Moving On

 Change feels more inevitable than good right now. Learning communities don't last forever. They are static. I know that. I understand that. I accept it. But I don't have to like it. The literacy coaching initiative in our district has officially come to an end. We had a good run. Twelve years. Twelve years of study, discovery, experimenting, documenting success, and collaboration. To my fellow cliff divers, Fran, Laura, Colleen, and Billi, you have changed the course of my life. Words just aren't enough.

Planning for Intervention and Enrichment

I recently had the amazing experience of working with members of my school's SIP team to create some tools to assist classroom teachers to make instructional decisions for students who are struggling as well as students who are excelling beyond developmental or grade level expectations. Collaborating and sharing with professionals so passionate about student achievement was a blast to say the least. We based our work on Richard Allington's Six T's of exemplary teaching and the Optimal Learning Model (Regie Routman's version). Further, we brought with us a belief that all students can achieve at high levels and all learners need instruction that engages higher level thinking. We visualized groups of teachers coming together monthly to examine their classroom formative and summative data, sharing ideas with peers, and walking away with a tier 1/tier 2 plan of action all in one hour. Yes, it may seem lofty, but why not try? And add to that, we wanted teachers and administrators to be able to access these tools with their iPads. Our pie-in-the-sky plan incorporates Google Docs and LiveBinders. The mind map below is an overview of the planning process.

 

Still Feeling Seasick

I finally had my interview last Friday. I interviewed for one of the new coaching positions that was created for the upcoming school year in my district. My previous position as a literacy coach was eliminated. I was very nervous, almost physically ill. Throughout the weekend that followed the interview, I hammered myself about what I should have said as well as all the dorky stuff that came out of my mouth.  I was one of a boat load, thirty-ish I think, of candidates that rotated through three interview stations. We had 15 minutes to impress each group before moving to the next. Even though I knew most of the interviewers, I still felt very exposed and vulnerable and nauseous. I probably won’t know if I got the position for another 2 or 3 weeks. 

It Takes Guts

Tomorrow, all teachers across our district will attend a day long in-service at their own building focusing on school improvement. Planning and preparing for the day started with looking at all kinds of data. A core group of teachers gathered current state assessment data. And in Michigan, our state assessment is given in the fall so we just received recent, if you call October recent, scores to analyze.  Local assessment data was also collected. In addition to numbers, we used what I like to call, our teaching guts. Using our guts was actually quite formative. In my position as a coach, I am a listener, a watcher, but NEVER an evaluator, which is the job of an administrator. Because I am not an evaluator, I was able to watch how students responded to instruction in the classrooms I’m working in. Without judgment, I could attend to teachers as they talked about student progress and what they wondered about. I watched how administrators responded to teacher thinking. Then I rolled all those observations together with all the junk rattling around my brain. The other Title teachers and I were charged with the exciting task of narrowed bits of state data so teachers could quickly see trends and then translate those trends into instructional practice. And somehow make it relevant for teachers of all grade levels and special subject areas. Sounds pretty dull to me. Actually, I’m lying because I love digging into data but I know it is a yawner for lots of teachers. The test results of our student writers will be the focus of what I have to help present. Honestly, our student achievement in writing is nowhere near where it should. And our school is not alone. 

On Demand Writing For Real

On demand writing is very stressful. The other day, another colleague and I were asked to respond to an email from a newspaper reporter about the mobile book libraries that we were organizing to help supplement classroom libraries at our school. We had no space for a book room in our two building campus of 1200 kindergarten through sixth grade students. Our solution was to utilize several carts of books at varying levels that teachers could wheel into their hallway or into their classroom to use for both small group instruction and matching readers with books for independent reading. Needless to say, this was and continues to be a huge and very expensive project. The local newspaper wanted to write a piece about the book carts and had requested a response to several questions by the end of the day. My colleague and I were asked to craft this response to the email at 3:00 pm, thirty minutes before dismissal. We knew our audience was the reporter and readers of the local paper, many of whom might be parents of our students. We surmised our purpose was to give the reporter enough specifics and quotes to add to her piece since she had already talked at length to the principal. We had no idea what the angle of her piece was going to be. We also wanted to promote our school. It was extremely hard, especially given the time limit. I plan to share this real life on-demand writing experience with the third graders I’m working with this year.

