ReSnooze: Another Way to Organize Your Life

I know there are many methods to remind yourself of events and deadlines but Resnooze seems like a cool way to take some of that burden off of you. Resnooze is an online app that will regularly remind you of dates to remember, at whatever frequency you choose.

For example, I might use Resnooze to schedule

• regular parent contacts
• distributed assessments and writing samples
• visits to websites which are updated, but not as frequently as blogs
• interim reports and end-of-marking-period grades
• regular family events (doctor and dentist visits, pet meds, etc.)

Demo Girl (I guess she's a really hip, digital-age superhero) provides a nice synopsis of this application (if the embedded video below doesn't run, click here).

The Privileged Status of Story

"I have read that the mind treats stories differently than other types of
information. It seems obvious that people like listening to stories, but it’s
not obvious how to use that in the classroom. Is it really true that stories are
somehow "special" and, if so, how can teachers capitalize on that fact?"

The answer to this question is well worth a read for any teacher desiring to put the power of story into their daily instruction. Cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham addresses the topic of story in his excellent article The Privileged Status of Story, one of his many Ask the Cognitive Scientist columns at the AFT's American Educator.

Daniel first defines story using four features commonly agreed upon by professional storytellers (playwrights, screenwriters, and novelists). These features (sometimes called the 4 Cs) are Causality, Conflict, Complications, and Character. Even if a teacher chooses not to tell "stories" in the traditional sense, employing just one of these features can have a profound impact on every lesson, helping to create learning that is interesting, memorable, and easier to comprehend. (Are you hearing some of our sticky ideas?).

Although his role is to point out the theory and research behind the well-deserved status of story, Willingham writes like a practitioner, offering suggestions which are practical and simple to implement. For you fans of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, this article is a concise, highly accessible how-to guide for putting story to work in your instruction.

How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Sir Ken Robinson, best known for his TED talk of last year (see second video below), is on the web again, this time talking about his new book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. For those of us who have heard or used the expression "in his element," we understand phrase to mean that he is "doing what he is best at," or "doing what he was born to do."

That's The Element in a nutshell: a bold proclamation that people can do best what they actually enjoy and are good at (no news there), but that too often they are turned from the pursuit of what will ultimately fulfill them by the dictates of others, the "realities" of making a living, and (you guessed it) schools that limit their choices and dreams. Not saying he's wrong, mind you, but we all knew that was coming. And that's probably bad.

A favorite part:

Finding a purpose in the work we do or they way that we spend our time which resonates deeply with who we think we are, is an essential part of knowing who we are. In a way, if you don’t know what you can do, then you don’t really know what you might be.

Our own lives are not linear. Think not of linear metaphors for human growth and development, but organic metaphors… that our lives evolve around the responses we have to the opportunities that meet us. We, in turn, reciprocate with them. We still run our education systems as if life is linear. We run them as if it’s mechanistic. This is one of the reasons so many things get phased out of education, because people say, "Well, you’ll never get a job if you do this." Things are dropped off the end because they don’t meet the linear assumption.

If you've got the time, this is well worth a look.

How NOT to Teach a Novel

Some teachers, with all the best intentions, treat novels like pinatas, beating them with sticks until every last piece of sweet candy falls out. Those of you who caught my How to Teach a Novel session at the New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS) Conference know I use that metaphor frequently. For good reason, trust me.

As Kelly Gallagher points out in his recent book Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Readig and What You Can Do About It, teachers underteach books; that is, they assign chapters in extremely difficult books for independent reading, and students either choose not to read the selection, or they read it with little understanding. On the other end of the spectrum, however, are those teachers who overteach novels; they are not satisfied until the pages have been wrung out like dish rags, emptied of every teachable vocabulary word, allusion, metaphor, and simile.

In my How to Teach a Novel sessions I certainly point out that every novel should be read and reread with pencil in hand, in order to decide, "What's worth our attention?" or, more practically, "What's worth teaching?" (see How to Teach a Novel for a synopsis of this topic). That doesn't mean, however, that the teacher needs to teach it all!

Imagine that you're listening to the Motown classic My Girl on the radio. How frustrating would it be if every twenty seconds the DJ interrupted the song to examine its language, or to "enlighten you" with some historical background which places the song or group into a historical context?

I've got sunshine, on a cloudy day

(Does the singer literally have sunshine? Is this an oxymoron alone, or is it meant to, in some way, be metaphorical?)

When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May

(Who knows the origin of the name Motown? Right, it's related to the fact that Gordon Berry established his record label in Detroit, which is also known as the Motor City. But who can tell me the nickname Berry gave to Motown Records itself? Why don't we continue to pause the song while our listeners look that up?)

