Author: G2G

From the #G2Great Leadership Team

#G2Great will not hold its weekly chat, Thursday, June 4, 2020.

Vulnerability has been a part of our lives since the pandemic caused us to shelter in place and restricted our lives in March 2020. Because we, the #G2Great leadership team, live in different spaces across the US and Canada, our individual responses have varied. One shared truth is that we still don’t know how this will end. As a team we have celebrated our struggles and successes both personally and collectively. 

And then last week the murder of George Floyd with four police officers charged in Minneapolis became the tipping point as the video of eight minutes and 45 seconds of pleading by George and bystanders went viral. Breonna Taylor was murdered by police in her own home in Louisville. And Amy Cooper dialed 911 as she herself was breaking the leash law in Central Park in order to claim that she was being attacked by a Black man who calmly videoed the incident. It’s a world where being Black is dangerous. A world that our friends have always known as dangerous. A world of oppression that in our ignorance brought communities out into the streets in protest as the danger and sadness escalates daily. Violent. Senseless. Shameful.

Our #G2Great leadership team is broken-hearted over these recent events of racism in our world. Our collective grief leads us to think of actions that can help to nurture communities of support during a time of tragic loss of life from both violence and illness. Due to recent events and the need to elevate #BlackLivesMatter, we made the decision as a team to cancel our chat (June 4, 2020). We believe that our hearts are needed elsewhere and we knew that Kidlit Rally for Black Lives was a good place to start.  

In this time of overwhelming vulnerability we wonder: What can we do? What should we do? What are we doing? Are these questions weighing on you now? We are still trying to answer those questions for ourselves, but we hope that one of the following will spark your own ideas or actions because it is ultimately . . . up to each of us to determine what steps we will take in the coming days! 

What can we do?

• Seek the truth.
• Look inward.
• Reflect on our own beliefs
• Question. 
• Speak out.
• Align ourselves with our Black friends.
• Increase our “Ally” status.
• Strive to be anti-racist.
• Share the words of others
• Become Co-conspirators 

What should we do?

What are we doing?

• Continuing to study.
• Continuing to have conversations.
• Continuing to be vulnerable.
• Acknowledge that we don’t claim to have answers.
• Continuing to ask ourselves:  What am I doing?  Am I doing enough?
• We promise to stand with our Black colleagues in solidarity.

As a #G2Great leadership team we must express the range of emotions that we, like many of you, have felt:  heartfelt sadness, shock, anger, disgust, and rage. We recognize that as White educators we must do more to speak out against racism and the oppression and violence that it brings. But there is so much more to do and we are working to learn together to face these issues side by side with educators in their classrooms and communities to pushback and promote Antiracist practices. We know we must work together as a community. Yes, these events are current but they are not new and we have collectively as white educators chosen to remain comfortable rather than confront these inequities. We have a long way to go but we vow to look at our work and learn to be better allies on our journey to anti-racism.

Being vulnerable does not mean inaction. It does not mean certainty. It does mean taking a stance. We recognize that failure to act leaves one complicit in racist activities even as a witness. Historically, silence is violence.  We must take steps forward to improve the world by seeking change in our own communities..

We see you!

We stand beside you!

We love you! ❤️

by Brent Gilson

To see how the discussion played out check out the Wakelet here.

I hope I am not the only one that at times does not know why they are included in things. What their purpose is. I am not an academic writer. I write from my experience, sometimes my anger (ok most of the time my anger) and I celebrate my students, my friends and our learning together. I think that is why I am here writing for Literacy Lenses and on the #g2great team but my goodness this current pandemic and what our teaching has become has really clouded my thinking. While looking at this topic I had a hard time coming up with a thread that would bring the thoughts shared on Thursday into a cohesive piece. But here goes.

My wife Julie and I go and walk the trail systems in our tiny under 3000 people town every night. The trails weave through the old irrigation canal system that our town was build around. There is wildlife and beauty all around. The old spill gates still stand with their rusted old gears and cracked cement. I still remember when I was a kid and we would come down to my now home town and visit family friends and we would travel the creek in old inner tubes launching off from this same spill gate area. The landscape around it has certainly changed but the old dam is still there. Last summer or the summer before they put in a new bridge. This humongous spanning bridge that sways a bit as you cross the dam from one side of the creek to another. I am grown and I pick up my pace a bit to get over the bridge as quickly as I can.

On Friday as we crossed the bridge a young family, a coworker of Julie’s and her young boy approached the bridge. The boy dismounted his bike to walk the long expanse of the shaky bridge. His mother told us that the boy, I will call him Hank, was terrified of heights but he was going to try and cross this bridge to continue their bike ride. She had a younger child with her and took them across as Hank started his journey. We cheered him on as he slowly crept across the bridge. At one point Julie yelled out, “Hank you are doing it you are being so brave” to which he replied, “Yup I am doing it but I am SO SCARED!”

