Teaching Hope

This spring break I was cleaning out my closet and came across my copy of Teaching Hope and realized I never did a blog post upon completing it. I had been really excited for the book because I loved all the other books: the original The Freedom Writer's Diary, Erin Gruwell's memoir, and the teacher's guide. I also had an opportunity to meet three of the original Freedom Writers when they came to an institute that I was able to participate in. As an added bonus, I knew that one of my co-workers from my last school was going to have one of his pieces of writing in the book. He had mentioned what he was going to write about before, and I couldn't wait to see how his story turned out.

The book has very diverse stories. While reading some I could not relate to the rationale of the decisions, while in others I felt a strong connection between our experiences. I loved the way the stories were woven together just as the original book with some common themes emerging. My previous co-worker's story was great. Even though I knew part of the story he was going to tell, I didn't realize the full story, which was pretty amazing. I enjoyed learning more about him through the book.

Here is Erin Gruwell's description of the book:

What's The Big Idea?

After reading the first part of Jim Burke's What's The Big Idea? Question-Driven Units to Motivate Reading, Writing, and Thinking, I posted my thoughts. This weekend I was able to finish the rest of the book, and everything that I loved from the initial chapters continued through the rest of the book. Something that I did not mention yet; however, is that the book page on Heinemann has companion resources, with PDF and Word documents of many of the documents in the book. A lot of times books have resources on CD, but I love how this also has the Word documents so that teachers can manipulate them to meet their needs.

Another component that I loved in the book was the level of student scaffolding. Burke gives clear models of how he carefully plans units. He has high expectations for all his students, and provides enough support for them to reach those expectations.

I have always used a lot of themes and big questions when I teach content areas, such as science and social studies. I also used themes prior to this year in language arts; however, when I switched over to reading and writing workshop, I have used themes anymore. Some of Burke's examples are implementations with whole class novels that he is required to teach, but others are for independent reading.

While reading the book I was considering ways to get back to having themes and big questions in my workshops. Next year I will only teach reading and writing, so I am thinking about how I can integrate Burke's suggestions while still allowing students to choose the majority of their books because I do not have any mandated whole class novels. Initially, I am thinking of general themes that would be in most books that students would read. I also want to further explore the option of requiring specific genres for different quarters and matching the reading genres to writing styles.

Burke's book gave me a lot of possibilities to consider.

Kindle?

It was not too long ago that I started thinking more about Kindles and other electronic readers sparked by a post at The Reading Zone. My sister told me that her brother in law got a Kindle and it has been perfect for his college coursework. Instead of lugging around a heavy bag full of books, he just has his Kindle as almost every book he needed was available in a Kindle edition. I checked on Amazon to see how many of the books from my current college writing class were listed, and they were all there except one that had just been released that month. Before buying books for my classes this summer I am going to weigh out to see if it seems like a good idea to go with the Kindle.

As far as middle grades/YA books, I was in agreement with Sarah from The Reading Zone when she mentioned in her post, "While I don't think I want an e-reader for my children's/YA books (because I like to donate them to classroom libraries after reading them), I might like a Nook for my adult reads, magazines, and newspapers."

However, a post by Ruth at Two Writing Teachers got my mind buzzing with possibilities. She talked about how one of her students absolutely loved reading a book on an iTouch using the free Kindle App. I had noticed the Kindle App, but to be honest, I was curious but not too excited because I thought the text might be too small. Her student's response  sparked me to explore more before disregarding it.

Soon my students will each have access to an iTouch, and they will be able to take them home. I thought the Kindle App could have a huge impact on my classroom library, but I was pondering the following:

*I would buy Kindle versions if students would be able to have access to them on their own iTouches. I know that they would probably not be able to have them open at the same time, but it would be great if the books were accessible on a variety of devices, just as the Apps are. If so, that could be pretty amazing, and it would solve the problem of having great books disappear for those that were on the Kindle editions.

*Along the same lines, if it is set up to where students can log in to the Amazon account and have access to the books, I wonder about security with credit cards linked to Amazon accounts.

*Once the book is downloaded, I wonder if students have to be in our school with wireless access to view it.

