Add one more believer to the ways of thinking below (don't worry, I won't format them with names in front of them). I was just reading an old piece on inquiry from the National Writing Project. I'm going to try to get my staff to follow their recommendation during our collaborative time: take a piece of student work you think is good (or a lesson you thought went well) and ask, "What needs to happen to make it better? How can I improve this?" IMHO for too long we've looked at our failures and asked ourselves what went wrong and tried to figure out how to "fix it." What if, OH WHAT IF, instead we were "less smug" (I love that!) and followewd NWP and Keene to "rethink what we believe is already working." Oh, what if! Judy
- - - - - - - - Or, as Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld would say, "Down with Smug!" (Beverlee) On page 57, "We must do what is hardest of all--rethink what we believe is already working" really resonated with me. I am so fortunate to be in a district that embraces best practices and allows teachers to implement exactly what Ellin speaks of in this book. But, and here is the sad part, teachers are very unwilling to take a critical look at what they already do. _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
