I'm approaching the switch to the Common Core Standards on a "need to know" basis. They aren't exactly giving me hives, but I'm on the apprehensive side of curious to find out how they'll impact the way I do business in my 4th grade classroom.
Georgia Heard's session at All Write, "Understanding the Core Standards: Reading Standards for Literature -- Poetry," seemed like a good place to dip my toes in. And the main message I got from this session? Good teaching is good teaching, no matter what labels they give us to name the pieces and parts.
Georgia started with the big lessons that poetry teaches -- lessons of language. Poetry is filled with figurative language, and with the language of heart and soul: rhythm and sound, compression and precision, images, and figures of speech. (And she showed us where all of these pieces and parts and labels can be found in the Common Core Standards.)
She named the questions we need to ask of poems we read and write:
- What makes this a poem?
- What is this poem about?
- What is the poet's message?
- What tools did the poet use to help show his/her meaning?
(The standards these questions address already exist in our state standards...nothing new here...)
And she showed us how, by living with and climbing inside one poem a week, students would build knowledge about poems for their "music" and for their "meaning" toolboxes for reading and writing poetry.
Monday: read the poem aloud. Make sure students can see the poem. Read it again. Turn and talk. What do you notice? What's it about?
Tuesday--Thursday: illustrate it, act it out, read it chorally, do quick-writes about the poem/off of the poem.
Friday: now that you love and understand the poem, dig into the craft tools the poet used. Talk about how the poem's built, how the poet uses compressed language (not ALL of the words another writer might use on the same topic).
Georgia's final message:
Don't forget that literature is heart work.
and I see huge possibilities for the library. I have read and loved all of Georgia Heard's books. She was the person who years ago at a Teacher's College Writing Project Summer Institute convinced me that I could include poetry reading and writing in my classroom. Her book, FOR THE GOOD OF EARTH AND SUN is still the resource I go back to again and again for inspiration in the teaching of poetry. This topic, A Place of Wonder, follows Georgia's theme--helping kids find and live their passions--but in this book, she focuses more on nonfiction. I have been especially interested in nonfiction lately, thinking about how to get more kids at our school reading nonfiction by choice. I see huge implications for the library after hearing Georgia talk. I think I read this book when I was new to the library and now that things are set, it seems the perfect time to implement some of the ideas that Georgia shares in the library. One of the key things Georgia talked about was the importance of valuing student questions and having a permanent place in the classroom to capture those. She also talked about the idea of "pondering time" when a class could explore one question together as a way into class shared research. She says, "Google can answer questions. We want them to think about things. We want them to put opinions with fact-they need voice." She wove all of this in with the teaching of nonfiction and what struck me was the idea that research is not about report writing. It is about wondering, finding answers, thinking together and finding voice because you understand. I will be revisiting this book with an eye toward the library this summer.
Cris Tovani 
(due out from Stenhouse in July). She talked about the importance of getting back to our beliefs about students and learning. She shared that when your beliefs don't match your practice, you get burnt out. She said, "If you don't believe that children can read, you won't do the learning needed to figure out how to scaffold them so they can read for 90 minutes." She really pushed us to think about our practice--why do we do what we do. She did this by sharing her own process and her own thinking over the year. She reminded us that Reading Workshop is not an activity--that it is a planning structure. And she talked about assessment that matters--the kind that helps us know where to take kids next. I am anxious to read her new book. Her first book, 
understanding of the subtle things an author does in a text and the way that it impacts the reader. As always, listening to Lester was a treat. He can bring powerful thinking to us with his humor and wit. This was the first time I was able to hear Lester read aloud from his new picture book 
. I love that he can use his own writing to share the decisions he makes as an author. This combination is a unique one for a presenter--his understanding of child development, literacy learning, and the life of a writer. Setting is often one of those things I don't pay attention to but Lester gave us ways to really look at the way setting impacts a story--when it matters. I hope to reread some picture books that he recommended to begin to make sense of setting myself. 
No matter how many times I hear Debbie Miller, she keeps me grounded. Debbie shared student samples from K-5 on how she is helping students make their thinking permanent. She is brilliant in her choice of books and shared picture books like 
and 
as ways to help students at different levels make sense of text at deeper levels. I loved Debbie's book 
--it helped me see what kids were capable of when time was given to thinking. But her book 
is one that has impacted my thinking most in the last several years. In that book, as in this presentation, she shared the thought process she goes through to show how intentional she is about every move she makes in the classroom. Everything she does is purposeful and every book she chooses, she does with intent. For me, Debbie is always about thinking hard about the ways in which we spend time with kids--keeping our classrooms authentic and powerful places for learning.
Jeff Anderson, author of 
kicked of the All Write conference with the opening keynote. Jeff has an upcoming book called 10 THINGS EVERY WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW (Stenhouse). In his keynote, Jeff talked a bit about the new book and made some points that I have been thinking about. One point he made early on about the title of the new book was to point out that the book was not called "THE" 10 THINGS A WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW. But these are 10 things that stay true. At the beginning of Jeff's talk, he mentioned all of the ways technology are expanding our opportunities to write. But, he asked, "What are the things about writing that stay true no matter what?" He continued to push us to think about ways we supported writing in our classrooms. 
and 
most often but I think I will revisit 
after hearing this talk.
into her session. Ruth talked about the things she learned about teaching writing from her children's swim teacher. The talk was brilliant and the message was huge. It was a gift to be part of her session. The thing about Ruth that most struck me was her reflective stance--she is constantly reflecting on her practice and carries the reflection a bit further than most of us do. She is continually looking at the bigger picture of our work with children. This is evident in all of her writing and her work. Ruth is one of those people that truly amazes me. I am not sure how she does what she does. Ruth is generous with sharing her own learning--when you look for Ruth online, you can find webcasts, presentations and more. Her book 
is packed with ideas to help teachers reflect. She is also working on a new book and keeps up with not one, but two blogs, 
I have heard Ann Marie Corgill (@acorgill on Twitter) speak many times over the years. I always learn so much from her and am able to rethink my work with young writers. At All Write, I was able to hear her talk about writing assessment and the use of Learning Journey folders. Ann Marie wrote about these in her book 
and I have been thinking a great deal about making the process of learning more visible. These folders are something I need to look at again--I plan to revisit that section of her book soon. Ann Marie is someone who understands writing workshop at all levels. She has experience teaching grades 1-6 and shares her learning in many ways. Her 
Twitter). Terry has taught me so much about the possibilities with graphica over the years. His book, 
has helped me embrace this format as both a reader and a teacher. I am still not totally comfortable with graphica so anytime I have a chance to hear Terry, I do. Terry talked a lot about the ways that graphic novels give our kids visual supports for comprehension and that these books often create a scaffold for more traditional texts. He had us work through a few examples of the skills and strategies needed to understand graphic novels and I could more easily see how using graphica in minilessons can make strategies more visible for kids. I have always used picture books in this way, but had not thought about it with graphica. 
