Peter Johnston’s book Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s Learning (2004) is among the most meaningful and transforming professional books I’ve ever read.  His compelling examples of classroom teachers’ subtle language choices taught me that, by choosing our words with intention, we can greatly influence a child’s view of himself, his attitude towards learning, and ultimately his approach to life. Johnston taught me a new meaning for the word agency—a child’s sense of self and his own abilities.  He elaborates that, “Children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals” (p. 29)—my new mantra.

Although Johnston’s definition of agency was new to me, the idea that adults influence children’s self-perceptions by how we speak with them was not. Like most teachers, I strived to build emotionally healthy children and develop learning communities.  I knew that daily relationships within my classroom mattered. But Johnston added another layer to my thinking. He helped me see my former ideas about using language to build self-esteem and motivate students in a new light.

For example, when children use developmental spelling, the response “I see you know how to spell the beginning of that word” confirms what has been successful, while also affirming the learner’s competence so he will have the confidence to once again approach the process. Marie Clay (1993) refers to this as attending to the “partially correct.” The power of affirming their approximations cannot be overstated.

We can build agency, also, with responses that attribute an accomplishment entirely to the student(s), such as “I like the way you figured that out,” or “How did you do that?” or “You managed to figure that out with each other’s help. How did you do that?” Through our word choices, we can prompt students to articulate what they know, thereby constructing deeper meaning and affirming that problems can be solved by strategic thinking and action.

Sometimes, however, silence is a powerful way to promote agency. Extending thinking time can result in more student talk, more sustained talk, and higher order thinking. When a teacher waits for a child to figure something out or self-correct, it conveys the message that she expects the child to be able to accomplish it.  Moving forward quickly to another student for a response or providing the answer conveys the opposite message.

Because I was so struck by the power of Choice Words, I rushed to get a copy of Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives (2012).  As in Choice Words, Johnston focuses on the idea that the subtle differences in the things we choose to say to children impact their learning—most particularly through their sense of agency. In this book, I was drawn to Johnston’s idea of a fixed-performance theory of intelligence and knowledge vs. his dynamic-learning theory.  It reminded me of Marge Lipson’s words in presentations to teachers: “Smart is not something you are; it is something you get” and that it is each teacher’s job to help children “get smart.”

As in his first book, Johnston reiterates that children develop theories about who they are. But he expounds in Opening Minds that people of all ages have either a fixed mindset or a dynamic mindset (or a combination of those), and the view we adopt for ourselves profoundly affects our approach to life. People with fixed mindsets believe that their qualities are more or less carved in stone—that they have a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, or certain ability.  These are the people who say “I’m just not good at math” or “He has a natural talent for soccer” or when things go wrong, “I’m just stupid, I guess.” They don’t cope with mistakes very well because they see errors as a reflection of their intelligence or character. We all know adults and children who think this way. They may blame others when things go wrong, or may not realize their own potential.  (I behave this way when I say, “I am just not good at golf” instead of “I can’t play golf well yet.”)

Consequences of a fixed view are significant. Johnson emphasizes that, if our students see their abilities as fixed, we can’t help them, and they can’t take up agency in terms of their own lives. He emphasizes that he is not talking only about children who struggle in school.  Students who realize that they learn easily but feel they have no control over their own competence may, in fact, work to make their abilities appear fixed, to preserve the appearance of being competent.  They do not want to show errors or missteps; to protect themselves, they stay within their comfort zones and avoid new challenges.

Dynamic mindset people, however, see themselves as learners.  Their worldview is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate and change through your own efforts. They think like this:  “If I’m not that good at math, I can put forth some more effort and improve.” “If I my mistake cost my team the victory, then there are certain skills I need to work on.”  “Just because I have a natural talent for piano, doesn’t mean that I can’t improve and work on my skills.”