Using the Right Web Tool for the Job

Screenshot of my Linoit sticky

I've always been interested in tools. When I was little, my dad had a tool room near the back door by the garage. In fact, every house he ever lived in had a workbench with nails, nuts, washers, and drill bits neatly organized in baby food jars and in little plastic drawers. He had various saws and hammers hanging on the pegboard behind the bench. He was quite handy around the house and could build and fix almost anything. My mom also had a tool room of sorts. After my sisters moved out, she turned a spare bedroom into a sewing room. The closet that used to contain paisley blouses, bell bottoms, and mini-skirts, now housed boxes of buttons, bias tape, and patterns. Every tool had a specific job.

Until about a year ago, I was very intimidated by using technology and also by people who seemed to know a lot about technology. I think part of it was because I didn't really have a clear purpose for learning how to use document cameras, smart boards, or web tools. And there was a whole list of techie vocabulary words that I didn't understand. Then I got tired of feeling like I was in the dark and I just started to experiment. I started by creating a blog. In fact, I had a blog before I was ever on Face Book. Having a blog helped me to see a purpose for wanting to learn techie talk. Whenever I get intimidated by technology, I remember my dad's tool bench or my mom's sewing room. Technology and Apps are just tools, nothing more.

 And for me, I often figure things out by making mistakes. That's what happened to me the other day when I tried to use Wallwisher with  Google Docs. Wallwisher is a wonderful tool but it wasn't the right one for the job. I was trying to use a screwdriver to hammer a nail. Not very effective. Then someone told me about Linoit and I tried it. It seems to serve my purpose, at least for now.

Click on the cork board below and check out my Google Form I'm thinking about using as part of a conferring notebook. Post a sticky on my canvas (fancy name for a board) about your thinking. Additional links to resources for creating a digital conferring notebook are posted on the canvas. Do you have experiences with digital conferring notebooks? Post a link to your blog on my canvas or in a comment below. We'll see if this works. :)

Google Docs & Conferring

One Little Word Wednesday: Thread

Today I meet with the other literacy coaches and consultants from our district. It is a day of study, reflection, and idea sharing. We also eat chocolate and vent. Coaching can be a lonely position and having the opportunity to talk freely with other coaches without fear that what we say to each other will be repeated is critical to our survival both professionally and personally. In the past, the bond that we formed was supported, if not encouraged. This was never a group of people that competed with each other or controlled each other. Our conversations have ranged from big global thinking to sharing little teaching tips. The assumption has been that we all have important pieces to offer, different perspectives. And we question ourselves. We know that we can't ignore evidence and there is always  more to learn. We use what we observe about our district, our schools, our teachers, and our children to guide our study. We discuss state and national literacy trends and the politics that influence how schools are funded. We read. We write. We use our own literacy processing to improve instructional models and create lessons. The threads of our thinking wind and weave. These days of coming together have been a gift. 

An Easy Writing Celebration: Gallery Walk

I can’t stop thinking about Tytiana. Right after Thanksgiving, I started a fresh coaching cycle in a third grade class during their writing workshop. We only had a few weeks until Christmas vacation and I wanted the students to have the opportunity to celebrate their writing before the break. The students, their teacher, and I decided to use their quick writes about “hands” and turn them into finished pieces.  Some kids wrote about their own hands, the hands of a parent or sibling, or Santa’s hands. The format for the celebration was very simple. The kids put their fancied-up “hand” writing in the middle of their cleared off desks then stood quietly nearby. We had invited another class, administrators, secretaries, and some teachers to attend the gallery walk the week before.  As guests arrived, they signed in and browsed the pieces at their leisure. They were free to pick up the writing, read it, and ask the writers questions. After about fifteen minutes or so, the teacher and I asked the attendees, as a group, what stuck with them about the pieces they had read or seen.  The guests noticed that even though everyone had written about hands, all the pieces were different.  Many of the visitors noticed that the writers had used similes. Lots of compliments. Lots of smiles.  Then our visitors were thanked and they departed. Quick and painless. As soon as everyone left, the class, their teacher, and I gathered at the carpet to debrief. The kids were bursting with excitement. One little girl, Tytiana, a decidedly reluctant writer, was smiling so wide I thought her cheeks were going to pop.

