I look back to a time fifteen years ago when I and other librarians and educators were so optimistic about the potential of technology, and I feel incredibly sad and dismayed that I personally was so naive.

I also encourage you to watch the PBS documentary “A Thousand Cuts”, the “award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz tells the story of President Duterte’s crackdown on the press, his pursuit of Ressa and her colleagues, the role of online disinformation, and the implications for democracy.”

What can you do?

1. Contact your representatives and senators and let them know this kind of outright boldfaced lies on an official White Page and means of communication is not acceptable.
2. Sign the EveryLibrary petition.
3. Get involved at the community and state level to fight against book censorship.

Every action and gesture, no matter how small or large, can make a difference . We cannot be silent about the things that matter to us, especially now. Stay strong and do not obey in advance!

For the last six months, I’ve had the honor and joy of creating and implementing a reading dog program for our middle school students through the school library media center.  When I first came on board to this school in September of 2022, our principal invited all faculty to submit a grant application for monies available from our school cluster foundation.  While I did a therapy dog visit in the media center at Chatthoochee High (he became a regular fixture and also visits elementary schools!), I had never included a reading dog as part of my programming.  Since I am a devoted dog mama and love reading, creating a reading dog program seemed like a perfect fit for middle school to me!  While most reading dogs work with elementary age students, I can tell you firsthand there is a NEED for reading dogs with middle school kids!  They want to read with dogs, and the therapeutic benefits, especially as students are grappling with anxiety and other issues, are truly a win win and create additional opportunities for the media center to be that safe space and kids to feel a sense of belonging.

Here is the proposal information I submitted through the foundation’s application process:

The purpose of this plan, Dog Days at the Media Center, is to provide students an opportunity to interact with a certified therapy dog and participate in a read aloud with the therapy dog. This program will provide students opportunities to build reading fluency, a greater confidence in themselves as readers, and foster a love of literacy. Research studies show that providing children opportunities to read with a dog in a library setting can also build empathy and support for others while relieving anxiety and stress. Our target audience will be children identified by classroom as teachers as developing readers who may benefit from this type of enrichment and unique reading experience on a regular basis. Students will have opportunities to read and interact with the therapy dog on an individual and small group basis. According to a study conducted by the University of California, Davis, students who participated in one program increased their reading fluency by between 12 and 30 percent. In addition, our program will provide students opportunities to read new high interest books at their point of need (Lexile level) that we will purchase with this grant.

I am requesting $1000 to purchase high interest books that are accessible to a range of readers (lower reading Lexiles, ELL learners). The average cost of a library book in 2022 is now $20, and this money would enable us to purchase close to 100 new titles (including processing and barcodes that we normally get with our regular book purchases).

First Steps

The grant was funded at $500, and I quickly began researching therapy dog programs in metro Atlanta that specifically provided reading dogs.  There are several organizations in metro Atlanta who provide therapy dogs; while there are definitely trained volunteers out there who have experience with their dogs helping children read, the focus is traditionally on elementary school age readers.  One challenge I encountered was that many of the volunteers were already committed to other schools for the academic year (grants were awarded in early October).  Although I began researching groups in late September, schools typically start in late July or early August in Georgia, so the therapy dogs get committed early and often!  If you are thinking about doing this kind of program, do the legwork in the summer so that you can get a jump on your volunteers and your dogs.

The Alliance of Therapy Dogs was the organization that still had volunteers available for our area, and once the school/program was approved and I submitted our paperwork, I received several emails from various volunteers in the organization who were interested.  Some were a little nervous about working with middle school readers, and others wanted to help, but our schedules conflicted with my part-time hours.  Eventually I connected with four volunteers who were a fit for our needs and hours; one unfortunately had to step back due to unexpected health issues, but I was able to connect with the other three.  While we had three visits from two of the volunteers and their sweet dogs, scheduling conflicts prevented more visits from taking place.

I first designed a Google Form to share with ELA teachers to get names of students who might be interested or a good candidate for our program goals.  In addition, I created a permission form for students to take home to their guardians

I initially solicited teacher input on possible candidates for our program; though there was some response, it was a little short of what I anticipated.  Since that approach fell flat and failed to gain much energy, I turned to our school student broadcast program to help promote the reading dog program.  This strategy was key because once the students saw the visuals I had created for the broadcast, interest began picking up, especially with our sixth graders.  Once they started participating, word spread like wildfire and we had more kids wanting to participate January-April.  I can say without a doubt our students are the best ambassadors of the reading dog program as their sharing their experiences and excitement with their peers helped ignite the interest.  In particular, 6th grade teacher Anthony Force encouraged his students and supported us every step of the way, and I am thankful for the extra TLC for our program that he provided as a classroom teacher.

Reading with Reggie:  Format, Routines, and Organic Growth

Permission Forms and Scheduling

Students would come to me and get their permission form although teachers sometimes came and picked some up for students.  I preferred students coming to the media center because it gave me a chance to do a quick “elevator speech” for what to expect and answer questions.  Once the permission form was returned, I would put it in the stack to schedule.  One addition I made after the beginning of the year was to have students include their lunch slot (to avoid scheduling during lunch) and to indicate if they had a reading buddy they wanted to be scheduled with.  While 8th graders definitely preferred alone, our 6th graders were very social and LOVED reading with peers.  7th graders were also open to reading with a peer or small group.  Eventually I sometimes scheduled kids together that may not have requested to read with another to make sure I could accommodate all the requests; I was happily surprised that kids were fine with this and jumped right into reading with a new or unfamiliar person.  I was also impressed by how kind and supportive they were of each other—this cross-pollination of readers was an element I had underestimated.

For each visit, I would plan a week ahead of time and create a schedule of readers.  I would then create hall passes and get to those to the students either through their homeroom teachers or their ELA teachers.  Initially, I made the passes like a small ticket slip, but I changed over to full size passes so that kids wouldn’t lose them and could find them in their bookbags more easily.  I always included the student’s name, the scheduled beginning and ending time, and a gentle reminder to arrive on time with a book!  I also included a picture of Reggie and used color ink to make the pass memorable and visible.  I would also email those homeroom and ELA teachers to give them a heads-up of the students scheduled and requested them to let me know if they saw any scheduling conflicts.  I kept track of attendees and participants by week in a master Word document that really didn’t have any structure other than a bulleted list by week, but it worked for me because it was simple and easy to maintain.

Reading Time Interactions

Our first human-dog team who ended up being the anchor and shining star of our program was Margaret Dennard and her golden retriever Reggie.  Reggie is nearly 100 pounds of sunshine and the sweetest dog who truly enjoys listening to kids read—it is extremely relaxing to him, and of course, he enjoys all the pets!  Joy and delight are the immediate reactions Reggie generated for adults and kids alike!

