To check out the archive of this chat head over the the Wakelet here.
My Journey With Assessment
I have been teaching now for 11 years. I think back to my days in University and having taken courses on assessment; the idea of Assessment of Learning vs Assessment for Learning was drilled into me. It was the most basic understanding I had of summative versus formative assessment. I remember excitedly beginning my career thinking about all the potential. Potential locked behind kids who were worried about those summative assessments, how through formative assessment, reteaching and preparing them those tests would be less scary, less binding. They would be ready. Little did I know that so many teachers in my early days were not clear on the idea of formative assessment. We had grade books FILLED with marks for every spelling, math, grammar, science, social, writing exercise you could imagine. Assessment did not look like it was for more than anything than points and students were already in 3rd grade becoming excellent point collectors. Our division brought in all the PD in the world but practice rarely changed. Over time I started looking for things I could do myself, to just move the needle on assessment in my own room. Exit slips, hinge point questions, I worked with a local assessment consortium to learn about ways we can write questions better to explore what our students were missing. I learned to resist the call to bludgeon our students with an avalanche of data in a grade book and focused on what mattered…them.
Today
Last spring the pandemic took a lot from us, our physical classrooms, the ability to have face to face conversations, sit shoulder to shoulder with our students safely. It also gave me something though and that was time. Time to research and look at my practice and one thing I really wanted to move towards was a feedback system that was less about grades and more about growth. I stumbled on to a book by Dr. Sarah M Zerwin titled Point-Less (the wakelet can be found here). Her work really helped me to frame what it was I wanted to do in my classroom. I shifted more towards students setting and assessing their own goals while I did the same. The conversations we have been able to have shifted in my classroom as well. Students are asking less “How many pages does this need to be?” Or “how much is this worth on the report card” and have started accepting statements like “Quality over Quantity” and understanding that all assignments are data to guide learning and completing their own goals. We are all engaged in work to inform how we are doing as both students and teachers. I am not certain I will ever be done learning how to assess because I keep moving the goal posts trying to be better. Looking at my practice and how I can grow. Imagining the freedom of a class no longer concerned about summative exams because there are no surprises they know where they are… learning.
The Chat
This whole reflection takes us to the chat. Teachers gathering to share their thoughts on formative assessment. We all recognize there are challenges, cracks that some of our students are being left to trip on because we either don’t know better or have not taken the time to ask what is better for them. I think the pandemic has pushed some questions to the surface, many on equity. Another is just the topic of how students learn best. I have had students thrive when online. A self-guided approach where they are in the comfort of their home, working at their pace and time has been what they needed. Other students who thrived in the systems pre-covid, struggled when left to manage themselves.
Is this observation not just another point of formative assessment? How can we adjust our practices to meet all students?
Looking through the tweets from Thursday I am struck by the fact that we do know the issues, also by the fact that largely they are the same problems we have been dealing with since assessment became a money maker. Standardized Tests and the companies that make them are big business and they are working overtime to shift our focus back to these programs and tests that forget the child and focus on data.
Not from the chat but thought it fit perfectly
When we look at the myth of learning loss because of Covid it is being pushed by companies, not by classroom teachers. When I assessed my students at the start of this year, early in the pandemic, certainly there were gaps I had not identified previously. But we are in a pandemic. When looking at the whole learner I see incredible growth. Students are learning time management, critical thinking, empathy and compassion. They are also learning all the things that a standardized test measures but the environment has changed. The assessment, to remain valid, must follow.
There was a lot of great thinking in the chat and I would recommend spending some time with the linked wakelet. In my own reflection I am continually going back to my students. If my assessment practices are driving them away from joyful learning then I am doing it wrong. Strong formative assessment takes work, it takes trust and it takes relationships. When our students know that they no longer need to be afraid of falling because we will catch them, they will take that learning leap. We just need to be there.
You can revisit the other chats in the series using the links below.
Part Four of #g2great Re-Examining and Revising Our Thinking Series was focused on intervention this week: Intervention: Collective Collaboration
As always, the discussion was lively and inspiring. When writing this post, I usually depend on the various tweets from peers who join the #g2great team. I’d like to take a departure from the typical format for this week’s blog post here. I’ll be sharing a blog post I wrote a few years ago about a staff member I worked with who is an intervention master teacher. I believe once you’ve read, you’ll agree.
Four days a week I witness first-hand the magic of learning to read. Mrs. O is an interventionist on our K-6 campus and I share office space with her in Room 18. When I’m not in a classroom working with teachers and kids, I sit at my desk and learn from the master teacher of learning to love to read.
Mrs. O is in compliance with our district model of RtI, but she also knows that it takes more to become a lover of books. More than phonics instruction. More than repeated reading of leveled texts. More than picture walks or front-loaded vocabulary, or comprehension questions.
A typical small group reading session with Mrs. O includes:
Phonics/Word Work
Quick re-read of a familiar text
Introduction of a new text
Students read independently while teacher listens
New strategy lesson on comprehension skills
Questions to facilitate critical thinking within/beyond/about the text
Engaging teacher read-aloud and written response
Look familiar? It should.
Did you, however, spot the outlier? Mrs. O chooses high-interest, children’s books to read aloud to her small group of students.
Magic. Pure magic.
Here’s what the read-aloud looks like:
Mrs. O asks students to quickly recap what they’ve read to that point. Sometimes students are asked to listen for a specific event, character reaction, or an element of author’s craft before she starts the new chapter or short selection from the text. Sometimes they just listen to Mrs. O read. At the close of the read-aloud, students write. Always. With lots of support from Mrs. O (who, BTW, is writing while the students write). Everyone shares their written response.
Students in Mrs. O’s group are reading books (or hearing books read aloud) that are a direct match to the content they are learning in their Tier I instruction. So often our kids who require additional support miss out on the “meaty” bits of reading content in their whole class instruction. Not on Mrs. O’s watch.
For example, several weeks ago third grade students were engaged in an inquiry unit about the Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. O’s intervention session included a read-aloud or a leveled reader about that pivotal time in our nation’s history. There were books about Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King along with other great black heroes. The students asked so many questions about the civil rights movement that Mrs. O determined they needed a little more background information so they read The Drinking Gourd to understand the immense need for people in America to work together to create freedom for all its citizens.
Every day they wrote about what they’d read. I watched as the students struggled to articulate the heart of each text. Mrs. O exhorted and modeled and supported and listened. Every day they read their writing to an audience.
The mysterious allure of Mrs. O’s reading small group protocol is something that can’t be bought in a kit or mass-produced.
Mrs. O loves to read.
Maybe I should say she lives to read. She once told me that she can still remember the smell of the library she visited often as a child. She shares with me about the books she’s currently reading. She gives the absolute best impromptu book talks.
