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January 2, 2010
Who's Right?
You're right.
With those two words, everything changed.
I was a month into teaching a literacy graduate course for 30 teachers
and administrators at a local university, and the atmosphere was
sliding quickly from awkward to disastrous. The problem was Tony,
a middle school principal who disagreed with nearly everything I said,
as soon as the words were out of my mouth. There wasn't much
outright presentation, since the three-hour weekly meetings included
lots of small groups and discussion of readings. Yet the
tone was set each week within minutes - my exchanges with Tony weren't
heated, but they took me off track from what I'd planned to present, and
sent me scrambling to find research references and solid case studies
to back up my points.
You're right.
I decided for the fourth week of the class, I would begin any
discussion with Tony with those words. It didn't take long for me
to find the opportunity - I shared a protocol for small-group reading
of nonfiction texts and showed a three-minute video. "Those kids
look completely different than the ones in our island school.
They don't have the same experiences, and the technique would never
work with them," said Tony, crossing his arms and leaning back in his
chair.
"You're right," I responded. "Your students have different
experiences and daily lives than those kids in the video we just
viewed. So what needs to change to make this work at your
school? What are the underlying goals of the small-group
activity, and how would you need to adapt it to fit the experiences of
your students?"
Tony pondered my question for a moment, and then we were off and
running with a lively whole-class discussion of Maine classrooms, and
how the activity might be adapted.
You're right.
That colleague who disagrees with you about everything, who would
challenge you if you said the sky is blue today? She's
right. It does have more of a pewter gray tinge at the
moment. The thing is, most of the time everyone is right at some
level - unless they are seriously mentally ill, there is a logic and
set of experiences that have led them to their beliefs. When you
tell someone they are right, you're acknowledging that their
experiences, their thinking, their commitment to the craft of teaching
and learning is as deep as yours. I'm not talking about a
patronizing "you're right" that only means "I can see you're frustrated
but let's get on with my agenda tsk tsk" version of "you're
right." The "you're right" that forces you to step in the other
person's shoes and truly see the situation through their eyes is much
harder work, and ultimately can be the most rewarding for a literacy
leader.
It feels like a jump off a cliff. You're trying to land in a
place where you finally find some common ground with someone you don't
like or respect much at the moment, which can be nearly
impossible. But what have you got to lose? Where is the
continual disagreement getting you? Even if you fail, you've
changed the tenor of the conversation enough that you're guaranteed to
see old problems in new ways.
Tony sent me holiday cards for years till we lost touch after I left
the university. I still have one with a note at the bottom that
reads, "I learned more in your class than anyone
else!" Nice sentiment, but I think he's wrong.
I was the person in the room who learned the most. the person you disagree with most in your school, and you'll be starting out 2010 with humility and a commitment to learn. This week we've got a packed slate of new offerings for the new year. Enjoy! Brenda Power Editor, Choice Literacy Free for All It's always harder to listen than it is to talk, especially in the rush of trying to get everything done in classrooms. Heather Rader shares some effective strategies (Schema, 10:2 Theory and Exit Slips) for getting and giving student feedback: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1055.cfm What a marvelous gift for leaders in any field! Seth Godin has put together a smart little leadership eBook - What Matters Now: Big Thoughts and Small Actions Make a Difference. The contributors are top names from many professions, riffing on the one word that will guide their actions this year. It's a just-right text to help you construct some thoughtful early January plans to carry you through the rest of the year. The book is designed to be shared freely and widely, with almost no copyright and use restrictions: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1053.cfm If you're scrambling to keep track of all those "Best of 2009" Children's and Young Adult Booklists coming out now, here's the link you've been looking for. The Chicken Spaghetti blog has compiled the Big List of Lists, with links to dozens of 2009 top picks from magazines, professional organizations, newsletters, and newspapers: Our 2010 Choice Literacy Summer and Fall Workshops are now open for registration. We've posted flyers and registration forms to download with descriptions of our events in Texas, Ohio, Washington State, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, and Florida. Our most popular events sell out quickly, so it's good to plan ahead: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm For Members Only In There's Been a Misblunderstanding, Heather Rader writes about the difference between talking and teaching by sharing a coaching sequence with a colleague. This is part of Heather's On the Same Page series - paired pieces tackling the same topic for teachers and literacy coaches: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1054.cfm Mary Lee Hahn presents some strategies for connecting intermediate students to nonfiction texts in this week's booklist: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1057.cfm Mary Lee's booklist is the lead feature in our final digest in the Teaching Beyond Levels series. The focus is on nonfiction, with over a dozen article, video and web links: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1052.cfm Early January is the perfect time to tweak classroom routines. In this week's video, Katie DiCesare talks about how she has worked to make her first-grade writing share time at the end of each workshop more purposeful. In the sample session, Katie helps students connect their writing to the minilessons from the start of each workshop: http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1056.cfm That's all for this week!