Initially, I planned 15 minute 1:1 sessions with Reggie; I realized quickly it was hard to stick to that 15 minute limit because kids craved more time and sometimes time just got away from us.   Other times we might have a brief interruption because teachers or other adults would drop by; it was obvious they needed some Reggie time as well!  In March and April I tried to book 20-25 minutes for small groups and 15-20 for individual sessions.  I tried to stick to these time frames, but I also learned that sometimes sessions might blend and overlap with different kids organically and to just roll with it—sometimes these unexpected combinations created great chemistry between kids and Reggie.

We typically would begin with introductions and chatting with students and letting students pet Reggie;  Margaret’s experience shined here because she always knew how to put kids at ease (especially kids who might have some fear of bigger dogs or no experience with dogs) and to how to break the ice with her warmth.  We would sit on the floor or on low soft seating; most kids preferred to sit on the floor and read while petting Reggie.  Students would tell us a little about their book or what they liked about reading, and we’d jump in.  We had a diverse range of reading abilities and genres, and this is one of the elements I loved most because even once students were repeat readers, no two sessions were ever the same!  Margaret was really skilled at helping kids sounds out words they might not know and was so encouraging of our less than confident readers; she also introduced many kids to the strategy of using a bookmark to keep track of their place on the page, a simple but effective tool that we sometimes forget older readers need as well.

While I did have a target group in mind when I wrote the grant, I think it is important to be inclusive of all students and readers of ALL abilities whether they are gifted or struggling.   While our focus was on helping all readers gain confidence in their reading abilities, the therapeutic and emotional benefits of getting to be with a therapy dog were also paramount to me.  Because we had more students wanting to read with a partner or small group, we also got to see the power of reading with others.  Even when kids ended up reading with unfamiliar students–sometimes planned, sometimes it just evolved that way when time slots might overlap or we had early/late arrivals, the positive energy that was generated by the communal reading was very powerful.  Even if only one or two kids read and a third one simply listened, there was value in that as well.  We never forced anyone to read aloud who wasn’t ready, but we always provided gentle encouragement.  It was also so rewarding to see kids gain confidence in their reading skills and to see the pride in their faces as they read to us and Reggie!

Genres of Reading Dog Read Alouds

Some students always brought a current read; others sometimes would pick something off the shelf upon arrival or ask for a recommendation.  Others wanted to read aloud something they had previously loved and read.  We had a group of boys from Mr. Force who were really into poetry and who brought poems and then asked for my assistance in choosing a poem book on their second visit!

We also had kids read graphic novels!  We had two or three students who were really skilled at reading a graphic novel and who would have fellow students hanging over their shoulders and on every word read aloud.  Others were so adept at pausing and showing the illustrations and pictures to Reggie—it was so heartwarming!  Other students brought upper elementary chapter books, read in pairs or small groups of three; they were truly engaged in both the reading of the book as well as Reggie—we were so proud of them!   I think it is important to let kids choose what they want to read whatever the genre or reading level may be—it is their time and a chance to revisit a genre or book they love, experiment with something new and read it cold, or to challenge themselves with a book they might not normally try.

At first, many kids were shy about reading aloud, but once they realized we were not there to judge and instead focused on support and enjoyment, they warmed up and gained confidence reading aloud.  Those who were already enthusiastic about reading aloud were terrific role models for their peers as well as cheerleaders!  With some of our shy 8th graders, I would try to encourage them by reading aloud with them.  However, this modeling was not needed with 6th and 7th graders.

Additional Promotion, Now and the Future

Once we converted our library software over to AccessIt from Follett Destiny at the beginning of the year, I began using the student facing web app to embed photos and slideshows of the reading dog experiences.   We usually have ten lookup stations available for students here at any given time, so students can easily see the slideshow and photos when they come to look up a book or even walk past the stations.  As I shared earlier, getting slides with photos (all designed with Canva) on the morning broadcast news and scrolling announcements on monitors in the building was also a game-changer!  As you already know, visuals are super important with kids.  Another thing I started doing in March was creating custom bookmarks for our readers.  I initially used the Photo Scissors app to do my cut outs (effective but it does cost money per cut), but I then realized I could do the same thing for free using Canva for Education with the background remover in the photo editor.  I used Canva for all designs and then printed them on our color printer and laminated them; these are very popular with the kids and add a personal touch!  Other ideas for promotion in the future:

• Stickers and other similar items (i.e. in the spirit of the Geek the Library campaign from 2009)
• Teachers’ Pets Program:  though teachers might not want to have a read aloud with your dogs, they DEFINITELY want hugs and pets with the dogs!  Reggie was popular from the moment he set foot inside the building because he radiates joy and is like 100 pounds of sunshine!  We definitely had our regular staff who popped in as soon as they knew he was in the building!  Teachers are so stressed these days, and this is a simple and valuable way to build community with your faculty.
• All therapy dogs should have their yearbook photo made and a school ID—I know they have done this for Hudson at Chatthoochee High, and if I were returning in a part time or full time capacity, I would definitely do this!
• Family Night:  if your school hosts a literacy night, schedule your volunteers and dog to come do intergenerational reading time!  What a fun way to bring families and readers of all ages together!
• Classroom Visits:  we did a few impromptu visits, but these were limited since I wanted the focus to be on reading time in the library.  However, if I were here full time and were fully staffed, I would do some special visit for class book club time or with teachers who wanted to collaborate for a specific class that worked for the volunteer’s time/availability.
• Promote via your library’s social media presence-–TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or whatever you use.

Next Steps

My time is ending in a few weeks as my job was only for this academic year, and I am only allowed to work a 49% hour week under the rules of state retirement system.  I am so sad I won’t get to do this anymore as our last visit was April 20 since testing season started this week, and if you’ve taught middle school, you know the last few weeks are jam packed with special events and other end of year happenings.  I am thankful for our other two volunteers even though we were only able to do three visits—-the fact people are willing to come and share their time and dogs is a reminder of the good in humans.

I will be leaving Margaret’s contact information with the new media specialist who is coming in for next year and hope that she will pick up where we’ve left off.  If I were returning and continuing the program, I would love to “loop up” with the 6th and 7th readers while targeting the incoming 6th grade readers.  Knowing there is such a demand for reading dogs and therapy dogs in this area, I would also be proactive in recruiting additional dogs and their humans through all of the local therapy dog programs because I think engaging and committing early is vital.  If you are in metro Atlanta, here are some of the groups who work with schools:

• Alliance of Therapy Dogs (Margaret and Reggie’s group)
• Humane Hearts of Forsyth County 
• Happy Tails Pet Therapy
• Reading Paws
• CAREing Paws

The Stories of Their Lives and Why Reading Dogs Matter

As educators, we experience the highest highs and the lowest lows. I have seen my share of both across four school districts in 30 years (or I guess I should say 31 even though this year has been part-time). The experience of starting and implementing the reading dog program with middle school kids this school year has without a doubt been one of the most special and unique chapters of my story as an educator; none of this would be possible without the incredible Margaret Dennard and Reggie. Margaret is a natural coach and teacher; she has generously given her time, empathy, and HEART to our students with her caring ear and gentle encouragement.  I am humbled by all the hours she volunteered for us with Reggie at no charge, and I am even more touched by how invested she was with our students and my vision for what the reading dog program could be for kids.