“Tytiana, you are smiling so much! Are you happy?”

(enthusiastic head nod)

“Did it feel good to share your writing with Mr. P’s class?”

(another enthusiastic head nod)

“Did you want to tell why it felt so good?”

(animated head nod and a big breath in)

“Wellllllllll, this girl read myyyyyyy writing.”

“So, why was this so wonderful for you, Tytiana?”

(big breath in)

“Welllll, she is in my cheernastics class annnnnnnd, usually  . . . she doesn’t even notice me. Today . . . she did!”

I looked over at Tytiana’s teacher biting my lip and swallowing hard. Tytianna continued.

“She never even talked to me before. (pause) Cuz, IIIIIIIII’m like on the bottommmm of the pyramid, yunno, and she’s on top cuz she’s smaller.”

Tytiana struggles in so many ways. But that day was different. Tytiana wasn’t struggling. She was noticed. She was noticed and smiled at and respected. And by the way, her writing has amazing voice!

Does This Count as a Celebration? Yes!

A few weeks ago, just before Thanksgiving vacation, I finished a coaching cycle in a third grade classroom. Together, the classroom teacher and I worked to help the students increase their stamina and see themselves as writers. One reluctant writer, Brendan, went from putting little on the page to discussing with me that he wanted to become a professional writer. Chris, a struggling writer, started out avoiding writing and ended the trimester taking his books with him on the playground to work on them during recess. Another student, Calla, a self-professed writing hater, ended up creating lengthy stories with characters suffering the trials and tribulations of third grade friendships. A day before the end of the trimester, their teacher read aloud a letter I had written to the class. I wasn’t present for the reading or discussion but the teacher said the children were very thoughtful about who they were becoming as writers.

I’ve decided that the letter and the reflective discussion that followed counted as a very simple writing celebration. It wasn't a celebration of writing but rather a celebration of writers. I didn’t really think about it as a writing celebration at all until I read Ruth’s post about celebrations and the transcript of her interview with Choice Literacy.

On my last day in the class, at the end of writing workshop, the kids were on their way out the door for lunch recess when Logan approached me and said, “I was thinking 'bout writing and I think we are all like airplanes going down the runway cuz we are just takin' off!”

Did you ever notice how brilliant third graders are?

My RtI Cake

It was a stunning fall day in southeast Michigan on Sunday. Crisp air. Brilliant blue sky. Fiery colors. And what was I doing? Making a cake! Not just any cake. A wedding cake. The cake has three layers or tiers. I’m planning on using my wedding cake made from paper mache stacking boxes to explain the concept of RtI at several sessions of our countywide in-service next week. Actually, I am supposed to explain how our school uses Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) and Fountas & Pinnell Phonics Lessons for Tier 2 interventions. I needed to show how the F & P Lessons start in Tier 1 and can also be used as an intervention in both  Tier 1 and Tier 2 . I’m sick of looking at the RtI triangle and I figured, who doesn’t like cake? And I can show how things tend to tip when alignment is out of whack. Not sure if I will have the guts to wear the chef’s hat.

My husband walked in and looked at my project.

 "What the heck are you doing now?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I think it needs some

little flowers or something for color, don't you?"

(Pause. Big sigh. Hand rubbing forehead.)               

"You have receipts for all this stuff, right?

I think I'm going to cut slots in the lids of each
box and as I talk about each card, I can slip it
into the cake tier.

This is one of the handouts I'm planning on
including in a packet for the teachers attending
the sessions.

The Temperature is Starting to Drop

For the last several weeks, my SOL’s have been about literacy coaching. Partly, because I felt I needed to stretch my comfort with informational writing. I figured I should be able to do what I ask kids to do. And I do believe that my thinking about the range of informational writing has broadened. My other purpose for  writing about coaching is to document who I am and what I do as a professional.  As I’ve said before, you can’t be a wimp and be a literacy coach and a particularly brutal winter is being predicted for Michigan this year. New visions of who I should be and how I will spend my time are coming down the road like a snow plow. A path is being cleared. Nothing I can do. I’m not even sure who is really driving the truck. It will be interesting to see if my thinking ends up crushed like an unfortunate mailbox positioned too close to the road. Will my ongoing work or the insight of my fellow cliff divers count for anything? The weatherman is predicting snowflakes as early as the end of the week.

