the PaperWings

Teach Towards Forever (by teaching children to talk well)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:35:00 +0000

This I believe: If we are to have a hand in a future peace, we must not teach to only transform children’s way of being right now when they are under our care, but we must always teach towards Forever- when they have long since passed for the last time through our classroom doors and into the world.

Plan for Forever? Affect what children do, not only on the weekends, but how they handle themselves at a corporate meeting? That’s a tall bill. We’re used to planning for next week, next month. Some of us plan on a yearly scale. But how do we plan for Forever, so that what we teach isn’t just a teeny blip on a child’s life radar? Here are some key words I test against my teaching points and lessons:

· Transparency- do children easily see why we are doing this?
· Relevance- how will this help children outside the walls of this classroom?
· Applicability- is how I’m teaching this idea going to apply to later life in a meaningful, useful way?

Teaching children to talk well fits all of the above descriptions. I emphasize “teaching” because it is not enough to just provide time for talk. I emphasize “well” because it is not enough to teach them to have conversations that never touch their hearts or that do not open their mind to other ways of thinking and feeling.

I’d like to describe a construct that we can use in our classrooms every day. As important as independent reading, conferencing, and reading aloud, I hope you can make room in your schedule for the conversation circle. Before I outline the conversation circle, let me try to divide up who the credit belongs to, because it certainly isn’t me! Pieces of the conversation circle come from the idea of the interactive read aloud or read aloud with accountable talk. The IRA is commonly studied and written about at Teacher’s College and in their many books, as well as all over the country. It’s hard to know who to give the credit to for that part of it. The idea of holding a student-run book conversation (not quite a book club, though) was introduced to me by a workshop at our district, which was basically a snapshot of an entire course at a local college called Teaching Readers to Think.

The conversation circle is really just a discussion that follows after a regular interactive read aloud. It is a totally student-run conversation about the book and its bigger themes and implications.

An activity that we did before staring conversation circles was to fishbowl
a group of volunteer moms and teachers as they discussed The Giving Tree. The
kids took notes on the volunteer conversationalists body language and patterns of
talk. (I helped them notice these things, of course, by whispering in their ears!)

Here is a recording of a conversation circle that my 2nd graders had around the read aloud novel, Morning Girl.

Keep in mind that this is an involved process and could stretch over a few days, depending on your schedule. Here's how a typical one goes:

Read Aloud with modeling
Teacher reads aloud the book, stopping at pre-planned spots to model a specific strategy in a “think aloud” manner.

Read Aloud with partner talk
Teacher continues reading aloud, but after modeling in two or three spots, now releases some of the responsibility by asking reading partners to turn and talk in 2 or 3 pre-planned spots. In this way, they can attempt the same strategy that was just modeled in a controlled environment—the teacher has chosen a place where success is probable, the students get to hear another person’s thoughts, and they are not yet left to deciding when to use the strategy.

Conversation Circle
When the book is finished, the teacher asks children to take their places in the conversation circle. I find that it is helpful to have assigned spots because our space is tight and because quiet children are more likely to not offer up ideas if they are surrounded by others who are doing the same thing. Once the children are in the circle, my ritual is to say, “Who would like to start?” I usually choose a child who tends to listen more than talk. That child starts, and then here comes the fun part- you just let ‘em fly!

That’s right—no interrupting! I’ve found that it’s difficult to not interrupt at all. So I try my very hardest to contribute to the conversation as much as my fair share allows. If I were a kid in the class, how much would it be fair for me to add in my thoughts? (It usually amounts to me getting to say about 1 – 3 short comments.) That’s as much air space as I get to have—just what everyone else has. When I do talk, I go along with their topics. I don’t offer up anything about the conversation itself.

You’re probably wondering—what do they talk about? The book, of course! There’s no need to prompt them more than that. Trust me, they have thoughts about the book and they’ve had many conversations in their lives. Unknowingly, you have already taught them what to talk about when you modeled your thinking and they practiced on each other in the interactive read aloud portion. You’ve also already taught them how to talk enthusiastically about books if you talk enthusiastically about books every day.

Don’t expect them to strategy-speak. If they do that, you might want to worry a little—do they honestly think real readers talk like that? Sure, the strategies play their part. A child here and there will surely mention that they had such a good mental image when… or they inferred something because…, but they are more likely to say “I could really picture it when,” and “I thought that because.” Because this is about getting caught up in authentic talk. It’s a time reserved not for teacher talk- we get to talk a whole lot during the day. Children quickly realize that the conversation circle is theirs.

OK. So you did the first part—you let ‘em fly. And Michael talked, and then Rosie added something, and then Michael talked, and then Cara brought up something really controversia,l and Ernie said, “But…”, and then Michael cleared up the misunderstanding. And it goes on like this until you can’t bear to listen anymore. Surely this warrants an interruption?

Nope.

The conversation circle is theirs. Transparency, relevance, applicability. Why have a time for student talk if the teacher is going to—like every other minute of the school day—take up the baton and lead the orchestra? This isn’t our show, it’s theirs. Certainly this first conversation (and I guarantee the same goes for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc…) doesn’t sound like a world-changing peace mission. But a first grade reader on the first day of school also doesn’t sound like a first grade reader on the 100th day of school. This is part of their learning, and the negotiation is EVERYTHING.

The negotiation between voices is everything—I think it bears repeating. If we are teaching with Forever in mind, then we need to let them struggle. We need to let them feel what an unsatisfying conversation feels like. We need to let the listeners observe while the leaders say everything they were going to say—but not the one really important idea that they were thinking the whole time. We need to let the conversation end with a big, fat period and some silent reflection time. We need to cheerily say, “Well? How’d it go?” And let them consider that question.

Reflection

So here’s the part we love as teachers. Here’s where you can put in your two cents- a little bit. This reflection is about 3-5 minutes of wrap up after the book conversation for children to discuss how the conversation itself went and what a good goal would be for the next conversation. I only really have one rule for this time, and that’s “no names.” Because, if so- poor Michael. In this reflection time, I do take on a bit more of a heavy hand. I allow them to lead in terms of listing things that went well and things that did not. But when it comes to choosing a goal, I want to be sure that the group is moving in a direction that is both attainable and helpful. Usually, it’s pretty obvious. And often, it’s the same goal- day after day after day. Below are some goals, but I would imagine that it would really depend on the chemistry of your class which ones are “popular” with a given group. You can tell what the chemistry of my group was just by reading them.

· Leaving a space between comments to ensure the speaker is finished (we called these bubbles)
· Dropping out if more than one person is trying to speak and you’ve already had a chance (we called that being a hero)
· Dropping out if more than one person is trying to speak and you are a common contributor- even if you haven’t talked yet this session
· Dropping out if more than one person is trying to speak and the other person is a “listener” (we distinguished between listeners and leaders)
· Using your body language or an intake of breath to show you want to talk, especially if you’re a listener
· Watching out for listeners who look like they might want to say something
· Limiting your overall number of talking “turns” (Note: they wanted to make a number rule to solve this problem, but I vetoed that decision, using the excuse that grown-ups don’t have a number of times they can talk.)
· Sticking with an idea until it is well-explored
· Choosing bigger ideas over littler ideas to lead to a satisfying conversation (one time they spent 7 painful minutes debating something about the publish date)
· Rephrasing other’s thoughts in your own words, so that you and others can better understand (we used the frame, “So are you saying…?”)
· Disagreeing in a way that recognizes the other party
· Having something at least slightly new to add
· Avoiding “monologuing” (we used an observation of an adult book club to attempt this one- we noticed that they “ping-ponged” very fast… no one even got so bored they rolled onto their backs!)

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For a few years, I was pretty proud of how our conversations operated. The kids ran it, they questioned each other when they didn’t understand, and they asked presenters to tell more. But except for every once in a while (what Ellin Keene calls a “happy accident”), those conversations weren’t the kind of conversation that no one in the circle wanted to walk away from because it was so mesmerizing. Like Keene says in To Understand, “if they can do it some days, why not every day?” And I had that exact experience with student-run conversations before trying the book conversation circle. They could do it some days, but it didn’t satisfy me because all the days in between they ran through the motions, impressing whatever adult popped in my room- but not fooling me.

But that was B.C.C. And this is A.C.C. Almost as soon as we started, I could tell that these conversations were different. Yes- they weren’t world changing. But the kid’s faces were riveted. They didn’t want the conversation to stop. Why? I can’t believe I didn’t see it before! B.C.C., what motivation does a non-sharer have to clarify, add on, and question? Maybe they don’t really care that Jill had a table of contents revelation. They weren’t there; they didn’t have the revelation. But now- A.C.C., what motivation do they have to clarify, add on, and question? Well, every motivation! The conversation now is unquestionably everyone’s conversation. The ideas are everyone’s ideas. Even the most brilliant idea—well, now it’s not Jill’s. It’s part Jill’s, part Ernie’s, part Cara’s, and even though we wish he’d zip it enough to hear his month click shut, part Michael’s. Once they’d learned how good it feels to be a part of a satisfying conversation, guess what? Again, I can’t believe I didn’t see this before! Our reader’s workshop share sessions magically improved. A social studies reflection circle had a few children in tears of empathy. Science experiment discussions deepened. I began keeping my mouth shut any time I sensed they could do a better job than me, which was most of the time. Virtually every other part of our day was enhanced in a really big way.

So here’s my take away point; it’s one that I am just learning myself:

The peace mission isn’t only realized in the actual ideas children have about the book. Yes, it’s true that good books provide a just right setting (our classroom) and cast of characters (the kids) for important ideas about life to flourish. Yes, their words are significant: they are wrestling with ideas about humanity. But, there’s something more elusive and more world-changing than the content of the conversation. And it’s this: The future of our world shifts ever so slightly toward peace every time we teach a child how to exist in the delicate balance between deference and assertiveness, leading and listening, give and take.

We’ll surpass the original skills and strategies we set out to teach: in fact, we’ll blow them out of the water. And… we get to save the world at the same time. Not a bad deal.

"In his listening, his heart opened wide and wider still."

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:30:00 +0000

“And so.”
“And so what?” said Abilene. “What happened then?”

