Literacy Now

To mark the release of her new book, Be Fabulous: The Reading Teacher’s Guide to Reclaiming Your Happiness in the Classroom, Jennifer Scoggin, a.k.a. Mrs. Mimi of the education blog It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages, shares her advice for how to take a step back and remember what’s important.

So we’re back at it again. Summer flew by and back-to-school season will soon be a thing of the past. Is there a new trend-du-jour at your school? Does it have a fun acronym? Does it necessitate many meetings? Does it make you feel crazy and as if you are being asked to toss aside everything you know and love to make time for “The Hot New Thing” that you, personally, aren’t too sure about? Or maybe you are sure of it, but are being asked to do it all, like, yesterday, and you already feel as if your restful summer never happened.

Inspiration meets overload

Can I take you back a bit? Back to the summer when the days were long and time was your own? To be nerdily honest with you, I actually relish summer as a time to read a professional book, catch up on back issues of The Reading Teacher, or browse through online articles that make me reconsider my own practice. It is my form of self-selected professional development … but with cocktails or a cup of hot coffee … or bathroom breaks. All of the above seem luxurious to a teacher.

My learning journey this summer focused on close reading, particularly what it can look like in the lower grades, with an emphasis on making cross-curricular connections. I managed to read two amazing books (complete with vigorous head nodding and rampant highlighting), and a handful of both print and online articles that felt really practical and classroom-oriented. Toward the end of the summer, my nerdy reading carried me off into the world of educational apps and how to add a technological spin to my thinking about close reading. As I share this with you, it all sounds very inspiring, professional, and productive—you know, very what’s-hot-in-education-right-now.

But in reality, these moments of professional growth and reflection have been punctuated by moments of sheer panic. I worry about how to fit it all in. I feel frustrated by my actual resources and their potential to thwart my best-laid plans. I am curious if these new strategies will actually make a positive difference in my students’ ability to read. I consider what I can take out of my day to make room for these new ideas. Before I know it, these questions can quickly lead me down a shame-spiral of self-doubt in myself as an educator. How did I not integrate more technology this year? Why didn’t I think of this before? Ugh! I should have used this new amazing app during my social studies unit in March … what was I thinking? Cut to me dissolving into a puddle of self-doubt. And this is me all by myself on my porch in the summer. Not me at work under pressure and knee-deep in beginning-of-the-year paperwork and administrivia.

It’s all about confidence

Friends, this line of thinking and rampant self-doubt are not what is hot in education right now. As a result of my own panic, I would like to propose the following: Let’s make confidence in our own ability as educators what is hot this year. We already know a great deal about best practices and what is right for our students. We have read many professional books and come a long way in our own methods. We have taken tidbits away from various professional development workshops or conversations with colleagues.

We know things. This is step one in having a bit more confidence in ourselves as educators—recognizing that we have come a long way from where we started (whether you started last year or 20 years ago) and, therefore, possess a great deal of professional knowledge already. It is time to own what we know!
Of course, because we are professional and amazing, we also want to further ourselves and improve upon our practice. Teachers are notorious for having a continuous need to add new ideas to their instructional toolboxes; it is one of my favorite things about us. We just have to find a way to do this that doesn’t make us want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

So step two in having a bit more professional confidence is taking the time to consider our own priorities and beliefs as educators. Which new ideas are in line with your goals for your students? Which new strategies work well with or pump up the volume on practices you already have in place? Which new reading helped you further shape your beliefs about the teaching of reading and, therefore, needs to find a place in your instructional day? There is no need to throw out all you have done in the past to make room for the new hot trend in education. However, there is a need to consider the new hot trend in education to determine how and in what way it might find a place in your classroom. How can these new ideas help you on your journey to becoming the teacher you have always wanted to be? It is time to own your beliefs about what it means to be a teacher!

