June

Text Resources on Race &

 Anti-Racism

Thank you to Dr. Jay Marks of Oakland Schools for sharing this organized list. 

Educators:

1. Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not
2. Books About Race That Everyone Should Be Reading Right Now
3. Anti-Racism Resource     
4. Framing Brave Conversations About Race and Ethnicity
5. Teaching as Activism, Teaching as Care

 

Students:     

1. Teaching About Race, Racism and Police Violence
2. Black Lives Matter Still Matters       
3. Let’s Talk! Facilitating Critical Conversations with Students 
4. Let’s Talk About It!

 

Parents:

1. George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. What do we tell our children?
2. Raising Race Conscious Children
3. Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Roundup Resources 
4. Talking to Children After Racial Incidents 
5. Books About Race That Everyone Should Be Reading Right Now

Teaching Lessons Learned

On May 19th, both the SOEL & IDLL networks came together via Zoom for one last meeting of the year. Over the 2019-2020 year, our face-to-face meetings included a guest teaching artist from UMS, researchers from UM, visits to Washtenaw County schools, the UMMA and EMU C2W.  When we shifted to distance teaching and learning, we wanted to reflect on where we were and where we are going. 

A theme we noticed from our discussions in May was engagement in literacy. Here:

• a SOEL teacher highlights one way she engaged 3rd graders in a shared text, 
• an IDLL English teacher highlights a way she engaged high school students in storytelling, 
• and an ELL SOEL teacher shares how her teacher research and book study turned into professional learning for her colleagues. 

The Use of an Interactive Storyboard Engaged Third-grade Students in an Asynchronous Read Aloud of Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

by SOEL teacher Stephanie Burnstein

 

As students embarked on this epic journey with the main character, Minli,  through nightly read alouds posted to Seesaw, they posted comments identifying any newly introduced story elements. Their challenge was to make predictions about and connections between characters, symbolic objects, setting changes, and story arcs within the frame story and the embedded folk tales. These would then be added to an oversized storyboard that was organized by chapter and comprised of color-coordinated Post-it notes. Red string was used to show the interwoven connections students identified, and the storyboard eventually included a kite with red strings that led to the Old Man of the Moon perched atop a mountain in the clouds. 

As the journey progressed, students realized that the storyboard’s red strings, or borrowed lines, represented the “strings of destiny” from the novel’s “Book of Fortune” and that many of the symbolic objects and characters showed up again and again in slightly different forms, thus tying together all of the embedded stories into one intricately woven tale. 

Using Flipgrid to Storytell

by IDLL Teacher Shelly Venema

Keeping students engaged in remote learning is challenging. In fact, teaching the way we used to has pointed out what should and should not be done. So, one successful way I taught writing and telling stories involved an authentic experience, Google docs, Flipgrid, and peer critiques. This is a project I would repeat!

Raising Expectations and Instructional Rigor For English Learners Through Effective Instructional Practice

by SOEL Teacher Rhoshawda Miller

For my TESOL program at Eastern Michigan University I created a proposal and powerpoint based on the book No More Low Expectations For English Learners that I read for my for my Teacher Action Research. The materials focus on the topic: Raising Expectations and Instructional Rigor For English Learners Through Effective Instructional Practice, to help classroom teachers best meet the needs of English learners in their classrooms. The powerpoint is for a professional development for teachers and with the  Empowering Diverse Voices for the 2020 MITESOL conference in mind.

Stay Home- Stay Safe During COVID 19

Health and Wellness

• UM SOE Teacher Hierarchy of Needs-  COVID-19 Resources

• Michigan Cares- MVU free courses for emotional and mental wellbeing

• KQED exercise to help families stay balanced at home

• Teaching Tolerance-  Teaching Through Coronavirus: What Educators Need Right Now

• Cosmic Kids Yoga and Mindfulness

• Countering Online Hate Speech

• Teacher Interrupted:  Leaning into Social-Emotional Learning Amid the COVID 19 Crisis

English Learner Resources

• Serving EL Students and Families- Teaching Tolerance

• Wayne RESA Padlet of EL/Multilingual Resources

• COVID Fact Sheets in 15 languages

• Spanish children's Stories

TV Resources

• Netflix Documentaries 

• Detroit Public Television- PBS Learning at Home During the COVID Crisis-   Many resources and exact weekly schedules for ALL ages

Reading Resources

• FREE Time for Kids Digital Library

• Free Ranger Rick from NWF
• Story Time from Space- astronauts read aloud!