There are many ways to apply this thinking in teaching.  Consider the place of factual knowledge in our curricula.  Yes, students do need to know essential facts, but Johnston points out that the trouble with factual knowledge is that it is dead knowledge.  It doesn’t change. It is uncertainty that drives inquiry and agency.  Uncertainty creates good conversation, or for children to find that, if they pursue something, they have the power to construct the knowledge.  We need to create productive ways of engaging uncertainty about important things in our classrooms

We can also highlight that things change by focusing on process and how things are done, more than on immediate products. The language that we use while teaching can empower students to be self-directed or it can make them believe that their job is to follow your directions. Consider a writing workshop authors craft mini-lesson.  After you have completed a read aloud or shared writing to demonstrate the ways authors use details, you might say,  “Now, try it.  Get out whatever you are writing, and add four more details.”  OR  “Can this help you with the writing you are working on now?  If it can, then see if you can improve your piece with more details. If it’s not going to help the piece you are writing today, keep adding details in mind for when you can use it….”  While both of these conclusions let students know that they will eventually try out the new strategy, one explicitly directs, and one asks them to decide.

What do we want your students to be able to do?  If we want them to be self-directed and develop agency, they need to be responsible for making decisions for authentic reasons.  Thanks to Peter Johnston, I pay closer attention to the things I say to children (and adults, too) and I rethink some words and phrases I use to promote agency.

(This article is published in the Spring, 2012, edition of the Michigan Reading Journal.)

References

Clay, M.M. (1993). Reading Recovery: A guidebook for teachers in training. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Johnston, P.H.  (2004).  Choice words:  How our language affects children’s learning.  Portland, ME:  Stenhouse Publishers.

Johnston, P. H. (2012).  Opening minds:  Using language to change lives. Portland, ME:  Stenhouse Publishers.

I have taught an “Exploring Literacy K-2” course for the past two years.  A requirement of the course is to participate as teams and to take part in what I  refer to as “team collaborations.”   Team collaborations are intended to be an opportunity for teachers to grow by trying out what has been presented in the course and getting feedback from colleagues through observations and reflection.

I don’t make this assignment without knowing how vulnerable one feels when our teaching is put out there for all to see, appreciate, and yes, critique!  I was trained as a Reading Recovery teacher and “behind the glass” demonstrations in front of a group of 15-18 teachers (and maybe an interested principal or superintendent) is really intimidating.  It iss truly one of the hardest learning experiences I’ve ever had, and by far the one I learned the most from.  Thoughts go through your mind like, “What if I make a mistake?  What if I’m not good enough?  Will my colleagues think less of me?”  And then there’s the funny stomach and the shaky hands, and sometimes even a few tears.  “What if I drop the book, or worse, get sick in front of everyone including the students?”  It is a scary place to be.  What monster of an instructor would ever make us do this?

It is a funny thing that happens when teachers take this risk for the first time. The debriefings after observations reflect all of the positive things we can possibly say about one another.  No one is willing to make suggestions or recommendations for change and there are very few questions. In the course, this is when I clarify the assignment by letting them know that offering constructive criticism and next steps is a required part of the team collaborations.  This is truly a hard part, but everyone dutifully, and maybe a little reluctantly, complies.

After two or three collaborations, working through the hard parts makes it all worth it.  These brave teachers who take a risk and trust their colleagues, consistently tell me once they get over the shaking and worry they actually find the collaborations to be quite valuable as they gain new understandings from their teammates’ suggestions and comments.  Many tell me they want to keep them going even after the course is over and several teachers have referred to it as the best part of the course!  The insights, ideas, knowledge, and expertise they glean from peers in their own schools is a “gift” they work side by side with every day and often don’t even realize it.

I feel as if I have fallen down the rabbit hole.  Remember in Alice in Wonderland what happened to Alice when she tumbled down the rabbit hole?  Well, it all began for me when I started searching through blogs on children’s literature to choose some of the best to share with you here on our VRI site.  I have several blogs that I subscribe to currently and am continually finding more.  On this day I spent over two hours finding more blogs and when I emerged I discovered that I had explored over forty blogs.  I was bleary-eyed.