The love affair Mrs. O has with books is unmistakable. This book love wraps its arms around those burgeoning readers, drawing them into the text and, almost as important, drawing them into a supernatural binding of hearts with their beloved bibliophile of an intervention teacher.
That is true intervention. Taking a child who thinks they can’t or don’t want to read and knitting their hearts together through the shared experience of reading captivating texts is what ultimately makes a life-long reader.
A few days before our holiday break began, Mrs. O and her 3rd grade group finished reading A Mouse Called Wolf. So many miraculous things had happened to that small band of readers in a few short days. One child in the group is an ELL student who rarely shares openly in the discussions. A particular part of the story resonated with her and she and Mrs. O bantered back and forth giggling and making silly comments in reference to that event. Another student burst forth with an impromptu solo of the Beatles hit song, Help! (yet another great moment from the book.)
The laughter and the shared experience in that merry company in Mrs. O’s group as a result of their most recent read-aloud spoke volumes about their growth as readers. Small group reading instruction for our most fragile readers is absolutely critical.
But so is an inexorable love of books.
You can see that Mrs. O has perfected the combination of the art and science of intervention. She knows the specific skills needed to accurately read and come to full understand of a text, but she also knows that intervention instruction is about leading her table full of kids to love reading in their community of peers.
That’s precisely what kids need.
This was the 4th chat in our 5-part series so we hope you’ll join us this week.
Wakelet artifact from April 22, 2021 #G2Great chat can be found here.
Small group instruction is ubiquitous in classrooms across the world. John Hattie found small group instruction has an effect size of .47. (Hattie source) Because that is above the .40 linch pin for effect size, small group instruction is often automatically on a teacher’s list of research-based activities. But . . . What if the teacher (or students) are engaged in an activity during the small group work that has an even higher effect size? Will the learning increase even farther? This post is going to bring some clarity to the purpose and rationale for small group instruction as well as explore some of the main issues with small groups before ending with some tips for re-examining and revising your small group practices to broaden your perspective.
As we begin, it is important to note that “grouping for instruction” has been discussed multiple times on #G2Great that can be found in the many resources listed at the end of this post. But one of the most important books dealing with small group instruction is Barry Hoonan and Julie Wright’s book, What Are You Grouping For? How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers – Not the Book. This book dug even deeper into some of the issues raised in earlier books by Burkins and Yaris in Who’s Doing the Work andMoses and Ogden in What are the Rest of My Kids Doing?. So let’s get started.
Who forms the small groups? Does it matter?
Is a small group formed by a teacher typically for the purpose of instruction, assessment, collaborating, conferencing or learning?
The initial organization of the group will often set the tone and culture of the group. Sometimes groups are “assigned” or formed by the teacher. There may be a variety of reasons for teacher assigned grouping especially for short-term, flexible groupings. Some of those were included in the question: instruction, assessment, collaborating, conferencing. Other reasons might include re-teaching, teaching lead students who will teach other students, an opportunity to double check student knowledge, or even forming an activist group. Laura and Nadine added further considerations during our chat.
Is a small group formed by students for the purpose of instruction, assessment, collaborating, conferencing or learning?
If the students form the small group it may also be a flexible group that varies to match its purpose. It could also include instruction (teaching you what I just learned), assessment, collaborating or conferencing. But other possibilities abound. It could be a student initiated book club, peer revision partnerships, or editing conference group. Check out how Yvette and Mary see student-formed groups progressing.
So before we go any farther, let’s check some common critical understandings about small groups so that we are all talking about the same thing.
What is a small group?
Is it a label? Is it a grouping? If yes, how many students does it take for a small group? Two students? Three students? Three or more students? Is there a maximum size for a small group? It depends! Typically more than two. Purpose dictates the size but having partners within the group allows for more talk and practice.
Who decides whether instruction or practice is a small group or whole class?
The teacher? The students? Data? Doug Fisher reminds us that: “Assessment data helps us plan instruction, especially in small groups so that specific needs are addressed.” One rule of thumb is that if more than half the class needs the information, then whole class instruction is more expedient, efficient and effective.
What might I provide?
Strategic, just-in-time instruction: this may be pre-teaching, re-teaching or extended teaching from the lesson just taught. It all depends on student needs.
WHY might I use small groups?
Everyone does NOT need the same thing.
What might students need from small group instruction?
To Differentiate: To follow up on instruction or assessment data in order to answer the question – Who needs more time? To Intensify: Quick, yet intense reinforcement, continued practice to move closer to automaticity For Independence: So students can practice and the teacher can observe and answer questions about process or observe competence, confidence and habits of mind.
Regie Routman who has been a part of #G2Great and is highly respected for her practical and knowledgeable approach to education defined four issues with small groups: equity, professional learning, reading, and management. (link) She talks about these in terms of guided reading but they also apply for many small group settings.
Equity
“No teacher deliberately sets out to disadvantage students and, yet, we unintentionally do so all the time.
Students do not become self-directed, joyful readers because teachers and administrators prioritize daily, guided reading groups. Students become readers, in every positive sense of that word, when most of their reading time is dedicated to uninterrupted, voluminous reading of texts they can and want to read.”
Mary and Yvette were again in tune on the issue of equity and small groups.
Professional learning
Lucy Calkin’s quote used in our chat says so much. How does this vision become a part of professional learning, what we determine as our learning goals, and a part of classroom actions every day? How much professional learning is needed? It depends on how close the desired outcomes are to current instructional practices.
Reading
Our focus has to be on “teaching readers not teaching reading.” This shift in language is both critical and deliberate. Being responsive to the reader maximizes resource. Small groups that focus on skill and drill minimize resources and often reduces the time that the student has to read. The result is what Richard Allington called the “slow it down curriculum” because the emphasis is on every single skill and quantities of isolated practice that are not helpful for student growth or agency. Susan, Jill, Rhonda and Gen add to our understanding!
Students have to spend time reading in order to improve their reading. This applies to small groups as well. A small group session that does not ever have students reading would be counter productive. One goal of small group sessions would always be to increase the volume of student reading.
Management –
Regie Routman also says this:
“As well, even though it may be unintentional, managing the management system often winds up taking priority over effective instruction and time for reading, not to mention the enormous amount of time teachers spend planning for management. Sometimes, when teachers are not sufficiently knowledgeable, the management system even becomes the reading curriculum.”
Time at school is finite. There isn’t a second to waste. Not a minute. Time needs to be allocated for those instructional and assessment practices that will not only promote learning but will also fuel student engagement. That means that the most effective and efficient practices need to be sorted out for the student. It’s not about a school-wide adoption of “these top three strategies”. It’s about choosing some strategic strategies and practices, teaching them to students and then allowing the students to choose the one(s) that work best for each individual.