Time management is key

Finally, no matter how confident we are in what we know and where we are going as educators, time is always a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes I want three more hours with my little friends and, other times, I cannot get out of the door fast enough. It is what it is. There is a temptation to let our new ideas run wild; and as our professional goals run wild, so does the proverbial To-Do List. I have created To-Do Lists of such staggering proportions that they have actually sent me into a catatonic state of un-productivity, meaning there are so many items on the list that I don’t know where to start and already feel as if I have failed.
So, rather than letting our plans for self-improvement become too big too fast and blow our confidence out of the water, let us consider step three: Set small goals for yourself. What piece of this fabulous new idea of yours can you accomplish next week? What piece can you accomplish next month? What piece should you put off for next semester or next year? Write these goals down. Don’t overpromise or do more than you can realistically handle. It is OK to move slowly and to celebrate small successes. It is what we want our students to do and so it should be good enough for us, too. It is time to own that we are human.

So to sum it all up, remember this: Own what you know. Own what you believe. Own that you are human. What is hot in education this year? You.

Jennifer Scoggin (a.k.a. Mrs. Mimi) is the director of the Connecticut branch of LitLife and a consultant in schools. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has been an IRA member since 2011. This column originally appeared in Reading Today magazine. Members can read the rest of the magazine in digital form and non-members can join IRA here.

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One of the best safeguards against censorship is having a policy and procedure—a recipe—in place for almost any situation. A step-by-step guide and a list of required elements, aka ingredients, guide the process. There are a lot of players involved in any book challenge so it can be helpful for all to be working with the same instructions. Staff and administration will feel more confident if there’s a secure policy as a foundation. In a school environment, often there is more than one supervisor. It could be a department head, a principal, the school board or the superintendent. That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. And sometimes they don’t always cook well together.

During Banned Books Week, the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom hears from many school librarians and teachers who are dealing with a challenge to a library material, instructional material, or reading list. Sometimes one or all of the supervisors or administrators will be supportive of the book, and a united front can be created to protect the First Amendment for the students of their community. Think raspberry soufflé.

But other times, it may be the administration denouncing the value of a resource, or possibly responding to a challenge without following procedure and overstepping the policy set in place. Think chocolate chip cookies with no sugar.

In fact, this week we received a call where the situation is just that. A superintendent recalled a book assigned to students by an English teacher. His action was based on an email from a parent and not the consequence of a board-approved policy decision. How should a teacher react in this situation?

My first step is to refer to the soon-to-be-published 2015 Intellectual Freedom Manual. There’s a sidebar in the challenges section that specifically talks about the possibility of the process being subverted or undermined.

When the Reconsideration Process Is Subverted or Undermined
If after discussing the legal and ethical reasons for following the reconsideration process, the principal or library director does not follow policy and removes the challenged resource (or one about which a concern has been raised), how far should a librarian go to defend a library resource?
      This is a personal, ethical decision, and the librarian must weigh what else can be done. If the director or principal is adamant, the librarian may be forced to evaluate the risk of retaliation from his supervisor or losing a job against the merits of continuing to oppose censorship by a supervisor. After considering the situation carefully, he may come to acknowledge that he has done all that is possible at this time, or he may decide that taking a principled stand is better for him.
      The process can also be compromised if the concerned individual or group goes around the policy structure to speak directly to a higher authority such as an alderman, school superintendent, or school board members. Although the public official or school administrator should remind the challenger that there is a review process in place, this does not always occur.

The second step is to document everything! Obtain copies of relevant policies and procedures. Make sure to keep every email and to log phone calls and verbal conversations. Write down as many details as you can remember. Take screenshots of social media. A challenger could brag that after speaking with an administrator, a specific book was removed. Documenting evidence of not following policy doesn’t mean you have to act on it, but it’s there if you need it or if a second or third offense occurs.

The third step is to seek counsel. Call the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom if you’re unsure of what direction to take. Call your teachers’ union. Call the ACLU in your state. It doesn’t hurt to ask questions.

I heard a colleague advise a teacher that sometimes a misstep of procedure by administration can be “walked back” if proof of the misstep is available. If you give your administrator a quiet moment (or day) to realize the error of his ways, he might thank you in the long run. You could pretend that it was all an innocent mistake, and pride and jobs will be saved by all. Even the best chefs overbake the cake at times.

