September

Building Classroom Libraries

for all grades and all subjects!

We should be curators of our libraries, not just collectors. Offering students an engaging, diverse classroom library requires more than buying books and putting them on bookshelves . . . managing a classroom library requires curation -- selecting the best most current materials for both curriculum needs and student interests.         -Donalynn Miller

If you are wondering how to get started on a classroom library, how to strengthen your existing one, or how to create reading nooks, check out these articles by Choice Literacy teachers:

Non-Fiction Classroom Libraries

Middle School Classroom Library

Reading Nooks

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Bring TED to your classroom with TED-Ed Clubs!

TED-Ed Clubs is a flexible, school-based program that supports students in discussing, pursuing and presenting their big ideas in the form of short TED-style talks. Watch the video or check the site to learn more.  

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August

Books for Back to School!

Reading about going back to school is a great way to ease the transition. No matter what age, read alouds can get you and your students back into the school mindset.

To get you started, here are some suggestions for children of elementary school age:

• The Berenstain Bears Go to School. Berenstain, Stan and Jan. Random House, 1978.
• Arthur's Teacher Trouble. Brown, Marc. Trumpet, 1986.
• Clifford's First School Day. Bridwell, Norman. Scholastic, 1999.
• Never Spit on Your Shoes. Cazet, Denys. Scholastic, 1993.
• Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown. Danziger, Paula. Puffin, 2003.
• Kindergarten Rocks! Davis, Katie. Harcourt Children's Books, 2005.
• Back to School for Rotten Ralph. Gantos, Jack. HarperTrophy, 2000.
• Back to School with Betsy. Haywood, Carolyn. Odyssey Classics, reissue edition, 1990.
• Chrysanthemum. Henkes, Kevin. HarperTrophy, 1996.
• The Day the Teacher Went Bananas. Howe, James. Penguin, 1987.
• It's Back to School We Go! Jackson, Ellen. Millbrook Press, 2003.
• Sumi's First Day of School Ever. Pak, Soyung. Penguin Putnam Books, 2003.
• Amelia Bedelia Goes Back to School. Parish, Herman. Harper Festival, 2004.
• Curious George Goes to School. Rey, Margret. Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
• The Best School Year Ever. Robinson, Barbara. HarperTrophy, reprint edition, 2005.
• Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. Slate, Joseph. Puffin Books, 2001.
• The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Thaler, Mike. Scholastic Paperbacks, 1989.
• The Night Before Kindergarten. Wing, Natasha. Grosset & Dunlap, 2001.

For Middle and High School Students:

• The Middle School Survival Guide : How to Survive from the Day Elementary School Ends until the Second High School Begins. Erlbach,Arlene. Walker Books for Young Readers, 2003.
• High School Bound: The Ultimate Guide for High School Success and Survival. Spethman, Martin J. and Klein, Chuck. Westgate Publishing & Entertainment, 1997.
• The Real High School Handbook : How to Survive, Thrive, and Prepare for What's Next. Lieberman,Susan Abel. Mariner Books, 1997.

*from greatschools.org
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Fall Professional Development on Literacy

Writing Collaborative: 

 October 21, 22 and November 6    Register HERE

Reading Apprenticeship: 

September 16, 17 and October 9     Register HERE

    

 K-12 Fall Literacy Summit 

Erik Palmer on Speaking and Listening

     October 1, 2014 from 8:30-3:30 at WISD

   If you are an active member of a literacy network (RA, WC or SOEL), or an administrator who supports a teacher in one of these networks, you are invited to PRE-REGISTER for this event. 

*  This fall, remaining spots will be opened to those outside the networks for a small fee.

July

Looking Ahead to Fall Professional Development

Save the Dates!

Writing Collaborative:  October 21, 22 and November 6

Reading Apprenticeship:  September 16, 17 and October 9

     **Registration info. to come as WISD installs a new system.

 K-12 Fall Literacy Summit 

featuring Erik Palmer on Speaking and Listening

     October 1, 2014 from 8:30-3:30 at WISD

   If you are an active member of a literacy network (RA, WC or SOEL), or an administrator who supports a teacher in one of these networks, you are invited to PRE-REGISTER for this event. 

*  This fall, remaining spots will be opened to those outside the networks for a small fee.

