I have a thing for notebooks. And colorful markers. And sticky notes. I use them in all aspects of my literacy teaching and coaching. During coaching conversations, I often find myself providing on-the-spot demonstrations with these tools. I might engage teachers in a brief lesson on phonemic awareness and ask them to sort sounds. I might walk teachers through word building activities so they experience a new way of engaging students. I might introduce books to teachers to model how they might do the same for their students. I might even create game boards on sticky notes as visuals for teachers to support instructional planning. These demonstrations and notes act as instant and tangible tools to further teacher learning.

Over the years, I’ve compiled these artifacts to create coaching toolkits for the teachers I work with. My toolkit for ‘word work’ might include a picture of an anchor chart created with students, a list of words appropriate to the alphabetic feature students are working on, a game template that can be used for further practice and a list of helpful reminders for the teacher. Essentially, a coaching toolkit provides you with what you need to support teacher learning and application to the classroom.

As I continued my work, I finally realized that I (and other coaches) deserved the same kind of collection. You see, I spent a great deal of my time as a literacy teacher educator and coach planning professional learning for teachers. I take great care to ensure the content and methods of learning are engaging, meet teachers’ needs and honor their time and expertise as adult learners. Adding a little fun never hurts either. In the past, I would jot down ideas for professional learning on sticky notes (that I would then lose), save ideas from blogs and the Internet (and then not find the right bookmark) and even note them on a Google Keep sticky note (but then forget to scroll down to it). When it came time to plan for my sessions with teachers, I could never seem to remember or find that great idea that was sure to engage and inspire teachers. I needed a new strategy. So, I blended my love of notebooks, markers and sticky notes and created a coaching toolkit for myself: compiling ideas, practices and activities I have collected over time to engage educators in professional learning.

It is my toolkit for professional learning. My toolkit is a small 3-ring binder filled with pre-punched cardstock and a bag of colorful markers. The binder is divided into clear sections, although those sections grow and change with each page I add: soft-starts, honor and inspire, engage, encourage collaboration, spark reflection and other coaching tools. Each time I have an idea (or find one from others) to make professional learning even better, I create a sketchnote of it and add it to my collection. I have shown a few coaches my collection and they loved the idea. So, I have decided to digitize my coaching toolkit and have created an e-book of sorts using Google Slides. In each section, you will find the actual pictures of my toolkit. Some are tried and true ideas that have been around for a while. Others are new ideas that I have created. On some slides, I have added comments at the bottom to explain my thinking and even share additional resources. I may truly digitize this later on, but for now, I am not willing to give up the ‘creating’ part of this work with good old-fashioned markers! 

I hope this resource helps streamline your planning and bring a bit of joy to the process. I encourage you to create your own coaching toolkit and borrow these pages for inspiration. I’ll continue to update this digital version as my actual toolkit grows and have created a Remind list for those that would like notifications each time it is updated. I hope this helps you plan for professional learning and offers a bit of coaching inspiration as well! I also hope that you will share your successful pages with me as well. We are in this together!

It continually amazes me just how much we can learn from children, if we choose to listen. I am fortunate to partner with a local school district to run an after-school reading club for students in Kindergarten and first grade. These amazing children stay after-school each week to teach my graduate students about literacy intervention. And each week, they continue to teach me a thing or two about literacy intervention as well.

This week, I was reminded of just how important it is to involve students in their own learning, to follow their curiosities and give them choice and ownership. In a classroom setting, many teachers utilize the workshop method, giving whole group instruction in the form of mini-lessons and then giving students the freedom to choose the books and topics they read about. Yet, when it comes time for literacy intervention, I have found that much of that ownership and choice our most vulnerable readers deserve is given back to the teacher. Admittedly, there is good reason for that. In a literacy intervention setting, teachers carefully sequence skills and strategy instruction to ensure student success and transfer those skills to real reading and writing. We take great care to carefully choose books based on both level and interest, craft word work opportunities for students to develop their alphabetic knowledge and apply that to their reading and even support comprehension and spelling development with writing engagements. All of these elements are needed for a successful literacy intervention program. But, as I sat with a student who clearly told me he did NOT want to read THOSE books about THAT content, I realized he needed a stronger voice. He needed more choices. He needed to feel in control. And I couldn’t blame him. After all, that is what we work to provide in the classroom and what we as adults would demand. This realization cut close to home as well.

The other day, my youngest son presented me with an impressive list of ski resorts that we might visit. He independently engaged in his own research and created a document that listed the name of the resort, the height of the mountain, how far it would take us to drive there and the hours of operation. I was shocked as this was the child who typically avoided reading and writing at home. Of course, I made a big deal out of his efforts and asked why he chose to do so much reading and writing. He looked at me and said, “Because I wanted to find out”. Isn’t that what drives learning? Because we want to find out things? Between this exchange and my conversation with the Kindergarten student, I knew I had to find out a few things of my own and came up with this question to lead my journey: Can curiosity be an intervention?

