The Gift of Literacy
Newsletter
This week we examine the gift of literacy in our lives and gain some perspective.
In Wednesday’s post, I explore ways of bridging the holidays with authentic literacy instruction.
Teaching Tolerance offers a variety of ideas and information regarding the balance public education needs when teaching about the holidays. Click here to see search results within their website on this topic.
Educator and attorney Scott McLeod has written articles on this topic. In this post for his blog Dangerously Irrelevant, he argues for inclusiveness when preparing for instruction the holiday season.
One avenue for developing curriculum that could address these issues is place-based learning. Check out Place-based Curriculum Design: Exceeding Standards through Local Investigations by Amy Demarest for guidance.
Educational Leadership published an article, “Home Grown Citizens”, that offered ideas for using place-based education as a framework for developing students’ abilities to take new perspectives and increase compassion. ($)
In yesterday’s post, I encouraged educators at all levels to share their reading lives with those whom they work and learn with.
Click here to view my newsletter to staff describing my reading life for 2018. What books would you recommend that you read this year? Please share in the comments.
I mentioned that this year I am reading a poem before every staff meeting. The poetry and responses come from Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach.
You can view my most recent staff meeting agenda, which includes one of the poems I read aloud, by clicking here.
One of the books I recommended in my Reading Life newsletter is Upstream by Mary Oliver, a series of essays by the well-known American poet.
No newsletter next week; I’ll be taking time to relax, read and recharge. Happy holidays!
-Matt