In her book Literacy Coaching: The Essentials, Katherine Casey shares her experiences and the wisdom gained from her work as a school-based literacy coach. Casey was fortunate enough to find herself mentored by teacher-leader Lucy West. The second chapter of her book highlights the important ways in which her relationship with West enabled her to [...]
After defining an essay topic through brainstorming, writers can be challenged to define three or four ways in which the defined topic is important or meaningful. For example, if I am choosing to characterize my husband, I might decide to elaborate on how wise he is, how funny he is, and how devoted he is [...]
Lucy Calkins offered a fantastic presentation in Rochester today. It warms the heart to be in the company of those who truly love writing, those who invest themselves in the process of teaching it well, and those who are willing and able to share what they’ve discovered with those who are hungry for that knowledge. [...]
Ten months ago, my eleven year old daughter took on a year-long commitment to service. Beyond that, though, she took on a year-long commitment to blogging in support of that work, and this meant that her dad and I took on year-long commitment to incredible uncertainty.
Eleven year olds tend to lose interest in things after [...]
I’m really enjoying my work with middle and high school English teachers this year. Literacy coaching is providing me the opportunity to build deeper relationships with those I’m striving to help, and it’s also allowing teachers the necessary time and space to transform their practices right within their classrooms. This is first time I’ve been [...]
A provocative post by Andrea Hernandez has had my mind in a swirl for the last few days. Honestly, I think it is probably one of the more important posts I’ve read this year, and the issues that she begins to raise in this piece have been at the forefront of my mind since I began [...]
Yesterday, I was contacted by web developer Zsofia McMullin, who alerted me to The Stenhouse Blog, which launched in recent months and which also, I might add, offers educators a wealth of amazing resources to draw upon. In my work with kids this summer, I was blown away by how eager they were to try [...]
Bob Mayberry calls for sound, student-centered feedback strategies in his article, New Books on Handling the Paperload: When Research Contradicts Practice. As I dug into this piece, I found myself nodding in several places. We all understand the importance of feedback and how it influences student growth, but aligning our curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices in ways [...]
Jamie McKenzie touches upon what they aren’t in his text Learning to Question, Learning to Wonder (FNO Press, 2005):
“Unfortunately, the term is often bandied about with little rigor, definition or clarity so that many pedestrian and insignificant questions slip in under the term simply because they are large, sweeping and grand in some respects. Essential questions [...]
I have a deep appreciation for the sort of struggle that sometimes ensues when teachers are asked to construct essential questions. In fact, I still remember my first experience with this. I was fresh out of college and grappling with the uncertainty that arrived upon discovering that the really cool Hamlet “unit” I strung together [...]