Saturday Sayings: Hope Doesn't Cut It

I double dog dare you to try this.  It's a humbling but helpful experience.  After looking at my lesson plans, I believe a pattern emerged.  The things my students did that actually helped them become better readers and writers were the experiences where they were authentically engrossed in real reading and real writing.  The things that did not get a star were the few activities that were about literacy.  Regie Routman calls this "stuff."  Activities about literacy aren't necessarily evil, but I can't say for sure they moved my students on the literacy continuum.  I simply hope they did.  My goal is to increasingly do less of what I hope makes them better readers and writers and more of what I know will guarantee their growth as members of the literacy club.  Hope just doesn't cut it.  

Now it's your turn to get out the lesson plans.  Be brave!  I promise it won't hurt...too much.

I consider myself blessed today to share this Saturday Sayings post with a few other wonderful teachers.  I know Kimberley and Crystal will have some inspiring words to share with us all.  I'm off to be inspired!

Kimberley

Crystal

Saturday Sayings: Lessons Gone Bad (Plus Guests)

How many times have I finished a lesson and said to myself, "Well, that didn't go so well."  It happens to the best of us, whether we've been teaching for 19 years or 1.  In my opinion, numerous variables can play a part in the demise of a lesson, but I believe Debbie Diller makes a good point here.  If I spend my time during a lesson fighting off-task behavior and dealing with several interruptions, I have a responsibility to reflectively ask myself these three questions:

• Was the task too hard?
• Did I explain and model the task well enough so that the students understood what to do?
• Did I make the purpose of the task clear?

I can witness to the fact that typically my least effective and most frustrating lessons are not the children's fault.  Their behavior was a direct link to my teaching.  Maybe the task was too hard.  That problem can lead to all kinds of behavior issues.  Maybe, and I think this is very common, they simply didn't know how to do what I wanted them to do.  (Regie Routman says, "I do it.  We do it.  We do it.  We do it.  You do it.")  Sometimes we send them off without enough practice to handle the task independently, and thus they don't handle it well at all.  Maybe they didn't even know why they were doing what I asked of them.  If there's no real-life meaning to it and I haven't made it clear, it's much easier to be off-task.  Granted, there are moments when I feel like I do everything right and don't see the results I want, but most of the time, Debbie Diller is right about this.  Without beating myself up, I need to be reflective and recognize the part I play in those lessons that don't turn out like I had hoped.  Selah.  

I've got a pair of lovely guests today.  Sara and Christy would love for you to pay them a visit this morning.  I'll be on my way soon, because I know what they have prepared for us is definitely worth reading.  I'm thoroughly looking forward to their Saturday Sayings.  How about you?

Sara

Christy

Saturday Sayings: We're a Busy Lot

(Clicking on the graphic will take you to previous Saturday Sayings.)

With summer vacation right around the corner (not that it's on my mind at all) some person, not mean-spirited but just ignorant, will most likely complain about those teachers who get three months off.  Granted, it's a sweet perk, but we all know that if you watch what the average teacher lugs out to the car on a nightly basis, it doesn't take long to figure out that our work day follows us home most nights and weekends.  We're a busy lot.  

Just like my pedagogy has changed over the past 18 years, the things that keep me busy have changed as well.  I used to do a whole lot more coloring, cutting, glueing, laminating, etc. than I do now.  Considering my anal ways, I spent a lot of time making things look just right.  The problem was the kids didn't necessarily care, and the time it took them to use whatever I was laboring over was hardly worth it.  The things I was creating spent more time taking up space on a shelf than they did in the hands of the students.  When I first read this quote from Debbie Diller, I'm pretty sure I let out a sigh of relief.

Like Debbie, I've made this rule mine as well.  If it's going to take the kids five minutes to use something that would take me sixty to make, I'm going to reconsider my options.  Like I said, we're a busy lot.  If you need a new rule in your life, this one might be a good one to adopt.