Learning Visually: Resources for Secondary Coaches

Carrie Sand contributed this post. Click here for more of Carrie's thinking and writing.

As a typical literacy coach, I tend to know and follow the “rockstars” of our discipline. Regularly dropping first names of these reading celebrities into conversations, one would think that I’ve been friends with these people for years. So imagine my discomfort when my library media specialist asked me to attend the annual WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association) conference, and I opened my conference program to discover I didn’t recognize a single presenter’s name! In fact, other than the brief descriptions, I found myself relying on the oohs and ahhs of my library media specialist to direct me to the best sessions. Luckily, she know the rockstars of her discipline, too, because I was fortunate to attend a session led by Diana Laufenberg.

Laufenberg’s session focused on the power of learning visually. Scouring digital resources, she curates infographics that are mindblowing! As she was sharing her resources, I immediately began thinking about the complex reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills associated with implementing any of the resources she was sharing. I was also thinking about how visual texts can be an entry point to extremely complex thinking for all students. Finally, I imagined how these technology resources could be really motivating and engaging for both teachers and students, especially at the secondary level. Each resource made me more and more excited to get back to my district and talk about these ideas with teachers. I am still excited to think about how a coaching cycle could be built around just one of these infographics!

Check out all of  Diana Laufenberg’s resources on Learning Visually here: https://laufenberg.wordpress.com/keynotespresentations/learning-visually/

In my opinion, the “The History of the Two Party Vote” and “The Gettysburg Address” are not to be missed, but the resources on the website are almost endless. My only word of warning is be prepared to lose some time in link after link!

WSRA Reading Convention - Take-Aways, Inspiration, and Reflections

Maggie Schumacher contributed this post. Click here for more of Maggie's thinking and writing.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to once again attend the Wisconsin State Reading Association convention this February. As always, I had so many great take-aways and pages upon pages of notes to go through after that my head is still trying to process. In this month’s blog post, I’ll reflect on my biggest takeaways and inspiration gained from the WSRA reading convention.

Mem Fox

On Thursday, the great and wise Mem Fox kicked off the conference. She shared some of her picture books with us, and she also shared some powerful messages which I have since passed along to others. Mem shared that she’s not interested in the reading level of kids; she’s interested in their level of interest. She says, “I don’t want children to understand every word I write. I want to lift them up and introduce them to language they don’t know. I want to give them wings so they can fly.” How will we help our students to understand the English language if we don’t “pour wondrous language into our children’s ears as often as we can?” Mem urges teachers and parents to read books to children often, to read stories that children love over and over again, and to read with passion. “It will change their lives. It will change yours. It may even change the world.” How could a person not be inspired?

Recommended Mem Fox Books:

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (Fox)

Tough Boris (Fox)

Penny Kittle

On Thursday, I also was able to attend two different presentations by Penny Kittle. According to Kittle, “You can read without writing, but you can’t write without reading.” She stressed the importance of using books and texts to help our students analyze author’s craft. She encouraged teachers to ask our students to find beautiful language or interesting writing craft in their reading and to have kids write down interesting sentences or beautiful examples of the craft of writing. She says that when students copy words exactly as they’re written and write them down, it will live inside them. She also suggests having students use mentor texts to emulate poetry and prose. By doing this, we’re giving our students “shoulders to stand on” by paying attention to people who write better than they do. In addition, this writing can take students deeper into the meaning of texts. The use of mentor texts is by no means groundbreaking news, but it is a good reminder of the power these mentor texts can have to support our students as writers and as readers. The more our students read, the better writers they will be.

Kittle also spoke about the importance of independent reading and allowing for student choice in book selections. Independent reading allows teachers to personalize learning. According to Kittle, engagement is the first step to improving student achievement. There is much talk in schools about finding more rigorous and complex texts to provide to students as we prepare them to be college or career ready, but Kittle argues that the combination of student engagement plus volume of reading equates to text complexity. She says, “We are doing RtI all wrong. Our struggling readers don’t need complex texts. They need to read engaging books, and we need to increase their reading.” (Amen.) We need to provide our students with a lot of choice in what they read. Kittle and Gallagher say the balance of texts in a classroom should be 25% teacher-selected core texts and 75% student-selected for independent reading and book clubs (or literature circles). Everyone reads on a rollercoaster; sometimes we read easy books, and sometimes we read challenging books.  Kittle quoted Nancie Atwell with the reminder that “the most important statistic we have is the number of books our kids read each year.”

