Slice 25 of 31- Relationships Matter

For the month of March, I am participating in the Slice of Life Challenge, hosted by the community of writers at Two Writing Teachers. Many of my slices are at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but ones that deal specifically with education appear here. All are welcome to join the slicing party by reading and commenting. People write amazing posts.

I spent time this morning speaking to my daughters' guidance counselor. Earlier this month, I wrote a slice about how Clare is thinking about quitting cello because it brings down her GPA and the assessments are so stressful. In the hope of enlisting her orchestra teacher to have a conversation with Clare about the important role she plays in the orchestra, I reached out to her guidance counselor. Sometimes a back door approach works best, especially when suggestions that aren't in line with already-made-decisions come from someone other that one of my daughters' parents. (That might be another post...)

One good element of the conversation led to another good element of the conversation and we got to talking about the importance of relationships. My daughters' high school has been dealing with significant change and consequent stress this year. Moving in the direction of mastery-based grading, teachers and administrators have run into serious opposition from stakeholders--parents, students, and even many teachers do not understand the philosophy and rationale for mastery-based grading. The disagreements have led to negativity and divisiveness. Even though a core belief is that relationships matter, relationships haven't mattered this year, at least not as much as they could or should. During times of stress, sometimes we lose focus of what matters most.

Chris Lehman's words have resonated with me since his beautiful presentation during a Wonderopolis breakfast at NCTE14. "Help all the children learn what they really need to know," he began by saying. He then challenged us to think of a child who is in our heart right now.

He asked if we knew the answers to these questions:

• Who does that child live with?
• What does where they live look like?
• What does his family care about right now?
• When people talk about that child, what are they most proud of?

His point was that most of the time, we don't know the answers to these questions.

Re-reading and reflecting on my notes from Chris's presentation, combined with my thoughts about my daughters and my conversation with their guidance counselor, I'm asking myself some questions, thinking about some of the students I work with when I am in classrooms.

• When was the last time that I asked a student what s/he did over the weekend and listened to the answer?
• Do I know what the quietest student I've been working with does after school?
• Aside from academics, have I paid any attention to what these students' goals are and what they are doing to achieve those goals? I'm not talking about the students who are loud and proud about their achievements...I'm talking about the quieter ones. 

Tonight, my answers to these questions don't make me proud. Tomorrow, I will work on it. 

I know that instruction matters. And assessments matter. Results matter, too. But, at the heart--at the core where it matters most--students will remember how we made them feel. They will remember that we asked questions that weren't on the tests, and we listened to the answers. And we cared. Their favorite teachers will be the ones who talked to them. Really talked to them.

Relationships matter. 

Happy Slicing,

Thinking About the Five Paragraph Essay Structure and Moving Beyond...

I came away from NCTE with many lasting impressions, and one of them has been about how to teach students the structure of an essay. I work with elementary teachers. Their students are just learning how to develop an essay. Our curriculum pushed teachers in the direction of five paragraph essays--an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The structure is predictable, even formulaic, and gives young students a scaffold for their claims, reasons, ideas, and evidence. 

Over the NCTE weekend, I had many conversations about essays. Have we demolished the beauty of essay with a simplistic hamburger template? You know the one--a top bun for the introduction, the cheese, tomato and meat for the body paragraphs, and the bottom bun for the conclusion...  During a wonderful NCTE14 presentation, Embracing Complexity, Katherine Bomer reminded us that Michel de Montaigne invented this genre of writing as a way to push off depression and that essai means trials and attempts. It's more about errors and trials by fire. Have we forgotten that an essay should really be a journey of thought and an exploration of ideas?

Maybe.

But here are a couple of techniques I have found that have helped me to break out of the cheeseburger:

1. Once they have an understanding of essay structure, teach into the power of intentional paragraphing. This essay, Delaney, is an older sister's tribute to her younger sister. When I sat down with this child, I complimented her tight organization. I also complimented the parallel structure she used. How many fourth-graders understand the power of repetition? I've earned chances, because of her. I've learned how to handle struggles, because of the. I've been able to share my secrets, because of her. I've had a great and partnered life. Because of her. WOW!

This child understands the power of repetition, commas, fragments...I took it one step further and showed her a mentor text that had just a one sentence paragraph.

"You can do that?" she asked.

"Why couldn't you?" I asked.

"Because paragraphs are supposed to have more than one sentence."

Exactly. And because she knew the rule, I was comfortable teaching her to break the rule.

"If you wanted one part of this paragraph to really jump of the page and stop your reader, what would it be?" I asked her.

"Because of her." She didn't even have to think about her answer.

She made those three words their own paragraph, and read the difference for yourself.

Version 1, without the new paragraphing

Version 2 with Because of her highlighted in its own paragraph

2. Encourage students to use exploration phrases in their paragraphs. By these, I mean: 

I wonder

Perhaps

Maybe

Could it be?

What if?