*How will my students respond to the iTouch Kindle App format? I am willing to pilot it out with some of the books.

I emailed Amazon to see if I could get some answers. Yesterday I was shocked when an Amazon representative called me rather than responding via email. He said that for now my students would be able to log on to access my Kindle store and download books I buy; however, this would give them access to my account tied to my credit card. Also, it is not set up to be a library checkout system, so there is a limit of five downloads per book (or whatever publishers set as a limit). When we were talking, I forgot to ask the wireless question. For now, I don't think it is a very viable option because of the 5 download limit and credit card concerns, but I will be watching because I won't be surprised if this does become available in the future.

There is always something fun and new to ponder with technology.

Cinquains and Photo Story

Yesterday I blogged about what inspired me to have my class write cinquains and then present them via Photo Story and mentioned that I would post more about the process today.

I had my 6th graders do the feather cinquains just like in my college class. The 6th graders wrote exclusively in English with the exception of some choosing to put the Spanish translation pluma as the synonym.

With my 7th graders I decided to try something different. Most of the 7th graders could get enough soccer, so I thought it would be a fun opportunity to utilize that passion in the classroom. After having them play soccer while I snapped away pictures, I continued to guide them through creating a cinquain. However, then I extended it and told them that I thought that it would be even more interesting if instead of all of them doing a cinquain focused on soccer in general if they took the pattern and created them about other sub-categories, such as goalie and spectator. I also told the students that they could decide on the language or do a mixture of language. Typically in dual immersion the languages are strictly separated, depending on the language of the week, but from time to time I like to show how code switching is used for creative expression in writing.

Although each class was different, there were many similarities in the process:
1. With both classes I had them do something active to generate ideas, as my professor had modeled.
2. The writing of the poems was scaffolded (again modeled for me). I loved how all students were able to create cinquains, regardless of their academic and language levels.
3. I talked to each class about how each of them wrote their own poems but that we were going to compile them into one document, so we needed to think of order just as we would with the organization of the other styles of writing we had been doing. I gave some suggestions to spark student ideas, and then they decided as a class. For the feathers they decided to start with the soft/gentle poems, transition to the poems that had other aspects/tones for the feathers, and end with some more soft/gentle poems. The 7th graders built off of each other's ideas and ended up coming up with having a visual soccer field. I probably know the least about soccer out of everyone in the room, so I can't remember the exact positions, but it was something like: goalie-spectators-forward-ball-forward-spectators-goalie. I know that I am missing some more in there, such as defenders, but that was the general idea. It was fun to hear them come up with the idea as a group and debate certain points, such as whether the spectators should be intermixed throughout the whole poem or just be in one spot.

It was fun to create and then watch the final products with the classes. An added bonus is that our school added a Photo Story tab to our school website so parents are able to view the presentations as well.

Idea Generation

"There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together to make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up." -Stephen King in On Writing

This was one of my favorite lines while reading On Writing in my recent writing course. Recently I made the realization that this concept works so well when considered as it relates to teaching as well. A perfect example came up while reflecting on one of the weekends of the class.

One of the genres we studied was poetry. Our professor led us in a cinquain writing with feathers. Part of the exploration to gather ideas was a partner game where each pair had a feather. On alternating turns, one person blew the feather and the other person tried to catch it in different ways. After discussing the tone of the cinquains and writing our own rough drafts we had some time in between sessions to think about the presentation of our cinquains and any final changes we wanted to make.

The day before the class session where we were going to have a Poetry Slam and present our cinquains to the class, at my school we had a staff development day that included teaching each other what some of us learned at ITSC, a recent technology conference. Some of my co-workers were going to share what they had learned about Photo Story. While we were traveling, they were bubbling over with excitement about what they learned at their session. Even though I was glad that they found something they knew would be relevant to their classrooms, I thought to myself that I probably would not incorporate it in mine since I was planning on focusing on other integrations, such as blogging and iTouches (once we receive them for our students). Nonetheless, I had fun learning to use the super easy program.