June

How to Teach Listening in the Digital Age

    Knowing that speaking and listening are important literacy skills, but often not incorporated into curriculum, Erik Palmer, consultant with ASCD, developed a media literacy unit entitled "Listening in the Digital Age."  Erik answers questions such as Who teaches students to evaluate sound? Who teaches students to evaluate images? Who teaches students to evaluate video?  Read Erik's whole article here.  He will be coming to WISD on October 1st for a workshop on his speaking and listening framework for the K-12 classroom! (more info. to come this fall).

Using Text Sets to Support Common Core Implementation

    Students need to be able to critically think about increasingly complex texts and to read across informational and literary texts. Building strong text sets can be one way of supporting teachers in providing the necessary reading experiences. A text set is a group of books used to build background knowledge and common vocabulary around a theme or topic. 

    In the text set an anchor book is used as the focus of a unit or lesson and a series of additional information at various reading levels is strategically chosen to support the anchor text. The materials available at the Library of Michigan MDE site explain how the sets can be created and used.   You will also find text sets listed here in this growing resource site. 

Upcoming Professional Development

• Writing Collaborative- Secondary Writing in the Content Areas- June 18, 19, 20 at WISD.  Register HERE

• EMWP Presents: Writing Teachers' Leadership Institute

• Uncommon Core: Using Poetry to meet CCSS

• Picture it! Visual Thinking Strategies- Literacy Conference

May

Apps to Assist in Everyday Literacy Tasks

These are useful for communicating, collaborating, note-taking and annotating.

Pocket  helps manage your readings.  If you get numerous online reading suggestions per day or week, this is a great tool to manage them and keep them all in one place. It has a "night" function that dims the screen.

GroupMe allows you set up a private group for text messaging.  A class could have its own GroupMe discussion space, and then students can send each other reminders, ask each other questions, etc.  This tool allows the class to communicate with each other inside and outside of classroom hours, and the students can go to each other for help. Works on phones, mobile devices like iPads or iPods, and computers, so students don't need a smart phone.

Remind101 allows you to send texts to students without seeing each other's phone numbers.  Several teachers use this one to send reminders like "First draft due tomorrow, and don't forget the Works Cited page."

Evernote is more of a "one-stop-shopping" app.  It lets you manage notes, images, readings, and more all in one place.  It has a free level and then for pay you get additional capabilities.  

Subtext  Subtext is a digital reading program built for K12 classrooms. Read and collaborate with your classroom for free  by creating private groups, embedding discussion, finding content, researching, annotating and more. 

*Thanks to RCWP teachers and Chelsea Writing Collaborative teachers for sharing! 

Literacy Professional Development Offerings this Summer

•   Writing Collaborative Teacher Workshop at WISD- Secondary writing instruction in all content areas.

• Inkstains- A summer writing camp for middle and high school students- located at EMU.

• Picture it! Visual Thinking Strategies- Literacy Conference for K-12 teachers- located at the DIA. 

End-of-Year Writing and Summer Reading

     Read what literacy consultant Franki Sibberson suggests for some thoughtful literacy activities for the end of the school year and some non-fiction, picture books, YA novels and inspirational texts for all readers this summer. 

Ending the Year with Literacy Gifts

Football Field Writing

Books to get us ready for summer vacation! 

 

April

April is National Poetry Month! 

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH is not just for English teachers!  Inspire the Next Poet Laureate!      Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets throughout the country join to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events. Here are some helpful links.

• Edutopia offers a number of resources, including perspectives on how to teach poetry, classroom activities, and inspirational videos. 

• At the American Academy of Poets, educators can sign up to get a free poster and check out other resources celebrating the event, including 30 ways to celebrate poetry.

• The National Poetry Foundation houses many helpful tools online, including Poetry Magazine, monthly podcasts (try "Without the Blues There Would Be No Jazz"), poetry tours of cities, information about how your class can participate in the national poetry contest, Poetry Out Loud, and a browser to search poets and poetry by genre.  

• The Library of Congress offers Poetry 180, a poem a day for American high school students. 

Writing in the Digital Age

     In this Edutopia Big Thinkers video, Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, co-director of the National Writing Project, talks about writing in the digital age and how writing has evolved.  How has communication through writing changed?  As you watch and listen to Elyse, think about how this applies to your classroom, your students, and your teaching. 

