Very Brief Reflections on Day 2

I didn't have a chance to write a blog post for yesterday, and it is almost time to get started for today. I do have my notes and some of my class reflections ready to go, so later I will do some longer reflections about the retreat. For now, I will just say that day two was absolutely amazing. I am so glad that I decided to come to the retreat. It truly is the professional development opportunity of my dreams. I enjoyed time for writing in the morning with a focus lesson from Linda Rief, a discussion guided by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst about technology and literacy, Sarah Kajder's technology presentation, and Chris Crutcher's speaking in the evening. Chris Crutcher read an excerpt from Deadline, and once again, I found myself loving the read aloud. All of the speakers are very engaging and warm. I also found a great group of colleagues to work with, which was a nice relief since I came by myself. I always love learning from educators from different geographic regions - so much to learn!

Reflections on Night 1 (the abbreviated version)

I have been doing some assignments to go along with the Boothbay Literacy Retreat in order to earn graduate credits as an independent study toward my doctorate. One of the assignments that I built in as I proposed what I would do for the course was reflections. Last night when I got back from the evening of events, I reflected on the experience this far. I will try to post abbreviated versions of my reflections on the blog. As I started typing I realized that I should narrow it down to one piece of the evening.

Last night Kylene Beers gave us a glimpse into the history of the retreat, now in its third year. She mentioned that her and Robert Probst's vision was to have a retreat, rather than any other style of professional development. They wanted to make sure that it was hosted at a stunning location in the north, so it would not only be beautiful, but it would be cool enough in the summer to spend a lot of time outside. It was also important to end the first night with storytelling. We were in for a treat. Penny Kittle read aloud to us from her books, Public Teaching and The Greatest Catch. In the moment, I was not focusing on anything else but the stories of her life and teaching that were captivating me.

Yet, when I sat down to reflect last night, I realized so much more was happening. Penny Kittle was reaffirming my belief that regardless of the age, we should be reading aloud. Though I advocate reading aloud and read to my students on a daily basis, I had always thought of myself as someone who did not enjoy texts being read aloud. My mind often wanders and then I am not able to flip back to see what I missed. I thought it had to do with the type of learner that I am. However, last night my mind was engaged the whole time. I realized that as an adult, I can enjoy being read aloud to with the right text and the right reader. I thought back to why I enjoyed the experience so much, and thus, Penny's storytelling turned into a mentor for how to read aloud - facial expressions, voice intonation, pausing...

Another layer of learning from this was a mentor as a writer. Penny wrote with incredible voice, and it was fun to actually hear it being read aloud from her so that the voice comes through even stronger. I can imagine her students being enthralled when she is sharing her writing with them as mentors of process. Again, I was thinking about the way she was reading and the effect it had on me and relating it back to looking at my teaching to examine how I can improve when I am sharing my writing with my students.

Finally, it was inspiring. As she was reading, she was making me want to grab for my writer's notebook listing out my own teaching experience stories and what I would tell if I was writing a collection of essays about my teaching experience. Since I went to bed last night right after returning from the session to shower and reflect, I think I will wrap up this post and grab my notebook and feel the wonderful release of thoughts on paper.

(If you want to see a brief post about the weather here, you can see it on my other blog.)

Peaceful Relaxation

I am sitting on the deck of my section of the cottage at Spruce Point Inn, waiting for the Boothbay Literacy Retreat to get started. The weather is beautiful with a nice, cool breeze. Inside the cottage has a cute desk sitting in front of a window. When I walked in I couldn't help but think of the cabin where my husband and I stayed for our honeymoon by a small lake nearby our hometown. While this time I am on my own and overlooking the ocean, the same sense of serenity is there. Number one on the list that I am sure will grow exponentially about what I am grateful for in this professional development experience. Well, I guess number one could have been the excitement building as I was waiting in the lobby for my room to be ready and saw Penny Kittle walk in, then Sara Kajder, followed by Linda Rief (recognized from the covers of their books that I have). It helped me realize that I am actually here! Wait, backing up even more, maybe number one should be looking through the stacks of beautiful journals, all different sizes and styles, spread out over the tables and getting to choose one at registration.

