Hello, My Name is _______________: Carrie

We are currently introducing ourselves via narrative writing inspired by a 1999 Ann Landers column. For more information, visit this post: Hello, My Name is _______________.

A really interesting thing has happened. A capable, passionate Literacy Specialist has moved into my classroom. I have a vague idea of where she came from (the bills for the graduate classes help remind me). The strangest part is that even though I don’t fully recognize her, everyone else in the entire building does…..the kids all know her by name, the janitor puts her wastebasket in the exact right spot, and the school secretary’s eyes light with excitement when she neatly puts in a request followed by a quick slip of chocolate. All I know is that I barely recognize my own classroom anymore. This Literacy Specialist has totally changed the way my room feels.

So here is where I think I need to make a confession. After watching this literacy chick in action, I don’t know if I was ever really qualified to be an English teacher at all. Don’t get me wrong; I have the correct licensure to teach, but I am an English major. Which basically means that I went to college, read a lot of books, wrote a lot of papers, attended a lot of discussions, may or may not have participated in a poetry slam or two, and left college with a dream that my love of literature would be so contagious that my students would be awestruck by the life-changing power of reading.

You know what I learned from this specialist in my classroom?

First, some middle and high school students don’t like to read?!?! So do you know what the specialist does? She finds a really, really great fit book for those kids. She reads all the time so she knows the newest books out there. She also keeps a list of the absolute tried and true best books ever. And when a kid says that they “don’t really like to read,” she walks them over to her shelf, pulls about four titles that she knows will hook them, and tells them about the books in a way that makes the kid pick one out and take it back to their desk and start to read it! Over the next few days, she is always sure to ask that kid about the book.  Even the students are surprised that she remembers what almost everyone is reading at any given time. By the look on her face, you can tell that this is her favorite part of her job.

I’ve also noticed that this specialist has an amazing range of differentiated strategies. Did you know that some middle and high school students don’t know how to read?!?! I always thought that reading was about being able to say the words correctly, but this Literacy Specialist has a ton of strategies for fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. She is skilled at assessing a student’s need and providing a specific, targeted intervention.  Her intervention groups are really powerful because no one is ever “given a life sentence.” Her groups are always changing the way they look and feel.

Finally, I noticed that the Literacy Specialist spends as much of her day with teachers as she does with students. Did you know that sometimes teachers are just as hard to keep quiet in large groups as kids?!!? The weird thing is that she wants the teachers to be talking in her meetings. While I would put students who are friends in opposite corners of the room, I notice that she puts teachers next to their friends ON PURPOSE. Her professional development always depends on interaction and participation. Most of the time, I’ve observed that she works as the facilitator rather than the leader.

This Literacy Specialist sure has given me a lot to think about lately. Being in the same classroom and all, we’ve been spending a lot of time together. I even noticed that she has started to answer to my name, which I think has confused my colleagues. In fact, the strangest thing happened to me the other day when I met a teacher in the hallway. She stopped me and asked me about a literacy strategy (as if I was the literacy expert). The thing is I think I had a suggestion…..I’m pretty sure she was looking for the Literacy Specialist who lives in my room, but I went with it anyway!

Biography:

Carrie is a Literacy Specialist for the School District of Mishicot. Her job role includes part classroom teacher, part interventionist, part literacy coach, which in her mind is the best of all worlds. Her work with literacy includes a unique passion for the incorporation of technology, which has led to numerous speaking opportunities around the state. In 2012, as a credit to the incredible literacy work of her district, Carrie was awarded the Herb Kohl Fellowship Teaching Award. Her three most powerful reading moments were: the day her high school English teacher introduced her to e.e. cummings, the first time she ever read Freak the Mighty with her seventh grade students, and watching her two young boys discover Charlotte’s Web this summer.