Reggie has let our kids love him, and in return he has boosted their confidence, absorbed and softened their pain and anxiety, and radiated joy. He has listened to their stories—-not just the ones they have read, but their stories of who they are—their successes, their struggles, their hopes, and their losses as well as the silent stories between the lines that perhaps Margaret and I could sense, but that we could not fully understand or as intuitively as Reggie did. Not all dogs (or their humans) have this gift or heart for reading and young people, but Reggie definitely does as well as Margaret—that combo make them special and unique, and I don’t know how we ever got so lucky for the universe to bring us all together.

We have experienced so many special moments with these kids, and on our final day for this school year, was no different. We heard stories about gun violence, drama queen girls, fantasy and adventure, and characters with anxiety. We had students read us poems, graphic novels, and a book from a Kindle. Some did not read aloud, but enjoyed listening to their peers as they petted Reggie—-sometimes peers they know and sometimes brand new peers. One student read her own story! Our 6th and 7th graders in particular have shown character and courage this entire semester through these kinds of experiences, and there are no words to articulate the magic in seeing that sense of community. Kids open their hearts and give us a peek into their lives charming us with their wit and breaking our hearts with their struggles.

On our final visit in late April, we had a group of sixth grade boys come for their reading time; on their previous visit, they brought poems. Today, one brought an informational graphic novel, but the other two didn’t have a book of their own they wanted to read. These two were also reluctant to read aloud the last time though one did and showed confidence. Today he asked me to help him find some poem books so he could read some new poems. I grabbed a few, and he decided he wanted to go with Robert Frost, a choice I was not expecting him to go with, but go he did! He told me he wanted to read a LONGER poem, so he chose one and read it cold like a champ! This encouraged his buddy to read some, and he delighted us by reading three Frost poems as well! My heart was overflowing with joy! Then our new Frost fanboy wanted to read another Frost poem; then he wanted to check out the book and asked me if the public library “sold” reading dogs. I told him they didn’t sell them, but I was sure they would have some this summer that he could read with, and I would get some info for him. I then walked them back to class and made it a point to brag on them to their teacher and peers; the class erupted in applause.

Our new Frost fan is a young man who has dealt with a lot of challenges in his short life, and for him to be the literary star was truly something special and the most pleasant surprise to his wonderful ELA teacher who planted those seeds in him this year. I looked at him and thought of my  late special and cherished friend Roberto and how a sixth grade teacher made a difference in his life, recognizing a spark in him and setting him on a path out of poverty through education and a career as an academic librarian (and by coincidence, a lifelong lover of poetry). I could not help but think of Roberto and felt his spirit smiling on us as he supported so many of my classroom projects the last six years; I hope that for our new Frost and poetry readers, the experiences with me, Reggie, and Margaret will be a catalyst as he goes forward and inspire his dreams and vision for himself.

Final Thoughts

If you are thinking of piloting a reading dog program, start with the organizations in your area.   While you definitely want a dog who enjoys being read to, it is also just as important for that dog to have a human who will be engaged and interact with kids like Margaret did.  If you are thinking of volunteering your own therapy dog for a school reading program at any level, your will have far more of an impact if you are an active participant like Margaret.

We have worked with all kinds of kids and learners this year, and it is our fervent hope that they will carry some of the hope, magic, and love from Reggie and us. These moments will stay in my heart forever, and I hope it will for them as well and fill them with light on days when life is challenging.   I have been lucky to experience so many incredible and memorable moments over the last 31 years as an educator, but this program and all the special moments are easily among my most cherished and important that will stay with me forever.

Thank you to our principal, our library staff, students, teachers, and the school cluster foundation who supported this program and its importance to our learners and our school.  My heartfelt thanks is not enough to Reggie and Margaret as well as Mercy and Honey (she came during her lunch hour from work, so her visits were limited, but we appreciate them!) as well as Nala who came once in late autumn.

To our Reggie’s Readers : “You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world…Stay gold, Ponyboy.” S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

To Margaret and Reggie: thank you for being the light you are and that you have brought to kids and adults alike. You ARE GOLDEN!

My one year stint as a part-time librarian is over in two weeks, but I hope that somehow I can work with Margaret and Reggie again.  I also am now interested in being a volunteer at some point in the not so distant future and possibly having my dachshund Edna get certified as she is very mellow and loving; she enjoys people of all ages loving on her and is super gentle.  I hope this post will inspire other middle and high schools to consider the benefits of reading dogs as a way to support literacy learning for tween and teen students; if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out, and I’m happy to answer any questions.

Click to view slideshow.

• ELAGSE8RL2: Determine a theme and/or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
• ELAGSE8RL3: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
• ELAGSE8RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• ELAGSE8RL5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
• ELAGSE8RL6: Analyze how differences in the points of view of characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

I used this wonderful set of slides from Building Book Love as my starting point; however, I  uploaded the PowerPoint file and converted into Google slides before adding a few additional graphics and changing some of the wording on each slide to be a little more middle-school friendly and/or specific to our story we were analyzing and discussing together.   Once I had altered and modified the slides for our specific activity and learners, I shared with the teacher to preview and approve.  We excitedly then set our date to pilot this activity, and yesterday was our big day!

After a quick review of the story in the teacher’s classroom, the students arrived and joined us in our “yoga studio” featuring a wide open space, a chairs for balance or modifications as needed, soft lighting, and soft yoga music streamed through our projector and sound system from YouTube; normally we have tables in this area, but they had actually already been moved elsewhere in the media center for a guest speaker special this past Wednesday, so the timing for our learning activity was perfect!  We began with a welcome and then a warm-up I call “sprinkles and rainbows.”  We simply stretched out our arms, wiggled our fingers for “sprinkles” and then brought our arms in a swooping arc motion above our heads and then brought them back down to our sides.

I then used my slides to present each pose and thinking/discussion point; the slides make it easy to begin the conversation, hold the pose, and invite students into the conversation.  We spent 5-7 minutes for each pose/discussion point and before we knew it, the class period was over!  I did have some fun “grab and go” learning activities that could be used for any classes that may have had a few minutes left in the class period and/or to take with them for fun (literary word searches and crosswords—middle school kids love these!).   I so enjoyed how each class had a unique personality and the different insights, connections, questions, and ideas that the kids brought to our group discussion.

While I’ve done yoga for students in the past, this is the first time I’ve incorporated as a medium for learning and discussion.  This learning structure also fits in with my growth as a teacher and “toolkit” of active learning strategies and structures that I’ve been doing over the last ten years, and I enjoy trying new activities because they keep me fresh.  I am also so appreciative of this awesome teacher and her kids who trusted me enough to lead and do this activity with them—it was a great day and so much fun.

