tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5904447408646070602024-03-18T04:48:03.202-05:00NCTE Inbox Blognews, views, and ideas you can use!NCTEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13158338704096862694noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-64290095956950763252011-05-03T11:01:00.000-05:002011-05-03T11:02:50.563-05:00Coping in a Time of Tragedy<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Lisa Finkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17691253818184356622noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-2873757761750600762010-11-09T14:40:00.000-06:002010-11-09T14:40:00.763-06:00Focus on Native American Heritage<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Lisa Finkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17691253818184356622noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-14987278677680961252010-10-26T14:59:00.000-05:002010-10-26T14:59:00.171-05:00Celebrate National Family Literacy Day!<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Lisa Finkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17691253818184356622noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-44409533461297040672010-08-10T14:45:00.005-05:002010-08-10T16:28:29.970-05:00Blog Round -Up - LiteracyThis week’s blog round-up features a potpourri of blogs and commentaries on literacy—for educators and all their students.
For younger students:
In "Summer Must-Read for Kids? Any Book" (New York Times August 2, 2010), Tara Parker-Pope shares research from two NCTE members at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen ‘s three-year study found that childrenMillie Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255447641769640133noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-71759050887604347302010-08-02T16:43:00.048-05:002010-08-03T08:36:46.197-05:00Developing Effective Writing Programs: Help for High Schools
The new book Taking Initiative on Writing: A Guide for Instructional Leaders by Anne Ruggles Gere, Hannah A. Dickinson, Melinda J. McBee Orzulak, and Stephanie Moody (copublished by NCTE and NASSP) offers practical strategies and extensive resources to help principals and teachers develop effective writing programs in their high schools. Read on for a taste of this book, taken from the opening Kurt Austinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15863859603876594789noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-13501561749202330492010-06-15T12:01:00.002-05:002010-08-03T08:25:00.537-05:00Piecing Together the Copyright PuzzleFiguring out copyright can be like piecing together a puzzle. You have a good idea how it’s supposed to work in the end, but all the little pieces can be confusing to piece together.
These links can help you learn more about copyright yourself and teach students about fair use and copyright. In no time, you’ll move from scattered pieces to a full picture of copyright and fair use.
Classroom Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-1625811685761357502010-06-08T14:13:00.012-05:002010-06-10T20:36:59.491-05:00Challenging the Metaphor of Scaffolding for Supporting Student ReadersIn her new book Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: Lessons for Teachers of Literature, author Deborah Appleman relies heavily on the pedagogical metaphor of scaffolding to describe the support we can offer students as they develop as readers in our literature classrooms.
Appleman notes that while “primary school teachers may not as easily question the need to explicitly model and Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-89631058530877770452010-06-02T13:48:00.001-05:002010-08-03T08:27:16.361-05:00Fun and Painless Summer LearningWhen I was in grade school, I regularly sat down with educational workbooks that Mom had picked up at the store and filled out pages and pages of worksheets. I even played teacher, assigning worksheets to my younger sisters and brother and then grading them.
I’m pretty sure that I’m the exception though. Most kids will not voluntarily spend summer vacation playing school. In fact, the families Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-30804529895221436412010-05-18T13:33:00.005-05:002010-05-18T14:00:26.264-05:00Ten Things You’ll Want To Read This SummerWhether summer means time to read for fun or to prepare for teaching in the Fall, I bet you’re beginning to gather that reading list.
You probably know where to find details on the year’s award-winning children’s and teen books. You can always check the NCTE Online Store for the newest pedagogical books and some great bestsellers. And I bet you plan to spend some time this summer Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-39214263192574676602010-05-11T08:45:00.002-05:002010-05-11T08:51:25.844-05:00Literacy Coaching: Empowering Teachers as Agents of ChangeEarlier this month, I had the chance to attend a talk given by Diane Stephens, who was sharing her research on teachers’ attitudes toward literacy coaches in the South Carolina Reading Initiative. While I found value in the entire presentation of her findings, I’ve been mulling over this particularly powerful observation that she offered near the end of her presentation: “Change looks like Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-69021016094625283242010-05-04T13:26:00.001-05:002010-05-04T13:28:51.584-05:00What Do You Appreciate in a Teacher?This week in the United States is Teacher Appreciation Week, a time set aside each year to honor the hard work that educators do every day in the classroom and beyond.
The challenge of the celebration is to try to remember every teacher I need to thank. I don’t have a list of them all, and I’m afraid I’ll leave someone out.
I’ve been puzzling over the problem for several Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-61561292516807692672010-04-20T14:06:00.000-05:002010-04-20T14:08:15.788-05:00Helping Readers See Themselves in a TextEvery week during summer vacation, mom used to load us into the car and drive us to the library. While my sisters and brother were racing around with picture books and whatever toys they could get their hands on, I snuck off to a quieter corner of the library where the children’s biographies were shelved.
I plopped myself on the floor and ran my finger over the spines, looking for just theTraci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-48198008867447594422010-04-13T12:45:00.008-05:002010-04-13T13:01:50.716-05:00Everything I Know about Differentiation I Learned from William ShakespeareIn Act 2 of King Lear, the Duke of Cornwall addresses Goneril’s servant, Oswald, by asking him, “What is your difference?”
