#MustReadin2019 Fall Update

Hello, Readers! 📚

So, just to review, here is my original list:

#MustReadin2019

Finished reading May 18, 2019

I should start off by saying how much I enjoyed Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson, and I love Monday's Not Coming even more! This is the story of best friends Claudia and Monday. They do everything together, have plans for the future, and help each other get through school (and the rumors, drama, and bullies that go with it). After visiting her grandmother for the summer, Claudia is so excited to get back to school and see Monday. But Monday is a no-show on the first day. And the next. And the next. Claudia can't figure out how Monday could just up and leave her without a word, and spends the rest of this brilliant novel trying to piece together what is really going on. This book is masterfully written, and will keep you on the very edge of your seat!

Finished reading July 7, 2019

There is NO way you can lose when you have Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera writing a book together! What If It's Us is AMAZING! Arthur is staying in New York for the summer. He meets Ben who is on his way to the post office to send back a box of his ex-boyfriend's belongings. It's a pretty cute first meeting, and it seems like the two have a connection. But then the first date doesn't go so well (or the second first date for that matter). The sense of humor in this book is so great...I found myself stopping to reread conversations that made me laugh out loud! I was really rooting for both of these characters (and their friends were pretty cool, too). 

Finished reading August 1, 2019

I was hooked on Born a Crime by Trevor Noah from the very first page. This memoir shows different moments from Trevor's life as a young child through adulthood. You would think that a book written by a person who was literally born a crime under apartheid (his mother is Xhosa and his father is Swiss) could not possibly be funny, but you would be so wrong. I laughed out loud in places! But the stories and experiences described in the book are also eye-opening and very powerful. If you haven't read this yet, I highly recommend it!

Finished reading August 12, 2019

I became a fan of Jeff Zentner because of The Serpent King, which is one of my favorite books of all time. So, if I see Mr. Zentner's name on something, I will absolutely read it. This is the story of Josie and Delia, and their public access show that airs Friday nights. These best friends in their senior year of high school are beginning to grapple with the next phases of their lives. One thing I want to point out about Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee is that if you find yourself in need of fantastic examples of dialogue, I would definitely mark some pages in here (in fact, I did). Some of Delia and Josie's conversations made me laugh so hard that tears were streaming (the two guys they encounter at the fights immediately come to mind). But (*spoiler alert*) there were also sad tears as well. I really enjoyed this one!

Finished reading August 25, 2019

Mysteries are probably my favorite genre, and what I love most about Karen McManus is that she kept me guessing the ENTIRE time. In Two Can Keep a Secret, twins Ellery and Ezra are forced to move in with their grandmother in the small town where their mom grew up. Ellery's aunt disappeared from there at age 17, and five years ago the Homecoming queen was killed in the town's Halloween-themed amusement park. Just after Ellery and Ezra's arrival, someone begins targeting the Homecoming court again. And the twins can't seem to get any straight answers from their mom or grandma, either, so mostly what they have to go on is the small-town gossip (and some firmly held grudges). I sincerely enjoyed every twist and turn!

Finished reading September 14, 2019

Genesis Begins Again will be placed in the "Ms. Green's Favorites" bin in our classroom library. I simply could not love this book more! It starts out with Genesis walking home from school with friends to find all of her furniture arranged neatly on the front lawn. Once again, her dad's gambling and drinking have gotten them evicted. Genesis starts a new school, deals with family issues, self-loathing, and having friends (real ones) for pretty much the first time. This book made me hopeful that I can be a Mrs. Hill to somebody someday. Oh, and definitely stop reading (you'll know when) to listen to some of the music that Mrs. Hill recommends. What I will remember most is, "I just want to look in the mirror and be okay with myself, that's all." And what a fantastic reminder that adults don't always have their stuff together, either. Every one of us is a work in progress. This one is going to stay with me for a very long time. Bravo, Ms. Williams!

My Journey With The Project LIT Community

It started with an article:

“Where Books Are All But Nonexistent”. 

After reading about the prevalence of book deserts, Dr. Jarred Amato and his students decided to do something about it. They created Project LIT (Literacy In The) Community (@ProjectLITComm). Their group created Little Free Libraries to spread the love of reading in their community. They wrapped up books during the holidays to share with elementary students. They wrote beautiful reflections on the books they were reading. I participated in literacy chats with Jarred, and followed the community’s work on Twitter, and when they decided to expand to other states, I applied to become a chapter leader.

