As the spring and summer months draw near, we are busy preparing for the July and August Institutes on the Teaching of Reading and Writing. Participants hailing from over 40 countries will line the corridors of Teachers College, attending workshops and keynotes speeches on the teaching of literacy. Our applications went live on February 13th and we received an astounding 500 registrations—per institute—that day alone! If you are interested in joining us this summer, applications are available here: Summer Institutes

Meanwhile, Teachers College is bustling with participants from around the country, here for the February Mini-Institute on Content Area Literacy and the Common Core Standards. Educators at all levels are learning to develop the curriculum and methods necessary to ensure that students reach the rigorous new standards for content area literacy embedded in the Common Core. Across the week, participants will hear about a repertoire of skills for teaching readers to think and read analytically about nonfiction texts. They’ll also learn to develop and use performance assessments to track students’ progress in some of the higher-level comprehension skills inherent in the CCSS. The institute also focuses on nonfiction writing, with an emphasis on writing quick content area essays. Participants learn ways to help students write fluently across the curriculum, using writing as a tool for analytical thinking.

The week has been marked by tremendous speakers, as well. Dr. Douglas Reeves, a leader in the field of education and founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, gave a keynote address on the leadership implications for the Common Core State Standards. He encouraged participants to embrace the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by the Common Core, reminding us of the importance of “doing the right thing, for the right reasons.” As we grapple to understand and implement the standards, Reeves explained, the most important thing we can do is to keep in mind what really matters—children. Literacy is, he said, a true “health and safety issue.”

Matt de la Pena opened the week with a call to action in his keynote, “Working Class Writer.” De la Pena began with the gripping story of his own childhood, growing up on the border between California and Mexico, the child of a Mexican father and a Caucasian mother. He talked about the relationship between reading and identity and reminded us that “sometimes when you hand a kid a book, you hand him his life.” He emphasized the importance of finding kids’ heartbeats, of discovering the places where they “feel like they’re somebody,” and of finding the “grace and dignity” in each student.

A new year is here and there is much new to report at the TCRWP! There has been lots of enthusiasm and momentum created by our "all hands on deck" call for historical fiction and nonfiction texts. Suggestions for texts have poured in from all directions! We've taken your recommended titles and created text sets around particular time periods. These text sets are now available to the general public for a limited time. In a short while, they'll be made available only to the schools with whom we work and staff develop. Make sure that you download and browse the lists now while they are open to all. You can find them on our website under Resources.

The TCRWP has also been continuing to do curriculum mapping for all units of study. Our maps provide a birds eye view of each unit, offering a sense of the larger purposes as well as the trajectory of work involved in helping students reach the goals of the unit. These maps have been shared with the schools for whom we are doing staff development. Be sure to check Atlas Rubicon for the latest maps for current units. If you don't currently work with us and have never seen a curriculum map,click here to see an example.

One of the TCRWP's next projects will be to create Science Performance Assessments. The Common-Core-Aligned performance assessments we have created for the city on nonfiction reading and information/argument writing have been making student understanding visible to teachers and helping teachers to align their instruction to the specific needs of students. We are now working to create rigorous assessments in Science that will help assess scientific literacy and provide information to teachers to enable them to revise and further develop instruction in this area. Stay tuned for these! They'll be coming soon!

In other news, we are hearing many responses back from our October Coaching Institute and we are looking forward to our January Coaching institute on Whole School Reading Reform (taking place from January 22nd-26th). This application for this Institute has long since been closed.

There is still room to attend our February Mini-Institute-- "Content Area Literacy and the Common Core Standards: Using Performance Assessments and Studies of Student Work to Reach Ambitious New Standards"-- but space is filling up fast so register soon! This mini-institute will take place from February 20th-23th. Those who join us will get the opportunity to learn methods and strategies to teach higher level comprehension skills as well as argument writing and information writing across the content areas. You will get to work with our newest tools for assessment, revise curriculum and hear all of the latest thinking on content literacy. Click here for more information.

Lastly, we are thrilled to announce our 82nd Saturday Reunion! Our Spring Saturday Reunion will be Saturday, March 24th. Our keynote speaker will be Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising, among so many other beloved titles. Sarah Weeks, author of more than fifty picture books and novels, including the best selling So B. It will be our closing speaker. Come one and all to a day that includes over 140 free workshops on powerful state-of-the-art ideas and methods for ratcheting up the level of literacy instruction and the work of our students! Our entire community will be ready to welcome you!

