The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
September 12, 2009
But What About the Kid Who. . .
It is important that
students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their
studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question
it.
Jacob
Bronowski
But what about the kid...who doesn't want to write? Who
refuses to work in groups? Who disrupts most class
meetings? Who never seems to be able to complete
anything? Donald Graves used to talk about the kid. . .you
know the one. It's the student who consumes your thoughts, or
more likely, sits like a stone in the center of your forehead till
you've got a roaring headache.
In his or her own way, "the kid" is questioning everything - how we've
set up our classrooms and routines, and why what we are teaching should
matter to them. "The kid" is almost never someone who is so
far behind that they immediately qualify for interventions or special
services. Often, the students who take up so much energy are
the ones who just niggle constantly at your thoughts, because whatever
you're doing, it just doesn't work for them.
There are never any easy answers for helping struggling students, but
the start might be to get them off of your forehead and into your
calendar as a case study to look at with colleagues all year long.
There is something about having a monthly chat scheduled with a good
teaching friend that relieves the pressure of solving a problem that is
vexing you. It changes the response to the latest
confrontation from "now what?!" to "this is just the kind of thing I
need to share with Rebecca when we meet next week so she can see what
I'm talking about." What makes you feel like crying when you
are alone can provoke peals of laughter when you're with a good
teaching friend who is always ready to remind you that this too shall
pass.
This week, we've highlighted a couple features from the archives for
helping teams of teachers focus on struggling students
together. Plus more as always - enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
Two features from the Choice Literacy Archives might help you rethink
ways to collaborate with colleagues over challenging students -
In Forming Teams to Help Struggling Readers, Andrea Smith shares
observation strategies used within a teaching team. As she
writes, "We so often focus on our children needing support, but as this
amazing team of teachers works together, I realize how critical it is
for teachers to have their own safety nets and lifelines."
The article includes templates developed by the group:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/546.cfm
Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind by Franki Sibberson
is a terrific article for a team considering struggling learners to
read together and discuss. Franki asks some critical
questions, including how many transitions and different
adults some children work with each day in the name of getting all the
support they need:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/643.cfm
Kim Cofino has a new post in her Always Learning blog on the difference
between "coaching light" and "coaching heavy." If you're a
literacy coach considering when and why it's important to have
difficult conversations with teachers you mentor, this provocative post
will get you thinking:
http://tinyurl.com/nqtbmo
"Remember to Read" has advice from Jim Burke on how to make time for
pleasure reading every day. I love when writers don't just
tell me I must do something, but give me practical tips for getting it
done:
http://tinyurl.com/mce64t
The final Choice Literacy Workshops in 2009 will take place in
Rockland, Maine October 17-18 at the beautiful Samoset Resort. Topics
include CAFE Assessment with The Sisters, Assessment with Clare
Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan, Delight in Words with Franki Sibberson,
and Literacy Coach Jumpstart with Jennifer Allen. If you have
never been to this venue on the rocky Maine coast, you are in for a
treat. Workshop descriptions and a registration form are available at
this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm
For Members Only
Lisa Koch found herself a bit irritated as her high school students
would discreetly send text messages as she tried to teach them literary
terms. Her solution? Tweet tweet! In
"Twitter Me This: Using Cell Phones to Build Literacy Skills
and a Reading Community," you can read about her successful summer
experiment of twittering literary terms and staying in touch with
students over summer reading assignments:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/974.cfm
Is that beautiful classroom library you set up at the start of the year
already looking a little disheveled? The new Choice Literacy
Cluster is on Teaching Students to Organize and Maintain Classroom
Libraries, and includes contributions from Debbie Miller, Katie
DiCesare, Karen Terlecky, and "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan
Moser):
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/975.cfm
Test preparation pressure never goes away. In this week's
video "Taking About Tests," Franki Sibberson demonstrates how
students can use critical reading and conversation skills developed in
literacy workshops to think through the demands of tests together:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/774.cfm
Finally, if you've resolved this year to keep up with your own writing
journal so that you can share the good, bad, and ugly of your process
with students, you'll enjoy Jennifer Jones' inspirational and practical
new piece, A Three-Legged Dog and a Show About Nothing:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/973.cfm
That's all for this week!
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Jennifer Allen
