Failure, and the Right to Succeed

Da dada da da da da da, the Lone Ranger is on his way. He will solve all problems. He will rescue poor grades. He will ride in on a white Accord and save the day. No chance of failure here. Just raise your hand and he will come to your rescue. Wait a minute.

Micheal Jordan said:

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

So what is reasonable to expect from a student when they walk into Reading Workshop? Should I expect failure? Or better yet, demand it? Shouldn't students have the right to fail? Shouldn't students have the opportunity to fail? If I rush in as soon as a student struggles, it seems like there is no chance of failure. This means a there is a limited chance to succeed.

So often in schools today, we will go to absolutely any means to prevent failure. If students even struggle, someone is demanding a parachute to immediately stop the decent. Many educators see our job as rescuers. Failure is seen as a terrible thing that must be avoided at any cost.

Perhaps we should redefine our role. Our job is not preventative maintenance. At the first sign of a break-down, we should not be coming to the rescue. There is no need to charge in at the first sign of a raised hand and save our students from struggling. Better yet, let them work through a problem, and figure out how to succeed.

In the words of Samuel Smiles:

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
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Benefits of Blogging

Recently I was involved in a conversation about the role of blogs and the value of blogging in our district. As the use of blogs and wikis expand throughout education, many questions are being asked. The use of Web 2.0 tools in schools is a known entity to some, but blogs are still of questionable value, or just not understood by many people. I started thinking about all the benefits that I see.

Benefits for students:

1. Authentic audience

2. Encourages pride in writing

3. Motivates students to think and question

4. Encourages students to share

5. A finding place for ideas

6. Opportunity to express ideas and opinions

7. Better communication with teacher

8. Can learn tips about reading and writing

9. Improves vocabulary

Benefits for parents:

1. Better home/school communication

2. Can be involved with child's education

3. Can interact with teachers and students

4. Helps to know assignments, expectations, and homework

Benefits for teachers:

1. Sharing of ideas

2. Reflect on craft

3. Converse with peers

4. Meet and connect with educators

5. Showcase students' work

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Parent & Child Online Assignment

Parents, your child's homework assignment for tonight includes you. Students have been working hard on their online journals. Tonight is their chance to share their work with you. Hopefully you will enjoy this opportunity to see what your child has been doing in Reading Workshop.

The online journal is used daily for students to write on topics about the fictional books they are reading in language arts class. A lot of emphasis is placed on supporting their thoughts, ideas, and opinions with specific details from the book. Keep in mind though, they only have 5 -10 minutes each day for this writing task.

Please look over your child's online journal, answer questions on the sheet, and score the journal using the Online Journal Rubric.

Please feel free to look at other students' journals also. This will give you a way to gauge the overall quality that I am looking for in their journals. A couple of excellent examples are Sarah's journal, Lily's journal, and Makayla's journal. Take a minute and leave a positive comment in any of the journals if you see something you like. I am sure the students would really appreciate it.

Do We Really Need Books?

Should schools still be buying books? Is reading something online on a computer, or on a reader the same as sitting down with a book? Instead of replacing books in the book room, should we instead try to find online editions or invest in Amazon Kindle? Or is there something about holding a book in our hands that we should never give up?

Are books about to be something of the past? Should I give up my newspaper and read the news online? Instead of the sports page, should I visit NBA.com Instead of reading a magazine, should I just visit the website of T.H.E. Journal?

Adrien Sannier in his article Context to Core in Campus Technology says stop air conditioning the books! All the books in the world are already digitized! Change it (library) into a gathering place; a digital commons.

At my house, I have a spot by the window, with a lamp on the ledge, where you can often find me reading. After school it is usually a newspaper. Then I usually check out a magazine. Later in the evening, I often sit there reading a book--sometime fiction, sometimes nonfiction. If I am at home, more times than not, you can find me here reading. Do I want to give this up? Not in this lifetime.

What do you think? Should we give up books and go totally online? Or is there something special about books that we need to save and appreciate? Will there ever be a day with no books?
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The Age of Screenagers

Who are these kids? It used to be we worried about too much Sesame Street and Barney, or other TV time, but those days are gone. Today, we worry about another type of screen time. Kids are either texting, IM'ing (instant messaging), on Facebook, or possibly even doing a Web 2.0 assignment for school. Should we be concerned? Is all of this time staring into a screen of one kind or another harmful to kids?