Spotlight will now include a new feature--recurring blog entries about using technology in the classroom. See below for the first entry and digitize your best practices!

Apple iPad 2

The inquisitive part of me loves finding a good gadget and putting it to use. I see every tool as an opportunity to augment my practice. My past is littered with devices -- overhead projectors, Palm Pilots, three-pound tablets PCs... At one point, all of them were heralded as game-changing technology. I think it's safe to say that each new innovation changed the game accordingly. As it is with teaching though, the game didn't wait. It kept changing. New devices emerged. The old ones now live in the bottom of my junk drawer.

Part of being a 21st century educator means recognizing that the tools change. Often. But though the tools change, our mission has remained the same -- we see children and we forge the future.

As the tools that rest beside that forge get more and more complex, consider this blog to be a guide to what works -- at least for right now.

[Entry I]

"Until lions have historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." -African Proverb

For the last two years I've been in love with my iPad. This device's introduction and meteoric rise has paralleled another dramatic shift in education. The discourse around teaching and teachers has taken a turn toward the negative. As we consider education, the conversation has shifted from what’s best for kids to what’s wrong with teachers. In this debate, teachers are alarmingly underrepresented.

The iPad is an incredible tool for promoting student learning, but it can also be used to promote the profession and the diversely brilliant people who personify it. The following is a short beginner’s list of content creation and social media apps that can not only give you access to the world beyond your classroom, but the power to shape it. You’ll be impressed at how by just investing 15 minutes a day in your own professional writing and publishing online, you can have a voice in the world, and in this political jungle, we need as many historians as we can get.

Twitter

Twitter has been around so long that it’s almost considered “old school.” The microblogging site and app allows you to follow people’s thoughts, comments, favorite links and media. Why is this important for teachers? Because everyone has twitter now. Your city council people have it. Your local parks and rec has it. Leaders in the field, consultants, school districts, unions, and advocacy groups all use it to communicate quickly, and the best part is, you can communicate back. Immediately. Busy people (Who among us is not?) are more apt to answer a tweet in 140 characters than they are to answer an email. A quick search on twitter of your favorite educational terms can yield amazing results. Go to Twitter and get started!

Flipboard or Pulse

These are two of the most popular “readers” out on iPad now. Both of these apps set up channels on your iPad where content that you specify is delivered all to one place. Why is this important for teachers? Because you need to stay informed, and you can use these applications to “subscribe” to content from leading educational blogs and publications, and you don’t have to worry about scrambling all over the web to find it. It’s all delivered right there to you. You’ll never be the only person in the room who has not read the latest New York Times education piece again. You can get the latest on professional organizations, opportunities to publish or collaborate, and you can often post comments or reactions or even repost links to your own blog or twitter.

Wordpress

A lot of educators resisted the blog movement early on, because to many, blogging meant that you had to sit attached to your computer at your desk. With the advent of mobile tools like the iPad, your blog can move as quickly as you do. Wordpress is the easiest to use on the iPad, but the device’s built-in safari browser can give you quick access to any blog site that you use – even the class blogs that your school or district may have set up through any number of providers. I’ve found that parents are the most active users of many of the blogs that I’ve kept. I use every opportunity to encourage them to visit by posting pictures video, artwork, and student writing. (Make sure you get digital permissions first.) Community members comment back to you, and as an educator, that feedback is monumentally important.

The best technology that any teacher can use is one that gives authentic voice to the revolutionary work that we do each day.

We are looking forward to greeting all of you on Saturday, October 22nd for our 81st Saturday reunion! Our keynote speaker will be Naomi Shihab Nye, beloved poet and author who has written books of poetry for adults and young readers, picture books, essays, short stories, and YA fiction. Her numerous books of poetry include: You and Yours, 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, Fuel, This Same Sky, Red Suitcase, Hugging the Jukebox, and Honeybee. In 2010 she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Our closing speaker will be the well-knownMo Willems, the much-loved award-winning author and illustrator of a score of books including Knuffle Bunny, the Elephant and Piggie series, the Cat the Cat series, and the Pigeon series. Before turning to write children’s books, he was a writer and animator for Sesame Street where his work won six Emmy Awards.