This event kept coming back to me this morning as I was pondering this post. We are living in a time right now where people are so scared. The uncertainty of health and safety, jobs and access to education are huge sources of anxiety and concern for many. But as we look at this bridge and the fact we must cross it to continue our journey we can only do so by taking those shaky steps.

Step 1: Relationships

I know it is said a lot and coming from some it is a cliché. I think we all know relationships are important. In this current situation I think we need to lean on them but not exploit them. Our students and parents trust us and we trust them. This relationship is the first step in success because we know we can count on each other.

Step 2: Sound Pedagogy

As we approach the return to schools in whatever form that might be we need to be doing so on the shoulders of research based practices that honour our students. Our assessment game needs to be built on equity for all students, our assignments need to take into account that our students have so much more they are thinking about than they were last year. It is the half and half it again approach. For myself I am looking at the work of Sarah Zerwin who will be a future guest of #g2great and the focus on learning versus scoring points. How that shift makes for a more equitable student centred approach.

Step 3: Learn from this and act.

There are a lot of folks out here on the teacher social media that at the start of the COVID closures were talking about inequity in education like it was a new thing. Those folks are for the most part already back to their old ways hocking some quick fix and flashy smile and slogan. Let’s not fall for that because it is a trick. We need to see these inequities and if they are new to us we need to expand our circle. Find folks that have been doing this work a long time learn from them. Spoiler: they likely are not out here trying to get you to buy things from them or join their brand. They are too busy doing real work. You want names? I am happy to share them you know where to find me. Now is the time to do more than HOPE for change. Now is the time to make it happen.

Where to next?

3 steps to bridge the gap. None of this will be easy. We are all learning as we go. Borrowing the words of Hank,

“Yup, I am doing it but I am SO SCARED!”

It is ok to be scared, it is ok to move with a little less confidence because walking into a fog can be scary, looking down and worrying about falling is scary but we have the tools to succeed. Step carefully but keep taking those steps.

Guest blog post by Nancy Akhavan 

On May 7, 2020, your #G2Great team turned the discussion to contemplating Our Instructional Blind Spot: The Blurry “WHY.” The events over the past several months with Covid-19 has literally changed the very face of our daily lives. This week, Nancy wrote an amazing guest post that beautifully reflects that changing face while offering wisdom and suggestions.

“Why is this happening to me? To us? To my students?” Her voice was wavering and filled with anguish. These three questions were asked by a teacher in April during a newly established virtual professional development session on Zoom.

My heart broke. We were at the beginning of a time in education, in our world, unlike anything we had ever experienced. In April, many of us were questioning the why.  

Today, as we have become more accustomed to distance teaching and encouraging distance learning, we are revisiting the “why”. However now, this is a why that goes beyond the “Why is this happening?” Now, as we adjust and become familiar with a routine of waking, brushing our teeth, drinking our coffee and shuffling off to sit in front of our computers, we may be asking ourselves, “What is our why today?”

In essence, we are at a moment of reinventing ourselves as teachers. Reinventing ourselves isn’t entirely new to the profession of teaching. In a way, we reinvent ourselves each fall as our new students fill our classrooms and we dream of the possibilities of the new school year. Think about the new books we might read, or revisit beloved books and topics. However, this reinvention is of a new type, and it is testing our resolve. 

A Blurry Why Causes Our Hope to Waiver

Olivia is a teacher in a rural area, and her students don’t all have access to the internet. Because of this, they cannot use the tablet that the school gave them to connect with her during Google hangouts. It is during Google Hangouts that she has been teaching small group reading instruction, helping students read independently so they continue to grow their abilities as readers and nurture their love for reading. Olivia sees herself as a reading teacher, and her classroom at school is filled with books. Books line the tray at the bottom of the whiteboard, books fill a good-sized classroom library, and books overflow from baskets placed on students’ work areas. She normally meets regularly with students for small group instruction to bolster their abilities so they become stronger and stronger as readers. Olivia asked me, “Am I still a reading teacher even though I don’t have a classroom to hold space for my students? Am I still a reading teacher because I cannot sit side by side with a student and point to words as the student works through a text? Am I still a reading teacher even though I am mostly talking to a screen? I don’t feel that I am.” Olivia’s why, as in why am I doing what I am doing, is becoming muddy.