You do not have to be an expert at yoga to lead this activity as the moves are gentle and can easily be modified with a chair if needed.  I did well enough that one of the parapros who came with a class asked if I would consider leading yoga for our faculty!  We also had our principal and a few teachers drop in and join us; I think having additional adults added to the “cool” factor of our learning activity that was good for our minds and body!  One of the teachers (my question trail partner from earlier this month!) who joined us as she was passing through the library came by today and said to let her know if I did more reading yoga because she wanted to participate; we also talked about doing this with her classes in May after we survive state spring testing, so I am looking forward to that!

If you are interested in other ways to incorporate or share this idea with your teachers, check out this marvelous blog post from Building Book Love; I think this could also be modified for informational texts and in content area classrooms as well.

This past Tuesday I had an opportunity do collaborate with another ELA teacher here and do a classroom learning activity I did in my own classroom the last three years:  a question trail.  You can learn more about question trails here (fabulous resource), but the basic setup is this:

• Students are given 13-15 questions to complete; you hang the questions around your classroom or learning space.
• Students can start at any question; they record their question number and answers in the order they tackle the question on their answer ticket.
• The question answer dictates which question the student visits next.  Hence, correct answers are vital!
• If a student ends back up a question he/she has already completed on the “trail”, he/she has missed a question and has to backtrack to figure out which one they got wrong.

I always give students the option to work alone or with a partner; if you get beyond three, the kids tend to be off task and not do authentic work, especially with middle school learners.   It is a great problem solving activity, and I try to incorporate three levels of questions—easy, moderate, and challenging to make the assignment doable.   Bonus:  the kids are up and moving around!  There are many high quality ready-made questions trails available for sale, but you can also buy a basic template and then customize your questions—using a template to create custom question trails is typically what I’ve done in the past with my students.

For this collaborative effort, I used a pre-made trail activity for the novel in verse Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson; after meeting with the ELA teachers and assistant principal, I modified four or five of the questions to incorporate the question stems our district uses for the learning standard and to craft some questions that were higher level thinking and a little more nuanced than some that came with the question kit.

Initially, we had were going to host two class sections per period, but due to some last minute scheduling conflicts, we hosted just one group per teacher.  While it would have worked fine to have hosted the larger group, having one group allowed us to give the students more personalized help on the trail at the point of need.

We began with a brief mini-lesson outlining the learning goals, procedures, and question trail manners:

 We then turned students “loose on the trail!” and they spread out to pick up a starting point.  Because our media center is wonderfully spacious, especially for a middle school, students had plenty of room to work through the trail questions.    Students knew they could get help on the trail if needed from me or their ELA teacher; the kids were great about asking for HELP but not asking for ANSWERS to the questions.  It was truly enjoyable to be a sounding board and to help individuals and pairs/small groups at any given question think through the question and possible answer choices.  Providing a “cheat sheet” of terms or other relevant information that can help them on the trail is always a constructive tool to include in your trail activity.

For students who were early finishers, they had the option of either finishing a graphic organizer assignment for the teacher or visiting our “enrichment learning bar” for early finisher activities related to elements of figurative language, word choice, and/or the novel in verse.

One modification the teacher and I devised for classes/students who needed additional scaffolding was to come check in with us after completing their first five question trail problems.  We checked their work to make sure they had all answers correct before proceeding further.  This strategy is helpful for any class, but it is especially supportive of kids who may become overwhelmed if they get toward the end of the trail and then realize they have gotten one wrong but then have to backtrack all the way to the beginning to figure out which question they missed.

Click to view slideshow.Libraries are the perfect space to host learning activities like this because it encourages collaboration between teachers and the librarian as well as between students who choose to work with a partner.  The physical space also makes the frenetic frenzy of activity feel a little chaotic as well!  This is a medium for learning that can help you focus on a specific learning standard or skill whether it is content based or information literacy.  If you haven’t tried question trails, I encourage you to do so!  I loved doing them in my classroom with 8th graders, but I really enjoyed this one as a team effort in the library and having another way to connect with kids!

Many thanks to Abby of Write on with Miss G for so generously sharing her expertise on question trails over the years and encouraging others to try and create their own!

Ten years ago today, I began The Unquiet Librarian blog.   It’s hard to believe a decade has passed, but the years have passed in the blink of an eye.  When I began blogging, I simply did it to have a space to reflect on my practice, period.  So many other great librarians were writing and sharing their work, and I thought how fun it would be for me to do so, too.

Ten years and 800 posts (!)  later, very few of the librarians who were blogging then are still doing so.  The entire landscape of social media has changed (not for the better, I fear), and so has librarianship.  This blog has reflected my professional journey as a librarian for nine years and then back to the classroom this past year; it has been one with many unexpected turns and twists.  In recent years, I’ve felt a little like Odysseus trying to find my way back “home” to a space where I could do what I’ve always aspired to do:  that is to simply do good work that is meaningful and to be respected for it.  The last five years have definitely presented many tests and challenges, and I am proud to say I feel I passed them with as much as grace and dignity as I could even when things were messy and less than ideal.  This is not to say I had moments of questioning or when I stumbled, but overall, I feel I passed the tests that were thrown my way.  I am also thankful for the clarity and understanding that these trials have brought as well as the amazing people I’ve been blessed to befriend in the last four years.

I have always tried to keep learning at the center of my reflective writing and shared openly in hopes that not only would doing so bring me insights and push my thinking, but I also hoped that perhaps my writing help others along the way, too. I am proud that I have blogged this long, and even prouder that I did some of the best work of my entire career after I had won several major professional accolades in the library profession.  I am even prouder that I continued writing and reflecting in the midst of tremendous professional and personal adversity and upheaval.  I am proud I kept my blog my own and did not commercialize it even though there were several opportunities to do so.

A year ago, I made a very deliberate decision to leave the library profession and return to the classroom.   There were many reasons for making this choice, but ultimately, I needed to be in a positive space where I could dwell in teaching and learning and innovate with support and encouragement instead of being marginalized or ostracized for those passions.  More importantly, I missed having my very own community of learners that I could connect with daily in deep and authentic ways.   I realized the library was no longer the space that allowed for these needs, and I returned to my first love where my career began:  the English Language Arts classroom.  I can now say without any hesitation and with absolute certainty that this decision was the best thing I could have done for myself both professionally and personally.  This is not to say there were not times of doubt and questioning in the last twelve months, but I can now see these moments were signs of the growth I was undergoing.  I have also learned throughout my life questioning and doubt give you opportunities to really think about what you believe in (both professionally and personally) and what matters most.  I am forever thankful to Chestatee Academy principal Jennifer Kogod for believing in me and supporting me—she never doubted in my ability to transition back to the classroom successfully.  That confidence and faith were and continue to be invaluable to me as she shares my passion for literacy and learning.  The freedom I’ve been allowed as an educator during the last year has been the catalyst enabling and fueling tremendous growth for me as a teacher and as a person.

