#SOL15 Finale: Top 10 Posts from 2015
I began this blog in October of 2012 because I believed that I needed to write publicly both to improve my own writing and because I encourage teachers to write for purposeful reasons. That fits with Betsy’s quote for today:
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
~E. L. Doctorow”
How am I doing with my goals? Wordpress conveniently compiles a lot of data about blog posts. Here are the most viewed posts from this site during 2015. The numbered titles are linked to the original post and a picture is included below the link for a reminder. (Four of these were a surprise as they were NOT written during 2015! See if you can guess which four!)
10. #TCRWP: Day 1 Writing Institute 2015
9. Focus: Informational Mentor Texts
8. #TCRWP: Day 2 Reading Institute 2015
7. #TCRWP: Day 3 Reading Institute 2015
6. #TCRWPL: Day 1 Reading Institute 2015
4. How do we know students are making progress in writing?
3. Close Reading in Kindergarten? Is it even possible?
2. #TCRWP and a Teacher’s Toolkit for Teaching Writing
- Lexile Level is NOT text complexity CCSS.R.10
“@amandalah: Careful of lexile: Harry potter, old man & the sea &Alexander & the horrible no good very bad day. All similar lexile. #TCRWP”
What are your top 10 learnings for 2015?
What data do you consider?
What are your goals?
How are you reflecting on 2015?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Most commented blog posts from 2015 (in 1-10 order)
One post that is on both top 10 lists! #SOL15 posts were seven of the 10 most commented on posts! YAY, Slicers!
Answer to which years were the most read blogs posted:
6 of the blog posts were originally published in 2015. Two were published in 2014 and two were published in 2013.
- 5-10 = 2015
- 2 and 4 = 2014
- 1 and 3 = 2013
#SOL15: Family Christmas
Christmas past:
Grandma Ruth and her ten children posing on the steps of the school basement.
Any guesses on which four were teachers?
Christmas this past Sunday:
Seven of the ten (including the “outlaws”) celebrating the holidays with their families.
Cousins – 55 possible . . .
Family
Food
Sharing memories
Sharing stories
Creating new memories
Connecting family members
Building bridges across the generations
Christmas with the “Baby Ruth” Family to begin the holidays!
Here’s one view of the “crowd”!
Do you have specific traditions?
How do they continue through the years?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: Revisiting #OLW15
My #OneLittleWord15 was focus. It’s reckoning time as 2015 nears the end.
How did I do?
Focus on Family:
My grandson
now seven months old
with just the cutest grin!
The center of our Christmas Celebrations!
Who is the center of YOUR conversations?
Focus on Friends:
Near and far
At TCRWP Spring Saturday Reunion
At TCRWP Writing Institute
At TCRWP Reading Institute
At ILA15
At Iowa ASCD with Lester Laminack
At TCRWP Fall Saturday Reunion
At NCTE15
On Twitter with #TCRWP, #G2Great, and #WRRD
On Voxer
And on Slicers, Too!
Can you find yourself?
Focus on Reading:
- New Units of Study in Reading
- Mindset for Learning: Teaching the Traits of Joyful, Independent Growth
- Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies
- Amplify: Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom
- The Construction Zone: Building Scaffolds for Readers and Writers
- The Common Core Companion: Booster Lessons, Grades 3-5: Elevating Instruction Day by Day
- Good to Great Teaching: Focusing on the Literacy Work that Matters
- Read Write Teach: Choice and Challenge in the Reading-Writing Workshop
- The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching
- In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice
- Readers Front and Center: Helping All Students Engage with Complex Text
- The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers
- What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making
- The Unstoppable Writing Teacher: Real Strategies for Real Teachers
Which of these have you read?
Which of these are on your holiday TBR stack?
Focus on Writing:
About TCRWP Spring Saturday Reunion
About TCRWP Writing Institute
About TCRWP Reading Institute
About Reading
About ILA15
About Iowa ASCD with Lester Laminack
About TCRWP Fall Saturday Reunion
About NCTE15
Tweets about #TCRWP, #G2Great, and #WRRD (and all the above!)
And Slices with #TWT!
What have you written about?
A Focus on Focus:
Ever on my mind
Often changing to meet my purpose
Ever necessary
To complete my tasks
Sometimes a nagging worry
Other times a constant fear
. . . . Ever forward
Ever moving
Difficult to pin down
Growing –
Celebrating Learning!
What is your FOCUS?
How would we KNOW?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna,Betsy,Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers andteachers here.