No matter the personality of my class on a given year, the bittersweet story of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane always weaves itself tightly into the fabric of our literate community. The book has this absolutely magical ability to transform a group of children who begin with an “every child for himself” stance to one who is ever so slightly more thoughtful about the position of another. It's the one book all year that I never want to end (and neither do the kids!). We read and reread. One year, I lost count of how many times we reread Chapter 4. When the music of the words surrounds us, all arguments and off-task behaviors are suspended. (Can you blame me, then, for wanting it to never end?)

Wisely, even 2nd graders can see past the simple journey motif that works as a container for the deeper story, or inside story, as we refer to it. They realize that with each change Edward undergoes, he changes. And that with each new person who loves him, he adds an emotion to his heart—sadness, anger, despair, empathy. But the irony of it is this: with each change Edward undergoes, my children change. It’s really remarkable. At first I have to feed it to them by rereading the parts that point to Edward’s metamorphosis. But soon, they never fail to notice things I haven’t, and they make powerful text to world connections that I believe have the potential to alter the way they live. And so.

And so what?

The “so what” is that once again, it’s story—not my hours of planning, nor my carefully chosen words, nor our daily literacy routine—but pure, artfully sung story, that is wraps its arms around my class and beckons them to turn towards one another. Story is the one constant in my classroom that will always be the glue- no matter what curveballs I’m thrown.

Even if the world only had enough room for one story, it would still change with each new listener. And that would give me enough magical moments to marvel over every single time. And so.

“And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still.”

A Year in Units

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:12:00 +0000

After 3 years of teaching reading and writing workshop in my classroom and after finally starting to get a handle on what I was doing, I started to feel a pull between reading and writing. I didn't like that even though there were so many similarities and so many connections to be made, the units were sometimes so far apart that those connections were not immediately visible to the students. So, on my fourth year, I drafted my own units of study by teaching all the same skills as before but reordering them a bit (and sometimes just rephrasing them) so that reading and writing could be one. In this way, I was able to make the innate connections between reading and writing immediately visible to my students and I believe they flourished. Mainly, they gained a strong sense of genre and purpose. They could think much more flexibly about reading from the point of view of the writer and writing from the point of view of the reader. Because the connections between reading and writing were so transparent, my students were freed up to notice other connections. They carried skills from unit to unit, genre to genre.

Below is a summary of the 8 units my class and I lived that year and for the next couple years that followed- with a few tweaks of course!

September: We are Readers and Writers (habits of readers and writers, daily routines)

In September, I did most of the work, modeling my own reading life, gushing over their writing, affirming their budding literacy identities. In this first month together, what and how they read or wrote did not matter as much as how they looked and sounded when they read and wrote. I had to ratchet up my skills as an actress, and as they mirrored my passion for literacy, they hardly noticed that by the end of the month, they weren’t acting anymore. They were readers and writers. September was the month of identity.

To celebrate Making Meaning, we placed our published books in
a place of honor in our classroom library for all to read (and understand!)

October: Making Meaning (shining a spotlight on meaning in both reading and writing, asking questions, using schema to make connections, beginning narrative writing strategies)

In October, we looked at what it is to make meaning. Before spending time on the nuts and bolts, nitty-gritty decoding and fluency side of reading, we gave top priority to the idea that Reading Is Thinking. In Reader’s Workshop, we dug into interactive read alouds in which we could connect to our existing schema. Instead of waiting until later in the year, we explored how asking questions can illuminate ideas that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. In writing, we continued writing small moments, but instead of only passionately writing page after page with no acknowledgement of an audience, we thought about meaning. We asked ourselves, “How can I make my purpose clearer? How can I plan the piece in a way that make sense? How can I write details that others will understand?” October was the month of meaning.

November & December: Honing Our Craft (decoding strategies, fluency, authors as mentors: taking small moments to a new level by looking at mentor authors)

In November and December, we honed our craft. On the very first day of this unit, we studied all the kinds of people who hone their craft: dancers, carpenters, basketball players. We defined “honing” as making a skill the best it can be, especially when it’s already really good, usually by studying a more expert model. In reading, we turned up the heat on mechanics. From decoding strategies to word parts to accuracy to fluency, it was clear that reading is a process that happens not only in the reader, but with the text. As we came to the realization that texts were meant to be read in certain ways, we began to look at what our writing said to our audience. We learned strategies for making our pieces readable, including spelling and punctuation. It was in this unit that we learned the word “monitor.” Using a heart monitor as a metaphor, children were constantly reminded to always monitor their reading and writing- not after, but as they read and wrote. We studied more expert author models- our mentor authors. We learned how to notice crafting decisions and how to imitate them to hone our crafts. Our writing soared to new levels. November and December were the months of mentors.

January: Imagining the Possibilities (inferring, revision)

Meet the Author book signing event

In January, we imagined what was possible beyond the written text. To kick off the unit, we imagined three jars of play dough as something more than what they were. I showed pictures of ordinary sand dunes, pillars of steel, and large rocks, followed by extraordinary sand sculptures, the Eiffel Tower, and magnificent statues. The message: you can only achieve what you first envision. In reading, we had to dig deeper to find what the author did not state directly in the text. In short, we learned how to infer. We spent the whole month on this strategy, inferring character’s personalities, what would happen next, unknown words, the author’s message, and theme. In writing, we revised. We re-envisioned our October through December pieces as works of art. We identified what we wished they would be and how we hoped they would make our reader feel, and we molded them according to that vision. In our first big parent event of the year, we hosted a Meet the Author book signing event in our classroom. Run like their first grade Revision Museum, the young authors walked their “fans” through their revisions and explained their decisions. What they had first imagined for their pieces, was made real. January was the month of possibility.

February: Read to Learn, Write to Teach (taking questioning deeper, determining importance in nonfiction, nonfiction conventions, writing how-to’s and All About books)

In February, we explored nonfiction in reading and writing. After spending half the year writing and reading mostly narrative, February was our first departure into other genres. Reader’s Workshop was run as an inquiry into text structure. We spent a few weeks making individual charts of conventions we noticed, complete with examples and how they help us as readers. Each child chose a big question and took two weeks studying it, using conventions to guide them. In writing, we split our time between how-to writing and All About books. At the end of the month, we held a Teaching and Learning Festival. To represent Read to Learn, each child shared their big question, as well as the learning journey they traveled to find the answer. To represent Write to Teach, they shared their All About books. February was the month of knowledge.

March: Power of the Pen (synthesizing, integrating all strategies to synthesize, writing persuasive book reviews, letters, blogs, songs, etc…)

Peacemaker's Tea

In March, we tested out the power in our pens. After all we had learned about books this year, I don’t think it had yet occurred to my young authors just how much power was in their pens. They were fascinated in reading when they could start identifying books as “power of the pen” books. Never before had they realized that authors have the ability to change the world through writing. As we studied these books, we wove in the strategy of synthesizing. Every strategy was assigned a color of the rainbow and we tracked our thinking as we read, always synthesizing, always growing our thinking. We realized that our thinking could change across a book, but it could also change the way we live and the way we think. Books—authors, actually—have the awesome power to affect change. In writer’s workshop, we wrote in several genres including reviews, letters, blogs, songs, poems, articles, and flyers. Instead of publishing one piece at the end of the unit, we published every piece (as they were shorter and more manageable to revise, edit, and rewrite) and sent them to the appropriate parties. We received responses from the recess aides, another second grade class, The American Girl Company, and Legos… And we finally heard from the President in June! March was the month of change.

April: Small Poems, Big Ideas (sensory images, monitoring understanding, integrating all strategies to understand, writing free verse poetry)

In April, we lived and breathed poetry. In reading, we immersed ourselves in the free verse poetry of Langston Hughes, Myra Cohn Livingston, Valerie Worth, Eloise Greenfield, Karla Kuskin, and others. A new poem greeted us each morning and we started by honing in on the strategy of making sensory images. Next, we collected poems we love in our poetry notebooks and wrote in the margins, using all of our understanding strategies (again, color-coded) to infer deeper meanings. In writer’s workshop, we began by cranking out poems. But that was short-lived, because using the above poets as our mentors, our daily minilessons convinced us that less is more. The music, we discovered, is why we love poems. We looked for parts of our poems where the “energy leaked out” and we were unapologetic in our slashings. This unit unexpectedly took revision to new heights. The month ended with a well-attended Poetry in the Park event. Children read both poems they wrote, as well as famous poetry that they had memorized during our unit. April was the month of words.

May & June: Readers and Writers for Life (weekly book clubs, “turning up the volume” on particular strategies, discussing books and comprehension strategies, revisiting small moments to integrate writing strategies from every unit, reflecting on writing and reading journey to make a year-long anthology)

In May and June, we came full circle. These two months were about packing our suitcases to include everything we’ve learned as readers and writers. For the first time since I started teaching the Units of Study, I had time to revisit small moments. And- WOW- was it worth it! For every day in May, we reviewed a teaching point from earlier in the year and added it to a huge chart on the wall of our room. I chose the most important teaching points from Honing our Craft, Imagining the Possibilities, Small Poems Big Ideas, and others. The take home point: no matter what the genre, our year was spent learning about how to write well. It is all applicable. In reader’s workshop, leveled book clubs chose a just right book each Monday. They filled out a Book Club planning sheet where they planned for which chapters they would read on each day. I met with each group to help them think about the genre and series. Together, we picked one strategy to focus on. We called it “turning up the volume” on that strategy (not turning the others off, just turning one up). I also helped the groups decide on a specific way that they would keep track of that thinking – post-it notes or their notebook or a handmade chart on a large piece of paper. On Book Club Fridays, grasping books that look like they had just survived heavy post-it note attacks, they met to talk. In June, we continued book clubs and we worked on making anthologies that include 15 reading and writing artifacts from our year together. May and June were the months of reflection.

Identity,
meaning,
mentors,
possibility,
knowledge,
change,
words,
reflection.

They came a long way that year. Because we moved from building to using, I hope that my students were changed. As they synthesized, their lives were revisioned. Moving onto other classrooms and eventually other places, I hope that they took this new view with them: that words and text is not just something to be passionate about, but something to be passionate with. They are tools to be used in whatever in whatever direction they are aimed. I hope my students were utterly changed.

