, my student that already started coordinating some aspects will have a sense of fulfillment with her role. It will be a great opportunity for the students to be writing for "real" reasons in our writing workshop.

Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones

I had seen Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For by Thomas Newkirk mentioned various times and was always curious to see what it would be like. When received the email flier from Heinemann with Nancie Atwell raving about the book, that sealed the deal, and I ordered it right away.

Early on Newkirk emphasizes that the book compiles his personal list of what is worth fighting for in hopes that others will ponder what their own most vital pieces are. I have essentially been reflecting on just that as I develop my curriculum for next year (I will be posting throughout the summer with more details). In a time when teachers are bombarded with numerous standards, it is important to take a step back and prioritize. Our school began an official process to look at the language arts standards this summer. This book gave me more to consider as I continue this thought process.

A common theme throughout the book is to "challenge a growing trend in education that requires teachers to work in preestablished (invariably 'research based') systems that sharply limit their capacity to make decisions about curriculum and students" (p. 10). I especially chucked at a section titled "Why Can't We Be More Like Doctors?" because at a previous placement I shared my frustration that I was going through a program to receive my reading endorsement in order to become highly qualified, yet I did not feel my school valued the knowledge/ideas I was gaining from the experience (33). As I voiced this thought my supervising administrator told me to put myself in the shoes of a parent having to decide which doctor to trust my child with if she needed a major operation - a young doctor that people have said is great or a seasoned doctor. The point being that I needed to stick with the "research" backing the benefits of scripted direct instruction for literacy. My experiences of feeling trapped in my short stint of scripted programs built my interest more for the book - knowing just how important it is to hold on to the "good ideas" despite pressure to go with pre-fabricated programs. I appreciated how Newkirk argued that research and theory should play a dialogic role (p. 38). He mentioned that "studies of the way doctors and other professionals actually make decisions show that they rarely proceed in the straightforward, deliberate rational way that we might expect" (p. 34). Pulling from a body of professional development resources teachers should then be able to use their expertise and get to know their students in order to make the best decisions for the context. I am thankful every day that I am now in a position where I am able to do this.

SIX PRINCIPLES

Balance the Basics
The importance of balancing reading and writing instruction was a good reminder. It sounds like after this year I may have a shorter literacy block. It will be ideal to make sure that both reading and writing receive the attention they deserve for a well balanced literacy program, as well as dedicating time to social studies (my other content area) despite the emphasis on reading, magnified by NCLB as I develop and refine my curriculum.

Expressive Writing
Newkirk says, "[...] the balance needs to be shifted--more writing on the part of the student, and less (or more selective) response from the teacher to each piece of writing [...] We may overvalue feedback and undervalue practice--and in doing so have created a purgatory for diligent writing teachers. Volume, to be sure, does not equate with quality, but young writers can't get to quality without volume" (p. 82). This is a good thought to keep in mind when having multiple classes of language arts can lead to a lot of writing if we assess every piece necessary to foster a life-long love of writing. One of the areas that I am considering this summer is exactly which of the components of our writing workshop I will officially assess and which pieces will be peer or self assessed.

Popular Culture as a Literacy Tool
In this section the author explains why it is vital to not disregard the potential popular culture has to build literacy skills.

Literacy and Pleasure
The most important issue from this section for me was his discussions about the correlation between declining reading for pleasure and textbooks. He then outlines four dimensions where textbooks fail. I had been considering whether or not it would be beneficial to request the option of having a social studies textbook, but after reading this chapter, I wholeheartedly agree that it is not the best route for my students. Of course they need to have experiences and strategies to comprehend non-fiction texts, but a textbook route does not seem the best way to achieve this.

Uncluttering the Curriculum
I touched on this section at the beginning of this post. When I read the following line, I couldn't help but chuckle, "The school curriculum becomes a wonder of physics, where material can continually be added, with nothing removed" (p. 132). As I develop my curriculum and prioritize I often go back to the idea of what is really the most essential in order to avoid what Newkirk mentions as "multiple, unconnected programs increasingly chop up the day into smaller and smaller units, often giving the entire school a frantic sense of pace and reducing the sustained time for writing in particular" (p. 139). I try to reflect on ways to integrate best practices that blend together seamlessly to provide a balanced block. Once I have my plan for the year, I will have to step back and analyze it one more time, as well as reevaluate throughout the year that what he describes is not happening in my room.

Finding a Language for Difficulty
This was one of my favorite sections of the book, cautioning teachers against becoming disheartened if they do not feel they live up to the fantasy of being a perfect teacher. He explained "we 'lose' the creature by our focus on the future, on expectations, benchmarks, standards, on 'where they should be.' Where we want them to be" (p. 169). It is easy to want every piece to come together and fall into place immediately as it is hard to know that our implementations are not perfect yet (since there is always something to improve), but he reminds teachers of the importance of enjoying the present and our students. He further mentioned, "Teachers have responsibilities that parents don't have; they are responsible for long-term goals. But I would argue, paradoxically, that as teachers we might be more successful if we can bracket the moment and really pay attention to what is happening before our eyes" (p. 170). Once again the essential theme of balance emerges.

I appreciate the reflections that this book provoked and I look forward to continuing dialogue on the book on the Heinemann teacher forum.

Heinemann Podcasts and Teacher's Lounge

I just read Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, so I was excited to get an email update from Heinemann announcing a podcast available with a discussion between the book's author, Thomas Newkirk and Nancie Atwell. When I went to listen, I noticed a tab for a teacher's lounge. Those who have read my previous posts know that Heinemann was always my favorite go-to professional development publisher. Recently, Stenhouse caught my attention because of their technology pieces that I love so much, such as their blog. It appears that the Heinemann teacher forum is fairly new, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves and to check in to see which new podcasts are available from time to time. I am glad that my two favorite publishers have opportunities to interact with the authors and other educators, opening up many opportunities to network with other teachers.