Category: teaching
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Spending the Morning with Dr. Anna Julia Cooper #sol20
For the past few months, ever since I read Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s Cultivating Genius and began learning from her articles and presentations, I’ve been thinking about a question she frequently centers in her work: why don’t we use a “Black and Brown model as our framework of education,” especially when we are educating Black, Indigenous…
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Soft Starts: Slice of Life #sol18 10/9/18
I first learned the term “soft start” in one of Sara Ahmed’s books. It refers to easing into the school day with gentle choice activities–reading, writing, talking, playing, making. No rigorous academic work to remind kids that school is supposed to be hard. No mindless busy work to get kids quiet and compliant. Kelsey Corter describes…
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Building a Writing Community Overnight: Slice of Life #sol18
I just spent a wonderful week at the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference. I’m thinking about a lot of things from the conference, but today I want to think about writing community. I always think of community as something that is built and developed over time, but in my workshop, led by creative nonfiction author Alison…
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“Everybody Has a Reader Inside of Them”: 10 Big Ideas of a Children’s Literature Course
Yesterday, I shared the favorite reads in a Children’s Literature course I teach for preservice elementary teachers. Today, I’m focusing on their key learnings from the course. For the second part of their final exam, I ask them to present the 5 big ideas they learned about reading this semester. I think it feels like…
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“I Cried So Many Times:” Favorite Reads from a Children’s Literature Course
For their final exam, the preservice elementary teachers in my Children’s Literature course compile and present their Top 10 lists for the semester. This is a course with no required texts but fairly intense independent reading requirements. I love seeing what they’ve read and what they’ve loved–and it’s easily one of the best assessments I’ve…
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How to Advocate for Reading and Writing Workshop: Slice of Life #sol18 29/31
I am all in when it comes to reading and writing workshop. I could make my own video for workshop, a la Mr Sharp LOVES Reading (which I show at the beginning of nearly every course I teach for preservice teachers). I, too, feel like hopping on desks and shrieking about how much I LOVE…
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Middle Schoolers Will Read…If We Let Them: Slice of Life #sol18 28/31
Yesterday, a group of eighth graders on a college campus visit were guests in my Children’s Literature class. It’s perhaps not the best class to choose to visit if you want a sense of what college is really like. They walked in the room to find Elephant & Piggie titles on display all over the…
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Daily Writing vs Daily Blogging: Slice of Life #sol18 26/31
In December, I challenged myself to better my mornings and, perhaps, my whole day. Instead of opening my laptop and starting the mindless scroll of social media over coffee every morning, I wondered if starting the day with quiet writing and reading time would feel restorative and centering. The short answer: yes. YES. This month,…
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Reading Challenges: Slice of Life #sol18 25/31
One of my favorite truths from Donalyn Miller’s wonderful book, Reading in the Wild, is that readers have plans. I love to make reading plans. I am constantly cooking up some new plan for myself. Sometimes, maybe even often, I spend more time making reading plans than I do actually reading. I’m not sure what Donalyn…
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How Do You Find Good Books to Read?: Slice of Life #sol18 20/31
Last week, I asked the preservice teachers in my Children’s Literature course to write to me about their wonders, curiosities, and burning questions about Children’s Literature. We’re a little over halfway through the semester, and I wanted to know what else they really, really wanted to know, so that I could shape the last few…
the dirigible plum 