The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
April 18, 2009
Not-So-Fast Forward
The December holiday school concert was a tradition for generations in
the little Maine town where I live. When the new music
teacher decided to change the date from December to January, there were
howls of protest from a few community members. Quite
honestly, it was too busy a time of year for anyone to mount too big a
protest, so the event was moved forward on the calendar.
A funny thing has happened in the years since the change was
made. Most families now prefer the January winter concert
date. Attendance is up, but less easy to measure is the sense
of ease, of time to chat with neighbors and friends before and after
the concert everyone now feels. In December, families rush
from one event to the next - most school nights are booked with some
required celebration for three weeks straight. January is a
quiet time here - without much on the calendar and a slower pace to the
days, the winter concert stands out and is appreciated in a different
way.
Last week in the newsletter I wrote about the value of ending events or
traditions that have outlived their usefulness if your spring schedule
is overstuffed. Another alternative is to look at times when
the calendar isn't quite so packed. Many schools
resist scheduling events when school isn't in session, because this is
our time to de-stress. Yet a small family picnic in July, or
an optional study group for teachers interested in a particular topic,
can be surprisingly fun - especially if attendance isn't required.
If your spring is too packed over the next six weeks with afternoon and
evening events, perhaps some rescheduling would be appreciated by your
colleagues and families. Maybe you could cancel that last
study group, with an optional potluck a few weeks after school is out
to reflect on what the group learned all year long?
How about a summer reading check-in event with families in July, rather
than one more end-of-year gathering in May? Fast forward a
few of your spring events to summer (or December events to January),
and you may find you are actually slowing down the pace of the year at
your busiest times.
This week, we've got lots of resources to prepare students for summer
reading, plus more as always. Enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
Two articles from the Choice Literacy Archives by Franki Sibberson to
help students take more responsibility for planning their summer
reading -
Jumpstarting Students' Summer Reading includes suggestions for spring
book shares, goal-setting, and a student summer reading
planning template:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/345.cfm
Books to Get Us Ready for Summer Reading is a list of read-alouds to
get students excited about summer literacy, with a couple bonus picks
of inspiring professional reading for teachers:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/597.cfm
Reading Rockets has an amazing amount of summer reading resources
posted. This link includes terrific handouts on
research, parent tip sheets, suggestions for teachers, and a webcast:
http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar/summer#parent
From Linda Gambrell and the International Reading Association, four
simple strategies to build summer reading among students:
http://tinyurl.com/dao72t
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 - the
waiting lists are full at these locations too. 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
We've posted a new Choice Literacy Cluster on Fluency Development in
the Primary Grades, with contributions from Jennifer Jones, Shari
Frost, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser), and Franki
Sibberson:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/873.cfm
This week's video from the Choice Literacy Archives features a
classroom that is so visually appealing - Cheryl Cole's second-grade
room in Georgia. Cheryl gives Aimee Buckner a tour of her
classroom, demonstrating how she mixes outdoor furniture, colorful book
arrays, thoughtful strategy instruction displays and homey
lighting. This video will give you lots of ideas for a
classroom redesign this summer:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/491.cfm
Literacy leaders are spending more and more time organizing, compiling,
and storing assessment data, often leaving little time to analyze the
findings with teachers. In "Creating Data Teams,"
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain the value of enlisting tech
support to assist with the data load:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/877.cfm
Carol Wilcox prepares her struggling intermediate readers for state
exams, and finally experiences a breakthrough in linking vocabulary
learning to authentic reading:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/878.cfm
Finally, if you're a new member and you're wondering about our summer
publishing schedule, we're happy to note we post new materials all
summer long. Other than our two-week holiday breaks in late
December and June, we publish the newsletter with new content every
Saturday morning. If you'd like to catch up on content you've
missed, you can always visit the Big Fresh Archives:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department62.cfm
That's all for this week!
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