CONFERRING- CYBER PD

My computer has been in the shop since Monday morning, so I'm sitting at Kinko's typing my post (after spending an hour discovering that my new iPad is not very compatible with blogger). Evidently Kinko's computers are not super compatible either, because I can't download the iamge of Patrick's book, but I have loved hearing what people are thinking, and I want to try to participate, at least a little.

I had the privilege of studying with Don Graves at the University of New Hampshire in the mid 1990's. Don was not easily impressed by fancy theory, big words, or glitzy packaging. He would listen closely (his abilities in this area could probably rival Patrick Allen's) and then simply ask, "What's it for?" That question, "What's it for?" has guided my practice for the last fifteen years.

In these chapters, Patrick quotes Don, asking that same question, "What's it for?" Patrick suggests, "Perhaps we could build something grand and long lasting-- independent and engaged readers who walk away from conferences with the strategies and tools to help them become confident, effective, and deep readers" (p. 156).

If you were to ask me about my one walk-away from this week (aside from 'you need a mint'), this would be definitely be it. If every child who walked out of my class could be an INDEPENDENT, ENGAGED reader, who had the strategies and tools to become CONFIDENT, EFFECTIVE, and DEEP readers, I would absolutely feel that I had done my job. I'm going to post this goal right next to Don's question, which has hung over my desk for many years.


Some other thoughts that really struck me:

• Conferences are an elegant example of how assessment can actually become one with instruction (Daniels and Bizar, 2005, p. 230, as quoted in Allen, p. 171). So often it feels like we assess and assess and assess, but don't use the data to really think about what kids need.



• We need to get back to the business of knowing children, of knowing readers. If we want children to remember, understand, extend meaning, and make their reading experiences memorable, they have to be in a classroom where there is time for that to happen (p. 181). Amen, amen, and amen!



• I confer with a "difficult" student the same way I do with any other student; perhaps a bit more patiently, but with hope nonetheless (p. 184). As the mom of two very different, but very "difficult" students, I can't even tell you how often I wish there was a little more "hope" involved in conversations about my sons.



• Why teach a strategy if you're not going to give students time to practice, learn and apply it in their own reading? (p. 188). Andrea Butler, who was one of the first literacy gurus I ever heard or read always said that American kids were the most taught and less practiced kids in the world. Kids don't get good at stuff if they don't have time to work with it. A line from a poem that has stuck with me for many years, "It takes a lot of slow to grow." And the more kids struggle, the more time and practice they need. Unfortunately, it's often those kids, who are so busy jumping from interventionist to interventionist to interventionist, that they have almost no time to practice.

And now, because I am at Kinko's, and because the meter is running, I will end.

Laura is hosting the cyber conversation at Camp Read A Lot. I look forward to reading what everyone else has to say.

CONFERRING CYBERCLUB- PART TWO

We are in our second week of Cyber PD on Patrick Allen's CONFERRING: THE KEYSTONE OF READER'S WORKSHOP. For this week, we read Section Two, "What Are the Essential Components of Conferring?" Today's conversation is hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion. Stop by and see what everyone else has to say.

Again this week, I'm hugely struck by Patrick's theoretical grounding. Over the course of these two chapters, he quotes Donald Murray, Laura Benson, Don Graves, Deborah Meier, Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman, Daniel Pennac, Gordon Wells, Peter Johnston, Bronson Alcott and Arthur Costa. He also draws in the work of several colleagues from his teaching career. I wonder, like I did last week, about how clear I am at articulating my beliefs for others. I think about all the young teachers I have worked with. Have I done a good job sharing my theoretical grounding with them? Do people around me really know why I do what I do? How can I communicate my beliefs and theory more clearly?

In this section of the book, Patrick identifies his essentials. He has a really clear and specific format for his conferences. I think I have a similar format- I sit down next to a child, and usually start with an opening question, e.g. How's it going? I usually ask kids to begin the conference by telling me the title of their book, and also giving me one or two sentences to tell me what is going on. For me, the middle section of the conference totally depends on the child. I usually teach something related to comprehension or surface structure, but it varies from child to child, and from week to week. I always end up setting some kind of goal with the reader.

I was also struck by Patrick's ability to listen and trust his readers. He goes into each conference with the belief that the child has knows and has important things to say about him/herself as a reader. Patrick is open to the child's leading. Even though I would like to believe those same things are true about me, I'm not sure they really are. I don't think I'm a "question bombardier," but I think I usually do have an agenda, and I don't think I'm always great at listening to kids. That's something I really want to work on this year. (As I write this, I'm struck by how much teaching models life-- I don't think I'm always great at listening to my boys either. I always wish my boys would talk more to me, but maybe they would talk more if I was a better listener, and less slow to push my agenda off on them).

Finally, Patrick had me thinking about data collection, which is always a huge struggle for me. I had to laugh when he talked about the sticky computer labels. I've done that computer label thing too. Unlike Patrick, however, I didn't do four labels per conference. Instead, I tried to squeeze everything onto one label. I started with labels that were about 1 inch by 4 inches, and wrote really, really small. Even though I was much younger, the labels were still really, really hard to read. I think I gradually worked my way up to labels that were about 4 inches by 4 inches. Those were definitely more readable, but like Patrick, those quiet times of sticking labels into kids' individual assessment pages and reflecting on what the data actually meant were few and far between.