These phrases lead to deeper thinking that sometimes, the organizational structure of the five paragraph essay restricts. If an essay is really an exploration of an idea, these thinking stems may lead to a-ha moments for students. If an essayist gets to say, "Wow, I didn't think of that before!" that's exciting!

Some of the difficult decisions that teachers must make involve when to remove rules. These decisions cut across subjects. When do we know that students understand the mathematical rationale behind a problem so that they no longer have to explain every step of their thinking? When do they understand sentence structure enough so that we can teach them the power of sentence fragments or run-ons? When do they automatically make inferences, develop theories, and visualize what they read so that they no longer need to jot and track their thinking while they read?

As with so much new learning, we have to master rules before we break them, but be on the hunt for the students who have mastered the structure enough to digress. Then, their writing can really gain power!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

NCTE14 Reflections: It's Not Just for the Kids: Stories of what can happen when teachers embrace curiosity, openness, creativity, and wonder in the teaching of reading

Another one of my favorite sessions from NCTE14 was a panel presentation of Vicki Vinton, Fran McVeigh, Steve Peterson, Mary Lee Hahn, and Julieanne Harmatz.

All of these presenters keep incredible blogs and I recommend following them. They are reflective, inspiring teachers, worthy of great admiration!

Vicki started the group off, introducing them. These people had not met before in person. Their connections are testimony to the power of of on-line PLN's. (We are all so lucky to live and teach during a time when we can connect with so many like-minded people.) Two comments from Vicki that resonated with me are:

"If we are not constantly asking ourselves what are the kids learning, then we're not being teachers."

And, from Donald Graves:

"The teacher is the chief learner in the classroom."

Fran's portion of the presentation challenged us to think about how much we support wondering in our classrooms. In a powerful pair of slides, she showed what teachers had "known" and "wondered" when studying two pages from the picture book, Boom, Snot, Twitty by Doreen Cronin, and then what third-grade students had "known" and "wondered" from the same pages. Her message was a strong one about supporting, allowing, fostering, and celebrating wondering in classrooms, asking the powerful and important questions:

"Is reading about listing facts or creating understanding? What is our goal in reading?"

If you ever are passing through Iowa, try to make a PD session from Fran. You won't be disappointed. Hopefully, we will get her to present again next year in Minneapolis!

When Julieanne took over, she focused on the importance of read alouds, even (no, especially!) in upper elementary classrooms. Julianne has done a lot of reflective work with her students, asking them not only whether they enjoy read aloud, but also about why they enjoy it.  Most kids reported that their understanding was higher in read aloud because of the:

• envisionment that they are able to do
• building of word knowledge
• opportunities to write about reading
• sound of their teacher's voice bringing the story to life
• opportunities to think together when you don't understand

Some of the students complained about taking too long to read a book and spending too much time talking about parts. I can definitely understand these feelings, as I am one who is known to inhale great books. However, those students can read ahead and then listen to the book a second time with no harm done. Read aloud is truly an incredible time to not only teach important reading skills, but also bond as a community that shares a literary journey. 

I loved listening to Steve Peterson talk about nonfiction reading and his quest to engage his fifth-grade students in their learning. One of his slides was the answers that he got from students when he asked them why they don't like informational text:

Kids tell such truths!

One of my favorite stories that Steve shared about the connections that kids make in his classrooms came out of a recent informational article about invasive beetles that destroy trees. Through questions and conversations, the students connected the beetles to people who invade communities and destroy other people. Wow! Steve's teaching emphasizes the fact that all information articles come from and create stories. Another important aha!!!

I would love to have any of my daughters in Steve's classroom because he is so committed to letting his students lead the learning. To experience a unit in his classroom, check out a recent post he has written about his class's weather unit. Love the concept of leading with questions, a concept that relates so beautifully to Fran's presentation about the capacity for wondering.

Mary Lee Hahn was the final presenter in this panel session, and she shared about how she has been using blogging with her students. Listening to several teachers talk about their experiences with students blogging, I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't try it out. Even the most resistant writers in her class have developed stories with voice and humor during the fifteen minutes of time she gives them every Friday. As she stated, "It's an opportunity to celebrate writing for what it is and not what it isn't!" Mary Lee had students who created series for their classmates, as well as students who explored telling stories from different perspectives and in different genres. So many, many writing possibilities! I think that the funniest (and truest) quote of the weekend was from Mary Lee when she said:

"I could write some great retroactive lesson plans!"

That being said, I'm sure that the lessons that Mary Lee writes ahead of time are great, as well!

The message from all of these presenters was so loud and clear that our classrooms should be full of inquiry and children leading the learning with questions and wonder. They have all written incredible posts refelcting on this session. You can start with Mary Lee's reflection here.  Also, continue conversations about this session with the hashtag #teacherswonder. I'm sure that they would love to see you there!

Multi-Cultural Text Sets: An NCTE14 Workshop

One of my favorite moments of NCTE14 was being in a roomful of educators and listening to Jacqueline Woodson read Each Kindness out loud. The whole book. Out loud. To us. How great was that! But, this read-aloud experience was only a small part of the powerful presentation that Ann Berger-Knorr, Mary Napoli, and Susan Van Zile put together that showcased Jacqueline Woodson's books.