A few times a week I go blog hopping: starting with one blog that I visit regularly, I read the day’s entry and comments and then click on one of the commentators or on one of the blogs that is listed as a favorite on this site and hop over to his/her blog. From there, I just keep moving from one site to another. It’s addictive, but so entertaining and inspiring.  I generally don’t spend quite so much time as I did today on this adventure.

I must add that in the course of this exploration, I managed to order eighteen books that I felt that I just had to own.  That’s the only danger of blog exploring.  Well, that and spending time when I may be supposed to be doing something else.

Now my task was to select a few of my favorite blogs to share here.  What a difficult assignment.  So I won’t categorically say that these are my most favorite because that is just too difficult to do.  But these are fabulously interesting blogs.

Hope you enjoy the journey—

1.)  Anita Silvey’s Book-a-Day Almanac (http://childrensbookalmanac.com/):  The author of this blog has been the editor of The Horn Book review journal and intimately involved with children’s literature for many years.  In this blog, Anita shares a book each day, some of which are classics and some of which may become classics.  She also writes about the story behind many of these books as well as alerting her readers to events occurring in the world of children’s literature.  In the past month, she has highlighted such books as City of Embers, Alabama Moon (in honor of the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War), and, Here Come the Girl Scouts (in honor of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts).  These are just examples.

2.) Reading Beyond the Middle  (http://beyondthemiddle.blogspot.com )  As the title suggests, the author of this blog focuses on books for students in high school. Mrs. Rush-Levine is a language arts teacher in Illinois.  In her description of the blog, she explains that former students come to her and ask for book recommendations.  She says, “My plan is for you to continue to living the life of a reader beyond the time you spent as a reader in my classroom.”  Some recent book recommendations with annotated descriptions are A Monster Calls by P. Ness, The Future of Us by J. Asher, and, Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

3.) Teaching With Picture Books (http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/ )  This blog is written by Keith Schoch who describes himself as a veteran professional educator.  He has three separate blogs which he updates regularly.  On March 18^th the title of his entry was Picture Books:  Alive and Well written in response to an article about the decline of picture book sales.  He tends to share recently published books and offers suggestions for extension activities.

4. ) Book Jeannie (http://bookjeannie.blogspot.com )  At the top of this blog site is the quote, “To me, books are everything, pure and simple.”  Spoken like a real librarian which the author is in an elementary school in Colorado.  Jean writes brief, frequent posts on books are new and interesting or that are connected to some special event.  For example, her school celebrated Picture Book Month in November and she shared that her favorite author for children is Mo Willems.  (On a personal note, I don’t understand how someone can have one favorite author but maybe it’s possible.)

5.) A blog that is a bit different is number five on this list.  I chose Kate Messner’s site (www.katemessner.com ).  She was (until this past January) a middle school teacher near Plattsburg, NY.  However, her books have become so popular that she made the difficult decision to devote all of her time to writing.  Some of her books are Over and Under the Snow; Marty McGuire; and, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.  In her posts, Kate talks about her books, other authors, her experiences in schools and more.  Additionally, Kate has written Real Revision: Author’s Strategies to Share with Student Writers.

6.) Another blog by an author of children’s literature is entitled, Words We Say written by Sharon Creech  (http://sharonkaycreech.blogspot.com/ ).  In this blog, Sharon strikes a very conversational tone.  She recommends books, talks about her own books, and, shares some ways that she writes and gets inspiration for her writing.

7.) Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (http://www.blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/ The author of this blog, Julie Danielson, is a school librarian and a prolific writer on her site.  She reviews mostly children’s books but some books for adults, as well.  She particularly loves to talk about the illustrations in books.  Quite often she interviews authors and illustrators all of which she posts.  Julie also writes for Kirkus reviews and shares this material with her readers.

So now that I’ve shared some of my favorite blogs about children I do hope that you will consider entering the names of the blogs that you most enjoy reading and exploring in the comments box below.  I’ll be looking for new worlds to explore.  And I will write another entry with suggestions, as well.

Hey Mr. Backman,
Just letting you know that you should keep giving those math papers/projects.  They’re really helpful for college math classes.  I had two [so far] and I got a 100 on my first one!
Student X

Last week, a student wrote this note to my husband, a math teacher.  He was talking about how my husband had “ripped” apart his first paper during his senior year (with constructive feedback) and how he believed the feedback, as well as the instruction and assignments my husband had given, benefited him in the work he was doing at college. As the school’s literacy coach, I was, of course, extremely excited to hear a student talk about how writing in math helped in future endeavors.

According to Spitler (2009), in order to change a teacher’s perception to being a teacher of literacy, one must have “a conscious and confident view of self as responsible for and in control of improving the literacy learning of self and the competency to enact engagements to guide the literacy learning of students.”  The projects that my husband assigns for both his Statistics and AP level Statistics classes required the students to read academic writing about statistical information and then collect their own data, analyze it, and write it up in the same style.  These projects tap into what is called quantitative literacy.  According to the International Life Skills Survey, quantitative literacy is “an aggregate of skills, knowledge, beliefs, dispositions, habits of mind, communication capabilities, and problem solving skills that people need in order to engage effectively in quantitative situations arising in life and work” (Steen, 2000).  However, more generally, students also engage in what is called mathematics literacy, which according to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), is “an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded mathematical judgments and to engage in mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s current and future life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen” (Steen, 2000).

Although the statistics projects are one intensive form of including literacy in the mathematics classroom, there are other ways to include it as well. Here are a few:

Taxonomies and Translating Phrases
Have students create a taxonomy to include terms that are specialized to mathematics.  These taxonomies can look like a dictionary that students can use to help “translate” the mathematics they encounter in class.  Here is a sample piece of a taxonomy for a Algebra class:

To help students practice “translating” the language of Algebra, you can create lessons where they treat Algebra like a foreign language that they need to translate. For example, ask them to “translate” the word phrase into an algebraic expression and vice versa.

Metacognition Prompts
Use a series of prompts that can be included either on a graphic organizer or in a notebook to get students thinking about mathematical problems in a way beyond the text on the page.  With the increase of technology, I believe these prompts could also be included in a wiki post or other online manner to have students looking at how each other thinks as well . These prompts can look like (Rothstein & Rothstein, 2007):

• I read the problem and this is what I know…
• This is what I don’t know…
• This is what I need to know…
• Here is how I solved the problem…

These prompts can be used for students to assess what they know (or don’t know) with a variety of problem types, as well as for a teacher to use in a diagnostic way.  In addition, it allows students to have to explain their knowledge through writing.

Mathematic Assessment Probes
Mathematic Assessment Probes are a diagnostic assessment that “includes a prompt or question and a series or responses that specifically elicit prior understanding and commonly held misconceptions that may or may not have been uncovered during an instructional unit” (Rose and Arline, 2009).  These probes may also be used at the start of a unit to gather information about where students are at with their knowledge.

Although some might argue these are just for diagnostic purpose, you can include a writing component by having the students explain why they chose a particular choice.  This addition allows for students to work on explaining their thinking in an organized way and allows you to see inside your students’ minds as to what they are thinking as they solve a problem.

An example of a mathematics assessment probe:
Students were asked to solve the following equation. Four students solved it differently.

 x-3=4

Student A: x = -1
Student B: x = 1
Student C: x = 7
Student D: x = 12

Who do you agree with? Why?

NOTE: All samples from the work I have done with teachers include either visuals or special software to make problems.  I created this problem modeled after others I have seen from teachers.

