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.

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! 

September Back-to-School Edition!

Back-to-School Resources

Educators know the first weeks of the school year are a crucial time to get to know our students as individuals with unique personalities, as learners in our classrooms, and as members of families and communities.  Building relationships with students and their families should be our first goal.  If you are looking for some new ideas and resources, check out:

• Teaching Tolerance-New Opportunities for Back to School shares best practices for policies and family communications;

• Pernille Ripp's Getting to Know Our Students surveys;

• NCTE's Actions for a Culturally Sustaining Classroom Environment;

• Ernest Morrell's 7 Strengths of Super Readers Series & Parent Pledge;

• MDE's Essentials for Families- What Families Can do to Support Reading and Writing

What do you do to get to know students and families?  Share in the comments! 

Professional Learning Opportunities

SOEL and IDLL-

The Study of Early Literacy (PreK-5) and the Inquiry into Disciplinary Literacy and Learning (6-12) are our networks to support best practices in literacy instruction.  If you are interested in learning more about either, please email me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org  

KRA Data Day-  If you are administering the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment this fall and are interested in exploring how you can use the data to inform your instruction, join us on October 18th 8:30-3:30 at WISD.  FREE to all.    

Register HERE

Social Studies Standards, Framework and Disciplinary Literacy! 

Join us for a series of dates to help deepen our understanding of these three documents. 
 October 21, October 29, and November 7   8:30-3:30 at Saline Liberty School.   Free to Washtenaw County educators.  $25 for those outside of the county.

Register HERE for this three day series! 

June

SOEL Celebrates Another Year of Learning!

As the 2018-2019 school year comes to a close, SOEL teachers took time in our last meetings to reflect on and share what they learned about literacy instruction, the changes they made in teaching because of that learning, and how that, in turn, resulted in student learning. 
*Please see our charts from PreK SOEL and K-3 SOEL and our quick visual summary below:

IDLL and the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials! 

After giving feedback three years ago, studying them for two, and being a pilot county for one, The Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in Secondary Classrooms have finally been publicly released.  In 2019-2020, our Inquiry into Disciplinary Literacy and Learning will continue to study disciplinary literacy through book studies, school visits, and collaborations with EMU and UM.

2019 Reading Book Lists from ILA

Just in time for summer reading, The International Literacy Association released the Choices Reading Lists. Each year, thousands of children, young adults, and educators around the United States select their favorite recently published books for the Choices reading lists. These lists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to help readers of all ages find books they will enjoy. Check them out for yourself and the children in your life:

Teacher's Choice

Children's Choice

Young Adult Choices

Summer Learning Opportunities

Disciplinary Writing Institute
 9:00-3:00  at EMU
June 24-25

Register HERE

*This connects to the newly released 6-12 Disciplinary Literacy Essential Instructional Practices and our IDLL network here at WISD

Teaching the Holocaust, Empowering Students

July 31 8:30-3:30 at WISD

Register HERE

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy-
 One Day Overviews

 August 1st for grades K-3 at WISD 8:30-3:30

August 2nd for grades 4-5 at WISD 8:30-3:30

At the end of each session, registrants will be invited to join the SOEL network for the 2019-2020 school year. 

**Also, don't forget about the online modules for the PreK and K-3 Essentials

May

Why is Diverse Literature Important in All Classrooms?

A start to our diverse books lending library: picture books on top,
upper EL and MS in the middle, HS on the bottom. 

Thoughtful conversations and planning with SOEL and IDLL teachers, guidance on text selection from guest speaker Dr. Laura Jimenez from our Responsive Teaching Institutes, a wish and a book list from the late YCS teacher Caroline Jacob, and ongoing collaboration with Dr. Shayla Griffin, Culture and Diversity Consultant at WISD, are all part of helping us build and shape a county-wide lending library for diverse books.  After selecting some K-12 diverse texts, SOEL met with Dr. Griffin to help understand and communicate why diverse and multicultural literature is important in all classrooms. Dr. Griffin says:

 1. Multicultural books act as mirrors that affirm, validate, and celebrate our children’s identities and lived experiences and the contributions people like them have made to the world.

Dr. Shayla R. Griffin, PhD. 2018

2. Multicultural books act as windows that expose students to the diversity of the broader world. 

3. Multicultural books can help students and educators interrupt bias and prejudice. 



Stay tuned for more on the Caroline Jacob Memorial Diverse Lending Library available in the 2019-2020 school year for Washtenaw County educators. 

What are We Reading to Learn? 

SOEL Teachers summarize, review and recommend books from
professional reading time this year

Professional books, and the time to read them, has always been part of SOEL since we formed in 2013. 
A few of our titles this year were:

• Every Child a Super Reader: Seven Strengths to Enter a World of Possible, by Ernest Morrell and Pam Allyn, was a favorite for a second year in a row.   Centered on Belonging, Curiosity, Friendship, Kindness, Confidence, Courage and Hope as Super Reader strengths, this book will certainly be on our SOEL list again next year, as it connects specifically to Essentials #1 and #10. 

• Interactive Writing Across Grades: A Small Practice with Big Results PreK-5  by Kate Roth and Joan Dobrowski.  Connecting to Essential #6, this text is highly engaging for the reader with many practical, immediate applications of the interactive writing practice.  This was voted to be a SOEL selection again next year as well.

• The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, K-2: Four Steps for Turning Assessment Data into Goal Directed Instruction, by Jennifer Seravallo. Connecting to Essentials #3 and #9, this coaching text directs teachers in using formative assessment to meet every child's literacy needs.  This text, as well as the grades 3-6 edition, was voted for offering again in SOEL next year. 

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy- One Day Overviews

 August 1st for grades K-3 at WISD 8:30-3:30

August 2nd for grades 4-5 at WISD 8:30-3:30

At the end of each session, registrants will be invited to join the SOEL network for the 2019-2020 school year. 

Disciplinary Writing InstituteJune 24-25 at EMU

Register here- Disciplinary Writing Institute 

Participants will be given an invitation to join the IDLL network after completing the institute.