I was so excited to introduce new titles to our students and staff, and was told it was fine as long as it “did not interfere with instructional time.” I believe that reading, reflecting on, and discussing diverse books IS instructional…but I digress. Not knowing how much interest there would be, we started small our first year, committing to read just two of the titles. A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park and Refugee by Alan Gratz became our first official books. I was able to purchase them because of a Donors Choose grant. We continued to meet monthly, supplementing our reading with books from our school’s novel list.

This year I decided to incorporate more Project LIT titles, and was able to do so because of the Book Love Foundation grant that I received. Our students participated in a book tasting at our informational meeting, and after making their choices, we read and discussed the following books:

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu (The Track series) by Jason Reynolds

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez

I do make sure to have at least one copy of each Project LIT title in my classroom for the students who wish to borrow them. One of our 7^th graders took the lead this year, creating questions and leading our discussions. Our last meeting in May was a Summer Reading Preview, where we each booktalked some of our favorite titles and created TBR lists. I presented a session about Project LIT for our local reading council, and have invited our public library to join our meetings starting in the fall (we meant to start this year, but scheduling conflicts prevented it). 

Here are some thoughts from members who have moved on to high school:

“I really enjoyed how we all met and talked about the book. More specifically, the questions we discuss made us all think about the book in a different way and in a different point of view, which is always nice. Also, I really liked how every meeting, people were included in the conversation, and how we all got to share our opinions and ideas about the books.”

“I just liked talking about the books and being able to relate my thoughts about the book with other people who have read it and understand my connections and stuff. 🌞”

The students currently in our local Project LIT Book Club identify as…

Black

Asian

White
Latina

Gay

Straight

Questioning

Male

Female

Nonbinary

I believe that our classroom libraries need to be inclusive of all of our students. For one thing, students need to be able to see themselves represented in the books that we add to our shelves. But also, students need to read about and understand those who are not like them. If you are not yet familiar with the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, you can start here: Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors   

Here are the Project LIT Book Club choices for 2019-2020. 

I continue to be blessed by the students, teachers, and authors who are a part of this community, and anticipate many more great discussions in the future!  📚 💗

With Gratitude to the Book Love Foundation

At the end of the 2018 school year I was notified that I had been selected as a Book Love Foundation Grant recipient. To say that I was excited would be a HUGE understatement. There is not much that I love more than adding new books to our classroom library. You might be familiar with this quote from Erasmus, “When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes.” That’s pretty much me.

In our reading intervention classroom, I challenge students to read 40 books each year in a variety of genres (many thanks to the Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller). This allows them to figure out what they like and who they are as readers. I’m deeply saddened by the number of middle school students we have who don’t yet know themselves as readers (or worse...in so many cases, identify themselves as NONreaders). The Book Love Foundation grant allowed me to purchase multiple copies of students’ favorite graphic novels, series books, novels in verse, and nonfiction titles. I also chose picture books to use as read alouds. Other recommendations came from my Twitter and Goodreads reading communities.

I have never been more sure that we need to include Social Emotional Learning in our classrooms. Whether it’s hearing that students have disrespected a substitute teacher of a different race, bullied another student who doesn’t look or act like they do, or said repeatedly that something “is gay”, it is clear that we have some major work to do. While students are in our care, we need to model and inspire within them empathy and compassion. I believe that outside of our own actions, the best place to start building that empathy is in the reading of fiction. Fiction allows students to grapple with difficult issues within the safety of the pages of books. Students need opportunities to think about, write about, and have conversations about people and places that are different from themselves. Because if we’ve “met” people who are not like us in books, it’s not such a big deal when we encounter them in person. It is critical for teachers to have large, inclusive classroom libraries, and that students are given time each day to read books that they choose.

In 2017, having been inspired by Jarred Amato, I began a Project LIT Community chapter in our building. The Book Love Foundation grant allowed me to purchase multiple copies of several of the Project LIT Book Club choices. (I’ve included the photo so that you can check out the community, and take a look at the outstanding books that are being read and discussed by students, teachers, and community members in 48 states!). I am so proud of the conversations that our students have around these books, and continue to be amazed by the authors who create these important stories and support our students in so many ways.