Come and hear all about the latest thinking in literacy and get ideas for how to ramp up the level of your reading and writing instruction! You can hear about aligning units to the Common Core State Standards, using learning continuum and curriculum maps to guide instruction, ways to teach Information and Argument Writing, how to raise the level of students’ talk, as well as scores of other practical, inspiring topics.

Our entire community will be here to welcome you and share our latest thinking and work!

We are always on the lookout for wonderful read alouds and we just HAD to share this list with you. Here are a few titles to start the year with energy and pleasure! Gather your kids on the rug and enjoy these together!

And as always, if you have any great read alouds to share with us, please let us know! You can email us at contact@readingandwritingproject.com

Some Funny and Feel-Good Books To Help Build Community

Zero

Zero by Kathryn Otoshi

Both primary and upper grades will have conversations around this book about the importance of staying true to yourself and what having value truly means. Don't forget to look for Otoshi's earlier title--One! Both are reads your class can't miss!

Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party

Scaredy Squirrel series by Melanie Watt

Scaredy Squirrel is scared of pretty much everything! He fears germs, killer bees, bad dreams, seagulls--you name it-- he's afraid of it. Scaredy is always prepared for the worst and he always has an emergency kit and back-up plans ready for any situation. In each of these hysterical stories, he is forced to confront his fears and realize things aren't always as bad as he thought. Your children will realize we all have fears and we can support each other to deal with them. The illustrations, also by Watt, are done in great detail and the inclusion of diagrams, lists, schedules, maps, etc. also make these books great mentor texts for a variety of genres!

How to Heal a Broken Wing

How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham

In a busy, crowded city, no one sees a hurt bird laying on the ground except for one small boy. With the help of his mother, the boy nurses the bird until he can see it soar free once more. The illustrations show the careful tending of the bird by the boy in heartrending detail.

The story will raise questions about one person's ability to make a difference and keeping our eyes open to seeing more than just our own needs. "What kind of person is Will," we might say, asking children to interpret the character of the boy. And then, "What would you have done if you had seen the bird? And what kind of person does that make you?" Upper grades can easily move from discussing the bird to the larger metaphor of social responsibility and just what the bird represents.

Disappearing Desmond

Disappearing Desmond by Anna Alter

Desmond is so shy, he likes to blend into the background and disappear. But when Gloria comes to school, she is determined to help him find his way into the spotlight. Can Desmond find the courage to become visible?

Here is a tale many students will relate to and the class can have conversations about how each of them can be more like a Gloria in the lives of others. How can they help to bring out the potential of others? And, once your students notice that there are others in the story who are disappearing even once Desmond himself is visible, the conversation can move to discussing and setting community goals.

Let's Hear it for Nonfiction!

Nonfiction is not just for one unit--weaving nonfiction read alouds into your whole year is a great way to show the value of nonfiction--and help students raise their nonfiction reading skills! Try some of these to build community and a love of nonfiction in your classroom!

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop

This one has been on our list of great read alouds before, but we couldn't help ourselves--we had to put it on this year's, as well. That is, we think this is one your class can't miss! Join New Zealand’s National Kakapo Recovery Team as they work on a remote island refuge off the coast of New Zealand to save the last of the kakapo. Through Nic Bishop's incredible photographs, your students will witness first-hand the work and the passion of the fourteen humans trying to save the kakapo from extinction.

Conversations about the environment, extinction, the role of humans, the results of determination, etc. cannot help but unfold around this incredible tale. We think your students will be just as excited about it as we are!

Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/

La juez que crecio en el Bronx

Biographies by Jonah Winter

Winter's lively books tell the stories of people who achieved greatness and the obstacles they overcame to do so. He has written about Sandy Koufax, Sonia Sotomayor, Josephine Baker, Muhammad Ali, and President Obama, along with many others. Due to come out next year is a biography of Pablo Picasso and in October, Winter's book of his own family history will be published. Each title is done with rich illustrations and each will help students discuss challenges and obstacles people face and the inner qualities that allow them to succeed. Strengthen your students' narrative nonfiction reading!