Thanks for Helping Me Get Ready


Dear PLN,

Last winter while dreaming of the summertime Iowa Reading Conference, I considered signing up to be a presenter for a breakout session on “Joining the Conversation.”

With my Flickr friends’ encouragement, I took the plunge. Here is the description for my session:

It wasn’t long ago when networking with colleagues was limited to our school districts, local councils, and, occasionally, state conferences. However, educators today develop global professional friendships, which lead to wonderful opportunities for our students. Explore how you can build your own PLN (Personal Learning Network) through Twitter, blogging, and Flickr. If you are considering joining the conversation, come and we’ll get started.

Now, here we are a couple days before the session, and I am really excited. I hope many people will consider it by attending my session. I know those of you who are reading this post recognize the benefits of joining in this conversation, which includes global friends and colleagues passionate about education. I want to share our enthusiasm with a growing group of educators.

About a month ago I asked for members of my PLN to add a note telling about the benefits of their PLN. So many of you responded here, graciously and with eloquence. Thank you for helping me get ready for my session!

Now, my handout is ready, and I am soon leaving to learn at an awesome reading conference, one I haven’t been to in six years because before this year it was always at a bad time in April. Now, it’s summertime!

But before I go, I would like to ask one more request of you, friends. If you are available, would you consider joining in the conversation on Wednesday, June 27, at 2:00 p.m. CST? We have a Twitter hashtag to follow: #IowaReads and a Today’s Meet session: http://todaysmeet.com/iowareads

Thanks so much, in advance! I know I’ll “see” some of you there.

“Last Page, Lost Friend” Reading Quotes & The Reading Zone

Great Writers on Reading

“When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me. Sometimes I read a book with pleasure, and detest the author. It is easy enough for a man to walk who has a horse at his command. The invalid is not to be pitied who has a cure up his sleeve. And such is the advantage I receive from books.

“They relieve me from idleness, rescue me from company I dislike, and blunt the edge of my grief, it if is not too extreme. They are the comfort and solitude of my old age. When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as the running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind. And they don’t rebel because I use them only for lack of partimes more natural and alive. They always receive me with welcome.” ~Montaigne

“Let me read with method, and purpose to ourselves an end to what our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.” ~Edward Gibbon

“Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep; but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself.” ~Walt Whitman

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them according to his ability, by his word, by his life.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“Book love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last you until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.” ~Anthony Trollope

I found all the above quotes on the back of a book copyrighted in 1959, To Appomattox: Nine April Days. There was no information about the book at hand, just inspiring reading quotes from great writers.

In addition, I’ve been reading Nancie Atwell’s The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readersand I keep running across quotes I want to remember:

The goal is “to read for pleasure, but not for idleness; for pastime but not to kill time; to seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books.” ~Robertson Davies

In reading workshop, the delights are intrinsic, always: This week I got to experience a whole world with characters I loved; inside me I traveled, wondered, worried, laughed, cried, raged, triumphed. The passions aroused by stories and characters are the prize~Nancie Atwell

Frequent, voluminous, happy experiences with books — preferably in a room that’s filled with good ones and in the company of a teacher who knows how to invite and sustain a love of stories — are the way to teach and learn reading for a lifetime. ~Nancie Atwell

“The vicarious experience of reading can shape our essence, change us, just as firsthand experience can.”  ~Sydney Jourard

The Reader’s Bill of Rights

  1. The right not to read something
  2. The right to skip pages
  3. The right not to finish
  4. The right to reread
  5. The right to read anything
  6. The right to escapism
  7. The right to read anywhere
  8. The right to browse
  9. The right to read out loud
  10. The right to not defend your tastes

~Daniel Pennac

This afternoon I decided to claim my rights as a reader and I did a little skipping and browsing of the rest of The Reading Zone. I was disappointed in Chapter 5 on Comprehension. She argued against what’s been written on reading comprehension since Pearson’s research in 1985. That would include some of my favorite writers — who write primarily about using the comprehension strategies good readers use — Ellin Keene, Susan Zimmerman, Cris Tovani, and Stephanie Harvey. The strategies from Mosaic of Thought have made it into the Iowa Core–one of just two additions Iowa added to the Common Core Standards.