Fast forward one day, and as I was sitting in our class' Poetry Slam it hit me that it just might be amazing to have students do cinquains and then share them via Photo Story. Just as King had said, "two previously unrelated ideas [came] together to make something new under the sun" for me. I loved the results, and I will post more about the actual outcome tomorrow. 

As a funny coincidence, after I came up with my idea I emailed one of the 2/3 teachers who had presented Photo Story to us that I was excited to try out my first Photo Story project, but I did not tell her anything about what I was doing. At our next teacher's meeting she said that she was going to do something with poetry, and I said that I was too. However, we did not go into any details. After we both completed our projects I was looking at hers and noticed her class did cloud cinquains because they have been studying weather. I guess that just goes to show that the idea of "previously unrelated" all depends on the perspective of the individual. Nonetheless, it was fun to see how the idea worked for 2/3, as well as 6/7 grades. 

The Socially Networked Classroom

Any book focusing on technology integration catches my attention lately, so I bought The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age, when I heard about it via EC Ning book clubs. Although I did not have the book in time to read it for the actual book club, I plan on going back through the discussions. Another aspect that caught my attention with the book is that the forward is by Kylene Beers, someone who inspires a lot of respect.

This weekend at the start of my spring break I decided to finally get to reading the book. The layout was interesting grouped like coffee sizes: short, tall, grande, and venti, with a bonus chapter at the end titled refill. I always enjoy seeing creativity with titles and headings, so it was fun to see how he came up with that idea. The book progresses from classrooms that have very limited access to technology (short) to a high level of access (venti). Yet, he focuses on regardless of the size (or amount of technology available), the coffee on the inside is still the same. 

I liked that he had this attitude to encourage technology integration at different levels depending on individual contexts. Because I am already started on integrating a larger amount of technology in my classroom, the beginning chapters were not as helpful, but I still like the idea as a resource to meet the needs of educators where ever they are at in the process all in one book. 

My favorite component of the book was that it had a lot of lesson ideas including rubrics. Although I have already been integrating some of the ideas, such as on-line book discussions, they were still helpful because it was an opportunity to reflect on how other teachers are setting them up and assessing them. 

As Kist mentions, one of the biggest concerns with integrating more technology is making sure that students are safe. I appreciated that he brought this topic up various times with comments on how other teachers are addressing this in their classrooms. 

The book also got me thinking of having students do electronic portfolios, rather than traditional paper versions. Next year my co-worker with be teaching the official technology class, and I talked to her about how keyboarding would be one of the most beneficial skills for the students to become more proficient at for long term success. I am excited that they will  have a stronger base, which will facilitate everything I want to do in my room with writing. I will experiment with electronic portfolios via wikis. I just posted about how Troy Hicks inspired me to branch out into the world of wikis, so this is one more consideration I will think about as I explore. 

I am thrilled that I see more technology books popping up all the time, as well as websites, such as EC Ning and blogs that provide access to other teachers exploring with technology.

Technology Advice from Troy Hicks

With the advance of technology, one of the most exciting aspects for me is that it is easier to get in contact with authors and other teachers to share ideas. I most enjoy books where the author writes in a conversational tone as if they are talking with their colleagues. These authors feel like mentors because of their tone.

As I have been experimenting with technology more than ever and plan to have technology and literacy be the emphasis of my doctoral research, Troy Hicks, author of The Digital Writing Workshop is one of those authors that I consider a mentor. I recently emailed him for advice on the best platform to use in order to meet the goals of how I want to use technology in my classroom. I explained that I wanted to find something that would fit the following:
*Allow students to begin their own blogs in a private setting for free (Parents were more comfortable with their students starting out their personal blogs in an environment only open to our students and their families.)
*Have a threaded comments feature, especially for book club discussions, for free
*A platform where it is easy to upload audio files

The following is an excerpt of his response to me:

The tool that I choose for my own teaching is a wiki. In particular, I use Wikispaces almost exclusively and would suggest that you give it a try. Here are two that you might want to look at for my pre-service methods course as well as our writing project:

    * http://eng315.wikispaces.com

    * http://chippewariverwp.wikispaces.com

First, with the idea of threaded discussions, you can create pages on the wiki and use the "discussion" tab for students to begin threads. The way that Wikispaces threads the discussions is not quite the same as you are probably accustomed to in a blog or discussion forum, but I think that you and your students will adjust to it quickly. 