Professional Development

Writing Collaborative (grades 4-12)

• April 29, 30, and May 16, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30 

                                                 OR

•  June 18, 19, 20  2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

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Reading Apprenticeship (grades 4-12)

April 22, 23 and May 14, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30 

                               OR 

June 24, 25, 26 at WISD 8:30-3:30 

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

Questions?  Contact mbrooksyip@wash.k12.mi.us 

March

Literacy Education in the United States

Remodeling Literacy Learning Together

     The National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE) has shown that educators' most powerful learning experiences come from working with their colleagues.  In a recent survey, NCLE wanted to find out if schools and districts are taking a capacity building or incentive driven approach to putting the CCSS for literacy in place. The graphic below illustrates their findings:

*See that entire report HERE

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Literacy Initiatives at WISD

     On February 27th, teachers of all subject areas, instructional coaches, and administrators met with Literacy Leaders of Washtenaw and Livingston counties to plan for literacy instruction implementation in their buildings.  If you missed it, please view the highlights below for updates on Writing Collaborative and Reading Apprenticeship. 

*Upcoming Writing Collaborative and Reading Apprenticeship Training for Teachers:

Writing Collaborative Spring and Summer Training

Reading Apprenticeship Spring and Summer Training

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Cool Websites for Literacy Integration

NEWSELA

  Would you like unlimited access to hundreds of leveled news articles? Newsela has new CCSS aligned articles everyday and it is free! 

Graph of the Week

Part of being literate means being able to read, comprehend, and write about graphs.  Graph of the Week  provides graphs, questions for reading and thinking about them, and writing prompts for each graph, and it is all free! 

*Thanks to Brandon Szwejkowski of Milan Area Schools for sharing these at our Writing Collaborative meeting! 

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Other Literacy PD this Spring & Summer

• Michigan Council Teachers of English Spring Conference 

• Eastern Michigan Writing Project Literacy Coaching Institute

• Inkstains- A summer writing camp for students middle and high school students. 

• Uncommon Core: Using Poetry to meet CCSS

• Picture it! Visual Thinking Strategies- Literacy Conference

Spring and Summer Literacy Professional Development

There are so many literacy professional development opportunities for spring and summer, I want to summarize and provide information for them here:

Michigan Council Teachers of English

 Spring Conference March 22 in Shephard, MI.  See Flyer HERE

Red Cedar Writing Project at Michigan State University

Four week summer institute of the National Writing Project June 23-July 17.  *Apps due Feb. 28th

See Flyer Here

Eastern Michigan Writing Project:

Four week summer institute of NWP June 19-July 17.  Apps due March 1.

See flyer here

Picture It!   Visual Thinking Strategies

RLTC 12th annual literacy conference- See Flyer Here

August 14 and 15 in Detroit

Upcoming Literacy PD at WISD

Writing Collaborative (grades 4-12):

• April 29, 30, and May 16, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30 
•  ***NEW:    June 18, 19, 20  2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30

*See flyer here  

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

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Reading Apprenticeship (grades 4-12):

April 22, 23 and May 14, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30  

*See flyer here

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

February

The "3 R's" of Teacher Language

    Sometimes we are so focused on teaching literacy skills to students, we lose track of how our own language might be influencing student learning. The Responsive Classroom has some tips on using language to reinforce, remind, and redirect in the classroom: 

Growth Vs. Fixed Mindset

      Our particular mindset is something that touches each of us no matter what role we are in in our jobs and personal lives.  It is especially crucial when thinking about our work in education with students. Carol Dweck published her work on mindset back in 2006, but has been receiving a great deal of attention lately.

  

      The infographic below is an excellent summary of growth vs. fixed mindset and I've copied a brief definition from Brainpickings:   

 A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way. A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

What is your mindset?

 How does it influence the work you do in education? 

Upcoming Literacy PD at WISD

Writing Collaborative (grades 4-12):

• February 6, 7, and March 7, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30
• April 29, 30, and May 16, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30 
•  ***NEW:    June 18, 19, 20  2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30

*See flyer here  

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

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Reading Apprenticeship (grades 4-12):

April 22, 23 and May 14, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30  

*See flyer here

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!

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***CANCELED:   Dr. Timothy Shanahan on elementary literacy and the CCSS.  March 11th , 2014  12:30-3:30

January

Happy New Year!