Andrew is a sixth-grade teacher. He has a particular love for social studies and his passion flows about his classroom. He has maps and diagrams posted on the walls. He has quotes from famous leaders peering out from posters that hang from the ceiling. At any given time during the year, his students are involved in investigations in collaborative groups researching big questions about history, or about current events. His classroom is alive with the verve of students exploring topics and debating issues. Andrew spoke up during a recent virtual professional development session, “I cannot figure out who I am as a distance-learning teacher.  I keep having to use district-mandated computer applications, I didn’t sign up for this! Why am I having to do this now? Andrew’s why, as in why don’t I have more choice in figuring out a solution to instruction, is fraught with frustration.

Selena teaches in an urban area. She works with youth who needed a lot of support, but the gains her students made in all areas are worth the effort and time she puts in. Her days in her classroom are long, she would stay in during break to help students who needed extra attention to their work; she runs an after-school homework club and some students show up just to hang out in the vibrant learning environment Selena created. Selena confessed during a coaching phone call that she was secretly glad that she has been staying at home recently. She said that while she loved her students and her classroom with fierce conviction, she had been feeling a little burned out in January and February. She had noticed that more students were seeking her help with their writing during break and after school and that she was having trouble keeping up conferring with the 120 students she saw per day. Selena’s why, as in why is my energy and interest waning, was touching upon burnout. 

A Blurry Why Limits Our Vision for Our Students, and Ourselves

We have to know who we are as teachers and why we are choosing to show up each day, and teach our hearts out. Because that is what is feels like, our hearts are as tired as our minds and bodies are at the end of the day. If we lose our why; our sense of purpose for the work we do each day, we are seriously at risk of burnout. Denise Carver-Thomas and Linda Darling-Hammond report that about 90% of the nationwide annual demand for teachers is created when teachers leave the profession, with two-thirds of teachers leaving for reasons other than retirement. In fact, math, science, special education, ELD teachers are more likely to leave their school or the profession than those in other fields. Also, turnover rates are 50% higher for teachers in Title I schools. There are a number of reasons for teacher turnover, from dissatisfaction with standardized testing environment, to and lack of administrator support; however, many teachers leave the field because they are dissatisfied with the profession. This dissatisfaction can grow when we lose our why. 

Many of us see teaching as our calling, and we have a strong dedication to our work. But, we are only human. Losing our why not only effects our personal and professional lives, it affects our students. When we lose our why we are less engaged in our work, and we have less energy and brain cells to give to our lessons and our students’ learning. Overall, we have less to give, so we support students less, not because we want to, but because we cannot give more than we have to give. 

Self-care Can Bring Understanding to Our Why

Self-care is important. If we take care of our health and our well-being, we are less likely to burn out and more likely to thrive. In these unusual times, we need to practice self-care and we need to give ourselves the time and space to adjust to our new teaching situation, and the uncertainty of the impact on education of social distancing expectations for the next few months

To practice self-care, we need to balance things we are doing for our health and nurture time we give ourselves to “play”. Maybe we can cook, or dance around the living room. Perhaps we can take up sketch notes, even if we are not very good at drawing. There are all sorts of ways we can relax in order to practice self-care.  You can also practice self-care by giving yourself grace. You don’t need to be the best distance-learning teacher. You just need to do the best you can with the tools you have at the moment. For those of you whose students are not logging on to do their work, remember, you cannot control that, but you can affect the type of work your students are engaged in. Make the learning engaging as well as purposeful. 

With Focus Our Lessons Lead to Learning

Engaging learning begins with having a singular focus in our instruction whether we are teaching face-to-face or in distance learning.  Focus in our instruction leads to greater student learning. When we teach with a single focus, and provide ample modeling to help students understand our thinking when we are reading text, or see our thinking during think-alouds when we are writing, we can help students with their reading and their writing by guiding them. It is possible to guide students through a lesson with a single objective whatever our teaching situation may be. While you may feel overwhelmed by the difficulties you face in your classrooms, or in your virtual teaching environments, you can find your why by thinking about what you can give your students through carefully constructed lessons that provide ample time for student exploration and practice. 

Jamika planned a minilesson on how to analyze characters. She carefully selected a text that portrayed the characters’ feelings based on what the characters did in the middle and the end of the text.  She just knew that her students would be able to feel the characters’ frustrations and victories as they progressed through the story. She taught a minilesson, modeling her thinking about what she noticed the characters in the story were doing at a central point, and how they might have felt. Then she invited students to give it a try on their own. Students worked through their own texts, writing thoughts about the characters on sticky notes. After the students worked for some time, she led a class discussion and each student shared their thoughts about the characters’ thoughts and feelings in the text that each had read. Her students responded with excitement as they shared ideas from their sticky notes. She had a single focus to the lesson, and her students succeeded.

