Some Professional Reading Part 1

I thought about attempting sketchnotes but since I actually know nothing about them beyond seeing examples online ... I thought again. I used to only read one book at a time. Has the internet shallowed my brain? Also it would have made MUCH more sense to start this a month ago but anyway.

So as to 1) try and make myself accountable and 2) not MISPLACE any notes ... I thought I'd place them here. Lots of scrolling ahead. Proceed with this in mind. There is a photo at the end. Though you might have already seen it on Instagram. ;)



Notice and Note (How embarrassing that I have owned this book for ... 2 years? Been a lurker on the FB group for just as long? And never ... got to it? Anyway. Chapters 1-3)

• The reading habits survey on page 14 is pretty awesome. May have to steal/use it.


• The questions on "Talking with Colleagues" on pages 18-19 are food for thought. Wish I'd have read this when it was the #cyberpd of the summer so I could have actually discussed them with others. Right now the three most interesting to me are "How do I help students consider or document their changing interests in genre?" (Because so much of that is mandated by the classroom teacher. "This month you need to get one realistic fiction book as well as your choice." So what do I do as the teacher librarian? Then "Do I use nonfiction to extend students' thinking about ideas developed in novels?" I feel like I'm much better at doing that with picture books so I want to improve that this year. And then how can I encourage more of the "Do my students read literary nonfiction--the human interest essay, biography, autobiography, journalism, historical and scientific documents that are written for a broad range of audiences and often with a narrative structure (i.e. think The Great Fire for upper elementary ..."? This is also interesting in light of the third book I picked up, Digital Reading.


• quote from page 21 "Rigor is not an attribute of a text, but rather a characteristic of our behaviour with that text. Put another way, rigor resides in the energy and attention given to the text, not in the text itself." Then on page 22 "The essential element in rigor is engagement [and committment]. The rigor has to be achieved by engaging the readers in a process that is sufficiently interesting or rewarding that the'll invest energy in the work." Such a delicate balance! Over-reading is so possible.

Making Thinking Visible (Chapters 1&2)

• page 1 spends a lot of time on the definition of thinking. Which was remarkably interesting! I'm already intrigued by the "What kinds of thinking do you value and want to promote in your classroom? ... if we are going to make thinking visible ... the first step will be for us as teachers to make the various forms, dimensions, and processes of thinking visible to ourselves."


• page 8 "Thus, we might consider understanding not to be a type of thinking at all but an outcome of thinking. After all, one cannot simply tell oneself to understand something or directo one's attention to understanding versus some other activity."


• page 11-13 8 thinking moves or "understanding map"


• page 14 other kinds of thinking


• pages 18-20 are 4th, 6th, and 10th graders concept maps on thinking. Interesting to note the differences.


• page 21 just a side note ... I asked Alexa what "epistemology" meant! The definition was about what I was getting from context but still.


• page 25-26 put the student at the center! It's not all about the teacher delivering content! It's not even all about teaching "methods." "Our role as teacher shifts form the delivery of information to fostering students' engagement with ideas. Instead of ... judging our success by how much content we get through, we must learn to identify the key ideas and concepts with which we want our students to engage, struggle, question , explore, and ultimately build understanding."


• page 28 "when we demystify the thinking and learning process, we provide models for students of what it means to engage with ideas, to think, and to learn. In doing so, we dispel the myth that learning is just a matter of committing the information in the textbook to one's memory."


• page 29 "What are my students learning about learning? What messages am I sending through the opportunities I create for my students about what learning is and how learning happens?"


• pages 30-39 SO many great thoughts on making the invisible visible. Subheadings include "questioning, modeling an interest in ideas, constructing understanding, facilitating and clarifying thinking, listening, and documenting." 

I've actually gone a little further and started into the routines but this is a good place to stop for now.

Digital Reading What's Essential in Grades 3-8 (Chapters 1-2)

• pages 1-3 describe two students and the different ways they interact with digital text. Super interesting. One mention of social annotations made me really curious. I totally had to turn that off on my Kindle because it was driving me NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!! In college whenever I had to buy a used textbook dealing with other people's highlighting distracted me as well. Does that help any of you?


• page 5 A terrible, terrible, terrible quote by a focus group student "I know school is important and I want to do well because that's what everyone expects of me. But if I really want to learn something, I do that outside of school." THIS IS AWFUL!


• page 6 "Just because students are "good" with technology does not necessarily mean they are literate in the digital age. Digital literacy is much more than that.... This knowledge makes them technology users but certainly doesn't give them a deep understanding of how the tools work, what the best tool might be for a specific task, or even what other tools might be available ..."


• page 7 the NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies


• page 8 "One thing we do know: we can't view digital reading as an add-pn; in other words, we can't wait until a child is competent with traditional literacy skills and then expect the child to transfer those skills to digital text." AMEN. I'll say it again and again ... AMEN!


• page 8-9 "We want them to be intentional about when and how to choose which types of texts will help them find and best understand the message and medium. By helping students to recognize the types of text they will encounter and how to interact with these various kinds of texts, they will gain independence in their reading choices ..."


• page 10 Figure 1.3 How digital reading expands traditional reading skills = AWESOME


• page 11 talks about how our role as educators is to support students' literacy "by helping them intentionally use digital tools for learning and make these tools a part of their daily lives. We do this by being intentional about our own work with students ..."


• page 12-13 talks about kids reading Harry Potter before they were necessarily ready. "We worry that when children read books they can understand only at a surface level, they start expecting only that level from all their reading" YES, this is TRUE. It's a delicate balance, there.


• page 13 reminder of three text types (linear texts in digital format, nonlinear texts with links, and texts with media) but the book will be focused on three anchors ... authenticity and keeping reading meaningful, intentionality and making choices, and connectedness (between texts, readers, and experiences)


• page 14 again "We cannot presume that students must become proficient with traditional texts before we give them opportunities with digital texts."


• page 16 "While no single tool makes the difference in the literacy workshop, collectively these tools [ipads, iPods, e-readers, laptops/chromebooks, SMART boards] change everything about our teaching and our students' learning." 


• page 18 The author discusses her own habits and changing reading. "Sure, it was great to do a project here and there, but for the most part, even as my own literacy practices were changing my classroom workshop remained the same."


• page 19 Figure 2.2 The role of digital texts in the literacy workshop


• page 21 Figure 2.3 Differences between traditional and digital reading workshops

So many things to think about! I want teachers to read this! And I need to ponder on what all this means for the library classroom.

And if you made it all the way to the bottom I will repeat a post from earlier today because, as you know, I love it (even if my photog skills in lighting and focus need work!). Getting a team together to do a Star Wars themed 5K in December and I am SO EXCITED! Yes! Many are walking. I might try to run even though I won't be fast. We're talking big deal if I can come in under 33 minutes. But that would be awesome.