Types of Conferences

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:56:00 +0000

Teachers who are new to workshop often finding themselves teaching a minilesson and then floating around the room re-teaching that same teaching point during conferences. Don't fall into that trap! Minilessons are for teaching one skill that almost everyone needs; conferences are for teaching individuals new skills that they need to become more proficient. This is like a teacher's Prime Time. So keep 'em short (about 4 minutes per conference if you can), take notes (more on that later), and present new skills as clearly as you can.

There are three basic types of conferences:

Research-decide-teach: An RDT conference is probably comprises most of our conferences (and is most difficult, in my opinion.) We research the child either from afar or by listening in as they read or talk, and we sift through all the possible teaching points. And then we do the hardest thing of all: We decide which teaching point will have the biggest impact with this child, at this time. Once you've made a decision, you need to politely stop the child and teach them a new strategy in almost the same format as a minilesson, except with a compliment. (Compliment & connect, teach, active engagement, link). Use this kind of conference when you're teaching something new OR something you don't think the child has tried.

Coaching: Just like in basketball, the coach yells from the side-lines with the stuff the player has already been taught (important), but aren't doing at the moment. It's essential to use lean prompts, because remember that our goal for all children is independence. If we coach by interupting them with something their own inner voice will never replicate ("Good readers hop over an unknown word and then come back"), then they won't be able to recreate that voice independently. Instead, we need to use the smallest prompts possible so they'll be able to do it when you're not there ("Hop over it!"). Think: Jump! Shoot! etc...

Use this type of conference when you want to support a student in the midst of reading- it's usually more print-oriented. Or, if you have a student teacher or beginning workshop teacher in your classroom and he/she is anxious about coming up with a teaching point, encourage that person to try a RDT conference, but fall back on a coaching conference if they are unsure of themselves.

Proficient Partner: This one isn't used very often. While Research-Decide-Teach is for teaching new skills and strategies and Coaching is for scaffolding kids towards independence through known skills and strategies, Proficient Partner is for helping children be able to have a conversation with themselves in their own head. It's about giving them generic prompts so that when they are by themselves, they can be better thinkers. You can do this conference with an individual by acting like a partner and saying what a partner would say, OR you can talk to a partnership and coach them along as far as conversational moves.

And they were better for having talked.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:47:00 +0000

Regardless of your political or religious affiliation, cultural background, gender, or moral views, you cannot dispute that we live in volatile times. Across the globe, humans struggle with hunger, war, and disease on a daily basis. Some of it will touch us in America and some of it is only a quiet, unread newspaper headline. While all of this happens, each new generation of children is educated, graduates, and takes their place among the leaders of our country, while their teachers either capitalize upon or neglect opportunities to affect the future of this earth. Although teachers cannot teach their students everything there is to know about the economic reasons for food shortage, the underlying tensions that begin modern day wars, and the insidious disparities that leave some countries ravaged by disease, they can do something exponentially more important. They can teach children how to care, to listen, and to act. More powerful than teaching an impossibly infinite list of facts, teachers can mold the way our future leaders meditate on conflicts, converse diplomatically, and solve destructive problems.

In our persuasive Power of the Pen unit, we read the words of authors who are writing to
change us and we write letters about issues that are important to us and then send them out into the world.

Katie Wood Ray, in her book Wondrous Words, talks about helping children develop “habits of the mind.” By this, she means that rather teach children a litany of different crafting moves authors make, how to recognize them, and how to apply them, we teach children how to automatically look for them. One of her key ideas is that it is much more effective to teach children how to read like a writer- a habit of the mind- than it is to teach a list of crafting moves. I’d like to borrow her notion of habits of the mind to discuss talk in the classroom.

Like I said in the opening, we are living in volatile times. As a primary teacher, I am constantly asking myself how what I do everyday affects the future. As my philosophy slowly grows along with me, I realize that my goals for teaching must be even more than I previously had allowed for. More than reading for meaning, more for writing with purpose, more than authentic experiences even—because what is authenticity and “real world” learning if it does not positively affect our “real world” once students step foot into it?? The truth is that we are not just preparing children to go out the world and do OK for themselves. We are not just helping children to be lifelong readers, lifelong learners. I think we have a higher purpose.

The other day, I was at Barnes and Nobles (where else?) working on my thesis, tapping endlessly and rather directionlessly away at my keyboard. I love to work there. I find that without my internet connection, with a table, and of course- with a latte, I can get more accomplished in 2 hours than I can at home in 6 hours. There’s only one problem. I’m drawn to other people’s conversations like a moth to a flame. I swear: I’m not TRYING to eavesdrop. It’s just that, when they are sitting only a few feet away from me, their conversations are considerably more interesting than the words on my screen.

So on this day, after I had been working for a while, an unlikely pair seated themselves at a table close to the window. One was an older man- I’d say around 60 or so, distinguished, with a swarthy complexion and a pot belly. The other was a young, t-shirted, spiked haired kid- I couldn’t tell if he was of college age, or maybe even high school. I could infer that they had met each other there and their body language suggested that they weren’t related- maybe they didn’t even know each other that well. They were far enough away that I (sadly) couldn’t hear what they were talking about- just that it was very animated. It seemed like for both them, there was no one else in the room. The expression on their faces was as though they had been waiting weeks- maybe months- to say the words they were saying. Not just when they were talking did they look joyful, but when they were listening.

I needed a break. I got a cup of coffee and played around on my internet-less computer. I glanced up. Tried to lip read, but couldn’t make it out. (A blog is a place to be honest, right?) Then I realized, when in their excitement their conversation volume was turned up- they were speaking Italian! But it wasn’t without some English and lots and lots of gestures.

From my inferences, the older man was coaching the young man on his Italian. Here and there, the young man would frantically gesture, the older man would give him the Italian word and with a bright grin stretching over his face, the learner would dive back into the conversation, for this was not only a lesson. It was themeaning that counted; whatever the subject was, both of them were on the receiving end. They probably had been holding in these words for months. One needed the other equally.

And then came the part that I found to be so poetic and beautiful. Conversation drawing to a close on a happy, boisterous note, the young guy rather abruptly stood up and walked away from the table. I doubt that either of them saw the next part (as I was the only spy). The look on the young kid’s face as he walked away looked like he had just satisfied a gnawing hunger. The smile on his lips was so real and so happy. And the older man? He was sitting at the table lightly chuckling to himself. He didn’t get up immediately. In fact, he was so much in a reverie that he didn’t notice as his pupil walked past the window to his car- still visibly smiling to himself. Finally, the teacher, grin not leaving his face, heaved himself up and wandered out the door. And they were better for having talked.

Conversation is so simple, but oh so powerful. Besides eating and sleeping, it is probably one of the most human acts. We need to talk, just as we need to eat and sleep. Asides from just satisfying a personal need though, conversation is the great unifier. It is conversation that has smoothed over border disputes, solved political conflicts, inspired solutions for peace. Through talk, people not only can transform themselves, but they can transform and transcend their circumstances: they can bring others along with them. I believe I witnessed transformation in a simple conversation over coffee.

We have a higher purpose as teachers, and teaching the art of conversation should not- cannot- be minimized. So how can we teach children to talk well- not just about trivial likes and dislikes and what they’re doing on the weekend? And if we canteach them to talk about bigger things than these, how can we teach the others to listen and respond well? I’m arguing for making room in our curriculum to let children talk. I’m arguing for giving children the time they need to develop a habit of the mind, because won’t that serve them, and in effect serve society- more steadfastly outside the walls of our classroom? We can easily eat up all our time making children hungry for books and purposeful and strategic in their reading and it is worth every second we devote to it. But I wish to send more than readers into the world. I wish to send out changers, feelers, thinkers, listeners. For those are the ones who, in just 20 years, will sit around a conference table with the future of thousands- maybe millions- in their hands. Whether they can effectively collaborate is more life or death than if they can talk about a mental image they made in their latest novel.

Saving the world is no easy task. The ratio of teachers to students is not in our favor, and neither is time. Each of us has approximately 180 days to change the way 20-30 children exist in this world. Given those restraints, would you rather begin at the top of a list of skills and facts and hope you can “finish” them by the end of the year (you won’t suceed- knowledge is infinite), or would you rather affect the way in which those 20-30 future citizens reason through a social situation, the way they express a dissenting opinion, the way they listen to new ideas and make room for them in their minds? I know which one I’d choose.

Let’s not have children wait until college to experience the exhilaration of a rigorous, passionate discussion. Let’s make room in our classrooms to see that children make room in their hearts and minds. That’s what living together on this spinning ball is all about!

Conferring Toolkit

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:12:00 +0000

The main purpose of a reading or writing conferring toolkit is to raise the level of your conference teaching. I've never met anyone who is super proud and confident in his/her ability to confer well consistently. It's just plain hard. One reason why it's so hard is because conferences can quickly turn into us teaching at the child and our words travel in one ear and out the other. The conferring toolkit arms a teacher with all the materials in one place that we might need to SHOW, not TELL. In short, the toolkit is one more way to make your teaching stick.

In our minilessons, we work really hard to show, not tell. We usually have some kind of material that we will model with or demonstrate on in front of the class. And conferences, really- are just mini-minilessons. Instead of a connect, they often have more of a "research", but they have a teaching point and a definite time for a teaching demonstration and they should have an active engagement and link. But too often, we give the teaching point and pad it on all sides with words, words, words. But we don't demonstrate it and/or we don't let the child have a go.

That's where the toolkit comes in. I see it as a growing resource, into which I'll be constantly adding. Because I learned about it first in relation to writing, that's what most of my materials are for right now. But I'm going to add things as the year goes on for my reading conferences too.

My awesome colleagues that shared this idea at a writing class we recently took, showed us their toolkits (instead of just telling us). I figured you'd appreciate the same thing, so here is a video of me - well, my hands- going through my conferring toolkit in its beginning stages. This is NOT the be all, end all. In fact, I think it's quite lacking right now. But every new idea has to start somewhere, right?

PS: Sorry my voice sounds like it's underwater.

Learn about a Conferring Toolkit

Classroom Video Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Below is a link to a video tour of my 2009-10 Clubhouse-themed classroom. A few highlights:

1.  Improved Traffic Flow: The year before, I went book nook crazy. This year, I tried to keep all the same book nooks, but clear the clutter away in places where the tables were always shifting or kids were always squeezing.