Jamika new her focus. She knew her why to the lesson she was teaching. She didn’t waiver from her focus during her lesson, and she didn’t add in additional must do’s for the students. She kept the lesson focused and simple. You might think that Jamika’s taught this lesson face-to-face with her students, but she didn’t. She had recorded herself teaching the minilesson, and then met with students online and guided them with their sticky notes. The class discussion – well, that discussion occurred using a web-based application called Padlet. 

Clear instruction provides a space for students to explore the new strategy or skill we are teaching. Clear feedback while students practice or complete assignments, provides us a time to give pointers to our students about what they are doing that is helping them become strong readers and writers, and what they can do themselves to deepen their own learning. 

A Blurry Why Causes Our Lessons and Ourselves to Lose Direction

Overloaded lessons lead to a loss of direction in our instruction. When teaching through distance learning, think of lessons as small packages. Keep them focused to a single point or objective. Don’t give too many directions, or make it complicated. Keep the modeling aligned to what you want students to be able to do on their own, as they are going to be doing the work on their own. Right now, we cannot sit beside them and coach. Not understanding our true point, or our why, in a lesson makes it harder for students to learn when we are sitting with them. It is doubly difficult through distance teaching and learning. Identify the why of a lesson by thinking: What do I want students to be able to do for themselves at the end of the lesson? What is my objective? How will I model? What task will students be involved in after I model? (Remember that reading and reading a lot is an excellent focus for a task!)

Be kind to yourself if you have lost your why recently. With some self-care you can re-center yourself, and with self-reflection, you can center your lessons on what is most important.

Reference

Carver-Thomas, D. & Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

We are so grateful to Nancy Ackhvan for writing this remarkable post for our #G2great family. Nancy is a speaker, author, consultant and writer and you can learn more about her books and the important work she’s doing at http://nancyakhavan.com, follow her on Twitter @nancyakhavan and see her distance teaching support suggestions at nancyskhavansclassroom.com

by Valinda Kimmel

She aches for the familiar routines and rituals of her brick-and-mortar school day and how she knew every loose tooth, every hurt feeling, in her students’ lives. Shaw holds a weekly evening circle time on Zoom, but she can’t get the kind of connection she’s used to with each student. –Angie Shaw, first grade teacher

“I’ve been staring at a computer for eight solid hours, my eyes are strained, my shoulders are tense, and I have to keep reminding myself, all this is new, and we are all learning, and it will get easier, I hope.” — Rana El Yousef, high school chemistry teacher

“When I’m with them, I can see what’s really going on with them,” she said. “But digitally, they can hide it: their joy. Their depression. Anybody can put their game face on for an hour on Zoom.” –Theresa Bruce, middle school history teacher

These moments, teaching from a distance due to an international pandemic, are unprecedented. Teachers don’t have the luxury of searching the internet, poring over professional books, or contacting other educators to ask, “What did you do? How did you teach, connect, care for your students during months of separation?”

We are all in the onerous position of navigating days for which there are no precedent. We’re at a loss for what to do, how to plan and support our students, where to go for answers to a million concerns about the families and kids we love.

Aeriale Johnson, guest host, for our recent #g2great chat shared her very personal thoughts about the varying emotions she is experiencing during COVID-19 in a recent blog post. We are grateful for her candor and for her willingness to join our weekly Twitter chat to give educators a place to process their varied range of feelings about teaching in this unusual time.

Share any thoughts about your COVID-19 experiences:

We talk often of late how hard distance learning is for kids and their families. It’s also incredibly hard on teachers. Thank goodness for online communities where teachers can gain encouragement from (and give it out as well) their professional peers.

Aeriale exhibits eloquently in her blog post how the process of writing is healing for some.

How are you using writing as a healing force for yourself? For your children?:

Writing is cathartic. In the process of putting words to paper, writers often makes sense of experiences, ideas, thoughts. Once again, we owe gratitude to Aeriale for her openness in sharing the conflict of these unusual days we are all experiencing.

COVID-19’s Got Me Feeling Some Kind of Way

I’m angry.

I’m shamefully content.

I’m angry that I live in a country where science is not heeded by government officials.

I’m shamefully content that I probably won’t be the one to die because I am educated.

I’m angry that I live in a society that is so grossly inequitable that children who live on the margins of it have to worry about food security during a pandemic.

I’m shamefully content in the joy the unexpected opportunity to spend time cooking my favorite recipes has brought me.

You can view the archive of this chat hosted by Aeriale Johnson at the wakelet for April 30, 2020.

Guest blog post by Laura Robb and Evan Robb

On 4/23/20, #G2Great invited our chat family to discuss a critical topic, Breaking the Cycle of Professional Compliance: Teachers as Decision-Makers. We are so grateful that our friends Laura Robb and Evan Robb shared their wisdom with us all in this wonderful post.

