Back to School 2021

 Thoughts and Plans for This Upcoming Year

As we prepare for another school year, the third now impacted by the pandemic, I find myself looking for inspiration to focus on what's possible (instead of what's impossible) how we can grow, and how we can help others to grow toward a purpose.  I've gathered quotes, advice, and plans from trusted sources.  Where are you finding inspiration and purpose as you start this school year?  

Bright Morning Podcast, Episode 84

Video Clip- NWP

           

  

Articles:

We Belong: The First Week of School, I wish I Had

The Seven Habits of Highly Affective Teachers

4 Reading Strategies to Retire This Year (Plus 6 to Try Out!)

Infographics, Books, Art and Music:

Free, downloadable art from author Jarrett Learner

Start each day with music! 

 Upcoming Literacy Professional Learning Opportunities 

Join The Study of Early Literacy (SOEL) in it's 9th year!  This professional learning network is designed for PreK-5 teachers to learn more about literacy instructional practices through book studies and guest speakers.   This fall, we'll meet virtually, once per month via Zoom from 4:00-5:30, with September 30th as our kick off. See our timeline here for a history, and our flyer to register for the kick-off and topics for fall meetings. Our Winter/Spring times TBD by the group. 

Building Equity-Based Disciplinary Literacies

Designed for middle and high school teachers of all subject areas, 

Building Equity-Based Disciplinary Literacies is a collaboration between WISD and Eastern Michigan University  to meet the changing needs and the growing understanding of disciplinary literacies at the secondary level.  We want to be responsive to educator learning needs, and the last 18 months have affirmed that building equity through disciplinary literacies takes the sustained collaboration and community that this will provide.

  

Throughout this school year, we’ll build

our foundational understandings of equity and literacy through the creation of our own personal syllabus that can include relevant readings from our field, interviews with community members and experts in the disciplines, and collaborations between secondary classroom teachers and EMU professors. You design your learning path; we’ll help you get there.

You can expect support in these ways: 

• Partnering with an EMU professor

• Reading and discussing professional texts

• Participating in professional development activities

• Talking with other secondary and university colleagues within and across disciplines

• Applying your learning in lesson planning, unit planning and/or teacher research

• Earning an Equity Based Disciplinary Literacy Badge

Join us as we grow and learn in this new collaboration!  See our registration for the September 23rd virtual kick off! 

More Book Studies, anyone? 

Book studies were very popular last school year, as well as over the summer.  As you look into this next school year, what do you want to read and learn to improve your practice?  Take this quick survey to help us plan what to offer for our upcoming Book Studies.

Check it out! The Diverse Lending Library

Poster by Jerry Craft

Our Diverse Lending Library is now in the WISD online catalog!

Just create an account, and you can search the library for books to check out.  After reserving, you can arrange pick-up or delivery to your school in Washtenaw County.  Our picture books can be checked out individually.  Books for middle and high school classrooms can be checked out as a larger set for up to six weeks. We have many new titles including: Sulwe, Say Something, Drawn Together, Julian is a Mermaid, Outside, Inside, We are Water Protectors, Butterfly Yellow, They Called Us Enemy, You Should See Me in a Crown, Kindred, Dark Sky Rising, Three Keys and The Dragonflies. 

Literacy Opportunities in our Community

U-M Museum of Art offers customized lessons and consultations about how to integrate art and literacy. Curious about how you can use art objects as texts? Reach out to Grace Vandervliet to discuss connections to your specific curriculum. Check out some sample ideas for combining art and writing. 

UMS Performance Playground

Here you’ll find great resources about the performing arts for students in grades K-12. Check out our videos featuring UMS teaching artists performing and talking about their craft. You can join them to begin your own journey! To learn more, explore accompanying slides and worksheets.

These resources are for educational use only, and are free to everyone. Children are encouraged to explore resources with the guidance of teachers, parents, or on their own.

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.

March

Change it up for March is Reading Month! 

Every month is Reading Month, but since March is designated as such, I encourage you to try some new things with reading in your classroom, no matter what your position or grade level in education. Here are four ideas to get you started:

1. Learn from SOEL Teacher Holly Bella about vocabulary in Interactive Read Alouds:


3. Try Book Talks to engage and motivate readers:

3. Start a Math Book Club! PBS Teachers show us how Reading Can Expand What Kids Think About Mathematics


4. E-mail me to check out books from the Diverse Lending Library at WISD

SAVE THE DATES for Summer Professional Learning! 

Yes, it's time to think about summer learning at WISD!  
Plan ahead by saving these dates.   
*Exact times and details TBD

August 14th:  Grades K-3 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy one day overview (pre-requisite for SOEL 2020-2021)

August 13th:  Grades 4&5 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy one day overview  (Pre-requisite for SOEL 2020-2021)

August 4, 5, 6:  Grades 6-12 Essential Instructional Practices for Disciplinary Literacy  three day workshop  (Pre-requisite for IDLL 2020-2021)

August 17, 18, 19:  K-12  Social Studies Standards, Framework, and Literacy Essentials Three day Workshop 

August 13: KRA Training for new K teachers in Washtenaw County

Creating Context for Teaching Night- one day in August, TBD 

October

Introducing our Diverse Lending Library!

In a collaboration with teachers Rhoshawda Miller of YCS, Kristi Schaffer of WIHI, Candice Huddleston of WLHS, Dr. Laura Jimenez of Boston University and Dr. Shayla Griffin, our Diverse Lending Library in memory of Caroline Jacob is now ready for release to Washtenaw County educators. 

The purpose of the library is to support Washtenaw County educators and students in an equitable, inclusive education. We are offering this lending library of PreK-12 culturally relevant books so that students may see themselves in texts and see others that represent our global society.

We Believe: 

📘Access to diverse books will work to interrupt bias and prejudice in our classrooms;

📕Students should see themselves, their loved ones, their peers, their languages and their celebrations represented in the books they are learning to read;
📙When students see themselves in their learning materials, they gain a sense of ownership and accountability to their classrooms, their school system, their community, and the world;
📗Literature provides the perfect opportunity for students to learn new terms, ideas, cultures and languages. When students can make personal connections to the literature, they are more engaged, inquisitive, intrigued and vested in their learning; 
📚Libraries can and should play a crucial role in empowering diverse populations for full participation. 
You can see our list of books HERE and use it to create your own Diverse Library. 

Our lending library is small right now, but we hope to grow it over time. If you'd like to know more, ask me or a colleague in SOEL or IDLL. 

SOEL to Present at NCTE Fall Conference!  

A team of SOEL educators have been accepted to present our work at the National Council Teachers of English fall Conference in Baltimore, Maryland on November 21.  

Our presentation featuring the power of inquiry based teacher professional learning is a perfect fit for the theme of the conference, Spirited Inquiry.

Melissa Brooks-Yip, WISD- Inquiry as Teacher Professional Learning 

Dr. Cathy Fleischer, EMU- Teacher Research

Chip Bennett and Kat Dudzik, YCS- 

Oral learning, social readiness and reading engagement with cross grade literacy friendships 

 Tonya Saragoza, Milan Area Schools- 
 Writing instruction in 3rd grade

Stay tuned for more after the conference in November! 

Professional Learning Opportunities

KRA Data Day-  
Access a KRA Data Webinar HERE

Social Studies Standards, Framework and Essential Instructional Practices in Disciplinary Literacy!  
 IN PROGRESS- REGISTRATION CLOSED

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! 

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.