2.  Book Organization: I found that, as 2nd graders typically do, my picture books were being ignored and the chapter books being read. But even more disturbingly, in conferences, I could tell that there were a lot of children who would read picture books- they understood that they could try their thinking strategies out on picture books easier than on chapter books. But they didn't really know where to start looking. As a result, I've rearranged my library so that it is entirely sorted by genre, regardless of whether it's a chapter or picture book.

So my main library area is fiction: fantasy fiction on the right and realistic fiction on the left. In the back of the room is still nonfiction. In the front of the room, there are still some "other" bins-- like songs and rhymes. I'm hoping that this might help children see: If I like these animal fantasy chapter books, here is the animal fantasy picture books.

3.  Timeline of Learning: Surprise! I couldn't possibly do this the same way two years in a row. This is my fourth year making a timeline, and the fourth way I've done it! This time (you'll see it in the back of the room above the computers), I've precut tall paper strips to fit my back board. For each month, I'm going to take that strip down, bring it to our minilesson area and use it to record the main teaching points of that unit (reading and writing). So really, it's a teaching point timeline. Above each month, I still have room for pictures of special events, science, and math.

Take the tour!

More on Mini's: Skills and Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Imagine that in your second life, you decide to learn how to walk a tightrope. Your mentor coaches you by saying, "balance." If that was the extent of their teaching, I'd advise you to run for the hills! Balancing is a skill. But there are plenty of strategies that go into learning how to balance. Balance by holding your arms straight out. Balance by keeping your chin up. Balance by tightening your core.

Teaching reading and writing are the same. Every teaching point in a minilesson needs to have both a skill and a strategy. A skill is something that you teach children because they need it to become proficient readers, and a strategy is a way to achieve it. One skill might have many different strategies, but we only teach one at a time.

Even though we may call determining importance a strategy when we are talking to children, it's really a big umbrella skill. There are many different ways that a reader can determine importance. They can determine importance by reading the headings and subheadings. They can determine importance by thinking of their purpose for reading. They can determine importance by noticing character change. This is how we stretch a skill over several weeks. We have our skill and then we break it down daily into different strategies. It's time to stop with the: Good readers determine importance. Gosh, if I were a student, I would have no idea where to begin with that statement!

In order for children to best latch on to a skill, we must state it clearly with a strategy that will help them get there.

Like this: Today I'm going to teach you to read a tricky word (skill) by getting your mouth ready to read (strategy). OR... Today I'm going to teach you to make a mental image (skill) by using all five of your senses (strategy). What's more- at TC (Columbia's Teacher's College) they advocate that for the ultimate skill "stickiness", we should repeat that teaching point 6 TIMES in one short mini!

Remember that a minilesson has these 4 parts:
Connection
Teach
Active Engagement
Link

Here's how the teaching point fits in 6 times:
1. The connection ends with: "Today I'm going to teach you that one way to (skill) is by (strategy)."
2. At the beginning of the teach: "Watch me as I (skill) by (strategy)."
3. At the end of the teach: "Did you notice how I (skill) by (strategy)?"
4. At the beginning of the active engagement: "Now it's your turn to try to (skill) by (strategy)."
5. After the active engagement: "I noticed that so many of you ...."
6. The link would go something like: "So anytime you're reading and you ___, you can (strategy).

Those 6 repeated teaching points are accompanied by "catch phrases." If we can attempt to phrase them in the same way every time, they act like a switch for the child. When you flip it, they know what to expect each time. They know: When I hear the words "Today I'm going to teach you..." they'd better listen up because the big idea is coming. They know that their teacher is about to teach them something and then she is not going to let them off the hook; they are going to have to try it after her. So they listen, because that's what happens every day at the minilesson.

We all know that predictable routines leave more space for deep thinking. This is why workshop is structured as it is. Why not bring some of that predictability into the minilesson?

For more on the parts of a minilesson, be sure to check out The Architecture of a Minilesson

My students were so used to hearing the language of a minilesson, that for one celebration they
taught each other by writing their own teaching points. (I wasn't picky - I let them leave the skill out:-)

Architecture of a Minilesson

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:37:00 +0000

What follows is Lucy Calkin's TCRWP (Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project) version of the workshop minilesson- and the version to which I subscribe. For this posting, I'll be talking in reading terms, but it is the same structure for writing.

Every minilesson has four parts: connection, teach (within that is the teaching point), active engagement, and link.

In the connection, we refer back to something we've read or learned as a class or to a problem you've been noticing. Or, we can begin with a little story from our own reading lives. The point is to help children access the schema they will need to proceed.

In the teach, we clearly state what it is that we will teach them through a one sentence teaching point. Even if you are doing a minilesson on the fly and have not planned the entire thing out, the one-sentence teaching point needs to be thought out in advance so that you can state it the same, non-cluttered, clear way each time you say it. After you state the teaching point, you move on to modeling it in the most explict, open-up-your-brain way you can.

In the active engagement, children get a shot at trying the teaching point before they are expected to do it in independent reading. Children can bring a book with them to the mini and sit on it until they need it. Or they can bring white boards to try out a print strategy. Or they can bring nothing and turn to their pre-planned turn and talk partner to talk their thinking out. The possibilities are endless. But one thing is for sure: without the active engagement, your lesson would have no "stickiness" to it at all. It would be all talk and no walk. The active engagement is the easiest part to skip but I implore you: DON'T!

In the short one or two sentence link, we state that teaching point one more time and we tie the skill to the child's real reading life or to independent reader's workshop. It is here that we are effectively saying, "I'm not just teaching this to you for when you are at school, but as something you can use for the rest of your life." In fact Lucy Calkin's personal catch phrase is, "So readers, today and everyday..."

Out of the entire thing, probably the most important part of the minilesson is a clearly stated, well-worded teaching point. I say "clearly stated, well-worded" because you'll be saying your teaching point 6 whole times within your 7 minute mini! Each teaching point needs to include a skill (what you're teaching) and strategy (one way the child can do it). The minilesson also has catch phrases to introduce each time you say the teaching point. The catch phrases I use are: Today I'm going to teach you that.... Watch while I... Did you notice how I... Now it's your turn to... I like how you all were .... So anytime you are reading...

The point is not to sound like a robot. You should word your minilesson in the way you normally talk. But by having your own personal catch phrases- or predictable ways of presenting new information- it tightens up your teaching and allows the child to focus on WHAT you're teaching, rather than HOW you're teaching it. The child can better hear your teaching point and not all the wordiness that usually surrounds it. I'll give you a couple of examples.

I'll start with a simple print strategy minilesson and then give one where the teaching point is a little more complicated to present. The teaching points are in italics and the catch phrases are underlined.
__________________________________________________________________
Connection:
Readers, yesterday when we were doing shared reading, I was impressed by how well you were using the pictures to figure out unknown words! But I noticed that sometimes, you would guess a word, but then when we looked at the word on the page, it didn't look like it could be that word. The letters didn't match. Today I want to teach you that one way readers figure out tricky words, is by looking at the first letter and getting their mouth ready with the sound.

Teach:
Watch me as I figure out a few tricky words in this big book by getting my mouth ready for the first sound. (demonstrate) Did you notice the way that I figured out the tricky words by getting my mouth ready for the first sound?

Active Engagement:
Great! Now it's your turn to figure out a tricky word by getting your mouth ready for the first sound. Ready? We'll read it together and when we get to that covered word, I want you to turn to your partner and tell them what you think it could be. (Let them practice on next two pages of big book -- have everything but first letter covered of the target words.) Excellent! On each word, I like how each of you read up to the tricky word and then got your mouth ready for the sound. It really helped you figure out the tricky word, didn't it?

Link:
So readers, anytime you're reading and you come to a tricky word, one thing you can try is to get your mouth ready for the first sound. Happy Reading!

__________________________________________________________________

Connection:
Readers, last night I was reading a really great novel when my dog bounded into the room and dropped a big, slobbery ball in my lap. I looked up and yelled, "Ewww!" After I had thrown it off, I looked back down and guess what? I had lost my place on the page. I thought to myself, that's what happens sometimes when readers get distracted, so today I'm going to teach you that in order to help yourself stay focused when a distraction happens, you can put your finger on the word you were reading and hold it right there.

Teach:
Watch me as I stay focused on my reading by putting my finger on the word I was reading and holding it there. (Ask a child to ring the bell in the middle of reading) Act out reading, bell ringing, I put my finger on the text, look up, and then resume reading where I left off. Did you notice how I was reading and when the bell rang, I put my finger on the word I was reading, looked up, and was able to keep reading?

Active Engagement:
Now it's your turn to practice staying focused by putting your finger on the word you are reading. Please take out the book I asked you to bring to the carpet and when I say 'go ahead' start reading. Remember what to do when you hear the distracting sound! (do it) Wow! I was looking around, and when the bell sounded, I like how each of you helped themselves by putting their finger on the word they were reading! Great job!

Link:
So readers, please remember that anytime you are reading and a distraction happens-- like a visitor walks in the room, or your mom calls you for dinner or someone steps on your towel at the beach-- one thing you can try to help yourself stay focused is to put your finger on the word you are reading. Happy reading!
__________________________________________________________________
Notice the green part of the link... an important purpose of the link is to plant ideas about leading an avid reading life. So it's vital that in at least some minilessons, we give readers ideas of when and where they might be reading NOT JUST IN THE CLASSROOM. We don't just link to our classroom (although sometimes we do), but to the outside world.

Also notice that my teaching point was not perfectly the same every time. It's really easy to keep it the same when it's something short and clear, like in the first example. But when it's been difficult to word, it's OK if it changes a little each time. Writing a teaching point that has staying power is deceptively difficult. But after you practice a couple of times, you really get into the groove-- there's a rhythm to this!

Balanced Literacy: The 3 Balancing Acts

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:50:00 +0000

What do we mean by Balanced Literacy? Before you declare that you teach in this way, check out the Lucy Calkin's Teacher College version of BL. As with any educational buzz words, not everyone is in total agreement on the components of Balanced Literacy, but everyone seems to agree on the below three balancing acts:

1. Balance between part and whole (The part is the code of reading, comprehension, & fluency, and the whole is the whole text and integrating the parts.)