Text for this word cloud came from The Coach and
the Evaluator by Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran,
an article in the October 2011 issue of
 Education Leadership.

Coaching Conversations Don't Always Fit a Protocol

If blogging along with TWT has taught me anything, it is the power of audience, no matter how small, to motivate and give purpose to writing. During a recent discussion with a teacher I am working with, she mentioned wanting help with publishing with her students. At the beginning of the school year, when I met with this teacher to plan for the trimester, it was sort of a flop. I had to let go of my protocol and honor her current practice. This was one of those unplanned conversations. As a coach who is more comfortable with nudging than pushing, I knew this was an opportunity that had to be seized. She was ready and open. Here is an edited summary of the exchange that took place:

Teacher	Coach
I need your help with publishing.	How many times would you like them to publish by the end of the month?
At least once.	Do you want the piece to be something of their choice or an assigned piece?
Choice.	If you want to be able to attach some kind of grade to the piece, you’ll need an instructional rubric so the kids know the expectations.
Yes, I want to grade it. I need to be able to show parents and include the points in their report card.	Planning a celebration now will give your kids purpose and an audience for their writing. It could be very simple. Nothing fancy. Maybe set something up before parent-teacher conferences.
Good, because I don’t really have time for a big party or anything like that.	You could have the kids put their pieces on their desks along with a sticky note. You could invite another class to come in, walk around, read their work, and write a comment on a sticky. After that, the kids could share their comments. You could even have the parents write comments on a sticky note too.
I could ask one of the other 3rd grade classes in the hallway.	Let the other teacher know what you would like her class to notice about your kids’ writing. How could we make sure every kid gets a comment?
Maybe have them write one comment per sticky note or partner them with the writer they will comment on prior to the walk through.	That might speed up the process and help the commenters be more specific.

The conversation I summarized above would never have happened if I would have put filling out questions on a coaching protocol before the need to establish trust with this teacher. Before the end of the trimester, I will attempt to re-visit the coaching protocol but then again maybe I won’t. Sometimes using a coaching protocol feels a bit like forcing a writer to use a graphic organizer to write. Sometimes it makes sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. Protocols are tools, nothing more.

This is a writing folder from one of the teacher's students. One pocket is
labeled still working on and the other is labeled finished. The teacher is
just beginning to play with the idea of writer's notebooks.

Facilitating a PLC is Different than Giving a Presentation

         I don’t know why I still get so nervous about these things. I’ve been facilitating study groups and giving presentations for over a decade. What worries me the most is I don't want teachers to feel like their time spent in the PLC is a waste. I am very sensitive to the fact that these teachers have to write sub plans and will probably have to mop up a mess or two after having been out of their classroom.  I need to calm down and trust the process. This year I’m participating in a professional learning community with a focus on supporting young writers. The first meeting went well and our second meeting is tomorrow afternoon. I’ve read and reread the agenda, replaying possible scenarios in my mind. Mostly, I want to ask the right questions, at the right time, in just the right way. I need to assist teachers to consider links between what we learn and think about in our PLC to classrooms and students. At the same time, I need to stay out of their way. I’m hoping that one teacher from the group might be willing to let the rest of us visit her classroom to learn how she uses her smart board for interactive writing. It all depends on how safe everyone feels with each other. That reminds me. I need to bring snacks.

Our PLC is pulling together a collection of lessons that
will hopefully function as a resource for teachers new to
writer's workshop in kindergarten and first grade. In our
district, due to building closures and budget cuts, many
 teachers have changed buildings and grade levels.

My Dream School

         I dream of working in a school that drips with collaboration and trust among teachers. A few weeks ago I wrote about our school’s ambitious plan for PLC’s. The plan was a collaborative effort based on the idea that professional learning communities and a school’s culture go hand-in-hand.  I still believe that one person, one teacher, can make a difference not only to children but to a school and a district. As I read Stacey's post about Peter Johnston’s book, Choice Words, I thought not only about the language I use with children, but the language I use with my co-professionals and the language administrators use with teachers. The words we say and how we say them matter. Classroom teachers need to be empowered to lead the way. In my view, the best literacy coach is always trying to work his or her way out of the job; building agency, not creating dependency. This is scary for me to say because I love my job. But it isn’t about me. It is about kids and the teachers who teach them every day. In a school that drips with collaboration and trust, you don’t need a coach at all.