Second, with the idea of a blog, each student can create his or her own page and "post" new "blog" entries to it, either on the page itself or as links from that page to new pages. Again, like the discussion thread on the wiki, this is not as robust as a model as what you are used to with Edublogs or Blogger, but I think that you need to focus on the purpose of the writing here and not the tool. In this case, students can keep all of their own work centralized and you can have lists of students that link to their pages so as to keep things organized. Also, you can set up RSS for changes to wiki pages, so you can have some of the functionality of a blog in the sense that you can keep on top of the changes. 

Third, with the idea of podcasting, you can upload audio files to the Wikispace or, better yet (to save space) upload them on your school server and then link them. They then show up on the wiki page and you can play them from there or download them. It isn't as elegant as having a streaming service, although there may be solutions for that which I am not familiar with. Also, the nice thing about Wikispaces is that embedding widgets in pages is super easy, so if you do have other forms of multimedia that you want to use, it is simple enough to do. 

Finally, in terms of privacy, you can make a Wikispace completely private with their free K-12 hosting plan. You can make it so only members can see things on the wiki and make changes, and I think that you could set up accounts for parents if they were interested in seeing what was going on, too. 

So, I am a big wiki advocate; honestly, I don't know how I would teach writing without using a wiki. 

Up to this point I do not have any experience with wikis, but I am excited to experiment. After running into problems getting all my 6th and 7th graders set up with Google Accounts, which would have led to creating blogs on Blogger, because of the requirement to be thirteen, I decided to only have 8th graders blog with Blogger. Having a wiki seems like it will be a perfect solution to still infuse a higher level of technology in my 6th and 7th grade reading and writing workshop. It will also scaffold their abilities to eventually have their own blog as 8th graders. I am planning on familiarizing myself with wikis over the summer in order to incorporate it into my classroom next year.

Upcoming books from Heinemann

I recently posted about books coming out from Stenhouse that I want to read. My other favorite publisher is Heinemann, and they have so many great books coming out I don't even know where to start. I am especially excited that they have so many related to technology and literacy since I am planning on my doctorate dissertation to focus on that area.

Adolescents on the Edge

This looks like it will be a great book, and I was excited to see that it has a DVD included. I loved that feature with Penny Kittle's book. I wonder if Heinemann is going to start including DVDs with classroom footage more frequently now. 

Classroom Reading Assessments

I always love any opportunity to read more ideas about assessment. 

iWrite

The Online Writing Conference

Two technology books - can't hardly wait!

Teaching Middle School Writers

There are even more books that caught my eye on their latest book listing, but the above were the ones that got me most excited. 

Year-Long Writing Curriculum "Handout"

Last summer I carefully planned out a year-long curriculum for my students. However, since this year was my first opportunity to integrate a year-long writer's workshop, I have been reflecting all year long on pieces that I have not been able to integrate as well as I would like to or realizing areas that I needed to learn more about in order to successfully integrate them. Some topics that I have studied have been: conferring and technology integration. In addition to continuing to explore technology, I will also be delving deeper into individual genre studies, better utilizing writer's notebooks, and social aspects of writing workshop.

Knowing that I wanted to re-visit my curriculum plan, I chose the year-long plan for my final project. Rather than pulling out my old map, I sat back and reflected on what is most important to me as a writing teacher. I choose to teach writing with a workshop approach because it fits my goal to not only move students toward meeting on state assessments but to become life-long writers. While my year-long curriculum will continue to change from time to time as I grow as a writing teacher, the following are core beliefs that will remain the same:

• Wide writing and reading across genres
• Writer’s notebooks to gather ideas and document everyday life
• Awareness and exploration of the writing traits
• Support in mechanics and editing
• Student reflection on self as writer and personal growth
• Opportunities to share writing

You can view the overview of my 6th-8th grade curriculum plan here. Even though this is as I will submit it, I still consider it a working document. Since creating it I have already considered ways that I would like to update it, such as incorporating multi-genre projects that I thought of after reading Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them. 