Many educators are concerned about the adverse affects on students' writing. They feel that the slang, or casual language used extensively in texting and IM'ing will have long term detrimental affects on students' writing. Most seem to ignore the fact that kids today are writing constantly. In fact, putting thoughts into written words is part of the natural lives of kids today. Anyone who cannot share their thoughts through texting is at risk of becoming a social outcast.

Another concern is the constant focus on a screen. Although this has shown to have some merit, this has basically replaced other forms of entertainment such as hours spent watching TV. At least many of the hours spent today are somewhat interactive.

Another worry, especially at the secondary and collegiate level is how students spend class time texting instead of focusing on the lesson being taught. However, forward thinking instructors have begun to use this to their advantage by engaging students in real-time dialogue and assessment.

In many classes today, students are participating in online learning, web-based collaborative projects, and various other computer uses throughout their school day. Often students are much more motivated in class by the use of video and interactive Smart Boards.

Obviously, the screenagers of today have lifestyles, both in and out of the class that are much different than the traditional classes. Many educators are concerned about the long-term affects of these changes. Some of us though, are celebrating the advancement of education. Our goal is to open doors and encourage students to push forward using every tool available for a more interesting and challenging learning environment.

If you qualify age-wise, go for it. Become a Screenager!
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Students' Speak, Computers in the Classroom

Recently students were surveyed about their feelings regarding computer use in the classroom. As we continue to find more and more ways to integrate technology in Reading Workshop, I thought it would be interesting to see students' viewpoints.

I found it interesting that overwhelmingly, students prefer to use computers for language arts tasks. The fact that only one student would prefer to not use them at all is amazing. I am not sure that you could poll students about any topic and find such a consensus.

As the year progresses, we will be doing even more innovative activities, which would push the data even farther in favor of the use of technology in the classroom.

Stay tuned, videos are on the way!
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Online Journal Assessment

Evaluation is a necessary part of any assignment. Online journals are no exception and with this in mind, I adapted a journal rubric to score students' Online Book Journals. This Online Journal Rubric is still in draft stage, but will soon be used to measure students' work as they write about the fictional books they are reading.

These are the expectations to earn a 4/A on the Online Journal:

• Entries are detailed with a sense of completeness
• Specific details from book support the topic and thoughts, ideas, and opinions
• Minimum of at least one paragraph (6 - 9 sentences) each day
• Detailed understanding of book demonstrated in journal
• Explanation and analysis of the "So What?", theme, or lesson ( Thanks to Sara)
  
• Format is correct and consistent
• Reading from SSR and home is complete and logged in book journal daily
• Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization is correct

Visit the Reading Workshop Wikipage to view the entire Online Journal Rubric. Please comment with ideas and suggestions so this can be best written to fairly assess the quality of the journals.
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Who Wants to Know about The Reading Workshop

Of the last 500 visitors:

They came from 35 states.
They came from 16 countries.
Sixteen visitors were from Texas.
Thirteen were from California
Twelve were from New York.
'Ten were from Florida.
Sixty five visits was the most by any one person.
Fifty nine was the second most times visited.
Two Hundred Sixty Nine started out on The Reading Workshop home page.
Twenty-two had questions about how to do Reading Workshop.
Sixteen had questions about Study Island.
Seven queried good books for student readers
Six wondered about the book Freak the Mighty.
Fifteen had question about listening to music as you work.
Twelve wanted information about the affect of texting on students' writing.
Thirteen visited for longer than an hour.
Thirty six wanted to know about Rambunctious Reading.
Ninety two percent that used a search engine, used Google.
Sixty seven percent are first time visitors.
One Hundred Eighty are using the newest version of Firefox.
Seventeen came from the latest Carnival of Education which list Educational blogs
Seventeen came from the Laurelville Elementary website.
Twelve came from Alltop which lists education news and headlines from across the web.
Three came from Joann Jacobs educational blog highlights and links.

