Creating a Literacy Culture
Newsletter
This week’s content finds a common thread in creating a culture of literacy.
In this post, I write about the importance of building trust through examining beliefs and creating commitments as a faculty.
A related, recommended resource for literacy leaders is Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and Write by Richard Allington and Patricia Cunningham.
Allington and Cunningham define school culture as “a group of people with a shared belief system and common rituals, practices, and customs” (p. 300).
The authors also define effective schools as a “collection of good teachers”. Would you agree with this statement? I addressed this question here in 2015.
Other recommended resources on school culture include Shaping School Culture by Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson, Transforming School Culture by Anthony Muhammad, and Leading School Change by Todd Whitaker.
I wrote about the gift of time when it comes to the challenges during the process of writing (here). This post was the main body for my staff newsletter yesterday.
Regie Routman offers ten strategies for getting past writing roadblocks in this article for Middleweb.
Also, check out Regie’s Literacy Essentials appendices for assessing your school’s literacy culture.
To get myself out of a writing funk, I have been reading a chapter here and there from Write Smart, Write Happy by Cheryl St. John.
When my wife was a classroom teacher, I wrote a blog post about how she had created a more connected classroom that fostered successful readers and writers.