2. Balance between reading to, with, and by students

3. Balance in group size (There is a bit of whole group, but most of a Balanced Literacy's teacher instruction takes place in small group or one-on-one/one-on-two.)

Whole; reading by; one-on-one (when he gets his turn conferring with teacher)

The name of the game is to keep those balancing acts in check. Guard against too much whole group, too much focus on the mechanical part of reading (or not enough), a lack of independent reading... and on and on. It's not easy. But it's OK to plan a balanced week, instead of a balanced day. While we do, of course, want each day to have a mix of part and whole, different sizes of groups, and reading to with and by, not every day can fit it all. So if you have to skip shared reading one day in order to fit a longer read aloud, just make up for it another day.

Columbia University's Teacher's College defines the components of Balanced Literacy as: Reader's Workshop, Writer's Workshop, Small Group work, Shared Reading, Read Aloud, Word Study, and Interactive or Shared Write.

Each of those components corresponds to either part or whole teaching, both being necessary.

Reader's and Writer's Workshop are whole.
Read aloud, word study, interactive writing focus on the parts.
Shared Reading, Small Group work, and Shared Write can be whole OR part.

Yup- it's all one big, balancing act! Are you up to it?

Yak yak yak- Structures for Talking in Class

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:24:00 +0000

"Excuse me! Please save your chatting for the playground."
"Is there something you'd like to share with the class?"
"Shhhhhh!"
"I'm waiting."

Memories. When I was in elementary school, it seemed like the sole role of the teacher was to keep the class industriously working in silence. I was your typical teacher-pleaser type, so I hardly ever spoke out of turn, and if I did, I did with fear in my heart. For if I uttered a word, I knew the teacher would shine a spotlight on me-- "Is there something you'd like to share with the class?"-- making me an example to everyone else: here is a student doing something that is not a school behavior. Talking-- bad. Quiet obedience-- good. End of story? Well, not quite. Then came college...

In college, professors prodded the students- most of whom went through a talk-less, opinion-less schooling, like me. They posed intriguing questions, they pushed their unwilling learners into groups, they poked and poked and poked. Somewhere in the thick of things, we began to bloom. What followed was an awakening; first, of myself as a thinker and learner, then as a future teacher.

At that point, of course, I hadn't formed any permanent visions of my classroom or structures for talk. But what was dawning on me was, "a classroom doesn't, and shouldn't, have to be quiet." I started to hear that same sentiment in my classes as the future teachers of America talked in dreamy, idealistic ways.

Fast forward a couple of years: Some ridiculous number of those previously idealistic first year teachers quit in the first five years. Could it be because we get into the classroom and realize that all of our great visions are not so easily made concrete? Could it be because we walk past other classrooms and see rows of children working quietly?

We are products of whatever hand first molded us. We have to actively, consciously fight against the current. How incredibly easy would it be to sit the kids down, give them a workbook, write the page numbers on the board, and check email? How much easier would it be if the kids kept quiet all day? Then, we could check our email in peace and we wouldn't have to worry about moderating their talk or grappling with their far-out ideas. But- then again, what kind of students would we be turning out?

We're not in the factory-mode of education anymore. I like to look at education a little more optimistically-- Slowly but surely, teachers are emerging from the restraints of a cold vice that kept a neat lid on their classrooms for so long. But it's not easy. How can we turn talk into something powerful for our students? It's not enough to just let them talk-- teachers who've tried that, end up giving in and flowing with the current. There's a lot of "shhhhing" and "I'm waiting's" because the talk is not meaningful, just disruptive.

The fact that learning is rooted in language is an ideal to which I adhere. If that's so, how can we silence the most natural form of language? We so often list reading and writing as our language arts curriculum, and we think that listening and speaking are givens. But there goes that current again-- if you don't actively and consciously plan for rich listening and speaking opportunities, they just won't happen.

Here are just a few structures for talk in the classroom:

Personal shares: Not to be confused with show and tell, sharing is the perfect time to give voice to the things that kids care about outside of the classroom. Give them time to talk about their softball win, the death of their goldfish, their playdates. Work in some active listening lessons and teach them how to ask meaningful questions that evoke more than one-word answers. Once they have internalized sharing in a full group, give more people a chance to talk at once by partner sharing.

Learning Shares: Grounded in what's happening in the classroom, rather than out of the classroom, learning shares can be some of the most powerful teaching moments of the day. Take time to sit in a circle and share strategies, struggles, and celebrations in every academic subject. These sharing times won't take up disproportionate amounts of time if you don't let them. We can't allow every child to share every time. The emphasis needs to be on the learning. Children need to be fully invested in what the sharer is saying. They need to ask questions, make comments, and stretch the speaker.

Interactive read alouds: If you notice that your read aloud questions always seem to come back to the same kinds of questions- whether they are too literal, or mostly connection questions, or "what d'ya think's gonna happen next?" questions- start writing out your questions ahead of time. Ask more general questions- ones that your student teaching supervisor probably would have cringed upon hearing. Like: "What do you think about that?" or "Talk to me about this part/character action/ending." Don't expect deep, genius thoughts from your class at first. Be alert for even the smallest spark of a genius idea, pull it out, and bring it to the attention of the class. Allow lots of times where everybody is talking: Have your students paired up with partnerships that last the year. Because as students start to feel comfortable with their partner, the ideas and opinions and criticisms will start to flow.

Talk partners: Partnering kids up with their own "say-something" partner reduces the time it takes for them to locate someone to talk to, or for you to find someone for them to talk to. Having these say-something partners allows the teacher the flexibility to stop teaching at anytime, throw out a question, ask for a rephrase, request an example or application. How beautiful to increase the percentage that all children are accountable through talk! Plus, when kids have permanent partners, they know each other's strengths and weaknesses and they know how to get the best from each other- provided that you've taught them strategies for that, also.

Book clubs: (Not read as: literature circles, which certainly have their own place too) Teach your students to participate in and eventually run book clubs. Think about the kind of club you'd want to participate in, and work towards that vision. Moving children towards independence means inserting yourself as an active participant in the group at first and slowing phasing yourself out. One way that has worked for me is to teach just one group first. Usually- it's not a group of high readers (I find that they are my most needy book club members), but it is a group of student leaders-- the kids who are always able to find something to talk about. Once they have learned how to run a club, let them be the teachers for the rest of the class. Make a fishbowl around them, and talk about their behaviors quietly as they run a typical book club in front of the others. In my opinion, if your students aren't loving book clubs, you need to retrace your steps and start again.

Group work: Of course, we all do group work in one form or another, but think about how it usually plays out. The teacher gives the assignment, explains the directions once, explains the directions again, asks for someone to repeat the directions. The teacher makes groups, passes out materials, and if we're lucky, the kids don't fight over the markers too much as they complete the task. But in a first or second grade classroom, how much time is spent on following the directions and how much time is spent talking it out, arguing, meeting in the middle, hypothesizing? Heck- they just want to make sure they get their favorite color marker, and if everyone does, if and everyone is happy, they have "met in the middle". Much of the mundane can be avoided if we 1) teach kids how to talk, argue, compromise, hypothesize and 2) (much easier...) Just don't hand them any materials until we're happy with the way they have run their group! My rule is, you can't have your materials until I sit with your group and each member that I talk to can explain some of your thinking.

Talk talk: that is-- talk in transitions, talk during workshops, talk while they wait. What harm did talking in class ever do? If students know their volume limits, and the teacher does not have an objective that dictates silence, why would we ever shush them? Talking in its purest form fulfills all kinds of goals: children are gaining social skills, building classroom communities, feeding off of each others expertises, scaffolding each other's learning, and on and on.

Back to my schooling years: What would have been, had I talked my way through school? What could I have learned, have achieved, have been- if my youngest self had been sincerely questioned, thoughtfully listened to, and regularly celebrated? I may never know the answer to that, but I do know what I can do for the children of today. I can step to the side, and let them talk.

I Can See Clearly Now: Synthesis

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:14:00 +0000

"Everything is becoming more clearer," two students wrote on a synthesis chart. Those words aptly sum up not just their understanding of the book, but of their blooming understanding of the way the comprehension strategies work together.

When I taught synthesis for the first few years, I was apprehensive about starting our synthesis work because I didn't feel I had a clear idea of what it was-- I wasn't even sure when I was or wasn't synthesizing in my own reading. Now, I'm seeing it EVERYWHERE!

Synthesizing is when you turn the page of a book and the kids smile, eyes wide-- it's when you see the lightbulb click on. They have listened to the whole story, thinking it is about one thing, only to change their thinking with a turn of the page.
Synthesizing is when you're teaching a lesson and it seems that no one is getting it until Billy explains it in kid language. Before you know it, all of them are adding more and more and have constructed their own definition of the concept.
Synthesizing is a puzzle-- some of the pieces are book clues, some are connections, some are visualizations, other inferences, and others questions. Synthesizing is like the whole of the parts. We work the entire year on those parts, but synthesizing is the big picture.

Now that I understand synthesizing, I am seeing theory and practice come together. All of these years, I've read about constructivism and I knew that many of the activities in our room were constructivist. But no one thing I've taught in reading so neatly represents that constructivist viewpoint as does synthesis. Constructivists believe that children build on prior knowledge and that learning occurs when their schema changes. In the same way, readers can connect and visualize and question until they are blue in the face, but unless they keep track of that thinking-- unless they gather up all those parts and make them whole, their thinking will not change. Using the strategies in isolation does not represent what real readers do. There has to be a blending and melding that results in a deep understanding or new knowledge-- i.e. synthesis.

It sounds so abstract when I write it down, but in our classroom, it's really very concrete. One year, I asked the children to try to teach synthesis in some way to the rest of the class. One group drew a tree and seed. They said that synthesis is like a seed when we start, but as we read, it grows and grows into a big idea. Another partnership thought it was like a puzzle. They said that when you build a puzzle, you start with the easy part, the straight edges, and work in until you see the whole picture. A third group said that synthesis is like a person who knows very little when they are baby, but learn and change as they grow and see more.

To me, synthesizing is like a person walking on a path-- when she stops, she can reflect back on where she has been, and thus see how far she has come. She can predict with some certainty where she'll go from there, but any twist in the path or barrier in the road can change what she thinks she knows and set her on an entirely new path. It's a day by day, step by step, moment by moment journey.