When we teach a challenging text such as a scene from a Shakespearean drama, we know that students will have the best chance of understanding it if we approach it with an intentional awareness of the differences among our students in terms of readiness, interests, and Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-24650470715617216052010-04-06T15:41:00.004-05:002010-04-06T16:00:48.234-05:00Inspiring Writers with Student Poetry It’s National Poetry Month, so teachers everywhere are sharing poetry and experimenting with poetry writing in the classroom. The challenge is that those two activities are sometimes at cross purposes. Reading poetry by the literary greats can silence the muse of even the most imaginative student.
Sharing poems written by students alongside those in the literature textbooks can be the Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-64473035062109611962010-03-23T14:39:00.003-06:002010-03-23T14:50:56.408-06:00Writing Our Way Through the End of School and Into Next YearWriting is such a balm when the spring sun shines or even when April is “cruelest of all.” Even our toughest students can usually be persuaded to pen a poem this time of year. There are so many resources for teachers and students to use, and I’ve gathered up a few to share.
The National Gallery of Writing awaits more writing and more galleries. The Gallery will be open at least until June Millie Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255447641769640133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-34701151097964918852010-03-16T10:00:00.000-06:002010-03-16T11:36:43.569-06:00How Online Professional Development Changed My LifeChances are high that you wouldn’t be reading this if it weren’t for online professional development. I don’t mean that in the clichéd “If you can read this thank a teacher” way. What I mean is that I would never, ever have had the connections that led to writing these blog entries if it hadn’t been for the online professional development opportunities that Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-30388104196074592962010-03-09T09:40:00.002-06:002010-03-09T11:27:33.990-06:00A Writer's Work Is Never FinishedLast week I saw one of our school’s counselors headed down the hallway with a cash box in hand. Under the very serious pressure of budget cuts in our district, I used my standard coping mechanism—bad attempts at humor—and asked her if she was taking it upon herself to start collecting money directly from students. She assured me that her task was of a more official sort. She was collecting Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-3975416455252079332010-03-02T13:08:00.000-06:002010-03-02T13:09:33.933-06:00Stories Make It PersonalImagine that you shared this passage from NCTE’s 2010 Legislative Platform with a non-educator you know. The particular person doesn’t matter. You can think of a family member, a neighbor, or a friend. Whoever you choose, simply imagine that you gave him or her this passage to read:
Improve the quality and use of assessment in determining student achievement, teacher effectiveness,Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-33985583025319056862010-02-23T16:38:00.005-06:002010-02-23T16:49:22.716-06:00It Takes a Community…I don’t know a teacher who doesn’t want to make a difference in the learning and, yes, even the lives of her students—kind of what we signed up for. But, I also don’t know a one of us that can do that single-handedly. That’s why we gather to learn and collaborate together and that’s where learning communities come in.
Three exemplary learning communities come to my mind.
NCTE’s Pathways Millie Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255447641769640133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-4644835000203426182010-02-17T11:33:00.001-06:002010-02-17T11:41:22.947-06:00Mixing or Plagiarizing?I doubt anyone was thinking about plagiarism when the CCCC 2010 theme, “The Remix: Revisit, Rethink, Revise, Renew,” was chosen, but given recent events in Germany literary world, plagiarism clearly fits the focus.
News articles last week announced that German teen author Helene Hegemann of the highly-acclaimed debut novel Axolotl Roadkill not only lifted passages from another novel,Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-33701418428290089802010-02-09T08:55:00.002-06:002010-02-10T07:47:02.622-06:00Finding a Way into the Networked English ClassroomI was out of the English classroom during the 2007 and 2008 school years, a time during which I perceived a digital revolution in reading and writing in and out of school settings. Barraged by blogs, wikis, social networking, Twitter, Ning (and a variety of other oddly-named Web 2.0 platforms and programs), it seemed to me that the world of the book and the notebook (or is it Kindle and iPad?) Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-61043875278845450232010-02-02T11:11:00.003-06:002010-02-02T12:33:27.373-06:00African American Authors OnlineIt’s time for readers everywhere to collect texts for African American Read-Ins and Black History Month celebrations. You probably have some great resources in your library, but the Internet expands your options even further. Not only can you find audio and video recordings of authors reading their works, but you'll find rare texts that are not available anywhere else—like oral histories, Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-358522919251420082010-01-26T15:47:00.004-06:002010-01-26T15:59:42.151-06:00Coveting BooksWhen I learn of book awards like NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award and ALA’s Newbery and Caldecott Medals, immediately my list of books-to-read grows—as if that pile by my bed could get bigger without toppling over and burying me. I begin to anticipate opportunities with these books... maybe I could read this with my granddaughter or maybe I could use this book or part of it with my college freshmen. Millie Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255447641769640133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-40517650300265016102010-01-20T16:05:00.000-06:002010-01-20T16:07:38.176-06:00Metaphor Makeovers: The Secret to Test SuccessWhen students sit down to take a test, how do they think about themselves? It may seem like a silly question, but the answer probably matters more than you think.
Attitude Matters
“The Truth about Grit,” published last fall in The Boston Globe explains the significance of the way we think about ourselves and our effort. It turns out the way you see yourself can be the difference Traci Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00579663655727932943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-590444740864607060.post-80162685638694810152010-01-12T11:20:00.001-06:002010-01-12T11:49:31.273-06:00From Potential to Power: Reading and Writing the National GalleryAs teachers of writing, we are acutely aware of how important the presence of an authentic audience can be for students' motivation to write. Though my state’s standards call for students to “write for real or potentially real situations” [emphasis mine], it’s a challenge to find such opportunities on a regular basis.
When I first heard about the National Gallery of Writing, I was naturally Scott Filkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327830713877297552noreply@blogger.com2