Thursday, March 25, 2021

April

The WISD Diverse Lending Library is showcased in Literacy Today from ILA!



You can access the Diverse Lending Library if you are an educator in Washtenaw County.  All books are #ownvoices texts. See our books here, organized by tabs at the bottom for picture books, middle school and high school.  

Just e-mail me if you'd like to check something out!  


Upcoming Learning Sessions for Literacy


Bringing Joy to Your K-5 Classroom with Diverse Books

Virtual, May 19th 4:00-6:00.  Washtenaw Educators Only
You’ve heard the buzz about diverse books, but what does that mean? How and why do you use these books in the classroom? Join instructional coaches and teachers from Washtenaw County to learn the multiple purposes diverse texts can serve and how to honor student identities through text. You’ll get a book to keep and use in planning with partners during our session!  Register
HERE

 
Justice and Joy: Building Inclusive Reading Experiences for Secondary Students

May 25th, 4:00-6:00. Virtual. Washtenaw Educators only. 
 Register HERE
Join teachers and secondary instructional coaches from Washtenaw County to learn the multiple purposes texts can serve in the 6-12 classroom.  We’ll show how text choice and use in the classroom can be responsive and representative. Upon registration, you’ll get a book to keep and use in planning with partners during our session.


 Dr. Baker Bell with Responsive Teaching Institute April 22

Register HERE IN Washtenaw County

Register HERE OUT of County






Tuesday, February 23, 2021

March

 Read Across America


March is Reading Month, but we know that EVERY month is reading month!   NEA's Read Across America celebrates reading all year round with recommendations and resources promoting diversity and inclusion through reading.  The resources include options for face-to-face and virtual classrooms:

  • Books by Theme to support lessons and units (some also available in the WISD Diverse Lending Library) 


Upcoming Professional Learning

In this session Dr. Gholdy Muhammad will engage teachers in unpacking culture. Together, culture will be explored and revisited in deep, multifaceted ways. We will discuss our own cultural identities and approaches to learning the cultures of students. 


By the end of this session, the teachers will understand culture and engage in a self-identity work. 
Outcomes: 
1. Educators will learn equity, anti-bias, and culturally responsive instruction. 
2. Educators will learn how CHRE can be used to improve their teaching practices 
3. Educators will explore their own cultural identities and ideologies for teaching and learning. 
For IN COUNTY registrants ONLY please use the discount code of CRMT.
4:00-6:00 Virtual


**Prerequisite: Justice Leaders Core Course**

Are you a preschool or elementary teacher wanting more guidance on how to incorporate diverse, inclusive, and socially just picture books in your classroom? Join us to explore why diverse books are important, the various categories of diverse books (with great examples from Shayla's own home library!), how to prepare yourself to read more diverse books to your students, and what challenges and pitfalls may arise in your efforts.
Date: Thursday, March 4, 2021, 10am-12pm
-No Charge for public, private, and charter school staff in Washtenaw County; WISD staff; or Washtenaw County Youth serving organization. Districts will be responsible for any necessary sub costs.
All others, $25 per person.
FREE TWO SESSION VIRTUAL EVENT from the Holocaust Memorial Center hosted by WISD
4:00-6:00

Media literacy skills have become essential for young people to successfully navigate and critically assess the ever-increasing amount of information they receive throughout their day - on social media, advertisements, television, and film. Therefore, it is crucial for students to comprehend and identify how media, both historically and in contemporary society, can be used as a tool to incite hate and violence against certain groups. 
This learning opportunity examines the events of the Holocaust through the lens of media, by examining propaganda deployed by the Nazis to discriminate against Jews and other minorities. Educators will gain the tools to facilitate classroom discussions on the role and impact of Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust and support their students to critically analyze media in today’s world.


Have you read Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad and now would like to lesson plan with other teachers? Join us March 24th from 4:00-6:00 to put your learning into action. With resources and templates from Dr. Muhammad, you'll have time to think and plan with other teachers. Bring your books and ideas!  
Virtual 4:00-6:00
  *SCHECHS not available. Books not provided.




Free for Washtenaw County educators. PART 2, follow-up from December 10 Workshop. Virtual. 5:00-7:00
In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to engage in more intimate conversations about Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and how they can implement Antiracist Language Pedagogies in their respective classrooms. Participants will also have opportunities to ask specific questions about their teaching philosophies of language, language policies, curriculum, practices, syllabi, assignments, etc. Baker-Bell will share sample syllabi, assignments, and activities. 

