Looking for the bright spots...

Sorry I went radio silent here on the blog. I posted last Tuesday and then the week got away from me. Then Friday happened. I went back and forth about wanting to write about the events in Connecticut, wanting to process what happened. I started many posts but, in the end, decided I just needed to stay silent. I needed to be with my own children, pray, and reflect.

After this weekend I wasn’t sure what school would be like today. I didn’t want to have a big discussion with my students. They are ten and, as a mom of a ten year old, I think that each parent should be able to decide how they want to share this horrific news with their children. I’d be here to listen to the kids, of course, but I did not want any huge conversation where we’d have kids getting more information than they needed. And that’s what we did.

Christmas gifts for my students.

My students immediately indicated that they heard the news upon entering today. I overheard several comments as they made their way to their tables. One turned to me and asked what I thought. So, I gathered my beautiful students, my amazingly funny, silly, crazy, smart kids to the carpet. I told them that we would not be having a long discussion but they needed to know this- I was sad but I’m choosing to focus on something else. There is so much beauty in this world, so much good. I am not willing to live my life in fear; I am not willing to give this man who did this horrible thing any of my attention. I will focus on small things, how my class makes me smile. How happy they were to get their Christmas gift from me (a book). And more. They seemed reassured; we smiled, and moved on with our day.

So while focusing on small moments of goodness cannot change Friday’s news, and I don’t mean to devalue the horrific event, for my own well being, I decided to focus my blog today on happy events.

Events like Project for Awesome. Check out information about it HERE. They have raised a ridiculous amount of $$$$ in one day - $192,000 as of the typing of this post. All money goes towards charities and with the goal of decreasing world suck. What isn’t to love about that? Personally, I donated to get a piece of artwork from the Yeti. Going on my living room wall – so fun!

Events like receiving this print in the mail from Matthew Cordell because I ordered four copies of Hello! Hello! Can't wait to frame it. 

Events like fifth graders being completely enthralled with the picture books I have in our tub for the Mock Caldecott. Having a student turn to me and ask if I thought the moose from Z is for Moose had “anger issues.” Hilarious!

Events like seeing that my son has created three Lego "guys" after he and his two best friends. The creative stories he has come up with are amazing. 

Events like my mom calling me to tell me a former student of both of ours (my mom had him for 3^rd, I had him for 5^th) had called her that day. He asked if she would be his confirmation sponsor. I loved that four years later you can still tell the impact she made.

Events like making baked goods for the teachers my boys have. As the boys helped me put a note with each item I realized how blessed we are, in so many ways.

Events like reading the reading responses kids have turned in this week. Loved this drawing of the breadbox from Laurel Snyder’s Bigger Than a Bread Box. I haven’t read the book for over a year but in looking over the picture I believe the drawing is all of the items that appeared in the bread box.

And so, while we all try to make sense of something that cannot make sense, I plan on turning my attention to some beautiful things in my life. Horrible days like Friday make them stand out all the more – bright spots against the dreary day. There is good in this world, we just have to know where to look for it. 

Assessing Readers

Thinking a lot about all of the different types of readers in my classroom over the past few days. Looking around the room I see kids that love graphic novels and kids who can’t stand them. Kids who always have three books (or more) going at a time and kids who finish one book before starting another. Kids who read faster than the speed of light and kids who read slowly and thoughtfully. In the 70 readers I have this year, not one is the same as another. And yet, with RTI and NCLB, these readers are measured against each other and against a bar set at a certain level.

To some extent I really do understand. We want to be sure our students comprehend what they read, that they are growing as students. As their teacher, I want to know that what I have taught has sunk in. I want to know that I have prepared them to move on from our classroom. So assessment, yes, I get it. But sometimes I question what we are assessing, what we are measuring.

Not only that, but sometimes the skills I find the most important can’t be assessed. One of my goals every year is to create life-long readers. I said that once in a professional development workshop and the presenter said that was a lofty goal, we should just shoot for kids that could read. I didn’t reply, but inside I thought to myself – no, I want them to love reading. Why does it matter to me so much? Because I know that kids who love to read are better readers. They score better in school. They will be surrounded by “friends” when they feel alone. That they can turn to a book to understand the world and understand themselves. My life is more complete because I am a reader – I cannot imagine my world without books. I want this for my students.

This goal is not on any standardized test. I don’t give a survey for RTI to see who reads and who doesn’t. But I can assess it. And I know readers when I see them – even when I’m not in my classroom. Over lunch on Sunday my husband was telling me he needed to get some books “on deck.” He said he wants to learn more about Thomas Jefferson and had found a biography of his he’d like to read. He’s also just beginning a Star Wars book. Finally, he had borrowed the next book in the Bone series from our son, Luke. When I asked why he had three books he explained that some were heavier than others; that occasionally he might switch to a different book when he needed a break. He’s a reader.