How can curiosity drive literacy intervention (or any intervention, for that matter)? How can we ensure that students have just as much choice and voice in supportive literacy instruction as they would in the classroom? How can we ensure that they have even MORE control over their own learning paths to ensure differentiated and personalized instruction for those that need it most?

I hate to end a blog post with more questions than possible answers, but this is where I am at and I would love to collaborate. Can curiosity be an intervention? What would this look like and sound like while ensuring that students receive the skills instruction we know they need? This is more than just choosing books based on students’ interests, it is about changing the way we look at literacy intervention. And I’m up for it. I am starting by reading The Curious Classroom and using the study guide to reflect on my own learning ideas. I’m going to bring this topic up at my literacy think-tank sessions with coaches and specialists and I am reaching out to my virtual PLN for ideas. 

Who is with me?

It has been a snowy week here in New York. Mother Nature gave us over 10 inches of snow on Wednesday and we are gearing up for another 8 – 12 inches tomorrow! As my children prepare themselves for a hoped-for snow day, I am preparing for a day of digital learning instead, knowing that I will need to shift my on campus graduate class to an online class. As you gear up for a possible snow day tomorrow, here are some ways you can also encourage your students to continue the learning at home. All you need is a class Padlet wall and a Flipgrid topic to share:

Share reading on a Padlet wall. Snow days are the perfect days to curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. Encourage students to carve out some time to read a good book and then take a ‘shelfie’ of themselves and share on the class ‘Snow Day’ Padlet wall.

Take pictures of snow creations. Encourage students to get some fresh air and create a masterpiece in the snow! Have them take a picture of their creations and share on the class ‘Snow Day’ Padlet wall. They can type a description and use vivid words to describe their creations and then comment on their classmates, using math skills to compare and contract.

Start wondering. Encourage students to pose snow day questions to your class Padlet wall. Why does it snow? What city had the most snowfall ever? Who is in charge of cleaning up the snow? Then, encourage them to search for their answers using online research and share with the class.

Measure the snow. How much snow did students get at their own houses? Have students measure the amount of snow they received with a ruler and share with the class on the Padlet wall. Better yet, have students take a quick picture of the ruler in the snow and start comparing with classmates!

Summarize the day. So, what did you do on your snow day? Encourage students to share 1 minute videos of their snowy day. Students can reply to each other or you can watch a few videos when you return to class.

So, there you have it: a few ways to continue the learning when home for a snow day. But remember, snow days are also meant to be unexpected, treasured times with family and friends, so encourage digital learning on snow days, but let students simply enjoy the day as well. Even if they do not capture their learning for you, chances are, they are still engaging in it!

Ready to give it a try, teachers? Lead the way for your students and add a tile to our Snow Day for TEACHERS Padlet wall and Flipgrid page. Show them how a snow day is really done!

Social media has been influential to my growth as an educator. By connecting with other educators online, I further my own learning, engage in collaborative projects to better support teachers and students and fuel new ideas and inspiration. Twitter has been a particularly important tool for building my personal learning network (PLN) virtually. I am continually amazed at how many educators I connect and collaborate with….but have yet to meet in person. The virtual support, camaraderie and inspiration fuels my heart and mind. I reach out to my PLN for my next book to read, for advice on an upcoming presentation, to request resources or simply gain inspiration.

One of my favorite ways to build my PLN and learn from other educators is through Twitter chats. Twitter chats provide free professional learning and collaboration with others through social media. Participants tweet at particular times on particular topics using hashtags to link their conversations. Here are some of my favorites:

#G2Great

#TeachWrite

#Read4Fun

#HackLearning

#NYEDchat

#WhatIsSchool

Admittedly, Twitter chats are fast and furious. Thousands of tweets are packed into 30 minute and one hour time blocks. I typically use two devices, have tweets written and ready to go (if the questions were shared early) and have a cup of coffee close by. Yet, it seems no matter how much I prepare myself for the chat, life typically gets in the way. Some of my favorite twitter chats are at night at the same time that my kids are wrapping up sports practice, or needing dinner, or doing homework or getting ready for bed, or…..you get the idea. I struggle to participate through an entire chat as a result.

On a recent chat, I was thrilled to see Dr. Molly Ness lament about timing of the chat with her child's bedtime. I smiled and knew I was not alone. I sent her a private message to thank her for her honesty and jokingly said we should create a Twitter chat on a Saturday morning instead.

