It's interesting to me to follow the discussion and I'm loving it, I must say! Chapter 2 was the trickiest, by far to write because I had to get the structure laid out for the book and it is very complex - perhaps too complex. I wanted to rename the workshop components because I was working in dozens of districts that had very different definitions for what a good readers'/writers' workshop looked like and I found that many schools believed they were "doing readers' workshop" or "doing guided reading" and the practice in reality was far from what we would consider useful or productive literacy workshop structures. In addition, we were assessing (in the Cornerstone initiative) a number of districts' growth over time and we had to be on the same playing field. But honestly, I don't think it's terribly important what we call the various components as long as we're setting aside ample time for the most important elements of the workshop. We got some criticism from the research community for the first edition of Mosaic because we "assumed that the reader knows what a readers' workshop is" and it was in the subtitle for the first edition. That was a valid criticism so we had to address it Mosaic 2e. Whether it's useful here is, of course, up to the reader, but it isn't a big issue in this book. I will continue to use the terminology through the rest of the book, though.
I also wanted to comment on the discussion about living an intellectual life - I have been very intrigued by these posts and was particularly interested in Jennifer's comments. I wonder how many teachers essentially hide or "low key" the intellectual side of themselves. I am guessing it's a huge number and I guess I'm not sure why we do so. There is a weird sort of competitive angst (I know that's an odd phrase, but it fits what I want to say I think) among teachers sometimes and it relates to not wanting to be the standout, the more successful one. Very successful teachers - I think of my dear friend Debbie Miller - often take it on the chin from colleagues who feel competitive when they are highly successful. I'm not sure what's really behind our burying our intellectual selves, but I know I did it and I suspect there are many more. What people choose to do in terms of revealing themselves to colleagues is, of course, a very personal decision, but I sincerely hope we don't hide that side from children. We talk a lot about how we must model what it is to live a literate life; I just wanted to add a dimension to our thinking here. If we don't live an intellectual life and model that for kids (irregardless of what we share with colleagues) I wonder. . . . who will? I think there's another subset of teachers who simply don't see themselves as intellectuals at all. They see themselves as people who love kids and love to watch them learn but don't see the relevance of living an intellectual life or simply don't think about it much. I would also include myself in that group, early in my teaching career. I am not a classically educated scholar at any level and found when I was writing this book that I had a very narrow definition in my own mind about what it meant to be an intellectual, to live an intellectual life and to share that with children. I pictured ivory tower types who translate The Odyssey in ivy-covered halls, I guess, but now I realize that some of the things I did every day as a teacher and do in my life outside schools to this day are very intellectually engaging. I wanted to use the fourth section of each of the chapters you're about to read to explore teachers as intellectuals, including my own process of identifying myself as an intellectual. I hope everyone who reads To Understand will begin to revise their views of themselves as intellectuals and will begin to share that part of their lives with their students. That's really a key issue for me - whether it works in those 4th sections remains to be seen, but that was my intent. very best, ellin _____ I think you are really asking what it takes to be a literacy leader--a role model for the active intellectual and literate life for your colleagues. There are two keys to this, I am thinking. I do NOT pretend to be any kind of expert here...but this is something I have been doing a LOT of thinking about over the past couple years and pretty intensely over recent weeks. The first key is that you need to live the intellectual life yourself---don't hide it! This has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn...I am an avid, dare I say, a "fervent" learner-- I always have been. I love to learn for learning's sake. I am the kid who drove adults nuts with all the questions--and as an adult I can read almost anything and be interested in it. (My bedside table right now includes not only "To Understand, but also a Tom Clancy novel, a classification guide for butterflies, 2 books on leadership, a science fiction novel and a Smithsonian magazine!) For a long while on the job, though, I really 'low-keyed' that part of my personality from all but a few colleagues. I finally got sick of it, and decided to be myself, but I realized early on that there's a way to do it. Approaching all I do with the question "What can I learn from this experience?" became a guiding principle that helps me improve as a teacher and as a person. I expect each person I work with to have strengths, some aspect that I can learn from and when I started approaching them with that in mind, I began to have more productive professional relationships. To me, being an intellectual role model for colleagues means to exhibit a curiosity, an openness to ideas others have to offer and to look for opportunities to validate the ideas of others by incorporating them into my own practice. It is not so much about sharing all I know, as it is being open to the sharing. That is a lesson I am still learning and it is not an easy one for me. _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
