Literacy Lenses – Page 32 – Focusing on The Literacy Work that Matters

Strategy Instruction with Students at the Center

by Mary Howard

On May 5, 2016, #G2Great continued a four-part series, Teaching with Intention: Maximizing Our Instructional POWER POTENTIAL. This week we put a spotlight on strategy instruction and set out to explore how to approach this work in ways that keep ‘students at the center’ of our efforts. Question 1 set the stage for our exploration: How can we more intentionally frame strategy instruction to increase student engagement in ways that maximize our instructional POWER POTENTIAL?

It’s not often that a single tweet to one question can capture the very essence of a chat, but Eric Davis managed to do exactly that with three words that still linger days later. His message is what strategy work with a heart is all about.

In Teaching Reading in Small Groups, Jennifer Serravallo describes strategies as “deliberate, effortful, intentional and purposeful actions a reader takes to accomplish a specific task or skill” (2010, 11-12). As I viewed this definition in light of Eric’s three words, I was struck by the idea that we will never make our students more deliberate, effortful, intentional, and purposeful if strategies are simply doled out dutifully like a thoughtless ‘to do list.’ Strategy work from the heart is about respecting the students.

As I pondered these words more deeply, thinking about how we can give our strategy work more heart in ways that focus on respecting the students, four interrelated R’s began to emerge:

Be Resolute

Respectful strategy work with a heart allows us to approach students with a sense of awe, secure in the belief that each child can and will become a strategic reader. We view students through a success lens, refusing to allow labels and misconceptions to cloud our view of the immense possibilities that reside within each of them. We recognize and honor their strengths and use them as a stepping-stone from where they are to where they could be. We recognize that there is no substitute for books that give them reasons to use strategies. As we teach strategies, we avoid jumping to the ‘rescue’ when they falter to make room for productive struggle as confidence and competence merge. We trust them to take the strategy reigns and then offer just right instructional support while noticing when to fade that support as we step away.

Be Responsive

Respectful strategy work with a heart reminds us that we cannot do this work unless we know the child in front of us and thoughtfully ponder how to best meet that child’s needs at that moment. We teach strategies based on day-to-day assessment rather than numerical data that leads to strategy groups more akin to instructional cattle calls. We make kidwatching a high priority practice, opting to trust our noticings and wonderings captured on anecdotal references rather than nameless spreadsheets that lose the child in the translation. We rely on strategies that rise from authentic learning with a focus on process over product as we build strategic knowledge and promote independent problem solving in the context of meaningful literacy. We acknowledge that respectful strategy work with a heart only occurs when a book, a reader and a knowledgeable teacher cross paths.

Be Responsible

Respectful strategy work with a heart draws from this knowledge as it affords us opportunities to select just right strategies at just right moments. We honor what the child brings to the learning table at that point and time and fine-tune our strategy work in ways that will accommodate those needs. We avoid instructional quick fixes and one-size-fits-all strategies as we recognize that we must choose strategies purposefully based on each child. We know that hyper-fidelity to scripts can cloud our view and lead to lock step teaching far removed from child. We steadfastly insist on maintaining control for professional decision-making and make choices based on our knowledge of students and refuse to make any excuses why we can’t.

Be Relentless

Respectful strategy work with a heart requires unwavering commitment to what may well be most critical in a time in education where distractions and questionable suggestions abound. We keep our WHY in mind as we pursue a reader-centered classroom with a vengeance by making a commitment to actively engage students in joyful daily self-selected reading regardless of the other demands in our day. We use strategies within and beyond those experiences, making sure to put books in their hands that give our strategy instruction wings. We do this because we know that strategy work is not the end goal but a means to an end as described by Jennifer Serravallo:

You could be the most eloquent teacher, the best strategy group facilitator, the most insightful conferrer. But if you send your kids back for independent reading and they don’t read, then they won’t make the progress you are hoping and working for. Jennifer Serravallo

When we are committed to respectful strategy work with a heart we teach within a spirit of Resolute, Responsive, Responsible and Relentless teaching. In short, we are “respecting the students.” Through all of this work, we hold tight to our deep belief that we must celebrate the children in front of us and do all we can to set them down a path to becoming lifelong readers within and beyond the school day.

Sharon Murphy makes this point stating, “When pleasure and reading are companions…children become engaged readers and are likely to continue to read throughout their lives.”

If our goal is respectful strategy work with a heart, pleasure and reading will be companions for every child. After all, isn’t that why we do this wonderful work?