Like any literacy strategy, you will more than likely need to model these strategies with students to help them know how to use them in their work.  However, the time spent front loading these strategies will be worth it when you have more critical thinking mathematicians in your midst.  And maybe one day, you will have the student who returns to share how important writing and literacy is when thinking about mathematics.

References for Using Writing In Mathematics Classes

In this third installment, I offer guideline #3 along with related classroom practices:

Guideline #3: Make Poetry Accessible, Relevant, and Meaningful to Students

We, as teachers, need to take poetry from its pedantic pedestal and bring it to the students’ level.  So often poetry remains locked in its literary canon and is never fully ignited for children.  We must light the match by showing students that poetry is the chief medium for self-expression (Sears, 1990).  It is the outlet and form for all their thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and experiences (Koch, 1970).  As Maxine Kumin reminds, poetry allows us to “burrow inward” for a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world (Murray, 1990).

It is not an elite genre reserved for a select few.  In fact, Graves (1992) insists: “Poetry is for us; it is for everyone.  It is for all those who wish to write about what they care about, to relive scenes, recall images, and savor experiences that otherwise pass fleetingly through their minds.”  And, as Routman (1988) suggests, poetry is all around us—in signs, slogans, and daily conversations.  Children, for example, often speak in metaphors so poetry is a natural part of their language use.   As teachers, we need to cultivate that spontaneous creativity, playfulness with language, and poetic consciousness.

By the same token, however, we don’t want to dismiss the “classics” altogether.  Heard (1989) urges teachers to go beyond a strict diet of children’s poetry because she finds that these selections may not be intellectually and emotionally compelling enough to foster deep engagement.  Koch (1973) supports this view, as well.  He goes so far as to teach “great poetry” to children.  Although Koch teaches poets like William Blake, Wallace Stevens, and Walt Whitman, he doesn’t get the children “lost in the literariness.”  Instead, he sifts through each verse for one poem idea that is “totally understandable” to the children.  For example, with Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” Koch invites students to celebrate one aspect of themselves that gives them a sense of pride. As Koch (1973) demonstrates, teachers can and must make poetry accessible, meaningful and personally relevant to children.

Sara Holbrook has also been instrumental in helping us to see how poetry is a folk art—it’s for all people and by all people. The poems that really grab us, move us, change us are the poems about real life—about what real people think, feel, wonder, question, argue, doubt, call into question.  Sara urges us to share those poems with our kids and to invite our kids to write those kinds of poems, too, not just the frills and flowers variety.  As Sara reminds, we all have something to say. She also gives us an important heads up about the challenges kids face when they have a steady of diet of Jack Prelutzky throughout their elementary years and then are suddenly confronted with the likes of Williams Wordsworth. We need to give a balanced diet of poems to open up our kids’ views of what is possible in poems and what poetry makes possible.

Related Classroom Practices

1)    To make writing poetry more accessible, offer students one-line starters.  “I wish…” is one prompt that invites students to explore their secret hopes and dreams.  It also excites their imaginations by encouraging them to enter the world of their own private fantasies.  On the other hand, “I used to…but now” helps students recall memories and use those experiences as a basis for their poetry.  It also allows them to realize that all they need is their own personal history to write a poem.  Lastly, “I seem to be… but am” enables children to find themselves in their poetry.  They can define the boundaries of their own expression and self-actualization (Koch, 1970).

2)    Invite a “resident poet” into the classroom to discuss the composing process, the idea for a particular poem, or his/her favorite poetry.  This exposure de-mystifies poetry for children: a poets are people just like themselves.  The resident poet can be former students, your, other teachers, parents, etc. (Graves, 1992).

3)    Distribute copies of a poet’s manuscripts to the class.  Discuss the drafts and revisions so that children can actually see the whole composing process.  This will take some of the mystery out of poetry as the students discover that poems don’t just happen (Murray, 1986).

4)    Share with students your own process of selecting a favorite poem.  Explain exactly what appealed to you.  Point out key lines, images, repetitions, etc.  Also, feel free to share those poems you do not like as well.  Indicate why you don’t relate to them.  In this way, students will realize that they too can have their own tastes and preferences.  It is important for students to know that not all poems are for them and that they can exercise choice in sampling poetry (Atwell, 1991).

5)    Treat children like poets.  Read their work to the class and build class collections, anthologies, literary magazines, poetry nights, coffee houses, etc.  Find anthologies of poems written by other children so that students realize they can be poets, too.

6)    Try collaborative poetry with the whole class.  Ask students to write one phrase describing any observations they made during that day.  Record phrases on the board as a poem.  This gives students the idea that their perceptions alone are basis enough for poetry.  You can transcribe the poem onto paper, photocopy it and distribute it to the children.  Invite them to cut phrase strips and rearrange lines to create their own poem.  They learn to see the world from others’ perspectives and to make the common uncommon.  In the process, they do what great poets do: offer new outlooks and insights on the ordinary aspects of our daily existence  (Lane, 1993).

7)    Have students begin a poem with a question they sometimes ask themselves.  This is an easy starter, which helps children realize that poetry is a process of discovery (Lane 1993).

8)    Ask students to close their eyes while you create a noise (i.e., crinkle paper, snap chalk or erase the board).  Then have them describe what the noise sounded like.  With these noise poems, children make comparisons and begin to think metaphorically (Koch, 1970).

9)    Emphasize that poems don’t need to rhyme.  This frees students from the straightjacket of rhyme schemes to write more meaningful verse.  Otherwise, poetry can become a tedious chore where students contrive nonsensical couplets and lose their authentic voice  (Heard, 1989).

10)  Have students write repetition poems where they repeat a certain line.  This allows them to generate more verse in a predictable format.  It also gives them an easy-to-understand way of dividing their poem into lines.  Even more, this repetition offers a singsong quality to the verse so students sense the rhythm inherent in poetry (Koch, 1970).

If you really want to get a lot of ‘bang for your buck’ with your emergent and early writers and readers, then I highly recommend that you try out interactive writing with your students. As a former kindergarten teacher, it was staple practice in my classroom, a practice that led to eager, avid and independent writers. So many skills are taught and reinforced through the practice of interactive writing; concept of words, conventions of print, the sounds in words and how the sounds connect to letters, spelling patterns, sentence composition, punctuation, letter formation and a sense of the class as a community of writers.

If interactive writing is a new term for you, here is a brief definition of this practice: Interactive writing is a cooperative event in which
 teacher and children jointly compose and write text. Not only do they share the decision about what they
 are going to write, they also share the duties of 
scribe.

The process begins with the teacher and students planning and composing text. The purpose is authentic and meaningful; the planning is done through lots and lots of talk and is guided by the teacher. The pen is then shared as students stretch out words, listen for sounds and represent those sounds with letters on the paper. The students contribute what they know and then the teacher fills in the rest.

The writing can take many forms; a list, for example, if you are working on the sounds “y” and “w”, you can create an two column chart and have students brainstorm and interactively write words that fit in each column, a letter, one kindergarten class that I work in wrote a thank you note to some community volunteers, a diagram–see Frosty below, a rewrite of a big book, and on and on and on.

All you really need to implement interactive writing in the classroom is an easel, some chart paper, 2 different colored markers (one color for the teacher and one color for the students), corrective tape, the alphabet chart you use and an authentic purpose for writing.

Once the writing is done, it becomes text that all students can revisit and reread and take pride in knowing that they were one of the contributing authors!

“Frosty” is interactive writing done by kindergarten students at Shoreham Elementary School who were tired of this funny-no snow-winter and so took it upon themselves to create their own snowman, inside their classroom!

Here are a few more tried and true ideas for interactive writing to get you started. If you give interactive writing a try, please share your ideas here on the blog and remember to take a photo!

• Nursery rhymes are great – you can “fill” Mother Hubbard’s cupboard with magazine cut outs of food and then label them with interactive writing
• Winter rewrite of Rosie’s Walk – “around the snowman, down the ski slope, over the frozen pond, etc.
• An on-going list of ‘signs of spring’
• Rules or expectations at a new learning center
• Valentine’s Day Card to the Principal
• Directions for how to make something…like a snowman or an edible treat.
• An extension from a read aloud – “What did Goldilocks learn?”

My family loves basketball. So naturally, with the NBA lock out, there is a basketball void in our lives right now. When my daughter got word about a charity game being held at Harvard University, a game complete with a star-studded cast of players, she immediately shot me a text message saying that we just had to go. Without hesitation tickets were purchased and two days later we all hopped in the car to make the trip down to Cambridge. The game was spectacular and my basketball loving kids, now donning player autographs on both hands, were giddy with excitement on the car ride home.

However, it was the reaction of my son upon pulling into the driveway at 12:00 a.m. that got me thinking. As we were unloading the jackets, cameras and garbage from the car, he ran inside, grabbed his basketball and a flashlight and immediately started playing the game on our backyard hoop. It was dark, cold and late, but none of that mattered. He was inspired and fired up to play the game he had just witnessed so many of players that he admires play.

The same phenomenon happens to us as teachers. We go to a conference or a workshop to learn from the best in the field and when it’s over, we can’t wait to get back to our classrooms to put into action what we just learned. Personally, I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking about writing and my son’s reaction to the NBA charity game made me think about how powerful and motivating it is to bring a “pro” into our classrooms, especially when that “pro” is a published and maybe even ‘famous’ writer.

We are lucky here in Vermont to have so many authors and illustrators that live in our state and are willing to come into our schools and share their wisdom and excitement about writing with our students. My daughter’s high school AP English class had a visit from John Irving after reading his book A Prayer for Owen Meany and she couldn’t stop talking about it for the next few weeks. In a time of high stakes testing, bringing in an author or illustrator has the power to put a fresh spark in your writing program and motivate your students to willingly write, to take a chance with their writing and to find the joy, excitement and possibilities with writing. Yes, it takes time and effort and more than likely, money, to make an author visit happen. However, it has the power to fire up your student writers and let them see what’s possible. Who knows, they may even decide to grab a flashlight, a pen and some paper, and write the night away!

Attached is a list of Vermont authors and illustrators of children’s literature from the Vermont Department of Education. It’s a pretty star studded list!  I encourage you to work with your school librarian and administration to bring someone to your school. I believe you’ll find it worth the investment.

Vermont Authors & Illustrators

I recently finished teaching a two day session on writer’s workshop in the K-2 classroom. One of the first activities I did was to have teachers jot two or three things down about what they are hoping to come away with after spending two days together.  I have done this similar workshop a number of times and it never fails–the one thing teachers are always looking for are titles of mentor text to guide their writing workshop. There are lots of books out there that do just this (Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray and Mentor Text  by  Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli to name a few), but over the past several years, the first and second grade teachers and I have developed an extensive list to match our writing curriculum.  These are text that guide our workshops year after year. They are based on the idea that, as writers, we read books with “the sense of possibilities.” We read like a writer to learn about text structures, ways with words, genres, grammar, punctuation and illustrations. This list is always a hit. Enjoy!

Text Structure Examples

“Henry is not a very thoughtful person.  In that last chapter he….”, “How do you suppose fish can travel that far?, “I don’t agree with you, I think…..”, “I wonder if the author had to travel all the way to Africa to find that out.”  “I didn’t know that……”,  “I learned about planets in another book……….” “I’m thinking his best friend did it because………”,.

This is the language of readers questioning, growing ideas, and challenging each other to understand a text deeply.  Conversation is our connection to comprehension.  “Much of what I know, I know because I have questioned and thought about ideas with others, tried things out, modified stances, talked with colleagues………So it is with all learners.  I would argue that when no conversations are going on, as in whole class skill and drill, it’s not learning that’s taking place, but rather rote memorization.” (Regie Routman, 2000).