It's what I love about teaching-- that there will never be an end to my journey, because as long as I meet new children, confont new barriers, read new books, talk to different teachers, my path will be ever-changing.

Reading Aloud Books with Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:00:00 +0000

"Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens ..." ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

WARNING: This blog contains my strong opinion concerning reading good, challenging literature to young children. If you are stuck on only reading aloud #1-20 of Junie B. Jones and Horrible Harry, you should stop reading here.

When I taught first grade, I routinely read aloud Charlotte's Web. Every year, as I began the book anew, I would at first forget what a cumbersome beginning that book is for young children. If you haven't read it in a while, I'll remind you that Charlotte doesn't even write for the first time in her web ("Some Pig") until the middle of the book! The whole first half is descriptions, character development, and anecdotes. On the year the movie came out, I read it earlier in the year than usual so that I could take my class to see the movie. Even though we weren't finished with the book on the day before winter break, I still gave a copy to each student as a gift. I would have never guessed their reaction!

I read them the bookmark that was attached to the wrapped gift: "May you grow into this book and open it again and again many times throughout your life." I explained to them that it wasn't "just right" but that it was more special than most books because every time they read it, it would mean something different to them. With that, I let them tear in to the paper--

"C H A R L O T T E ' S WEEEEEEB!!!!!" rang out all over the room. I am not exaggerating when I say that as some kids waved it over their heads, while others hugged each other and the book, jumping up and down. It took minutes before they calmed down enough to move onto the party games. THINK: Oprah's Favorite Things. ;-)

The thing about reading aloud powerful novels is that it becomes so much more about a community bonding experience than about listening to words on a page. As each child gets attached to the characters and setting of the book, they also bond with each other, knowing that when that book opens, all listeners will smell the hay in the barn, sigh at the same times, laugh at the goose, and wonder with Wilbur.

So often we short-change young children. We think they aren't capable of understanding long, winding stories. We way underestimate their capacity for empathy. We don't give them any credit for the amount of inferring and predicting they are able to do in order to monitor their understanding of an orally told story.

Some people will not agree-- but I say put away the Junie B. Jones. I promise that every would-be Junie fan will find his or her way to those books without a read aloud. Put away the Magic Tree House. The marketing alone and the positioning of the popular series on the Barnes and Nobles shelves will draw readers to them.

Reading classic children's literature and well-written novels is more work for the listener and much more draining for the reader. It takes more work because the characters are well-developed and three dimensional. The author has hidden bits of wisdom throughtout the book that can't possibly be uncovered in one reading. These kinds of books grow with the reader. Each time I read Charlotte's Web, it speaks to me in a different way.

You can't expect children to sit with rapt attention the entire way through, and you can't even expect them to understand every twist and turn. But what you and your students WILL get is the gift of true friendship within the pages of the book and the promise that even when they open that book later-- as a fourth grader or as an adult-- those memories and friends will still be waiting for them.

So it's in that way-- the opening again and again and the joyful sharing, that I believe some special books have a soul within their pages. And since the time I have with each group of children is short, THOSE will be the books I read.

The Reason for Rituals

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:46:00 +0000

One of our classroom rituals is to change the leaves on the trees with the seasons.
The kids know that the new season is "official" when we switch our library decorations!

A common quote about reader’s workshop comes from Lucy Calkins, where she basically says that the places in life where the most creativity can happen are the most predictable of environments (the artist’s studio, the scientist’s lab). Those of us who use reader’s and writer’s workshops know that within that predictable structure, what we once may have thought impossible, is possible. I often tell teachers who are just starting workshop that simply by providing the minilesson, independent work, share structure every day without fail, they will be giving their students a gift. Even though there is so much more to workshop, the structure and predictability of the workshop environment is the first and most important place to start. If children know they will write and read for extended periods every day, they will plan for it. It’s sometimes as if the extraordinary happens between workshops- in the anticipation and preparation for the day or days to come. The magic happens when a child plans to finish this story and then write the story of the moment before and after. Or when a group of children plan to use their partner time to compare a stack of books by their favorite author. All of the above, we know.

All this has got me thinking about rituals. First of all, I love the word. Ritual. It’s so much better than “routine.” Routine sounds like programmed, going-through-the-motions steps. Oh, but calling it ritual makes me feel as though every time a thing is done in the same way as before, it brings our class closer as a community. Ritual is interwoven with class culture and our history and our future.

Reader’s and writer’s workshop are just the start. If children respond well to those classroom rituals, shouldn't we take a look at other parts of our day? In what ways do we start the day that invite children to come together as a learning community? If we gather together in a cozy, but intense way to start reading and writing, how are we gathering for math? How does that differ from how we gather for science? I’m not simply talking about the “routine”, or step-by-step directions for how children come to the carpet—the directions that we would leave for a substitute. No: what I mean is “what is the meaning behind those actions?” If readers and writers gather surrounded by books, how to mathematicians and scientists gather? And besides gathering, what poems, phrases, or songs to children utter every day? And why those poems, phrases, or songs? How are children honored by you and their peers? How does the class celebrate?

Here are some of our classroom rituals (and reasons).

Ritual: Greeting each student at the door
Reason: “Seeing” each student every morning, saying every students name at least once before the bell, eye contact, teacher-student bond

Ritual: Morning Song
Reason: setting the tone of the day, smoothing the transition, inviting all children to feel connected by knowing the words to the same songs, reminiscing and revisiting “old” songs as evidence of shared history

Ritual: Morning Greeting (student to student)
Reason: Having each student’s name said one more time early in the morning, eye contact, peer bonds

Ritual: Reading of a certain text over the course of a school year (My favorite text to read over and over is All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant)
Reason: Children eventually memorize parts and text becomes part of shared history, words/phrases slip into other parts of the day to explain frustrating events or used during transitions, influences craft of writing in writer’s workshop, functions as shared reading (word rec. and interpretation)

Ritual: Reading and writing meeting in the library (minilessons)
Reason: Sitting in the library signals to children that soon we’ll spread out to read, all library meetings are literacy-based (either reading, writing, or read alouds) so sitting there sets the tone, children begin to act a certain way when meeting in the library because they know reading and writing meetings are time to listen and turn and talk- hand raising and calling out become less and less

Ritual: Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop
Reason: From the first day of school, children understand that we’ll never skip reader’s or writer’s workshop. Having personal bookshelves and taking home books from our class library enable children to read one or two texts over a number of days without feeling the need to rush or skip ahead in case there is no time to read the next day. Having writing folders with on-going pieces and no “turning in” or deadlines does the same. Stamina and focus are automatically increased during workshop.

Ritual: Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop share
Reason: spreads good ideas in a kid-run forum, reinforces the child who originated the idea, makes the whole workshop more organic

Ritual: Novel Read Aloud and Picture Book Read Aloud at the same time and place every day
Reason: meeting surrounded by books communicates a love for reading and requires a level of seriousness, children know that the novel read aloud is more relaxed with less teaching and that the picture book read aloud is time for turn and talks and teaching, the same way RW and WW builds stamina for reading and writing, read alouds begin to build conversation stamina

Ritual: Free Choice Time
Reason: children know they will have a time when they can extend their reading or writing thinking, or when they can read or write things above or below their just right levels

Ritual: Math Warm-Up
Reason: math begins with immediate independent thinking and problem solving, pencils and math journals in hand, the math period starts with sharing of problem solving strategies- ensuring that mathematical talk happens every day, regardless of the lesson

Ritual: Rainy Day reading (when our days are dark and rainy, we snuggle up and build in extra reading with quiet music)
Reason: nurturing reading identities and reading lives, having a kind of secret ritual

Ritual: Fridays playing “When I Was Interrupted” (On Fridays, instead of regular RW sharing, we go around the circle and say, “When I was interrupted, I was with Jack in the Amazon Rain Forest/ or at the foot of an erupting volcano/ or in Junie B’s bedroom)
Reason: growing the idea that to stop reading is to be truly “interrupted” and plucked from a faraway place—the idea that if you are truly lost in a book, it is hard to come back to the “real world.”

Ritual: Unit Celebrations
Reason: to bring closure to one particular line of thinking and to build excitement for a new line of thinking, to periodically add some spice to the predictability of workshop

Close up, small rituals add a rhythmic texture to the fabric of our days. But take a step back, because the resulting design is anything but routine!

Guided Reading Vs. Strategy Group

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:22:00 +0000

Chances are you've heard both terms. You may be tempted to toss guided reading and embrace the newest "most hip" reading group on the block. But hold your horses- there's room for both in a balanced literacy classroom. Here's some of the main differences:

Guided Reading Group	Strategy Group
Teacher acts like a coach on game day, first setting the group up for the game to come, and then offering words of advice from the sidelines as the players tackle the job of reading the text beginning to end.	Teacher acts like a coach during a practice, stating a discreet skill she notices the group needs to work on, teaching it, modeling it, then allowing time for practice of that skill.
Teacher is like a safety net under a tightrope walker. She stays with student from the beginning to the end of the experience and coaches the whole time.	Teacher teaches just one skill in isolation to tightrope walker and student practices it again and again until that one skill is mastered.
Teacher supports and guides students through an entire text, and in this way, teaches them the types of problems they might encounter in a text on this level.	Teacher explicitly teaches one skill, models the skill with her own book, then coaches children through practicing the skill on their own books.
Readers are on the same reading level.	Readers are usually on different reading levels.
Readers read from the same text, chosen by the teacher because it is on the group’s instructional level.	Readers practice the new skill on a text at their own level (usually from their book box, sometimes supplied by the teacher).
Readers may learn several strategies in one meeting.	Readers focus on only one strategy per meeting.
Groups are formed as a result of some type of teacher benchmarking that indicates the approximate reading level of every student.	Groups are formed as a result of teacher observation and notes ~ usually during one on one reading conferences or during other small group meetings.
Once a group is formed, it stays together for several meetings until it’s determined that one or more children are ready to move to a different level. The younger the reader, the more levels they move through per year. By 4^th and 5^th grade, guided reading groups will only change 2 or 3 times in year.	Groups are formed to address a strategy need, and once that need is fulfilled (usually 1-3 meetings) that exact group does not meet again for the same purpose. Teacher reforms groups based on new strategies.
Guided reading groups are helpful when students are just being pushed up to a new level. Through GR, they can learn all the new text features and possible pitfalls they might encounter on texts of a new level.	Strategy groups are helpful once students are established in their reading level (but not yet ready to move onto the next) and collecting strategies to add to their reader’s toolbox.