Friday, January 29, 2021

February


Plan to celebrate #WorldReadAloudDay on February 3rd and beyond!  Did you know that reading aloud everyday puts kids ahead by one year, regardless of background? Share a story and spread the word! 

LitWorld and StoryLine Online have many resources to celebrate in both virtual and face-to-face spaces, including celebrity read alouds like this one with Oprah Winfrey reading "The Hula Hoopin' Queen"

And this one by Jaime Camil reading "Los Zombis No Comen Verduras" in Espanol. 


Check out the World Read Aloud Day Activity Hub for live events, swag and activities, a virtual bookshelf, booklists and a downloadable WRAD packet. 
You can also join the conversation online by sharing your participation, ideas, and pictures from the day with #WorldReadAloudDay and tagging it on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.  They even have sample language and free images to help you spread the word. 


Upcoming Professional Learning
with WISD and community partners




See all WISD offerings HERE


Friday, December 18, 2020

January 2021

 Fresh Starts, Re-Starts, Renewing Purpose

Teachers, students, educational leaders, everyone, may see 2021 as a fresh start, a re-start or a chance to renew the purpose in our work.  I've gathered some tools for just that.

The Renewing Purpose Activity from the NSRF Critical Friends Group is a brand new protocol designed for virtual use. This protocol is to be done with a group to remind ourselves of purposes and our connection to them, to help us see if we are on track toward a specific goal, and to reinvigorate ourselves at a time when our spirits may be lagging.   If you'd like a facilitator for this, please reach out to me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org


One Little Word is a less intimidating way to set a New Year's Resolution and purpose!
Educational Bloggers Margaret Simon and Annie Campbell explain how they use "One Little Word" to help students set intention for the year- who they are and who they want to be. By examining what's important to them- goals they want to fill, strengths they want to grow, and wishes they have- each student, and the teacher, settle on one word.  The teachers find this helps students connect to their identity, while also building a stronger classroom community.   
If you decide to try this in 2021, please let me know!   


Upcoming Literacy Professional Learning

January 7th & February 4th

Free and open to all. Register here


February & March

For Washtenaw County Educators- register here



Free and open to all. Register here





Tuesday, November 24, 2020

December

 Reading and Writing Resources-

for Now and Always 


#DISRUPTEXTS exists to "develop and aid teachers committed to anti-racist/anti-bias teaching pedagogy and practices."   

Core principles are: 

1. Continuously interrogate our own biases and how they inform our thinking;

2. Center Black, Indigenous, and voices of color in literature;

3. Apply a critical literacy lens to our teaching practices;

4. Work in community with other anti-racist educators, especially Black, Indigenous, and other educators of color. 

See the #DISRUPTTEXTS Learning Guides for resources on teaching with eight texts that align to these principles. 

Also see #DISRUPTTEXTS in Michigan for a personal teaching story from a teacher at Carman-Ainsworth in Flint on disrupting texts in her classroom.

20 Types of Learning Journals that Help Students Think


TeachThought offers these journal ideas to promote writing for learning with students. These journals are done for the purpose of learning, not to demonstrate learning. 

A few options for journals and prompts with a focus on writing to learn include:
  • Question- for a focus on inquiry
  • Metacognitive- for a focus on thinking about thinking
  • Change-for connecting learning for personal and social change
Read the entire article for details on these and more journals and remember, some writers prefer to use hardcopy notebooks and pencils  or pens (especially when doodling to learn), and some prefer to type.  Here's a digital writing notebook template you can make a copy of and share for those choosing to go digital.  

Upcoming Virtual Professional Learning


December



January- February

Free and open to all. Register here


February & March

For Washtenaw County Educators- register here



Free and open to all. Register here


Friday, October 30, 2020

November

 Election Day Resources

"What will you do on Wednesday?"   Teaching Tolerance provides these resources for educators to support students no matter the result on election day. There are strategies here for fostering an inclusive classroom, identities, positionality and feelings.  


The Dialogue Deck from UMMA is a conversation exercise for political reflection.  Take a look for images selected by UMMA and Gingsberg Center staff that evoke culture, politics and history of the US.  Along with the images are question prompts, and a printable PDF version. 

 Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad



I'm well into reading this book for the fourth time and still learning how to live into the Culturally and Historically Relevant Literacy Framework as an educator.   Dr. Muhammad is returning to visit us on November 5th, and book studies continue.  Here are your links to keep the conversation going in Washtenaw County and beyond:

  • Want to Lead Your Own Book Study? - contact me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org - let's talk!  
  • Join us:  


REGISTER HERE



**E-mail for link**

Friday, September 25, 2020

October

 Getting Rid of the "Classics" in the Classroom?   Check Out the Diverse Lending Library at WISD!

The "A Year of Reading Blog" showcases how two teachers learned more about #DisruptTexts, and how this challenged them to think about the book choices in their classrooms, the books they read aloud to students, as well as books they recommend.  Following leaders such as Dr. Laura Jimenez who visited us twice in past #wisdrti sessions, these teachers thought about how to "challenge the traditional cannon to in order to create a more inclusive, representative and equitable" curriculum. 

 
You can read the whole article for more resources and links, but also remember The Diverse Lending Library at WISD is still available to you. Check out our inventory and then contact me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org for pick-up if you are an educator in Washtenaw County. 


Student Collaboration and Support in Virtual Classrooms

Check out 10 Ideas for Using Virtual Breakout Rooms During Distance Learning for ideas on how to utilize the breakout room feature to foster collaboration for Book Buddies, small groups, debates, peer editing, literature circles and more in virtual classroom time.

 Also check out Calendly to schedule 1-1 student conferences- another way to use the breakout room feature to support individual students. 



Upcoming Professional Learning and Connections


Monday, August 24, 2020

September

 Building A Classroom Community- 

Virtually or F2F


Teaching Tolerance offers Resources for Back to School 2020 to help discuss racism, police violence, and self-care.


In Remote Learning for Our Youngest Students, Jen Schwanke details ways primary teachers are reaching out to students across barriers in age, language, ability and engagement. 


In How Do We Create a Community of Learners in a Virtual or Hybrid Model?  Clare Landrigan writes about creating familiar and predictable systems and structures for online communities. 


How to Build Relationships Virtually, by The Albert Team gives the why, challenges, and how to build relationships in virtual teaching and learning spaces. 


Registration is Live for Fall & Winter Virtual Professional Learning! 



Register HERE

E-mail with questions

Literacy Support in Our Community


YpsiWrites offers tutoring and programming for youth writers across Washtenaw County. We encourage teachers who are looking for extra support for their student writers to check out these programs.


-      YpsiWrites Virtual:  Offers both synchronous and asynchronous writing consults with trained YpsiWrites volunteers.


-        Using Writing to Make Your Voice Heard - Writing matters! Join this virtual workshop (via Zoom) to learn how to make our voices heard--and make a difference in our communities, lives, and world--through writing. (Saturday, Oct. 17, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Register here




 


Washtenaw County Writing Center forSecondary Students

TheWCWC is designed to be a youth-led, youth-driven space that provides peer-to-peer online literacy and writing support for all students in Washtenaw County, engages students in using writing for advocacy and activism, and amplifies student writing in all forms. We’re in the beginning stages of this work and seek input from teachers and especially students.  If you’re interested in learning more or if you have a student to nominate for the Advisory Board, let us know through this form.

 

 

Friday, July 31, 2020

August

Literacy, Equity and Engagement Tools 

While I am feeling inundated by a plethora of resources coming through all social media and e-mail, there are a few that catch my eye as they relate to literacy, equity and building community in classrooms- virtual or face-to-face: 


All Students Need Anti-Racism Education


Online Teaching Can Be Culturally Responsive


First Week of School Stations


EduTopia Learning Stations to Kick off The Year


How to Make a Digital Bookshelf in Google Slides



We know articles and activities certainly don’t solve the multiple challenges we are facing right now, my hope is that they may allow some reflection and help in planning at some point in the near future.

 

WISD Professional Learning in August 

August 10, 13, 18, 20, 21 Cultivating Genius Book Study

August 13th Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy Grades 4-5

August 14th Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy Grades K-3

August 19th Back to School EdCamp

August 20th Socially Just Assessment and Grading 



*Please contact Melissa Brooks-Yip for Literacy topics and Amy Olmstead Brayton for Assessment 

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Monday, July 13, 2020

July

Professional Learning for Educators

From book studies, assessment literacy webinars, EdCamps, Literacy Essential Overviews to informal educator meet-ups, the instruction and assessment team has many wonderful opportunities for Washtenaw County Educators to learn together this summer. 

Register HERE and please contact us with questions! 


 Summer Literacy Learning in our Community












https://www.826michigan.org/our-programs/workshops/
https://www.826michigan.org/our-programs/workshops/