Writing as a Gift

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Practice of School Reform

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Literacy Beginnings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer Emphasis

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

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

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

The Practice of School Reform by James Nehring

Inside School Turnarounds by Laura Pappano

School Reform from the Inside Out by Richard F. Elmore

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

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

Emergent and Early Literacy

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

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

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

The Castle in the Classroom by Ranu Bhattacharyya

Literacy Beginnings by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas

Literacy Support

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

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

This summer I want to revisit the following two books:

Jennifer Allen's A Sense of Belonging

Katherine Casey's Literacy Coaching

Dissertation

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

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

End of the Year & Beyond

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

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

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

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

Pam Allyn's Best Books for Boys

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Electronic review copy provided

Well Spoken

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Copy provided by publisher