The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy April 24, 2010 The Golden Minute


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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
April 24, 2010
The Golden Minute

When I talk to new literacy coaches, the number one issue I hear about is the challenge of waiting to be invited into classrooms. And if you don't wait for an invitation, there can be a lot of mistrust or misunderstanding at the start about what your role will be.

Emergency medical personnel know about the golden hour - those 60 minutes after a severe trauma when life hangs in the balance. Literacy administrators and coaches may have only a golden minute when they visit new classrooms. Lynn Schade, who works with the Center for Applied Child Development at Tufts University, talks about the importance of those first moments in any classroom: "It doesn't matter how I get into the room, I just get in there. Once I am in, I have about one minute to find that teacher's brilliance. Find it, label it, and then I can extend it. I always begin with their brilliance, and then see where it takes me."

I wish I had read Lynn's words years ago when I was entering new classrooms as a university mentor every week. I was often just as awkward and unsure as the teachers I was visiting for the first time. I would have loved the focus and deadline of finding brilliance within a minute in any new classroom. What brilliant things have you seen your colleagues do today? This week? Have you labeled it for them? How might you extend that brilliance?

This week we start our popular series of recommendations from favorite teacher authors for summer reading. It will run throughout the rest of the spring. Plus more as always - enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

If you're starting to glimpse with longing at your summer calendar, you might enjoy filling it in with some book recommendations from our Summer Reading List series. This week's contributors include Kelly Gallagher, Shelley Harwayne, Katie Wood Ray, and Karen Szymusiak:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1151.cfm

Teen author Riley Carney has some wonderful insights and advice for her peers, parents, and teachers about how to inspire a lifelong passion for literacy. The Love of Writing Comes from the Love of Reading is an excellent link to share with families in newsletters, or in a writing workshop for teens:

http://networkedblogs.com/2Co0Z

What's Your Story has been running a contest with the theme of internet safety. Teens have submitted public service announcements on cyber bullying, sexting, and the limits of what should be posted on the web. These are fun and provocative short videos for launching discussions in classrooms or staff meetings:

http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com/internet-safety/Home.do

Here's a nifty tool if you are starting to use YouTube videos with students. Cut to the Chase allows you to trim down the content of a video (because of time constraints, or if you just need to eliminate some inappropriate material):

http://youtubetime.com/

The new Choice Literacy DVD The Daily 5 in Kindergarten features over two hours of footage from Joan Moser's kindergarten classroom. Highlights include three rounds of Daily 5, conferences linked to the CAFE Menu, and an extensive room tour explaining materials and classroom design:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/products/item33.cfm

For Members Only

In Ways to Avoid Coaching Traps, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan consider the four biggest landmines literacy coaches must navigate around - from taking on too much responsibility to giving advice too quickly:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1147.cfm

Katie DiCesare expands the end of the year ritual of picking favorite books into an experience that binds her first-grade classroom community together, and revs everyone up for summer reading at the same time. Books We Love from the Choice Literacy Archives will help teachers plot out some of the final weeks of reading workshop:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/632.cfm

This week's video shows Katie DiCesare in action as she makes reading share time more purposeful. By prompting students with insights from her conferences, strategy minilessons are reinforced at the completion of each morning's workshop:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1141.cfm

Jennifer Morgan and her students share their observations, writing, and small group conversations in a whole class debrief as part of the science curriculum. This is the third video in a three-part series:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1149.cfm

Video Updates: We continue to repost many videos 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 updated videos you may want to revisit -

Andrea Smith helps a fourth-grade student start a content literacy project exploring immigration:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1152.cfm

Videos are like children - you're not supposed to have favorites. But if you forced me to pick the video I love most on the entire site, it would have to be this one. Ruth Shagoury confers with Anna, an adorable Vietnamese kindergartner just finding her wings as a writer and English speaker. This was the very first video ever posted at Choice Literacy:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1150.cfm

That's all for this week!