Literacy Now

Google defines disruption as a “disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, activity, or process.” However, we need to look at disruption as a concept to use and implement in education not as a problem, but as a strategy to formulate solutions to current problems.

Like many other trends in education, we also need to avoid viewing the term disruption as a mere buzzword and instead embrace it in a way that moves us toward creating tangible, positive solutions.

Disruption as a concept seems heavily lofty and often unapproachable. There are many reasons that stop educators from disrupting the status quo in education, which is why we need to look at disruption from an individual’s perspective rather than from a grandeur one.

What can you do today in the classroom to disrupt the status quo?

Creating positive change

In a recent article by Melinda D. Anderson of The Atlantic titled “How Teachers Learn to Discuss Racism,” she covers how recent urban education programs are preparing to have “imperative contemporary conversations with students.”

What are these conversations like? The article focuses on racism in urban education and what teachers can do in their classroom to address and confront their own biases. Melissa Katz, an urban education student at The College of New Jersey in Ewing quoted in the article, is constantly “unlearning and relearning what it means to be a white teacher in an urban school district.”

Katz encourages white educators to “think critically about race, justice, and our own privilege, and most importantly—how these play out in the classroom as teachers.” Her advocacy, writing, and her ability to reflect on her own biases and privilege is disrupting the status quo and impacting students, teachers, and their communities.

For many educators, disruption is a necessary act to move things forward. Jose Vilson, a New York math teacher and EduColor founder, states on his blog that “people need to get more real about the conditions within schools and disrupt for the sake of progress, not for the sake of disruption.”

In other words, disruption shouldn’t be seen as a trend or a buzzword, but it should be done because it’s what is necessary to create positive change in the classroom.

Revitalizing teaching and learning

Jessica Liftshitz, a fifth-grade teacher from the suburbs of Chicago, is slowly shifting and disrupting the status quo with subtle actions that make an immense difference in the lives of her students. She works directly with her students to “better understand where our biases and stereotypes come from in regards to different races, genders, and family structures.”

Liftshitz is doing this work through analyzing the diversity of their classroom books. In her blog, Crawling Out of the Classroom, she writes about the importance of exposing children to diverse books, stating, “I truly believe that books, of all kind, play a large role in shaping how our students see the world. So often, children have little choice in what kinds of books surround them.”

And it is with this mind-set that Liftshitz is disrupting the classroom status quo and is truly advocating for change in her world. Believing that students need to have a choice in the books that surround them and, more important, that students need to see themselves, their families, and their culture represented in the diversity of choices of books they read, is truly a shift and a disruption in education, teaching, and learning that we need to see.

Eric Sheninger, a senior fellow at Rigor Relevance, in an article titled “Education Is Ripe for Disruption,” argues that “disruptive innovation compels educators to go against the flow, challenge the status quo, take on the resistance, and shift our thinking in a more growth-oriented way.” An important aspect of disruption in education is to disrupt traditional ways of thinking and old processes that no longer meet the needs of all students. This does not mean that everything that’s traditional is outdated and can no longer be used. However, it’s vital for educators to look outside of education for new learning processes and paradigms that are relevant and will help to revitalize teaching and learning in the classroom.

Developing your own framework

Mustefa Jo’shen is partner and principal at Ci. Strategy+Design, which offers professional development for organizations and workshops for learners to help them understand and adopt an entrepreneurial and design thinker’s mind-set. Students learn about a framework developed through Ci. called “Applied Design Thinking.” Jo’shen explains that “Applied Design Thinking creates a framework for learners to own their own critical approach to create ideas that have impact.”

New learning processes in education such as Applied Design Thinking work to disrupt education in a way that advances learners’ ability to take control of their own learning. Jo’shen believes that “empowering students to create their own frameworks helps them consciously identify and put to paper the way they think and work.” This gives students a chance to visualize and iterate their thinking processes.

The education system requires a change for us to enable students to learn to work and work to learn. Disruption is happening right now in the real world and it's happening in our industries, our businesses, our communities, and our governments. It’s time for us to empower students by disrupting education so that they can make a greater impact on the issues that are changing their lives.