And in the area of management, I have to give a shout out to the late Kathleen Tolan from TCRWP. My jaw hit the floor when I saw Kathleen effectively manage three small groups simultaneously. Yes, SIMULTANEOUSLY. Exquisite Management! Clear planning of two to three days cycles of possibilities that were responsive to students but yet also meant that students were actively engaged in the planning and delivery of the instruction. They all knew their expectations and goals, they came to the group session completely prepared, with the tools and resources that they needed, and they did the work. The. Students. Did. The. Work. Teacher voice did not dominate.
How can we improve the effectiveness of small group instruction?
Andrew Miller in an Edutopia article (link) says that the key strategies for improving small group instruction are:
Using small group time to listen and learn from students,’
Making them invitational rather than required,
Extending learning,
Providing choices in method and
Encouraging student-driven lessons. (Edutopia)
Andrew Miller in his closing goes on to say,
“Ultimately, small group instruction, like instruction in general, is reciprocal—a two-way street: “What can I help my students learn?” and “What can I learn from my students?” In our rush to help students, we may miss the opportunity to learn from them to do our jobs as teachers in an even more effective way. In addition to addressing gaps in learning, it’s about looking for opportunities to empower students to take agency in their learning and celebrate their funds of knowledge.”
Where to begin?
Check your purposes for small groups. Where have small groups been effective? What issues have been seen as barriers to effectiveness? How can the issues be minimized? Where can small groups use some re-visioning to improve? Find a “thinking partner” to share your thinking and ideas.
Think about these two final pieces of wisdom from Val and Hannah . . .
What is our goal? Is it to increase student learning? Is it to empower students so they can and will be lifelong learners? Does our use of small groups reflect our vision of equitable, quality instruction for ALL students? How will you maximize the power of small groups?
#G2Great delved into the second of a five-part series on April 15th: Re-examining and Revising Our Thinking to Transform Our Practices, Reading Levels Maintaining a Flexible Stance. I have grown to regard our series as a professional lifeline. These conversations continue to have a big influence on how I define teaching and my day-to-day practice. After years of learning alongside so many teachers who join in these chats, I have grown to believe that teaching comes down to two important questions: How responsive are we to students’ needs? How do we best promote a sense of agency for ALL students? I believe that leveled texts play a significant role in finding the answers to those questions.
Responsive: Leveled Texts a Teacher’s Tool
I attended a conference by Irene Fountas and she said, “A leveled text is the teacher’s tool.” That one statement shaped my whole approach to reading instruction because it rang true. Good books make children want to read. Leveled texts are built on a continuum of reading development. They offer growing complexity for reading behaviors in word study, syntax, and comprehension. It just made perfect sense to me. Then years later I heard Lester Laminack speak, and he said, “The first read of a book is a gift. Let the author do his job.” Those words touched me deeply and shaded the nuance of what reading instruction ought to be. You see, before books can be used as tools, they need to be loved by children. Teaching children how to read is a sacred act, one that requires deference and skill. For these reasons teachers had a lot to share about why leveled texts are responsive tools while also drawing attention to the dangers of their misuse:
A1: We need to rethink WHEN and HOW we use reading levels. They should NEVER be used to deny access to complex texts. Instead reading levels should be indicators of what is needed to grant access to meaty, grade-level texts. #G2Great
A1: A first step might be to ask ourselves if a reading level is boxing kids in. When levels are misused or overused, they limit more than support. Re-thinking when, where, why, and how levels guide our decision-making yields more equitable learning experiences. #g2great
A1: Considering the level as a teacher and building off of students strengths, setting goals, reinforcing the reading behaviors. Switch our teacher talk away from levels when discussing progress… #G2great
A1: When I do a running record, I'm looking more at what's happening when my kids are reading and that helps me plan for what kids need. The equity piece is me making sure all kids get what they need (their letter doesn't really help me much with that) #g2great
There are so many reasons why my friend Mary inspires teachers all over the country and the world. She is the constant advocate for a child-centered approach. One of her many attributes that I admire is her unflappable adoration for children. She is truly one of our better angels. Giving children access to literacy is essential, and in this quote, she is reminding us that it is our responsibility to see the whole child in that pursuit. To do less would be to undermine who they are. Teaching children how to read is to show them that they have a place in the literate world. Peter Johnston said, “If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals” (Johnston, 2004, p. 29). Using leveled texts is one part of how we teach children how to read with growing confidence. Literacy grants students access to an agentive life. In other words, agency and literacy go hand-in-hand:
Q4: Involve the students in setting up the library. When Ts see that this works, it alleviates their anxiety. As @millerread says, "What is the best that could happen?" #G2great
Our class libraries should be rich, diverse & organized in a way that provides every reader an opportunity & entry point. Books can include levels; baskets don’t need them! I’ve seen great classroom libraries organized by genre or author! #G2Great
— Dr. Tony Gil Sinanis (he/him) (@TonySinanis) April 16, 2021
A4 I don't believe in labeling book bins by text level. Classroom libraries should be set up in a way that makes sense for the SS. At the beginning of the year ask, "How might we sort our books so that we can easily find what we want to read?" Then listen #g2great
— Yvette Rosario-Perez she/her/ella (@yvetterp2) April 16, 2021
As I close my post, I want to leave you with this: the goal is not just to teach children how to read, it is to honor who they are as literate beings. Grade level expectations are one thing, labeling a child is quite another. Above all else, we cannot allow anything to interfere with a child’s love for reading, or a teacher’s craft. Believe in your kids, believe in yourself. A skilled teacher, a classroom library, and a room full of readers is the ultimate goal.
In order to engage in a discussion about fidelity, it makes sense to begin with a definition:
Synonyms that are associated with “fidelity” are shown in the visual www.WordClouds.com
You may be wondering why the above references suggest the need to re-examine and revise “fidelity” in order to transform our practices. Shouldn’t we want to approach our teaching with dependability, reliability, constancy and such? While these descriptors appear to be desirable qualities, it’s more complicated than a simple yes or no. Rather, it depends on who or what is asking for our fidelity and the degree and form of allegiance expected. It’s actually far less about the qualities and far more about the intent of what we find beneath the surface of those qualities.
To make this distinction clear, I want to turn to our chat subtitle written in the form of a question we should all be asking: Fidelity to WHAT and to WHOM? Our response to this question should uncover where the fidelity path diverges into widely varying perspectives. The path we choose to take directly impacts our students and has the potential to either make our children the sacrificial lambs or the fortunate benefactors of our directional decision-making.