I am also indebted to my CA students in grades 6, 7, and 8 of this past year.  You pushed me and challenged me to think about everything I thought I knew about Language Arts and writing instruction, and I became a better person and teacher for it.  I hope that I was able to give as much to you as you gave to me.   You have my love and know I will always be in gratitude for our time together this past year.  I will forever cherish all of the moments when I saw you grow and even more importantly, when you recognized your own growth as a writer and learner.

Being back in the classroom has not only fueled my energy and passion for teaching, learning, and literacy, but it also has helped me emerge from the long dark tunnel of grief that has imbued every aspect of my life since my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in June 2013 and all that followed for the next ten months and then aftermath of her passing.   This is not to say I still do not have moments of immense sadness because I do, but teaching and learning with my students and fellow teachers has helped me re-calibrate my inner compass and to feel happiness again.  Teaching in the classroom again has given me a sense of purpose and meaning, and frankly, it has saved me—I do not say that lightly.  After seeing so much ugliness in life between 2013 and 2015, I was losing myself.    Being in the classroom again, even with all the challenges teachers face, has renewed my sense of optimism and faith in the good of humanity.  I know my mother would be so happy to see me teaching with joy and feeling a sense of hope and excitement about life.   In addition, the steadfast friendships that have remained in spite of so much adversity, the encouragement from colleagues near and far, and your prayers have helped me continue to draw upon the inner fortitude instilled in me by mother and beloved grandmothers to arrive at this place.

Though the space where I do this work is different, my commitment to inquiry, literacy learning, and doing quality, authentic work remains as steadfast as ever, if not more so.   However, it no longer makes sense to reflect and write here on this blog; therefore, this is my last post at The Unquiet Librarian.  However, I will leave the site up as an archive of my work and journey for you as well as for me.   This decision was not an easy one, and I am thankful to all who supported me as I wrestled with this decision, including Brian Mathews, Joe Fox, Jennifer Lund, Tim Diamond, and Anastasia Diamond-Ortiz.  It would have been easy to have continued blogging in this space, but those who know me well know I am not apt to take the path of least resistance (for better or for worse).  This space simply no longer fits, but I am thankful for the time that it did.

I am thankful to all of you who have supported my writing, thinking, and work for the last ten years in this space. Though there are many who have served as a point of light, I would be remiss if I did not thank Brian Mathews (formerly of The Ubiquitous Librarian).  Brian not only inspired me with his blogging from the beginning of my career until he ended his blog in 2015, but he was also the person whose quality of reflective thinking I aspired to do in my own blog.  In addition, he has been a sounding board and a source of sage professional advice at key points in my life in recent years.   I am also indebted to the teachers, students, librarians, and fellow educators whose stories have filled this blog and the work embedded in it.

The beauty of letting go of something is that you are free to grasp new opportunities and to embark on new paths.  I sincerely hope you will join me at my new blog, Living in the Layers.  I will continue to reflect on all things learning and literacy as well as read, write, and revise my practice as a Language Arts and Literacy educator wherever the next decade takes me. It seems fitting to begin my new blog, inspired by Stanley Kunitz’s poem “The Layers”, today on Independence Day as I embark on this new phase of my work as a literacy educator.   As the header image for my new blog (pictured below) implies, sometimes we must be brave and courageous to venture into places we might not go in order to make those turns and moves that will “clear our vision” of what once was and to begin to see what can be.

In my previous post; I outlined the work we did to:

• brainstorm topics
• narrow our topics
• conduct pre-search
• use that pre-search to finalize a topic choice
• generate questions about our topic using the question lenses chart
• finalize our research questions and complete an investigation plan/research contract

In this post, I’ll explain how we targeted these skills with our research/inquiry mini-project:

• Adding sources to your bibliography in EasyBib.
• Taking notes with the notecards in your EasyBib notebook on your two research questions in EasyBib.
• Writing a strong introduction to your essay (the three sentence method).
• Writing body paragraphs with the Schaffer two chunk method that helps you use your research/evidence to answer your research question with concrete details and commentary.
• Showing where your information for your concrete details came from using parenthetical references in the body of your paper and using EasyBib to correctly generate your parenthetical references.
• Using paraphrased and directly quoted information correctly as concrete details.
• Using appropriate transition words in your paragraphs.
• Writing a strong conclusion using our template provided to you.

Once students had their top two topic choices finalized, these questions served as our lens for moving into more formal and strategic research with our research questions serving as our compass.

Using EasyBib to Add Resources To Answer Our Research Questions and Take Meaningful Digital Notes

With the help of our school’s subscription to EasyBib, students could easily add sources to a working bibliography and begin taking digital notes with the digital notebook tool.  Most of my students had not used our subscription, so my previous experience as a librarian and extensive use of EasyBib helped me immerse the students into the platform and provide them resources and instruction on how to use EasyBib.

Once they got started, most were pleasantly surprised by how simple it is to use EasyBib and became enthusiastic users.  EasyBib also reduced my paper flow since students shared their projects with me electronically, and I could easily monitor and assess their progress with their bibliographies and digital notes.  We devoted about a week of class time to researching and taking notes; this in-class work time was important because students could ask for help with their research or EasyBib in person as needed.  I also gave students video tutorials so that if they needed assistance after hours or wanted to self-help themselves with EasyBib, then they could access the help videos.

Our target goal was to find at least four viable sources and to complete 10 digital notes.  Because students could share their projects with me electronically , I could easily and quickly check their work and provide feedback with the comments tools available for both the bibliography and the digital notebook.

Differentiating for Learners with Checklists and Instruction on Demand

Once I had checked a student’s work, given him/her feedback, and rechecked any research work that needed revising, he or she then received a learning pathways checklist to help him or her move through our next series of learning tasks.  I devised this checklist to help students have a path to instruction on demand since I widely varying ability levels in each class and wanted to have a way for students to work through the learning tasks at a personalized pace.

The first task for students was to do a self-assessment of his/her work in EasyBib using the reflection tool below:

Students were then ready to move through the mini-lessons and resources to help them begin writing their draft. Here is our writing plan for both grades 7 and 8:

Though I am not a fan of “essay formulas”, I have learned through experience this past year that most of my writers needed an “anchor” to help them compose their academic writing.  Our writing plan is a blend of structures from a fellow teacher and the Jane Schaffer “two chunk” paragraph writing method.  I felt the Schaffer “two chunk” paragraph writing structure would give my students a way of organizing their research into their essay and help them develop their ideas with evidence and their own analysis of the information.   This writing plan was introduced in one of three “instruction on demand” videos I created with my personal Screecastomatic account and inserted into our Canvas learning platform for both my 7th and 8th grade writing courses.  I no longer have access to my Canvas courses and do not have a saved screenshot of how the resources were embedded in that platform, but the resources are also crossposted to my LibGuides project page here:

Most students accessed the videos through Canvas simply because that was our space where they lived as learners, but I wanted to have a backup available through LibGuides.  In addition to the instructional videos on demand, I did provide students hard copies of each instructional handout—I learned quickly last fall that most of my students needed a hard copy of any handout because that fits their current learning style.

