Category: Professional Learning Network

Summer Series of Saves: Dr. Candy

The “Reading Wars” confuses the boogers out of me. I was encouraged to listen to “Sold a Story” by Emily Hanford, and was completely befuddled over…what? Three cueing what? Fountas & Pinnell were just writers of leveled texts, and I had no idea that phonics wasn’t being taught in some districts, etc. I haven’t listened to the podcast since my first listen, but I remember the overall sense that something was right about it. That tingly sense that while it was assembled as hard-hitting journalism, it is a documentary, and documentaries have bias. And whew, boy, is there a lot of bias.

And this is where things get tricky: that bias is important and led to a grand conversation about how to teach reading. But — maybe in my silly little Masters’ cohort of about a dozen or so adults obtaining their Masters in Ed., from a local university collaborating with a local school district, our mentor, Dr. Candy Schulhauser, was an absolute rock-star, genius, amazing provider of K-8 literacy instruction. We got it all: fluency, comphrension, neuroscience, read-alouds, reading intervention, instructional and recreational reading, the problems with whole language (which is something, I suspect, the warriors for the “Science of Reading” folks confuse with balanced literacy).

I don’t know what Dr. S is doing these days. I do know that almost 20 years later, I still have all the books, hand-outs, and the strong foundation of teaching children to read. The bonus outcome is helping them love to read, and become confident readers and critical thinkers.My Master’s Thesis was titled something along the lines of “Using Engaging Children’s Literature…” and I am still a hug fan of Grant & Wiggins, introduced by Dr. S, and Understanding by Design.

There is something about being a classroom teacher as long as I’ve been one: I’m at that point where I’ve seen things come and go, and folks panicking when new things come out, and putting aside the old. Sometimes the old needs to go, but sometimes it doesn’t. I feel like there is something else going on that we’re not ready to admit, and I’m not sure what that is yet. There are parents who did everything they were “supposed to do” to help their child read– reading aloud, having shelves of books, etc., and still their child struggled. And I’m just throwing out wonderings right now:

I wonder:

  • Are we not providing enough context, background knowledge, and schema building for all students?
  • Are we passing students too quickly instead of providing more art, PE, and creative time to help build their growing brains? Or just passing and putting them into more remedial help?
  • Are we teaching to the test, meaning just a focus on isolated skills and not enough strategies to help students use and foster their metacognitive skills (know when they are lost)?
  • Are we bypassing small motor skills and key brain development activities like handwriting practice and cursive?
  • Are we not giving kids enough playtime and socializing time? Build the stories and their own narratives?
  • When new practices or a review of prior practices are introduced, do most educators and parents panic instead of taking a nuanced and inventory of practices? (Thinking about how Visual Learning and Hattie’s work got so misunderstood and misused.)

Well, I am not sure. I have my opinions and my anecdotal observations. That and $4 will buy a latte and all that — however, I am grateful I had a sensible, knowledgeable expert to help me and the other educators in the cohort understand and become experts on literacy. Things change, and being a professional practitioner means keeping the good and learning about “new-good.” I just don’t think what Hanford had to sell was “new good” for me and the others who received better teaching instruction. (I must mention, I also appreciate Stephen Krashen’s work on diving into the points and issues with the Science of Reading folks.)

Some resources I’ll be diving into that will work for my students moving forward:

Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities
Beyond the Essay, III

Fist-bump currency

Grit. High-leverage. Warm demander. Relationship building. All of these words have begun to get as stale as a piece of Juicy Fruit. And it’s time to reevaluate our use of them, and take a long, honest look at our practice. One thing I’ve learned this year is that I am not as wonderful as I thought I was, or that past students have told me. Or colleagues. One person’s opinion can upset years of professional dedication. So, before I go too far into an unhealthy path of projection, I will speak for myself, and share what others think, too. The big questions are when do we get it right, and when we don’t, how do we fix it?

Novice teachers sometimes equate relationships with “the kids like me.” And yes, it’s true that we can’t learn from people we don’t like. It takes a mountain of maturity and self-actualization to respect/ignore/tolerate others who deride or dehumanize us. And a grand nirvana-level mastery of self-control to learn from others. But everyone can teach us something. The universe doesn’t have a plan, and all we get out of interactions is what we can and can’t control. And most students are not there yet. Most adults aren’t either.

Students want a teacher to like them, but guaranteed most of them would choose someone who’s strict and firm, and doesn’t allow for big theatrical displays of misbehavior in the classroom. And this is where it gets tricky. I don’t “allow” for these levels of misbehavior, but once I’ve exhausted my own treasure trove of tricks, contacted parents, sought out admin’s support, etc., if a student still hops on a chair and spins around, and knows there will be no consequence except for their teacher “getting in trouble” then the relationship becomes one of mistrust. Words matter, and deeds matter more.

via GIPHY

I have raised two sons. They love me, and I love them. I haven’t always liked them, nor they to me. And relationships with other humans is nuanced, complicated, and changing. This notion that if we simply ‘built a relationship’ with our students somehow everything will change, and no discipline issues will arise ever again, and we’ll all get “Distinguished” on classroom culture and Mary Poppins can go to a new house because our house is clean.

It doesn’t take having one’s own children to know how relationships work between teachers and students. My point of bringing it up is to underscore how complicated these relationships can be. Students bring a lot of modeled behavior in our classrooms: parents who abuse one another or them, drug addiction, neglect, passive-aggressive means of communication, depression, and other forms of trauma. And this is a reminder to myself of what works, when applied consistently and gently:

  • High expectations and an explicitly voiced belief they can meet them
  • Explicitly voices belief that who they are in this moment is not their whole life or self: they will grow and mature
  • What they are learning today has relevance and purpose
  • They are creative, funny, and intelligent, and loved.

And most of all: self-respect.

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.” 
― Joan Didion, On Self-Respect

Summer Series of Saves: Teachers Talk.

Be centered on what matters to you. 
Just wanted to capture a wonderful chat I stumbled onto–good ideas and inspiring to focus on what matters. And: I want to share with students that teachers walk the walk–we want our students to love their reading and writing lives as much as we do.