The Literacy Experience

Newsletter

This week we explore the literacy experiences we bring to our classrooms and schools.

1. In the first post of 2019, I try to put into perspective what a new year really brings to our lives professionally and personally.

2. A book that I referenced (and I believe should be required reading for all leaders) is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins.

3. We - students, teachers - tend to remember our experiences more than any resource we might bring to the classroom. This post examines that idea.

4. I thought the article Buy Experiences, Not Stuff by James Hamblin for The Atlantic offered a nice take on the previous post’s topic.

5. Can our instruction be too targeted toward expected outcomes and not allow for deeper thinking? This post from Lustre Education shares that concern, citing evidence from recent studies.

6. One of the researchers referenced in the previous post is Dr. John Hattie, author of Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning and other resources that offer meta-analyses on the effects of instruction on learning.

7. What are your thoughts on commercial literacy products? I shared a recent experience in this post when boxes of these resources showed up at our school.

8. The quote at the beginning of the previous post comes from the business book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

9. It’s hard to lead a literacy initiative if we don’t know reading or writing instruction. In this post, I relate this idea to a recent visit to a kindergarten classroom studying penguins.

10. The quote at the beginning of the previous post comes from Read, Write, Lead: Breakthrough Strategies for Schoolwide Literacy Success by Regie Routman. Another necessary resource for school leaders!

Are you exploring implementing digital portfolios in your classroom, or looking for support to deepen this promising assessment approach within your instruction? Join me at CESA 3 in Fennimore, WI on March 12 for a one-day workshop on this topic. Click here to register (scroll down to March 12).