Once students reviewed our writing plan handout (posted earlier in this post) and watched Video 1, he/she was ready to craft the introduction.  I do not have permission to publish the introduction template, but it mirrored a structure we had used for earlier essays, so students were familiar with crafting the following elements for the introduction:

• an effective hook (we had three primary strategies for composing the hook)
• an additional sentence or sentences to further explain the information presented in the hook
• our thesis statement

Once students drafted the introduction, I checked the work in class and then helped students set up their essay document in Google Docs.  Once students had typed the polished introduction, he/she was ready to the next step:  writing the body paragraphs.  Students received this handout, and I reviewed it with them before turning them loose to watch the custom tutorial video that explained the Schaffer Two Chunk paragraph writing method.  This example is one I wrote as I wanted to model for students the writing I was asking them to do.

Once students had finished watching Video 2, they received the third and final help handout to prep them for the third video from EasyBib.

As you can see, there is a good deal of frontloading between writing the introduction and writing the two body paragraphs, but I wanted the students to have a solid foundation before they attempted to compose the body paragraphs.  Once students finished the third video, I provided each one a copy of the composing checklist to support the students as they began drafting.

Once students were cleared to begin drafting, students moved forward by:

• Composing the first body paragraph using the Schaffer Two Chunk method.  Students did all drafting directly in Google Docs and once the paragraph draft was completed, the draft could be shared with me for virtual feedback.  Many students also took the approach of composing the topic sentence and first “chunk” and then sharing the work with me to make sure they were on the right track before writing the second chunk of the first body paragraph.  These approaches made it possible to engage in meaningful formative assessment with students and to identify any areas that needed help or reteaching either with 1:1 instruction, additional resources shared through the Google Doc, and/or redirecting the students back to Videos 2 and 3 and the supporting help/model writing documents.
• Once the first body paragraph was cleared, students could then compose the second body paragraph.  We repeated the same process and approaches for body paragraph 1.
• Last but not least, students crafted their conclusions.  I do not have permission to publish the text structure template for the conclusion, but it was one we had used earlier in the year along with our transition words to help us compose a strong concluding paragraph.

Once students had finished revising and editing their work with my assistance and that of peers if they desired, we used Kidblog to publish our papers.  I love Kidblog because students can publish their work easily and Kidblog has Google Drive integration making it easy to publish writing created in Google Docs.   If you are working with younger students where privacy is a concern, Kidblog is the perfect solution to address that need.  One piece of advice to consider that I’ve learned in the last few days:  when I registered for Kidblog, I used my district email and signed up with the “register with Google” option that tied my Kidblog account directly to my work Google account.  Unfortunately, my access to my work email and portal were cut off earlier this week because I’m leaving the school district, but I didn’t anticipate it would be shut off before my current contract expired.  If you need access to student work after the fact, you may want to register with a personal email account instead of your work account.

Reflections:  Successes and Stumbling Blocks (Glows and Grows)

Successes/Glows/Celebrations

• Students gained tremendous confidence and experience in selecting sources, evaluating information, and taking meaningful notes in EasyBib.
• Students were able to work at their own pace and access instruction on demand.
• Checklists helped students stay on track and practice new writing skills.
• Google Docs and our “learning pathway” approach helped amplify the possibilities for real-time formative assessment and feedback at the learner point of need.
• Students investigated meaningful questions that could not be easily answered with simple facts; students generated deeper level research questions to go beyond regurgitating facts.  The Schaffer Two Chunk writing method also pushed students to incorporate their own analysis or interpretation of the information they used as their concrete details.
• The model text I crafted and supporting instructional video for the Schaffer method seemed to be helpful to most students.
• Students were interested and invested in their topics they self-selected.
• Students saw the connections between their notes and the body paragraphs they composed.
• Though not every student completed the entire paper, they still had rich learning experiences they grew their research and writing skills.  Those who did finish expressed tremendous pride in their work.
•  I felt fairly comfortable with the flexible/rolling deadlines and timeline I established with the research and drafting pieces of the project.  Because each class had such varying groups of learners, I felt the way I designed this part of the unit and the “instruction on demand” helped me better differentiate for everyone.

Stumbling Blocks/Grows/Regrets

• Many students did not complete the entire paper because we simply ran out of time.  I didn’t anticipate losing some of the instructional time I did due to end of year activities and the Connections teachers being used for end of year specials the last three days of the school year (I had no instructional time with my students the final week).  I didn’t realize this would happen until it was too late though I don’t know we could have started the research project any earlier than we did due to the state testing.  I now wish I had integrated the research work with our informational writing in January and February.
• Because I realized (too late) not every student would finish the paper in spite of his/her best efforts, I had to calibrate and rethink how I would fairly assign a final or summative grade (each piece of the project counted as a formative grade).    This challenge only added to my growing discomfort and angst over assigning grades.  {Readings that are adding to my internal conflict about grades and grading are here and here.  I also recommend this post as well.} I desperately  wanted to reward and recognize process and progress for all students, not just those who finished all the pieces of our project.
• A 40 minute instructional block of time felt awfully insufficient all year, but it felt especially short with this particular unit of writing; even students would comment they wished our class was longer.
• Not all students had an opportunity to publish their work (even if incomplete) on our project blog because again, we simply ran out of time.
• Because I didn’t realize when my actual last day of instruction was with the students (the end  of the year is markedly different in middle school from high school), very few students had an opportunity to engage in any self-assessment of their project (grade 7 and grade 8 or their reflections on their work over the last year.   Even though school has been out nearly two weeks, I still feel rather sick about this glaring hole in our final unit.
• Even though I tried to build in what I felt was ample time for all pieces of the project, I misjudged what students needed by about a week.  Gauging how much time was sufficient for my students in all three grades I taught (6, 7, and 8) was an ongoing challenge for me all year.
• Though I’ll be teaching 11th and 12th Language Arts classes in another district next year, I want to introduce research skills in small doses earlier in the academic year.

Even with the challenges I have outlined, I am still happy with the outcomes of the project because the students had meaningful learning experiences that emphasized depth and process.  They also picked incredibly interesting topics including:

• Fragile X syndrome
• Exoplanets
• Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963
• 2017 Nissan GT-R
• Chattahoochee River Water Wars
• Effectiveness of Adidas Adiprene
• Assorted endangered animals (causes, issues, solutions)
• German Shepherds as superior police dogs
• Best treatments for breast cancer
• Medical therapies for depression
• How to get a job at ESPN
• How to safely enjoy off-roading activities
• Advances in forensic science
• Syria/chemical weapons used on children
• Bermuda Triangle
• Climate change
• Concussions and soccer
• Photography
• Lowrider culture
• Career research on becoming an Army Ranger

I was impressed by the breadth of topics my 7th and 8th graders chose!