Boothbay Readings - Drive

While reading professional books I expect to notice new pieces of information to see a fuller picture of a topic, but it is always fascinating when professional books spark a thought process with something that is not as completely related to the text. I love those moments of inspiration. I often felt that way while reading David Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The topic of motivation is not new to me. As I would imagine is true with any teacher preparation program we talked about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. However, this book was a great read after having some years of teaching under my belt to be able to dig deeper and analyze the role of motivation in my teaching. The book talks about the outdated concept of motivation that Pink calls Motivation 2.0 based on rewards for good work or punishments for negative attributes versus Motivation 3.0 that focuses on the intrinsic. He also talks about Type X behavior that feeds off of external rewards and Type I behavior that thrives on internal satisfaction.

While reading I felt even more grateful to work at my current school that has so many of the qualities that Pink says are key to facilitating Motivation 3.0 and fostering an appreciation for Type I behavior. The book provided a lot of support to validate the decisions our school makes, such as limiting extrinsic rewards and focusing on doing what is right because it is the right thing to do and a love of learning.

I appreciated that this book helped me to reflect a lot about my current practices and how I can improve to capitalize on environments that will help my students' creativity to flourish even more. Many of the ideas made me think about the desire to meet AYP and how that pressure can affect teachers' ability to be innovative and to work hard to create the best positive learning experiences for their students. That hysteria can also in turn affect students as they sometimes pick up on the tensions surrounding testing.

Many of the ideas in the book were used in the career world context, but it was easy to see how it would also relate to education. I also often thought about how if trends in work environments are changing it is essential for educators to be aware of it so that we can best prepare our students for the job market they will enter.

The back of the book has a toolkit that in many was synthasizes the main ideas from earlier in the book to be applied to different contexts, how to apply the ideas to our lives, and further resources to delve deeper into the topics mentioned. As with the other texts I read for the Boothbay Literacy Retreat, I am looking forward to discussing this book with the group to see where discussions go. I won't have to wait much longer; tomorrow I will be heading to Maine for the retreat!

Boothbay Readings - Get Smarter

Last night after I finished reading and reflecting on "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" I opened up the next article "Get Smarter" by Jamais Cascio. I couldn't help laughing when I read this sentence in the introduction, "Is Google actually making us smarter?" I could tell right away that this article had many points to contrast "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Te article was even mentioned.

Cascio focused more on the long-term vision that we will figure out how to filter all the information that we can receive because of technology in order to maximize the benefit of access to knowledge. He goes on to say, "Google isn't the problem; it's the beginning of a solution."

I am more inclined to agree with Cascio. The Internet and all the tools it provides have tremendous potential for the way that it is changing the knowledge we receive. It is up to us to be concientious users to use it toward our benefit and to accomplish our goals, which varies widely - sometimes to seek knowledge, other times for entertainment, for social networking... I am continually in awe when I see the advances with technology and think about how rapidly they change. It will be exciting to see how these tools continue to improve and grow and how they will continue to help us be more efficient, while maintaining our ability to think deeply.

Boothbay Readings - Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Yesterday while on the plane I started to read Daniel Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us because it is required reading for the Heinemann Boothbay Literacy retreat. I am really enjoying it and will be posting my initial thoughts on the book soon. I hadn't checked one of my email accounts while traveling, but this afternoon I realized that a couple of articles that will be available at the retreat were emailed in advance for those who wanted to read them.

The first article was "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr. Here's my reaction to the article. It will be interesting to see if my thinking changes at all with the discussions that will surround the article at the retreat and to see others' thoughts. One of the first quotes that caught my attention was Carr's comment, "The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle." I can't relate to this. Despite the amount of time I spend on the Internet, I still enjoy reading widely and avidly. Yes, I agree, time spent on the Internet is time away from reading even more traditional texts. Often time flies by and I look at the clock thinking I can't be wasting that much time on-line, feeling like I haven't accomplished much. However, when I am on-line I am often blogging and checking in on other blogs. If anything, being able to share my love of reading with other bloggers has fueled my passion for reading.