Many educators have shaped what I value in education. Some of the most influential in writing are:

Jeff Anderson (an alternative to Daily Oral Language to focus on good examples of sentences)

Nancie Atwell (workshop approach)

Donald Bear (and the rest of the Words Their Way team for word study)

Aimee Buckner (writer's notebook)

Troy Hicks (technology integration)

Penny Kittle (teachers as a mentor for process and workshop)

Mark Overmeyer (workshop and assessment)

(Note: This post is a requirement for my writing class. We each had to choose a final project and then create a handout for our classmates to share our learning. I decided to make a blog post for my "handout".)

And The Winner is...

My 6 year old just drew a name for the winner of Penny Kittle's amazing book, Write Beside Them. The winner is:

Sarah from The Reading Zone

Books To Read...New/Forthcoming Books From Stenhouse

I always love to see which new books are coming out from my favorite publishers Stenhouse and Heinemann. Right now I noticed that they are both advertising new books.

I was so excited to see that Ralph Fletcher has a new book coming out, Pyrotechnics on the Page. I still need to get caught up with one of his other books, Boy Writers.

The other book that I absolutely cannot wait to read is one that is not quite on their site yet but was mentioned on their blog this week - the one from Two Writing Teachers. Their posts are always thoughtful and insightful. I can only imagine how great their book is going to be.

Later this week I will post about books I am looking forward to from Heinemann.

Write Beside Them - Final Thoughts (for now)

This will be my final post in my series on Penny Kittle's book Write Beside Them. However, I am certain that her name will continue to pop up on my blog from time to time because it was the type of book that I could tell right away was going to have a heavy influence on me as a writing teacher. With each page it just continued to get better, and my ideas on how I could improve kept on flowing.

The closing lines of the book nearly had me in tears, but I won't give any more specifics other than that. Some things are better left to be experienced first hand.



(Sunday I will be announcing the lucky winner of Write Beside Them.)

Write Beside Them - Implications for my Classroom

Reading Write Beside Them came at a perfect time. All year long I reflect on my practices, but this time of year especially I think about what has been working well and what I will change for next year. This is even more true because of working in a school that is still growing. I started last year as the self-contained 6th grade teacher for my school, teaching all subjects in both English and Spanish. This year our school grew to have a 7th grade class and another teacher was hired, so I was able to be the social studies and language arts teacher for 6th and 7th grade. Next year the school will grow one final year, we will hire yet another teacher, and I will be able to teach 6th-8th grade language arts. (I am so excited!)

Last year in my first experience as a self-contained teacher, I was left a bit breathless. There was so much to plan and explore. This year I have relished in being able to focus in more on reading and writing, and I can't wait to be able to narrow in even more on these two content areas next year. With this focus; however, I want to get a firmer grasp on my 6th-8th grade scope and sequence. For the recent class I took on writing I chose to do a year-long writing curriculum as my final project. Though I only needed to do one grade level, I decided to do an overview of all three to see the big picture. In my introduction to the plan I explained that it will always be a work in progress because I will always be changing as I grow as a writing teacher. I had just finished my first draft before I read Kittle's book, and I will be making some revisions before I submit my plan to my professor based on areas that I considered while reading her book and reflections from the final weekend of my class. Many of the ideas that I have been wresting with all year came up in the book.

Here's some of the components that the book prompted me to reflect on:
 *The use of quick writes in the writer's notebook: I often use quick writes; however, she uses quick writes daily and in a different way than I do. Her thorough discussion of how she integrates them will improve my writer's workshop.
*Grading and Feedback: The way that I grade in writer's workshop has changed throughout the year as I have experimented with different ideas for writing assessment. I had an aha moment when I read her thoughts that she grades the final product, while emphasizing the process in her classroom. She gives frequent feedback and support during drafts, and provides students with mentor texts of process through her own writing. She also allows for opportunities to re-submit writing for an improved score. I am still thinking through exactly how I want to set up my grading for next year, but she has definitely played a big part in helping me discover my set-up.
*Multi-genre writing: I had completed two multi-genre projects during college and enjoyed the process of each one. Yet, for whatever reason I have never done multi-genre writing with my students. That is one of the revisions that I will be making to my year-long curriculum plan. I can't wait to see how much fun my students have and can already picture where particular students' strengths and individual favorite genres will lead to fulfilling and amazing final products.
*Individual Focus: While Kittle gave a clear sense of the progression through different units of study during her course, she also made it apparent that she recognizes each class is a different set of learners requiring different things to be successful.
*Reflection and Portfolios: So far I have not had my students do enough formal reflection on their writing process and on themselves as writers. For example, I have not had my students do formal writing portfolios yet. This is an area that came up both in my writing class and in Kittle's book. I will be able to implement this during the spring because of the ideas and support from my class and the book.