I can’t tell you how much the Book Love Foundation has improved my classroom library for our students and book-loving staff members!

So how can you get involved? You can check out the Book Love Summer Book Club here.

This will be my second summer participating. Here’s how it works:
     1. We read and discuss four different titles with teachers all over the world.
     2. The money donated provides the grants that are used to spread the book
         love to classroom libraries.
     3. Everybody wins!

Many thanks to Penny Kittle for writing Book Love and starting the Book Love Foundation. And thanks to all of the participants who help fund the grants that impact so many students and classrooms! Please know that you are making a difference!

For the Teachers

Teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible. Our job as educators is to make a difference in the lives of our young people. We have the responsibility of shaping what our communities, and by extension our nation, will look like in the future. Teachers understand that ALL kids are OUR kids. Starting on Day 1, we learn about them. We talk with them. We listen to them. We let them get to know us. We find out which teams they are on and go to their games/matches. We chaperone dances, we help out during tryouts, and we sponsor clubs and activities. And this doesn’t stop just because they are no longer in our classrooms. Once they move on to the next grade, they are still OUR kids. Because at the end of the day, we’re not teaching a set of objectives, a unit, or even a curriculum. We are investing in our collective future.        

Teaching is challenging for innumerable reasons that people outside the profession just cannot understand (even if they claim that they do).

There is ALWAYS a new initiative.

There is ALWAYS another meeting.

There is ALWAYS another deadline.

There is always, ALWAYS testing. 

SO. 
MUCH. 
TESTING. 

(They should really tell our preservice teachers how much time they will spend watching students look at computer screens.)

And while we love the kids (because we wouldn’t be here otherwise), they’re KIDS. They act accordingly.

Picture it...

I’ve had to stop keeping hand sanitizer in plain sight because they have figured out ways to weaponize it. I spend my own money on classroom library books, bins, and labels, and the students love nothing more than peeling off those labels and/or defacing the books. Picture the sheer panic when our community volunteer comes in to read with 6^th graders, and I’m trying to hide the books with the anatomically inaccurate drawings in them. They sit on wooden bookshelves and break them. They hide each other’s chromebooks. They steal candy (and pens, pencils, and books). And quite often, they do the exact opposite of what I’ve just asked them to do.

But, you know what else?

They see me in the stands at the track meet and come over for a hug or high-five. They seek me out in the hallway in the morning to tell me about the books that they’re reading. They trust me with things that are going on in their lives at school and at home. And on very rare occasions, they write me amazing letters from high school telling me that I had a positive impact on their lives; that something that I did or said mattered to them.  

We know that teachers don’t go into this profession for the money, or for the “summers off”. Teaching is a calling. We do it because we believe in our students and we truly hope that what we do makes a difference. As Pernille Ripp stated in her book, Passionate Readers, "Teaching would be so much easier if we could see the influence that the learning may have on a child, but most of the time we do not. We can only plant the seeds that hopefully will grow into something bigger than even we could imagine.”   

For ALL the teachers...

I see you. 

I value what you do each and every day. 

I believe that you make a difference.

Thank you. 🍎

A Few Recent Favorite MG Books

Finished reading February 24, 2019

I loved New Kid by Jerry Craft SO much! Jordan Banks is a gifted artist (and we are blessed to see his art throughout the book). He REALLY wants to go to art school, but his parents REALLY want him to go to a private school known for academics. You can probably guess who wins! J  My middle school students enjoy this book because it’s a gorgeous graphic novel about what it is like to be in middle school. For me, it was all of that plus a “Where’s Waldo?” of the microaggressions that happen in schools (and in life) on a daily basis. Some of the scenes stood out to me specifically...like the teacher wishing “Coach” luck this season, and the Secret Santa project. This book is super important to all of the "Ms. Rawles" in the world. I have added this title to my “Must Read for All of Humanity” list. Please read it!