So let’s take a look at two wide-ranging fidelity paths:
The Dark Side of Fidelity: Rigid Misplaced Trust
Unfortunately, fidelity has morphed into an undesirable stance, largely fueled by our continuing quest to raise standardized test scores. This is driving many schools to seek out quick fixes that are readily available from companies eagerly awaiting a chance to tout their wares for a price. This open sales opportunity door has created an educational marketing frenzy riddled with suspect publishers peddling equally suspect physical or digital products. In many cases, these products are created by individuals with little or no background in education, so they often pay an expert to make them look legitimate. The program is generally connected to assessment used to magically transform the resulting rigid data into rigid preconceived solutions. Schools may also pay consultants to promote the program, warning teachers that success requires following this fail-proof program “with fidelity.” This translates to blind faith in a program destined to reduce students and teachers to instructional sameness even with one-size-fits-all features under the guise of differentiation. Sadly, school ordistrict mandates may offer teachers no option.
The Responsible Side of Fidelity: Fidelity with Flexibility (aka Flexi-delity)
On the other side of the diverging fidelity path are excellent research-based models designed and supported by highly knowledgeable educators and researchers. Two examples are Reading Recovery and Comprehensive Intervention Model. In both cases, research guides all aspects of the model including student-centered assessments that inform instruction. In stark contrast to the above description, these models embrace professional responsibility to the child and the informed moment to moment decisions of highly knowledgeable teachers. In each example, teachers draw from a specific instructional design but their professional agency and informed choices made in the context of teaching are honored and even encouraged rather than vilified. There are no scripts to follow or student activity forms to duplicate because professional learning is at the center of an instructional process where authentic reading and writing are the focal point of all learning experiences. Fidelity in these models are viewed from a lens of flexibility.
Perusing our chat Wakelet, it’s clear that our #G2great friends are as passionate as we are about the topic of fidelity since the twitter style chat conversation proceeded at passion-fueled warp speed. Thankfully I can revisit and capture their wise words so that I can sprinkle twitter wisdom across this post. Fran McVeigh’s opening tweet nicely distinguishes my two diverging paths:
Given my two varying fidelity paths, I hope that I have made it clear that I am not opposed to fidelity but to whom and to what our fidelity is offered. To support this distinction, I use three questions to consider if fidelity fits the dark side, the responsible side or somewhere in between:
Is the program created by highly KNOWLEDGEABLE professionals (vs marketers) who draw from the current research available?
Does the program encourage educators to use it as a RESOURCE and thus invite their own professional judgment?
Is the program based on AUTHENTIC practices that actively engage students in meaningful, purposeful and responsive reading, writing, talking and thinking?
“You can have the same program and same script but get very different results. Everything is the same except that you are still there and how you express it to kids is different. My art is expressing that information using my own energy and experience and passion.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t take some liberty in this post by suggesting a third form of fidelity often ignored: Fidelity to our own desires. In some cases, there is no program involved but teachers nevertheless make decisions that are not informed by literacy research. There can be many reasons for this such as the failure of schools to ensure high quality professional learning across the year, preservice teaching assigned to a classroom where limited research practices are evident, lack of mentor support for new teachers, partnerships where less than effective practices are perpetuated and spread, lack of interest in personal professional curiosity that fuels ongoing study, the use of “fun” and “cute” to justify practices or even a lingering appreciation for whatever might be easy and expedient. How can we follow a path leading to research-informed flexible understandings if these things are driving the decision-making bus?
Regardless of whether fidelity plays a role in any instructional experience, I would argue that showing fidelity to a program, practice approach or even personal belief while turning our back on our responsibility to children is not a virtue at all.
I’d like to close with the words of my very wise friend, Susan Vincent, in an interview that Dr. Sam Bommarito shared as I was writing this post: A former reading recovery teacher, trainer and current university professor talks about reading recovery. Susan’s words seem appropriate here since resolving the fidelity issue is inseparably linked to the quality of learning opportunities we are afforded and how we use them to enrich, elevate and extend our understandings in ways that can leave us forever changed. In explaining the life-changing impact of Reading Recovery, Susan says,
“It changed me as a person. It changed me as a risk taker. I learned how to open myself and my teaching up to my colleagues and be vulnerable and say, “Come and watch me teach. Here’s my teaching, help me get better.” When you do that regularly, it just changes you as a person. You become a risk-taker. You become a person who says, “I want to get better all the time.” You become a better learner. After I was trained in Reading Recovery, I knew that I would always be a learner for the rest of my career. I would always want to know the latest research…. It’s not just about learning reading techniques. It’s about becoming a true literacy professional.”
THE BOTTOM LINE OF FIDELITY
As I close this post, I am wondering if we simply perpetuate the status quote as educators or are willing to do the hard work necessary to experience a life-changing professional transformation Susan describes. If research informs practices and dedicated study is seen as a professional commitment, just imagine the impact on our day-to-day teaching. Growing understandings can help us to modify programs, whether mandated or not, or even give us the confidence to move away from them in the future. Most important, this would shift out focus from meeting the needs of some children based on grade level obligations to unwavering responsiveness to the needs of unique learners based on that knowledge. I suspect that you’d all agree that we did not enter this profession to become compliant disseminators. Rather, we were motivated to be professionally responsible decision-makers in schools where professional learning over time is deemed our first priority. If this were the case, then our ever deepening understandings about students would be the catalyst for the responsive professional decisions we make in the name of children.
The truth is, that this would be a substantially less costly investment of time, money and energy as well as the extensive loss of student learning than we invest in uninformed snake oil salesmen.
Please join us for other chats in our #G2great series shown below
For a record of this chat you can check out the Wakelet located here.
Last spring for many teachers we were focused on transitioning to online learning amidst a pandemic. We were all focused on the inequity of our education system and how magnified they had become. Then in May another shift occurred in the world as George Floyd was murdered, Black Lives Matter marches occurred the world over and the term Anti-racist was entering the conversations of the education system. The inequity and racism within the education system had moved into focus. Many teachers had already been involved in this Anti-racist work, many more would now be looking to learn to be better for their students and school communities.
The amount of work needing to be done is overwhelming but that does not mean that we can just say, “it is too much I am just going to close my door and pretend like it isn’t happening.” We can’t do this for many reasons but one is that it is very likely the practices that we utilize in our classrooms are contributing to these inequities, are upholding the very education system and traditions that are supported by white supremacy. As Lorena says above we need to reimagine and reevaluate if we are going to make change. Lorena Germán’s The Antiracist Teacher Reading Instruction Workbook provides us with a background on the traits of white supremacy and explores how they show up in our classroom and how we can disrupt them.
What are the traits of white supremacy?
In the workbook Lorena outlines Perfectionism, A Sense of Urgency, Defensiveness, Quantity over Quality, Worship of the Written Word, Only One Right Way and Individualism as traits of white supremacy that show up in our reading instruction. As we began the chat we asked teachers to reflect on what trait they felt most commonly showed up in their instruction.
As I watched and participated in the chat seeing so many different responses for so many teachers I couldn’t help but connect with Mary’s tweet here. So many issues to address and our practice, naming them is the first step but then acting is the next. The workbook helps teachers to identify the traits of white supremacy in their own practice and provides ways in which we can make changes to address them. As the chat continued teachers reflected on each of the traits. Here is a sample but be sure to read through the Wakelet that is linked above.