#SOL15: Celebrate!
When you hear the word “celebrate” is this an image that comes to mind?
A fun gathering for a specific event with perhaps some balloons, a bit of confetti, and fun?
Dictionary.com has the following definitions for celebrate:
Who knew there were so many definitions?
How do you “celebrate” or “make known publicly; proclaim” in your classroom?
I want to celebrate “Kindness” – “Joey was kind to me when he held the door for me.”
I want to celebrate “Volume” – “I read two books this weekend.”
I want to celebrate “Happiness” – “I love this weather!”
I want to celebrate “Friendship” – “I appreciate the gift of time that you spent on following up on a previous conversation.”
I want to celebrate “Writing” – “I wrote an extra blog post!”
I envision generating “celebrate statements” to put in a class fishbowl, to share at a designated time or even to decorate the tree on the classroom door . . .
Can “public naming of actions” develop and sustain a positive mindset and climate in the classroom?
How can we use small steps (and small celebrations) to reinforce our progress towards big goals?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna,Betsy,Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers andteachers here.
#SOL15: Novice Driver
Smoke billowed out from the edges of the hood. Wait, is that smoke? Is that steam? Doesn’t matter . . . it’s BIG TROUBLE! No panic. After all, this wasn’t a movie. Also, not reality TV.
I had landed with a thud. No exploding air bags. They hadn’t been invented yet. Seat belts? I don’t remember unfastening them. Probably not required on a car that had been manufactured in the 60’s and became our second car in the 70s. A “diner” – big, heavy, old. Not too dinged up – definitely bought for its durability.
I was driving along, minding my own business, when I discovered I was behind a road grader. There was that hump of dirt piled up about eight inches high in the center of the road. For you city slickers, it’s a rock road. We’re in the country. (And there were probably only two roads in Iowa that had four lanes. Just sayin’) How lucky could I be? The road grader was out, blading the road in the rain.
Car coming towards me. I slowly eased my car over that hump of dirt that I had been straddling. Old car. No danger of dragging bottom. Old diner cars had a clearance like current all-wheel drive cars. Ok, that wasn’t too bad. Wipers on. Wait, do I turn the lights on in the day time when it’s raining? Its awfully dark!
I wasn’t too sure where I was on my half of the road.
It HAD been raining ALL morning. I went to work at my regular time – 8:00 but they said, “Come back at noon. We’ll see if it’s still raining and decide what to have you do.”
It was DAY 2 of having my own driver’s license so I was 16 – barely. I had over three hours to kill. I was dressed for work. I wasn’t going anywhere dressed like that. I had 3 and ½ hours to kill before I had to go back to work.
My plan, due to lack of anywhere else to go or anything else to do (no books in the car), was to go home. Home was seven and ½ miles north of the Northrup King plant. I could kill time at home before going back to work at noon to see what weather and work would allow.
My half of the road was soft, soggy, and felt like it had little rock. Dark. Muddy. And still raining. Not fun.
Today as I try to remember all the details, I don’t remember ever having driven in rain before. I also don’t remember ever driving much before this. Back to the action.
And then my stomach hit my toes. The rear end of the car was sliding toward the ditch. Mud was sucking at the tires. It was pulling me into the black hole.
Do I steer into this sliding mess? Out? No time for thoughts as I was already landing with a loud CRUNCH with an undertone of a SCRAPING noise.
*!@?*
I hadn’t had typing yet. I really didn’t know what those symbols meant. But I’m sure I said a word or two that I wasn’t supposed to even know. (At this stage of life, I think I had heard my mom say “sh**” once. But as a farm girl, I wasn’t totally ignorant. Just because I hadn’t said the words, didn’t mean that I hadn’t heard them.)
So the car is in a ditch. Smoke or steam is rolling out of the hood. No engine noise but maybe just a bit of a gurgling sound.
It’s pre-historic times.
The folks that invented cell phones haven’t even been born yet.
(Unimaginable for some of you youngsters!)
What to do?
It’s raining. A sixteen year old girl, dressed for “detasseling corn”, in a ditch alongside a rock road in the middle of nowhere Iowa.
Four miles from home doesn’t really mean relatives are nearby.
I don’t even know who lives in the house that I can see. There are no kids that get on the bus at that house. Clueless. Alone. Wet. Cranky. Anxious!
I wonder if I can just sit in the car until someone comes along. . . That doesn’t seem like much of a solution. I could be sitting here a long time!
I talk myself into getting wet AGAIN. I do have a raincoat but that will only cover part of me. I grab my work shoes and put them on. They are already dirty. A bit of mud won’t hurt them.
I trudge to the house. By the time I start up the sidewalk, I have about 6 inches of mud and clay attached to my shoes. I detour to walk through the grass. I had wiped as much mud as possible off my shoes just by dragging them across the grass in the yard.
I knock on the door, introduce myself, and ask them to call my parents (I’m not calling – I’m not breaking the bad news!).
I stand on their porch.
But I was a mess. Plaids and polka dots and colors that didn’t match. Old clothes that would be tossed at the end of detasselling season. After all, they had already been handed down from my cousin to my sister, back to another cousin, to her sister and then to me. . . oh, lucky ole me! The fifth person to wear these clothes!
The lady at the house comes back and tells me that my dad said to wait for him here.
I wait miserably. Cold. Tired. And yes, scared. I’ve had my license for less than two days and I’ve already wrecked the car. I’m introuble!
My dad drives by in the truck. He goes past the car, on down to the next house, pulls in the driveway and turns around. Of course, the road grader has come by and completely removed the hump from the middle of the road. The tire tracks look like someone just drove off the road into the ditch. A little swervy, but not much. Thanks a lot, Mr. Road Grader Man!
Dad pulls up next to the car in the ditch. He walks around the car, then opens the driver’s door, and pulls out my purse.
Hmmm. . . I wonder what that means.
He pulls up to the house, waits on me to get in, and then slams the truck into gear. He doesn’t say a word. ME either. Silence is perfect.
Half a mile from home he says, “Why didn’t you just stay in town if you had to go back at noon?”
“Because I thought I would get in trouble if I just stayed in town. None of my friends detassel. Where was I supposed to go?”
No answer.
When we went in our house, after shedding muddy shoes and boots, Mom asked, “How is it?” and I just walked on to my room, closing the door gently.
Dad said, “She landed on a cement culvert. The radiator is done. The block is cracked. The car will probably be totaled.”
Second day of driving. . . Truth be told – second morning of driving . . .less than 48 hours after getting my license. . . totaled car!
When has “being a novice” caused you problems?
Do you remember your first car accident? Does it still cause that sick feeling in your stomach?
How do we learn to deal with adversity?
I, obviously, didn’t give up driving for the rest of my life!
As I was driving today, I retold this story to myself several times and wondered about connections between this story and school. How do we provide support when novice students need it? And YET, how and when do we also stay out of the way so that learning occurs as a result of the situation?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy,Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#NCTE15: Beginning at the End
The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning and Teaching was the source of the last panel presentation I attended on Sunday at #NCTE15 in Minneapolis. (Trivia note – #NCTE15 participants wrote 33,000 Tweets!)
Rock Stars on Stage:
- Katie Wood Ray
- Kathy Collins
- Vicki Vinton
The session was both funny, illuminating and oh, so insightful. After all, it was an introduction by Katie Wood Ray (who taught Matt Glover everything he knows as well as thinks of the greatest book titles EVER!), Kathy Collins and Vicki Vinton.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the illustrious crowd present: Kylene, Donalynn, Franki, Maggie, Katie, Christina, Dani, Katherine, Ryan, and Katie and many others that I did not see from the front row!
The 13 Beliefs
We explored these beliefs and the important qualities of readers.
And the question: How do we brand our reading? How do we really help students understand the importance of reading?
Kathy also spent time on belief # 3 – how do we appreciate that quirky child (annoying, yes) and make sure that he/she continue to grow and learn? And belief # 8 – Joy! Such a strong belief in joy that it needs to be a secret so that publishers don’t create and market “JOY kits”! And the gifs . . . oh, my! LAUGHTER! Here’s a gif that Kathy Collins did not use but may fit your future needs!
Vicki Vinton began with framing several issues with quotes and examples for the audience to consider.
And an example of grade three CCSS – aligned “reading work” for teachers.
Beliefs that were embedded in Vicki’s presentation included: 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10. And then we moved into a demonstration . . . as we used a problem-solving approach to reading (like math?). “Words aren’t the problem…what does it MEAN when you put all the words together?”
And here’s the most important part of this post. I was the first volunteer for this problem-solving small group. Five of us – all adults and literacy folks – volunteered to participate in this demonstration. We had roles – as students – dyslexic, ADHD, ELL, ELL, and Unmotivated. We had never seen the script and time was fleeting. We actually read from a script and from text projected on the screen and we missed a couple of cues (“oohing” during reading) but we did “get into our parts”!
- As a reader, I was anxious.
- As a reader, I was worried about how well I could read and follow directions.
- As a reader, I was worried about the task.
- As a reader, I had no time to “think” about the text even though I scanned all my “parts” as soon as I had the script in my hands.
- As a reader, I wondered about “how well” we would do as a group.
- As a reader, I wondered if we would meet Vicki’s expectations.
In the interest of full disclosure, dear readers, I must tell you that I presented on a panel with Vicki Vinton last year at #NCTE14. So I was reading a script from a trusted/respected friend/mentor. Another group member was a respected colleague. I provide PD to all sizes of groups so the actual speaking/performing was NOT really one of my concerns.
If I, a confident reader, was worried about how well I would read so I didn’t let the group down, how do our students feel when they aren’t sure of the task or topic?
How do students really feel when they encounter new tasks/situations?
How have we structured our work/learning so that a mindset for growth is present?
The work that we demonstrated was important. The students were figuring out “Minneapolis Simpkin”. The teacher had not pretaught all the vocabulary words in the book. Words from “real students” showed that they were continually revising their thinking about what “Minneapolis Simpkin”was. This was a Peggy Parish “I Can Read” level 1 book. It was not a “hard” text. But the reader certainly had to be thinking in order to make sense of the text. YET, it was a tricky text where the narrator was not explicitly revealed. The text did not say, “Minneapolis Simpkin said, ‘——-.'” Students had to do the work of figuring out the story!
Big Take Away Thoughts:
Before: Remember to think of the student perspective when planning your instruction.
During: Listen to the students. Follow their lead. Don’t be the leader. (Remember that you already know how to read.)
After: Do notice and name the work students did (“Who’s doing the work?”) and discuss where and when this work might be expected to transfer.
What are the ideas that you want to remember from this session/post?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: Choose kind!
Live life, but choose kind!
Be all that you can be, but choose kind!
Live life with gusto, but not at the expense of others – choose kind!
Choose to be the positive impact in the daily lives of those around you!
Focus on what you can control – your own actions!
A photo taken on Nov. 16 in Paris shows the Eiffel Tower illuminated with the colors of the French flag in tribute to the victims of Friday’s attacks. (Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images)
My heart is heavy with grief, but I choose kind!
Empathy for Parisians.
Prayers for Parisians.
A moment of silence.
For teachers, consider:
Advice for Parents about “Breaking News”
Newsela – “Paris is stunned . . .”
Schools Grapple with how to Teach about Paris
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: THANKFUL!
As the leaves change colors and begin to fall from the trees,
As the frost decorates my windshield each morning,
As the debate to “turn on the heat” continues (but what if the temperature goes back up to 70?),
As the calendar pages narrow down,
I have a thankful heart!
My Top Ten!
for my family far and near,
including the cutest 6 month old (yep, half a year) grandson in the world;
for my friends near and far,
whether face-to-face, on twitter, “slicers” or blog readers;
for our veterans both here and gone,
as well as the four generations of family who have served;
for the curiosity of children (and adults),
who dream, imagine, and create a better world;
for the teachers, administrators, and volunteer boards,
who generously give and give and give their time and hearts;
for the farmers who provide our food,
even though I sometimes resent sharing the roads mile after mile;
for the authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers,
who provide so many choices of materials to read/learn from;
for everyone who shares a minute, a laugh, a kind action,
that brightens up days and / or lives of strangers and those less fortunate;
for this great Earth, our melting pot of people,
the air, wind, water, resources, strength, and renewal:
And most of all, for this moment, this single point in time,
that allows me to share my thoughts and my gratitude!
What are you thankful for?
How will we know?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: Literacy Superheroes
Halloween Celebrations are over. November, still warm and toasty, is here.
Did you see a few superheroes?
I spent some time this last week with a few of my superheroes.
Real life superheroes. Authors who inspire! Authors who dare to challenge my thinking. Authors who want a better world for our students. And authors who understand that in order for students to really be life-long learners, the teachers have to step back and trust that inquiry is one avenue that unites students and teachers in real-world learning.
Who is one of my super heroes?
Vicki Vinton, co-author of What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making, is definitely one. Have you read her book? If you haven’t read it,
WHY NOT?
Additional evidence of my esteem would be in these blog posts: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Those nine posts share thoughts from the last year that include Vicki, other rock star literacy educators and many other bloggers as well. It has been an amazing year of learning and I’ve been blessed to have many opportunities to learn along side students, teachers, literacy rock stars and superheroes!
