People now feel time accelerating. Lists allow them to feel some sense of accomplishment.
—David Viscott
Top Ten Lists
I love top ten lists, but I’m not a fan of creating them! I feel sad about the things that are left out. Yet, I know we can celebrate the articles that are featured. Here is a list of some of the favorite articles from the past year.
Shine on,
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
Gwen Blumberg joins the Boston Roller Derby for a series of skills classes and immediately makes connections to the way students must feel when learning the complexity of reading. She shares how the importance of learning something new (especially something we aren’t good at) helps us remember the importance of joy to learning.
Becca Burk gives the science behind mistakes and growth, and offers suggestions on ways to use mistakes as a means to help students become critical thinkers and problem solvers.
Julie Cox invites us to take risks in order to encourage students to try new things with their writing and reading. Julie concludes that when teachers are professional risk-takers, we are more available to students, and know how to help them when they fail.
It’s Time to Admire: Sharing the Beauty of Students’ Writing
Heather Fisher shares a process to help teachers learn to admire student writers and find the beauty in their work.
Dana Murphy shares a moment when she realized she needed to educate herself and dismantle some white-centered teaching practices.
Bitsy Parks opens her conferring notebook and shares powerful ways to use conferring notes to differentiate instruction for students in reading and writing.
Three Archetypes as Advocates for Science of Reading
Matt Renwick defines three archetypes of personalities he has observed who have incomplete understandings about the science of reading. Matt offers approaches to each person, and notes that no one person neatly fits into a simple archetype.
Fostering Math Identities with Picture Books
Mandy Robek uses picture books to help her students build their identities as mathematicians. Mandy shares the process and a book list.
Less Is More: Using Novels in Verse in the Classroom
Gretchen Schroeder explains the reason why she believes requiring high school students to read novels in verse during independent reading time is worthwhile for their reading identity and developing more sophisticated understandings of literary analysis.
Holding Space for Counter-Narratives That Honor Communities
Stella Villalba guides us to expand the counter-narrative texts we use in our classrooms. Counter-narrative texts challenge the stereotypes often seen about a group of people, and they celebrate the joy and resilience of a community. Stella provides a list of critical questions that allow us to deeply explore texts, as well as suggestions of books to read.
Quote It:
Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.
—Germany Kent
That’s all for this week!