I mulled the idea overnight. In a Twitter chat just a few nights before, I connected with two literacy teacher educators around our work together. Part of our conversation focused on using technology and social media in our literacy classes to introduce our preservice teachers to social media, particularly Twitter. I awoke with the idea to create a new twitter chat on Saturday mornings for undergraduate and graduate literacy students, combining my two professional passions: literacy teacher education/coaching and technology. This morning, the #preservicelit idea began taking shape.

I imagine a robust 30-minute chat where future literacy teachers can connect, discuss current ideas in the field, share ideas and resources, grapple with real life teaching challenges, ask questions and meet new mentors for their own professional learning. Preservice teachers can learn about the power of the PLN and use social media professionally, ethically and responsibly to further their learning. Guest hosts can connect students to the very authors, researchers and professionals they are learning from in their teacher education programs. Literacy teacher educators can coach teachers through their virtual interactions, collaborate across institutions, combine their expertise and strengthen education programs together. 

This idea is in the wonderfully tentative beginning stages, just waiting for collaboration. I am sending this idea out to the world with hopes that others might be interested and join me. Are you a literacy teacher educator who wants to get involved? Are you a literacy professional who would love to participate as a model for future teachers? Have you started your own chat and have advice? I would love to connect as I continue with this #preservicelit journey. 

Stay tuned!

I went on a celebratory date with my 10 year old son last night. Why? He wanted to celebrate his new status as a reader and knew that was exactly the kind of thing I would love to do. Every year, for Christmas, I give each of my children a book that I know they would love, carefully chosen based on their current interests and feelings about reading and books. For my daughter, a fan of Katherine Applegate, I chose Crenshaw. For my 13 year old son, a typical teenager, I chose The 57 Bus. For my youngest son, I chose The Crossover.

I chose The Crossover for him because I knew the genre would intrigue, yet not overwhelm, him. I knew the content would interest him and the authenticity of Kwame Alexander’s words would speak to his young mind. I was right. After reading those first few pages, he was hooked. He was captivated with the language, shocked with how current the pop culture references were and eager to keep reading. My heart was full.

As we sat at the restaurant together, we talked about life, about sports and about his book. My son has taught me many lessons about what it means to be a reader and last night was no exception. As we discussed the book, I shared why I chose the book for him and I asked him what made him love the book so much. He looked right at me and said, “because it was an easy book." I was floored. There are many words that I would use to describe The Crossover (inspiring, authentic, compelling, etc.), but ‘easy’ was not one of them. I asked him to “Tell me more” and he did. He told me that the book wasn’t like other books he read: it didn’t have as many words per page, the words and pages were written in interesting ways, it had things in it about the real world, but most of all, it must have been an easy reading level because he was only a level {insert level here} and he could read it. My heart sank as yet another conversation about reading boiled down to a reading level for him. He did not believe me when I said it was most certainly not an ‘easy’ book, so I showed him the reading level from the Scholastic Book Wizard. It was a level Z.

The look on his face was priceless. He went from an incredulous look of shock to an amazing look of pure joy as he realized he read a level Z book. The most beautiful words came out of his mouth: I guess you were right Mom, the levels don’t matter.” Imaginary bells and whistles sounded in the background and I smiled at him and said, “You’re right, buddy. The levels do not matter. We can read any book we want to read, no matter what.” He smiled and asked for Alexander’s ‘The Playbook’ as his next book.

That moment of pure joy as a mother and an educator when he finally realized what reading was all about was a moment I will never forget. However, along with that moment of pure joy came a moment of true frustration. Frustration that reading levels defined my son as a reader for so long and admittedly, probably still will. Frustration that reading levels dictate book choice for so other many children too. Frustration that reading levels might guide our thinking over students’ actions as readers. Frustration that reading levels might take misguided importance over readers. As a literacy teacher educator, I have much work to do.

But, I am not alone. I stand with other educators like Molly Ness, Mary Howard, Pernille Ripp, Jennifer Serravallo, Brent Gilson and even Judy Blume as they too fight reducing reading to a single level or number. Reading levels are teacher tools, not student shackles. I truly believe that schools and teachers certainly do not mean to overuse or misuse levels, but in our frenzied culture of raising student achievement and using student data, they inadvertently become the loudest message that some students hear, consciously or not.

So, what do we do? We start somewhere, which just happens to be my one little phrase for 2018. We read literature about reading levels (start here, here and here) and remind ourselves of their original intent as teacher tools. We read posts like these and hold students’ stories in our minds as we interact with readers. We focus on growing as readers in terms of strategic actions, not just a staircase of complexity. We privilege students’ reading lives over reading levels.  By committing to building students’ reading lives, not just their reading abilities, we broaden the conversation in schools and as a result, at home, sending my son’s newfound message of hope that ‘the levels don’t matter’ when you are a real reader.