Finished reading March 29, 2019

In the beautiful book, The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman, Viji and her sister Rukku run away from home because their father is abusive. A short time after taking a bus into the city, they meet Muthu and Arul, two homeless boys living under a bridge. The boys help them find work and get things that they need to survive. Learning these characters’ stories helped me understand how quickly some children are forced to grow up. Also, this story made me wonder how often we really see other people around us. At one point, Viji explained, "We were in plain sight. But we were invisible" (41). On a personal note, I don’t think I’ve ever had a favorite CHAPTER in a book before, but I have a very special place in my heart for Chapter 19. I’ve begun to look at the books I read through the lens of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s work. This is a spectacular "window" book to look into another country and see how other children experience the world. I’m so excited that this will be a Global Read Aloud choice in the fall! 🌎📖

Finished reading April 8, 2019

First line: “I first realized I was crazy on a Tuesday.”

In OCDaniel by Wesley King, Daniel refers to himself as a 13-year-old “social oddity”. After a couple of mysterious emails, a girl named Sara (who the kids at school refer to as “Psycho Sara”) asks Daniel to help her investigate a mystery. Daniel helps her solve the mystery, and Sara helps Daniel to understand that he has a condition called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Daniel explains, “It’s funny to be a prisoner of yourself. Like you’re being bullied by your own mind and you’re afraid of it, but it’s also you and it’s extremely confusing” (228). This fantastic book shows what people dealing with mental illness experience, and how other people react to them. I highly recommend this title!

#MustReadin2019 Spring Update

Hello, Readers! 📚

This is just a quick progress update on my #MustReadin2019 list. 

As I've said before, there is so much stress in committing to a list and then realizing how many awesome titles were overlooked. So this year I've decided to also include books that I absolutely ADORED, but were not in my original post. 

I have not always been one of those people who could read more than one book at a time, but usually now I find myself with a "school" book and a "home" book, with professional titles sprinkled in. I'm going to write a bit after finishing each one, mainly so I don't freak out when it's time to post the updates! 😊

Finished reading January 16, 2019

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier is now one of my absolute favorites!!! Sweep is the story of Nan, a 12 year old girl in Victorian London. Left behind on a rooftop nearly five years ago, Nan has been working with other chimney sweeps in deplorable conditions. After a near tragedy, a little ball of char that Nan keeps in her pocket comes to life, and then continues to grow. This incredibly moving and beautiful story reminds us, "We save ourselves by saving others." It also forces us to ask ourselves who the REAL monsters are. 

Finished reading January 19, 2019

Where, oh where, was Pride by Ibi Zoboi when I was younger??? 💘 As someone who fake-read Pride and Prejudice in high school, but for-real read it later as an adult, I can say that this remix is so much more accessible to young readers for myriad reasons. First line: "It's a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it's a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up." The story follows Zuri Benitez and her family as the wealthy Darcy family moves in to the recently renovated "mini-mansion" across the street. Zuri takes an immediate dislike to hot, but standoffish Darius Darcy. And he appears to have zero interest in Zuri or her sisters. But as they spend more time together, they start to second-guess their original impressions of each other. 

Finished reading February 1, 2019

The wonderful line from John Green, "Frankly, I'd read your grocery lists," is the perfect summation of my love for Nic Stone's writing. Because I had read Dear Martin, I was confident that Odd One Out would be a winner, and I was not disappointed! Courtney Cooper, Jupiter Sanchez and Rae Chin each narrate a part of the story. "Coop" and "Jupes" have been best friends forever, but Coop is struggling with the fact that he wants them to be more than friends. The problem? Jupiter likes girls. When Rae Chin moves to town, it seems like the three of them make the "perfect couple"! I loved the main characters, the closeness of their families, and Coop's teammates are hilarious! This is a book that everyone needs to read. Well done, Nic! 💓

Finished reading February 6, 2019

When I finished reading Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan, I told everyone who would listen, "I've added this book to my 'Required Reading For All of Humanity List.'" This is a story of a group of high school friends on a mission: "...we want to use our art to disrupt society and push against what's happening in the world." 

Here are just a few of my favorite things: 

1) The challenge from Jasmine's dad-"Get out, go see the places that present poetry, visual art, and theater made by people of color." 

2) All students in this school are required to join a social justice club.💖

3) "The only way to change things is from the inside out."

4) "Don't let idiots change your perception of you."

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Kids for sending me an ARC of this amazing title!