I guess you'd say, "What can make me feel this way?"

(Note the use of sentence variety here, and the way in which the singer directly addresses his audience. Is he expecting an answer? What do we call a question in which the speaker does not expect to receive an answer?)

I think you get the idea. When it comes to teaching novels, I wish everyone did.

Academic Genocide

In my role as blogger I realize there's an expectation for me to crank out some original content every few days. Hey, no problem, I'm up to it. But when another writer can express my feelings on a topic with equal passion and greater craft, then I will gladly surrender the stage. Enter Steve Peha, whom many of you met a few weeks ago through his Teaching That Makes Sense site. Steve recently fired off an editorial about what he terms "academic genocide." Strong words, but perhaps sadly and frustratingly accurate. It's what happens when teaching is oversimplified. Give it a read; I'd like to hear your reaction! Feel free to email me since I know the comment process is at times daunting!

Ralph Fletcher: A Way with Words

A few nights ago I had the genuine pleasure of hearing Ralph Fletcher speak on Helping Young Writers Develop Writers’ Craft at an event sponsored by the Tri-County Reading Council here in New Jersey. For those who may not know him, Ralph Fletcher is a writer of picture books, novels, and poetry. He is also a teacher of teachers, having created such excellent writing instruction books as Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8 and Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide.

What I personally took away from his talk is that we, as teachers, make writing far too complicated. We fail to keep it simple, and as a reult students see it as a complicated task they they are ill-equipped to tackle. We perhaps attempt to accomplish too much in any given writing lesson, which makes the average student reluctant to write (How can I possibly get all that stuff right?) and the average teacher reluctant to teach (How can I possibly choose from among all those skills that students must demonstrate?).

Throughout his presentation, Ralph shared many examples of student writing which were equal parts skillful, humorous, and charming. Some pieces made us laugh out loud; another piece, when shared, caused a colleague at my table to remark, “If one of my students wrote that, I would not be able to hold back the tears.” These authentic, concrete examples reminded us, in Ralph’s own words, that “story comes first,” and that we, as readers, need time to respond in a natural way to students’ writing.

Interspersed between picture book readings and student examples were the “nuggets of wisdom” we had all come to hear. How shocked we were to learn that we already knew them! As writers, as teachers, we already knew what he had to share. But in our attempts to follow the curriculum, meet the standards, and pound every nail, we had forgotten the simpler things.

Ralph had three straightforward (read: simple), yet powerful, ideas to share on the topic of Craft Elements.

His first: Take advantage of micro-texts.

The readers of this blog know how I feel about picture books and the unique role they play in modeling colorful, yet concise, writing. As I posted at the sister site (which provides support for picture books in the middle grades):

When we ask our students to "write a story," we rarely mean a story with chapters. Why, then, should we have students read only those types of books? Picture books provide succinct models for student writing. Nonfiction picture books also exemplify brevity versus exposition in presenting the facts that the reader needs.

Ralph illustrated that very idea by pointing out that in first grade, children write what they are reading: few words with many pictures. This changes as they move up in grades, however, until by fourth grade students are reading novels that they couldn't ever hope to write, given their existing skills. In other words, (mine, not his), children who have little or no access to micro-texts are being denied accurate, realistic models for their own writing.

As an example, Ralph shared his wonderful picture book Grandpa Never Lies. He then recounted a classroom lesson he had observed about that very book, and how the teacher had used the analogy of a snowball rolling downhill, growing ever larger as it progressed. The recurring line of the book acted in much the same way, growing with importance each time it was repeated.

Such a concept is easy to study in the context of a picture book; so much harder to extrapolate from the noise and confusion of a novel.

Ralph’s second observation: Use literature that kids already know. (By the way, I dig Ralph because he uses the word kids. Too many teacher bristle at that!).

Is it okay to reread books? Absolutely! According to Ralph, “Really deep connections come from rereading books.”

And if students say, “But we read that book last year,” your response can be, “Great! Then this time we can read it the way that writers read.” That, in turn, leads to new, fertile ground for understanding: How do writers read differently from readers?

And lastly: Note what your student writers are already doing.

Yes, we can spend time marveling over what professional authors have produced, but are we taking time to recognize our own students as writers? Are we acknowledging their efforts? Do they feel that, as humble students, they have the credentials to call themselves writers? Are we, in Ralph Fletcher’s words, “putting kids into the game” and allowing them to be in the “circle of authorship?”

