Raising Readers and Writers

I was going to title this post, “I’ve got to warm up my bump,” but I didn’t know how that would go over! That was a comment made last week at my house where a group of teachers met to discuss Troy Hick’s The Digital Writing Workshop. We’ve been meeting since before school was out and it’s been a great opportunity to talk to others who have the same interests. We are from a variety of elementary schools and grade levels in our district and each of us has a different interest. We were sharing different ideas when someone mentioned a way to transfer pictures using the Bump app. Those of us with smart phones were downloading Bump and sharing pictures, which is when someone made the comment above. Even though there was lots of laughter and silliness at this point, we shared lots of good ideas. Each of us leaves the meetings with more to think about and new ideas to try in our classrooms that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own.

I’ve also been involved in a writing group led by Dr. George Newell this summer. It’s the first time I’ve been in a writing group and I highly recommend it for anyone trying to do any kind of serious writing. We are 4 teachers who taught at the summer youth writing camp and we each had our own agendas for writing. One teacher wrote an article about working with students from a rural school district, another is a new literacy coach who worked on professional development presentations, another was searching for a grant and writing a grant for the first time, and I am working on an article about the Family Oral History project. Again, this group was a mixture of teachers from different grade levels and school districts. I gained so much from this experience. First, we had deadlines, which was very helpful. More important though, was the myriad of ideas that we were able to present to each other. Since we came from different backgrounds, we each had a unique perspective and the feedback was invaluable. Having the expertise of George was an extra bonus. It didn’t matter what any of us was talking about, he was a wealth of information and suggestions for publication ideas.

Closer to home, a group of us from my school are meeting to read and discuss Catching Readers Before they Fall: Supporting Readers who Struggle K – 4. We have representations from kindergarten, first grade, third grade, and Title Reading. What makes this group so nice is that we can talk about the expectations for each grade level, things we’ve tried that work and don’t work so well, and it gives us a foundation to all be using the same language. I am a firm believer that in order for our struggling students to make the most progress, there needs to be strong communication between the classroom teacher and the support personnel. Sometimes, lack of time and busy schedules impede these communication lines, which is frustrating for everyone involved. These summer conversations give us the opportunity to share our beliefs and set some goals for the upcoming school year.

The beauty of these summer groups is that there is time to reflect, think ahead to the new school year, and learn from others you might not see during the school year. I appreciate the input that everyone brings to each group as well as camaraderie that has developed among old and new friends.