So if you're like me and find yourself wondering, who cares about The Reading Workshop at Laurelville, the answer is a lot of people, from a lot of places, for a lot of different reasons. For all that take the time to visit the blog, thank you!.
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Principal with Principles

Laurelville Elementary got a new principal named Mrs. Scott at our school this year. Here are some observations so far:

1. She always says "we." I haven't heard her say "I" one time.
2. When she talks about Laurelville, she always talks about our "school family."
3. She always listens first, and talks second.
4. I have heard her say, "how will it help the students," over and over.
5. She says, "no excuses." She expects every student to succeed.
6. She looks people in the eye when she talks to them.
7. Our school is a happy place this year, reflecting her upbeat attitude.
8. She is all over the school, stopping in rooms just to see what is going on.
9. She smiles at students and says hello.
10. Students smile at her, and say hello.
11. Teachers like her.
12. Cooks like her.
13. Custodians like her.
14. Aides like her.
15. Students like her.
16. She has high expectations for herself, the teachers, and the students.
17. We had a tree lighting. The staff brought in cookies and every student got one. We went out to the tree and Ms. Fraley talked about our Laurelville family. We sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." It was almost perfect, as the snow flurries fell on us, and we were all proud to be part of Laurelville Elementary.

From a student's viewpoint, according to Seth:

I like Mrs. Scott because she is so friendly when you walk up to her. Also if she has a concern about something she will walk up to you very kindly and ask you what is happening. When we are doing something she will be really quiet so she will not disturb us when we are working on a paper. She always says hi to you when you are walking along. If I had to use one word to describe her it would be approachable and that's cool.

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Facing Problems, the Solla Sollew Solution

Students are good at solving problems, you see,
And usually they do it without help from me.
They face their troubles with a smirk at fear,
To become workshop stars by the end of year.

Today's read aloud was I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. Students had been reading rambunctiously to an excerpt from the book, so today I read aloud the book and modeled rambunctious reading.

As a follow-up assignment, in students' online journal, they wrote a response to the prompt--Tell the "So What?" What is the Point of the Story?

Here are examples of their responses.

Sarah said:

I think that in the book Solla Sollew the point is you will get trouble in life and you will not like it, but you can't run from it. You have to face it. Even if you don't think it could get any worse it will get better soon or later. In the book the little guy learns that you will have trouble, you will think that the grass is greener somewhere else,but you can't run all your life. One day you have to stick up in life and grab a bat!! Your life will get better soon. So he went back to Valley of Vong with a bat to stop all his trouble (have fun with that)!

Makayla said:

The book I Had Trouble getting to Solla Sollew is a really good. I think that the meaning of this book is if you have troubles don't let it mess with you, just do something about. Like what the main character did. At the end of the book, he went back to the Vally Of Vung That's why I think that the meaning of the book is it don't let any thing bother you. You should do something about it. then you can be left alone and nobody would bother you.

Another meaning of the book might be don't do something so big and then go back to that same thing. Like what the guy in the book did. He went on this big trip to the city where there are no troubles. Then he went right back to the Vally Of Vung. This time though he was prepared. So don't try running away from the troubles, just fight back and be prepared for what ever happens. Then nothing or nobody can mess with you and ruin your day. I enjoyed the book and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it.

Amber said

This story was written by Dr. Seuss. The So What of the story is also the main point of the story. (I think!) So the main point of this story is to not try and hide from trouble, just deal with it.the more you try to hide from it, the more you get!

Corbit said

I think the So What of the story I Had Trouble In Solla Sollew is that you will always have trouble where you go and you should not run away from your problems.

Student thought in responses these surely show,

And facing trouble is something that they know.

The road to stardom, they're on their way.

Getting good grades should be child's play!

You might say that I had rhyming and Dr. Seuss on the brain as I posted today.
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Stop the Bus, I Want to Go to School!

I saw the flashing lights ahead, and eased to a stop. The bus stopped but no one was there. Then it took off. As I passed by, I looked over and saw a student chasing after it, waving her hands wildly.

I traveled on down the road towards my school and watched in my rear-view mirror as the bus was chased out of sight by a student who wanted to go to school.

As we return to school, after a five day break for Thanksgiving, I thought, "what a sight." I felt sorry for the student, and I was sure glad to see how badly she wanted to get on the bus and get back to school. Any kid that tried that hard to get on the bus after a break is bound to be a hard worker.
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Rambunctious Reading

Get fired up readers! Be the character! Live the story! READ RAMBUNCTIOUSLY! The only way to get the story, and truly enjoy the book is to become part of it.