We must also remember that an important aspect of disruption in education is resistance. Educators, parents, administrators, and students must work together to resist the status quo. As disruption doesn’t happen easily, resistance also requires us to work together to identify the problems that are directly impacting our students and to find solutions “by any means necessary.”

Rusul Alrubail, an ILA member since 2016, is a writer on education, teaching, and learning. Her work focuses on teacher development and training, English learners, and pedagogical practices in and out of the classroom.

While browsing Facebook the other day, I came across an online article that was fascinating, but difficult to read. I had to repeatedly reread sentences, or refer back to the beginning of the paragraph. I stumbled over familiar words used in unfamiliar contexts.

This was not a poorly written piece; on the contrary, it was fluid and full of great ideas. But I had only made it through two-thirds of the piece when I felt discouraged and gave up.

I don’t often run into challenging content on Facebook, and I guess I had forgotten what it's like to have to work hard at reading.

Then it dawned on me—I wonder if this is how my struggling readers feel about reading, all the time.

Coincidentally, I had just read a MindShift article on discussing how to promote a growth mindset in readers. In other words, how to help struggling readers persevere.

Their message? Reading is a “complicated experience.” It is hard! And nothing is more discouraging to a struggling reader than thinking reading is supposed to be easy.

I already know how to read, so I can get away with ignoring an occasional Facebook-related challenge. But struggling readers—how can they learn if they give up? 

The article provides ideas to help teachers guide students in overcoming their reading challenges. As a vocabulary specialist, here’s how I apply these ideas to help students decipher unknown words on their own.  

Recognize the source of the challenge

Provide high-interest reading with challenging words and ask comprehension questions that test their understanding of those words. If they struggle to answer, ask them to explain why. Then, replace those challenging words with easy synonyms, and ask the questions again. This will help them identify the specific words that are at the root of the challenge.

Remind them that strong readers struggle too

Show students that you also struggle with comprehension when you encounter unfamiliar words. Model what you do:

• Reread the sentence
• Use context clues to define the word (talk them through this process)
• Look up the word in a dictionary
• Use a technique for remembering the meaning of the word

Provide tools

• Prove to them that most people don’t remember a word after one introduction, by playing the Hot Leads! memory strategy game. This activity only needs to be done once to get the point across.

• Help them keep track of new words using a journal. On each page create three columns with three headings: word, meaning, and picture/example. The students can fill out the columns out as they read.

• Provide an easy-to-use digital search tool such as a tablet or phone (they do not need to be connected) with a downloaded dictionary.

Let them struggle and succeed, review, and question—then celebrate the learning!

Carla Kessler is the director of learning at LogixLab LLC and along with her husband, Richard, co-creator of Word Lab Web. She was formerly a Title I coordinator and learning specialist, and has been recognized as an Outstanding Educator by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Workshop: A physical place where a craftsperson creates something.

Writer: A person who informs, entertains, persuades, remembers, reminds, and expresses using a combination of words.

What’s the difference between a writing workshop and a writers' workshop? Educators tend to use the two terms interchangeably, but I believe there’s a difference. In a writing workshop the focus is on the writing. Teachers hone in on what’s present on the page, what’s missing, and how the writing needs to change to meet a set of standards. In a writers' workshop, the focus is on the writer. Teachers focus on the person crafting the text—helping writers choose topics, purposes, and audiences for their writing and offering suggestions to guide the writer's decision-making process. A writing workshop provides a physical space for writers to work, while a writers' workshop provides both a physical and psychological space for writers to grow. I believe we teachers need to work towards building a writers' workshop within our classrooms.  

In the past two decades, as laws have ushered in more standardized assessments, our writing classrooms have started to reflect a trend towards sameness. A simple stroll down many school hallways reveals this. Student writing, posted side-by-side, often follows the same five paragraph structure—stories that all begin with dialogue leads, or persuasive pieces that have the same exact transitional words threaded throughout the text. One piece sounds exactly like the next—each one as voiceless as the one before. It seems to me that we have started to embrace compliance rather than honoring the uniqueness of the stories our children might tell.