For more information on Banned Books Week, book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books website at www.ala.org/bbooks, or www.bannedbooksweek.org.

Kristin Pekoll is the assistant director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Throughout the school year, my English Language Arts students practice and apply research skills while studying a variety of topics.  Along with brainstorming, evaluating sources, and drafting, a skill I work extensively on with students is note taking.  Note taking is an important skill, and is included in the Common Core Anchor Standards for Writing under “Research to Build and Present Knowledge.”  The teacher’s guide for our writing series calls for students to record their findings and details on notecards, which can then be sorted into topics and arranged in an outline.  While this may be the traditional way to develop a research paper, my
classroom is 1:1 Chromebooks, and I wanted a way for students to be able to work on their research outside the classroom, collaborate with peers, and not worry about losing any (or all!) of their work.

After searching for a web tool that fit my goal of collaboration and online access, I decided to use Padlet.  Padlet (formerly known as Wallwisher) is a free, app/online space or corkboard that can be used for collaboration, brainstorming, and note taking.  Signing up and creating walls are easy and teachers can embed Padlet walls into a class Symbaloo, blog, website, or make it a QR code.  Within a Padlet post users can insert text, images, documents, and website addresses.  These features matched my purpose for students to assemble their research digitally in the cloud, and I created a wall for each country being researched.

As they begin their research, my students have Padlet open in their Internet browser and as they comb through digital and print resources can add notes, images, videos, and citations on individual posts.  There is no limit to the number of posts that can be placed on a board, so students are free to gather information without concern of running out of space or having too much paper to keep track of.  Once notes have been compiled, my students move their posts into categories by dragging the boxes into related groups.  These categories then form the sections of the research paper.  Students may also use the posts to create mind maps and outlines before drafting their writing.
Using Padlet helped my students organize their notes throughout the research process. Students were not intimidated by digital note taking on Padlet, and even students who would have been resistant to reading and transferring information from a text to paper, did not seem to mind doing so in a digital manner. Finally, the biggest improvement I saw was students taking time to evaluate the amount and quality of information they were finding, and ultimately take pride and ownership of their work.
If you are looking for ways to incorporate technology into the research process, and would like a web tool that allows collaboration and cloud access, I encourage you to check out Padlet.  Your students will enjoy having an easy to use format to gather their notes.

Stephanie Laird is an Instructional Coach in the Southeast Polk School District where she works alongside teachers to impact student learning through the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  She holds a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instructional Technology from Iowa State University, and is the International Reading Association’s 2014 Technology and Reading Award Winner.

photo credit: familymwr via photopin cc

Service-learning is a way of learning with the head, the heart, and hands—a learning that transforms students.  It’s a kind of learning where meaningful connections between students and the world around them are made and more and more schools around the world, especially here in the U.S., are seeing the benefits of service-learning projects in their schools. Published research indicates these types of programs positively impacts students’ civic and academic achievement and this year President Barack Obama declared March 31 “A day of service for the nation.”
“I encourage Americans to make this a national day of service and education by speaking out, organizing, and participating in service projects to improve lives in their communities,” Obama said in his presidential proclamation. “Let us remember that when we lift each other up, when we speak with one voice, we have the power to build a better world.”
Community service impacts students lives by creating authentic opportunities for young people to be active and to be the solution-designers their communities need. Not only are students exposed to issues where change is needed, they are collaborating with their peers—sometimes across grade levels—in an authentic way. 
“It connected the AP and General Program students; we worked together collaboratively to make a difference in our community in mid-Michigan,” said Ana Luisa, a primary teacher in Aldine ISD who experienced her high school service learning experiences as a student. “It helped some of us make career choices; or connect our careers to serving others.  One mechanic still spends one day a week providing free oil changes for the elderly and low-economic populations.”
In my own experience coordinating service projects, I’ve seen my middle school French ESL students in Palo Alto gain confidence and proficiency in English through a Book Buddy project with kindergarteners in East Palo Alto.  Even though the newly-arrived students from France were just beginning to learn English, they were role models and rose to the challenge to read in English to the beginning readers.  But that wasn’t all, the students returned with an enthusiasm to embrace their own acculturation process and proficiency. 
At Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, students in Washington, D.C., choose their own service-learning projects. Their week-long projects include planting trees, fundraising, administering public surveys, creating and passing out pamphlets on an issue important to them, and making pet beds and toys for the Washington Humane Society.  I’ve seen kids who were discouraged become empowered by seeing they can make a difference in this world. 
In the spring of 2014, at Sammons Elementary, Aldine ISD, the first and fourth grade students held a “World Porridge Day” to provide meal sponsorships for African children receiving meals through Mary’s Meals (www.marysmeals.org). The children learned that through giving we do indeed receive.  The children were engaged throughout the project.  They continued to talk about the project and brainstorm alternative solutions to world hunger, they decorated donation containers, made informative posters, brought in spare change, calculated costs to provide meal sponsorships, and even wanted to send them soccer balls for their after-school activities. 
As we prepare for a new school year, let’s prepare our students for the future through learning with the head, the heart, and the hands. Through authentic community projects we can connect and implement to our curriculum to transform our students and ourselves.