Along the same lines, Carr also said, "And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski." Again, I can't connect to this. The Internet has provided me with access to awareness of educational texts/reading for pleasure that I might not hear about otherwise. I am reading more than ever, digging deeper than ever, contemplating more than ever, fueled by other educator blogs and information about educational texts. The Internet has played and will continue to play an essential role in my professional development.

However, there is potential for Internet to take over a lot. I resisted getting a cell phone for a long time because I could not justify the extra expense, and I didn't necessarily want to be on all the time. Now that I will be commuting more for my doctoral program, my husband and I decided it was time to take the jump and each get a cell phone. When looking at plans, we did not get a data plan. I don't want to be "plugged in" all the time because I already hop on the Internet enough. Having a data plan would ensure that I would be spending less time focusing on my girls because it would be so convenient to quickly check my on-line accounts/favorite blogs.

What do you think, has the Internet interfeared with your ability to read deeply?

I'm off to read the other article. I will post about it tomorrow.

I'm in Awe

I always love it when I stumble across pure genius! This evening I was going back to see the rest of the comments on a discussion that Stacey Shubitz started on Two Writing Teachers about technology. John Spencer, one of the teachers who left a comment, mentioned the blog that his students contribute to. Because of the title, Social Voice, I just had to check it out.

What I found was a plethora of mentor texts for my students' blogs for next year. Not only are the students writing about multiple real issues that hold importance in their lives, they are also posting in a wide variety of formats. I love the mixture of art and text, as well as the podcasting and Google Docs presentations.

It is evident that these students are aware of current social issues. They are from Arizona, and many of their posts mention the current immigration conflicts. Here are a couple of posts that captured my attention, although there were many, many more that I could have listed: Education is the Answer and A Letter to America.

Seeing sites like these make me excited to be an educator. Even though I still have a little over a month and a half of summer vacation, it makes me wish for the school year to be here so that I can share their work.

I applaud John Spencer and his students for their great work, and I thank them for the way that I just know they will be inspiring my 6th through 8th graders in the fall.

Word Play

I just finished reading David Lubar's book Sleeping Freshman Never Lie. I had previously read other texts by Lubar and have always loved his use of word play throughout. I was excited to see that the main character, Scott, in this book also loved manipulating language.

In July I will be moderating a Stenhouse book discussion of Ralph Fletcher's new book, Pyrotechnics on the Page. If you also enjoy word play and would like to see more ideas for classroom integrations, I encourage you to join the discussion page. The discussion will officially start on July 12th.

It's Coming

Only 10 days until Heinemann's Boothbay Literacy retreat. In anticipation I just read Chris Crutcher's Deadline. I chose it as one of my selections for my YA class so that I could read one more of his books before the retreat. I later found out that participants will each receive a copy of the book, which will be great because now I will have a couple copies for my classroom library.

You can read my review of the book here.

Educator Insights via YA Literature

One of my favorite aspects of reading YA Literature is when I stumble across a passage that makes me stop and think as a teacher, that makes me understand one of my students or a population of students a little bit more. Yesterday as I was reading Carter Finally Gets It, I had one of those fine moments. Though most of the book is very humorous, the chapter that grabbed my attention titled "Kindergarten" was a little more on the serious side.

In the book, Carter is experiencing his freshman year of high school, which often details his frustration with his lack of focus. He has ADD, but his mom is against medication, saying there is nothing wrong with being a dreamer. His best friend has ADHD, but he does take medication. Sure, I have studied and heard about ADD/ADHD in classes, as well as learning about it at IEPs, but I think this is the first time that I could really get it through a student's point of view.

If you are interested in seeing it, I recommend that you read the quick chapter in its entirety to get the full effect (on pages 78-80). In case you are not able to, here are some excerpts:

"I smash my head into the pillow a few times, and now I'm focused on what Coach said to me during our first game. How life is going to pass me by because I'm always dreaming" (78).