Perfectionism
Sense of Urgency
Be bouncers, thank you Matthew R. Kay.
Defensiveness
This really was an area I struggled with in the past. This need to say “NOT ME” when someone points out problematic practices. I sadly still see it so much in both EduTwitter (Especially among those folks who profit off the Educelebrity system); this need to defend ourselves rather than listen, to argue rather than understand. Here are a few points from the chat.
Just a sample
I think this post could be thousands of words and I still would not be able to address all the traits Lorena brings up or share the brilliant responses from the chat that her work inspired. As we consider things like Worship of the Written Word, Only One Right Way, Quantity over Quality and Individualism to round out the traits the biggest take away I had was that the system needs to change. We need to be open to other ideas, build community, celebrate all forms of text and build a system that is serving our students. Our students need to be heard, they need to see themselves in the work we are asking them to do, in the texts they encounter and they need to see that they are valued.
So many teachers have asked over the year how they can make their classroom a safer space for all students, how they can disrupt the system that has been built relying on the traits of white supremacy to ensure its own survival. I continue to be one of those teachers. Learning and working to be more Antiracist, more purposeful in my actions to counter racism. This is a work in practice. This workbook provides a blueprint, a guide to interrogate our own practices. Changes may come a teacher at a time, a classroom at a time but it will come if we take those steps for our students. In my own classroom being aware of these traits has led to shifts, away from the old texts and approaches to making more room for student choice. Allowing myself the grace to know that perfection is not the goal but growth always is and being open to feedback as a learning tool. There is so much to be done.
If you have read this or participated in the chat and need a copy of the workbook it can be found on Lorena and her husband Roberto’s website Multicultural Classroom Consulting You can get the electronic version immediately.
Thank you, Lorena, for this work and allowing us to feature it on #g2great.
When you approach writing instruction with a deep understanding of children in your classroom, everything else―assessment, planning, differentiated instruction, mentor and shared texts―begins to fall into place. And you can teach writing with inclusion, equity, and agency at the forefront. –Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum
March 25th, #g2great had the opportunity to join with Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum to explore the resources they share in their new book, The Responsive Writing Teacher. If you missed the chat, you can access the entire chat here.
Responsive teaching allows teachers to give close attention to students’ clear assets and needs, reflect on actionable ways to support, create authentic ways for students to give evidence of learning and share effective feedback for kids.
Meehan and Sorum go further in their commitment to responsive teaching. They inspire teachers to spend time genuinely getting to know kids and what they need. The focus is on targeted, individual support and student-focused inspiration.
The single most significant decision you can make in regard to being a responsive teacher is building strong relationships with every student. These types of relationships build community that allow students to take risks, makes it easier for you, the teacher, to differentiate for specific needs, and works proactively to prevent power struggles that inevitably occur.
What I love about this book is that one might assume it’s a skills handbook of sorts, but it’s much more than that. This book by Meehan and Sorum is a treatise on how to start with, maintain and solidify acts of humanity. Every day deliberate, intentional acts of humanity. When teachers defer to student needs, their individual cultural and ethnic lives, celebrating students’ fund of knowledge and their singular hopes and dreams, everyone benefits. Imagine a classroom where everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. Meehan and Sorum make it clear through their book that it can happen.
Sadly, it didn’t take long to realize that Marie Clay’s work was in stark contrast to the RTI reality I saw play out in schools. My initial enthusiasm dissipated from view as concern for those flaws led me to write RTI from All Sides: What Every Teacher Needs to Know(2009, Heinemann) with an accompanying podcast Principles for Success with RTI (2009, Heinemann). The rich intervention understandings I’d grown to love before and through Marie Clay as well as training as a Reading Recovery Teacher in 1990 were so far removed from the RTI that made children sacrificial lambs of yet one more intervention model gone awry (followed by MTSS). In education, what may seem like a good idea in theory is often at odds with a good idea in practice
When Julie told me that her soon to be published book was about the intervention process and asked me to preview it, I was delighted. I knew in the first pages that it would be an honor to write her foreword. Julie showed us in page after page how to bring theory and practice together by illuminating the WHY, WHAT and HOW of a thoughtful intervention design with children in mind. She offers a flexible pathway to the responsive process our children deserve as both teachers and the students in their care become fortunate benefactors of her wisdom. In just under 200 pages, Julie awakens the “beating heart” that has been missing in the traditional RTI Model.
It seems only appropriate for Julie to explain in her own words why this book is sorely needed as she eloquently responds to the first of three questions:
What motivated you to write this book? What impact did you hope that it would have in the professional world?
Teachers face a lot of noise today. That noise isn’t all bad, but it can be overwhelming at times. With the growing list of initiatives, the plethora of instructional resources, increased meetings, new tech tools, and more, it can be tricky to determine what counts. Not to mention that there’s never enough time to get it all done. This book is about clearing the noise by taking on 5 challenges that face schools specific to our current RtI models, and ways to solve them. My goal is to ensure that teachers are in the instructional driver’s seat, creating asset-based responses to support ALL students.
I wrote Julie’s first guest post around Small Group Redesigns I believed could address the flawed efforts that had become all-too prevalent. Considering the flawed design missteps I have seen along the way in our intervention efforts, it seems fitting to use that spirit again with Intervention Redesigns. Until we are willing to step back and contemplate an intervention design in honor of our children rather than in honor of whatever acronym we happen to be using at the time, we will forever fail to keep children at the center. Misplaced blind faith in the design of others can never be a substitute for the thoughtful design we craft with children in mind.
And so I offer Twelve Intervention Redesigns, each accompanied by two of Julie’s carefully chosen tweets from our #G2great chat. It is my hope that these suggestions will inspire you to engage in collegial dialogue as you contemplate a renewed schoolwide intervention perspective.
Intervention Redesign #1: Begin by verbalizing and understanding your beliefs
While choosing the sequence of these important points inspired by Julie’s wise tweets, I made a conscious decision to use beliefs as our opening. If we don’t know what we stand for, then we stand for nothing so our beliefs must be the starting point of all that follows. This requires us not only to verbalize our beliefs from a collective stance but also to consider how we will know what that looks like when (and if) we bring those beliefs to life in practice. This offers the directional signposts that will help us to maintain a sense of purpose as we move along that trajectory.
Intervention Redesign #2: Use beliefs as a reflective mirror leading to change
Once we have identified and analyzed what we stand for and what that looks like, then we must begin to do the hard work. This means we have the courage to closely examine our choices and whether they are translating our beliefs into actionable artifacts that matter. Our success directly impacts the success of our children, so we take an honest look at our beliefs in action through a lens to determine what is worth keeping, what warrants adjusting and what is best alleviated entirely. In some schools, this may lead to a major design overhaul. If it isn’t working for children, we owe it to them to start over no matter how comfortable it might seem to maintain status quo.