Text Selections that Promote Deeper Understanding

By Amy Brennan

This past week as I attempted to find some balance in my professional and personal life, I spent time on vacation with my family and for the most part disconnected the part of me who is a connected educator and an admitted workaholic. I am proud to say I was present with my family, which was long overdue and I even missed our #G2Great chat this week. This was a challenge for me especially since it was my turn to write for the blog following our chat. Thanks to my partners in literacy, @DrMaryHoward and @hayhurst3 I was able to spend this much needed time with my family, then return home to read the Storify and dive right into the chat and write the blog.

This week we asked questions about Text Selections that Promote Deeper Understandings as part of our 4-Part series Teaching with Intention: Maximizing Our Instructional Power Potential. As happens each week, educators joined in at #G2Great to answer the questions and think collectively as we shared and learned about ways to choose texts that promote deeper understanding for our students. It is always the community of educators that comes together to share ideas that grows my thinking and pushes me towards continued growth and deeper understanding. As I read through the Storify archive there were certain words that came to my mind as I considered the responses to each of our questions.

Intentional

When choosing texts thoughtful educators are intentional. Texts are chosen with a purpose and audience in mind, similar to when we write. The purpose of the text may be for a read-aloud, a shared reading experience, a close reading, a mentor text for writing, or a touchstone text for reading. The purpose for text selection could be to teach a particular strategy to the class or a small group strategy lesson. We are even intentional in the way we expect our students to choose their independent reading books, as our intention comes through as a model for their own practice in text selection. There is real beauty in that.

The audience (students) I would argue is even more important than the purpose, because without the audience we would not be able to choose a particular purpose. “It’s about them, not us!” was the clear message that came through the Twittersphere as Christina Nosek (@ChristinaNosek) said it so clearly. This charge should be shouted from the mountaintop. We need to consider our students strengths and weaknesses, their interests and experiences in order to select the books. The relevance of a text to the student greatly impacts the learning that follows. The relevance comes through a text and speaks to our students, it shows them how we know them and that we have established a relationship with them. Selecting texts must be based on the students in you are choosing it for, those students right there in front of you. If we want results in reading instruction we must be intentional in our text selection.

Balance

In selecting texts we always aim for a healthy balance, much like in life. As dedicated connected educators, we are always trying to balance our professional and family life. This is the same balance we need for choosing texts for enjoyment and texts for instructional purposes. The balance can come in different ways. For example, I know every text I read teaches me, changes me and makes me grow. This includes books that I read for pleasure or books I read professionally. In that sense there is balance. Keith Garvert (@KeithEGarvert) pointed this out so well in his tweet captured below as he clarifies that reading is thinking. Hattie Maguire (@TeacherHattie) brought a great metaphor to the #G2Great table and shared that she reminds her students that they need potato chips and steaks as both serve an important role in a readerly life.

Alternatives

We are well aware that the research shows that thoughtless questions, worksheets and agendas can derail our efforts to deepen understanding. Following this statement we asked the question, “How do we spread that message and offer alternatives?” We received so many great responses related to opening doors and sharing alternatives with colleagues. We know that all learners need to see a model, to watch that demonstration in action. Our colleagues need to see this possibility too in order to try out some of the alternatives to old ways that we know now are not enough. This is especially important for our colleagues who may not be connected yet and do not have immediate access to the great progressive minds who push our thinking every day. For those educators, we must open our classroom doors and invite them in so they can see the engagement, the thinking and what our students can do through dialogue, meaningful responses and self-questioning.

Flexible

In order to deepen understanding we need to use text selection as a flexible instructional tool. Flexibility is intertwined into the other words I have highlighted in this post. Without flexibility we cannot reach all students. Offering students multiple texts from different genres and layering these texts in order to build knowledge and increase the depth of comprehension can have a powerful impact. Robin Diedrichs (@blueegg3r) calls on educators to “attack the Matthew Effect!” The Matthew Effect essentially says, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” and in the sense of reading, students who come to school better prepared with richer literacy experiences then find themselves with what sociologists refer to as “accumulative advantage.” This idea has been discussed by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book, Outliers and also coined in education by Walberg and Tsai in 1983 to describe how some students quickly develop literacy skills and others who enter school already behind do not catch up and the gap widens. Being flexible in text selections can help to close the gap for students, especially when it supports building knowledge and vocabulary and increasing deeper comprehension.

Student Talk

Last but certainly not least, student talk at the center of our classrooms shows us the evidence of transfer as their understanding deepens. We ensure this by creating structures to foster student talk and then by leaning back and just listening. Listening to our students as they share their ideas and thinking around books. Teacher talk should decrease and student talk should increase. Tara Smith (@tara_smith5) says it well in her tweet “From the first day of school, we need to make space for student led talk & questions. Simply, we need to talk less.

Our collective thinking each week at #G2Great always leave me with a mind that is full of ideas and I have that feeling of excitement that comes just after learning something new. This four-part series offers an opportunity to grow with us as we explore teaching with intention in order to maximize our instructional power potential. Join us in the coming weeks to help us grow ideas and learn together.

Teachers Doing the Work: Thoughtful Planning For Intentional Read-Aloud

Jenn Hayhurst

How can we use read-aloud as a springboard to reading, writing and thinking? This was the question that sparked the first of a #G2Great four part series: Teaching With Intention Maximizing Our Instructional Power Potential. Our chat on April 21, 2016 has come and gone but I am left feeling refreshed and renewed as I begin this post. Even though educators came to this conversation from different points in their careers, everyone learns from each other. What does this plurality of thinking offer us? Clarity. It is that clarity and our ability to respond to our own questions about read-aloud that help us to maximize our professional potential.

Q1 How can we more intentionally frame read-aloud to increase student engagement in ways that maximize our instructional POWER POTENTIAL?

Takeaways: Real engagement is not show and tell, it is experience and learn:

Read-aloud energizes engagement through student interests
We elevate our students’ status and create relevant experiences
We move away from compliance towards ownership
We create readers who love to read

Q2 What do you look for when using read-aloud as a flexible instructional springboard?

Takeaways: Stories and ideas flood students thinking through read aloud:

This creates an intellectual and social context for learners
Reading aloud opens pathways for communication, to promote deeper understanding
Making room for students to talk, draw, or write is a scaffold to express abstract thinking in tangible ways

Q3 Read-aloud is a powerful framework to build language & vocabulary. What can we do to intentionally enhance those goals?

Takeaways: It is our own questions that help us to grow:

Begin by starting with texts that you love, then find out what your students love. How do we use this fertile ground to grow relationships?
Instructional planning is organized around meaning making. How do my students learn best so they can access this text?
Whenever we stop the flow of the story be mindful of the enjoyment factor. How do I use the structure of different genres to select my stopping points and demystify the author’s craft?
Build vocabulary lessons from context to allow students to practice and transfer. How can I use the classroom environment to promote transfer for all students?

Q4 Peer collaboration and sharing is a crucial aspect of read-aloud. What is your favorite approach to bring readers and books together?

Takeaways: Read-aloud is an experience that we can use to structure meaningful collaboration:

See students for who they are and let their interests drive them
Plan in options for collaborative learning
Use kidwatching to gather formative data

Q5 How can we integrate writing so the writing will elevate the academic AND emotional experience of the read-aloud?

Takeaways: When I put these tweets together it’s pure instructional magic:

Reading multiple versions of a story reveals the author’s craft so students can attempt to transfer learning to their own writing
Considering what a student decides to write about reveals their perspective to us while promoting engagement

Q6 Varied flexible reflection options after read-aloud allow us to create a more personalized experience. What options do you offer?

Takeaways: Read-aloud and reflection work hand-in-hand:

Give students options to make a choice for how to reflect: written, partners, groups
Don’t let this dynamic learning end in elementary school. Middle schoolers need instructional techniques like turn and talk to engage their reflections too

Q7 Based on #G2Great chat tonight, what is one instructional shift you will make so that your read-aloud is more intentional?

Takeaways: Teachers are willing to modify their practices based on their own learning. Professional collaboration allows us to fine tune our practices:

As I reflect on our #G2Great chat on read-aloud I am reminded how important it is to collect students’ thinking through: anecdotal note taking, reader’s notebooks, post-its, and exit slips. I use each of these things to look for patterns in their thinking. This is live data that can help me to differentiate and drive comprehension instruction with even greater intention. My collaboration with Jill DeRosa a third grade teacher in my building, elevates my thinking around keeping the child at the center of all we do, by asking the question: “Where is the child in all of this?” We responded to this questions in two recent posts, Unlocking Each Other’s Potential and You Can’t Do This Work By Yourself

Each Thursday night #G2Great teachers from all over the world come together to do the work that we need to do to become more skilled at our craft. To think about ways that will help our students thrive and grow. Thank you for helping me to think deeper and longer so that I can continue to grow my practice. As each of us grow together, it is our students who reap the benefits of our collective learning.