Recommended Penny Kittle Books:

Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers (Kittle)

Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing (Kittle)

Stephanie Harvey

Continuing on with what appears to be the theme of the conference for me... on Friday I attended an engaging presentation by Stephanie Harvey. This presentation (From Striving to Thriving: The Best Intervention for a Student is a Good Book) again focused on the significance of students spending time reading books that they can and want to read. Similar to Kittle, Harvey feels strongly that the way to make sure kids become good at reading texts that they cannot read is to give them time to practice reading texts that they can. We need to surround our students with wonderful literature and give them time to read it. She says that if our kids in poverty do not have access to books or are not reading at home, then we need to make up for this in our schools. Volume continues to have the most important impact on reading skills and knowledge.

Harvey also says that text complexity is not about the length of the text or the vocabulary in the text; it’s about the issues, ideas, and societal problems. When kids have time to talk about what they read, their comprehension deepens. They need time to process what they have read and discuss it with others in reading partnerships (book clubs, literature circles, etc.). We also need to give our students a purpose for reading so they find it meaningful. We need to read to our students every day. Free voluntary reading time should be the last thing that gets cut out of our instruction, but is often the first thing to go when things come up or time runs short. Harvey shared that “what kids think, feel, and write about their reading is more important than any assessment we can or will create for them.” We need to share our reading joys and challenges with our students every day. Finally, she urges teachers and schools to get rid of reading labels and to foster a growth mindset in our classrooms. All of our students are striving readers, some just need more support than others. Let’s cultivate a love of reading within our students every single day.

Recommended Stephanie Harvey Books:

Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement (Harvey & Goudvis)

Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles for Curiosity, Engagement, and Understanding (Harvey & Daniels)

*Check out www.wsra.org/convention for more information about the 2017 WSRA Reading Convention and to access the convention handouts.

Reading the Reading Research: Figured Worlds of Special Education Teachers

Barb Novak contributed this post. 

Click here for more of Barb's thinking.

Click here for more Literacy Booth thoughts about research.

Note. I'm sharing this article simply to give access to how I process when I read from academic journals - how I organize my thinking before, during, and after reading. This post is not intended to be an endorsement of the research or its conclusions.

"Stimulating tensions in special education teachers' figured world: An approach toward inclusive education"

Kathleen A.K. Thorius in International Journal of Inclusive Education (2016)

I accessed the article (full-text free of charge) from Thorius's page on ResearchGate.

Why this article?

I worked with Thorius on a project about identifying high leverage literacy practices for students with disabilities. I respect her strengths-based approach to professional learning and emphasis on collaborative sense-making as part of a change process.

Research Questions:

Thorius introduced "artifacts" during professional learning sessions and reviewed transcripts from the sessions to understand:

•  how "the figured world of special educator participants emerge and shift over time" (p. 1329)
• how artifacts "contribute to the creation of tensions and related shifts in this figured world" (p. 1329)

Important Terms:

• Figured worlds: Holland's theory (1998) that "people figure their identities through participating in activities and social relationships with others" (p. 1328). People construct an understanding of who they are and behave according to these understandings.
• Artifacts: Objects with mediate identity formation.

Methods:

Thorius facilitated seven weekly teacher learning sessions (1.5 hours each). Participants were drawn from "two schools in a large Midwestern urban school district" (p. 1329). All participants were female. Two identified as general educators; four identified as special educators. All worked between kindergarten and grade six.

Each teacher learning session included:

1. a debrief of the previous session led by the research team, 
2. presentation of an artifact developed or selected based on progress in the previous session
3. engagement with the artifact
4. homework (application within the classroom)

Artifacts pushed thinking about inclusive education and universal design for learning (UDL).

Thorius and the research team recorded and transcribed the teacher learning sessions and analyzed the transcripts for evidence of figured worlds.

