Reading and Writing Resources-
for Now and Always
- Question- for a focus on inquiry
- Metacognitive- for a focus on thinking about thinking
- Change-for connecting learning for personal and social change
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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| https://www.826michigan.org/our-programs/workshops/ |
Educators:
Students:
Parents:
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.

