You know, it used to be that to have a polite conversation, we just had to follow the advice of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, “Stick to the weather and to your health.” But with climate change and anti-vaxxing, those subjects are not safe either. …
Why Does Guided Reading Get Top Billing?
I’ve lost count of the times teachers are asked about the fidelity of guided reading in their classrooms during a data meeting when students’ achievement (or the lack of) is being discussed. There are other components of a balanced approach to language arts instruction and I’m confused as to why they are so easily forgotten. …
Top Tier Instructional Coaches: How They Do the Work
Last week I visited a campus for a scheduled day-long session. I was early so the instructional coach and I chatted about her life outside school, books she’s currently reading, a recent training opportunity she’d had. When I asked Evelyn how she felt about the day ahead of us, she shared where she felt the …
Managing Expectations: It Really Is All About the Kids
Years ago, I was part of a group trained in my district to be a Curriculum Facilitator. That’s a fancy title for the person who represented their campus at district curriculum writing meetings. My title meant that I wrote curriculum with a team of other teachers based on input from the teachers I represented from …
Seven Reasons I’m Crushing On This First Grade Team
I recently met with an exceptional group of first grade teachers for a follow-up session to a training on a new assessment system their district is implementing this year. The previous meeting had been a quick training on the basics of how to administer the assessment. They had asked some insightful questions in the initial …
Asset Model Thinking: Our Students Deserve It
And in schools all over America, students are forced to “learn” in a way that befits deficit model thinking. We make sure that students are doubled and tripled up in the subjects they are worst at. It is as if the sole purpose of schooling for many kids is just to make sure that they …
Promoting Book Choice for Kids
Teachers and parents are often frustrated with kids when they don’t do more reading on their own. We talk a lot about the importance of choice,too. But do we do enough to facilitate choice for our students so they’re genuinely invested in the books they’ve chosen? In their new book, Game Changer! Book Access For …
Fiction Text Comprehension: Keep It Simple
Less, but better. –Dieter Rams “Dieter Rams (born 20 May 1932 in Wiesbaden, Hessen) is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the functionalist school of industrial design. Rams was strongly influenced by the presence of his grandfather, a carpenter. Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase ‘Weniger, …
Teach Like Yourself by Gravity Goldberg
It happens all the time. I’m sitting at the table with a teacher working on lesson planning or adjusting intervention based on new data. We consider options for instruction and the teacher will at some point say, “I know my principal (or the district, or the team lead) wants me to do _________________, but I …
Schools and Families: Allies or Adversaries?
Lucy: “I’m so excited it’s Valentines Day and we have a party later.” Me: “Wow, you’re dressed up for Valentines Day today with a glittery pink T-shirt and your pink fingernail polish with glitter matches your shirt!” Lucy: “I am. My mom woke me up early this morning and she told me to come to …