These are some of the professional resources
we will be using as part of a PLC with a focus
on supporting and teaching our youngest writers.
And by the way, our first meeting ROCKED!

Informational Writing: My Messy Process

Since attending a summer writing workshop, I’ve been trying to write more informational pieces. I discovered that my process for writing expository text was all over the place. For me, it was very different from writing a narrative, or a vignette, or a poem. Writing about a memory or a moment in time seemed easier. My thought was if I kept writing informational pieces, eventually it wouldn’t feel so hard. I wanted to write an informational piece for this week’s slice but I couldn’t seem to zero in on a topic.  For example, this slice started out seven different ways. It started as a piece about collaboration, then coaching, then my upcoming PLC, then back to coaching, then literacy celebrations, then writer’s notebooks, and then back to coaching again. Purpose and audience were screaming at me, distracting me. For Pete’s sake! Focus, for crying out loud! Some of my topics were geared more to a particular audience. Audience influenced what I wanted to write about. So was I trying to choose a topic or an audience? And in choosing an audience, how would I write about my topic? I needed to determine the purpose for what I wanted to write.

In an effort to organize my jumbled thinking, I made a map of my ideas on my dining room floor. My big ideas were audiences, purposes, and topics. Under Audiences, I listed who I wrote for, other than myself, and where my writing would be published. Under Purposes I listed all the reasons I liked to write. I didn’t have anything under topic yet. With the Tuesday SOL deadline looming, I picked cards from my audience and purpose categories which finally helped me to choose my topic. There . . . now wasn’t that easy! Uhhmm, no. At least audience and purpose stopped screaming at me.

Fred decided to help me out.

Roxy joined in the effort to help me
figure out my topic.

Starting with audience and purpose helped
me narrow my topic.

My husband looked at me and said, "You're not
gonna leave that all over the floor are you?"

Supporting Literacy Coaches

A couple weeks before school started, I wrote a post about the latest version of my conferring notebook. I received an encouraging comment from a first year literacy coach named Beth. Her comment reminded me of how challenging my first few years were as a literacy coach. Let’s just say, I remember crying a lot and wondering why I thought I could do this insane job. I learned quickly that coaches often lived under a microscope. Teachers watched what I did and didn’t do both in and out of the classroom. Teachers watched if I showed up for bus duty on time. Teachers wondered if I had more planning time than they did. They noticed if I arrived for appointments on time and how well prepared I was. And teachers talked about their noticings with one another. That’s the way it was and that’s the way it still is. You cannot be a wimp and be a literacy coach.

Literacy coaching is kind of a strange job. And effective coaches need a lot of support. I’m not sure I’ve ever talked to another coach outside of my own district that had job duties identical to mine. Even among coaches in my own district, there is variation based on the needs of the students and teachers of the school we may be working in. But after eleven years of working with adult learners, the two things I know for sure is that coaching is about building relationships and coaches should never be evaluators. Coaches cannot build relationships with co-professionals if they are viewed as evaluators. I try to focus my conversations with teachers, at least initially, on their students. And it makes sense. The concept of coaching came from the idea that teachers and classroom practice have a significant impact on student achievement. If I can assist a teacher to find joy and success in their teaching, children benefit. 

A sampling of stuff currently
piled on my desk at home.

But if coaches are there to support teachers and kids, who props up the coach? Professional development and collaboration with other literacy coaches helps. But sometimes you just need someone to talk to, have coffee with, or cry with.  So, to Beth and any other first year literacy coaches out there, since I can't meet you at Starbucks or Panera and talk, here is my short list of things for you to think about as you dive over the cliff into coaching  :

·        Follow through and show up on time.

·        It is more important to present yourself as a learner than trying to act like the “expert.”

·        Spend as much time as possible living in classrooms and working with kids rather than sitting at your computer.

·        When you feel discouraged or beaten down, focus on helping children know how brilliant they are. Kids are the best medicine for an ailing literacy coach.

·        Teachers have reasons for EVERYTHING they do. Don’t make assumptions and don’t pass judgment.

·        Keep growing your own knowledge. There is ALWAYS more to learn!

