1) Common Text All fellows will read Peter Johnston's Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives.
2) Writer on Writing Select a writer on writing book. These texts consist of a writer talking about writing practice and ideas. Possibilities include:
Mary Pipher's Writing to Change the World
Stephen King's On Writing
Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird
Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones or Old Friend from Far Away
Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town
Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
(Please choose one of these books or a different book in which a writer writes about writing. We recommend that you find at least one other fellow who is reading the same book.)
3) Literacy Practices
Elementary Teachers: Lynne R. Dorfman's Nonfiction Mentor Texts: Teaching Informational Writing Through Children's Literature, K-8
Content Area Teachers: Harvey Daniels and Steven Zemelman's Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading
Secondary English Teachers: Jeff Wilhelm, Michael Smith, and Jim Fredricksen's Get It Done
We encourage you to talk with each other throughout the spring as you explore these texts. We have set up discussion boards on the wiki for you to share ideas and questions. Many former fellows have found it extremely helpful to work together to understand these texts.
After reading the common text and the literacy practices text, please create a product that demonstrates your response to each particular text. Please bring these responses with you to the summer institute and be prepared to share them with your colleagues. You also need to include these responses in your final portfolio.
Your response can come in many different forms; try a strategy that you haven’t done before or one you might use in your classroom. Some ideas include:
A flipbook that takes important ideas from the text and organizes them
A comic strip that highlights the narrative of the text and the main ideas
Implementation guide: A guide for a colleague or student teacher as to how you would implement the ideas in your text into your classroom or curriculu
PURPOSE: Reflect on readings by inquiring into required texts in preparation for discussions with reading groups at the institute and produce an artifact that illustrates your thinking.
CRITERIA: Please complete one reading response for the common text and one reading response for the literacy practices text. This final piece will be something that you present to your reading group to spark discussion among colleagues who teach in very different contexts. The response should represent a holistic view of reflection on the entire text. Your reflections on the readings will be placed in your portfolio. Your response can take many forms. Consider these questions when completing your response:
Definition and description questions (questions that elicit literal responses like summaries and comprehension):
What ideas do you find in the texts that will help you as a teacher?
What principles are explored in the texts that you may practice in your classroom?
Comparison questions (questions that compare points of view):
What principles are you finding agreement with as you read?
What things produce strong reactions from you? Why might that be?
Change questions (questions that highlight how ideas change over time):
What may you be struggling to accept? Why is that?
Relationship questions (questions that put ideas into conversation with one another):
How does the work validate what you do or nudge you to improve?
Reading
TASK: Read and reflect on three different texts.1) Common Text
All fellows will read Peter Johnston's Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives.
2) Writer on Writing
Select a writer on writing book. These texts consist of a writer talking about writing practice and ideas. Possibilities include:
- Mary Pipher's Writing to Change the World
- Stephen King's On Writing
- Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
- Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird
- Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones or Old Friend from Far Away
- Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town
- Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
(Please choose one of these books or a different book in which a writer writes about writing. We recommend that you find at least one other fellow who is reading the same book.)3) Literacy Practices
We encourage you to talk with each other throughout the spring as you explore these texts. We have set up discussion boards on the wiki for you to share ideas and questions. Many former fellows have found it extremely helpful to work together to understand these texts.
After reading the common text and the literacy practices text, please create a product that demonstrates your response to each particular text. Please bring these responses with you to the summer institute and be prepared to share them with your colleagues. You also need to include these responses in your final portfolio.
Your response can come in many different forms; try a strategy that you haven’t done before or one you might use in your classroom. Some ideas include:
PURPOSE: Reflect on readings by inquiring into required texts in preparation for discussions with reading groups at the institute and produce an artifact that illustrates your thinking.
CRITERIA: Please complete one reading response for the common text and one reading response for the literacy practices text. This final piece will be something that you present to your reading group to spark discussion among colleagues who teach in very different contexts. The response should represent a holistic view of reflection on the entire text. Your reflections on the readings will be placed in your portfolio. Your response can take many forms. Consider these questions when completing your response:
Definition and description questions (questions that elicit literal responses like summaries and comprehension):
Comparison questions (questions that compare points of view):
Change questions (questions that highlight how ideas change over time):
Relationship questions (questions that put ideas into conversation with one another):
AUDIENCE: Self, coaches, and reading groups.
Reading Strategies: