Last week, Kim Yaris and Jan Burkins invited me to begin this conversation about text complexity and cognitive dissonance on their blog. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share more about this here and return to this space to link up the posts below as I go. Much of what I’ve been learning has emerged from my work with reluctant and struggling readers in classrooms. Curious to know what others are discovering as well.…
Happy Friday! Last week, I was beyond excited when Jan Burkis and Kim Yaris invited to guest post over at their place. I took the opportunity to start a conversation there about creating and managing cognitive dissonance. It’s one I plan to continue here next week, as my experiences implementing the Common Core Learning Standards and the six shifts that underpin them have surfaced some new and unexpected realizations about this particular topic. I’m…
As we’re preparing to engage classrooms full of kids in the shared reading of sufficiently complex text, the teachers that I am working with have made some predictions about the challenges they might face. They want to handle them as pro-actively as possible, so their instructional planning is attending to these hunches. For instance: We predict that all readers may experience increased levels of frustration as they begin confronting curricula and immersing themselves in resources that…
As we’ve begun examining each of the six instructional shifts called for by the Common Core, teachers have shared their own stories, often times lingering over many details that support the call for such changes. For instance, we know that many readers are struggling to access grade-level text. We know that when this text is expository, the problem seems even more profound. Many of us lived through the awakening of the field to reading levels…
“What have we been studying in kindergarten this spring?” Heather asked her students. “Things that hatch!” They sang. “And how have we been doing that?” Heather asked. A jumble of ideas poured out of them at once, and fingers were pointing to different corners of the room, where a bunch of creatures were in the process of hatching: “Today, we’re going to take the next step in our learning. We’re going to become researchers.…
Jessica Gentner, Fifth Grade Teacher at Lindbergh Elementary School in Kenmore, New York Parent-teacher conferences were different for our family this year, thanks to our school district’s recent decision to move toward standards-based grading and report cards at the elementary level and this very talented teacher’s thoughtful use of formative assessment processes. Jessica Gentner is our daughter Nina’s fifth grade teacher. Quite a few parents are more than impressed by the fact that she knows…
An interesting conversation is beginning to take shape on the English Companion Ning relevant to yesterday’s piece in the NY Times about providing choice to student readers. I was surprised (and kind of saddened) that this approach was touted as the “future of reading” and that it was contrasted so sharply with other forms of literature study. I don’t know many teachers who sacrifice depth of questioning or comprehension instruction in order to provide readers…
I’ve watched Erin McKean speak to redefining the dictionary with quite a few different teachers this year, particularly during conversations that focus on vocabulary instruction. Check it out: So now…….I’m kinda loving what’s she (and a team of friends) are up to here.
I’m just wondering: how many people who adamantly oppose book censorship actually tolerate the ways in which the web is censored for students and teachers (and of course, so many others)? Perhaps it isn’t fair to make this comparison, but I’m playing with doing exactly that. What do you think?
The Chosen One is Carol Lynch Williams’ harrowing account of one child’s journey toward truth, faith, and freedom. Thirteen-year-old Kyra Leigh is forced to explore the complexities of her family and her community when confronted with a reality that she is unable to accept. Raised within the confines of a polygamist compound, Kyra nurtures several forbidden desires, including a passion for books and her love of a boy that she is forbidden to marry. Williams shines…