Igniting Deep & Joyful Learning through Purposeful Play

by Mary Howard

On April 14, 2016 #G2Great welcomed guest hosts Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli and Cheryl Tyler, authors of an amazing new book, Purposeful Play: A Teacher’s Guide to Igniting Deep & Joyful Learning Across the Day. Their personal commitment to the topic is evident from the first page with the words that implore us to take action: ”Play isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.” This message quickly reverberated across Twitter in a celebratory ripple effect of newfound appreciation for purposeful play as #G2Great moved into trending overdrive.

As it turns out, research supports our collective enthusiasm. Dr. Stuart Brown, the world’s leading researcher in the science of play, states that “what play does better than anything else is unite what is in your head and your heart.” Celebrating play as one of the best exercises for the brain, he lists an impressive array of by-products including lightheartedness, empathy, hope for the future, optimism, flexibility, and adaptability, making a strong case for purposeful play in our classrooms.

In a nod of enthusiastic support, our #G2Great chatters added a myriad of benefits including opportunities to discover, explore, negotiate, imagine, create, rehearse, problem-solve, revise, collaborate, engage, innovate, elaborate, persevere, cooperate, compromise and plan. Add social and emotional intelligence, growth mindset, motivation, choice, curiosity and flexibility to that lofty collection and the ‘necessity’ in purposeful play is elevated to a new sense of urgency.

What makes Purposeful Play such a powerful book is that it is brimming with research support that inspires us to embrace purposeful play and affords ample evidence to convince naysayers while their treasure chest of tips and suggestions in a step-by-step illustrated guide transports us to a visual playground of pure joy. They don’t just tell us how to make purposeful play a reality – they show us. Purposeful Play is a magical mix of compelling research evidence and practical application that is sure to bring the play movement back into glorious view.

This message comes at a time when far too many schools view recess and other forms of play as expendable in favor of an ever-increasing emphasis on academic rigor. In response, Kristi, Allison and Cheryl highlight the rigorous nature of play as ‘play in work and work in play.’ In or out of our classrooms, purposeful play engages children in enthusiastic ‘rigorous’ learning that can fuel our instruction to a new level. Our favorite new play friends remind us that although we may not have a choice in what we teach, how we teach is always in our hands. In others words, purposeful play as a personal and professional priority is a choice.

This week on #G2Great, with the gracious support of Kristi, Alison and Cheryl, our chatters made a conscious choice to make purposeful play a personal and professional priority and their excitement was palpable. Teachers left with a new resolve to embed purposeful play into every learning day. Best of all, our #G2Great Twitter playdate will impact our students and make them the lucky benefactors of their enthusiastic determination.

Kristi, Alison and Cheryl keep the promise emblazoned on the front cover of their book. Through research support and words of encouragement and guidance, they take us along on a purposeful play “joy” ride toward igniting deep and joyful learning across the day. In their words, “Play connects us to the world and to each other and offers unlimited possibilities. So come. Let’s play!”

Oh yes indeed girls. Let’s play!

Follow Kristi at Kinderconfidential & Chart Chums with Marjorie Martinelli and Heinemann

Revisit a few of our #G2Great Purposeful Play tweets below

Thriving as Professionals with Meenoo Rami

Guest Blog Post by Susie Rolander @suzrolander

On April 7, 2016 #G2Great, we were lucky to have Meenoo Rami, author of Thrive, as a guest host on our Thursday night chat. Just as her book helps us to thrive in the professional work that we do, Meenoo’s message on the chat was that when we make our own learning a priority, our students in turn benefit greatly.

Meenoo’s message supports Carol Dweck’s idea of growth mindset. Since the publication in 2006 of her book, Mindset, Dweck continues to remind us that we are actually on a continuum between fixed mindset and growth mindset. My friend @JDolci, an amazing educator, lifelong learner and questioner, illustrated this continuum when he was faced with putting together a complicated easel this week. He reverted into the “I am so terrible at putting things together” mindset but luckily used the growth mindset to assemble it (with the encouragement of our Voxer network). As we work to strengthen our professional growth mindset, Meenoo’s message helps to guide us. Her words give us a roadmap for our own learning journey.

