Having others observe our teaching can be daunting, especially if they are frantically scribbling notes throughout the observation. Yet there are things we will never see for ourselves in our teaching without the insight of others, as JoAnn Portalupi writes:

On a trip to Hawaii, my husband and I drove from the top of Kilhauea Volcano down to the ocean where a current lava flow was emptying into the ocean. I didn't know what to expect.

As we descended the hill, the water came in sight and I could see the head of steam where the hot lava hit the cool ocean. The expanding fountain of steam was the only evidence of flowing lava. We arrived as the sun was setting. As the night sky grew dark, the red flowing lava grew visible.

Or course it had been there all along, but it needed the contrast of the night sky to bring it out. When we bring colleagues into the landscapes of our classrooms, their presence provides the contrast that heightens our self-evaluation tendencies and makes visible that which is previously unseen.

JoAnn Portalupi

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

***Free for All***

Rick Ellis discusses "kidwatching," and how students can become more astute social observers themselves in any classroom in "Have You Noticed?," a brief article available through Responsive Classrooms:

http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/11_4NL_3.asp

From the Choice Literacy archives, here are some practical tips for enlisting students as observers in a more systematic way in any classroom:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/183.cfm

Worried about the 4th grade slump? Franki Sibberson's new DVD Workshop kit "Literacy in Transition" on working with students in the intermediate grades is now available for purchase. The DVD features over 90 minutes of Franki teaching and conferring with third and fourth graders, as well as forty pages of workshop suggestions and student samples:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/products/item12.cfm

***For Members Only***

Shari Frost and her literacy coaching colleagues quickly move from oohing and aahing over the Caldecott-winning picture book Flotsam, to exploring together how wordless picture books can change the landscape of literacy teaching in K-6 classrooms throughout a school:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/335.cfm

The kindergarten screening season is upon us, so it seems a good time for viewing a "concepts of print" conference. Joan Moser confers with Mariano, a young kindergartner in her K-2 classroom. She then talks with Gail Boushey (the other half of "The Sisters") about how what she learned in the conference will inform instruction, in this nine-minute video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/337.cfm

Jennifer Allen shares a few strategies for building the reading community beyond individual classrooms in your school. Book swaps, a shared staff novel, and family literacy breakfasts all reinforce the most important aspect of reading - it should be pleasurable and engrossing, no matter our age:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/336.cfm

That's all for this week!