Why Blog


I’m passionate about finding ways to simplify comprehension instruction and learning. I’m concerned that we are defining comprehension too narrowly as an accumulation of five or six meta-cognitive strategies when cultivating comprehension involves so much more than that. We need to help children acquire accurate fluent reading skills and strategies; build background knowledge; develop their oral language and vocabulary; make reading-writing connections, and acquire a repertoire of meta-cognitive strategies to use as and if needed.


So I invite you to join me in blogging about this ever-so-important topic. I look forward to hearing your ideas, teaching strategies, book recommendations, classroom stories, etc., basically anything that will inspire a healthy conversation among colleagues.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Ask Sharon...an Advice Column for Teachers (can you see me smiling?)

I have an idea. How about I ask you to post teaching questions throughout the week, and then I select one or two to answer every Monday or Tuesday? Sort of like an “Ann Landers” or “Dear Abby” column, only about teaching! (Just so you know, I’m “playing ” with this advice column format—just trying to have a little fun—and don’t at all take myself seriously. That said, you can count on me to take your questions VERY seriously and provide the best answer I can.) Are you with me?

So start posting your questions…anything at all related to teaching and learning, and I’ll post a reply on Monday or Tuesday. Can’t wait to hear from you.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Slow and Steady...(You Know the Rest)

We’re on a fast track in this country. We think that moving kids up to higher and higher reading levels faster and faster is the way to go. We reward kids for reading lots of books, rather than encouraging them to spend time enjoying, learning from, and mining fewer titles. In “The Case for Slow Reading,” Thomas Newkirk makes the case for slowing kids down, rather than speeding them up. He gives practical ideas for how to do this, e.g., attending to beginnings, annotating pages, and reading poetry. Rather than me trying to explain what Newkirk says, I urge you to read his article for yourself—slowly and deeply. It’s a keeper!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Two Great Read Aloud Titles for the Little Guys


I can’t wait to share two great titles that are guaranteed to get and keep your little guys engaged and begging you to “read it again.” Some of you may already know and own them, but they’re new to me and I couldn’t be happier. I feel like I found gold.
 
A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson starts out:

“There’s a frog on the log
in the middle of the bog.
A small, green frog
on a half -sunk log
In the middle of the bog…”

And when I read that I may have audibly moaned—oh no, not another linguistic “this-is-good-for-you” text to hit kids over the head with letter sounds. Fortunately I kept reading (probably because of the accolades on the back cover) and realized my first impression couldn’t have been more wrong. This book is fun, zany, bouncy, delightful and makes you (yes, it made me) join in chanting, even singing, the verses. Your little guys will LOVE it, so please check it out. (And after you’ve had a ton of fun reading and rereading this book, you can dig into its treasure trove of onset and rimes. Like I said, this book is pure gold.)

My second read aloud find for the younger set is Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. Besides being a satisfying story of a little blue truck whose friendship and kindness to his barnyard friends pays off, it’s great fun to read aloud. It, like A Frog in the Bog, rhymes and the up-beat verse beckons readers to join in. Before you know it, you’ll have a roomful of playful kids “beeping” like Little Blue and croaking, baaing, oinking, peeping, and quacking like Little Blue’s farm friends. It’s a fun book about friendship, so after all is said and done, you can use it to kick off a wonderful conversation on that ever-so-important topic. There’s also a sequel called Little Blue Leads the Way.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Some Explicit Teaching Guidelines

I like to hang out at PS 54, an exemplary elementary school in the South Bronx, where the teachers and administrators are forever pushing my thinking. In fact, being there is like having ready access to a great big bowl of mind-candy with an “Eat up!” sign taped to the side. And, believe me, I partake. (I only hope the teachers I work with learn as much from me as I learn from them.)

At the moment, the school’s literacy coach, several K-3 teachers, and I are thinking through a fairy tale and folk tale unit and will use traditional tales to demonstrate main idea (in this case "theme"), noting important details, and story grammar (character, setting, problem, etc.)  

In addition, I want to help teachers consider ways to be more explicit in their teaching. I want us all to become better at letting children in on what we’re thinking and demonstrating, and what students themselves should be doing throughout the lesson—instead of only focusing on directly teaching the focus skills and strategies. As I see it, although the terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a real difference between direct instruction and explicit teaching. Direct instruction means that you’ve decided to teach something head on rather than have students uncover the information, skills, or strategies themselves. Explicit teaching has to do with the delivery of a lesson and how to make our thinking clear to students and keep them on track.

Here are some explicit teaching guidelines:

1.    Identify what you want to accomplish. You can’t reach your objective if you don’t clearly know what it is.

2.    Tell the students what you’ve planned and why so that it both makes sense to them and is meaningful. (See January 9th blog post.)