            Gracie Jordan has been teaching ELA to sixth graders in a small southern town for five years. A fan of workshop, Gracie has 90-minutes a day to teach reading and writing.  Every day she reads aloud to students. Her classroom library has 800 books and her students read self-selected books independently for 15 to 20 minutes a day. For instruction, Gracie organizes literature circles, and students select books to read in small groups—books of the same genre that meet their instructional needs.  Step into Gracie’s classroom and you’ll notice displays of books on windowsills, bookshelves, and underneath the chalkboard. And if you observe a few classes, you would see students creating book displays, negotiating deadlines for completing books, and collaborating to write and perform readers’ theater.  

 Used to making instructional decisions for the benefit of all her students, Gracie confers frequently with each one. Mr. Roberts, the principal, funds annual additions to Gracie’s and other workshop teachers’ collection of books for literature circles as well as their classroom libraries. 

Gracie’s World Turns Upside-Down 

In early June, Gracie and other ELA teachers at her school receive a letter from the new superintendent explaining that the central office with the school board’s approval has adopted a basal reading program for K to 8 students.  ELA teachers are to become familiar with the program’s many components over summer break, attend a workshop in August about the new program, and teach it with fidelity during the upcoming school year. Indeed, moving from reading workshop and using wonderful books to a basal reading program had turned Gracie’s teaching world along with several of her colleagues topsey-turvey!  Two questions continually bombard Gracie’s mind: How will I make time for my students to read books they select?  Will I be able to follow this change in instruction with total fidelity?

What’s Wrong With This Snapshot?

A chief administrator of a school district, the superintendent’s decisions can reveal whether teachers and administrators will be valued as thinkers and decision-makers or as staff who comply and follow top-down decisions. Often, a new superintendent arrives in the district and implements curricular changes that worked in his/her former school district.  The letter to teachers did not explain the rationale for the decision. The problem Gracie and others have is the superintendent imposed a basal reading program on K to 8 teachers and administrators without collaborative discussions, without citing evidence from their test scores for such a dramatic change, and without a knowledge of whether the teaching and learning in their classrooms supports all students. 

            Actually, the new superintendent’s decision reveals a lack of consensus building and appears to be based on a belief that if this reading program worked in his former district, it would work in all districts. However, all districts don’t necessarily benefit from one method of instruction, nor do they have student populations with the same needs. By not canvassing principals and other school leaders to gain insights into students’ reading achievement and determine whether a workshop model and schools filled with books support students’ growth and progress, frustration levels rise. The consensus among teachers is that the new superintendent wants compliance. 

To Comply or Not to Comply

Gracie and other teachers in her building face a major dilemma:  Should they acquiesce to a one-size-fits-all reading program, when they know that all students in their middle school aren’t reading on grade level.  However, a review of annual tests over the past five years indicates that students are making progress and developing reading proficiency. Mr. Roberts, Gracie’s principal, views his teachers as informed decision-makers. He encourages formative assessment as a way to continually evaluate students’ progress and develop targeted interventions and instruction that consider the needs of every reader.

            Moving to a basal program where the “experts” make all the decisions for students they don’t know seems unreasonable to Gracie.  Now, she and others will be required to deliver lessons they didn’t develop and move forward with the program, even if several students require specific support in order to succeed with the next wave of lessons.  Gracie’s heart is heavy with worry for her students, and her mind raises questions again and again: How will I find time for students to read? When will I be able to support students who need extra help? When will I confer with students? What will happen to students who can’t read the program’s stories?

            Gracie is unable to envision herself as anything but a responsible and responsive decision-maker when it comes to her students’ reading instruction.  After reflecting on herself as a teacher and her desire to continue to support each student, she makes a good decision: Gracie sets up a meeting with Mr. Roberts, her principal.  He supports the workshop model, reads aloud to classes, and always shares his enthusiasm for the volume in reading students are doing. Maybe, Gracie thought, she could work out a compromise with him.

Gracie’s Meeting With Mr. Roberts

Mr. Roberts respects Gracie and her colleagues’ ability to use formative assessments in their reading workshop in order to be responsive to students’ learning and progress. He listens carefully to Gracie’s discussion points, nodding in agreement when she points out that students’ progress is steady in her classes and in other classes using reading workshop. She also thanks Mr. Roberts for the annual funds he releases to enlarge classroom libraries and books for instruction. 

            Mr. Roberts explains that he and other principals are also struggling with the superintendent’s decision to purchase a basal reading program, as they weren’t consulted.  In a recent meeting with the superintendent, the district’s principals did negotiate some flexibility. Teachers could start their ELA classes with 15-20 minutes of students reading self-selected books and then implement the basal.

