Sometimes the best innovations are the simplest, and discovered by accident. It started with a chart paper stand, carelessly left in the teachers' work room after a study group meeting the previous afternoon. Everyone had been brainstorming alternatives to weekly spelling tests, and the leader had noted them on the chart for reference the following week.

A teacher newly back from maternity leave, unable to attend the optional study group meetings, spied the list the next morning when she was grabbing a cup of coffee, and added a suggestion of her own. Within a few hours, there were three more notes from others with additional questions and ideas.

This was a school with a tight-knit staff, but not everyone could attend the optional study group meetings. Besides the teacher with the newborn, there were two others with serious constraints on their time - one teacher was spending every moment outside the school with her mom in hospice, and another was in the midst of chemotherapy treatments. All had participated in the study group in the past, and planned to return when circumstances changed. Their group leader had struggled with finding ways to keep them updated. From then on, the chart stand left in the work room after study group meetings was no accident.

Each week the chart included one page of tips or ideas from the group focused on a literacy topic, with extra post-its, a pen on a string, and a note encouraging anyone to add more as they thought of new ideas. Even teachers who attended the meeting liked having a chance to revise or extend their suggestions, as well as to reread the ideas and mull them over during the week.

Even required meetings usually have staff members who have missed them because of illness, scheduling conflicts, and all the usual stresses of life in the sandwich generation caring for children and aging parents. One of the greatest challenges literacy leaders face is keeping everyone in the community informed, especially those facing extra constraints on their time.

Any collective list from a meeting can be shared in this simple way to build community, but it helps if the topic is high interest with a literacy focus, and lends itself to succinct ideas. At this time of year, what about a brainstormed list of one favorite read aloud each teacher has used this year? Or suggestions of ways to organize notes and assessments from reading and writing workshops for parent conferences?

It's mid-October, so almost any school is in various stages of preparing for parent conferences, report cards, and testing. We've got resources for all these needs, plus more as always. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

In Warm-Ups for Wandering Minds, Jennifer Jones shares some quick reading activities for helping students focus before diving in to standardized tests:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/480.cfm

The trouble with writing report card comments is that there never seems to be as much time as you'd like for drafting them. From the Choice Literacy Archives, some advice on writing better report card comments:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/186.cfm

Do you include students in your conferences with parents? Responsive Classrooms has a short article on the web about the benefits of three-way conferences, including practical tips for preparing and structuring these conferences to get the most out of them:

http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/17_2nl_4.html

The Wild Rose Reader has some terrific Halloween picture book read-aloud suggestions:

http://tinyurl.com/6as9xw

The Literacy Principal in Action is our new professional development video featuring Karen Szymusiak. While Karen shares her work as a principal, any literacy leader can learn from the formats she uses for hosting grade-level team discussions of challenging students, literacy chats across the school, and mixed-aged student groups. There is a $30 discount for members, and you can preview footage from the video at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/products/item18.cfm

For Members Only

Recently there has been less interest in retelling of classic tales by children's book authors - it may be the retelling craze has waned a bit because of the focus in many classrooms on leveled books. Franki Sibberson's new booklist highlights some of the best new twists on favorite children's stories. There are lots of new fun titles worth a browse:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/713.cfm

Aimee Buckner demonstrates how to teach rereading strategies during class read-alouds in the second part of her two-part video series. The featured text is Goblins in the Castle, a terrific read-aloud for this time of year:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/719.cfm

Get the most of your one-on-one coaching conferences with these suggestions from Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/717.cfm

The new Choice Literacy Cluster is on Reaching Struggling Readers. It features contributions from Jennifer Allen, Andrea Smith, Karen Terlecky, and Franki Sibberson:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/718.cfm

That's all for this week!