See what I mean? The two can - and should - coexist! They work together beautifully, coaching and guiding, then teaching and practicing.

Not every child needs to be participating in a guided reading group and strategy group at the same time. That would be a logistical nightmare! The point is that each student is participating in a small group where they can get quality teacher attention on the skill(s) they need at the time. It is typical to see more guided reading in K-1, since children are moving through levels quickly and need the support that guided reading offers as they explore each new level and the challenges that come with each one. But as children get more proficient, they don't move through as many levels per year. In second grade, children eventually begin to participate a little more often in strategy groups as their movement through the reading levels slow. By the intermediate grades, most small groups are strategy groups. As all teachers know, there are exceptions to every rule. The beauty of using both structures, is that the type of group a child participates in is completely flexible and totally based on the needs of each child. We aim to please!

Party like a Strategy Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:30:00 +0000

What is the single most FUN, action-packed part of your teaching day? That's what I thought! The strategy group. Think of a strategy group as one big PARTY!

The Invitation (or, Who Gets to Come): To attend a strategy group, you need your very own special invitation. Who's invited? Any child who is in need of a certain skill, as judged by you during your one-on-one conferences. While guided reading groups include children who read on the same reading level, strategy groups can have children from levels all over the map. A group on making mental images might include a child reading Biscuit books and a child reading A to Z Mysteries.

Bringing Gifts (or, What to Bring to a Group Meeting): When students attend a strategy group, everybody brings a different "gift" to the party. That is- since everyone is on a different level, it's BYOB. Bring Your Own Book. A typical strategy group routine is that when a student is invited, she brings her entire book box with her to the table so that when we get to the practice part, she has a few books on her level to use. The added bonus is that everyone gets to contribute something unique to the flavor of the group, since everyone is coming from a different place on the reading journey.

Party Favors (or, What You Get to Take from a Group Meeting): At this party, EVERYBODY goes home with something. If the teacher is focused, clear, brief and provides time for practice, practice, practice, he or she will ensure that each child leaves with more than just a party favor- a new skill to add to their reading toolbox. When the teacher is crystal clear, teaching in a way that makes the new skill transferable AND there is a short practice or two before they depart - then everybody gets to take home a shiny party favor. Sweet!

Delivering a Focused Strategy Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Ever finish teaching a small reading group and wonder, "what did I actually teach just now"? You are right to reflect on that question (often!) since teachers get such a limited time with students working in small, focused groups each day. If you believe, as I do, that teaching in small groups and one-on-one is the most effective part of your teaching day, then you'll want to get the absolute biggest bang for your buck possible.

By focusing on one strategy during a small group lesson (I mean it! Just ONE strategy at a time- no cheating!), you can maximize student understanding and the probability that they will remember and use what you've taught them. This is the whole idea of the strategy group. Instead of supporting a group of like-leveled readers as they read an entire on-level book, strategy groups pull together a group of heterogeneous students in order to explicitly teach one strategy that they all need.

When a child leaves your group, you and each child need to be able to say with conviction- "Today, I taught/learned how to _____."

Try these tips to help yourself stay focused on one single teaching point.

1. Display the teaching point and the group or groups you will meet with that day on the board or SMARTboard.

Organizing Reader's Workshop and groups B.S. (Before SMARTboard)

Organizing Reader's Workshop and groups A.S. (After SMARTboard)

2. Think of your strategy lesson like a minilesson: Start by making a connection or stating what you're noticing. Teach the skill explicitly by stating what you want them to do, and then model it with a book of your own.

3. Provide at least one practice opportunity before the students leave the group. Since members of the group are probably all on different levels, the easiest way to do this is usually to ask them to try it in a book from their book box. If it's not applicable or you think they will have trouble locating a spot to try it, then you'll need to have books or excerpts prepared ahead of time.

It's as simple as...

CONNECT: Readers, remember when we read Ira Sleeps Over? Ira didn't stay the same the whole way through the book. At the end he learned to be brave. Well, I've called you all here today because I've noticed that you are all reading books where the characters don't stay the same, and I wanted to give you a helpful tip about books like that.

TEACH: Today, I want to teach you that readers keep track of how the character changes by paying attention to their dialogue- what the character says. If you pay attention to the character's dialogue as you read, it will help you notice how the character changes.

MODEL: Watch me do that. (Flipping through the familiar book, Ira Sleeps Over) At the beginning of the book, Ira acts very nervous about his sleep over. I can tell because right here, he decides that he won't take his teddy bear. Then right here, on the next page, he decides he will. Then right here, he asks Reggie about ghosts. But at the very end, on the last page, Ira changes because he goes to get his teddy bear and then falls fast asleep. I think that by the end, Ira is not embarrassed about his teddy anymore. He seems braver and more confident. Maybe in the future he won't be so worried about what others think.

PRACTICE: Did you notice how I paid attention mostly to the things that Ira said (his dialogue) in order to find out how he changed? Now it's your turn! I've got a stack of books I've read to you right here. I'm going to ask you and a partner to take one that you remember and know well and find the parts where the characters say things that give hints on how they are changing. (assign partners) Go ahead and do that right now.

COACH: (Listen in and coach partnerships. Sharing out to the group is typically not a good use of your precious strategy group time unless you have made sure that each partnership will succinctly and correctly share an example with the group. The real teaching lies in your model and the partnership's practices)

LINK: (Bring group back together) I saw a lot of good work just now. I like how you were searching for character change by paying attention to dialogue. Readers, any time you are reading a fictional book, it important to pay attention to how the character changes. And one way you can do that is by looking at the dialogue closely. Happy Reading!

For the strategy group above- 2nd or 3rd graders- this group would likely reconvene. It often takes two, three, four or more meetings to really teach a strategy well. If this group met again, I might teach one or more of the following:

~ Knowing how a character changed by paying attention to character actions.
~ Knowing how a character changed by paying attention to character thoughts.
~ Predicting how a character might change in a new book.
~ Determining the author's message by thinking about character change.

All together, a strategy group takes about 10 minutes and no longer than 15. When else in your teaching day can you get as much teaching goodness into such a short time?

For Every Child, a Book (Or- The Stars Align)

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:47:00 +0000

As teachers and parents, we know that our number one goal is to get books into our children's hands. But it's not that easy. The stars must align: we have to get The Right Book at The Right Time into The Right Child's hands. Eek. How to?

The Right Book
Helping a child find the right book is a giant exercise in being open-minded. Remember that they have been on this earth for a short time compared to us "wise ones" and so they have not yet had the chance to purge themselves of the need for slap stick humor, utterly predictable plots, flat characters, and yes, I'm going to say it: potty jokes. Before you faint, let me just say that I am not condoning mediocre literature at all. If I think a child will bite, I will offer Charlotte's Web first every time over Captain Underpants. But remember that reading is a habit. Like any habit, it's got to form before it can be molded. It's the job of the literate adults on a child's life to match them with books that will form a reading habit for life. I have never met an "avid reader" who reads only low-level romance novels. Avid readers read low-level romance, history, nonfiction, best sellers, the newspaper, etc...

The Right Book is also a book that is, in the perfect world, just a hair below the child's instructional reading level. We call this their independent level. In the perfect world, every child would jump up and down and clap their hands and snatch these books from our hands and then savor the fact that they can fluently read almost every word. This actually does happen a lot for readers at certain levels. Which ones? Well, the ones who are reading at the levels where authors are writing compelling, exciting children's literature. Kids who finally reach a level L/M and can read Magic Tree House can be changed students simply by being introduced to the series. Not only that, but there are handfuls of amazing series at that same L/M level. Meanwhile, down at G, the "cool" books are slim pickings.

Without getting into a long discussion on leveling, I'll just say here that sometimes The Right Book may be just a little challenging for the reader. Not every book should be challenging every time. That will only wear out his "reading muscles" and exhaust his strategies. But there are times when The Right Book is a bit of a stretch and it is that stretch which builds a renewed confidence.

The Right Time
Children are social beings. As they grow into themselves, they go through lots of versions of who they are. One way they do this is by copying their peers. We see it all the time. It's normal, but still- "peer pressure" gets a bad rap. Reading is one instance when we can turn that notion on its head!

You see, often, The Right Time for a child to be reading a book is after their friend read it. Or- better yet- before any of their friends have read it. We can mold children into communities of readers by advertising which books are popular and have "waiting lists." We can sell books by sharing what other kids have had to say about a particular series or author. So when we are trying to get books into kids' hands, we are not only worried about which book they will like in a vacuum, but we have this added level of social importance to think about.

Sometimes, we can piggy-back off of a movie coming out that was based on a book and try to hype up the book and other books by the author. Or we can pull an author who has lots of seasonal or holiday books out at a certain time of year. Or maybe there's an author who is truly just hot right now, so we can showcase him or her and the newest books. But other times- we have to actually manufacture our own craze. Browse your books and find a certain genre or author or series that has been under-appreciated and give it the make-over it deserves. Put it in the spotlight, and most importantly, get a few kids to read it so that you can honestly say, "So-and-so read it and loved it!"

Getting books into kids' hands at The Right Time is like coordinating the perfect time to catch a wave out on the surf. Once you catch the wave, ride it!

The Right Child
Even if you have what you believe to be The Right Book and The Right Time, you still have one more layer to contend with and it involves really knowing your readers. Can this child handle the issues in the book you are about to put forth? Will they be able to understand the humor or the historical references? Just because a child is reading on the same level as the foreboding book, Encounter, about the white man's first encounter with the Native Americans and just because it's around Columbus Day- does NOT mean it is the book for that child. To pair a child with this book, you would have to know that you had a sophisticated reader with a strong grasp on history (or at least a sophisticated reader with a willing adult to talk to about it).

There's no doubt about it: matching kids and books is hard work. But it's important work; maybe some of the most important. Avid readers aren't born. They slowly grow into themselves. And for that to happen, the stars must align. You can make that happen.