Intervention Redesign #3: Build a culture of professionals as decision makers
Once we verbalize our beliefs and analyze the actions that awaken them in the name of students, we need to acknowledge that our professional superpower has always and will always reside in professionals who are able to assume their rightful role as dedicated decision-makers, not the scripted programs that lure them into compliant disseminators. This means that schools must be willing to invest in ongoing professional learning including highly qualified coaching support in the context of instructional practices. The good news? If we have the wisdom to let go of the ties that bind, we’d have ample financial resources to make this a schoolwide professional imperative.
Intervention Redesign #4: Broaden your view of our intervention “WHO“
Any intervention design that does not place classroom teachers at the center of those efforts is destined to fail. General education must always be viewed as the first line of intervention defense regardless of other instructional supports students may need beyond that setting. It is both an ethical and legal obligation that any interventions. regardless of where they take place, will provide “in addition to” vs “instead of” support. Until we understand that each classroom teacher will be responsible for every child who walks through their door no matter where they fall in that grade level spectrum, our intervention choices will always fall short.
Intervention Redesign #5: Broaden your view of intervention “WHERE“
Pull-out has become an unfortunate first choice instructional knee jerk reaction, often based on flawed data that gives the illusion its warranted in the first place. Pull out must be seen as the last alternative after all other options have been carefully considered. Responsive decision-making maintains classroom teachers as our first line of defense by ensuring that flexibility of purpose is is our guide so that we can honor every unique learner based on their needs at that time. We use the 80% Proficiency Rule (Dorn & Schubert) as our marker, knowing that if more that 20% of students in a classroom need outside support we need to assess the design of that classroom.
Intervention Redesign #6: Value the gift of instructional time (aka Tick Tock!)
Time is our most precious commodity so we have an obligation to spend it wisely. If schools treat instruction as a TO DO list to be conquered rather than a responsibility we have to children, then we need to make dramatic curricular changes. Professional respect for time drives us to make room for instructional depth over breadth. Unless we contemplate how we choose or refuse to expend time, we cannot find the time to invite deeper conversations and collaborations that will beckon students to engaged learning. If time becomes our enemy due to curriculum or publisher obligations, we must carefully consider how to shift our responsibility back to students.
Intervention Redesign #7: Acknowledge the role of early intervention
Any effective instructional design begins with valuing the role of early intervention. This does not mean that we initiate a kindergarten global pull-out frenzy but that we recognize early signs of instructional need through ongoing assessment and professional awareness. Of course, it also means assessing important experiences and opportunities that children have not previously been afforded so that we may bathe them in those experiences and opportunities. This begins by prioritizing book centered reading and writing experiences with conversations that support and enhance that learning. Regardless what children bring into our doors, opportunity begins with us.
Intervention Redesign #8: Keep your sights on intensity for accelerated growth
Once we determine that intervention support beyond what can be offered in the classroom alone is warranted, we must then acknowledge the intensive support that would lead to acceleration. Given that we cannot make up in thirty minutes for what happens the rest of the day, it is critical for schools to embrace a collective all-hands-on-deck commitment so that accelerated growth is viewed not just what happens during an “intervention lesson” but what is possible across the entire learning day. Intensity takes into consideration size, time and frequency across structures so increasing intensive acceleration is a cumulative consideration for all stakeholders. (Now go back and read the other redesigns and… Repeat! Repeat! Repeat!).
Intervention Redesign #9: Celebrate your day-to-day assessment informants
Successful schools know that instruction and assessment are inseparably intertwined and that failure to address both inevitably leads to failure to give kids what they need when they need it. Responsive instructional decision-making rises from responsive assessment decision-making. If numerical values are our focal point, we will easily lose sight of the child beneath those values that then become meaningless irrelevant distractions that point us in the wrong direction and blur our view of what matters most. To truly know children, we embrace this interrelationship by prioritizing ongoing assessments that inform instructional direction and likely lead to additional assessment and instruction in a never-ending cycle of day-to-day decision-making.
Intervention Redesign #10: Use an asset-based lens to honor all learners
Of course, having research based ongoing assessment does not automatically assume that we empower teachers to notice glimmers of brilliance children bring to the instructional-assessment experience. If our observational powers are seduced into seeing what children can’t do, there is a real danger that we will miss what they can do. An asset lens is professionally honed over time and allows us to readily see those glimmers use them as a springboard to the next step learning that will strengthen and extend them. An asset-based mindset impacts our instructional decisions as well as the professional conversations we have about children across all settings.
Intervention Redesign #11: Empower learners by putting them in the driver’s seat
Although this is an extension of the instructional-assessment merger, it deserves a redesign point of its own. Too often assessment is viewed in terms of ‘proving’ that what we have done in one instructional context is working rather than contemplating how it impacts learning across an instructional pathway that increases the likelihood for transfer of learning. Assessing student learning during literacy can provide instructional knowledge that can also applied during science, social studies and math. This repeated exposure and practice across varied contexts offers the cognitive fuel that transfer of learning requires.
Intervention Redesign #12: Embrace the impact of collaborative coordination
Just as I consciously chose beliefs to open my intervention redesigns, I also very consciously chose to end with this redesign point (one by the way this will be significantly elevated when we engage in instruction that rises from shared professional beliefs). We must always remember that our children do not become someone else by virtue of real estate and thus have different needs when they move from this teacher to that teacher. An all-hands-on-deck mindset embraces our professional obligation to collaborate so that we may also coordinate our efforts based on shared understandings about literacy and children that will multiply our efforts.
That brings us to the second question we asked Julie along with her response:
What are your BIG takeaways from your book that you hope teachers will embrace in their teaching practices?
Empower teachers to break out of the RtI box, creating new, asset-based support that maximizes learning opportunities for ALL students.
Honor and increase teacher autonomy and agency.
Child study teams focused on students’ assets.
Increase students’ thinking and doing time.
Good instruction that serves as the best interventions.
Close the knowing-naming-doing gap for teachers and students
A call to action, asking What’s Our Response? How will we create systems and structures to support ALL students?
MARY’S CLOSING WORDS
Since I wrote the foreword, I obviously think very highly of Julie’s intervention masterpiece. We should all intentionally ask her title question that can drive us: What is Our Response? As I’ve traveled around the country over the years, I have seen the best and the worst response to the intervention models we draw from. Without exception, the most effective schools are those that embrace Julie’s title by taking the professional reins for asking and responding to that question based on their combined knowledge of literacy and kids. By contrast, the most ineffective schools mindlessly accept the mandated meanderings of those who prefer telling over asking and do so without knowledge of children and oftentimes knowledge of actual literacy research. In What is Our Response? Julie Wright asks us to reclaim our role as professional decision-maker, knowing that we can’t buy our way to excellence but must actively do the collective work that leads to professional excellence – for children who need intervention support as well as those who don’t.
