Your Classroom Door as a First Impression

Every semester I tell my undergraduate students in the Literacy Department at Dowling College that when they are writing their resumes and cover letters for their first teaching job they need to craft those resumes and cover letters in a very thoughtful, careful, and creative way.  The Assistant Superintendent for Personnel to whom that resume and cover letter are being sent does not know who they are, what they know, or what they believe.  Those two pieces of paper are their first (and usually only) shot at impressing a person who truly needs to be impressed if they have a chance of getting chosen out of the hundreds of applicants lining up for the one or two slots available for the fall.  I try to impart that what they put down on those pages is a first impression.  And first impressions are important. 

Your classroom door, like those carefully crafted resumes and cover letters, is also a first impression.   Even if your door is open for most of the school day (as mine was when I was teaching) your classroom door is typically the first thing that students, parents, colleagues, and administrators see when they enter your home away from home. For me, literacy is always the driving force for all learning that takes place in a classroom.  So why not have your classroom door, your first impression, reflect how important reading and writing are to you from day one? 

Here are a few ideas for creating a door that really gives everyone who passes through it, an idea of your literacy hopes, dreams, and goals for the upcoming year.  What will your door look like?

 

For older students who can't pry themselves away from their phones, check out this way to mesh texting and books.  Have students use "text speak" to write short summaries about their latest reads.  

 This door has students write book critiques and color code them for "must reads", "maybe reads", and "skips".  

 This door shows what the teacher has been reading to show that he/she lives a literate life, both in and outside of the classroom.

 Students post the book covers of their favorite reads for the school community to see.

 All kids know what Redbox is.  Why not create a door with "Readbox" with all of your students' reads from the summer.  Then change them from month to month.  This teacher even has QR codes for more information about the books!

Looking for ways to increase your students'' vocabulary in Writing Workshop?  Use your classroom door to build up words and ideas for them to use in their writing.  Doubles as a word wall too!

Want to link social media and learning?  Have students tweet (in 140 characters or less, of course...) their ideas about their books, writing pieces, or any other learning taking place inside your room.

Looking for New Mentor Texts? Look up!

I am at my public library a lot.  I mean a lot.

I have two kids (Sam is almost 8 and Anna is almost 5) who treat the library like their own private bookstore.  We are there a few times a week choosing new books to read, taking out DVDs, signing up for programs (my son just participated in the "Read to a Guide Dog"program...it was incredible!!!), and/or using their computers and iPads that are bookmarked with the most incredible websites and apps for kids.

I am also an educator.  Going to my public library a few times a week gives me a chance to "do work" without really feeling like I am doing work.  I am constantly on the lookout for new and exciting mentor texts but don't necessarily have the time (remember I have two kids...) to search through the thousands of picture books (not to mention chapter books) that my library has to offer.  So how do I effectively and efficiently flip through all of the texts there at my fingertips and choose the right ones?

I look up.  The talented, knowledgeable, and patient librarians have done this work for me!  Librarians take time each day to hand pick the newest, most beloved, ALA recommended picture books out there for children.  They select books in various genres, thinking about children of all ages, and prop them up above the book shelves for me to see!  I have found many of my beloved mentor texts by simply grabbing some of the librarian-selected books at the library.  I'll grab a few each time I visit, bring them home, digest the possibilities, and THEN purchase them for use in the many classrooms I visit each year.

The next time you are looking to boost your classroom library for mentor texts, check out your public library and look up.  You may discover some new texts that will help your young writers to do things they never dreamed possible.

Here are some of my recent favorite librarian-selected picks:

Anna's flip flops laying on my desk next to The Loud Book, To Be Like the Sun, Chloe Instead, and Pug and Other Animal Poems.

 Doing some nonfiction work and flipping through Same, Same but Different, What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You?, and Castles, Caves and Honeycombs along with Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey

 Wrapping end of the year teacher gifts and testing out some mentor texts...The Librarian of Basra, My First Day, and Who Says Women Can't be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell.

Take a trip to your public library and let me know what you found?

Test Prep That Makes Sense

Thanks to Lester Laminack's Facebook page for this cartoon

While presenting at the New England Reading Association conference a few weeks back, a colleague of mine and I facilitated a seminar on the power of using mentor texts in your writing workshop (click here for a link to our handouts from the session).  We shared ideas for minilessons, our favorite mentor texts for various genre studies and classroom photos to support an effective and engaging writing workshop.  We had a wonderful turnout (about 130 educators from across the east coast attended the session!), tremendous enthusiasm and tons of thoughtful questions.  Yet, inevitably as I have been asked at other conferences across the nation, THE question regarding text preparation came up towards the end of the session.  It goes something like this...

"I love your ideas and I want to use this style of writing instruction in my classroom because I think it's great and I know my students will love it.  But (wait for it....) how do I explain to my principal how this ties into test preparation and how this will get our scores up?". 

And as I have stated, time and time again, from state to state, grade level to grade level, the answer is as follows- Good writing instruction is test preparation.  Strategic instruction is test preparation.  Teaching the stages of the writing process is test preparation. Explaining audience and purpose is test preparation.  Having students build their writing stamina is test preparation. 

When we teach students various strategies to make their writing more clear, more interesting, more focused and more organized we are teaching them how to become better writers- not just for standardized tests...but for LIFE. 

When I began teaching in the workshop style in my fourth grade classroom during the time when No Child Left Behind was just targeting 4th and 8th grade students (and teachers!), my students' scores went up on the New York State ELA exam.  It wasn't because I was practicing in more coach books or "doing" more test preparation.  It was because my students were becoming more effective, more efficient and more engaged writers.  Of course, the strategies, techniques and tools they had picked up along the way would help them during these 3 days. 

You see, they were being "prepped" the whole year but in a way that made sense.  In a way that actually made them feel empowered and excited.  They believed that they were WRITERS.  And because they had learned what audience and purpose was, they did better.  Because they understood that a great opening or meaningful closing could make a "scorer" feel something after reading 200 papers, they did better.  Because they understood how to plan before they drafted, they did better.  Because they understood the importance of editing their work, they did better.  They knew the tools and reasons that real writers used and THAT is what, "made their scores go up". 

I am hoping for more time in the near future so I can put together a more formal "Writing for Testing Genre" unit of study.  I welcome your experiences and thoughts on the topic. 

How Many Charts are Too Many Charts?

First, let me apologize.  As the school year started up, I have been all over the place with both consulting work and my own children starting school (my son, Sam, just started Kindergarten a few weeks back …needless to say it has been a BIG transition for all of us).  I am going to try my hardest to stay more up to date on my posts from now on. 

I have been traveling to numerous schools this September and helping teachers to set up their classrooms for the most effective, engaging and efficient Writing Workshop they can imagine.     I have been working with administrators to devise checklists of the “musts” when starting off the year with the goal in mind of, “Building a Community of Writers”.  This phrase is really multifaceted as it encompasses many different elements of teaching and learning about writing.    When I think of “Building a Community of Writers” I think of two questions that we might ask of ourselves in helping to start the year off strong:

Number 1: What does it mean to become a writer?  Questions like, “From where do writers get their ideas? “, “What inspires writers?” and “What does writing mean to you?” 

Number 2:  What classroom routines, rules and management ideas do I need in place to help my students and myself make the time in Writing Workshop the most valuable it can be?  Questions like, “What if students need help and I am in a writing conference with another student?”, “What should students do when they think they are done?” and “What happens in a writing conference?”

I have learned that when it comes to hanging charts in my classroom, less is actually more.  It is strange for me to say that when I have about 200 laminated charts in my basement right now from my own classroom’s Reading and Writing Workshop!  I do use many of them when I speak at workshops or conferences, but I don’t want to part with them because they have become a part of my teaching history.  Yet, as I learn more, see more and reflect more I have come to realize that walking into a classroom plastered with posters on the walls (even when they are so neatly written in colorful marker!) can be a distraction to the students, especially our youngest writers.  That when creating posters, we have to think about the two questions above and then ask, “Why?”  How will this chart help my students to become a stronger and more independent writer?  How will this chart help me to be a more effective and efficient teacher?  What is the purpose?  If you can’t answer the question or it’s just to “make the room like nice” it probably doesn’t need to be up there. 

