A local printing shop produced these signs for community members. They are also goals of a literacy community! What calls to action are you considering as you read this book and prepare for next year?
A call to action for me is thinking about how to help educators resist a scripted curriculum.
One way I am doing this is trying to reduce the complexity of our unit of study templates and resources, particularly to allow for a more "permeable curriculum" that offers space for students to be a part of instruction.
Also, a more permeable curriculum will be more flexible and responsive to our current times and different contexts. For example, are teacher teams and schools revisiting the texts and resources they utilize for instruction to ensure better representation and increase relevance?
In the comments from a post this week, Kathy Champeau suggests exploring the Cooperative Children's Book Center (http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/) and Kathy Short's website, Worlds of Words (https://wowlit.org/), to find and include texts with more global perspectives into our curriculum.
A call to action that I can embrace wholeheartedly is that of creating the time and space for more dialogic talk within the classroom. (or in some way, shape, form if we are virtual in the fall).
A second call to action that resonates with me is the urgent need to really lean in and listen to others perspectives, especially those that are different than my own in order to continue to deepen my own learning and understanding. Having an accountability partner is something I've considered in the past, and I kind of have one, but I definitely could be more intentional about ensuring that relationship is fostered.
Lately, a simple but powerful message from my good friend Heidi Mills has felt like a battle cry into the days ahead: "HOPE IS A VERB." Over the past months, our personal and professional lives have changed dramatically as we've grappled with what schools have looked like then and now and the uncertainly of the future so Heidi's word have stayed close to my heart. As in school learning turned into digital learning overnight, the inequities that have long existed in our schools became even more apparent. While teachers never wavered in rising to the challenge, "hope is a verb" has been a constant reminder that if we are very wise, we would use what we have learned through this experience as a reflective mirror to change the way we do school - and not simply where we do it but how we do it by addressing the inequities that have always existed. Heidi's "hope is a verb could be what moves us to change in the coming year and beyond as we use this experience to ensure that our children have the best we have to offer - ALL of our children. As I have read Engaging Literate Minds, I realize that the authors are showing us hope in action and giving us a vision for what that would look like in our schools. I am reminded of these words I wrote in a post that still rings true and give me hope for whatever is ahead, "When we allow hope to turn beliefs into actions, we would move mountains to bring our hope-fueled vision to life in the company of children." "Heidi's Hope" is the call to action I carry with me every day!
These words in Ch 6/p. 91 are really sticking out to me today but a bit beyond the intended meaning of the authors (as good quotes often do): "We hope that at a minimum, students will grapple with new perspectives and new ideas and come to recognize that doing so together is engaging and empowering." In the book, the authors are talking about the work that students are doing and how important this productive struggle in the company of others is to a truly engaged learning experience. But today I'm thinking about this quote from a professional perspective as we could easily say, "TEACHERS will grapple with new perspectives and new ideas and come to recognize that doing so together is engaging and empowering." It makes me thinking about the powerful impact that OUR professional collaborative conversations can have on our thinking. Through those opportunities we are able to make our thinking public as we fine tune that thinking by grappling with new ideas inspired by respectful and collective curious dialogue. Interesting that the learning we do as teachers is not really so different from the learning our students do. It makes me wonder if we put more attention on how we engage in new learning and thinking with our colleagues, we could use that to maximize the learning and thinking we're asking our children to do. New learning is the same whether we're 5 years old or 70 so why don't we capitalize on that idea? Just pondering this thought...
I love the way that Chapter 4 invites us into the action using a 'slice of classroom life'. Being able to read the actual words of both students and teacher Merry Komar makes us curious observers of their interactions in an authentic teaching moment. As I read this chapter, I began longing to see this kind of action research taking place in every classroom. I wonder how often we truly listen to what children saying and use it as as stepping both to what thinking their words can uncover and then use that to consider how our teaching choices are (or are not) moving them forward. While I suspect that most teachers HEAR what kids say, that's a very different view than using a big picture lens for how all of those conversations intertwine and offer us even higher levels of understanding students through engaging talk since this dialogue offers a mirror to view our teaching. But collective talk can heighten those understandings. I don't know that we can be as intentional when responding to ONE child based on ONE comment vs. understanding how this conversational playground of students interacting in real life dialogic ways that would inform our next step instructional moves and offer a treasure chest of assessment information. I think that looking at these transcripts over time could uncover things we may say that elevates the level of deep thinking, growing independence and agency or even thwart and limit those things.
A call to action for me is thinking about how to help educators resist a scripted curriculum.
