Finding the Time

This week’s theme finds time as a thread throughout the ideas shared here.

1. In my post The Best Way to Learn, I highlight research about how much time is actually spent reading and writing in typical classrooms (hint: not a lot).

2. The research by Richard Allington cited in the previous post can be found at the Reading Rockets website; click here.

3. Allington’s book with Patricia Cunningham, Schools that Work: Where All Children Read and Write (Pearson, 2007), is also excellent for literacy leaders.

4. The idea that we should assign 20 minutes a day of reading to our students has come under scrutiny. What is “best practice”? We explore this issue in my post on the topic. Check out the insightful comments, too.

5. You can find The Atlantic article I cited for the previous post by clicking here. While reading logs is the topic for the article, it is a companion practice to expecting students to engage in a specific amount of time devoted to reading.

6. How might we shift from “20 minutes a day” and other outdated practices? Edutopia is a favorite website of mine for resources on many topics related to modern learning. Check out this article on conferring during reading instruction.

7. Kelly Gallagher is quoted in the “20 minutes of reading” post. His book Readicide is an essential resource for educators. I encourage educators to explore his website, where he shares many resources for free, such as his one-pagers idea.

8. Our beliefs and our practices are more closely connected than we might realize. Check out my post on this topic. We can benefit from taking a moment to reflect on our actions and examine why we are doing what we are doing.

9. I didn’t mention which books I read as a teacher by Cris Tovani and Stephanie Harvey in the previous post. They are I Read it, But I Don’t Get it and Strategies that Work, respectfully.

10. Rita Platt, a contributor to the blog, offers ideas for building and maintaining a positive school climate in her post for MiddleWeb.

Take care,

Matt

P.S. Ever wanted to participate in a Twitter chat but you were not sure how? Read my post on this topic and then try out these ideas with the #G2Great group on the following dates: