Reflection: Top 10 Posts for 2016
Which of my 131 posts during 2016 were most read?
In reverse order (10 to 1) with a few notes:
10.#SOL16: #WhyIWrite – No More Red Ink!
What happens when a teacher “edits” with red ink?
9. #SOL16: What are you planning to read?
Five books in February that were on my “MUST READ” list from authors: Stacey Shubitz, Kate and Maggie Roberts, Kim Yaris and Jan Burkins, Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen, and Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie.
8. #SOL16: Professional Development
Characteristics of professional development were highlighted for four different “sessions” attended within a two-week time frame. Are these important for you?
- Choice?
- Free?
- Learning Collaboratively with Others?
- Available 24/7 to Revisit?
- Passionate and Inspiring?
7. #TCRWP Writing: Takeaways Day 2
Different ways to share – a symphony and a museum share from Celena Larkey, why students need to write with a pen from Colleen Cruz, letting students lead with mentor texts with Mary Ehrenworth, and “DON”T KILL THE BOOK” with Donald Graves keynote.
6. #TCRWP Reading: Takeaways Day 2
The value of READING mini-lessons with Amanda Hartman, the value of “practice, practice, practice with Kathleen Tolan, What readers need in order to become AVID readers with Mary Ehrenworth, and Matt de La Pena’s keynote! “Teachers and authors don’t often immediately see the results of their work. Patience . . . you will!”
5. #SOL16: Who’s Doing the Work?
Have you read this book? You should have annotated and dog-eared it by now! This post celebrates the twitter chats (with links to the storified archives) as well as an inside look into many of the activities Kim and Jan developed in their study guide. How do you know you have “learned” something? How do you expect students to share their learning? So many DIFFERENT ways are shared here!
4. #TCRWP Reading: Takeaways Day 3
Learning about the many ways of shared reading with Amanda Hartman, inquiry for developing fluency with Kathleen Tolan, close reading with Kate Roberts and the keynote session with Donalyn Miller. What a fabulous learning day!
3. #TCRWP Reading: Takeaways Day 1
A Lucy Calkins’ keynote on developing reading community, sessions with Amanda Hartman on “one-focused teaching point” and Kathleen Tolan – a mind-blowing small group read aloud. Never.thought.of.a.read.aloud.for.a.small.group. And so obviously why I need to continue to learn. Such a privilege to have been a part of Kathleen’s June Institute.
2. #SOL16: March Challenge Day 23 – DIY Toolkits
Have you read this book? You can create your own tools after reading this book. Better yet . . . study it with a friend and then work together on creating tools. Tip: Best part of this blog post is the “summary tool” that Kate created and the links to other pages about this session (Tara, Sally and NCTE).
1. #TCRWP Writing: Takeaways Day 1#TCRWP Writing: Takeaways Day 1
This post includes quotes from Lucy Calkins (opening keynote), revision across the day with Celena Larkey, the power of stories with Colleen Cruz and planning for two or three days of small group sessions at a time from Amanda Hartman. What an amazing first day of Learning for the 2016 #TCRWP Writing Institute!
Reflection:
Data is so interesting. I was not surprised at the popularity of the #TCRWP posts as the June learning has been quite high on the list in previous years. Some of those posts continue to be “all-time” highs as well. I was surprised that the top 10 was split evenly between #SOL posts and #TCRWP posts and absolutely delighted to see that three of the posts where Kathleen Tolan really stretched my brain were in the top 10. I learned so much from Kathleen this past summer and YET had so much more that I needed to learn. It’s time to practice, practice, practice. I do write more “slices” than any other “type” of posts so I thank my slicer readers for boosting those stats! It was great to reread those posts with a “reader’s eye” as I considered WHY those posts were read more often than others!
What are you reading? What are you writing?
How do you set goals and reflect on those goals?
And as always, dear readers . . .
#SOL16: March Challenge Day 23 – DIY Toolkits
My learning from the 90th TCRWP Saturday Reunion continues . . .
Session 2: DIY Toolkits for Reading Workshop Teachers!!! with Kate Roberts
Please check out what fellow slicers said about this session:
- Tara Smith’s blog post on #dothework is here.
- Sally Donnelly’s notes on this session are here. Scroll down to “Kate”.
- And my own notes – Session 3 here from NCTE 15 with Kate, Maggie and Mike
The book will be available in APRIL and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival!
So I’m deviating from the norm here as I’m not going to recapture all the information from the session (see the links above). Instead I want you to think about what I heard as the spirit and the intent behind this session, at the TCRWP’s 90th Saturday Reunion.
Kate began with laughter. The whole point of the book that she and Maggie have written is to “make our teaching go better! Make it easier! ‘I said it!’” After 17 years of teaching “every single year it feels like our jobs get harder!” “We want to raise the bar because our students will rise to the challenge.”
“It has never been easy to teach WELL!”
There is an art to being a good teacher and teaching well. Now more than ever, all students need good teachers. How do we do that? How do we teach the content and meet the individual needs of our students that seem to be a never ending task every year. You have to “Do The Work.” But you don’t have to do it alone!
The tools in Kate and Maggie’s book will help us. How?
“Tools extend our reach and help us tackle big problems!!!”
For students, the tools put the work in their hands. They provide prompts so students can and do “Do the work”.
But more importantly, for teachers these tools will also serve as “mentor tools” so that we can create the “just right” tools that our students need.
Will there be a tool for every student? Every situation?
Only if the book is 1,000+ pages long and has perpetual updating. But what this book will do is provide a framework and enough models that you will be comfortable with adapting and / or one day creating your own tools! Kate even suggested that groups of teachers should get together to create tools!
This was the second time that I watched Kate create a tool in less than 5 minutes for a topic drawn from the audience. Let me repeat. . . a topic from the audience . . . create a tool based on a request from the audience . . .The sheer recollection of that tool-making takes my breath away. Kate’s ability to have a conversation with a packed room of teachers and administrators and simultaneously create a tool – a demonstration notebook page – is awe-inspiring. Here’s what that page looked like as it was developed.
Summarizing
Step one: Draft text
Step 2: Add Title – Cloud like color around it
Step 3: One strategy
Step 4: Second strategy
Step 5: Post-its = space for student practice =Final page
VOILA!
The goal for the page:
- Match the purpose (Increase your confidence in being able to make your own page)
- Make in 4 minutes or less
- Be visible
- Kids should see text as quickly as possible (My interpretation – not after 30 minute lecture!)
How would a page like this help you, the teacher?
How would a page like this help your students?
Process/Goals:
The goal of this post was not to simply recount the workshop content. I gave the reader two links for additional information and the book that will be released in April. I really wanted to focus on the “WHY”! And then share just how quickly Kate created the demonstration notebook page. In order to meet those goals, I reread my notes, Tara’s post, Sally’s post and crossed off the “how – to” details for everything but those 4-5 minutes of creation. Truth: Today it took me longer to locate the pictures that I wanted to use than it did to write the blog post.
Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. It’s the March Slice of Life Challenge posts are DAILY!
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