#SOL20: Patriotism
Basic Theme: Red, White and Blue
Secondary Theme: Stars
Thirty six squares beginning at 2.5 inches each form the basis. Thirty six different designs with and without stars as well as a sashing of white on white stars and even starts stitched as a part of the quilting. Thousands of stars.
More importantly, my first patchwork design. Hours selecting. Hours laying out. Hours sewing and then the picture in my head did not match the final design. And then rinse and repeat times three.
A noble goal. A gift times three. Completed. Mailed. Ready for the holiday. The red, white and blue of liberation.
Table runner – left half
Table runner – right half
Which was emphasized: process or product?
Had you guessed from this post? Link
How was this process like instruction? Education?
How will you share your patriotism on July 4th?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL20: What If?
What If?
What does it look like if/when students resume classes in school buildings?
Maybe this?
Or this?
Or this?
What will school look like?
What will students look like?
How will everyone be safe? secure? and ready to learn?
Who makes those determinations?
From Sarah Gross and a superintendent in New Jersey: Link 91 questions.
What If?
It’s hard to plan for the future
So many uncertainties
So many possibilities
So many paths
Too early to choose
So many uncertainties.
Rest.
Rejuvenate.
Dream of “best case” solutions.
What is your plan?
What will you do in the interim while waiting for decisions?
What questions are swirling in your brain?
What if students, communities, and school staff planned collaboratively?
What do you envision?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
August #TCRWP Writing: Day 4
#TCRWP
Hallowed Halls of Learning,
Ivy League Halls of Learning,
1300 Learners
This Week
Here
There,
Laughter,
Tears,
Learning
and then a Focus for Me.
Closing Choice Workshop:
Supporting Kids with IEPs
Creating an Environment, a Schedule, and Plans that
Accommodate All Your Learners
by Val Geschwind
As we began, Val encouraged us to think of one child. One child to be at the center of our thinking in every consideration for the environment, the schedule and the plans. Just one child. I always loved when Heidi Hayes Jacob did this. So powerful!
So here he is:
What about the Environment for this guy?
The depth of Val’s planning blew me away.
And remember that I come from the field of special education.
It was my life for many, many, many years.
Self- Monitoring
Partnerships
Talk
Physical
Support Risk-Taking
Val shared her thinking as well as explanations for each of these slides in her presentation. The pictures truly added to my understanding, but the pictures were not the main focus. Our focus was on the child at the center of our attention. Were his/her socio-emotional needs met? Physical needs? And what about supporting Risk-Taking?
How is that one child doing? Do you know if that child is “learning”? What evidence do you use?
There’s a paradox here because writing is one area where many might propose that a child with very specific needs as identified by IEP goals must receive a different kind of writing workshop. That view is often focused on a very narrow subset of constrained skills that includes letter naming and recognition, drill on letter formation, and other worksh*ts (a totally out of context reference by Lucy Calkins in her opening keynote on July 31 to the materials that some students use during writing time). However, in the context of “All students are general education students FIRST”, they must receive differentiated instruction in the classroom writing workshop FIRST.
WHY?
Because as Lanny Ball wrote so eloquently this week for the “Fundamentals of Writing Workshop” series, it is all about Time, Choice, Response, and Community and Cambourne’s Conditions of Learning: Immersion, Demonstrations, Expectations, Responsibility, Approximation, Practice, and Response. (TWT, August 1, 2017, here) Aren’t those the things you want for your “one child” above?
Is every child successful in Writing Workshop?
Not necessarily. But are writers in Writing Workshop classes achieving at higher levels than other classrooms? Are the students able to write independently? Do they CHOOSE to write? What does the data say? What does their instruction say?
How are you measuring “Success” in Writing?
What environmental issues would you add to Val’s list?
#SOL17: Silver Lake
Where do YOU begin?
Here’s a simple list of words from my writing notebook
Begun with an early morning observation
Sipping coffee
Waking up
At Silver Lake
Some words from the present.
Some from the past.
Some added over time.
How does a list evolve?
Grow?
Morph?
What categories would you make?
While waiting for inspiration to strike,
I’ve learned to keep my fingers moving across the keyboard.
Looking for photos
Looking for organization
and word clouds suddenly appeared in my brain.
Changing colors
Changing shapes
Changing colors
Adding a filter.
