Managing New Learning

Heather Zimmerman contributed today's thinking.

Some of you may have been following me since my first year of literacy coaching a couple years back. I remember entering this role and questioning what I got myself into when I was around my other literacy coach friends.  I remember our first meeting together and they were name dropping all these gurus in education, and I did not recognize hardly any names they mentioned.   I was so grateful for their wisdom, but I also felt overwhelmed and was questioning if I was qualified.  Sure, I had read texts as I went for my masters, but these were not the same texts they mentioned.   I am pretty sure no one mentioned the Cooter/Flynt resource I had used in my assessment course.  

So I started reading some of the names they mentioned.  I checked out who Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey are and explored many titles mentioned.  Now that I am in year three of coaching, I feel like I have a better grasp on the big names in the education world.  My new problem is that I am checking out different sources, but not consistently and strategically applying what I learned from all of these great educators.

My solution this year is to take a few books that I read over this summer and create my go-to pile on top of my file cabinet.  I see them every day.  I am not going to start reading other books, unless they are a part of a book club I am doing… or Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s new Notice and Note book comes out… or Write Like This by Carl Anderson because I am using it for my PPG (professional practice goal) … OK it is easier said than done.  Of course, I will read texts that might help out my teachers, but I am not going overboard with my own professional text reading this year until I have applied some of the wonderful things I have learned in the books I have read.

I am really trying to manage my new learning and apply the professional texts I read this summer or are continuing to use from last year.  It is hard to not start a new book beyond my list that is already listed above, but I am doing a lot of online learning through blogs and videos.  And of course, I continue to read young adult books when I can squeeze them in.  

Here is my list of my go-to books this year:

• Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen- Book club book and enjoying it.
• Falling in Love with Close Reading by Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts- A summer read.
• Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst- Read this book awhile ago, but still use it all the time during my Comprehension Focus Groups.  Also, our literacy teachers 6-8 are reading this book this year.
• The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo-This book has so much of everything.  I got this book this summer, and I look forward to using this book over the summer.
• Read, Write, Lead by Regie Routman- A book club book that I am reading with the other 6-12 literacy coaches in my district.

How do you manage your new learning?  What are your go-to books this year?