"I think I do a pretty good job of hiding the fact that I don't know what's going on most of the time. I really do try hard, but then I forget to try hard for a second, and it all falls apart" (78).

"I've been in high school almost a month, and it's nothing like I thought it would be. Life just goes on. I thought there would be this click in my head and everything would make sense. But so far, nothing! I'm the same stupid, scared kid I've always been. I feel like I did on the first day of kindergarten. [...] Everybody else seems to have it all figured out and I'm totally lost, following the pack and praying no one notices what a tard I am" (78-79).

And the concluding lines that really got to me:
"[...] and I worry that I'll always feel this way. Like I did on the first day of kindergarten" (80).

Not only does reading middle grades/YA books make me a better teacher by being able to recommend titles, but I am also a better teacher because I gain valuable insights into the variety of students in my class. I feel a stronger understanding and with it a new level of empathy. 

Whole Class Books

I typically do not have whole class books, but for the past two years I have read Julia Alvarez's Cuando Tía Lola vino (de visita) a quedarse with my 6th grade class. Both of the classes loved the book. Last year I did a combo of read aloud/small group reading/independent reading, and this year we did it as a read along.

Last year about half of my 6th graders read Pam Muñoz Ryan's Yo, Naomi León, but I did not have a group of 6th graders read it this year because I have been planning on reading it as a 7th grade whole class read. I plan on reading it as a read along.

For 8th grade I just placed an order for a class set of We Beat the Streets: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success. This year is going to be a very special year for our school. In later posts I will give more details about the history of our school and why this will be such a special moment, but we will be graduating the first class from our school. Much of my themes for next year will be about decisions and events that shape our lives, as well as the importance of supporting each other as they move on to the high school. I absolutely love We Beat the Streets, and it will be a perfect book to talk about how they can make their own pacts to support each other in reaching their educational dreams and keeping their goals in sight. Some of my students have already read the book because it has been in the classroom library since their 6th grade year. Those who have read it also loved it, so I do not think they will mind reading it again as a class.

*Both of the Spanish title read alouds are also available in English as How Aunt Lola Came to (Visit) Stay and Becoming Naomi León.

Reading Ladders

"Readers are made, not born. The experiences we present students can have terrific influence, sometimes more than we can see at the time" (p. 17).

When I saw that Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders: Helping Students from Where They Are to Where We'd Like Them to Be was going to be the English Companion Ning June book club selection, I thought it was a perfect excuse to buy it! Upon finishing the book, I signed up for the ECN book discussion page. I was the 95th member, and the discussion was well-underway. It seems like it will continue to be a lively discussion, and Donalyn Miller, who wrote The Book Whisperer, is one of the participants. I was excited to see that because while reading, I thought that her book was a good book to compliment this one, along with Middle School Readers, Readicide, Igniting a Passion for Reading, and The Reading Zone. 


There was so much to love about this book. I could tell from the beginning that I would like the tone because as I have mentioned numerous times about other authors, I appreciate it when they write as a colleague who can share their experiences, give thoughts to ponder, and make their ideas more transparent. She encouraged her readers to use her ideas as a starting point but to remember that we are the experts making decisions based on our students and contexts. In addition, Lesesne focuses on conditions that foster life-long reading.

The concept of reading ladders is to not just match students with one great book that they will love, but to have successive books to recommend. She talks about reading horizontally (for example series), vertically (a big jump in reading demands), and diagonally (a progressive moment with support - a reading ladder). Lesesne said, "Simply, a reading ladder is a series or set of books that are related in some way (e.g., thematically) and that demonstrate a slow, gradual development from simple to more complex. [...] The intent is to move readers from their comfort zone to books that represent more diversity" (p. 48).  She then went on to give many diverse, thorough examples of the possibilities of reading ladders.