I think we’d be wise to consider our reading lives as we determine what’s important when helping writers develop their writing lives. As a reader, I seek texts that are thought-provoking, emotional, meaningful, interesting, unpredictable, moving, honest, funny, and powerful. Over the past two months I’ve read high fantasy (A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin), humor (Best State Ever by Dave Barry), memoir (Just Kids by Patti Smith), historical nonfiction (Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann), and YA fiction (The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas). Each book informed me, made me laugh, provoked thought, appealed to my emotions. And each author kept me turning pages. If we value these qualities above all others as readers, shouldn’t we work to hone these qualities within our young writers?

As writing teachers, how often do we begin lessons asking:

• What kind of (story, informational text, persuasive essay, poem, digital text) do you want to explore?
• What tone (humorous, sad, thought-provoking, ethereal) do you want to convey?
• How do you want your audience to react?
• What do you need to know how to do as a writer to achieve those results?

In a writers' workshop we work to foster the habits young writers need to form so writing is a routine. And through this daily routine, we work to help writers obtain the cumulative knowledge they need to continuously develop and hone their craft. The focus is entirely on the writer. We help writers develop the skills that will sustain them across multiple pieces of writing.

Here are some of my tips for creating a more writer-focused writers' workshop:

• Know your students: Spend the first several weeks of school engaging in conversations with students about their lives outside the classroom. Use these conversations to match them to writing topics throughout the year.
• Delay genre studies: Resist going into genre studies too early in the school year. Give students the first 6–8 weeks to explore genres on their own. As you learn about your students’ lives, you’ll also learn about their preferred genres.
• Confer: Confer with students for a week before planning an entire genre study. Our mini-lessons should be responsive to what our students create as writers. We don’t know what to teach until we’ve had a chance to study our writers
• Offer an author’s chair: Give children opportunities to share their writing with the class and ask them to direct feedback from their peers.
• Leave time for reflection: Ask students to reflect daily on their learning. Reserve some time (2–3 minutes) at the end of your workshop and ask students to name something they learned. Their replies give you a snippet of authentic assessment that you can use when planning lessons.

I’ve taught writing in some capacity for over 20 years now—from teaching our youngest writers in pre-K to working with adult writers at the college level. When I first started teaching writing, I followed a guide handed to me by the district—I was teaching writing, but I wasn’t teaching writers. Now, I know better. I follow the writer. And my instruction is much more meaningful because I allow them to lead the way.

Dr. Brian Kissel is an associate professor of literacy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A former elementary school teacher and literacy coach, Brian teaches courses, conducts research, and provides professional development in writing instruction. He has a new book, published by Stenhouse, titled When Writers Drive the Workshop: Honoring Young Voices and Bold Choices. You can follow Dr. Kissel on Twitter.

Helping young children grow as writers can be overwhelming for many teachers. How do you jump-start their creative processes? How should you structure writing time? Should you ask your students to share their writing? With so much to consider, it can become entirely too overwhelming to begin. Now what? We encourage you to step back, breathe, and remember what is most important when working with budding writers.

We argue that, above all, the most important first step in effective writing instruction is forming strong relationships with your students. Writing is hard work and extremely personal; if you do not have trusting relationships with students first, they will most likely shut down when you try to talk to them about their writing. The relationships we form with our students become the foundation of our learning partnership. We have found the following tips to be most helpful in creating a classroom culture of mutual trust and respect:

• Writing teachers need to write. Period. If you haven’t experienced the difficulty of finding an idea, deciding how to shape a story, understanding mechanics and conventions, overcoming writers block, and more, it will be hard for you to help the writer sitting next to you. You must do the work you are asking your students to do. Before you start a new genre or writing project, try it first. As you write, think about what was tricky for you, potential problems that might arise for the students, and what felt good. Take notes and use them to help plan the lessons and conferring strategies you might teach. Students know when you are being authentic and will trust your guidance when they see you as a learner too.