3.    Build on the context you and your students have created. Whenever possible refer to what you and the students know and have experienced together, e.g., “you remember yesterday when we…, it’s like when Carlos said…, what I’m showing you now is similar to what we did when we read…”

4.    Speak simply and honestly with students. Don’t beat around the bush or turn the lesson into a series of numbing questions and answers. Tell students what they need to know, and ask questions only when you genuinely need an answer, so you can attend to the point you’re making.

5.    Be explicit with students throughout the lesson, not just at the beginning. Explicit teaching involves more than just telling kids up front what you will do, what they will do, and why. It involves clearing a path for them all through the lesson so that they stay focused and don’t get sidetracked.

6.    Connect, connect, connect—one idea to another, one book to another, lessons that came before to what you’re doing now or what will come later.

7.    Bring the lesson full circle by restating what you’ve shown them—what you’ve said you’d show them at the start of the lesson. Invite them to try this strategy out as they read on their own, but don’t expect young children to follow through without plenty of additional guided practice.

As I write these guidelines, I’m fully aware that they’re easier to write than to implement. However, this is something to work toward, to eventually become better at. It’s important to be explicit.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Let's "Play a Bit" Like They Do in Finland

The recent New Republic article, They’re Playing in Finland by Samuel E. Adams, about the innovative policies Finland has enacted to revamp their once-mediocre school system is heartening, and reminds me of an encounter I had several years ago with Peter Cunningham, a highly acclaimed photographer that Heinemann hired to take classroom photos for the cover of what was my soon-to-be-published book. (The book’s publication, due to my slow-but-steady MO, actually ended up being a few years down the road, but that’s another story.)

Peter showed up in my classroom bright and early one morning, took note of what he saw, and instead of setting up shop inside the classroom and taking photos of a few children and me reading, writing, and talking together as I’d anticipated, he opted for a fifth-floor staircase landing as his make-shift studio where, according to Peter, the lighting was better. Pleased with his newfound environment, Peter indicated the middle of the landing with a nod of his head and said, “I want you and the kids to step inside (his circle of light) and just interact a bit. I don’t know what I’m doing,” he teased. “Let’s just play a little bit. Let’s have a little fun.” More than anything else that morning—more than the gorgeous photos he rendered, more than the respectful way in which he interacted with the children—Peter’s playful, out-of-the box approach to his profession, his suggestion that we play a little bit and have some fun, has stayed with me all these years.

We need more of this spirit of playfulness and innovation in our classrooms and in our teaching lives. Things have gotten so serious, so frightfully serious—about scores, about testing, about quickly moving kids up in levels, about AYP, that we lose sight of the fact that our best work—children’s and teachers’—comes when we all take a deep breath and relax, when we take a moment to genuinely assess children by sitting alongside them, talking with them, reflecting on what they’ve taught us, and then making teaching decisions based on what we know about our children and about best practice.

We have much to learn from Finland. It’s time we got in on the fun.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Using "Short and Sweet" Texts to Teach Genre


I’m a huge fan of Benchmark Education and the exemplary teaching materials they publish. Last month I had the pleasure of visiting their Pelham, NY office on my drive from Trumbull, CT where I spend half my time to Brooklyn Heights where I spend the other. I was interested in learning more about their Readers’ and Writers’ Genre Workshop, a new product I was introduced to at the 2010 IRA in Chicago. This resource is a collection of “short and sweet” genre sets for students in Grade 3 and higher. Each title, available at three reading levels and featuring one of 20 genres, includes a description of the genre, its key features, two short (and sweet) examples of that genre—one with annotations and the other without—for students to read and study. Students are also invited to try their hand writing in that genre.

I bring this resource to your attention in light my interest (and yours, as noted by the large number of comments made to my Jan. 20th  “Chapter Books—Short and Sweet” post) in putting into children’s hands reading materials that aren’t so long that students grow weary, over-whelmed, and lose sight of what they’re reading. Check this product out. It may be just what you’re looking for.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Andy Shane Series for Young Readers

The Andy Shane series by Jennifer Richard Jacobson offers a well-written and humorous collection of short chapter books for young readers not yet ready to handle longer, more sophisticated titles. Each book in the series has four chapters, and its problem is easily recognizable. (It usually has something to do with Andy Shane's very bossy classmate, Dolores Starbuckle). The best part is that there are seven books in the series so once your students get started in this series during guided or independent reading, there are additional titles to be read. In addition, it's one of the few children's books I've come across that portrays an up-to-date picture of what elementary-grade classrooms look like, e.g., the children sit in a circle for a part of the day and are not always at desks, and the teacher is dressed comfortably in slacks and a loose-fitting top. Start collecting this series. It won't disappoint.