This book was eagerly awaited as Vicki wrote about it on her blog here and here.
The book is a celebration of the 13 belief statements and the 68 study group members who went to Italy in October of 2012 to study the preschools in the town of Reggio Emilia. And as the authors say, “We hope these essays inspire you to move beyond discussion and into action.”
Essay One is “Centering the Child” by Sir Ken Robinson.
Essay Two is “How Reggio Ruined Me for Anything Less than Inquiry-Driven Learning by Vicki Vinton.
Essay Four is “Engagement: A Hub of Human Development by Peter Hohnston and Gay Ivey.
Essay Five is “With an Air of Expectancy” by Katherine Bomer.
Essay Six is “What Price Beauty? A Call for Aesthetic Education” by co-editor Ellin Oliver Keene.
Essay Eight is “The Journey of a Single Hour: Exploring the Rich Promise of an Immediate Release of Responsibility by Katie Wood Ray.
Essays I have yet to read include those by: Deborah Meier, Matt Glover, Kathy Collins and Thomas Newkirk.
Backstories and Essays you can access:
Sir Ken Robinson – “Centering the Child Part 2“
The Story of the Front Cover and Frontispiece
Jeremy Greensmith – “On Teaching the Scaffold“
Alfie Kohn – “To Change What We Do, Consider What We Believe” [This essay is adapted from the Foreword to The Teacher You Want to Be, edited by Matt Glover and Ellin Oliver Keene (Heinemann, 2015)]
Heidi Mills – “On Beliefs that Matter“
What will my actions be?
I’m still mulling that over. The last few weeks have really caused me to think about my beliefs. How do others know what I value? They can see it here in my blog posts as well as on Twitter. “I loved the alignment of beliefs and practices – as in, ‘If we say we believe this, we must therefore do that . . .'”(Vicki Vinton, p. 20) Crosschecking, constantly! Do my beliefs match my actions?
Which essay is your favorite?
With whom are you sharing the essays?
*I think 2015 is the year of the great books . . . new Mindset, Reading Nonfiction (Notice and Note) . . . my TBR stack is NOT getting any shorter!
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL15: A Tale of Two Readers
In seventh grade,
she vowed to read every book in the library. She began in the fiction section, left to right, top to bottom, methodically working her way through the alphabet. Favorite authors included: Louisa Mae Alcott, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Daphne DuMaurier, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy. Reading was about the stories and the stories opened up the world.
Her social studies teacher handed her a copy of The Sun Also Rises. They talked about the themes, symbolism and imagery. It was a paperback. Days were spent on the book. Questions abounded: “Why read this book?” “What was her learning supposed to be?”
Language Arts class was all about diagramming sentences and practicing for a spelling bee. No reading. No writing.
Book two was A Farewell to Arms and more conversations. The depth of conversation was intriguing. Read and then talk? A readerly life was redefined. She was reading with a purpose – for that conversation with an adult, a teacher. Savoring the words. Wondering “Do I really understand this book?” Treasuring the conversations. Bringing the world to the reader.
Why did the student set such a lofty goal?
What role did her teachers play?
How did that goal shift?
A first grade reader
wanted to read books. Her teacher said she had to pick books on the first grade shelf. It was the lowest shelf in the library. The shelf was four-foot long. It was not even completely filled. It had 41 books. By November, the first grader had read all the books because after all, there were no chapter books on the first grade shelf.
One day she chose a book from the second grade shelf. The teacher shook her head, “No, you can’t check those books out. They are only for second grade readers. Read something from our shelf.”
Those words made the girl’s stomach ache so much that she went home sick. She missed 37 days of school in first grade.
How big of an impact does a teacher have?
What teacher actions support a reader?
So what happened to that first grade reader?
When she went home, she read her books from the public library. Three books each Saturday – that was the checkout rule! She devoured the Nancy Drew mysteries and sometimes had to switch to a different book so she could read them exactly in order. Bobbsey Twins was another favorite, and because her brother did not check out books, she also read every one of the Hardy Boys books.
A reader was born in spite of the lack of books at school. And when she went to junior high, her seventh grade teacher was drafted to serve in Vietnam. The long-term substitute for social studies came from the University of Iowa and one day handed her a copy of The Sun Also Rises.
Years later, I still read Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier at least once a year to consider the masterful craft that begins with, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” I remain a voracious reader.
And now YOU know the rest of the story!
How do you know you are having a positive impact on your Readers and Writers?
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
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