As I think about what I want record keeping to look like this year, I know a couple of things. First, I want it to be really, really simple. I'm thinking I will get one of those fat spiral notebooks, the kind with the durable plastic cover, and tab a section, four or five pages for each kid. I will probably use a format similar to the one Patrick's RIP format. I envision myself having some kind of a class list/calendar clipped to the front of the notebook, where I will keep track of how often I have conferred with kids (I am not even going to tell any of the stories of my early years of conferring, when I would get to report card time, and realized I had notes from eleven conferences with some kids, and only notes from two different sessions with other kids).

I have one hangup with the notebook system, however. Like Patrick, I really want kids to walk away from their conferences with some kind of a goal. I want them to review those goals every day, however, not just on the days when they meet with me. I'm thinking, then, that the kids have to somehow also keep track of their own reading goals they. I'm not sure whether I want them to write those goals down in a special section of their readers' notebook (I am still debating what I want the reading and writing notebooks to look like) or whether I want each child to have an individual goal notebook or ring of index cards where they write the goal, as I write it in my notebook. I really don't want things to be any more complicated or unwieldy then they have to be…

Lots and lots and lots to think about. Lots to go back and reread. Is anyone else's book falling apart from overuse? I think I have to go to my local print shop and get a spiral binding tomorrow…

CYBER PD: CONFERRING- THE KEYSTONE OF READERS' WORKSHOP

I'm participating in a little "cyber PD." For the next four weeks, anyone who wants to is going to be reading and discussing Patrick Allen's CONFERRING: THE KEYSTONE OF READER'S WORKSHOP. Each week, a different person will "host" the discussion. Today's discussion of the first section of the book is hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine. Hop over there and see what other people are saying.

“The purpose readers set for themselves affects comprehension …”

Tovani, as quoted in Allen, p. 69

I am going to have my own classroom for the first time in many years. And I have to confess, I’m really excited, but I am also absolutely terrified. Do I still know how to teach? Can I still manage the nine zillion details that go with a classroom? I’m spending the summer rereading professional books- books that I have read as a literacy coach or administrator, but that I am now reading through an entirely different lens. One of the first books I picked up was Patrick Allen’s latest book, CONFERRING: THE KEYSTONE OF READER’S WORKSHOP. I loved this book when I read it earlier this spring, but now, reading it as a classroom teacher, I’m viewing it through a somewhat different framework

First, I’m struck by Patrick’s theoretical grounding, what he calls his “ashlars.” Patrick has spent years learning at the feet of masters, brilliant thinkers like Don Graves, Shelley Harwayne, Debbie Miller, Laura Benson, and Randi Allison, and his practice is solidly grounded in theory. He translates this theory into tools that he uses in his own classroom, e.g. his template for planning a strategy study, on page 79 (a tool which I am so going to steal and use in my own classroom this year). It’s even more interesting to me that Patrick is able to translate that really complex theory, e.g Gallagher and Pearson’s Gradual Release of Responsibility, into language and concepts that kids can understand and apply to their own reading and writing. I have used gradual release for years and years, I’ve talked it about it lots with teachers and graduate students, but I am not sure I have ever explicitly named it for kids, and I want to try it.

Secondly, I’m struck by the elegance and precision of Patrick’s language. I’m fairly sure that Patrick and I use similar structures in our reading and writing workshops- we both start with a mini-lesson, followed by an independent work period, then a final wrap up. Patrick, however, labels these three components of his workshop much more elegantly than I do, and the precision of his language really communicates the significance of each period of time. Patrick calls his first block (which I typically call a mini-lesson), crafting- it’s a time when he makes the craft of reading explicit for kids. The independent work period is called Composing- it’s when kids actually put the craft lesson to work in their own reading. It seems likethat language would really drive home the idea of readers being active constructors of meaning, as opposed to passive “couch potatoes.” Patrick calls his final block reflecting and describes it as a time for readers to share, "Here's what I learned about myself, and this is what I plan to do with that learning." Wow, wow, wow! And I am so going to be borrowing/stealing his early workshop discussions (pp. 82-89).

Finally, I loved Patrick’s discussion of stamina/endurance. I’ve worked on those concepts with kids, but I have always worked on them in the context of fluency, talking with kids about entering more deeply into their “reading zone” and staying in that zone for increasing periods of time. I love how Patrick uses picture books like WALK ON, and SKYBOYS and WILMA UNLIMITED to help kids get a picture of what stamina/endurance look like in a variety of settings.

Readers adjust their purpose depending on who they are reading for. Right now, I'm reading CONFERRING for myself, a brand new fourth grade teacher. And I'm loving every minute of it! Thanks so much, Patrick!

If you are interested in jumping into the discussion, here is the schedule for the next few weeks:

July 13th: Part II: What Are the Essential Components of Conferring?

Hosted by Jill Fisch at Primary Passion

July 20th: Part III. What Emerges from Our Reading Conferences?

Hosted by Laura K at Camp Read-A-Lot

July 21st: Join us for the final conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.