            “What about my students who can’t read the grade level stories in the basal? If I read them out loud, the students aren’t doing the reading. And the directions on the worksheets will pose challenges to this group.”  

            “Find alternate books and stories on the same genre for students who can’t read and comprehend grade-level materials.”   Mr. Roberts understands the value of volume in reading. He also believes that his responsibility is to the students in his building and helping teachers enlarge their reading skill and expertise. 

            “Keep in touch with me,” he tells Gracie. ”Especially if you need specific books to meet every student’s needs.”  Your advanced readers will need more of a challenge than stories in a grade-level basal.”

            Gracie left feeling more positive, especially because Mr. Roberts supports her and knows the research on reading. Her only worry is that Mr. Roberts could be reprimanded for allowing accommodations to the basal program. 

A New Superintendent’s Role

When a superintendent arrives in his or her new school district, it’s important that he/she learn a great deal about the culture of each school as well as students’ strengths and needs.  To accomplish this, it’s crucial that the superintendent meet with principals and other school leaders, groups of teachers, and parents, to understand how the district’s community sees teaching and learning. In addition, before making sweeping change in an academic discipline, it would seem logical that besides discussions with school stakeholders, the superintendent would gather testing data over the past five to ten years to understand the story the data reveals. 

            Evan, a middle school principal, and I believe that a top down decision calling for compliance from school administrators and teachers will foster anxiety and frustration among staff that believe in consensus building. Ultimately, the decision to substitute reading workshop where teachers make informed decisions could result in losing teachers who feel stifled and unappreciated as well as thoughtful principals, such as Mr. Roberts, who believe in teacher agency and empowerment.  

The Principal’s Role in a Compliant Environment

For Evan, a principal’s major responsibility is to his school and its staff, students, and families. So what can a principal do when he or she is also the recipient of a top down decision from a superintendent? It’s time for courageous conversations with the superintendent, even though the principal is risking negative reactions. It’s also time to listen to teachers, empathize with their concerns, and find ways to compromise for students’ benefit. Here are seven suggestions for principals caught in a situation requiring compliance: 

• Listen carefully to teachers that request meetings, empathize with their feelings, and follow-up once you have more information.
• Have a conversation with the new superintendent even though this could be risky. Bring long-term data to review as well as explain what teachers are presently doing in ELA and content classes.
• Invite the superintendent to visit schools and spend time in classrooms to understand instructional methods as well as build relationships with teachers.
• Discuss compromises and ways teachers can have flexibility with implementing the basal program.
• Work with other principals to build a trusting relationship with the superintendent so decision-making moves from compliant and top-down to shared decision making that takes into account the culture and population of each school in a district. 
• Communicate with teachers to acknowledge respect for their knowledge, ability to use formative assessments to inform instruction and interventions, and support them as much as possible.
• Find ways to retain outstanding teachers and work to move from compliance back to teacher agency–teachers as informed decision-makers.

Building Teacher Agency & Leadership

Instead of a culture of compliance, Evan and I want to see school districts develop teacher agency and leadership. This can happen when trusting relationships between school leaders and the superintendent develop as well as positive relationships between the superintendent and teachers. We believe that the principal can develop teacher agency and leadership by:

• Collaborating with teachers to explore ongoing building-level professional learning opportunities.
• Showing the importance and value of ongoing professional learning by attending and participating in these school-based opportunities.
• Encouraging staff to join Twitter and Facebook and enlarge their knowledge of teaching and learning through by cultivating a broad Personal Learning Network (PLN).
• Creating time for teams and departments to have conversations about students, teaching practices, interventions, and offer supportive feedback.
• Encouraging teachers to suggest and plan book and article studies to increase their theory of learning and ultimately have the background knowledge to make informed teaching decisions  
• Making it possible for teachers to observe colleagues in their building, but also to be able to spend time observing and learning from teachers in other schools.
• Inviting teachers to make national, educational connections and choose a teacher to Skype with and build their educational knowledge base.
• Hosting, as principal, conversations with groups of teachers, to share information, brainstorm ideas to improve curriculum and professional learning, and show your trust in their teaching and learning abilities.  

Closing Thoughts

When school leaders require that teachers use a one-size-fits-all program, they discourage teacher agency and ongoing professional learning.  Such compliance assumes that all students in a class are at the same instructional reading levels. Instead of being thoughtful and meeting the diverse needs of students sitting in a class, compliance asks teachers to accept the authors of a program as “the authorities” when none of them know their students. This. Doesn’t. Make. Sense.