There was so much to learn from Kittle. My favorite professional development books are always the ones that help me reflect on what is working and what can be fine-tuned with my current practices. I look forward to reading more of her resources that come up under her name on the Heinemann website. I already have Adolescent Literacy, and I will have to go back and read her contribution.

Penny Kittle Q&A

Recently I was able to do a Q&A with Penny Kittle, author of one of my most recent favorite books Write Beside Them. I hope that you enjoy reading Penny's responses, and as an added bonus remember that if you comment on this or any of the posts in my Write Beside Them series you will be entered to win a copy.

Q: Grading and feedback are two of the areas that I have been reflecting about all year long. I like that you have your grading set up to have essays be the main chunk of the grade. Although you frequently read drafts and give regular feedback, you don't grade drafts. 


You mention that drafts are not graded but all drafts are due on time. How do you address issues of students not handing them in on time in order to help students stay on track? You said that you typically read and give feedback on 10 essays a night. This seems more manageable than trying to give feedback on all students' essays at the same time. How does this work? For example, do students have alternating due dates, or do you have students hand in drafts in progress?

A: I don't have different due dates. But kids are kids and some turn them late... so I read about 10 a day until they are all graded. On the weekends I try to get everything done that I can. My policy is to turn back essays within a few days of receiving them. So with drafts, I nag and press and ask for even just a paragraph to get the feedback loop started with kids. I just want to read and help, then when it comes to the finals they go quickly since I know the piece so well.

Q: Do you grade writer's notebooks? If so, how?

A: I read them every other week or so. I give full credit for a 'good faith effort' to write every time we do, to revise or find best lines when we do, etc. I have few kids who don't get full credit, but after a conversation with me, they tend to work harder. Notebooks are a small part of our course grade (10%) so not a big deal.

Q: On one of your student focus sections you mention that you have a procedures for absences. What is that procedure?

A: I have a 3-ring binder in my room that says "Did I Miss Anything?" on its cover. Inside are all of the poems we read, mentor texts, handouts, etc. My students get the two-week planner at the start of a unit that lists the poems and mentor texts we'll be studying each day (there is an example in the book) and so if they're gone on Tuesday, they can check the notebook and get what they missed.

Q: My school is a charter school that has been growing to a new grade level each year. Next year we will add the final grade and be a k-8 school. I will have the same students for reading and writing for their 6th-8th grade years. I frequently consider plans for each year. Do you have any tips on scope and sequence for me since I will have my students for a longer amount of time than you do?


A: For the scope and sequence... try the scaffold of skills (fig 3.1 I think) that has the plan for the semester as a start. Next year the course I teach will be all year, but every other day, so I'll be rethinking that some. I would still teach in genre units and I would likely spend a few weeks on poetry mid-year in preparation for the multi-genre research project. Between fiction and non-fiction, memoir, etc. I think you could spend the whole first quarter on story.

Q: Technology in reading/writing workshop is another area of interest for me. What role if any does technology play in your writing course, other than students composing on the computers?


We are into digital composition now... technology is a big part. Kids create commentaries on video and they do book trailers. It's a whole new world... very fun. But complicated!

Write Beside Them - Teacher as a Writer

One of the common themes that has come up over and over in readings and resources about writing instruction since I started delving into promising practices in writing is the teacher as a writer and the power of teachers who are passionate about writing. I have enjoyed writing with my students the last couple of years.