• PBSKids and YouTube offer full episodes of Molly of Denali, helping kids age 4-8 interact with Informational Text

• Authors Everywhere features Children's and Young Adult Authors and Illustrators sharing their work.

• Author Grace Lin reads her works online.

• The Classroom Bookshelf-  K-8

• Even More Authors and Illustrators...

• Storyline Online

• Elementary Reading Challenge

• NEWS ELA is offering FREE access to their ELA, Science, Social Studies and SEL articles for the rest of the school year. 

• Free Graphic Novels at Comic Extra.

• Scholastic Learn at Home resources 

• Illustrator Jarrett Lerner offers activity sheets and comic book panels 

Writing Resources

• 826 Michigan and 826 Digital Writing Resources 

• My COVID-19 Time Capsule 

• Journal Prompts to facilitate coping during the COVID 19 Pandemic

• Student's Journals Could Become Primary Sources

• Sharing Our Notebooks- Writing teacher

• Using and Creating Informational Texts at Home

• At Home with Kwame Alexander- free poetry writing lessons

• NY Times Mentor Text 

•  Kelly Gallagher- building deep readers and writers

• 100 Writing Prompts from John Spencer
• 
  

• Story Starters- Creative Writing Prompts for Kids- Scholastic

• Outdoor Writing Activities

• Outdoor Activities to Improve Writing

Science/STEM

• The Science Penguin 8 Free Elementary Science Activities 

• STEM Activities for Families

• 84 Easy Science Lessons You Can Do at Home

Math

• Khan Academy Schedule

• DreamBox

Social Studies

• Echoes and Reflections online webinars for teaching the Holocaust

• Webinars from Teaching Primary Sources

• SOCIAL STUDIES Shutdown Learning Community on Flipgrid by Dave Johnson-  Password: KeepLearning

• KQED- Above the Noise for Teens- Current topics 

• Read Write Inquire:   Social studies inquiry, reading, writing, and reasoning. From UM

• People's Historians Online

Music, Art, Travel

• UMMA Writing Prompts

• Resources from the Detroit Institute of Arts

• Seattle Symphony

• Discovery Education- from the Discovery Channel 

• 12 Famous Museums you can Tour Online- Travel and Leisure

• Common Sense Best Museums online

• Google Arts and Culture


• Hamilton's America

• Cincinnati Zoo virtual visit 

• Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems

Sample Lesson Plans and Tips from Teachers

• Pernille Ripp: Choose your Own Adventure

• Schedule of Learning Template

• Tips from Teachers on Teaching Online

• Spreadsheet of categorized digital resources- Melissa Wing

• Remote Learning Toolkit- Wayne RESA

Teaching Online Resources and Sample Lessons

• CMU Writing Project Continuity of Learning Webinar Series 

• WISD Remote Learning Tech PD

• REMC Google Classroom course

• Friday Institute MOOCs

• EdSurge has many articles, podcasts and resources for PK-12 Teachers facing online instruction

• Catlin Tucker tips for designing online lessons

• Free K-12  online learning resources for teachers from We Are Teachers 

• Education companies offering free subscriptions

• Free apps

• Achieve 3000 webinars for online teaching

• Suggested daily schedule from NESCA and suggestions
  
  

December

Everyone Learns from Teacher Researchers

For the last six school years, many SOEL (Study of Early Literacy) educators have guided parts of their professional learning through the process of Teacher Action Research.  

Put simply, Teacher Action Research is a cycle for an educator to:

1. question something in their practice; 

2. situate it in the context of the field;

3. plan and conduct a study; 

4. analyze their data;

5. make change and go public

Now that SOEL has many experienced Teacher Researchers, several have been able to go public with their findings through presentations and publications, meaning other educators in the field are now learning from their research! 

Most recently, SOEL members from YCS and Milan presented at the NCTE conference in Baltimore (see slides below), and an AAPS BLE published her research in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan.  

