The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy January 29, 2011 Come Back with a Face


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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
January 29, 2011
Come Back with a Face

One of my favorite books is The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I didn't expect to find much practical wisdom from a choreographer with such an exotic name, given my two left feet and sturdy Midwestern upbringing. But the book is really about nurturing the discipline and focus it takes to stay creative, no matter what job you have.

This is the too busy season of testing in many schools, where creativity can be the last thing on your mind. If that's the situation you find yourself in these days, consider this story from Twyla's book:

A Manhattan writer I know never leaves his apartment without reminding himself to "come back with a face." Whether he's walking down the street or sitting on a park bench or riding the subway or standing on a checkout line, he looks for a compelling face and works up a rich description of it in his mind. When he has a moment, he writes it all down in his notebook. Not only does the exercise warm up his descriptive powers, but studying the crags, lines, and bumps of a stranger's face forces him to imagine the individual's life.

(The Creative Habit, p. 30)

There is something calming about this focusing technique. I've "come back with a face" after study groups, classroom visits, even a trip to the post office. My jottings are no more than a few sentences, but when you slow down and pay attention to the small area of one face, you notice fatigue, anticipation, and the sheer concentration it takes to read and write well. Your empathy grows. If your days are feeling too rushed and disjointed, try it. That vow to come back with a face is a reminder that reams of data will never be more important than taking the time to puzzle through who our students and colleagues are, one by one.

Oh, and that unusual name? I thought Twyla must have a mysterious family history, far different than my mine, based on her name. But she was born in Indiana, not 200 miles from my birthplace in Michigan. Her mother saved a clipping years before her birth about the queen of a hog-calling contest in Muncie named Twila. She explained to Twyla, "I changed the i to a y because I thought it would look better on a marquee." The name signified her mom's big dreams for Twyla. I love the image of that mom scanning the newspaper avidly - paying close attention during even the most mundane tasks, because she never knew when she would find something important. More than a name, the gift she passed on to her daughter was the artistry that comes from such attention to detail.

This week we're featuring resources to help you tackle test preparation and data analysis in ways that keep you connected to your students. Plus more as always - enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

No data point for any child stands alone. Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan write about the importance of Triangulating Data when looking at student assessments, and in the process affirm the value of classroom observations:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/960.cfm

How can teachers connect thoughtful literacy workshops with test preparation? Patrick Allen has suggestions in a new podcast:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1422.cfm

Having trouble sorting through all those "best of" lists of young adult literature? Donalyn Miller and Paul W. Hankins swap titles of recent young adult books their students have enjoyed and share what they like about each book. This is the first installment in a two-part series:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1404.cfm

In You Will Not Lose Recess Here, a 4th grade teacher ponders the changes in her students when they realize the main reward in her classroom is the satisfaction of doing your work well, not just finishing it:

http://bit.ly/frSLqe

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In Rethinking Mentor Texts, Shari Frost writes about the ways our perfectly organized bins may limit the teaching possibilities for many books. Shari takes readers step by step through her process of determining ways to use a sample mentor text to teach a multitude of lessons and strategies:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1411.cfm

What does true independence look like among young readers and writers? A chance comment from a visitor to Aimee Buckner's classroom gets her pondering the amount of choice children have during units of study:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1415.cfm

In this week's quick two-minute video, Melissa Kolb and Andie Cunningham help preschoolers use the thank you writing center:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1424.cfm

This year's Newbery Winner was on few reviewers' radar. Even though their Newbery Club of 5th graders didn't read the book in advance, Maria Caplin and Bill Prosser consider the club a success. They close out their series on the club with thoughts on how they will do things different next fall:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1413.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 -

Andrea Smith writes about how she helps her 4th graders develop a can-do attitude for test taking, with a video example of a whole-class workshop on word problems used in state exams:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1421.cfm

That's all for this week!