Meenoo’s tweet reflects a responsibility that we all have to reach out to others in the teaching community in order to help them grow. Thrive gives us a template to offer to teachers in our community. This message of mentorship is more important than it has ever been before because many teachers feel isolated. Meenoo encourages us to step outside the boundaries of our school environment to connect with a greater teaching community.

A dear friend has been teaching for over 20 years. She goes to the end of the earth for her students but she hadn’t read a professional book in years and had no current mentor to look up to. By her own admission, she was stuck, isolated and bored. Her years of experience and successes in the classroom make her such an invaluable asset to her school community, but she lacks the spark, the drive and the community to help her grow. She was eager to learn but the PD her district offered never seemed to meet her personal learning needs. I shared with her that Twitter has provided me a platform where I can grow in the company of others. She was ready to break down those barriers.

Meenoo suggests here that as mentors ourselves we don’t want to change others, only spark their own personal growth. She also clearly advocates that we all hold the roles of both mentor and mentee and she encourages us to help others learn and learn from others. Meenoo emphasizes the importance of being in a community of learners in order to thrive, but we each have to find our own path to accomplish this. Professional inspiration can come from many sources, including our students.

Herein lies the great impact of Meenoo Rami’s book, Thrive. She gives us, the teaching community, a guide to help us all continue to grow and learn as teachers, no matter how long we’ve been in the field. She lays down the groundwork to be able to cultivate a growth mindset around our very important work. As guest host on this week’s #G2Great chat, Meeno shared her amazing wisdom with a group of eager learners. Her clarity in the importance of growing as educators beyond our comfort zone resulted in changes that could be felt in the course of the chat.

During last night’s chat and in Meenoo’s book, Thrive, she reminded us of the importance of cultivating professional growth and curiosity which, in the end, greatly impacts our students.

(RE) Invigorate your teaching with Meenoo’s newsletter and remarkable book, Thrive.

Susie Rolander & Dani Burtfield will be leading a book study on Thrive with Meenoo every Tuesday during June. Stay tuned for time or contact Susie or Dani. #EdThrive

Thoughtful Decision Making

by Amy Brennan

Charlotte Danielson has observed that teachers make over 3,000 decisions a day. These decisions have been categorized by Danielson as “nontrivial” meaning that they are more complex and more significant than one might at first imagine. These decisions impact the small humans we teach each and every day. The educational journey of each student is impacted by those 3,000 plus decisions we make each day and, therefore the call to be thoughtful weighs even greater in our minds as educators.

This practice of decision making and thinking resonates even more with me as I continue to reread and reflect on the book Quiet Leadership by David Rock. He suggests that when we work in a field that compensates us for thinking, the way to improve performance is to improve thinking. This is different from previous management models left over from a time when most workers were focused on processes. Therefore in considering thoughtful decision making it seems that if we improve thinking we improve decision making and overall we improve the learning experiences for our students. Simply stated, when we improve our thinking we improve our students’ thinking.

On March 31, 2016 #G2Great we came together to deepen our understandings around thoughtful decision making. During our weekly chat, we often begin by sharing quotes from leading thinkers who make us think deeper. As an extension to our Thursday night #G2Great chat, I will return to some tweets and highlight thinking around these quotes that generated collective discourse.

The potential of our instructional power is at its greatest when we balance instinct with deliberate thinking around our decisions. Instinct comes from the experiences that are already hard-wired into our brain as maps. We know or can predict the outcome of certain situations and this needs to be in balance with intentional thinking when making these 3,000 decisions each day. Thoughtful decision-making is at the heart of all great teaching and learning; great teachers put students at the center of those decisions. Take a look at the tweets shared out and it will be easy to see how we as educators put our students at the center of our thinking and decision making.

Covery Quote-3

If we let this quote from Stephen Covey inspire our thinking it won’t take long to realize that our classrooms are the residual outcome of our decisions. In maintaining our belief that students are at the center of our classroom then we could argue that student decision making then also results in the learning process that can be seen in our classrooms.

John Hattie has said about our students, “Give them the skills so they can be their own teacher. We truly make a difference when we teach students to see their impact, they become more engaged in this thing we call school.” When we join together as collective learners in our classrooms we can make a difference, involving students in classroom decisions is a powerful way to advance learning. In fact if you look at rubrics used for teacher observations (Charlotte Danielson’s Framework or the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric) in the distinguished or highly effective column and multiple times across different domains or standards you will see descriptors that include actions on the part of the students. Releasing responsibility to students is valued across these areas and has a correlation to their learning processes. When students are involved in the teaching and learning not only are they invested in their learning, they learn that they have something to do with their own success and this will not only engage them as Hattie pointed out, but build intrinsic motivation.