Reading both will show you not only what SOEL and Teacher Action Research looks like, but you'll learn something new about a specific aspect of literacy instruction. 

The Literacy of Art

For our December meetings, both SOEL and IDLL will have experiences with the literacy of art through our collaborations with UMS and UMMA.

On December 4th, Guest Teaching Artist Melanie Rick from UMS and The Kennedy Center will meet with SOEL at Paddock Elementary to model and teach Reading Art Across the Curriculum: Observe. Infer. Inquire. 

On December 11, IDLL will participate in the Art of Inquiry with the educational coordinators at UMMA to explore more in depth:  

• what art as text and literacies are;

• what this means in all disciplines;

• how inquiry feels and what it looks like;

• how we, as educators, can provide experiences that allow students to explore and make connections; that increase depth of knowledge and desire to learn and connect;
• how we can engage students with opportunities to synthesize information in a meaningful way

Please ask a SOEL or IDLL member about their December meetings to hear more about their experiences with the literacy of art!

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

February 20th- Creating Context for Teaching Night

WISD 8:30-3:30

FREE

*Most applicable to secondary ELA teachers

The Holocaust Memorial Museum presents Creating Context for Teaching Night. 

The workshop will include: 

• How to teach Night within the larger historical framework of the Holocaust 

• A history of antisemitism for context prior to reading Night 

• An exploration of materials and instructional strategies available in Echoes and Reflections to support effective teaching of the memoir 

• The use of interdisciplinary materials including art work, photographs, poetry and personal narratives 

• Identifying significant themes of the memoir 

*SCHECHs Pending. REGISTER HERE

SAVE THE DATES: February 27, March 5, March 26 for Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Disciplinary Literacy Essentials.

This is a three day training free to all Washtenaw County Educators K-12.

More information, registration and location to come!

The Diverse Lending Library at WISD

Don't forget about the Diverse Lending Library available to all Washtenaw County educators. E-mail me to check out books! 

For questions on anything in this Literacy Newsletter- please contact Melissa Brooks-Yip at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org 

November

What are we reading in SOEL and IDLL?

The Study of Early Literacy kicked off year seven this fall as a community of learners committed to deepening our literacy instructional practices through reading, experiences, and Teacher Action Research.  What we are reading aligns with the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy PK, K-3 and 4-5, while some texts also support literacy integration, disciplinary literacy, and Culturally RelevantTeaching. 

The following practitioner texts support each SOEL member’s learning goal, as well as give background to what we’ll see during school visits in Washtenaw county.

• Letter Lessons and First Words
• All About Words
• No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching
• Reading, Writing, and Talk: Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners, K-2
• Every Child a Super Reader: Seven Strengths to Open a World of Possible
• Interactive Writing Across Grades: A Small Practice with Big Results PreK-5
• Literacy Teacher's Playbook K-2 and 3-6
• No More Science Kits or Texts in Isolation
• No More Low Expectations for English Learners

The Inquiry into DisciplinaryLiteracy and Learning (IDLL) began our fourth year this fall as a learning network committed to building on previous work and further study of the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in the Secondary Classroom, just officially released to the state of Michigan in June 2019.  Our text, Real World Literacies, helps us to see what literacy looks like in the disciplines while highlighting authentic literacy experiences connected to community.  We are excited to also visit Washtenaw County schools and EMU this year to examine disciplinary literacy in action.

Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Essentials for Instruction in Disciplinary Literacy

In October, we offered the first ever three day series examining these three documents a little closer. The Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework, and Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in the Secondary Classroom, all have themes of inquiry in learning, literacy in the disciplines, and teaching future citizens.  Stay tuned for another offering of this series this winter and/or spring!

Additional Literacy and Social Studies Resources  

C3teachers.org- Resources to support the C3 Framework through the Inquiry Design Model

1619project- The1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. 

ReadInquireWrite- Resources for teaching reading, reasoning and writing with sources through Social Studies inquiry

Teaching Tolerance-Resources to help teachers and schools teach educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.

Commonlit.org Text Sets- Text sets to support historical, political and cultural topics across genres.

...and don't forget The Diverse Lending Library at WISD!