Jennifer King is a native of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.  She has a broad background in international education, and is currently a literacy coach in Aldine ISD in Houston, Texas.

photo credit: Kathy Cassidy via photopin cc

Being a teacher means embracing constant change. Yet all too often, teachers are told when, how, and why to change. In this monthly column, Mrs. Mimi takes on creating change for herself by rethinking old practices and redefining teaching on her own terms. 

One of the best parts of our job is getting to hang out with a lot of really cool kids all day.  I know sometimes they might forget their homework, or start a fight or, hey, even poop in their pants, but aside from all that most of them they are pretty fabulous.  The key to looking past the lost homework, unkind words, and poop is to get to know them deeply, particularly as readers.  And for many of our students, this may mean helping them see themselves as readers or supporting them as the build their reading identities.

Does all this sound too fluffy and touchy-feely while you are in the midst of data collection?!  Assessing?!  Beginning-of-the-year paperwork?!  Running records?!  Organizing your classroom library?!  I guess it does.  But I can tell you from years of practicing what I preach that when I savored the time to get to know my students as readers I felt happier, more in line with what I think makes a good teacher, and more effective throughout the school year. (And that’s on top of feeling fluffy and touchy-feely!  Boom.)

When we get to know our students as readers, it means more than asking them to draw a picture of where they like to read at home or name a favorite book.  It means reading alongside students to discover what types of authors, genres and text types they enjoy reading most.  (And I mean really reading with them.  No surface-y stuff, friends.  Get into the book, find something to love and talk about it.  Honor their choices as readers and take the time to read what they like to read.  You might even discover some new faves.)  It means sharing your own favorites with them and engaging them in an authentic conversation about the book itself.  Let them see your passion for reading, your nerdiness and excitement for reading.

It also means learning about their interests outside of school and using that information to help match them to an exciting new read or push them to try something different.  Think about your nightstand (or where ever you stack up your On Deck Reading).  Mr. Mimi likes to joke that my nightstand is one book away from collapsing, my pile is that serious.  And while to him it may appear to be a haphazard leaning tower of books and magazines, I know it is a well-curated collection of who I am as a reader.  I take time to re-organize those piles, moving current issues of magazines to the top, a piece of nonfiction to the bottom, a book recommended by a friend to the up-next spot.  Our students should have the same self-awareness as well as the freedom in our classrooms to curate a pile of their own.

So enjoy these weeks of getting to know your students, warts and all.  I know there are tests and test prep and graphic organizers and schedules to get together—those are all important pieces of our teacher puzzle.  But I think the most important piece of the puzzle and the piece that ties all of these other things together—something that has true meaning and a lifelong impact—is our work growing and inspiring true readers.

Mrs. Mimi,a.k.a. Jennifer Scoggin, is a teacher who taught both first and second grades at a public elementary school in New York City. She's the author of the upcoming “Be Fabulous: The Reading Teacher's Guide to Reclaiming Your Happiness in the Classroom” and“It's Not All Flowers and Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade”, which sprung from her popular blog of the same name. Mimi also has her doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.