#SOL16: Always Learning
Learning.
It comes in many forms.
In many places.
Expected?
Unexpected?
Often,
A journey of
Many ideas
Colliding
And like a pile of legos
Rebuilt in another shape
A different shape
A synthesis of ideas!
The past week has been a journey into read alouds. Perhaps you participated in the #G2Great chat last week. Check out Jenn’s post about that chat, please. With the title, “Teachers Doing the Work: Thoughtful Planning for Intentional Read Aloud“, you must stop and check it out!
And then I’ve continued to read in this new book.
Chapter 2 is all about Read Alouds and the title is magical, “Read-Aloud: Giving Students a Reason to Learn to Read”.
I’m lingering with this idea, ” Next generation read-aloud focuses on read aloud’s power of engagement while still leaving room for intentional but limited teacher talk. It follows the lead of students as much as possible making space for responsive teaching, reflective connections to standards or isolated strategies, and celebrations of productive effort.”
And then this post from Susie Rolander completely consumed my thinking as I continued to wonder about how we help students find their voice and path in literacy learning.. It is about the students and the learning they can show us IF and WHEN we tap into and “turn on their smarts”.
To top it off, I just learned about the research tool in google last night from my colleague Dyan. Where have I been? Why did I not know this? Inside any google document or slide show, you can research straight from the document WITHOUT opening another tab? How, you ask?
Under the tool bar – select research and then you have a myriad of choices.
Images – those that are free to use. Scholar for that quick look at resources . . . .And the link will be inserted with a picture or a reference . . . And MLA or APA style can be added.
As a result of this tool, here’s how I’m feeling:
as I wonder when WordPress will incorporate this feature?
Here’s a portion of my search for Read Aloud under Google Scholar inside a google document.
So much that I can now do without opening 10 other tabs . . . one for a search, one for an image, one for whatever distracted me . . . .
Always learning! Thanks to my friends at #G2Great, @hayhurst3, @burkinsandyaris, @suzrolander and @DyanSundermeyer !
Have you used the google research tool?
Do your students?
Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thank you for this weekly forum!
#TCRWP 89th Saturday Reunion Closing and Recap
Gold or Curmudgeon?
What is your mindset for a full day of professional development?
When the day is a FREE day at Teachers College with the most brilliant minds in the field of literacy, it’s so easy to look for the GOLD! Lucy Calkins’ Closing was titled: Straight Talk where do we go from here? and it was PURE GOLD!
As always, Lucy was passionate about her topic!
The future of our students is in our hands – the teachers. What we believe about our students is what they will accomplish. If we think, “oh, that’s too hard for them!”, it will be too hard. Our expectations set the ceiling for students! We MUST dream impossible dreams. We must work towards challenging goals. If not, our students will continue to be stuck in their current reality.
Is that what we really want?
As a writer, I appreciated hearing that a younger Lucy writer was asked to try 25 different beginnings for a piece. When we are challenged to do better, we can and do accomplish bigger and better things!
Takeaways:
Study student work.
Give ambitious feedback.
Teach, teach, teach – and yes, this is not the way we were taught.
Work collaboratively – find/make a group that can and does work together!
Resource - Full 