Nancie talked about connections with self, text, and world mostly in the negative sense, about the “irrelevant bumps” that come in to disturb the reading zone. Certainly there are some of those, but good readers know when their understanding breaks down, and they have fix-up strategies for getting back in the zone.

It’s true that strategy instruction is only important for a certain population of readers–the ones with decoding skills but aren’t using comprehension strategies. Proficient readers don’t need to be taught the skills because they already have them. That’s why her students rebelled at the sticky notes she required them all to write.

Overall, however, I gleaned many good ideas from The Reading Zone. I’m going to make some fairly radical changes in my language arts curriculum next year. More choice. Less quizzes, tests, and book projects. More reading homework and accountability. I believe my classes will be more relevant and rigorous than they’ve been in the past. Atwell’s book has some great resources–a list of openers to help students write their letter/essays in response to books, a list of questions to ask students during individual conferences, and a great two-page reading survey for the first day. This was a book worth the read/browse.

I’ll report back next year about how it’s going!

Your First Comment

This is a post for you to try your hand at commenting, inspired by my “Joining the Conversation” session at the Iowa Reading Conference and “Extend the Conversation

If you have not made a comment on another person’s blog — written out there for all the world to see — it can be scary. I remember the first few times I left comments. There were so many things I didn’t understand. Like why there were so many different platforms hosting the blogs. Did I have to get a log in for all of them? If I didn’t log in, sometimes my carefully crafted comment would be lost at the stroke of the submit button. Of course, I didn’t rewrite it. I just walked away dejectedly.

When I would make a grammatical or spelling mistake and push submit, I would cringe and take another two steps back. Sometimes I made a crazy comment because I hadn’t read the original post carefully enough. Maybe I can’t or shouldn’t do this after all! I’d think.

It took a couple months of commenting on blog posts I really loved to get encouragement enough to know I wanted to continue.

On my blog I’ve tried to eliminate some of the barriers to receiving comments. I think it’s pretty simple to leave a comment here. You don’t have to log in. You can be anonymous, if you wish. You don’t have to leave a URL or email address. I think you do have to write an “anti-spam” message though.

That’s why I thought you might like to try your first comment here in the safe zone! Another perk…if you make a mistake or don’t like what you’ve written, you can let me know and I can edit or delete it.

I hope after our session, you will choose to join the conversation! Start here with a triumph, a question, or a doubt you have about this conversation. You can also carry on a conversation with each other. That’s the beauty!

The Reinvention of Education

I started this blog post on October 18, 2011, and it’s been sitting ever since. It was first titled “ITEC11 Day 2.”

This morning, eight months after I started it, I was reminded of Steve Hargadon’s important words when I responded to an undergraduate student’s question about what I meant by “the reinvention of education.”

I don’t lightly toss around words like “reinvention” and “revolution”, “shift” and “shakeup.” I really mean them (and other rebellious word choice) when I describe what is happening in education.

I just completed a transformational year in my teaching career. After joining the conversation the year before, I went to ITEC11 (Iowa Technology in Education Connection) last fall and was inspired to rethink how we do education.

My eight-month old notes follow…

The second day of ITEC11 was as stimulating as the first. It was educational, in the best sense of the word. My favorite speaker was Steve Hargadon, founder of Classroom 2.0, among other things. He shared amazing possibilities. Here is a link to EduVision, where you can find Steve’s keynote. Search for “ITEC Day 2 Keynote Steve Hargadon 10-18-11.”

Here is an outline of his talk, with my occasional reflections in italics.

He had Three Things to Share With Us…

  • An Important Idea
  • A Platform
  • A Framework

The Important Idea – YOU MATTER!
You matter a lot!
Search YouTube for Angela Maiers & You Matter
We were asked to share with someone sitting near us a passion, a skill or a talent we had. It was exciting to hear the buzz around the room.