How This Writing Project Will Inform My Work as a Teacher Moving Forward

I also felt that of all the research projects I’ve done with the students, this is the one where I had the most day to day hands on involvement because I was able to give so much formative assessment and feedback on demand with every student.  The day to day work, conferencing, and examination of work together (as well as feedback provided after hours in advance of a face to face conversation the next day) really helped me to know my students as learners and the work they were doing.  Though I did not quite get the point that Rebekah O’Dell did after her first year trying a gradeless classroom, the intense focus on feedback and regular interaction fueled our work even though we were all fighting the end of the year weariness that comes even in the best of circumstances.   I found myself feeling a bit bereft and not wanting the year to end because these experiences made me realize there was so much still left for my students and I to learn together.  Even as I write this statement, I feel tears welling up in my eyes and though I’m looking forward to my adventures at my new school, I feel sadness that I will not have more time with my War Eagle writers again.

Though I know it is not possible for me to enact a gradeless classroom next year, I do want to be more intentional about these kinds of rich, regular interactions and the emphasis on feedback because I’ve had a taste of what is possible and the shift that can happen for both teachers and students.  As Rebekah O’Dell shared in her post,

“Changing the way I graded changed everything in my classroom.

Many of my hopes for this project were realized — as I gave up bits of my control, students found their voice in the classroom and in their writing. Students became risk-takers in all the best ways. They accounted for their mess-ups and  for their enormous victories. They learned to tell me what they needed.

But something even more significant happened.  Somehow, as a result of removing grades on individual assignments, I developed the deepest relationships I have ever had with students. Changing the grades didn’t just change the classroom atmosphere or the students’ work ethic or my paper load. Somehow, changing the grades changed our hearts— theirs and mine. More than ever before, I knew them and they truly knew me.

In a career of experimentation, this particular change — this heart change — has been the most profound.

The biggest reward for me was this: relationships, which led to community. My classroom finally felt the way I’ve always wanted it to feel. I walked into class daily with the freedom to be the teacher I always want to be.”

Isn’t that what we all want for ourselves and our students?  I am thankful for this last year that has given me glimpses of what could be for me and my students; I am forever thankful for my War Eagle Writers at Chestatee Academy and my principal, Jennifer Kogod, who gave me freedom to try and innovate in our writing studio.  I am thankful for the growth spurt I had this past year as a teacher and want to continue on this path in 2017-18 as I keep growing into the teacher I want to be.

On our third and final day of our Lanier Schools Academy Institute, we participated in a fun and engaging activity that reminded me of the Harvey Daniels written conversation strategies.   Lanier High teacher Brooke Webb and LSTC Rhonda Stroud led us through a variation of the Four Corners learning activity, dubbing ours Five Corners because we had five questions to contemplate in small groups about our district LMS platform, Desire2Learn.  Our essential question was “How can eClass (Desire2Learn) help my students with PBL?”

Brooke and Rhonda ensured we were in mixed groups of grade levels and subject areas by giving each teacher a sticky note numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  We then went to our assigned table (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) so that each group has an established starting point.  Each table had a question for the group to consider; the basic protocol was that you wrote your individual response, and then the group discussed and shared the responses.  We spent roughly 5 minutes at each table before rotating to the next “station’ or table with question.   You could also place a check mark next to responses from your peers that reflected your own practice or experiences.

As we moved through the stations, we could see what other groups had written and shared.  After we added our own responses and placed a check mark next to all answers that applied to our own practice/experience, we discussed the ideas shared from the other groups.  We rotated through all stations until we returned to our station that was our starting point.

We then looked at the responses shared by all groups at our initial station and grouped the responses into categories and tabulated our response to collect data to look for trends and patterns in the responses.  Some groups created simple bar graphs or charts by hand; we had a teacher in our group who was an Excel expert, so she created a beautiful graph for our group.

We then did a large group share out; this part of the activity was especially meaningful as fellow teachers not only shared the data, but teachers had the opportunity to talk about specific responses.  This small and large group work gave us ideas and strategies for using Desire2Learn in our classrooms and was a terrific springboard for the mini-lesson on Desire2Learn presented after the activity by Brooke Webb.  The learning experience and subsequent mini-lesson left me feeling energized and excited about incorporating Desire2Learn into my daily classroom instruction as well as PBL experiences for my students.

After we finished the activity and mini-lesson, Brooke and Rhonda hung up our work as a gallery on the ends of bookcases in the library (our beautiful learning space for the week) so that we could browse the work more closely during our collaborative work time and breaks.

This is another great variation on written conversation strategies that can encourage inquiry and crowdsourcing of ideas and knowledge.  I’m already thinking about how I can use this with my 11th and 12th grade readers and writers come August!  Kudos to Brooke and Rhonda for leading us through a rich and meaningful learning experience!

On a side note, the learning space also facilitated this learning activity.  I felt right at home in our beautiful media center because the Artcobell tables and chairs on wheels supported this kind of learning activity that involved movement as well as small group to large group work.  Over the last three years, I’ve been lucky to work in a library or classroom space where I had this kind of furniture; the one year I did not, I was absolutely miserable and felt stymied by immobile heavy tables and chairs.  These kinds of learning experiences are much easier to facilitate when you have a learning space that supports the design drivers of the kind of learner experience you’re trying to create.  As more schools incorporate inquiry driven and active learning activities, I think it is more important than ever for schools to closely examine their learning spaces and determine what they need to change in common learning areas as well as classrooms to support the vision for learning.

As part of the Georgia Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) , the common evaluation system designed for building teacher effectiveness and ensuring consistency and comparability throughout the state, we have an end of year conference with our supervising administrator.  My principal, Mrs. Jennifer Kogod, asked us to prepare a written self-assessment as a springboard for our face to face end of year conference.

I wrote way more than than was required, but composing my thoughts on how well I did meeting my professional TKES goals was a great reflective exercise.  I’ll write an additional and broader “end of year review” to piggyback on this post, but because this year was such an important one of learning and growth, I wanted to share it here on the blog.  Because I was a media specialist when TKES was first piloted, this is my first year being evaluated as a classroom teacher with the TKES platform.

Buffy Hamilton Title I Writing Teacher
Self-Assessment
2016-17 Academic Year
May 2, 2017

Original Goal Statement:

Knowing that student writing promotes lasting learning, I will implement Jim Vopat’s method of writing circles with all of my Writer’s Workshop and Writing Connections classes to help students improve writing fluency and skills across multiple genres. The evidence for achieving the goal will be an action research study examining student work and student self-assessment portfolios crafted between September and April.