Finished reading February 13, 2019

I have never read a Dan Gemeinhart book that I didn't like. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is a new favorite! Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, live in an old yellow school bus named Yager. They travel wherever they feel led, and when people can use a bit of help, they are invited along...after answering three questions:

1) What is your favorite book?*

2) What is your favorite place on planet Earth?

3) What is your favorite sandwich?

*Coyote believes, "There's nothing like a good book for bringing folks together." (Be still, my book-nerd heart!)

I found room in my heart for all of the characters, and was rooting for each and every one of them. 

I wrote this in my reading journal: "At the end of the day, if you give them half a chance, people want to help other people. Most of 'em, anyway. They do" (308). 

I NEED TO BELIEVE THIS!!!

My takeaway quote: "Always kindness." 

Finished reading March 17, 2019

First line: "I might have to kill somebody tonight." That alone probably makes you want to read On The Come Up by Angie Thomas, am I right? I'm not going to pretend that I know ANYTHING about hip-hop, but I adored this book. Though from the same neighborhood as Starr (The Hate U Give), Bri is a completely different (equally strong) character. This book covers so many different issues...drug addiction, poverty, family, micro-aggressions, and people's perceptions. My personal favorite quotes were Bri's comments on "church people", which I wrote down to read again and again. Angie Thomas develops some rich, amazing characters and I continue to be enthralled by her writing. 

And did y'all see that this one's going to be a movie, too???

Reflections on VSRA19 Part 2

     VSRA allowed me the opportunity to learn from several of my personal mentors: Pernille Ripp, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst, Laura Robb, and Penny Kittle. These amazing educators have each had an impact on my classroom practices. What an honor to talk with them in person (OK, I didn’t actually get to TALK to Kylene and Bob…I just basked in the brilliance during their General Session. But I promise you…one day, my copy of Disrupting Thinking WILL be autographed!).

The overarching theme of the conference is that OUR KIDS NEED TO BE READING. Each session that I attended presupposed that we are giving our students time IN CLASS to read books of their choice. It sounds like such a simple thing, yet it continues to surprise me how rarely choice reading happens during the school day.

Pernille Ripp presented the General Session, “Passionate Readers” and “Now What? Helping Students Become and Remain Passionate Readers”. What drew me to Pernille’s writing, both on social media and on her blog, is that she actually SAYS what I know so many of us are thinking. One of my major takeaways is that 24% of adults reported not reading a book in the past 12 months. “There are 24% of people who can’t wait to never read another book.” Pernille explained, “You know what scares me? Those people are having kids.” And what scares ME the most is that some of those people are educators.

It’s scary how many times I have seen teachers on Twitter make decisions on behalf of their students like “graphic novels are not REAL books.” Or they limit students’ book choices to a certain Lexile band. Or they complain that students are just reading “easy books.” Pernille’s response? “They’re not just reading EASY books; they’re working on finding their love of reading again. And instead of calling them EASY books, how about if we use the word ENTICING?” As someone who has spent the last 14 years with VERY reluctant middle school readers, I can tell you that I celebrate ANY reading that our students do.

Picture books? No problem.

Graphic novels? They’re the majority of my book budget!

Want to reread a book that you’ve already read? Please do.

Want to abandon a book because it’s not a good fit? You have my blessing.

Let’s try really hard not to judge what kids are reading, and celebrate the fact that they ARE reading.

Pernille asked us to consider what we are doing or have already done that may have harmed the LOVE of reading. This was an excellent place to reflect on one of her earlier statements, “If a program we are using effectively harms a child’s love of reading, then we need to question that program, not just the child or the practitioner implementing it.” And my personal favorite, “Teaching with fidelity doesn’t mean fidelity to the program, but to the kid in front of us.” Can I please get an AMEN???

These are the rights that students have as readers in Ms. Ripp’s classroom:

a.    Choose freely

b.    Challenge yourself

c.    Abandon books

d.    Reread books

e.    Discuss your reading

f.     Share your reading

Another question we were asked is, “What does your school value in reading? How do you know?” Please take a moment to reflect.

I am trying DAILY to get my students to believe what Pernille said to us, “Reading should not be something just to get through.” I have spent huge amounts of time reflecting on my students’ reading behavior. When we give them reading passages and multiple choice questions, they know when they get to the last question, they’re done. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But once they finish a book, I want them to start another one. We're never DONE reading. Sadly, not all of my students seem to feel a sense of accomplishment when they add a title to their "Books I've Read" list like they do when they complete an activity or assessment. I'd really like that to change.