The process of reflection was the focus of our #G2Great chat while our blog is really a tribute to the words that are tweeted out into the Twitterverse each Thursday night at 8:30pm EST. As we think about thoughtful decision making we have to consider all that we learn from the reflection piece of that process. Especially powerful is the opportunity we have to reflect with others, while we can do this in person or with our PLN in a virtual sense, the process is the same. David Rock has said, “Making decisions can be a difficult process, and having a sounding board can make a big difference.” The additional benefit of this collaborative reflection as Rock points out is that “having others stretch us is a way to grow faster than we would on our own.” Each and every week at #G2Great I am grateful for the opportunity to meet with others who reflect and stretch my thinking and decision making in a way I cannot on my own. Grateful for reflection. Grateful to share thinking. Grateful to grow and learn. Grateful for all the tweets that inspire great work.

Teaching With Heart: Unlocking Growth Through Mindsets and Moves

by Jenn Hayhurst

Springtime makes promises: Yes more light will fill your days. Yes new life will color your landscapes. Yes your world has begun a shift to something new. Teachers are always on the lookout for signs of change. Our work is to learn how to cultivate growth, to understand its process, and to help it thrive no matter the context. We rest our hopes on a small but powerful word – yet. When teachers use a mindset that embraces the power of yet, they make promises: Yes I believe in you. Yes I will help you. Yes together, we will find the next step in the journey.

So it seems like perfect timing that Gravity Goldberg hosted #G2Great Thursday, March 24, 2016. In her book, Mindsets and Moves, Gravity challenges teachers to honor growth in all its forms. Her work reminds us to make choices that value individual learners and the unique process that each will experience. Learning something new is seldom easy so if we are going to live and breathe a growth mindset our instruction needs to deal with struggle in strategic ways:

Admiration: Gravity’s work celebrates an admiring lens. All students are worthy of study, and we should regard them with a sense of wonder and curiosity. This beautiful stance embraces where they are and place trust in their potential for growth:

The Gradual Release: We offer the support students need and then work to move them toward independence. Students shape the path for learning so that our teaching has relevance. The message was clear that the more we bring students into the process the more meaningful learning becomes:

Student Centered: Gravity’s work inspired reflection for the intellectual worlds we create for students. Let’s co-construct spaces for wonderment, choice, and demonstration. When teachers are expert learners rather than holders of knowledge, we reach a higher standard of rigor:

Ownership: The chat began to converge on this topic and our message is ownership is the antidote to learned complacency. Thoughtful planning that supports collaborative work and independence is a sign that teachers are being responsive to students’ needs:

Being Strategic: This is different than teaching strategies. Being strategic demands an authentic context. Whether it is: selecting a text, discovering new reading territories, or building libraries that promote connectedness. The strategy has to fill a genuine need:

Problem Solving: Students are meant to be active participants who can articulate what they need next. We name the challenge and put the learning in their hands. When we give them time to work it out we are amplifying their learning process:

Feedback: is essential! Chatters agreed that when we take risks and push ourselves to learn more our students get the benefit of an authentic model. When we provide clear and concise feedback, we help students to think through the process so that they can outgrow themselves:

We invite you take the #G2Great Challenge

Just as springtime makes promises, we also make promises to our students. Yes, we will help our students find the next step in their growth journey. We are in this together, take Gravity’s advice back to the classroom.

In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice

by Mary Howard

My copy of Steven Layne’s remarkable book, In Defense of Read Aloud, is dog-eared with my meticulous notes illustrating a life-long love affair with read-aloud. I’ve savored every eloquent morsel of wisdom through fits of laughter, frustration, wonder and delight. But Steven’s quote above lingered like a warning sign of impending doom, breathing fear into my heart that this critical practice could be abandoned in spite of irrefutable research support ever so expertly interwoven throughout the pages of Steven’s book.

On March 17, 2016, Steven Layne renewed my sense of hope when he was our guest host on #G2Great Twitter chat. His deep belief that we must indeed defend read-aloud quickly spread like a blazing wildfire across the twittersphere and passionate educators responded to his call to arms with promissory tweets that awakened a collective commitment in us all. Our shared enthusiasm for Steven’s words inspired this wonderful read-aloud list.