This post was clearly inspired by a combination of the trifecta of awesome:
• A cover to cover read of Julie’s book, What’s Our Response?
• A careful perusal of Julie’s thoughtful twitter fueled tweets
• And of course, the passionate ponderings of our #G2great family
And so as I come to the end of this post, I can’t think of a better way to close than with Julie’s eloquent response to our third and final question:
What is a message from the heart that you would like for every teacher to keep in mind?
Kids show up each day to do their best. As teachers, we do the same. Let’s put our best together, creating culturally responsive, equitable, asset-based systems and structures for ALL students.
That pretty much says it all doesn’t it? With heartfelt appreciation, we thank Julie for helping us to break free of the RTI box and breathe new life into a perspective that will honor both teachers and children. Thank you for reminding us to join our children and colleagues so that we may all show up for a shared quest that will lead us to our best selves!
The Wakelet artifact is available for your perusal here.
The #G2Great chat world was alive, well, and ROCKING on Thursday, March 11, 2021. The podcasts (link) of their work was a hint of the depth of the work proposed but, WOW! What an amazing, well-orchestrated text and chat.
On one hand, when a book comes from authors like Mary Ehrenworth, Pablo Wolfe, and Marc Todd, it might be easy to say “Oh, great, another book about what kids can do in classrooms with supportive teachers, supportive administrators and supportive communities.” However, the wisdom, wit, and enthusiasm generated in the #G2Great chat merely emphasized that everyone in school communities needs to be thinking about civic engagement. Not just one class period a day. Not just the ELA teacher. Not just teachers. But the entire community. (And more about that later.)
On the other hand, naysayers may have a different view. “Really? More political speak about what teachers should or should not be doing in their classrooms?More brainwashing? Is that really the purview of our school systems?
Like any great performance from an orchestra, the resulting concert is only as good as the score. In this case, the score (written music) begins this post with the wisdom of the authors and their responses to the three questions that we ask and then moves to some specific high notes from the chat and then enthusiasm as a rousing finale for this work.
1) What motivated you to write this book? What impact did you hope that it would have in the professional world?
The Civically Engaged Classroom was born out of the idea that as a society we need to think deeply about the purpose of school, especially in times as fraught and divisive as those we are living in. We want teachers to look at their classrooms and see future citizens in front of them, citizens that need to be well-prepared for the hard work of leading and strengthening our democracy.
In our own teaching and staff development, we have met many colleagues who have inspired us with the way they teach with a civic mindset. We have also met countless others who aspire to do this work, but are in communities where they feel unsupported. This book is meant to both highlight the brilliant work we’ve seen, as well as to encourage, inspire and sustain those who feel like they’re teaching into a headwind.
We were also motivated to write this book because it helps to address one of the persistent questions in education: how do we get kids motivated and engaged by school? We think one of the most profound, and overlooked, ways to engage kids is to make sure that the work of school is aimed toward civic ends. When the walls of the classroom come down, kids see that their work has real purpose and impact.
Ultimately, as with everything in education, this is for the kids. We hope that some of what we put in the book helps them seize their power and shape the world they will inherit.
2) What are your BIG takeaways from your book that you hope teachers will embrace in their teaching practices?
We hope that our readers see…
● …that identity exploration is essential to all curriculum and pedagogy, especially if we are to prepare our children to engage responsibly in our multicultural society.
● …that schoolwork must be worldwork. That it should include political and historical content that is relevant and contemporary.
● …that we need to move beyond the single text, everytime, in every situation.
● …that we can model being active, engaged citizens in front of our students without being partisan.
● …that when students consume nonfiction, they must teach each other and their parents about what they are learning and why it matters.
● …students need frequent opportunities to practice service to a community.
● …that teachers aren’t alone in this work! There is a thriving, and growing, number of us who are re-envisioning school as a preparation space for citizenship.
3) What is a message from the heart you would like for every teacher to keep in mind?
This book is a call to work. Throughout The Civically Engaged Classroom we’ve included a feature called Practice What You Teach, a regular reminder that the work in these pages is for all of us to take on, not just our kids. We can all do more to be better citizens; we can all do more to re-envision our democracy. This is not about indoctrinating children, but it is about our duty as educators to help them realize that they have a lot of responsibility in this society and that if they don’t take it, or aren’t adequately prepared for it, they’ll continue to perpetuate grievous harms to themselves and to others.
The work in our classrooms is part of the world. The more we bring the real world in with its injustices as well as its beauty and hope, the better we serve our students, and the better we serve our society.
Ultimate Roles For Teachers and Students
What is needed? Teachers who address identity with honesty and courage, … co-creating with students on a level playing field … to determine a course of action with students … valuing listening and … arguing to listen. Check out the following four tweets that include Mary, Pablo and Marc’s own words.
What is the end goal? Dr. Mary Howard gives us the “411”straight from the book:
While it may seem “easy” to defer to the authors to use their own words, this post could become quite lengthy if a commentary was included for all their wisdom. So sticking with a personal motto of “less is more” here are three high notes of focus from the chat. These refrains will help you get started on a civically engaged classroom.
Where and How Does a Civically Engaged Classroom Fit?
Where do you position a civically engaged classroom? Do you view it as a solo? As an entire section of the performers? Or embedded in the entire musical performance? Your view impacts your planning. Consider these gems of wisdom.
Where might you begin? What do you value? What are your priorities? And then consider Pablo’s wisdom and his verb choices . . . “cut” . . . “replace” . . . “OR infuse” with the end goals of “application of skills, real-life experience, and communal celebration.”
Students: Identity, Stories, Experiences and Interests
The work of so many “artists/performers/authors” is the foundation for all work with students. Sara Ahmed’s identity work in Being the Change (blog post) has led the way for teachers and students to explore their identity and bring about social change. So too have Jody Carrington in Kids These Days and more recently Matt Kay in Not Light, But Fire as well as many other authors. When we embrace Dr. Rudine Sim Bishop’s, “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors,” we will have a fun-filled concert program as we follow the lead of so many educators when we consider how to engage students by following their interests.
Where can you find the information to get started? What do you already know about your students? Their interests? Their passions? What are the artifacts that they already have about their own thinking beyond what they are reading and writing? How are we inviting students to be a part of this co-construction?
Explicit Instruction: Norms, “Inclusion,” Note-Taking, and Examining Biases
But what do we teach? What’s important? Of course instruction will vary depending on the needs and interests of the students in front of you! Here are a few ideas for you to consider as you wonder about the WHAT that needs to be taught and practiced before the concert is scheduled.