Using a visual as a stimulus . . .
Ready to write!
One of Those Moments
One of those moments
Etched on my cornea
Burnt into my brain
Captured in my heart
Gray sky
Combinations of clouds
White, thin, wispy
Surrounded by large and fluffy white-topped clouds
With an under girding of gray
Ready for a sprinkle or
Perhaps a shower or
Sheets of rain or
Buckets full pouring from the heavens
Harmony in thoughts shared
Rich in laughter
Engrossed in fun
So much to do!
A boat ride,
Pictionary,
Writing talk,
3 Truths and a Lie, and
Learning to play a ukelele.
Friends
Voxer Cousins
Readers
Writers
Thinkers
Teachers
Students
Bound together by a few moments in time
One of those perfect summer moments!
June 24 – Silver Lake, MN
How do your thoughts become your ideas?
What shapes your format?
Where does your organization come from?
How do you share this process with your students?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
Process:
My first draft was totally a description – what I saw, heard and felt while outside
But it seemed really boring
And felt like it could be any lake anywhere
So this is Draft Two . . . after some revision!
#DigiLitSunday: Purpose
Check out other #DigiLit Sunday posts at Margaret Simon’s Reflections on the Teche here.
Purpose: The End or the Beginning?
In the process of getting ready for #NCTE16, I was considering not blogging about this topic today. And yet, here I am because of three different conversations this week. I vacillated between:
What’s the “purpose” for assessment?
What’s the “purpose” for instruction?
What’s the “purpose” for digital tools?
- What does the research say?
Doug Fisher and John Hattie both shared this effect size for “Teacher Clarity” in Iowa in separate October, 2016 professional development sessions. That’s well about the “.40” that is touted as a “cut score” and is almost the equivalent of TWO YEARS of learning for students. Therefore, Teacher Clarity is important in instruction, and equally important in assessment aligned with instruction and perhaps has the greatest importance in the selection of digital tools for students.
2. What do teachers need to consider in the planning process?
Teachers spend hours poring over lesson plans and planning for instruction that will meet ALL students’ needs. Searching for the right resources, planning that delivery that will empower students and most of all trying to make learning purposeful and engaging. That’s not easy as some content is hard for students to really “grapple with” for real understanding ans not just rote memorization. However, if the goal is “LEARNING” and is focused on Teacher Clarity, won’t that require the teacher to BEGIN with “What will the students know and be able to Do after they complete this learning? So the teacher process might include some or all of these steps depending on the curriculum that exists and the expectations of any given curriculum.
Retrieved from ict/lesson plan
Each step in the process above has ideas for “possible tools” to use during the planning and / or learning process.
3. But what about the learning environment?
Which classroom promote accelerated learning for students? How and where are students preparing for today, tomorrow and life “after school”?
What should classrooms look like?
4. What tools should the teacher and the students use?
The learning purpose should determine the possible range of tools that both the teacher and the students will use. Will the students ALWAYS have a voice in selecting the tools? Probably not, YET. Should the students have a bigger voice in selecting the tools that will showcase their learning? YES! Students should be allowed encouraged to showcase their learning in a variety of ways. Learning should not always look like “cookie cutter” factory models.
As I’ve thought about purpose and its role in learning, this is the way that I have viewed it . . . with “purpose” as a critical factor at each level.
But now I wonder if “PURPOSE” should be the circle that houses the other four circles. Maybe purpose really is all encompassing and is the “driver” behind all decisions. So are the learning targets the center and purpose the frame for all learning?
Where do you believe “Purpose” lives in the daily decision-making processes involved in instruction?
#SOL16: Back to School
Joyful Learning!
Depending on your geographic location,
- you could have been in school already for over two weeks – Allison in Arizona,
- have completed one week with students – Justin in Kentucky and Kathryn in Minnesota,
- have students returning today – Julieanne in California or
- even have students waiting for floodwaters to recede like Margaret in Louisiana.
Whereever you live, the calendar is marching on, and school will soon begin.
In 2015 this back to school blog post focused on relationships and learning priorities while the 2014 post here included blogs and quotes and Lucy Calkins’ challenge to “outgrow ourselves as readers”. And more recently, this #DigiLit Sunday post was also about planning for the new school year.
Are you prepared? And what does that mean for you?
Is your room ready?