One way I am doing this is trying to reduce the complexity of our unit of study templates and resources, particularly to allow for a more "permeable curriculum" that offers space for students to be a part of instruction.
Also, a more permeable curriculum will be more flexible and responsive to our current times and different contexts. For example, are teacher teams and schools revisiting the texts and resources they utilize for instruction to ensure better representation and increase relevance?
In the comments from a post this week, Kathy Champeau suggests exploring the Cooperative Children's Book Center (http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/) and Kathy Short's website, Worlds of Words (https://wowlit.org/), to find and include texts with more global perspectives into our curriculum.
A call to action that I can embrace wholeheartedly is that of creating the time and space for more dialogic talk within the classroom. (or in some way, shape, form if we are virtual in the fall).
A second call to action that resonates with me is the urgent need to really lean in and listen to others perspectives, especially those that are different than my own in order to continue to deepen my own learning and understanding. Having an accountability partner is something I've considered in the past, and I kind of have one, but I definitely could be more intentional about ensuring that relationship is fostered.
Lately, a simple but powerful message from my good friend Heidi Mills has felt like a battle cry into the days ahead: "HOPE IS A VERB." Over the past months, our personal and professional lives have changed dramatically as we've grappled with what schools have looked like then and now and the uncertainly of the future so Heidi's word have stayed close to my heart. As in school learning turned into digital learning overnight, the inequities that have long existed in our schools became even more apparent. While teachers never wavered in rising to the challenge, "hope is a verb" has been a constant reminder that if we are very wise, we would use what we have learned through this experience as a reflective mirror to change the way we do school - and not simply where we do it but how we do it by addressing the inequities that have always existed. Heidi's "hope is a verb could be what moves us to change in the coming year and beyond as we use this experience to ensure that our children have the best we have to offer - ALL of our children. As I have read Engaging Literate Minds, I realize that the authors are showing us hope in action and giving us a vision for what that would look like in our schools. I am reminded of these words I wrote in a post that still rings true and give me hope for whatever is ahead, "When we allow hope to turn beliefs into actions, we would move mountains to bring our hope-fueled vision to life in the company of children." "Heidi's Hope" is the call to action I carry with me every day!
Here is my blog post reflection on our #G2great chat with Peter Johnston and Kathy Champeau this past week. It was such an honor to write this: https://literacylenses.com/2020/06/engaging-literate-minds-developing-childrens-social-emotional-and-intellectual-lives/
These words in Ch 6/p. 91 are really sticking out to me today but a bit beyond the intended meaning of the authors (as good quotes often do): "We hope that at a minimum, students will grapple with new perspectives and new ideas and come to recognize that doing so together is engaging and empowering." In the book, the authors are talking about the work that students are doing and how important this productive struggle in the company of others is to a truly engaged learning experience. But today I'm thinking about this quote from a professional perspective as we could easily say, "TEACHERS will grapple with new perspectives and new ideas and come to recognize that doing so together is engaging and empowering." It makes me thinking about the powerful impact that OUR professional collaborative conversations can have on our thinking. Through those opportunities we are able to make our thinking public as we fine tune that thinking by grappling with new ideas inspired by respectful and collective curious dialogue. Interesting that the learning we do as teachers is not really so different from the learning our students do. It makes me wonder if we put more attention on how we engage in new learning and thinking with our colleagues, we could use that to maximize the learning and thinking we're asking our children to do. New learning is the same whether we're 5 years old or 70 so why don't we capitalize on that idea? Just pondering this thought...
I love the way that Chapter 4 invites us into the action using a 'slice of classroom life'. Being able to read the actual words of both students and teacher Merry Komar makes us curious observers of their interactions in an authentic teaching moment. As I read this chapter, I began longing to see this kind of action research taking place in every classroom. I wonder how often we truly listen to what children saying and use it as as stepping both to what thinking their words can uncover and then use that to consider how our teaching choices are (or are not) moving them forward. While I suspect that most teachers HEAR what kids say, that's a very different view than using a big picture lens for how all of those conversations intertwine and offer us even higher levels of understanding students through engaging talk since this dialogue offers a mirror to view our teaching. But collective talk can heighten those understandings. I don't know that we can be as intentional when responding to ONE child based on ONE comment vs. understanding how this conversational playground of students interacting in real life dialogic ways that would inform our next step instructional moves and offer a treasure chest of assessment information. I think that looking at these transcripts over time could uncover things we may say that elevates the level of deep thinking, growing independence and agency or even thwart and limit those things.