And tonight I was reading an Elephant & Piggie book to my son, Liam. I flipped to the end and saw this list with checks and lines. I asked Liam what was going on in his book. He explained he was trying to figure out which Elephant & Piggie book he still needed to add to his collection. He’s a reader too.

So I think in this time of assessments, data points, growth models, and more I need to be reminded that not everything I teach can be measured. And that often, what I place the most value in, can only be measured by me – teacher and student, sitting down and talking. Still, in my mind, one of the best ways to assess. 

Lessons from Church

This past Saturday was Liam’s First Reconciliation at our church. We’re Catholic and that basically boils down to his first confession. He and I have practiced what confession is, said the prayers to say, and the order of events during confession several times over the past few weeks. While Luke had been nervous when he went the first time, Liam was excited. Our priest is fabulous when it comes to communicating with children and really seemed to put them all at ease. When Liam came out he looked at me and flashed a huge grin.

Then it was our turn. The adults get to head back to confession. I quickly went over the steps in my own head, nervously wondering if I would forget what to do. I recited the Act of Contrition to myself several times. I thought over what I needed to confess to my priest. Over and over I went over what I was supposed to do, what I was supposed to say.

And then it was my turn. I walked into the room and Father smiled and asked me how I was doing. I tried to go through my steps and he humored me, let me rattle off some items. But then he really looked at me and asked what was on my mind.

I confessed the struggle with anxiety that I’ve talked about here. He listened, really listened. He mentioned that I seemed to be a person who likes to be in control – not a control freak but someone who needs to know how everything is going and that I am helping to steer the ship. J Yep, bingo. We talked about the need to let that go. He recommended praying the Serenity Prayer over and over until it was basically my mantra.

I left that room feeling lighter than I had in years. And as I sat in the car driving towards Chicago I really thought about it. What lessons could I take from this? There are many things I immediately thought of related to teaching. The fact that I was trying to follow a scripted formula when I went to confession – if I had stuck to that “list” of what I felt I was supposed to say, we wouldn’t have gotten to the heart of the matter. Nothing would have really changed and there would have been no deeper learning, no deeper meaning. Something smacks of test prep here, don’t you think?

But also, I cannot forget Father’s eyes when I was speaking – he truly listened. I never felt that he had a rote response ready to hand off to each person who came in the room but really listened to each person, made an individual recommendation for where they were and where they needed to go – which is exactly what my aim is during conferring in the reading and writing workshop.

One-size fits all formulas don’t work for me and neither do boxed programs. Teri Lesesne has been writing up a storm this past weekend, discussing “unprograms” and all that they entail. (Her first post on this thought is HERE) This is the program I’m choosing. Deep conversations over books we love. Conferences where we get lost in a conversation. Meeting my students where they are and taking them where they need to go. Scripted formulas might help students score well on standardized tests but they are not where the true learning lies. 

Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

 I’m joining Jen & Kellee (and many other bloggers) in discussing what we are reading this week. Join us! Go to their site and link up your own blog.

I didn’t have quite as much time to read this week as I have in the past few. As I wrote on Tuesday, we had a crazy week and I’m just grateful to be on the other side of it. (Although Liam is laying next to me right now, struggling with the stomach flu. We need a healthy house!) Regardless, here's this week's books:

At any rate, I did get some great books read this week. Two from today were from the Nerdy Book Club 2012 nominees. One week left to read books we aren’t familiar with before voting begins next weekend. Check out this year’s nominees HERE.

As for plans for this week? I want to finish Chris Lehman’s Energize Research Reading and Writing, it’s amazing so far. I also have Penny Kittle’s Book Love that I’d like to dive into. And a stack of other books that are just taunting me. I know #bookaday is coming and that I will really get to polish off some amazing books soon, so that is helping.

Happy Reading!
Katherine

Babymouse and Lunch Lady Mash-up

On December 12^th Colby Sharp and John Schu are holding the December meeting of the #SharpSchu book club on Twitter. (Read more about it HERE.)

My students have been reading the selected books from the Babymouse and Lunch Lady series for the last few weeks. I debated how to cap off the unit – we’ve done a video for the October books, a VoiceThread for the November books. This week I decided it would be fitting to have the students create their own comics to celebrate. We’re in the middle of a graphic novel unit in reading and a comic unit in writing. A mash-up comic between the Lunch Lady and Babymouse was born. Enjoy!