Target Performance Standards:
• Standard 3: Instructional Strategies
• Standard 5: Assessment Strategies
• Standard 6: Assessment Uses

Strategies:

Students will work in writing circles to choose writing topics, types of writing pieces within a genre unit of study we are studying as a class, share writing, provide regular feedback on writing pieces, and draft two at least two days a week in class. We will use writing cycles to lead to regular intervals of publishing our best work.

I will observe and take notes on writing group meetings as well as hold writing conferences with individual students; I will keep notes on these observations and conferences as data.

My Reflections and Self-Assessment

My original goal was to implement Jim Vopat’s writing circles method to help facilitate student writing growth and fluency across multiple genres. Although this particular approach was ultimately not a good fit for where my grades 6-8 learners were, I was still able to accomplish many of the same targets that were embedded in the writing circle method:

• Students had regular opportunities to brainstorm, explore, and self-select their writing topics.
• Students engaged in a wide variety of writing genres, including personal narratives, poetry, informational writing (through zines), problem-solution writing, persuasive (grade 6) and argumentative writing (grades 7 and 8), and research-based writing.
• Students had regular opportunities to share their work through class readings, Google Documents, gallery walks of student work, peer editing and review, and our class KidBlogs.
• Students in each grade wrote regularly every week–students engaged in writing on a daily basis including Writer’s Notebook entries, Quickwrites, paragraphs, essays, extended pieces of writing, and shorter pieces of writing that were part of our daily work of thinking through our writing.

Reflections By Professional Standards

Standard 3: Instructional Strategies

I tried a wide range of instructional strategies for writing this year as I drew upon the work of literacy leaders like Kelly Gallagher, Allison Marchetti, Rebekah O’Dell, Harvey Daniels, Jim Wilhelm, Nancy Steineke, and Gretchen Bernabei. I also borrowed ideas from fellow Language Arts teachers I know through Twitter.

In particular, I used a great deal of modeling and mentor texts with my students—these mentor texts were not only pieces from other writers, but I frequently used my students’ work as a mentor text across grade levels. I also tried different methods of keeping writers’ notebooks across all grade levels and Ralph Fletcher’s “greenbelt” writing with 6th graders.

Standard 5: Assessment Strategies and Standard 6: Assessment Uses

These two standards are the area I have wrestled with throughout the year. Increasingly, I am thinking about how “grading” differs from assessment and what exactly a “grade” means, particularly in a writer’s workshop environment. Throughout most of my career, assessment and grading have been treated as a concept that is scientific and pure, and that if we establish solid learning targets and design rubrics aligned to those tools, then all should be fine and good, right? However, I see more and more areas of gray, especially when it comes to struggling writers. I sometimes wonder how grades influence how they see themselves as writers and if that grade and the feedback you try to include with the rubric has any real value to middle school writers. I also am not sure if the grade and assessments I have given/administered will actually correlate to the Milestones writing tasks since they are 1. All evidence-based writing and 2. Writing that is inherently dependent on the students’ ability to read and comprehend multiple texts. Consequently, I have concerns about the limitations of a Milestones writing score as it really assesses only one type of writing and even with that, I am not sure about the validity of that score and if the assessment REALLY measures what it intends to do so.  (*Note:  our test data indicates my 7th and 8th writing cohorts both showed improvement in every area of the writing assessment on the EOG Milestones; they also showed marked improvement in other areas of the Milestones ELA*).

I believe my most effective assessment method was one of formative assessment with writing conferences. Thanks to the work of Carl Anderson, I feel I have shown tremendous growth in my ability to engage in meaningful writing conferences with my students. I believe this is one of the things I have done that has had the most impact on my young writers. I am thankful for small classes that allow me to do this on a regular basis; the only limitation was time as our classes meet for roughly 40 minutes, and it’s hard to get to each student in that time frame.

I have also given students multiple opportunities to self-assess their work both informally and formally. Helping them to know on their own when a piece of writing is “finished” and giving them revising and writing strategies to evaluate and determine this for themselves is something I’ve worked on all year. I believe this is one of the ultimate benchmarks of growth when a student looks more to himself or herself and less to me to understand when a piece of writing is complete and why/how that is so.

I have tried keeping hard copy student portfolios as well as digital, but I haven’t quite yet found a means that feels efficient and accessible. This endeavor is one I will continue to contemplate and work on during 2017-18.

Though not all students have grown as writers in the ways I hoped, many have shown tremendous growth in different areas. I am proud that all students have been challenged and given multiple opportunities to wrestle with ideas and their thinking; I am also proud that students have used writing not just an end product but as a tool for thinking and expression.

This morning we worked in small groups to take an inquiry stance on PBL (project based learning).  We began by sharing PBL experiences we had implemented as teachers and discussed insights, successes, and what we might do differently moving forward with PBL.  Next, we contemplated and discussed these questions about PBL in our small groups:

• Benefits?
• Drawbacks?
• Misconceptions?
• What’s your perspective?

After we brainstormed our list of ideas for each question, our facilitator, Dr. Kyle Jones of Lanier High, asked us to pull out the one idea from our list of ideas for each question.  He then asked us to distill the idea to its essence and to write each “essential” big idea that stood out to us as a group (consensus!) on a medium sized sticky note.  Each group then shared out their responses for each question; similar responses were “bundled” together by Dr. Jones to be placed in a slice of the perspective walk “pie”.

Once Dr. Jones had placed the responses for the first question in the perspective walk slices, we gathered in large circle around the perspective walk pie.  He then asked us to look at the responses and to step inside the slice that resonated most strongly with us.  You could not “straddle” a pie with a foot in two slices; you needed to choose one that you connected with the most.   Once we had selected a slice, we then turned and talked in our small groups about our ideas and thinking about the response we had selected.  Once we engaged in small group talk, we then had an opportunity for three groups to share out to the entire group.  We repeated this process for each question, and for each round, Dr. Jones asked for volunteers to share who had not previously shared before though you could also add to the discussion if you had previously volunteered to share.

For our last round, we first considered the question, “What is your perspective?” where we picked a perception about PBL that we found most important to address or challenging.  After we discussed this question, Dr. Jones challenged us to think of ways to change that perception, and after small group discussion, we then shared out once more.  Approximately 50 teachers participated in the perspective walk, so this is an activity you could do with a large group or combined classes as well as an individual class.  During our lunch break, Dr. Jones took each group of responses and hung them on the mobile dry erase board that is our “parking lot” of ideas (more on this tomorrow).

I found this activity to be powerful because I got to hear so many interesting ideas from my fellow teachers, and the small and large group conversations gave me food for thought and pushed my thinking as well as “idea sparks” for the upcoming school year.  This is an engaging activity with tremendous synergy that is participatory and builds on the power of crowdsourcing ideas and the social aspect of learning.  I cannot wait to try that this activity with my new students this fall!

I hope to do some additional posts about our thinking and other great learning activities we’re engaging in this week in our institute.  Kudos to Dr. Jones and all the Lanier cluster teachers for such a provocative and fun morning of thinking and sharing today!