            The Gracie described at the beginning of our blog is the kind of teacher who can best serve the needs of a wide range of students, and Mr. Roberts is an informed and knowledgeable principal who respects, trusts, and values his teachers.

When school leaders encourage teacher agency and ongoing professional learning, it’s possible to break the cycle of professional compliance.   Instead of asking teachers to comply, empower them.  Instead of a script, trust skilled teachers’ knowledge. Instead of becoming an implementer, help teachers become thoughtful decision-makers.  When school districts foster collaboration and communication between administrators and staff, they can work together to create a school culture that empowers members to continually learn and grow in order to meet the needs of every student.  

A special thank you to Laura and Evan for this beautiful reflection on such an important topic in education.

Evan Robb’s Blog

Laura Robb’s Blog

Guest blog by Travis Crowder

This week, we were delighted to welcome Matt Glover back to #G2Great chat to engage in dialogue around his incredible new book, Craft and Process Studies: Units That Provide Writers with Choice of Genre (2020, Heinemann). You can revisit this amazing chat on our Wakelet artifact. We are honored that guest blogger, Travis Crowder, wrote a beautiful reflection on the personal impact Matt’s book has had on his thinking.

Guest Post by Travis Crowder

A fuse of light appeared at the edge of the morning, smearing shades of purple and red across the horizon. I cradled my coffee cup in my hands and stared, mesmerized, at the sky, drinking in the nascent glow. To describe what I saw would be a reach for the ineffable, but I grabbed my notebook and pen and tried to write what I saw. I didn’t take too long because the sun’s ascent is quick. I feared I would miss something. After jotting down the first sentence of this blog post, I laid my notebook aside, and stood with an empty cup, watching as the morning continued to write its story for me. 

For the past month, the world has slowed to a crawl, and time stretches to an interminable distance. The news is unsettling, and more than anything, we crave normalcy— to return to what it was like before. Social distancing, face masks, quarantining, and solitude are our new norms and have gathered into our collective vocabulary. I won’t lie. Such words frighten me. They are etched in ink on the walls of my mind, and the unease they cause continues to distort the world as I know it. Since March, a torrent of uncertainty and fear has swirled beneath the surface of my emotions, but in the midst of what has felt like chaos, this gorgeous morning was soothing. It calmed me. 

If we were still going to school each day, I know what I would do. 

I would take that fragile first sentence and build it, grow it. I’d allow it to lead my thinking. I’d fill a page, or possibly two, in my notebook, and prepare to share that writing with students. 

I would go back to the books that I’ve read across the past few weeks and photocopy the pages and paragraphs from Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table and Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life. I’d gather collections of poetry, such as Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Naomi Shihab Nye’s Tiny Journalist, and Brenda Shaughnessy’s The Octopus Museum. Each author, a master of language, has breathed life into my craft. I’ve marked those passages, and I would want to carry them with me. 

At school, before COVID-19 forced us to teach remotely, we were studying essays, and most students were writing pieces about family members, personal qualities, fears, and memories. We had been studying professional essays and as a class, we were discussing and noting the craft moves the authors used to guide us through their thinking. They were good at noticing, but they were struggling to use those craft moves in their writing. Now, it would be different. I’d know what to do. 

Armed with a stack of texts and my own writing, I’d go into class knowing that I had a better chance of moving their writing lives. I’d put my notebook under the document camera and talk about what I had written. I’d share with students how I took something as exquisite as a morning and, using Ocean Vuong’s poem “Aubade with Burning City” as a mentor text, borrowed his words to elevate my own. I’d also dig through The Cat’s Table until I found Ondaatje’s lyrical use of the word fuse as a description for the light of morning. These, I would say, are just a few examples of how I allow a writer’s work to bleed into my own.

From there, we would read more. 

Looking at the books and poetry I’d gathered, we’d study the moves these authors made. We’d put names on these moves, make an anchor chart or word wall with them, and we’d display sample texts that included them. I’d even invite students to share texts they’ve encountered with these moves. We’d display the texts they share, too.

When students returned to their personal writing, I’d check-in with them and peer into their writing. I’d look and listen for anything that suggested they were using techniques from another author. If I noticed they were struggling, I’d pull up a chair or kneel down beside them, and pull out my writing notebook. I’d show them more of my writing and even carry the texts— books, poems, essays, and so on—that have influenced my craft. I’d show them how I weaved the techniques of a mentor author into sentences of my creation. If necessary, I’d help them with diction, the quantum level of writing, and demonstrate how precise words give shape and contour to our ideas. I might even leave some of my writing with a student for support. 