Spurred by unbridled enthusiasm, I searched Steven’s twitter love notes for signs pointing the way ahead as we join forces to steadfastly defend read aloud. I discovered seven underlying points that can guide our efforts:

Be Resolute

We’ve all been subjected to dismissive comments demeaning the value of read-aloud, so when principal Mindy Reid described read aloud as a ‘non-negotiable’ in her school you could almost hear an appreciative Twitter sigh. Steven’s response reminds us that we desperately need administrators to take a stand so read-aloud will not be relegated to the luck of the draw.

Be Knowledgeable

Teachers who acknowledge the immense instructional power of read-aloud know that choosing a just right today book is essential. Steven reminds us that we must know the book intimately so that we will be privy to those just right moments that will bring this just right today book to life before our most important audience – students.

Be Intentional

Steven emphasizes read-aloud as a rich instructional experience that allows us to model what it means to be a thoughtful reader. This means we must expend time and effort to plan the best possible read-aloud experience that will both captivate and empower our readers. Knowing the book, students and effective literacy instruction affords us the tools that will infuse instructional energy into the experience.

Be Purposeful

Steven expresses his firm belief that the launch of a book is the key to a successful read-aloud. Whether we have chosen a longer book or a brief text, it is the first glorious exposure to the text that invites students into the book and makes them hungry for more. Creating a sense of joyful anticipation is responsive read-aloud at its best.

Be Proactive

An effective read-aloud feels like the lap experience without the lap. The closer we can bring our students to that experience, the more they can become part of it (and so they will). Room design is an important consideration as we plan for an effective read-aloud. This may require creative adjustments but it will be well worth the effort.

Be Responsive

Motivation is intricately interwoven into the read-aloud experience, making it essential for teachers to consider student interests. We do this by pulling texts across the curriculum as we find both fiction and non fiction texts that will speak to the heart of our readers. Of course, this assumes that we know those readers so that we can make intentional text choices that will awaken passionate listening and engagement.

Be Strategic

Our efforts to initiate an effective read-aloud program is never-ending. As our students change and grow over the course of the year, our choices must reflect those changes. This is not about jotting pre-selected titles in a lesson plan book to read dutifully on pre-selected dates, but choosing a book because it is right ‘at this time of year for THIS group of students.’ This flexibility of purpose allows read-aloud to grow with us.

As I ponder the central messages that are Steven’s gift to each of us, I realize this comes with a responsibility. If we choose to remain silent, read aloud may become an instructional casualty and we will all be complicit in its demise. We can only defend read aloud by embracing it. Every school. Every classroom. Every teacher. Every day. Every child.

Steven reminds us where our ultimate responsibility resides on page 24 of his book. When his middle school student asked him why he turned his classroom upside down to create a read-aloud gathering space, Steven responded, “You’re just that important.”

So I end with a question. Why must we raise our collective voices to defend read aloud to anyone who will listen, regardless of other demands that may vie for attention?

Because our students are just that important!

More #G2Great Tweets on the power and joy of read-aloud

Maintaining Perspective Around Reading Levels and Independence

By Amy Brennan

Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 10.01.50 AM

On March 10, 2016 #G2Great teased out our perspectives around reading levels. In reading through the tweets from our always thinking and learning #G2Great PLN, I focused my reflection and thoughts around these three ideas.

How do we teach them to do it on their own?

While levels have an important place in reading instruction, we have to keep one question in mind. That question is and always should be “How do we teach them to do it on their own?” This is the question that lingers in my mind as I raise my own children and every day as I walk through the halls of a school. If I am honest, this is at the front of my mind anytime I put a learner at the center and make a plan for instruction. I think of this question whether it is my children, teachers or students. Whether we talk about parenting or teaching (adults or students for that matter) what we are actually speaking about is learning. Learning. That is it. The goal for learning is independence in whatever “thing” we are teaching.

In the case of reading the goal is independence. Independence in reading looks like someone who chooses their own books, is responsible for their own reading, is curious and, therefore motivated to pick up something and read. Ultimately, the reader will experience growth in learning because of the reading. I am grateful to have @jdolci as part of my PLN because when he sent this tweet out into the Twitterverse he put the image in my mind that represents what I believe all readers can be.