   With the added snow day, I hope everyone has had a chance to re-charge and get ready for the rest of the school year.  Please check out these reflective writing prompts for the new year (for you and your students), children's and young adult must reads for 2014, and our upcoming literacy professional development offerings at WISD.

Questions to Ask for New Year 

( Eric Liu FROM CNN) -- Here's a New Year's resolution that's easy to keep, good for your health and beneficial for your relationships. And it won't cost you a penny. Sound too good to be true? Read on.

In recent months, I've been working with a group of creative thinkers who are mining the meaning of a good life. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Bill Damon and Howard Gardner are renowned psychologists who've collaborated to create the Good Project, which explores the behaviors and mindsets that add up to good work, good play and good citizenship.

Together, with Lynn Barendsen, we've developed a simple set of questions for the New Year. They're catalysts for reflection rather than formulas for imitation. Their purpose is to get us thinking about our purpose, in both private and community life.

We originally developed these questions for young people, on the belief that the new generation doesn't get enough structured opportunities to explore meaning and values. But the truth is, it's not just millennials today who might lack purpose, feel uncertain about shared beliefs and goals or wish they could be part of something greater than themselves. It's people of all ages.

We Americans rarely get to make a truly mindful assessment of who we are, what's shaped us and why we hope to change. If we did that first, we'd probably be more capable of making wise resolutions and keeping them. We'd become more conscious of the web of relationship and mutual obligation that holds us together and that makes our freedom truly worth cherishing. And we might just end up being better humans.

So I invite you, whatever your stage of life, to explore these questions. Ask them of yourself. Talk with family and friends about them. Write and share your reflections. Feel free to adapt and revise the questions to suit your circumstances. And let us know on Twitter what the experience is like for you and those close to you.

If you make it your first resolution to consider these questions well, your other resolutions will almost certainly end up being more honest, more meaningful to you and more useful to others. Enjoy reflecting, and may your new year be happy -- and deeply good.

Who you are

1. Think of something (an activity, a job) to which you're really committed and that takes up a lot of your time. Why do you do it? Do you consider it time well spent? Why or why not? What would make you stop being involved?

2. Who or what do you consider your community? What do you do for the community? What would you expect the community to do it for you?

3. To whom or what do you feel responsible? What does that entail? What happens when you don't meet that responsibility?

4. Are you a good worker? A good citizen? A good person? How do you distinguish among them? Which is most important to you?

Influences

5. Who's influenced you, and how do you pass it on?

6. What individuals and institutions do you admire and why (current or past)?

7. What/whom don't you admire and why?

8. What and whom do you love?

Aspirations

9. What would it mean for you to be successful? How important is recognition, through money or esteem? What about unheralded acts or contributions?

10. What would it mean for you fail? Who or what will make that judgment for you and about you?

11. What kind of person do you want to be right now?

12. What should -- and shouldn't -- be written in your obituary?

Children's and YA Reading Lists for 2014

   This list from the American Library Association (ALA) for Notable Children's Books for 2014 is worth a read if you get an opportunity to purchase new books for your classroom or library. Notable is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children’s books, the term “notable” includes books for all age levels (through age 14) of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry, folklore, and picture books that reflect and encourage children’s interest in exemplary ways. The evaluation criteria to be used are: 

1. Literary quality 

2. Originality of text and illustration 

3. Clarity and style of language 

4. Excellence of Illustration 

5. Excellence of design and format 

6. Clarity of organization and accuracy of 

Information 

7. Subject matter of interest and value to 

children. 

8. The likelihood of acceptance by children.

*You may also want to skim this list from Good Reads on YA novels of 2014.  These are 100 titles voted on and ranked by YA readers. 

Upcoming Literacy Professional Development

Writing Collaborative (grades 4-12):

February 6, 7, and March 7, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30

April 29, 30, and May 16, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30  

*See flyer here  

Reading Apprenticeship (grades 4-12):

January 28, 29 and February 12, 2014  at WISD 8:30-3:30

April 22, 23 and May 14, 2014 at WISD 8:30-3:30  

*See flyer here

Speaker: Dr. Timothy Shanahan on elementary literacy and the CCSS.  March 11th , 2014  12:30-3:30

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!