I kept a pen close by as a read to jot down all the ideas that popped into mind as I read through her examples, such as:

• She mentioned how some reading ladders span years. I have 6th-8th grade students, so I thought about having some reading ladder visuals posted around the room and/or on our class blog with different colors (or some other distinction) to show the recommended entry grade level. I was also reflecting on how I could have a visual representation of the horizontal reading that goes on until the reader is ready to move on to the next rung of the latter.
• I want to think of the progress and growth of my incoming 8th graders from the time they started in my class as 6th graders. Remembering their reading journeys could help me create some of our class' reading ladders. 
• I am going to have a theme of the year for each of the grade levels, and I thought it would be great to have a reader ladder for each theme.
• Classics and remakes ladder
• Student created ladders (After writing this idea, I realized that Lesesne later recommend it on  page 65 with ideas on how to scaffold their own creations.)
• Book Clubs reading ladders (with books in our library available in multiple copies)
• And of course, I will need to make sure to have some Escaleras de lectura, to represent Spanish titles in our classroom library.

I am excited for all of the possibilities that there are with reading ladders and to see the impact they will have on my classroom.

iWrite

Reading iWrite: Using Blogs, Wikis, and Digital Stories in the English Classroom by Dana J. Wilber was a perfect book to read so close to leaving for the Boothbay Literacy Retreat and as I start my doctoral program planning on focusing my research on blogging and literacy.

According to the Heinemann website, the retreat guiding questions are: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? Is technology fundamentally changing the way we think? The way we read and write? What tech tools can I use when I don't have access to that much technology?

The book addressed a lot of these same concepts. Wilber discussed a lot about the technologies that students use outside of school that are not always validated in school as worth while literacies. Multiple times she  brought up the concept that while we do not necessarily need to incorporate all of these literacies in school, it is beneficial for teachers to be aware of them. She said, "Not everything they do belongs in the classroom. But it makes sense for us, as teachers, to know about these technologies since they occupy so much of our students' lives and because they are a big part of the ways in which students read and write today" (XI). With the same conversation she talked frequently about the importance of teaching students to think about audience and purpose when navigating all of the new technologies. I loved this concept because ever since I took a course while on exchange at the University of Rhode Island my junior year of college about different dialects of language I was hooked on the topic. Much of my senior projects revolved around language registers and dialects. The way that she advocated for guiding students in understanding audience and purpose reminded me of discussions revolving around valuing students dialects but supporting them in learning which register to use depending on the circumstances for long term success. It was easy to agree wholeheartedly.

Throughout the book there was an emphasis on life-long literacy skills. In addition, she talked a lot about the advantages of blogging with students. I was excited because it validated many of the hunches that I had while blogging with my students this year and the reasoning behind why I want my 8th graders to have their own blogs next year. She brought up areas such as motivation, authentic writing, choice, the role of comments, and regular practice.

I already feel very confident as a blogger, so there was not as much new information for me in the blogging sections. However, it was nice to have my ideas validated and there were some new considerations that the book prompted. I want to incorporate wikis next year. Troy Hicks gave me some wiki suggestions, and I need to experiment with them this summer. Wilber brought up some interesting ideas and thoughts surrounding wikis, so now I feel even more prepared to begin my venture into that medium. My experiences with digital stories have also been limited, so those were other great sections.

For those who want to read more about literacy and technology, this book is a great companion for Troy Hicks' The Digital Writing Workshop that I loved so much back in December.

Boothbay Literacy Retreat Update

Today I just saw that the tentative agenda for the Boothbay Literacy Retreat was updated, and I am very excited about a couple of things. As if the line-up of presenters and guests wasn't already amazing enough, now Erin Gruwell and Penny Kittle will both be there as well. I have mentioned that I am a fan of the Freedom Writers story before. I had the opportunity to meet three of the original Freedom Writers at a summer institute, and one of my colleagues at my previous school was a Freedom Writers teacher and wrote one of the entries in Teaching Hope. Being able to see Erin Gruwell speak will be inspiring, I am sure. This spring I did several posts reflecting on Penny Kittle's book Write Beside Them. I can hardly meet to see her in person!