Read this excerpt from I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. When you are happy, show me you are happy. And when you get careless and are gawking, show me. Live it! When you stub your big toe, I want to see pain on your face. Give me some tears.

Rambunctious (energetic, boisterous, lively) Reading is a method of reading aloud where students work in pairs to improve their reading. One student acts out the words as he reads. The other student actively listens, affirming thoughts and statements, and commenting to the reader. Both the reader and the listener must be totally involved in the telling of the story.

If students are to comprehend fiction, they must be in the story. Imagining themselves as the main character is not enough. Picturing the setting is not enough. Hearing the characters' voices is not enough. Students must be the main character. His joy must be their joy. His pain must be their pain.

Now is the time students, READ RAMBUNCTIOUSLY!

You can see the excerpt at The Reading Workshop Wikipage.

Commenting vs. Writing on Paper

Emma, a sixth grade student recently asked, "would you rather comment on the blog or would you want to write out a comment on paper?" She was talking about everything we do on computer in reading workshop. We just added online journals and reading logs to the daily routine, and she was trying to decide if she liked the change.

I thought it would be interesting to see opinions about computer use in Reading Workshop. Please take a minute and participate in the poll in the sidebar. Also, feel free to comment with your thoughts about the results.

From a teaching standpoint I see many benefits with computers in the classroom. Online journals make it so much easier to keep track of what students are reading, and what they have to say about their books. I can check online journals and know how SSR is going for each student. This means I can check them more often, and leave more comments. It also means no lost papers, where students lose assignments, or their reading record.

From a student standpoint, no low grades from lost work is an obvious benefit. There is also the opportunity to view peers journals and comment. Commenting on the blog is a writing assignment that lets students share their thoughts and opinions to a world-wide audience. There is also the issue of writing out on paper or typing, Some students prefer one way, others another.

Thanks for your participation in the poll. I look forward to learning about your feeling about computer usage in the classroom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

This turkey is going to school.  To all the turkeys with the weekend off--enjoy your break!  I will see you Tuesday.

Why Student Success in Reading Workshop is So Important

Students that have characteristics that help them succeed in Reading Workshop, will most likely achieve throughout their life. The more relaxed and student-driven workshop environment forces students to make choices. This decision making can serve as a learning model that will have life-long affects. Knowing this places a significant responsibility on teachers, if we choose to run our class in the workshop style.

If a student works hard in reading and writing workshop, they will have a work ethic that will most likely lead to success in other places. Conversely, if student needs constant supervision and prodding to work, they will most likely struggle in other classes, and later in life. Similarly, the attitude they approach tasks at hand, can provide the impetus for overall academic success.

Last week after the Awards Assembly, I heard a boy say, "I haven't got an award for the last 3 years. It's been since 2nd grade."

I thought to myself, "what a terrible thing. This boy has been to at least 9 awards assemblies in a row, and hasn't been recognized."

So I asked him:

Me: What did you do in 2nd grade to get an award?

Student: I don't know.

Me: You must have done something.

Student: It was at my old school.

Me: So what did you do at your old school to get an award?

Student: I don't know.

Me: You must have done something right.

Student: Yeah

Me: Do you work hard in class?

Student: Wellllllllll

I wondered:

1. Do his parents ever talk to him about success? Or lack of?

2. Will he think about our conversation and decide how he succeeded before?

3. Will it have any affect on his work ethic?

4. Next year, when he is in my class, will he get an award?

5. When I see him in 8 - 10 years, will he have found the means for success?

Hopefully next year he will learn the work part of reading workshop.

Welcome Ball State Students

Welcome to students attending Ball State University in Dr. Ford's class for reading educators. It is gratifying to see that college professors are interested in how blogs are being used in education and providing resources to use to compare with students' ideas on reading workshop.

The assignment:

Your written task is to develop a graphic that identifies: (1) how your reading workshop is like the examples in the web resources, (2) how your reading workshop is different from the examples in the web resources, and (3) some aspects of the reading workshops you examine that you would like to "borrow" to use in your classroom.

