A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.
 
                                                                 Ansel Adams
 
 
Last week I visited the fabulous Opal School in Portland, Oregon (it's a public elementary school affiliated with the Portland Children's Museum).  The morning of my visit happened to be during a family conference day.  As I walked by a classroom, I could see a teacher conferring with a mom and dad.  I didn't eavesdrop, but I did notice the trio had their heads together, peering at a picture of a child on the teacher's laptop.  
 
Maybe this is a common practice in conferences now, but it was new to me.  How would the tenor of parent/teacher conferences change if everyone focused on an image (or two or three) of the child at work in the classroom - reading, writing, and collaborating with peers?
 
Families want so many things for their children, but I think what they want most from teachers is to know that we truly see their child.  What better way to show them that then to look at a photograph?
 
When I coached new teachers before parent-teacher conferences, I urged them to share a story or two about each child. We spent a lot of time talking through how to gather notes and telling details for those stories.  How much easier it would be to jog anyone's memory of those stories if you were looking at your students in the midst of the conference.  And what a wonderful gift to leave parents with, since it's so easy these days to email the photographs shared after the meeting.

This week we're highlighting some resources for analyzing talk in classrooms and brushing up your conferring skills. Plus more as always - enjoy!
 

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
 
 
 
Free for All

 
Listening in on student conversations is a powerful way to make sense of what learning is taking place.  From the Choice Literacy Archives, the Over, Under, and Beyond Words: Alternative Strategies for Observing Talk in Classrooms guide gives teachers and literacy coaches some practical tools for considering classroom talk:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/141.cfm
   
Conferring with any student can be a challenge, and when you and your student speak different languages, the situation becomes even more complicated.  Ruth Shagoury has practical advice for teachers dealing with English language learners for the first time in this new two-minute Quick Take video:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1302.cfm
 
In a new podcast, Jennifer Allen chats with Franki Sibberson about  working with veteran teachers in study groups.  A transcript is included for those who prefer reading over listening:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1274.cfm
 
Read Alouds are a vital component of the literacy curriculum, yet many autistic children do not respond well to them.  With autism on the rise, advice on this issue from the Readers with Autism blog couldn't be more timely:
 
http://readerswithautism.com/2009/08/the-problem-of-the-read-aloud/
 
 
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


Picture books are a terrific tool for vocabulary instruction - students have so much fun reading them they are hardly aware of all the new words they are picking up.  Franki Sibberson shares her top picks for spicing up vocabulary instruction in her latest booklist:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1289.cfm
 
Are you a minimalist when it comes to email, or do you tend to send rambling and reflective posts?  No matter your email style, it likely is a match for some of your colleagues, and a barrier to communication for others.  Heather Rader has a fascinating take on the four different "emailer" styles, and how coaches can use mirroring techniques based on each style:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1300.cfm
 
We want students to discuss books in thoughtful, sophisticated ways in book clubs, but those skills don't always come naturally.  (Wait - do those skills ever come naturally?) In this week's video, Beth Lawson explains how she confers with individual children in her third-grade classroom to prepare them for independent book clubs with peers.  This is the first in a series on prepping students for book clubs:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1243.cfm
 
Ellen McEvoy continues her series on building a "reading culture" in an elementary school, from her perspective as a community volunteer.  This week she shares her thoughts on starting the second year of the ongoing project:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1250.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 -
 
Joan Moser helps a kindergartner explore concepts of print in an early year conference:  
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1303.cfm
 
That's all for this week!
 
 

 

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