These presenters had collections of powerful picture books at every table. As we went through their jigsawed, interactive activity, we learned about the six elements of social justice: Self love and knowledge/identity; respect for others/empathy and kindness; social injustice; social movements and social change; raising awareness, and; taking social action. Grace Ahn has written a short post that gives each of these elements more description and can be accessed here.

These presenters have given the world a gift with their collections of text sets that support each element, and they have made their presentation accessible to everyone here.

As adults, we read the books that were on the table, then presented them to each other, recognizing and discussing themes and universal messages that lived within the books. The presenters had color-coded the sets, and our table's collection of books emphasized the second element. We shared Each Kindness, Every Human Has Rights, Paths to Peace: People who changed the world, and A Little Peace. If anyone wants an amazing poem to go along with Each Kindness, check out "Drop a Pebble in the Water" at www.ripplemaker.com/pebbles.htm.

Note: I spent extra time looking at A Little Peace. This book could find its home into curriculum in many ways, since the photographs are from around the world, depicting varying levels of technology, available resources, communities, and geography. It's a book that inspires wonder and research with beautiful photographs and minimal text.

This activity would work with a range of ages as an inquiry lesson, having students explore the question of what all of these works have in common. This question could anchor the text sets for all of the social elements. I wonder if children could come up with the six elements if provided these text sets.

The lesson plan that the resource includes, designed by Susan Van Zile, is geared toward middle school students, but the question that she raises is universal:

"What better way to lead students to become socially responsible citizens than to arm them with the thinking skills they need to raise moral and ethical questions about contemporary issues in the interest of justice and fairness?"

While I can't duplicate the experience of listening to Jacqueline Woodson, I can pass long the access to text sets, blogspots, lesson plans, and resources from the session, Multicultural Text Sets: Landscapes into Stories and Writing. You won't be disappointed.

More to come from NCTE14 in the future!

Quotes to Remember from the NCTE Convention

Thanks to Stacey, Dana, Tara, Betsy, Anna, and Beth, the amazing writers and thinkers who host the Slice of Life community every Tuesday. Everyone is welcome to join with posts or comments at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com!

I am still overwhelmed by the experience of having attended NCTE over the weekend. As a first-timer, I wasn't sure what to expect, and now, I'm not sure how to process, share, and grow from all of the knowledge, reflection, and challenges that came at me over a 72 hour period. For the time being, I have mined some of my notes from the conference for some of the great quotes that I wanted to remember. Most could be found on twitter, but sometimes it's nice to read great lines in different places. I am sharing them here in no particular order. Every line could probably turn into a blog post--I know that I have plenty of material to write about over the next few weeks.

"If we're not constantly asking ourselves what are the kids learning, then we're not being teachers." Vicki Vinton

"Is reading about listing facts or creating understanding. What's our goal in reading?" Fran McVeigh

"I could write some really good retroactive lesson plans." Mary Lee Hahn

"The year that I reflected about my practice changed me as a teacher." Stacey Shubitz

"Twitter is like a cocktail party. Lurk and then get in and contribute. Don't be the person who sits by the punchbowl all the time." Stacey Shubitz

In talking about student participation in the Slice of Life, it serves as "A weekly reminder that we all have stories to share. Some are buried in those moments of the day that we don't realize are important but turn out to be really important." Tara Smith

In talking about a family writing night: "Writing together gives us words to stand on, walk across, and meet one another." Dana Murphy

"When we offer kids shortcuts...we deprive them of productive struggle." Vicki Vinton

"An essayist's job is to get people to care. Kids haven't come to care about what they are writing." Katherine Bomer

"Writing is about writing to think and about writing about something you care about. Should be about thinking, questioning, changing your mind." Katherine Bomer

"Complexity and difficulty are not the same thing." Mary Ehrenworth

"By the time kids are in 6th and 7th grade, they aren't seeing the beauty in nonfiction." Mary Ehrenworth

"You're not teaching kids for the test, you're teaching them for the lives that they want to live." Mary Ehrenworth

"When your baby hits her head, she looks at you to decide on how to react. Readers look to you to decide on how to react to books. If you present books as literature, they are going to act accordingly." Matt de la Pena

"Use the books that are not about race to talk about race and use the books about race to talk about universal themes." Mitali Perkins

"If you can’t put your essay in sections, you don’t know what it is about." Rebecca Joseph

Whatever outreach we are doing with families, we should be doing more." Chris Lehman

"Help all the children learn what they really need to know." Chris Lehman

"Educators have questions. Students have wonders." Maria Caplin

There were hundreds of lines that warranted repeating, tweeting, celebrating, and shouting out. Over the next few weeks, I will write about these lines, sharing the context, meaning, and substance behind them. For now, enjoy them as thought provoking statements that inspire conversation, debate, celebration, and wonder.

Happy Slicing!