Naturally with a title like Write Beside Them I was expecting Kittle's book to reiterate this importance. What I was not expecting the concept of a teacher's writing being a mentor of process, rather than product. I had never thought about this distinction before, yet it makes perfect sense. The more I read her comments on this idea, the more I loved it. Teachers can focus on the process and the decisions writers make on their journey to the final product. Then students can receive mentorship on products from published authors and previous student final drafts.

One of the reasons why I think this is an important concept is because it will make being a writer alongside students more manageable for teachers. It is encouraging to know that not every piece needs to be taken to full publication, it is more about experimenting with different genres and living like a writer and pondering the craft. It is also an interesting topic in defining roles of various mentor texts.

I am glad that Kittle made me think about the purpose of my writing versus other mentor texts in my classroom. Now rather than thinking of my writing as a mentor of what a writer can do, I will think of it as more of an interactive process to invite discussion about possibilities, rather than just showing my process. I recently wrote about Google Docs being an opportunity to make my own writing process more transparent. Reading Write Beside Them will only make me a stronger teacher as it helped me to really reflect on what exactly I want to share and show about my process. This is just one more example of how Kittle's ideas will shape my teaching for a long time to come.

Write Beside Them - DVD

One of the amazing components of Kittle's Write Beside Them is the DVD that is included. When I first saw the DVD icon, I thought it was a resource with some reproducibles, but then the portion of the explanation beside it that said, "classroom footage" caught my eye. I always love seeing ideas in action, so I could hardly wait to watch the DVD.

I was even more amazed when I actually put it in. Most DVDs with classroom footage that I have seen are sold separately and can often be fairly expensive, even if they are short. However, this DVD is an hour and 45 minutes in length giving a good snapshot into Kittle's classroom. Reading about master teachers always paints a picture in my mind of what it must look like, but being able to see it is even better.

There was something else I loved beyond the experience of the video. In the book Kittle talks about how not every day runs as smoothly as on the video. She comments, "Video children aren't real children [...] We teach adolescents not automatons" (p. 82). This level of honesty is always important for mentors to convey. Even though students won't behave according to the ideal all the time, every day as teachers we just need to do everything in our power to maximize their growth, while celebrating who they are as teenagers.

I recently asked Kittle where she got the great idea to include the DVD as a resource with her book. She said:

I worked on a project on elementary school with Don Graves (called Inside Writing) and we filmed in four classrooms around NH. We had 50 hours of video that we condensed down into a DVD of about 3 hours. I spent hours creating these clips of the footage for our project with a video editor at Heinemann and it was powerful to see it all come together. Part of the reason I decided to write the book was to also produce a DVD, kind of to extend the work Don and I started.

Both the DVD and book are phenomenal. I love seeing the ideas of the book come to life and to have the unique interaction of DVD images in the book to indicate that a piece of work or portion of her workshop is represented on the DVD.

Does anybody else have a favorite professional development DVD?

Write Beside Them - Initial Reactions and Giveaway

I recently mentioned that I had just started Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them: risk, voice, and clarity in high school writing. Just as my college class and school activities kept me from picking it up for so long, it also slowed down my actual reading. It was hard to make myself go to bed at a reasonable hour or to do other reading with a deadline over finishing up the book. It was that good.

It has been an excellent resource as I have been constantly reflecting over my current writer's workshop set up for this year and considering goals for short and long term improvements.

Because I enjoyed the book so much, I am very excited to announce that I have an extra copy of the book that I would like to give away. For the next two weeks I will be posting different thoughts/reflections about the book. Each time you comment on any of the posts about the book, I will enter you in the drawing that will take place on Sunday, March 21st. On your comment just make sure that there is a way I can contact you in case you win. If your comment does not link back to your blog, try to leave an email. I will also announce the winner.

For now I am going to sit back and revel all of her brilliant thoughts and continue to ponder the implications for my classroom, but stay tuned for posts revolving around the book! In the meantime, you can learn more about the book on Heinemann's site and on the English Companion Ning book club discussion that occurred last November/December. I know that I will be exploring the posts from the book club since I was not able to participate at the time but am sure it has many great ideas.