In all honesty, I sometimes get very, VERY frustrated in this job. A great deal of my time is spent trying to convince students that they should WANT to read…not just to PASS THE TEST, but for the sheer JOY of reading…to let yourself sink into a book and be transported somewhere else for a little while, to appreciate the language, to feel something, to THINK, and to let the author’s words change you somehow. I believe that a huge part of our problem is how “reading” is presented in school.

Kylene Beers and Bob Probst recommend three critical changes for our classrooms:

1.    Increase VOLUME of reading

2.    Rethink SKILLS taught

3.    Increase accountable student TALK

Here's something to think about. “When we go to a school and there are rich conversations going on in some classes, and in other classes students are sitting on a computer answering questions, there is no equity going on in that school.” They referred to this as “segregation of intellectual rigor”. Think about your school for a minute. Which students are having rich, academic conversations? Which ones are sitting at computers answering questions? Might there be a discussion that needs to happen?

During their session, Ms. Beers and Mr. Probst modeled the Three Big Questions.

1.    What surprised me?

2.    What does the author think I already know?

3.    What changed, challenged, or confirmed my thinking?

When we practiced reading a passage using these questions, we were actually THINKING about what we read rather than just extracting information from the text. At the end of the day, isn’t that what we really want our students to do?

On a personal note, if you have not read their book Disrupting Thinking, I highly recommend it. The BHH (Book, Head, Heart) Framework hangs in our classroom, and it is a quick, easy way to have students connect with a text. I wrote a post about it here: How We Read Matters

At Laura Robb’s session, “Bringing Striving Readers into the Reading Life”, she and a team of 5^th grade teachers explained how they totally rewrote their literacy program using BOOKS (no basal reader of any kind).

1.    Self-selected choice reading book (EVERY DAY at the beginning of class)

2.    Anchor Text (picture books used to teach the mini-lessons for the reading strategies

3.    Independent reading book (at student’s instructional reading level for practicing the strategies in their own texts)

Their “striving readers” have 90 minutes of ELA every day PLUS an additional 73 minutes of intervention. Both teachers and students write in their notebooks daily. Ms. Robb explained, “No computer can do this…you need a SKILLED teacher.”

          In her session, “Book Clubs”, Penny Kittle mentioned, “Freshmen in college have As and Bs on their transcripts, but can’t read and write.” (If this fact doesn’t scare you, WHY NOT???) She said that according to Pedro Noguera, the wrong question to ask is, “What can we do to raise student achievement?” The RIGHT question is, “What can we do to challenge, stimulate, and engage readers?”

Ms. Kittle recommends three steps:

1.    ENGAGE the kids

2.    INCREASE volume

3.    Eventually increase text COMPLEXITY

It is so important to remember that reading VOLUME has to come first. After the students have become more engaged readers, then we can begin to introduce more complex texts.

Some of my favorite quotes from Penny Kittle’s session:

“The best intervention is a good book.”

“If they’re not writing, it’s probably because they’re not reading.”

“READING STRATEGIES ARE USELESS IF YOU’RE NOT DOING ANY READING.”

“In our work as teachers, we are agents of change.”

Reflections from VSRA19 Part 1

I was blessed to be able to attend writing sessions by Pernille Ripp and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Both of these incredible women had similar messages: in order to teach writing, we need to be writers. Now I’ve been saying the same thing about reading for years, but when someone says it to me about writing, I get incredibly nervous. In the interest of full disclosure, when I’m observed on a day that I am teaching a writing skill, I break a sweat. A monster sweat. A “walking out of a hot yoga studio” kind of sweat. Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.

In Pernille Ripp’s Pre-Conference session, “Passionate Writers”, she first asked us, “Who are YOU as a writer?” This is something that she also discusses throughout the year with her students. Here are some things to consider:

a.    When do you write?

b.    Where do you write?

c.    What do you write?

d.    For whom do you write?

e.    With whom do you share?

f.     What is your writing process?

g.    When do you like writing?

