The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy September 25, 2010 By the Whites of Their Eyes


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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
September 25, 2010
By the Whites of Their Eyes

I spent every day this week visiting elementary classrooms with my good friends Joan Moser and Gail Boushey. We were observing the launch of literacy workshops, and capturing video at the same time.

Tuesday night we were kicking back in our hotel room, reviewing footage from a first-grade classroom. After a few minutes, we were laughing so hard we could hardly watch the screen. It was a whole-class lesson, and the first graders were sitting on the rug ("criss-cross applesauce"), learning a new strategy for partner reading.

As the class was listening to the teacher, one of the girls had just discovered she could pluck her cheeks out a full inch and a half, so she was silently pulling them in and out, in and out (oh, to have that much collagen in my face again!). A boy was whipping his head around and around like a tilt-a-whirl. Next to him, yet another child was fascinated by her cornrow braids - scooping them up onto the top of her head, and then letting them cascade down, over and over again. Every student seemed to have a unique twitch - quietly plucking, bending, clutching, strumming, and rocking their way through the lesson. Through it all, the teacher taught, and the students learned.

Here is the thing. When we were in the room, we marveled at how well-behaved and hardworking those children were. Less than two weeks into the school year, students read and wrote quietly during independent work periods without disturbing their classmates, and had a good sense of what was expected of them during each routine of the literacy block. It was only in reviewing the video in the evening that we realized how much creative movement was going on.

I've often been amazed over the years when I am observing a child engrossed in something like chewing on their shoelaces during a lesson, sure they can't possibly be aware of anything else. (And honestly, yuck - it's hard for me to notice much else either as I imagine what a dirty shoelace must taste like.) Yet a moment later, the child will respond to the teacher's question, and it's clear he or she has heard every word the teacher said.

Kids gotta move. This is probably the most basic tenet of learning. If children don't have the opportunity to get their wiggles out, it's almost impossible for them to pay attention. What that first-grade teacher had done so masterfully in the early days of school was teach her students how to channel their energy in ways that allowed them to learn and contribute to the community. There wasn't one child in that meeting area poking at a classmate. No one was speaking out of turn. No one wandered away from the meeting space.

The beauty of being a guest in classrooms is that I can notice patterns across grades. One common element in all the rooms I visited last week, from first to fifth grade, was that every teacher established eye contact with each child early in the day. Most met the eyes of every student at least a few times during reading and writing workshops.

When it comes to eye contact, record-keeping forms are a teacher's secret weapon. From Nancie Atwell's "Status of the Class" introduced almost three decades ago, to the "Daily 5 Check-In" used in many classrooms today, the time spent completing the form is an opportunity every day to ensure you've made that brief eye to eye connection with every student.

Each classroom also had a silent signal used which varied from room to room - from hands raised in a yoga pose to finger waggles. During the silent signal, the teacher would quickly scan the room, making sure to catch the eye of every child for just a moment before moving on.

I'm sure a researcher could write a 200 page thesis on why eye contact is so essential in classrooms, but what I saw this week is how powerful it was in tethering each student to the teacher. No matter how captivated children became by their cheeks, cornrows, or wildly gyrating heads, they were glancing back at their teacher continually. They were trying to catching her eye, if only because they knew she would soon be trying to catch theirs.

There was one other reason there was so much room for students to move, without disrupting the rhythms and routines of the literacy block. Those children in the first few days of school had already learned how to establish and respect their territory and that of their peers. From the definition of "bubble space" in the youngest grades to sophisticated discussions in the intermediate grades about comfortable spots for reading, many of the most important lessons in September were about understanding physical boundaries.

The remarkable classrooms I visited this week took me back to previous Septembers when I'd visited young teachers struggling with management. I wish I'd known then what I know now. Having all students nod in unison that they understand what is expected of them isn't nearly as effective as looking every child in the eye to be sure that they are truly with you. Often those young teachers were trying to suppress the energy of their students (a losing proposition if ever there was one), instead of teaching students how to self-regulate.

It's a joy to be in classrooms where kids are free to be kids, yet still purposeful and respectful. I was reminded again this week of how much time it takes early in the year to create those happy environments. Many thanks to the teachers who welcomed me as a guest - it takes courage to open the door to visitors in the first days of the year.

This week we're highlighting a mix of resources in the newsletter, from advice on handling the time crunch when conferring to suggestions for negotiating disagreements about assessments. Plus more as always - enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

Teachers not only have to complete many assessments at the start of the year - they have to deal with different opinions among staff about the value of assessment instruments used. In "The Dibels Divide" from the Choice Literacy Archives, our contributors discuss what to do when administrators and teachers don't see eye to eye on assessments:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/958.cfm

In a new podcast, Ann Marie Corgill chats with Franki Sibberson about the similarities and differences in writing workshops at different grade levels. A transcript is included:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1271.cfm

So many students to confer with, and so little time. Aimee Buckner explains how she deals with time constraints when conferring with students during literacy workshops in this new two-minute Quick Take video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1296.cfm

If you are encouraging colleagues to keep a teaching journal (or just trying to do a better job with your own daily notes), the Educating Esme blog has a wonderful post with suggestions of prompts for generating writing when you're stuck:

http://bit.ly/cAE80C

Join us this fall for a Choice Literacy Workshop in Rockport, Maine at the Samoset Resort (October 16 - 17) or Orlando, Florida (November 17) at the Altamonte Springs Hilton. Presenters include Jennifer Allen, Franki Sibberson, Clare Landrigan, Tammy Mulligan, and "The Sisters" (Joan Moser & Gail Boushey). We've redesigned our workshop area on the web, and you can now register online with a credit card. Click on the link to get full details on topics, dates, and cost:

http://workshops.choiceliteracy.com/

For Members Only

Heather Rader "gets real" about her overstuffed coaching schedule, and develops a plan for meaningful and sustained mentoring of colleagues in Calendaring a Literacy Coach:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1291.cfm

We've posted a new cluster on Classroom Designs for Middle School Learning with contributions from Ann Marie Corgill, "The Sisters" (Joan Moser and Gail Boushey), Katie Doherty, and Suzy Kaback:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1290.cfm

If you're tweaking your room design in the primary grades, you might enjoy Katie DiCesare's thoughts on redesigning a literacy support teacher's library of children's books:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1288.cfm

Reading groups are such an ingrained element in our teaching culture that you might feel guilty if you don't meet with small groups daily. In this week's video, Joan Moser and Gail Boushey ("The Sisters") talk with Rachel Stephens about the value of individual conferring over groups when teachers know individual students well:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1297.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 is an updated video you may want to revisit -

Jennifer Allen gives tips and strategies for building the reading community among teachers on a school staff. She includes a brief video excerpt from her new teacher study group where they make connections between their preview of a book together and how they work with students:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1298.cfm

That's all for this week!