The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
April 3, 2010
Words Before the Words
I left the woods for as good a reason
as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives
to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is
remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route,
and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week
before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it
is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct.
I learned this, at least, by my
experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his
dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined; he will
meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau, in Walden
This week I reread this passage of Walden
after many years. I have seen some version of that quote "go
confidently in the direction of your dreams; endeavor to live the life
you have imagined" on scores of plaques and greeting cards over the
years. Yet I can't remember ever reading the paragraph that precedes
it. I was surprised to see the buildup to the oft-quoted lines is
all about the easy comfort of routines.
One of the most remarkable elements of teaching is the newness each
fall - changing students, schedules, even colleagues. Spring
starts the rush to wrap up that distinct "year in the life" in a way
that is both tidy and extraordinary (we don't ask much of ourselves, do
we?). Outside the classroom, routines for working with colleagues
are also well-established by April. But are they truly the best
way to work together, or just well-worn paths that are more comfortable
than effective? We're always tweaking protocols and schedules and
programs because we never quite know the answer.
This week we've posted resources to help you think through your
approach to Response to Intervention (RTI), an enormous undertaking in
many schools that is becoming more routine. Expectations for RTI
may be more comfortable now than at the start of the year, but you may
be wondering if they are the most helpful for reaching and involving
everyone. The questions and examples in this week's resources are
designed to launch discussions about collaboration and goals without
provoking conflict. We've also started highlighting some features
to help you plan for the fun and reflection of closing out the year
with students. More will follow in the coming weeks.
Routines and closure; common hours and dreams. We don't have the
luxury of a quiet cabin in the woods for planning out where we want to
go next with colleagues or students, or sometimes even a choice when it
comes to setting out on a new path. But most of us are quietly
confident what we've done this year will endure, especially if we take
care to end the year well.
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
In an updated article from the Choice Literacy Archives, Jennifer Allen
provides some prompts for staff discussions about Response to
Intervention. RTI: Putting Students at the Heart of Our
Decisions can help you connect long-term goals and beliefs with
short-term strategies:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/923.cfm
If RTI is designed to support all students, then "all students"
includes the gifted. In RTI for Gifted? Are You Sure?! from the
Unwrapping the Gifted blog, Tamara Fisher thinks through the value of
RTI for advanced learners, as well as the challenges with implenting
it. There are many helpful links in her article:
http://bit.ly/4vXXbv
If you're looking for closure activities to help students reflect on
the the most memorable moments of the year, the Legacy Project has many
options posted at their site. Look Back, Look Forward is a series
of writing prompts to jog student memories:
http://www.legacyproject.org/activities/lookbackfor.html
What's the role of school leaders in helping teachers launch The Daily
5 and CAFE Assessment programs in their classrooms? Inside
Leadership is Choice Literacy's new two-hour DVD featuring "The Sisters"
(Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) as they lead grade-level team meetings and
coach in K-5 classrooms:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/products/item32.cfm
Summer Events Update: The
Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio CAFE in the
Classroom workshops are SOLD OUT. Limited seating remains for the
San Antonio Delight in Words workshop. Thanks so much for
your enthusiastic response - if you are interested in these summer
workshop topics, please consider registering at our Wrentham,
Massachusetts or Tacoma, Washington locales where there is still space
available.
For Members Only
Franki Sibberson loves cleaning up book displays and baskets at the end
of the year, because it's a vital part of the planning process. In
Closing Out the Library: Cleaning Up and Thinking Ahead, she
shares the questions she asks herself to prompt reflection and more
thoughtful planning throughout the summer:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1127.cfm
Franki's feature is the lead article in our newest digest, Closing Out
the School Year. The first digest in the series, A Time for
Reflection, focuses on practical strategies to build reflection into
end of the year clean-up. There are a dozen links to articles and
videos at Choice Literacy and across the web to get you started:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1124.cfm
We've posted the second video in Katie Doherty's two-part series on
book talk preparation and guidance in her middle school classroom:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1126.cfm
Video Updates: We are in
the process of reposting many videos on the site in new formats and
players (with higher resolution and full-screen options). As we
make these improvements, we'll announce them in the newsletter.
Here are two updated videos you may want to revisit -
Katie DiCesare teaches her first graders to "picture read":
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/726.cfm
Karen Terlecky leads a sentence observation with her fifth graders:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/561.cfm
Finally, if you want to mark some of these features to read or view
later when you're less busy, make sure to try out the "My Favorites"
tool for custom bookmarks and notes on individual selections at the
site. With over 1200 articles and videos available at Choice
Literacy, it's by far the best way to organize the materials for your
needs:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/846.cfm
That's all for this week!
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