Good evening all! I have had a great learning day today.... Maryland's International Reading Association Conference began today and I must say, I was thinking so much about what I learned from all the sessions I attended and how well they fit in with what we are reading and learning about in To Understand. ( And, Ellin, you will be pleased to know that our Heinemann dealers ran out of copies today and will have to bring more tomorrow! It must be selling well.) It is always interesting how themes emerge from all the presenters. A few years back it was phonemic awareness, then comprehension strategies for a few years, then testing and assessment. Last year, it was vocabulary. Today it was the role of interest and motivation. I heard this theme over and over again, from Jack Pikulski to the author Roland Smith, to motivational speaker and Milken educator Steven Layne---the need for us to build a love of reading for our kids. If we teach kids to read but they choose not to, can we count ourselves successful? Where is the joy in learning? This just smacks me on the forehead and is screaming for me to pay attention to it! Student choices in reading materials offered by teaching reading through readers workshop, the noticing and naming of what it takes to understand---modeling fervent and joyful learning...THIS is how we create readers who want to read. Can you imagine the self esteem boost that would come from a successful reflection session where a kid taught his classmates something? This is not a false sense of self-esteem coming from the praise that kids often hear for every little thing! It would be a strong sense built on the idea that what goes on in your mind can be of great worth for others and that the work of the mind is important... I have two more days of the conference and am looking forward to it immensely...I will update you all over the next few days as my time allows. OH, Bonita (and everyone else interested in lesson study) we had about 40 people attending our presentation on lesson study today. I was SO proud to stand side by side with three tremendous colleagues from our lesson study team who were so professional and who advocated so passionately about the teacher and student learning that can occur with lesson study. This has been such a joyful experience for me...you know what??? I should so share this with my kids! They could really learn how much understanding comes from conversation! :-) Jennifer
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