Instruction is all about routines and processes. Routines and processes for civil discourse. Routines and processes for research. Routines and processes for affirming information. Routines and processed for determining biases and collecting additional information. Which ones might be a priority for you and your students?
FINALE
In conclusion, the time for action is NOW. No waiting. Do not pass go. Do NOT collect $200. Move from the audience to the stage, backstage, behind the side curtains, or center stage under the lights.
It’s time to practice. Take action. Consider student identities. Have a discussion. Focus on student choices. To learn more, check out the Wakelet archive and the Additional Resources. Watch the stellar three part video series. Check out the Coalition of Civically Engaged Educators below. Explore the padlet. Find a friend to travel this journey together and have a conversation partner. Make a plan. Get started!
Think about all the amazing teachers you know. The colleagues who make teaching look… effortless. How? Anyone who has been in a classroom surely knows this is not the case. There is A LOT of effort that goes into that level of seamless teaching. So the question is worth revisiting. How does a teacher light up a classroom and make it look like it’s hardly any work at all? They plan ahead to find ways to make learning more meaningful and connected.
Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucker have written a beautiful book, The Literacy Workshop: Where Reading and Writing Converge. In it, teachers learn how to integrate reading and writing using an inquiry stance. The result is a more natural and authentic literacy experience for students.
The Literacy Workshop was written to help all of us plan ahead, and get to that sweet spot where literacy learning is truly authentic. We asked Maria and Karen, what motivated them to write this book? What impact did they hope that it would have in the professional world? This is what they shared:
The idea for this book bubbled up as we noticed and discussed the similarities between our instruction and learners’ actions during our separate reading and writing workshops. We believe in the adage that reading and writing go hand-in-hand, but realized that, in our classrooms, the language arts were framed as separate entities rather than combined in a manner that capitalizes on their synergy. So, we set out to reframe our literacy instruction. We hope our book inspires teachers to do the same by dabbling with an integrated literacy workshop. Once they do this, we think they’ll find it streamlines their instruction and makes sense to students.
Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucke
A3: I love the Big Idea of Choice. Choices are everywhere. In #LitWorkshop when students make choices about reading & writing, we think about choices characters make in books, but we also think about choices that we make in life. #LitWorkshop#G2Great@StenhousePub@mariapwalther
A3: The opportunities are endless! Take the big idea of relationships. Readers notice the characters’ relationships, writers ponder how knowing characters impacts their writing & little people consider their relationships with others. #LitWorkshop#G2Great@Stenhousepub@LitCuppic.twitter.com/fpr3P7Rtdn
Celebrating “complementary colors” of reading and writing
This reciprocal merger of reading and writing workshop is the heart and soul of The Literacy Workshop as reflected by their subtitle, Where Reading and Writing Converge. Maria and Karen explain these complementary colors of this converging on page 10:
“We believe that when we weave together those reciprocal concepts to create integrated literacy workshop demonstrations, it helps strengthen our practice as well as deepen our learners’ understanding of literacy concepts.”
Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucker (page 10)
Adopting an Inquiry Stance for Integrated Literacy Workshop
Throughout our #G2great chat, the conversation focused on how powerful it is when we celebrate those complementary colors and build that into the choices we make as professionals. Maria and Karen have inspired a vibrant discussion about the benefits of an integrated literacy workshop perspective and offer support across their book and at key points to help us to adopt a professional inquiry stance to support this converging on page 16:
“At the end of each chapter, we’ll share a few of the thoughts and questions that have shaped our exploration along the way with hopes that they’ll help guide your conversations as you move forward in your thinking about literacy workshop.”
It is these conversations that we have as professionals individually and collectively that will help us to bring our own inquiry stance to our students. The more we make our teaching student-centered, the more meaningful this integration will become. When we create a professional environment where collaborative thinking thrives and leads to thoughtful and imaginative work, we are better able to do the same for students. All of these wonderful outcomes result in a learning culture where both teachers and students know who they are and what they need.
A4: I think asking kids to share their learning preferences helps me respond to each individual learner. Kids have learned in many ways this year and I’ve learned more avenues to offer them moving forward. #LitWorkshop#G2Great@stenhousepub@LitCuppic.twitter.com/Hw128BmdTf
A4 It is so important to ask how students learn best. One- it gets them to consider it and reflect upon the answer. Two- teaches self knowledge. Three- makes them the authority on themselves. #G2Great
A4: Here's a bulletin of tools. Teach kids to take a tool when they need it. We don't all need the same tool at the same time. #g2greatpic.twitter.com/PUULDeZO8V
A5: Learning is cultivated by the people in the room – not predetermined. Everyone has the chance to contribute to their own learning & the learning of others. #G2Great
A4: I think this question also leads children to consider those in their learning community, how are others needs different/same as mine & how can we all work collaboratively to support each other’s needs. #G2Great
A5: When we give time & space to honor Ss inquiry, it can bolster fiction and nonfiction R & W. Here is a 1st grader that started with an inquiry about her puppy which evolved into a narrative tale about her pup and a spy. Sometimes our inquiries take us to fun places! #G2Greatpic.twitter.com/sAoH0SlBlX
A5: when students own their learning, they drive the process. Fostering student inquiries by offering invitations that match their interests and curiosities is an impactful practice. #g2great
A4: Such a powerful ??, as Peter Johnston reminds us, the language we use with students, they use with themselves & with each other. Asking that becomes part of the culture of our classrooms & then reflects ways we all learn. #LitWorkshop#G2Great@StenhousePub@mariapwalther
Are you curious to learn more about implementing a Literacy Workshop? We asked Maria and Karen what were the BIG takeaways from their book that they hoped teachers would embrace in their teaching practices. This is what they said:
Approach literacy workshop with an inquiry stance. Study your students and then support them as they engage in authentic literacy experiences and learner-driven inquiries.
Launch the literacy workshop by focusing on the habits and behaviors of literacy learners like persistence, choice, and challenge (See Chapter 5). As students learn about themselves and their problem-solving abilities, they will be more willing to take risks and work toward the goals they’ve set on their path toward literate citizenship.
When you’re planning, look for the natural connections that occur between reading and writing. Use these opportunities to integrate standards or learning targets. Simplify your instruction to make more time for students to engage in authentic literacy experiences.
Imagining a Better Way
As I close this blog post tonight, I can’t help but feel refreshed and hopeful about what could be. A connected literacy workshop that is built on inquiry. We asked Maria and Karen, what is the message from the heart you would like for every teacher to keep in mind? This is what they said:
Imagine the possibilities that a literacy workshop approach can bring to your unique teaching context. Sketch out ideas on your canvas, mix in your deep knowledge of students, and then paint a one-of-a-kind portrait of a literacy workshop classroom. We’re here to support you on your literacy workshop journey. Please reach out with questions and celebrate your successes.
