Happy To Be Back

   As I watched some parts of writing workshop last week, I felt that writing was very much a delightful part of the students’ day.

           

                                        

                                 Comfortable sounds help us nestle

                                   into the classroom

                                   with contentment.

                                   Gray clouds hover outside,

                                   Small murmurings and

                                   brain clouds float inside.

                                   A chair scrapes.  Someone coughs.

                                   A student sighs; I wonder why. 

                                   They sit at computers,

                                   fingers tapping.

                                   Others journal,

                                   pencils scratching.

                                   Quiet friendly voices wing in from the hall

                                   “Hey, nice to see you, how are you all?”

                                   Time to move, and re-sharpen pencils. 

                                   Workshop gathering

                                   to the carpet,

                                   sharing words, sharing thoughts.

                                   Everyone is thinking hard

                                   even before lunch.

Planning With My Colleagues

          I’ve created a way of planning on a chart that’s been helpful to me and the teachers with whom I work.  Sometimes we create the chart together, and sometimes I do much of the planning and the teacher adds or subtracts to it according to what she or he believes are the needs of the class.  Certainly response by students can change the plan.  When, for example, some first drafts of a writing assignment are read, a different lesson may be needed before moving on to another draft, or additional conferring with individuals and small groups, etc.  Here is a sample of part of one chart created with another teacher as we were beginning a few weeks of writing experiences with her students.

      Date   -  Weekly Goal    What Teachers Do          What Students Do

Monday – During Workshop Goal-Support for personal essay- something near and dear to one’s beliefs/heart – similar to a personal column piece-requires some research   Explore two topics - 1st draft of one	Read – I Want To Be by Thylias Moss, about a girl who discusses all the choices she has in the world.  The point is to have students ponder who they are, what they believe in, what is important to them.  Give copies of music essay by Julia B., but read together.  Review page of the basic parts that are expected in this kind of essay.  Let students brainstorm ideas that might be important ones for them to write about.  (Another set of essays to use for examples is available for individual student study.)	Discuss their beliefs, what is important to each.  Create a personal list after filing out the page called ‘first brainstorming’.  Share many kinds of columns and essays for students to read, then come together as a group to share what was found.      After this session, independent writing time.  The assignment is to write about two personal topics identified as personally important to see where it leads.  In a few days, they should choose which is the one they’d like to develop.
Wednesday – During Workshop Examine what is working well with the students.  Share the positive and the negative-identify needs.	Make available the time for a productive conversation, listing tips from the group along with challenges.  During quiet writing time, individual conferring about the writing so far.

The plan will continue being filled in as we talk together and choose the paths the students need.  It’s fun to work together, pooling resources and discussing what we’ve seen in the student work.

Ready To Say Goodbye To Summer - Or Am I?

                               If summer has lost its glory and power, and

                               we wish hot summer weather to be gone in an hour,

                               then it must be late August and school has begun

                               taking lazy days and heated haze and some of our fun!

Good Teaching Is A Conversation - part two

              Since I wrote my previous post, I have continued to talk with the teachers with whom I'll work this year, and I am struck by the amount of reflection we are considering in the questions asked:  What happened last year that felt successful? What needs more time? What scaffolds were needed most (and why)? What prevents your basic goals as a language arts teacher from being achieved?  And so on.  And as I reflected on these conversations, I began to see that reflection holds the top place in our talks.  This led me to wondering how to place this same kind of reflection into the curriculum for students, and to explain its importance to the teachers.

                Reflection is the heart of learning.  For teachers to reflect on their plans and their students in the year ahead and along the way at each juncture is critical.  And the more they understand what critical reflection can mean, the more they will understand about their teaching.  Yet I wonder how much reflection is asked of the student?  And how is the reflection taught so that the thinking can be more productive?  So often curriculum plans demand such time constraints that students might not have the time for reflection of their own work, considering whether they are ready to move onto another part of learning, or prefer to flesh out that which was previously studied, to see if improvement or going deeper is what is needed. 

I believe students could be taught to do thoughtful reflection as a habit.  To respond to a project with answers to these questions is a beginning:  what worked? what didn’t work?, why?, what’s next? In addition to contemplating the answers that are given, students need time to follow through with what’s next.  And finally, they may need to ask the questions again. 

          If the questions are asked, in a form of evaluation of the learning task, can the answers to what’s next be ignored?  How can reflection be authentic if there is no follow-up?  Teachers reflect often and make changes because of their thinking.  Students should be able to do that too.  Two articles that are meaningful to me in the area of critical reflection are here and here.  

Good Teaching Is A Conversation

Tuesday Slice of Life

Something I did this past week:

Last year, in several whole group sessions with teachers, I used the saying, “good teaching is a conversation”.  I believed it, and used it to help us all contribute to the current topic being discussed.  I can’t remember where I found it, but the sentence became so meaningful to me that I have it written at the beginning of my planning calendar so I won’t forget it, especially when I’m conferring with my colleagues. 

Since I’m writing this for my blog post, I thought I should search Google it to see if I could find the saying's origin.  While with slightly different wording, there were thousands of sites with references to the quote, but it seems that the most recent reference can be to an article by Eileen Shakespear from the Coalition of Essential Schools.  In it, she also Googled the idea, and found a reference to “good talk about good teaching” by Parker J. Palmer to in a 1993 issue of Change magazine.  Shakespear’s ending is eloquent:  With our colleagues, knowledge that influences practice grows as we share it and “work it” with each other. Good talk is difficult but it makes our work more powerful, satisfying, fun, and beautiful.

I met with four colleagues this past week, to talk over their goals for the year, what they need right now, and how things might work differently (if they wished) in the various literacy areas of their teaching.  I was inspired, and spoke with each more than the hour we had planned.  We had great conversations; even I would say, powerful.  We created plans, looked up resources, brainstormed about specific lessons, enjoyed talking about certain students and their abilities and needs, and shared about our personal lives.  I can’t imagine if I was sitting alone at my desk and someone told me to plan a lesson for ten year olds in personal narrative that I would create anything as vibrant and exciting as the teachers and I planned together. 

Much of our conversations included questions:  How do you see your class as a whole?  Where are the students who will need extra scaffolding?  Who will be the leaders?  What can happen to enhance different student strengths?  What mentor texts will be helpful in ____________ assignment?  Have you considered . . .?  Do you have. . .?  What time do you think you can commit to  . . . ?  What do you think . . .?

Most of our sessions concluded with some plans that were definite, and the needs of each were listed.  Some of the conversations put some ideas on a hold list, to be researched a bit more by each of us, with a deadline for completion.  All of the conversations were learning ones between colleagues.  We listened, questioned, considered, disagreed or agreed, and we had a really good time doing it.

I am so happy I have a job where I may have many, many good conversations, and hope always that they will result in good teaching, as that saying goes!