The one disappointment was that it looks like Nancie Atwell will no longer be there. Nonetheless, I can tell it is going to be an amazing experience. I will be heading over to the east coast in exactly two weeks.

Speaking of Heinemann, the last couple of days I read iWrite and Reading Ladders while I was at my mom and dad's house. Watch for my thoughts on the books in the next few days.

Those Digital Natives

About a week ago I was visiting my sister in law and her family. My oldest nephew who is finishing up his fifth grade year was frequently at the computer, provoking his mom to tell him over and over to get off the computer and threatening to change the password.The morning I left his dad was asking me about how to change the password and was going to have me show him once my nephew went to school. However, the boys convinced their dad to take them to school instead of riding the bus, so I had left before he got back home.

Today when I was coincidentally taking a break from reading iWrite, which talks a lot about technology and the influence on everyday life, I checked my email. There were two Facebook messages, one telling me my nephew wanted to friend me and the second a message from him that said, "hey aunt amanda its me jaime i just started facebook." It was all I could do to keep myself from rolling with laughter. Looks like computer access is alive and well for this digital native!

First Crossing

I just did a post reflecting on the book that Donald R. Gallo edited, First Crossing: Stories of Teen Immigrants on my YA book review blog. The book is rich with possibilities for links to other YA books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as themed units that I mentioned in more detail on the other post. I can't wait for next fall when I can talk this book up to my students.

When I bought this book I had never heard of Donald R. Gallo before, but lately I have been seeing his name everywhere. He wrote or is mentioned in a lot of the articles for my YA Literature Class and he also just wrote an article in the latest issue of NCTE's Voices from the Middle. In the last couple of weeks I have come to notice that he is a big name in the YA lit field.

Slice of Life Mentor?

I was just skimming over Matt de la Peña's blog and was sucked in while reading the first post titled "Woman in a Brooklyn Window". At first I was caught off guard with the topic, while walking back to his writing space with a cup of coffee, he caught a glimpse of a woman watering her plants with her shirt off. However, as I continued to read I realized that he captured me with his voice. There is seriousness and humor at the same time. Then he does a brilliant thing and gives us a quick glimpse back into his childhood before screeching back into reality. It makes me think about my own experiences that make me feel like a child again. In a brief post he does so much.

This would be a great mentor text for older students/adults to show what slice of life stories can do - how they can capture a reader's attention and leave them thinking.

End of the Year & Summer Plans

The end of the school year has come and gone in a blur. It is hard to believe that my students have been on vacation for almost two full weeks! The day after our last day I was reading a book and laughed at a section, thinking I could not wait to share it with my students. Then it clicked that I would not have them back in class until August.

The week after school was out we had two scheduled work days, and I decided to go ahead and work the full week. Because my summer will be a lot busier than usual, I decided to take advantage of the time. It was also easier to do since it was still May and felt like I should still be in school anyway! Recently I have been able to do a lot of reflecting and processing; I just haven't had a chance to blog about them. Hopefully over the summer I will be able to post about a lot of my thoughts.

Until then, here are my summer plans at a glance:

• 1st Week - working at school cleaning up my classroom and looking ahead to next year
• 2 1/2 Weeks - spending as much time with my family as possible and doing homework for summer coursework
• 2 weeks - visiting my sister in Massachusetts, Heinemann's Boothbay Literacy Retreat, and driving cross country with my sister 
• 1/2 week - catch my breath from traveling and spend time with the girls and my husband
• 5 weeks of college coursework for my Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in literacy
• Back to school! (The last day of summer school is on a Thursday, and I go back to school on a Friday for teacher work days.)

I have also been making time for reading for pleasure, as always. Today when we returned from a few days visiting family, there was a box from Heinemann waiting for me with these two books:

Reading Ladders

iWrite

Just as the end of the year quickly arrived, I am sure my summer will be flying by. There is a lot to look forward to, and I also need to give myself a lot of reminders to relish the summer!