Main Points:

Special educators who participated in the learning sessions initially viewed themselves as "remediators" and "diagnosticians" (p. 1332). This led to a "desire to learn 'tricks' to fix students" (p. 1333) and a belief that a student's diagnosis "explained student patterns of competence and. . . suggested a prescription for remediation" (p. 1333).

Artifacts introduced in the learning sessions did produce tensions and identity shifts. Some tensions were related to relationships with general education colleagues. Specifically, tensions surfaced about how special educators "were physically and professional positioned by and in comparison to their general education coutnerparts (p. 1335). Participants also realized they needed to be "critical examiners of structural barriers" that may prevent them from applying their learning.

Limitations:

The sample size for the study was small (6 participants from two schools in the same district).

Discussion:

Thorius's article has implications for planning and facilitating professional learning:

• How can reflection be included in professional learning in order to consider how one's identity is shifting?
• How can sequential opportunities for learning be adjusted to meet the needs of the participants (rather than strictly following a set plan)?
• How can professional learning promote change within classrooms but also within a system? How can professional learning position educators as change agents for their system?

Full Citation:

Thorius, K.A.K. (2016). Stimulating tensions in special education teachers' figured world: An approach toward inclusive education. Interntional Journal of Inclusive Education 20(12), 1326 - 1343. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2016.1168877

What Do I Get To Do?

Andrea contributed this post. Click here for more of Andrea's thinking.

After another year of attending the Wisconsin State Reading Association Convention, I leave with an abundance of new thinking to reflect upon.  I’m still challenging myself as to what direction I plan to take with this information, for I have quite a collection of quotes, questions, reminders and comments to think about.  Below I have listed those that made me the most reflective. The first quote is the one I’m thinking about the most.  What DO I get to do?   I’m leaving them here for you, my dear colleagues in education, and ask you to read them and use them to challenge your own thinking.

When we leave a conference like this, we should not only think about what we got, but also about what we get to do. -Kathy Short.

What are you doing to make the changes you want to see happen?  To be an indelible leader? -Barb Novak

Indelible leaders: your job is to develop a collaborative culture to the point where you become dispensable. -Michael Fullan

We believe all students can learn, do we believe all teachers can learn? -Michael Fullan.

The principal’s new role: to lead the school’s teachers in a process of learning to improve their teaching, while learning alongside them about what works and what doesn’t. -Michael Fullan

Collective Efficacy has a 1.55 effect size. -Michael Fullan quoting John Hattie research.

The learning of the school needs to drive the agenda, not a personal agenda. -Michael Fullan

The heart of the school is dependent upon the number of elephants in the room. -Sara Ahmed quoting Lucy Calkins.

Teaching reading is not about increasing test scores; it’s about teaching our students to engage with the world. -Tony Evers, Wisconsin State Superintendent

When we teach kids, we should feel that they are endlessly fascinating.  -Katherine Bomer

When a child doesn’t “fit” expect to be delighted.  Expect that there will also be difficulties. -Katherine Bomer

The best way to teach grammar and punctuation is through wide reading. Pay attention to the author’s intention, so you’ll read it a certain way. - Penny Kittle.

Students need to notice language first, name what they see and stand on the shoulders of better writers. -Penny Kittle

Culturally Responsive Teaching is something you practice with yourself and with your students. -Teaira McMurty

It’s okay to have bias for right now, but you have to learn to get away from it. -Teaira McMurty

Bring out the best in each student. Not getting there in the time we have is a POTENTIAL gap. -Decoteau Irby

We have an obligation to make our kids feel visible when they feel invisible.-Sara Ahmed

Best first teaching is the best intervention. -Regie Routman

Fight for the thing that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you. -Regie Routman

We must be prepared to take calculated risks for our students. -Regie Routman

Worry about more depth and quality than about getting it all in.  This is true for both professional learning as well as for student learning. -Regie Routman

Fidelity must always be to the child, not to a program. -Regie Routman

Reflection Wisconsin Title 1 Conference, 2016

Jaimie Howe contributed this post. Click here to read more of Jaimie's thinking.

Two amazing educators were keynote speakers at the Title 1 Convention this year:  Dr. Mary Howard and Linda Hoyt. I found them both to be very inspiring and feel their messages are very important to share..  Many of the statements below pushed me into some deep reflection and hope they will do the same for you.

Click here to access the images below as a PDF.