I found this an intriguing task. In fact, I even checked out the other blogs listed. It seems like the rest are basically "how to's." Now I am going to have to study them to see what interests me. I do appreciate the fact that a college professor is encouraging realistic research, and asking his students to compare it to what they do in their classes.

Thank you for stopping by The Reading Workshop. I hope you find something useful, or at least interesting during your visit. While you are here, please join us by commenting with your thoughts and opinions.

Conferences, Who's to Blame?

Probably from reading his teacher's blog!

Top 10 Overused Awards Assembly Comments

According to Doug Johnson, on the Blue Skunk Blog most of us would prefer shallow wit to deep intelligence in our writers and speakers. Thank goodness. Granted, this is taken from his biases, but I read it on the internet, so I know it is true.

I guess that justifies publishing much of what we read on blogs. Using this line of reasoning, I can write many a post that veers on the edge of smartalecky. I can throw it out there and justify it by saying that I am just trying to share a little humor.

Oh well, here it goes--my top 10 tired and overused comments at an awards assembly.

1. I am so proud . . .

2. She is doing sooooo much better . . .

3. I never get an award.

4. He gets all the awards.

5. This is boring.

6. SSSSSHHHHHH

7. This is the best class . . .

8. I knew I wouldn't get an award because he doesn't like me.

9. She is a teacher's pet.

10. Keep trying and you will get an award next time (when pigs can fly). Oh sorry, somehow my thoughts snuck in here.

Can guess which are the teachers' comments and which are the students? By the way, have you figured out that we had an awards assembly yesterday?

Congrats to all of the award winners!

We Don't Have Time For Fun/Fluff

I recently attended a district-wide grade level inservice. This is a required "training" where testing, test results, and teaching for better scores are discussed. The meeting had just started when the presenter started talking about an extremely successful friend from another district.

She took the fun out, and just concentrated on the curriculum from the content standards approved by the state. Well, not the fun, but the fluff. She only taught 'what she was supposed to teach.' If we want to be successful we need to get this fun or fluff out of our teaching and only teach what we are supposed to teach.

Hello--did you check out our report card? According to it we are an excellent school. And who would believe it, we actually had a little fun. Even if we were only an Excellent school, not Excellent with Distinction, would you really choose to give up all of the fun, just for test scores? Is this what parents in our district really want? I can assure you it is not what students want.

So where do we go from here? Should the district have scripted teaching where fun/fluff is removed and teachers are told what to teach? Should testing and content standards be so important that they totally drive instruction? If a student has a question that doesn't fit in with the day's script, should we say, "sorry, but we can't discuss that because it is not on our curriculum map until May?"

Maybe we should have the new Reading Workshop. We teach the content standards and only discuss indicators as outlined by the Ohio State Department of Education. Students can think and can question, but only if it relates to the indicators we are teaching today.

I don't think so.

Where are the Workshop "How To's?"

What is most important to know about reading workshop? Some might say knowing what mini-lessons to teach is especially important. Others might think the format and how to set up a workshop is most significant. Activities students complete might be the choice from some that carries the most weight.

And the next question is, where should a blog called The Reading Workshop focus? Should it be on how a workshop looks and what activities take place? Or is it about students from classes in a workshop? I started thinking about this after I got this email.

I really like reading your blog . . .
Have you ever considered more posts with "how to's?" So many of your posts are about the students. I enjoy reading about them, but I think most teachers would like more on how to do reading workshop.

After reading this email a few times, and thinking about it for a couple of day, I thought about what controls my reading workshop day-to-day and how that has changed.

Originally it was the "experts." I read In the Middle and modeled my class after it. Today there are thousands of sites to get the "how to's." Nancie Atwell is still an excellent resource for the fundamentals of reading and writing workshop. The internet is filled with ideas for teaching, and examples from classes.

For me though, reading workshop starts and ends with the students. Every activity is only as valuable as it is relevant to the class I am teaching. The best book only matters if it reaches the student. And it is only the best book because of what it makes a student think and feel. The best lesson is only good because of how it impacts the class and the students. A good journal topic only matters if it lets a student share a thought, idea, or opinion that is meaningful to him.

It all starts and it all ends with the students. That should be the focus.