She gave us three minutes to reflect on those questions, and actually complimented us on being able to follow through for that long (apparently what normally happens is that after about a minute people start to “get squirmy”). We didn’t do a whole-group share, but I’m guessing that everyone’s answers were different. This got us talking about how we teach “the writing process” to students (spoiler alert: in real life, the writing process doesn’t necessarily happen neatly in this order: prewrite, draft, revise, edit, publish!).

Ms. Ripp listed things we do as teachers that can HARM the love of writing:

a.    Assume there is only one way to do it correctly.

b.    Force all students to use the same process.

In case you were wondering, I was the one in the second row quietly saying, “PREACH!” For years we have been forcing students to fit THEIR writing into OUR TEMPLATES. If adults don’t all approach writing the same way, why do we think our kids will? Laura Robb even said in a later session, “If we give kids a worksheet that organizes their writing for them, they won’t learn how to organize for themselves.”

My favorite thing that Pernille said is that teachers tend to “edit the student right out of the piece.” YES!! In our class, I’ve been working on just getting the students to find the joy in writing. When they write in their journals, my feedback is mainly asking questions to help them elaborate. Pernille explained that if we got a paper back completely marked up with pen (and let’s be honest, the color of the pen makes absolutely NO difference), it would make us not want to write. Our kids are the same. It is very important for the students to feel confident enough to share their ideas with me without worrying that I’m going to rip their writing apart. As Pernille said, “Writing means belonging. In order to belong, we must feel like we matter.”

One of the session participants asked about the use of rubrics. Pernille makes sure that the students know SPECIFICALLY what she is looking for in their writing. Here is a link to her blog post on Single Point Rubrics:

https://pernillesripp.com/2019/02/24/using-the-single-point-rubric-for-better-assessment-conversations/

Something else that I took to heart was this: let’s be careful of saying, “GOOD writers do this…”
and just say WRITERS (because if students aren’t doing those things, they may internalize that they are “BAD” writers)! We also, according to Pernille, need to offer more CHOICE in writing (try to offer at least ONE of these choices EVERY time):

a.    How they write

b.    When they write

c.    What they write

d.    How they share

e.    What is assessed

In our curriculum, students may not always get to choose their final product, but we CAN give them some choice during the writing process!

I also attended Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s session, Keep a Notebook: Romp, Risk, Rehearse. She emphasized that writing has to come from a place that is meaningful to students. “Notebooks”, she explained, “are a safe place to play.” Students need to know that they are not going to face judgment on the things they choose to write about. At the beginning of the year when we start working in our journals, I give the students a mix of prompts and freewrites. Their freewrites are always my favorites! These are a great way to get to know new students, because they share things in their notebooks that they might not be comfortable enough to share aloud.

My favorite quote from this session was, “A notebook is a gift to your future self.” After the first few days of school, we usually use our journals for reading responses…making predictions, practicing strategies, keeping notes about story events, etc. I jot something each day during independent reading time, and encourage our students to do the same. You would not believe how much I love looking back at all of the wonderful books I’ve read, the quotes that I copied and shared, and my impressions about the books. It’s been so helpful for making book recommendations to students, or for pointing out particular craft moves made by authors.

One thing that Ms. Ludwig VanDerwater stressed was the importance of showing students our writing PROCESS. She said when we model our writing for students, it’s not to show off a gorgeous final product, it’s more like, “I wrote this, and I want to show you what I’m TRYING to do here.” This is something that I’ve been trying to work on in our class this year, but I have a long way to go!

So, how do we get students started writing in notebooks? The following suggestions were offered.

a.    Write from a sketch

b.    Write from a read aloud

c.    Write from a quote

d.    Ponder a question

e.    Freewrite

f.     Write from an object (ex. Pick a button out of a bag)

g.    Create lists

1.    Favorite words

2.    Books read

3.    Books TO BE read

4.    Ideas for future projects

5.    Character names

6.    Thoughts

7.    Dreams

One of my book club students is a writer, and we talked about how he didn’t like one of his stories, so he “scrapped the whole thing”. I told him what I had just learned in this session…always hang on to an idea because one day you may decide to come back to it. He told me that he in fact HAD kept a couple of the characters to use in a different story. I believe that Amy Ludwig VanDerwater would have approved!

My takeaway quote: “Reading often begets writing.”