Presto Chango! Your Ever-Changing Library

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:46:00 +0000

So you've got a dreamy vision of the perfect library in your mind. You set it up, adjust each book just so, and sit back to admire your handy work. It looks like a photo shoot taken on-site at Barnes and Noble. Perfecto! Now to calmly explain to your children that they are never ever to touch any of the displays. Or read any of the books. Ever.

Not so fast! Like a bookstore, your library needs to be dynamic, living, and ever-changing. It's not going to stay like this. It's going to get a little messy and it's definitely going to be reorganized and revitalized again and again. If your favorite clothing store had the same colors and styles displayed in the same way season after season, you'd stop shopping there. When it comes to books, the way they are displayed is part of what entices children to try new ones and pick up old ones. There are millions of ways (well, maybe not that many- but A LOT) that you might rotate and display books to keep them fresh.

Try some of these displays to spice things up:

Holiday or seasonal books
Strong interest books that a child or group of children displays
A certain genre that you want to encourage your child to read
A certain author that you want to encourage your child to read
A group of "new releases" (or at least new to your library)
Books that are all around one theme, like friendship or forgiveness
Books in one series
Books that correspond to an upcoming event at a local library or school library (like a visiting author)
Recommended books (Dad/ grandma/ the principal recommends...)
Concept books (All about wheels for babies or weather for older children)

That's all well and good, you say, but where am I supposed to get several books on wheels? Try supplementing your own home or classroom library with books from the public or school library. Most will let you take out an unlimited number of books at once and keep them for four to six weeks by renewing them. It's easy to search and put on your books on hold. The novelty of having all those new books on display in your home or classroom will really light your child's spark for reading. There is something about a carefully designed book display that is different from handing a child one book and saying- "here- how about this one?" It's also different than taking them to a book store or library with thousands of choices and saying, "you can have any one you want." Changing up your home library is a whole lot more about helping your child become literate and well-read than it is about making something pretty. We can't leave it up to others to grow their horizons- it must start with us, or it may never happen.

So, presto chango- behold the ever evolving library! Let's keep those books moving!

The "Grown-Up" Section of the Library

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:26:00 +0000

Ever since before Finn was born, I've been constantly tweaking his library. At first, it was totally display. He H-A-T-E-D books. I think he just thought, "Stop putting that thing in my face- you're blockin my view! So, when he was really young, I just had a lot of picture books face out for color and I had all the board books that I *thought* he might like someday on one shelf. As he started enjoying books as food, I moved the chewiest ones to a basket for him to eat. And now that he actually likes the subjects, rhythms, and words in others, I've moved those to the bottom shelf and scattered more all over the house. But in all that time, what was I doing with my own books? Squat! Well, not squat. I was shoving them horizontally, vertically- however they would fit, onto my overflowing bookshelves. And now that I think of it- this needs to be remedied quickly. Think: weekend project.

Thinking Paris for Dummies needs a separate shelf from Twilight...

Putting lots of time and care into our child's library is an admirable use of our time. But, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, children value what we value. And since that's the case, what message do we send them if their library is a beautiful celebration of literacy while our own is a heap of magazines and half-read books by our bed stand? (Read on, teachers... this involves you too!)

If we want our children to buy what we're selling- we have to be happy customers ourselves! It's like anything else. We don't get them to eat vegetables by piling a heap on their plates and then taking none for our own plates. Likewise, once our kids have a home library, we're halfway there. We need to make sure the "grown-up" section (Notice- I didn't call it the adult section!) is just as carefully planned.

Having our own books all over your house- on the bed stand, desk, back porch- is an excellent way to demonstrate the habits of a reader for our kids. (I'm good on this front.) So making a grown-up section doesn't mean having all our books put away all the time- that's not how readers usually operate.

NOT my house. But these bookshelves would do
very well for my purposes. Found this on Pinterest.

Instead, I think we should be creative and think about designing our own section of books in a way that works for each of us. For example, I read a lot of teaching books, tons of YA fiction, some poetry, some adult fiction, and some random nonfiction. I might sort my books into those categories. Or, I might sort them by when I finished them (or will read them). I'm a compulsive book buyer, so my purchases usually get ahead of my ability to keep up. On a table near my library, I have propped up my somewhat large "to read next" collection. It may even be nice to take a cue from our child's library and display a few books cover out.

Another important consideration: where should our books be? Even though Finn's only 8 months, I'm quickly learning that a house with children is ruled by their stuff (if we let it). There aren't too many sacred places left, but I feel that if any place should be protected- let it be the place where our books live. Instead of feeling compelled to shove our books in a crate in a forgotten corner of the basement or the old college dorm room bookshelves, let's put them out in the open. Let's put them somewhere where our kids will see them and KNOW: my parents are readers. Hey- books are interesting to look at anyways! If you don't want them out for your children, at least put them out as a component of your interior design.

Teachers- don't think you're getting out of this! What about having a small section at or around your desk? Obviously it wouldn't be practical to display books you are reading, but what about bringing in the books you read over the summer? Or adding books to your display throughout the year? Many of us share our reading lives with our students, but if you're like me, it was during a one day minilesson in which I pulled books out of a bag and shared them one at a time. Perhaps having a more permanent display would help cement the idea that "we are ALL readers here."

Like I said once before, enticing children to read seems simple, but it's actually quite complex. And while I don't have all the answers, there is one thing of which I am sure: Growing readers doesn't start with the reader. It starts with the grower.

Building a Dreamy Library

noreply@blogger.com (andrea) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:40:00 +0000

Not shelf after shelf piled with books, spines facing out
Not row after row of color-coordinated tupperware bins
Not a book display that has housed the same books for two months

The problem is, you know what you don't want in a library. (See above list) You do want a library that kids will clamor to enter and beg you to visit instead of recess or snack time or puppies and rainbows. In short, you want your library to be simply dreamy. That's all you're asking.

But seriously- building a classroom or home library that will entice your child to read and keep him/her motivated long-term can be a daunting task. If it's done right, you will not only be burning tons of brain power deciding what kinds of books to include or how many to include or how to organize them (although those are all important considerations), but what the library conveys. Does it say, "Come in- This library is the same today as when you first visited (and also when your little brother was in this class)." Or does it say, "Welcome! Step right up to see which new worlds are available for travel today. Get it while it's hot!" I would argue that what a library conveys to its potential readers is the first- and most important- consideration in putting together a library.

So put down your matching bins and your cute little labels. For this first step, all you need is your imagination. To get started, make a picture in your mind of your favorite local bookstore...

A book seller's job is to sell books, in much the same way that it's our job as parents and teachers to "sell" books. To do this, they don't simply shove all their books on shelves, spines facing out. Nor do they put every single book uniformly in a basket or tub. No. When you enter a bookstore, you are greeted with colorful, varied cover-out displays. There are tables with books standing up. There are shallow shelves meant to show off the covers of best sellers. There are recommended sections, sections by interest, sections organized alphabetically, and my personal favorite "If you liked, then try..." displays. I don't know about you, but almost as soon as I walk through the threshold of any gloriously curated bookstore, I'm touching books and reading flaps within minutes.

We know that kids (and adults!) are more likely to take a book when the cover is showing. We know that even disorganized people appreciate thoughtful organization when it comes to objects they care about. We know that children take cues from the way that the adults in their lives treat books.

So if we want our kids to enjoy books and reading, one of the first places we can start is with our home or classroom libraries. If, in the corner of your child's playroom, you've got an old bookshelf that is puking bent, ripped books from its sagging shelves, you may want to think about a make over. Because right now, your library is saying, "Stay away, or you'll catch what I have." If, hidden beside your board games and old worksheets, you have 10 dusty tupperware bins of golden books and Disney and Spongebob, you may also want to think of a make over. Your library is sending the "This-section-of-the-room-is-in-a-time-warp" vibe, and it's not cool. We want books and reading to be cool. Right??

So get down to your nitty-gritty library daydreams. Like any successful bookstore, displays are vibrant: flexible and changing in order to keep the interest of their customers.

I could talk for days on this topic, but for now, start with this checklist as you revise your home or classroom library:

What kinds of colors and/or finishes do you want to look for in storage in order to convey the feel that you want for library? If it's meant to be a cozy place to curl up and stay, you might choose different materials than if it's meant to be a vibrant, stimulating place.
What kinds of creative seating or cozy nooks can you plan so that readers want to stay?
In what ways (if any) will you involve your children in planning the space?
How many books is age-appropriate for having available at once? Could some be stashed away to build enthusiasm later?
What kind of varied storage makes the most sense for your age group? (Not just tubs and not just a display shelf)
Where can you make space for cover-out displays?

Where ELSE can you make space for cover-out displays?
How can you honor - and feature- the well-loved favorites that your child wants to read again and again?
Can you include a basket or ledge that is "owned" by the children? i.e. They decide what to put in and why.
What will your minimum goal be for sprucing the library up by rotating new books into the line up? Change it with the holidays? Refresh it quarterly? Where will the old books go and where will the new ones come from?

Here's a picture of part of my son, Finn's library. He's 8 months at the writing of this post, so his library is pretty distributed throughout the house. I have baskets in two of the downstairs rooms which we read from during the day and before naps. In his bedroom, he has his board book section (pictured) and a whole bunch of picture books for later, housed up high, (not pictured) since they aren't appropriate for munching. All around his room, he has books propped up.

Finn is crawling, so the books that he mostly looks at are on the bottom self, laid out in a way that he can get them and put them back (yeah right!!). The ones in the green tub are the ones that I am reading aloud most before bedtime. The ones on the two shelves above are ones that will be interesting to him soon, but not yet.

And here's a beginning of the year picture of my classroom a year or so ago. Like Finn's library, the class library was spread throughout the classroom (because of traffic and space), but this was the main library area where all our read alouds and Reader's Workshop meetings took place. You can see that I tried to have room for both functional book bins as well as cover-out displays that changed. Since it was the beginning of the year, I was featuring a popular back to school author, but that display area was often changed based on the author, genre, or topic we were studying. At the beginning of the school year, we "open" baskets slowly. The baskets that are labeled and illustrated by the students were open at this time, while the blank bins were yet to be introduced.

I urge you to think about a future library in your mind before you take the leap. Think big and imagine all the possibilities. Daydream before you ever start putting books into piles or making cute basket labels. Because building a library is not an exercise in sorting- it is much, much more than that.