Literacy's Democratic Roots by Thomas Newkirk - drawing heavily from this because teaching is an act of patriotism. Fighting against ignorance to prepare a population that votes and perpetuates the experiment of democracy.
Envelopes-
tinyurl.com/BeachBernabei2023
Opening thought: from his first page, xiii: "If you enter...Cherish, hold dear."
Think about what's important...Let's explore out own thoughts. What do we think is important in our classrooms? (Besides the humans.)
Envelope: Two columns: Quicklist of important things:
Life lessons you want to convey: (my thoughts)
1. Grace and acceptance
2. Doing your best is most important
3. Everything we do is preparation to do the next thing (my thoughts)
Life skills you want them to walk away with
4. How to think and reason
5. How to consume and critique a text
6. How to write and create
Three practices you want them to learn (my thoughts)
7. How to listen and respond
8. How to notice when something is wrong
9. How to find solutions when things aren't right
Add one more thing that's not already on the list (my thoughts)
10. How to make friends and support others
Other Side: Not important
Things you did as a student that aren't important now (my thoughts)
1. Diagramming sentences; outlining a chapter
2. balancing chemical equasions (can't spell math)
3. write something and then type it
Things that you are required to do in classroom that are required by others (my thoughts)
4. write the objective on the board
5. read from a script
6. take attendance on time
Add to the list to outdated things that you have to do (my thoughts)
7. grading
8. CBA's
9. meetings
One more thing:
10. Follow rules from assessment regime
Put lists to the side. Asked volunteers to come to the front. This is how she teaches kids to answer questions fully. (She goes through the process she explains in QA12345: Through dialogue.)
Question; Answer; How do you know? Huh? What does that mean? How else do you know? Huh? What does that mean? So...your answer is...what? If we put the questions on mute, you would have heard a complete response.
First person: What's your name?
Second person: What town are we in right now?
Third person: Is it hot outside today?
She knows that when a student wants to do her role, that they are on the way to success. She uses a lot of visual texts to begin the work. Told story of how her students used the structure with The Wizzard of Oz. Used sentence stems from the website to ask the questions. These structures become internal and automatic.
Return to your list. Choose three. (She shared the ideas she added to her envelope.) Circle three of them. Or four. :) Pick one that you wouldn't mind talking about with folks in this room.
Open the envelope to write on the flap side.
Kernel Essay: Topic at the top. The other kernels will go under the flap. What you write will go on the envelope outside.
Answer/Claim/Opinion; One way I know; This means; Another way I know; This means/shows; And so, answer repeated.
CBA's should be outdated and abandoned. I know this because everyone is required to do them, but nothing much changes in learning and teaching. Why would we waste time doing something that makes no difference. Another way I know is that the scores on CBA's don't match the results we end up getting on STAAR. Kids who pass a CBA don't necessarily pass the STAAR or get those kinds of questions right on the final exam. Kids who fail a CBA don't necessarily fail the STAAR or get those kinds of questions wrong. So, CBA's should be outdated practices and abandoned as ineffective pedagogical practices.
Shared out our work. Rhetorical triangle - someone writes something for somewhere for someone else to hear. It's not real communication until it's shared. Its an exercise for a school laboratory if only the teacher reads.
Don't do it this way: This isn't very good. It's just toff the top of my head. I didn't have time to revise.
Don't do it this way: Read from it and then ad lib to add. Just read it the way it is.
Hear three people.
Heard some from the crowd.
Everything that has been written or read, has structure. There are hundreds that you can use once you learn the concept. Pick what you want to use empowers students to explain what they mean.
Other thoughts from Thomas Newkirk
See tinyurl for thoughts and resources.
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