Have you added some alternative seating? Additional partner seating? How do you allow the students to have some say and choice in the room arrangement? What does your library look like? Are students able to easily access books in the classroom library?
Are your first instructional days planned?
How will you greet your students? What is your first Read Aloud going to be? Your first mini lesson for reading workshop? Writing workshop? Your own first demonstration writing piece? And what about that first poem?
“The First Day of School
I wonder if my drawing will be as good as theirs
I wonder if they’ll like me, or just be full of stares
I wonder if my teacher will look like mom or gram
And I wonder if my puppy will wonder where I am.~Aileen Fisher”
Have you set your goals for the year?
My wish is that every child will have joyful learning every day of school that will allow him or her to grow beyond belief in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, math and research (science and social studies). Each classroom will have a skilled, enthusiastic and passionate teacher who focuses on meeting the needs of the whole child!
Not sure if you are ready? Need some more ideas? Sarah Brown Wessling writes about her pledge to students here or check out this NEA Back to School Guide!
Are you REALLY ready?
What are your planning priorities right now?
And what about personal priorities for your very own children? Are they starting a new school year as well? As a student? As a teacher? As a parent?
What rituals do you share with them?
My son and I had a first day “back to school tradition” of dinner out. Dinner out at a fancy schmantzy restaurant where we could talk about the first day of school and everything that happened away from the rush of meal prep or the stack of ever-present work. A joyful celebration of new beginnings!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL16: Planning
Words,
Phrases,
Sentences,
Pictures in my brain
Some clear
Some jumbled . . .
This way or that?
Physically sorting materials,
Ideas,
Charts, and
Lessons.
Mentally sorting . . .
One path visible
One path unseen . . .
How do I know I’m making progress?
It’s too early for product . . .
The fact that I persevere
I continue
More jotting
More drafting
It’s all ugly
Collecting,
Sifting,
Rearranging,
That first draft.
Rewind.
That second draft.
Revise.
Have another go.
Another.
And yet another.
Revision will continue even through that first presentation.
Revision in planning . . .
Revision in drafting . . .
Revision in life . . .
How do you see evidence of your planning and drafting?
How do you allow the time for both the visible and the invisible planning and drafting?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Writing: Planning, Revising, Editing, Rewriting, or Trying a New Approach (CCR. W.5)
If you are in a Common Core state, you may already have digested this standard:
“CCR. W.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.”
If you are still trying to figure out what it means for you as the teacher (instruction) or for the students (learning) or even to real-life authors, you need to check out Kate Messner’s book: Real Revision – Authors’ Strategies to Share with Student Writers.
Why?
It’s written by a REAL teacher who is also a REAL author who has REAL practical, crystal clear examples. You can preview parts of the book online here at Stenhouse!
Not convinced?
Here is the Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Real Revision: Where Stories Start to Sing
Chapter 2: Creating a Revision-Friendly Classroom
Chapter 3: The Elephant in the Room (And It’s Ticking Away the Minutes!)
Chapter 4: Back to Brainstorming
Chapter 5: Real Authors Don’t Plan . . . Or Do They?
Chapter 6: Big-Picture Revision
Chapter 7: Returning to Research
Chapter 8: Magic in the Details
Chapter 9: Are the People Real?
Chapter 10: Whose Voice Is It Anyway?
Chapter 11: The Words We Choose
Chapter 12: Cut! Cut! Cut!
Chapter 13: Talking It Out
Chapter 14: Clean Up: The Copyediting Process
Chapter 15: What If the Writing Is Already Good?
Chapter 16: Technology Tools of the Trade
Chapter 17: The Revision Classroom, Revisited
Appendix
Resources
Index
What grade levels would benefit from this text?
This book is listed for grades 3-9, but it could work at any grade with some thoughtful planning by the teacher. The copyright is 2011 but the strategies will withstand time!
Check it out!
Remember:
“When you’re done, you’ve just begun!” – Lucy Calkins
Example:
Chapter 6 “Big Picture Revision”
“Revise for:
- theme – What is this piece really about?
- seeing the forest instead of the trees – Create a “to-do” list
- reading to revise – listen to the piece; how does it sound?”
And then how is this supported by what this first grader revises here in “Austin’s Butterfly”
and what Lucy Calkins says here in “Being a Good Writer”?
Resource - Full 