• Start with strengths. Nothing shuts down a relationship faster than only focusing on the problems. Each time you meet with a writer, find what “glows” before you work on the “grows.” Praise should focus on specific strategies and techniques. We start the first two weeks of writing time just complimenting our students. We know the heavy lifting will come and we know the pressures of meeting curriculum needs. We also know that when students feel success in learning, they are more apt to continue.
• Listen, really listen. As teachers we often bring our own agendas. We know what needs to be taught and what the steps are for getting there. The problem is when we make a student’s piece of writing our agenda. When you sit next to a writer, ask questions and really listen to what the writer is trying to accomplish. Help the student move forward in their own direction. The agenda items get checked off, but the writer still feels in control.
• Know your students. Even small gestures—such as greeting them at the door, noticing new shoes and haircuts, holding morning meetings, or occasionally hanging around at recess or lunch—go a long way. When you take the time to get to know your students, you are in a better position to help them record and share their stories and passions with the world.

When conferring with young children, many teachers jump right into “teacher mode” and forget the vulnerability that comes with the process of writing. From finding your voice, to mastering spelling and grammar, to mustering up the courage to share your work—writing is not easy to do or to teach. We believe that teachers who take time to build a relationship of trust with students, who show that they understand the challenges and the hard work that accompany writing, and who make an effort to truly get to know their students will see the best results.

Kristin Ackerman is a teacher, writer and presenter. She has been teaching for 14 years and is passionate about supporting students and teachers. She is the co-author of Conferring with Young Writers:  What to do When You Don’t Know What to Do both published by Stenhouse Publishers. Kristin presents to teachers across the country on reading and writing topics. You can find her on Twitter or on her blog literacychats.wordpress.com.

Jen McDonough has been a first grade teacher and part-time literacy coach for 17 years. She is the co-author of A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades with Georgia Heard and more recently co-author of Conferring with Young Writers:  What to do When you Don’t Know What to Do both published by Stenhouse Publishers. Jen presents to teachers across the country on reading and writing topics and is excited about her new role as a K-4 literacy specialist at The Pine School in Hobe Sound, FL. You can find her on Twitter or on her blog literacychats.wordpress.com. 

In my work as instructional coach/reading specialist, I always make a special point to seek out the student teachers in our building and offer literacy strategies, researched articles and books of best practice.

Recently, a classroom teacher asked me to observe her student teacher. I asked if there was something specific on which the teacher wanted me to focus. Most student teachers (and sometimes seasoned classroom teachers) have a firm grasp of their content, but have a difficult time building classroom community. She looked at me with a wry smile and said, “She wants to be everyone’s friend. She’s afraid to create procedures because she thinks the kids won’t like her.”

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. Our rational brain tells us we need routines and procedures to keep our students motivated and safe. However, our irrational brain doesn’t want to disappoint or cause conflict, so we might allow the silliness. It can be a difficult compromise—especially for a student teacher who might be only five or six years older than her senior students. Most student teachers haven’t yet crafted “the look” or haven’t yet acquired “the voice.” It takes time to cultivate a persona, and when one is still learning the science, the art can take a back seat.

I met with the student teacher prior to the observation. I demonstrated the resource I would use to gather data. The resource entitled, The E⁴ Approach, encourages the observer to propose ideas, suggestions and notes of support in a non-evaluative way.

The E⁴ Approach focuses on four major components: Embrace, Expect, Engage and Encourage. The guiding questions are meant as a way for the observer to notice, ask or wonder about a specific component.

The framework encourages flexibility. The individual who is being observed is welcome to use the questions listed, or encouraged to create questions depending upon the emphasis or purpose of the lesson.  Of course, the observer doesn’t need to respond to all of the Guiding Questions and can omit the ones that are irrelevant for the particular observation; or the observer can create other questions more relevant to the particular lesson.

The student teacher appreciated my introduction of The E⁴ Approach and was eager to read what I would write. She felt the questions were valuable and commented that she would “love” my suggestions for engagement since “I feel I’m running out of ideas.”  

In closing, I created The E⁴ Approach as a means to support and assist each other in becoming the very best teachers. Perhaps this document could be used as a way to observe our peers, offering suggestions when teaching a new lesson or giving ideas on increasing student engagement? However you decide to use it, think of it as an opportunity for emphasis, examination and ultimately, excitement for professional growth.

Download The E⁴ Approach template here. 

Peg Grafwallner is an instructional coach with Milwaukee Public Schools. Learn more about Peg on her website.