“Each of you is uniquely valuable in this world,” he said. Not only do you matter individually, but collectively. Steve explained that tech changes have led to culture changes that are leading to educational changes. As teachers interested in technology, that makes us matter collectively. He likened us to super heroes, in fact.

He asked us to discuss with another neighbor, “What is the main purpose of education?” I said,

We have a new platform. No longer do we have to rely on the institutional or professional narrative. There is a new shift in voice and a shift in power. He used the protests in Egypt as an example of the shift in power in governance. Wisconsin, Occupy Wall Street, are examples. New conversations and new voices are being heard in those big-issue conversations.

Web 1.0, the first Internet, was all about reading, receiving, and researching. It was a lot like books.

The new Internet, or Web 2.0, is about contributing, collaborating, and creating – “Web 2.0 is the web as a collaborative platform, a framework for user contribution.”

“The Internet has become an unparalleled platform for learning AND initiative, participation, productivity and creativity…most of which take place outside of formal institutions.”

Name an educator you learn from whom you have never physically met. Now, more than ever, what we are learning is coming from peers rather than experts on stage.

Then Steve asked us to discuss with a neighbor the “ways the Internet is changing our culture that will profoundly impact how we think about education.” He summarized these three ways:

1. How we find, create and consume information
Education is conversation, not content. So, to fight the avalanche of content overload, create more content. We have online learning and flipped learning now. The Internet is more than just reading and researching.

Learning is creation, not memorization.

Learning is about sharing knowledge, rather than protecting your knowledge.

A great example was when he mentioned the buzz in the room as everyone was sharing their knowledge about what education meant to them. The fact that there was more discussion and, as it were, an “avalanche of content” made the learning more real, not less so. We don’t have to consume all the knowledge, we can share knowledge and join in on a more intimate level with others who are sharing knowledge. As we have heard often in recent years, there is no longer the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side. That’s how I felt Steve was to us–a guide reminding us of the importance of real-life education.

2. How we connect with others
From just local connections, to global connections.

This is an important way that my class and I are involved in connecting. We’ve gone from just having each other and the people in our building to have unlimited access to friends, colleagues, and experts.

Image by Sheri Edwards, shared with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

3. How we get things done

When we balance structure and freedom, we unleash individual energy and potential.

We go from control to liberation. We educate to unleash individual energy and potential. This is a change from the factory model we’ve been doing for over 100 years. Steve refers to the factory model of education as broken.

Back to June, 2012…

Mary asked this morning, “by ‘reinvention’ do you mean more technology involved with student’s daily lessons/learnings?” Great question! And an easy assumption to make in this era. Perhaps when I started on this journey a couple years ago I may have meant just that.

Now, I realize it’s so much more than that. I’m learning something new every day about how school can be more relevant, students can have freedom to be passionate learners, and teachers can get out of their way and be the chief learner in the classroom. (Genius hour is one of the exciting ways my students and I are practicing this transformation in education!)

Good thing I’m the chief learner in my classroom! There is lots to learn!


Chief Learner


One of my favorite education quotes is “The teacher is the chief learner in the classroom” by Donald Graves.

I heard a remnant of another quote by him recently, so I was searching for it. It is about encouraging students to bring their obsessions into the classroom. While I didn’t find the source or exact quote, I did run across this — the philosophy of education by Mrs. Wilson, primary teacher at Minds in Motion Academy in Ohio, and couldn’t leave it without sharing it. She said it exactly like I believe it!

PHILOSOPHY
If we are truly to build on children’s natural creative abilities, we need to create a classroom of the possible in our program….a classroom where it is possible for children to explore their obsessions, take risks in their thinking and apprentice themselves to many other learners; a classroom where there is a shift in the focus of control from teacher to student, where students take more responsibility for the problems they chose to solve; a classroom where it is possible for children to create personal inventories of their knowledge and their stories.where they aren’t expected to check their cultures at the door; a classroom where there is time for students to be the learners that they are born to be, and where we as teachers appreciate and delight in the extraordinary creative abilities of each child.

Beautifully said, Mrs. Wilson! I want to go to your school!

Now I’m still looking for that obsession quote by Donald Graves. I need to read some of his work!