Unusual friendships can be the most powerful of all.
—Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl and Patricia Metola
The Power of Discussion
In April, the Choice Literacy Book Club read Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl and Patricia Metola. We met via Zoom to discuss the book. You can listen to the conversation on the podcast this week. Something happened to me because of that conversation.
I was revived.
Stephanie Affinito selected Apple and Magnolia because of the hope it offers as we stumble to find our footing in establishing (or reestablishing) connections that were halted because of COVID. In the book, Nana offers wise advice to the young protagonist, Britta: Unusual friendships can be the most powerful of all.
Three months ago life threw me a curve ball. Not only did I break my ankle on an icy winter day, but it was severely damaged, grounding me to elevate and ice it through spring. My summer dream is that by July I can begin running and hiking again. In the fall I will have another surgery.
As much as I intended to embrace the healing process with grace and strengthen the fibers of gratitude in my life, it has been a difficult season of immobility and recovery.
Who knew a book about trees and friendship could ease the discomfort?
It wasn’t just the book, though. It was the conversation. When we take the time for discussion, understandings about text are deepened, but so are understandings about the world and ourselves.
It is easy to believe we don’t have time for discussions about books (or other things). It is easy to believe we don’t have time in our professional lives or our personal lives. Perhaps this is the greatest lie of the times: the lie of not enough time.
In the book, things became dark for Magnolia as her leaves turned yellow and didn’t return at the expected time in the spring. Britta decided to nourish the connection between Apple and Magnolia, looking an old-fashioned, homemade telephone of two cans connected by a string around their branches. She made a scarf that connected their trunks. She strung lights through the treetops.
And she waited.
In Atlas of the Heart, Brene Brown asserts that hope is a result of adversity. Without discomfort, we would not have hope. Recent statistics reveal that more than any other time in history, humans are feeling anxious and lonely. We feel disconnected. We can also feel hope.
It is time to reach out and establish a connection. Even a wisp of a thread is enough. If you need more encouragement, I suggest reading Apple and Magnolia, and then having a conversation about the way unusual friendships can be the most powerful of all.
This week we offer the first of two installments about ways to deepen discussions in our classrooms—plus more, as always. Let’s believe that there is timed to do this work.
Shine on!
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
Stephanie Affinito, a former classroom teacher and literacy specialist, is a literacy teacher educator at the University at Albany. She has a deep love for literacy coaching and supporting teachers’ learning through technology, and she presents nationally on this topic. You can find her online at stephanieaffinito.com and on Twitter. Her book, Literacy Coaching, is available from Heinemann.
The Choice Literacy Book Club discusses Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl and Patricia Metola on the podcast.
Don’t miss the publisher’s guide to Apple and Magnolia. It is a treasure of nonfiction articles about trees as well as discussion questions to deepen conversations.
Stephanie Affinito wrote a book review about Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl and Patricia Metola on Teachers|Books|Readers.
Gretchen Schroeder shares some conversation fixes for when talk goes awry in her high school classroom. This article was first published in 2017.
Jump in the Pool: Playing Around with Readers’ Notebooks with Christy Rush-Levine is a new Process Play course that guides us to teach students how to create thoughtful and meaningful responses to text. This course is included with the Literacy Leadership and Literacy Team memberships and available to purchase for others.
It isn’t a secret that writing meaningful responses to text is important. The question is how to empower students to engage in creating substantive responses and deep analysis of text. Christy Rush-Levine cracks open her own notebook to guide us in creating thoughtful responses to text. By sharing over 20 of her own mentor entries, as well as inspiring texts, Christy adds a splash to reading response that no one can resist.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Dana Murphy guides us in listening and responding to students during strategy-building lessons to grow readers. In this article, Dana shows the complexity and nuances of direct instruction to build comprehension strategies.
Tammy Mulligan shares ways she is pushing the envelope in offering students choice in interactive read aloud in this video from Empowering Choice 2021 Elementary Contributor Course.
In this encore video, Aimee Buckner teaches her fourth graders the power of rereading using the mentor text Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville.
Check out this new Field Experience course: Writing Poetry with Elementary Writers. Help elementary writers develop the mindset and tools to dip into poetry in their notebooks. (This course is free to members.)
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
In this second installment of a three-part series, Gigi McAllister explores ways morning rounds will help instructional coaches stay accessible and connected to teachers.
New PD2Go: How do you help students think more deeply about character traits? This session pairs a conference led by Clare Landrigan and an article by Gigi McAllister to enhance instruction about character traits.
Have you accessed our PD2Go resources? If you plan professional learning, then PD2Go is just the jump start you need to make planning for a session a breeze. We do the legwork of connecting timely content and organizing the agenda for you to quickly pull together everything you need to lead a professional learning session.
In this encore video, literacy coach Kathy Provost leads a team of third-grade teachers as they discuss using a “Rate Your Post-It” visual tool in their classrooms.
Quote It:
Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and, most importantly, a way of communicating.
—Simon Sinek
That’s all for this week!
