Classrooms running the ILD 60-for-60 mission by calendar days have finished their challenges, but at International Reading Association headquarters, where the challenge takes place for 60 work days, we’re still going strong.
Well, “strong” may not be the right word exactly.
Okay, we’ll admit it: this 60-for-60 thing is tough! To keep enthusiasm and excitement going and keep participation high is a challenge in itself. So, we put a call out to teachers to tell us about how the mission was working for them. Their responses, from Pennsylvania to Greece, inspired us.
“For 60 days, my students waited eagerly every morning when I would be asking them to do the 60 seconds of writing,” said one teacher in Hyderabad, Pakistan. “It brought a lot of discipline in them.”
In Nebraska, one teacher is using the mission in her music class:
“I teach elementary music in the afternoons after 30 years of first grade and kindergarten. I am selecting a musical term each week for us to read/spell and define, then use in the music room. We also discuss other meanings of the word, or ways the students see the word outside of the music classroom. It's helping us develop a musical word wall!”
As a result of these responses, we’ve renewed our commitment to adding 60 seconds of literacy to our days.
The last two weeks we worked on “Tweet It Loud, Tweet It Proud.” Following a writing prompt each morning, staffers responded in 140 characters or less.
Megan Ferguson, IRA advertising sales associate, returned this fall from maternity leave and summed up what most parents think when asked, “What is your morning routine?”
“Chaos. Pure chaos. I typically forget at least one thing at home. Thankfully, it hasn’t been one of the kids…yet.”
Megan also gets an honorable mention for her response to “Who’s your celebrity crush?”
“Love me some old Scottish Sean Connery! #kingrichard #draco #seanconneryissexy #oldmancrush”
Another favorite came from Daralene Irwin, a front end developer in the Business Solutions department, when we were asked, “What’s your pet peeve?”
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to ask a question that Google already has the answer to.”
“I’ve enjoyed the ‘Would You Rather’ and ‘Six Words in 60 Seconds’ the best so far, since I felt those were the most mentally challenging,” Irwin said. “A ‘Sophie’s Choice’ or having to be SUPER concise help stretch the brain.
“I know I’ve looked forward to getting the e-mails from Jayme: 1) to see what people have to say, and 2) selfishly, to see if my answer got picked (Legit high point when one of mine did, legit low point when they didn’t).”
As we embark on the final two weeks of the challenge, we are pulling out IRA’s “best of” activities, two that our staff buzzed about most. This week is “word of the day,” where Jayme Gravell, our social media manager, sends a $5 word to our inboxes and we respond with a sentence using that word or talk about it with colleagues. “They” say if you use a word three times, it’s yours forever.
Our first word was rufescent (roo-FES-uhnt): somewhat reddish; tinged with red; rufous. It was later used to describe another staffer’s hair color. Said staffer (who is allowing the natural gray to take over her head) was amused.
How would you use rufescent today? Share your answer with @iratoday on Twitter or email us at social@/.
If you would like to take the 60-for-60 mission, the 2014 ILD activity kit is still available online. Many teachers have said they plan to continue the activities throughout the school year.
April Hall is the editor of Reading Today Online. She can be contacted at ahall@/.