The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy January 16, 2010 Two Responses


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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
January 16, 2010
Two Responses

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

Maria Robinson

Whenever I suggested trying something new to colleagues who were most resistant to change, I usually got one of two responses:

We tried that and it didn't work.

OR

We've never tried that because it couldn't possibly work.

You may get a third response - We can't afford it. But in my experience, most changes in classroom practice didn't involve much money. Resistance came because change is hard, and there are no guarantees of success.

I learned that the quickest way to move forward was to know the history of the school and the teachers around me. To prepare for the first response, I would think through what we'd tried before in the same realm, catalog the successes and failures of those initiatives, and then have a list of five bullet points that succinctly explained how the new literacy program or activity was different than what we'd done in the past.

I needed the opposite approach when anticipating the second response. The more "out there" my suggestion was, the more I needed to tether it to successful experiences from our past. I'd then show how the initiative in many ways was good old wine in new bottles, because of a scheduling change or making use of technology that didn't exist years before.

The mistake I sometimes made when trying to influence my peers was pitching my idea as something truly original and different - a fresh start. The truth is there are very few new beginnings in schools, and we wouldn't want them anyway. If you're forced to start from scratch, that only means there is nothing worth salvaging. Implicitly, it's an insult to what your colleagues are doing now. You're trying to write a new chapter at your school, not close the book on what's been done before. When you respect your school community's shared literacy history by coming prepared with answers to those two responses, the door is open for meaty conversations about what is working and what isn't in your literacy programs.

This week we've got resources for the upcoming President's Day. Plus more as always - enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

Holidays and special occasions can be used for one-shot read alouds about the event, or you can use the day as a focal point for a series of history lessons using children's literature. Franki Sibberson shares her top picks of new books for President's Day, with advice on how to move beyond individual lessons to broader instruction in skills and topics:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1065.cfm

From the Choice Literacy Archives, Shari Frost has also compiled a booklist of favorite read alouds for President's Day, with an emphasis on Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, and sets of biographies on different presidents from award-winning authors:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/828.cfm

If you've had a bad day (or two or three) recently as a literacy leader, you might enjoy Leadership Caffeine: A Thoughtful Guide to Surviving Bad Leadership Days. It's a quick summary of what can be learned when things go wrong:

http://bit.ly/7Ox2rA

Teachers are excited about using social media with students, and understandably concerned about privacy and permission issues. Practical Presentation has created a terrific one-page guide available online, Social Media Checklist for Youth Projects. This download is a good starting point for integrating social media into your classroom, as well as discussing these projects with administrators and colleagues:

http://bit.ly/8UwhYX

Our 2010 Choice Literacy Summer and Fall Workshops are filling rapidly. Last year our most popular events sold out even before our print mailing went out in March, so don't miss the boat. You can download flyers and registration forms with descriptions of our workshops in Texas, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, and Florida at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

For Members Only

Eavesdrop on a group of middle schoolers in the cafeteria, and you immediately see the gulf between their lives and ours. Ruth Shagoury and Katie Doherty find an unusual and fun bridge between background knowledge and read alouds with YouTube videos in Katie's sixth grade classroom. Even if you have no interest in using YouTube to teach schema, your day won't be complete without checking out the video of the guy jumping rope with two women on his shoulders:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1066.cfm

This week's video is the first in a two-part series. Franki Sibberson adapts an idea from Sharon Taberski to invigorate her word study program and wall displays. The Nonfiction Word Hunt integrates vocabulary learning into independent reading, building interest in words throughout the day:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/775.cfm

We've posted a new cluster on Back to Teaching Basics: Developing Shared Principles, Standards, and Expectations Across Grade Levels. This is a wonderful collection of readings for building staff development and discussions around what your team or school's core values are for literacy instruction. The cluster includes contributions from Jennifer Allen, S. Rebecca Leigh, Shari Frost, Karen Szymusiak, and Pam Hahlen:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1064.cfm

Finally, if you're a new Choice Literacy member or looking for collections of articles and videos around one topic, the Clusters Archive is a good place to start exploring our 1000+ videos and feature articles at the site:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department71.cfm

That's all for this week!