But it cannot just be about independence, there is more to it than that. The second part of teaching them how to do this on their own is considering how we can best support students as they are learning to read texts with increasing complexity. It seems here is where the levels really come into play. As Irene Fountas taught us “Levels have an important place in the hands of teachers who understand them.” This quote moved our chat in a direction of so many thoughtful responses. @Kari_Yates and @lau7210 rallied our #G2Great troops around the idea of levels as instructional tools used by the teacher. This is the intentional work that helps students grow. Skillful teachers support students in independent reading and small groups that are flexible, based on not only student levels but also to support areas where students can stretch in their reading.

“Start with the Child not the Book.”

Dr. Mary Howard tweeted this little nugget of wisdom early on in the chat. It reminds me how important it is to look at what students need first. Often we find ourselves choosing books for students because they are our favorites, they are part of a program or they are recommended for a unit of study or to teach a particular strategy. What really matters is the child. We need to remember that books need to be relevant to kids. We need to sit down beside a child and talk about book choices for independent reading. We need to get books into kids’ hands, books that they can really connect to. We need kids to choose books for themselves for independent reading and at times when they need some support we have to think about the best way to do this. Nothing is more powerful than sharing with a child and saying, “I thought about you all weekend and I found this book for you. I really think you are the kind of reader who will get this book.” Ultimately our students need to read if they are going to become proficient independent readers.

Always Remember to Think and Ask Why

If something does not make sense we have to stop, think and ask why. @ChristinaNosek reminded us in the chat that we must always put purpose and intention first. Often we are racing day to day, trying to close gaps that widened over many years. We get so caught up that we don’t make time to think or ask why. If we want to create independent readers we have to create opportunities and experiences for students to practice that work in good chunks of time and in different situations. We have to always think about how we teach kids to read on their own. We have to put the child before the book and when things don’t make sense…ask why.

When we identify goals for individual students, those goals should always remain at the center of instructional decision making. Additionally ensuring that students experience multiple texts at various levels provides them with opportunities to navigate complex texts. Through read-aloud, shared reading, book clubs, small groups, strategy lessons, guided reading or independent reading, students will be making meaning of texts at different levels throughout the day. These intentional instructional experiences provide meaningful practice through a gradual release of responsibility that guides the way for readers. We can maintain perspective by viewing reading levels in flexible ways as we support students toward increasing independence.

Dedication And Generosity: Celebrating Independent Reading

By, Jenn HayhurstOn Thursday March 3, 2016 #G2Great hosted a chat that began a conversation about the importance of independent reading. This blog post is dedicated to anyone who is “holding tight” to this work, either at home or in the classroom. It is for those of us who believe that literacy reveals a path of growth and self discovery through text.

The following Saturday morning, I was part of an incredible team of teachers from my district, @SCCentralSD . We went to an event sponsored by a local organization called @TheBookFairies. This amazing nonprofit opened their doors to teachers everywhere and we were able to shop for free books!

Imagine all of us giving our time, the Book Fairies volunteers and so, so many teachers. I am struck by the generosity of amazing people who gave up a gorgeous Saturday to build robust classroom libraries for students to enjoy:

Many people were telling touching stories about the readers and writers in their classrooms. There was not a mention of levels. Wise teachers value levels because they are an important tool that informs instructional practices. Levels are not to be mistaken with labels that hinder a love for independent reading:

We were all swapping stories as well as books. You could hear teachers excitedly saying, “Oh this is so great! Jorge is going to be so happy!” “Look what I found.” “I can’t believe I found this book, my mother used to tell us this story!” and “I’m so excited I can’t wait to get to school on Monday!”

It was quite a sight seeing everyone loading books into boxes, crates and bags. One teacher could barely close her trunk for all the books she and her colleague were taking back to school. We need to share our stories about the lengths teachers will go to promote literacy. We need to encourage our students to become connected so that they can share their love for independent reading.

When we work together, we are creating a community with a purpose for reading. We are being the change we hope to see in education. Literacy changes lives. Our dedication and generosity to that effort is the flip side of the urgency we all feel. For these reasons, teachers are opening up their classroom libraries and giving free access to books because that’s one way to keep students at the center of all that we do.

Our message is clear. We understand that now more than ever we need to “hold tight” to independent reading. Think of a classroom library as a garden, and every book a child reads is like a seed. Narratives and informational texts take root and grow to fill students’ heads with stories and ideas. This becomes our context to teach children how to read. But even more than that, we are growing a love for literacy that will last a lifetime.