Unfortunately, I have had to write much of this post in the conditional tense. I do not have the privilege of traveling to school each day, laying my notebook under a document camera, discussing craft moves with students, and making anchor charts as a reminder of our learning. Instead, I am teaching remotely while my school sits like a discarded husk. I ache to return to the classroom because now I believe I could help students overcome the struggle of using craft moves in their work. This confidence is the result of reading Matt Glover’s Craft and Process Studies: Units that Provide Writers with Choice of Genre. 

Without knowing it, I was taking my students through Matt’s process study, “Reading Like a Writer.” My ignorant interpretation wasn’t that strong, but thankfully most of the pieces were there. “Reading Like a Writer” is one of seventeen different units, all of which are divided into craft and process studies. The book as a whole is divided into two parts. The first part is more of a road map that helps you navigate the units of study. He discusses conferring, what to carry with you, such as sample texts for explicit instruction, and times of year that these units work best. In the second part, he unpacks process and craft studies, and provides the rationales, grade ranges, times of year, unit questions, goals, teaching points, routines, and so on to lift the quality of our writing instruction. Holistically, this book brings together what feels like disparate parts into a comprehensible whole. 

I often worry that I am not giving students what they need as young writers. Matt knows this, though. He understands how difficult it is to teach kids how to write. Sensing that uncertainty, he bathes his readers in strategies and ideas that will influence students’ craft and process knowledge. He understands that choice of genre is paramount in the development of a writing life, and the ease of a master teacher, he assuages any fear of the unknown and, with his gentle voice, explains that with the right tools, teachers can nudge kids forward. He’s even convinced me that I need to spend less time on genre and more time on craft and process. Although I try my best to balance them, a deeper focus on craft and process, I now know, will lift the quality of students’ writing. 

Matt’s book is a gift to all writing teachers. His instructional and philosophical writing carries readers deep into his thinking while sparking within us the confidence we need to reach our kids. Early in the book, there’s a picture of Matt sitting on a chair, holding what appears to be his notebook. His smile, expression, and proximity to his students is all I need to know that rigorous thinking is happening in this classroom. He knows what he’s talking about because he’s done it before. For me, this is one of the markers of a skilled writing teacher— one who participates in the act of writing and limns that experience through beautiful, yet simple language, for both students and teachers. 

Although I do have contact with my students, I do not have the ability to teach them like I want to. I can’t interact with them each day, talk with them, laugh with them, or sit beside them as they grapple with the right wording or structure. But I can grow as a writing teacher. Matt’s book has compelled me. It still does. There’s nothing about this book I don’t like. In fact, it builds like a dramatic movement in a symphony and by its climactic end, we know what to do. I’ll return to this book again and again, and each time, I know I will get better at moving writers. 

One day, and I hope it’s soon, I’ll return to my classroom. I’ll unlock the door, switch on the lights, and stare into the empty shell that has been waiting, silently, for us. I’ll lay my backpack on the floor beside my table and pull out the books and writing I’ve prepared to share with kids. Matt’s book will still be singing in my heart, and I’ll know more of what to do, more of what not to do. Not long after that, I’ll hear the glorious voices of children, far away at first, but as they enter the hallways, their voices will grow, eradicating the silence. This is the sound of triumph, of joy, of the endless possibilities for learning. 

As they come into the classroom, I’ll be so happy to see their smiling faces. And as I watch them take their seats, the words of Walt Whitman will echo in my mind: “…Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged, / Missing me one place, search another, / I stop somewhere, waiting for you.” The world, although stopped for a season, has now continued to move. We’ve been waiting, dear students. 

And here we are. 

We asked Matt Glover to respond to three questions about his book

What motivated you to write this book? What impact did you hope that it would have in the professional world?

 I wrote this book because I care about student engagement in writing.  I’ve become increasingly concerned about schools where all of the units, year after year, are only genre studies. I love genre studies, but they aren’t the only types of units students should encounter.  Schools should also have craft studies and/or process studies each year where children can choose their genre.  If we care about student engagement, we have to consider the role of choice.

What are your BIG takeaways from your book that you hope teachers will embrace in their teaching practices?

I hope this book does 2 things. First, I hope it makes a strong enough case for choice of genre that teachers include some of these units in their year.  Second, my goal is to provide teachers with practical support to make these units successful and positively impact learning.  There are some common issues teachers run into with craft and process studies, primarily because many teachers aren’t accustomed to units other than genre studies   Fortunately, there are some easy solutions.

What is a message from the heart you would like for every teacher to keep in mind?

Engagement is at the heart of learning, and choice plays a key role in engagement.  All children deserve to have opportunities to write in genres of interest, and to have their writing valued by caring adults.  In order to fully understand our students as thinkers and writers, we have to understand and take advantage of the importance of authentic choices students make, including choice of genre.

With deep gratitude to Matt Glover and Travis Crowder