Celebrate the successes you see, no matter how small. Use students’ work to model strengths, but never to illustrate deficits.

It is so tempting, he says, to try to teach everything (voice, leads, character development, etc.). This leads to teachers “mentioning” elements of writing rather than actually teaching them. One of the most important skills that we miss, due to our efforts to “teach it all,” is that of having children critically reread their own writing. How can they improve their writing if they never take time to reflect upon it? It is so much more beneficial to take your time, focus on just a few aspects of writing, and teach those well.

In closing, Ralph reminded his audience that when looking at student writing, it’s important to “respond as a human being first and a teacher second.”

I’m glad he said that. Sometimes I forget. Even though I already knew it.

So check out Ralph’s work, both for your students and for yourself. Craft Lessons is my favorite (I bought my third copy tonight, since colleagues have “borrowed” my previous two), A Writing Kind Of Day: Poems for Young Poetsis hugely popular in my class during Poetry Month in April, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid is an autobiography with authentic voice, and Grandpa Never Lies is on my “Gotta Have” list after hearing it tonight. (These and several others are featured in the slide show in the right margin of this page).

Also check out Ralph Fletcher’s homepage, which features tips for teachers and young writers, plus additional information about the author and his work.

Teaching That Makes Sense

Teaching That Makes Sense, founded by Steve Peha, is an impressive web site full of well-organized, original resources on reading and writing.

They're all in pdf format and they're all free.

Is this guy insane? It would be easy to understand his generosity if the stuff was mediocre. But Steve has put together hundreds of pages of strategies, structures, checklists, and posters for teachers that are high quality, practical, and immediately usable.

Getting started in Reader's or Writer's Workshop? Looking for authentic student writing samples? Seeking sound ideas for writing across the curriculum? Need a writing lesson to use tomorrow? It's all there. And if that's not enough, Steve and his crew are continually adding articles on the teaching profession that are truly worth a read.

And it's sticky stuff, because the ideas are concrete (yet not closed-ended) and simple (yet not dumbed down).

So visit the site. Read the articles. Download the pdfs. Before Steve comes to his senses.

UPDATE 03/09/09: Apparently they loosened Steve's straight jacket long enough for him to peck out a response to my post:

Hey, Keith! Love your blog. And your kind words about our work are really
appreciated. Here's a link to our newest strategy guide (not yet on the site) if
you're interested: www.ttms.org/ttms_strategy_guide.pdf. We've also got a new
book on reading that we'll be giving away, too. Is this guy crazy? Perhaps. But
I really just want teachers to have access to good materials.

Thanks for stopping by, Steve! We appreciate your efforts.

Presenting: A Two Way Street

In his most recent blog, marketer extraordinaire and all-around-knowledgeable guy Seth Godin points out that emotional give and take is a key for successful presenters. Check out his thoughts on respect for the audience.

Are You Teaching with This Much Passion?

Rock and Roll Kindergarten sounds like a follow-up to Jack Black's School of Rockbut it's actually a web site created by kindergarten teacher Kurt Schwengel. This site begs the question, "Are you teaching with this much passion?" And for old veterans like me, "Did you ever?"

Whether you're a kindergarten teacher or a 12th grade AP Physics teacher, check out the man in action and be inspired.

Our Deepest Fear

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for those emotionally saturated inspirational speeches which seem obligatory in any film about teaching or coaching. Or waging war, for that matter (draw your own conclusions here).

Too often, of course, these speeches are heavy on rhetoric and light on reality. "Forty Inspirational Speeches in Two Minutes," for example, was an instant hit video, in that it lets us play detective as we try to name all the movie clips featured. At the same time, however, it's truly hilarious, since the collective "words of wisdom," when seen in transcript form, express absolute gibberish.



That's also why you have to love a truly inspirational movie clip, which even divorced from its context will still ring true. "Our Deepest Fear," a widely circulated poem which is actually not a poem at all, is one of these inspirations. The excellent feature film Coach Carterroughly paraphrases the words from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson.



Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

For teachers, these words could not hold a more profound truth. Too often we are quick to bash our fellow teachers who make an effort to really make a difference. We think to ourselves, "What is he trying to prove? What is he trying to do, make us look bad?" And we worry about how we'll pale by comparison when scrutinized by parents or administrators.

Well, those of us who have felt that way about our colleagues have it all wrong. And conversely, those of us who have willingly chosen to be mediocre for fear of standing out or making our peers "look bad by comparison" have it all wrong as well.




Teachers, your playing it small does not serve the world, nor your students, nor your own dignity and integrity. Instead, let your own light shine, and give permission for your peers to do the same.