So how do we, as classroom teachers, create an interactive classroom that promotes thoughtful conversation resulting in learning?  It is possible, if we believe students should do the work of building meaning of a text, rather than teachers leading the way to the meaning.  The best teachers understand that we all have different thinking and experiences to bring to the group regardless of our level of reading.   By developing, connecting, and explaining ideas from the text, students discover their own way through.  Conversation helps to clarify thinking and reshape what we know.

Rich discussion is developed through careful planning and instruction that provides students with the tools to engage in thoughtful reflection and conversation.  The process takes time.  Worthy discussion is not just “assigned” without taking the time to:

• develop protocols with the students for what good discussion looks and sounds like
• model and provide practice jotting and tracking thinking to support rich conversation and evidence from the text
• provide models of discussion that get to deeper thinking
• start with conversations during read-aloud to draw students deeper into the text with teacher facilitation
• ease into group discussion beginning with pairs, moving to three, four, and more after all students are successfully engaged in each configuration
• provide opportunities for self-assessment and feedback on the quality of discussion

What’s everybody talking about?  Good reading, new learning, exciting ways of thinking, language, and vocabulary-that’s what everybody’s talking about!  We owe it to ourselves, and our students, to provide the very best opportunities we know how to develop readers and thinkers.  There is no greater accomplishment for a teacher than to stand back and listen to her room “buzzing” with students engaged in thoughtful reflection and rich conversation around reading.

Resources to get you started:

Angellilo, Janet,  Writing About Reading, Portsmouth, N.H., Heinemann.  (teaching students to jot thinking)

Beck, E. & McKeown, M. 2006. Questioning the Author, New York, N.Y., Scholastic.  (developing thinking during reading)

Cole, Ardith 2003.  Knee to Knee, Eye to Eye, Portsmouth, N.H., Heinemann  (grouping for discussion)

Serravallo, Jennifer 2010.  Teaching Reading in Small Groups. Portsmouth, N.H., Heinemann  (intervention for comprehension and conversation)

Sibberson, F. & Szymusiak, K. 2003.  Still Learning to Read,  Portland, Me., Stenhouse  (conversations to clarify thinking)

In the book , Still Learning to Read by Franki Sibbberson and Karen Szymusiak (Stenhouse,2003),  I have discovered a quick, fun, and engaging way for students to preview lots of books and talk about them. It’s called Check It Out Circle, and it provides a structure that can address a variety of purposes.  Do you want students to discover some just right books, or do an inquiry about a genre? If so, then go ahead and have some fun with Check It Out Circle.  Here are the simple steps to follow:

Check It Out!  Circle

• The teacher selects enough books for the number of students in the circle.  A small group of 4-6 students is best. The selections may be the same genre or topic, or a random collection that could address a variety of “just right” levels.

• Students meet in small groups in circles on the floor or at tables.  All of the books are placed at the center of the circle.

• Ask each child to take a book and wait for the bell/signal before they open it.

• Explain to students that when they hear the bell or signal, they have one minute to “check out” the book in any way that they want to.

• After one minute, ask students to pass the book to the child on their right.

• Continue doing this until every child has had a chance to briefly look at each book.

After everyone in the circle has previewed all of the books, use one of the following prompts to promote discussion in pairs or small groups.

1. How did you go about previewing the books in such a short time?
2. How could you identify if a book was “just right” for you?
3. Which books did you see that you want to go back to at independent reading time?   Why?
4. If the purpose is an inquiry into a genre study, ask students what they noticed about the texts.

Follow up with an anchor chart that documents student thinking.

Check It Out Circle encourages conversation about books, and reminds children that book choice is unique for each reader.  Everyone learns new ways to preview and choose books. Since students have just enough time to find something interesting, but not enough time to read the book, they are often eager to get their hands on the books that particularly interested them.