Working on PLC's

Last week I wrote a post about what our school was doing for PLC’s this year. Our large 2-building elementary campus has 1200 students from grades prek-6, and over 50 teachers. Honestly, I was worried how the new PLC model would be received. Given previous feedback, we felt it was critical to foster PD that was more teacher driven yet addressed the needs of our students. As our principal addressed the staff at one of our opening in-service days, she briefly introduced the menu of choices for the PLC’s and asked teachers to fill out the sign-up form. I heard some muffled claps behind me when she said that everyone would be able to earn CEU’s. I didn’t hear any whispers of complaint. These were both good signs. All of the sign-up sheets were turned in before the end of the day. Another good sign.

            Now the big job would be to organize the sign-up forms. This needed to be done quickly so that teachers could add the dates to their calendars. I started trying to put individuals together by first and second choice the other day but there where many factors to contemplate. We had several lunch hours and the PLC sessions were half-day. Coordination of substitute teachers would be an important consideration. Forming the PLC’s would require input from our math coach, Jill, district literacy consultant, Colleen, and our principals. Right now, my hope is that we are able to form the groups and get the meeting dates to the teachers by the end of the first day of school.

What We're Doing With Our Professional Learning Communities

       At the end of the year last year, our school’s professional development had to be planned for the following year. Books had to be ordered while pockets of money were available. Dates for PLC’s had to be booked so that subs could be scheduled. Program descriptions and agendas had to be written and submitted so that teachers could earn CEU’s. But in order to do all of this, data had to be examined and synthesized. Lots of data. There were piles of student achievement data and assessment data. Many staff members were involved in examining these numbers and searching for trends, successes, and concerns. I didn’t hate this process. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed the hunt for tendencies and leanings that might translate into instructional ideas.

       Because I believed that instructional practices directly impacted student achievement, I also sought the answers to several of my own questions. How did teachers interact with each other and with their principal? Did teachers find the current professional development opportunities useful? What were the priorities of administrators and parents? What instructional practices were teachers using? Listening and watching throughout the school year provided the answers to most of my questions. So now, we are starting a new year and our school is about to launch a menu of professional development sessions based on student data, the school improvement plan, and teacher feedback. Next week, I will post about the details of this collaborative endeavor and how our staff responded.

What is happening with PLC's at your school this year?

Drafts of math and literacy session descriptions and a registration
form for our teachers to fill out and turn in. Geez, I hope this
goes over well!

Coaching Notebook: My Latest Version

Ever since I read The Café and The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (the sisters) with my colleagues a year or so ago, I’ve had fun creating my own conferring notebook. As a literacy coach, the components of my notebook or pensieve are somewhat different than the components of a conferring notebook designed by a classroom teacher. Although my coaching pensieve is modeled after Gail’s notebook, I’ve tweaked it to reflect my own needs. Here is a tour of my latest version:

This year, I've decided to go "small". My
2011-12 coaching pensieve is a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2
mini-binder.

When I open the notebook, I have a chart to track
my teacher conferences and a calendar to make
appointments. The section following the calendar
is a resource section. I keep leveling charts, a PLC
schedule, a district calendar, district curriculum
calendars and anything else I might need at my
fingertips when planning with teachers.

This is a smaller version of my appointment
calendar that I can use to assist the teacher
to backward plan the month or trimester depending
on the length of the coaching cycle.

During a coaching cycle, teachers can identify specific
areas of literacy instruction that they are interested in.
Our district literacy consultants and coaches developed the
"REFLECT" menu to help narrow the focus for a coaching
cycle.

I use this simple form to plan lessons and
remember who will lead the lesson.

 How are you keeping track of conferences this year?

Three Hundred and Forty Three Teachers

On Tuesday night, our school board voted to pink slip 343 teachers and 21 administrators. They had no choice. They had to notify teachers 60 days before the end of the school year if there was a possibility that they might be laid off. Our state is facing a possible 4% reduction in K-12 public education spending. That amounts to an approximate $470.00 reduction per student. Right now, it is unknown what educational programs or teachers will need to be cut. It is also possible that the proposed 4% in cuts will be decreased. The teachers at the board meeting were not protesting the pink slips. They came together with the board and administrators to denounce the spending cuts proposed by the state.