I like charts that communicate to those walking into your classroom that we are “Building a Community of Writers” and writers need tools to be successful.  And these charts, similar to our notebooks, pencils, sticky notes and highlighters, are a tool that helps to move us forward in our writing journey. 

Below are some of the charts I have collected from schools across the country that answer the questions above. Please realize that these charts are from different grades, different schools and different teachers.  Please feel free to comment, share your own “favorite” charts to start the year off right or  share these with colleagues and borrow the ideas.   ENJOY!

                                                                    **************

Author Posters gives students a sense that writers are real people just like them!  Include a photo, other books published (including the mentor texts you'll use during the unit of study), great quotes about writing and information about their lives.  Or... have older students work in groups to create the posters together as a research exercise and let them present their poster to the class. 

A "Writing Process" or "Status of the Class" chart allows students, visitors, administrators and parents to know where you are in the writing process, where you're headed and that meaningful writing takes great time and care. 

 

'Rules, Routines and Responsibilities" charts are always good to set the standard of what happens during workshop time and conferences. 

These charts are a HUGE help to manage your students who are not conferring with you.  It keeps them focused on the writing task and helps them to become more independent without drifting into a chat with a friend about soccer, pulling on your shirt for help or forming the dreaded LINE at your desk.

Just some favorites that explain why writing is so important and the impact it makes in the lives of our students, ourselves and our world.

 ** For more charts and ideas please visit me on Facebook by searching D.E.I.  or  http://www.deinstitute.org/



Too Pretty to Do Homework?

Last week J.C. Penney began selling a T-shirt that declared the message, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me".  The sales pitch with the tee read, "Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out.  She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."

Men, women, parents, teachers, and children advocacy groups across the country took to the Internet to tweet, message and email their disgust, disappointment and dismay.  Within 12 hours of the shirt being put online for sale (the retail store states that the shirt was ONLY for sale online and not in its stores), it was taken down with statements of apology from the company.

The idea that anyone would find this statement and this idea cute and even appealing is blood boiling.  As the mother of a 3 year old girl, I have tried desperately to make my daughter- and son, for that matter- understand that "being pretty" is not the most important thing in life.  Contrary to what the Disney Princess line of toys and paraphernalia will lead you to believe (Mulan being the sole exception, in my opinion...) , my husband and I really try to instill in our children the idea that being kind to others regardless of differences, being confident in who you are, and trying your best in all you do are the things in life that really matter.  While sometimes I feel like we do go a bit overboard (while reading an old version of a Curious George story to my 5 year old son one evening before bed he asked, "Why do they need to say that 'the nurse was young and pretty?'.  Is that really important for the story?"), I truly believe that gender stereotypes can be very harmful to children. 

Don't get me wrong, we have the Disney Princess figures in my house along with a backpack and T-shirt to match.  Those figures, however, get trapped in the Batcave (and escape by themselves), sit on block towers as lookouts (along with Spiderman and Handy Manny) and discuss the rescue of Luke Skywalker from the top shelf on their toy chest.  While driving in the car one day, after discussing why some kids on Glee were so cruel to the character Kurt, Sam asked me if I thought there would ever be a gay Disney princess.  The answer I gave him was, "Maybe Sam.  That would be great wouldn't it?".  And he thought it would. 

As educators, I believe we have a responsibility to debate and dispel gender stereotypes.  One way to do this is to share stories with our students that challenge the antiquated and "traditional" roles that boys and girls have so often been given.  We can also share stories that celebrate differences and individuality.  Having open and honest discussions about what girls and boys "do" or "like" is a wonderful way to get kids talking about their ideas on the subject and perhaps, shed some light on why ANYONE would think that a T-shirt like the one that was on sale at JC Penney would ever be acceptable to anyone.

Below are some books to get the discussion started.  Please feel free to add your own suggestions below. 

The Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke

My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis

Brontorina by James Howe

The Family Book by Todd Parr

Free to be You and Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends (a great CD too!)

Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tomie dePaola

In Our Mother's House by Patricia Polacco

The Sissy Duckling by Harvey Fierstein

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow

Whoever You Are by Mem Fox