Jen Allen often talks about her love of lists when we do workshops

together. How fanatical is she about her detailed lists? If Jen

accomplishes something worthwhile she forgot to include on her

daily to-do list, she'll add the item and immediately cross it off.

Everyone in the room chuckles and nods, because we've all done the

same thing.

When my friend Ruth is having trouble sleeping, she'll get up in

the middle of the night and make a list of things she needs to get

done the next day. I've tried this, and it's much better than

counting sheep for emptying the mind and getting some rest.

There's just something about being able to fit tasks on a page, and

then tick them off one by one, that makes anyone feel more

productive and on top of their work.

We're list-crazy in education - 7 Habits, 6 Traits, Daily 5, 4

Blocks - we can rattle off all the elements of our favorites,

quickly sizing up our classrooms and lives against the numbers.

One of the reasons the list "Unlucky Arithmetic: Thirteen Ways to

Produce a Nonreader" by Dean Schneider and Robin Smith has become

a classic among many educators is because it tweaks our passion for

lists. Published by the Horn Book, it's a tongue-in-cheek catalog

of all the things parents and teachers can do to ensure children

never develop a love of reading.

This week, S. Rebecca Leigh pays tribute to the original unlucky

arithmetic with lists for producing "non-writers" and

"non-artists." These short pieces would be provocative reads for a

study group or staff meeting.

We've also got some spring cleaning video to help you clear out the

clutter that's accumulated over the year, plus more as always -

enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

"Unlucky Arithmetic" by S. Rebecca Leigh is a fun way to size up

the messages we send students about reading, writing, and drawing,

and how these may influence lifelong literacy habits:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/863.cfm

The original "Unlucky Arithmetic" list of 13 strategies for

producing nonreaders is available at this link:

http://www.hbook.com/pdf/articles/13ways.pdf

Many teachers get a yen this time of year to clear out some of the

clutter in their classrooms. From the Choice Literacy Archives,

"The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) help second-year

teacher Carrie tackle the heaps of materials that have accumulated

above her storage closet in this time-lapse video:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/867.cfm

If the number of administrative meetings scheduled at your school

is out of control, maybe it's time for some tough love. Seth Godin

in his business blog has a list of nine unorthodox strategies for

reducing time spent in meetings and making them more productive:

http://tinyurl.com/dmbdde

We've posted our full slate of Choice Literacy Workshop summer and

fall events, including new offerings on middle school reading

instruction,word work, nonfiction in the intermediate grades, and

dealing with assessment data. These new topics are in addition to

our popular offerings from last year on CAFE assessment, struggling

readers, literacy coaching, and the literacy principal in action:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

Workshops Update: The CAFE in the Classroom Workshop is now SOLD

OUT at the Portland, Oregon and Columbus, Ohio locations. Space

remains at the San Antonio, Texas; Portland, Maine; and Tacoma,

Washington sites. You can access registration forms for the open

locations at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/600.cfm

For Members Only

Community service projects are becoming more popular in schools,

and the need has never been greater. Franki Sibberson thinks

through how teachers can help students take more responsibility for

and ownership of service projects. One way is to use children's

literature to spark discussions about helping others, and this

article includes a booklist of read-alouds with a service focus:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/865.cfm

If you have a goal of fostering more thoughtful discussions among

colleagues, you might want to try Karen Szymusiak's Literacy Chats

format. The monthly meetings among teachers, specialists and

administrators encourage informal discussions of curriculum all day

long. The guidelines include a video example of a grades 3-5

literacy chat:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/866.cfm

We've posted a new Choice Literacy Cluster on Learning from Our

Reading Lives, with contributions from Rina Moog, Ellin Keene,

Kathy Collins, and Franki Sibberson:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/864.cfm

Finally, if you missed the announcement last week, we've started a

new Clusters Department so members can browse all of them in one

spot. The department link is available below, as well as in

righthand margin of the homepage:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department71.cfm

That's all for this week!

Share this Article

del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Facebook  StumbleUpon  GoogleBookmark  Technorati  Furl