Engagement from the Start: Launching Your Year of Learning Considering Time, Choice, and Space

It’s that time once again, and I have to say, this year I feel ready.

I have been thinking a lot about what this back to school post would contain. After all, there is so much to think about, and so many ideas to share.

But then I stumbled upon a blog post that Nancie Atwell wrote for Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post.  She was writing about the term innovation, and what it means to education. In the piece Atwell (2015) wrote,

“I’d like to reclaim the term. Methods, created by teachers in a quest to develop students’ skills and understandings, are the essential innovations. In my 40-year career as a middle school English teacher, the simplest and most powerful innovation was to give my students time and choice as writers and readers."

And I thought, that’s it.  Of course Nancie Atwell would remind me of what matters most when thinking about back to school, and about daily reading and writing instruction.  The greatest innovations we as teachers have are time and choice, and I would add, space.

Readers and writers need time to write.  They need to be able to make choices and decisions about what they are reading and writing, as well as choose the tools, strategies, and materials that they will use.  Readers and writers will also need a space that supports them -- physically, emotionally and cognitively. Back to school requires us to consider how we will launch the year, cultivate engagement in all our readers and writers, and give them time, choice, and space to flourish.

Considering Space:  Preparing for the Year

I define space as the physical space and arrangement of the room, the emotional space, the cognitive space, and the materials and resources within the space.  These are four things that I do in preparation for the school year:

1. Create an Engaging, Aesthetically Pleasing, 

and Functional Physical Environment:  

The physical arrangement of a classroom sets the tone for learning, so consider the use of classroom physical space wisely.  Arrange furniture in a way that allows for learning differences (for example, allowing a more distractible student to face a quieter or less busy wall or section of the classroom, or considering teacher proximity for a student needing more support) and carefully consider the flow of the room.  Leave room for transitions and movement, and create areas or “nooks” that will support independent practice or collaborative endeavors.  Also consider how wall space is used. If possible, paint rooms using neutral colors in warm hues for younger students, and use cool colors for older students. Don’t operate in extremes – completely blank walls or completely covered walls.  Walls should contain some charts and other visuals that provide students with pertinent information (such as an anchor chart from a recent lesson) or motivation (such as a class motto, quote from a writer, or other inspiring thought). Think less is more, and ask yourself, would I want to and could I do my best reading and writing, thinking and learning in this room?  If the answer is no, consider what you need to do to create an appealing and engaging physical space, and if yes, you are set to go.
2. Build a Strong Cognitive Environment: 

The cognitive environment is defined as the academic and appropriately challenging tone of a classroom. It encompasses the level of expectation, willingness to invest and challenge, and be active and reflective in learning-- the real mind-work of a room.  Readers and writers need a strong cognitive space in order to fully engage, manage their time, and grow as readers and writers.   Building the cognitive environment for readers and writers means that from the beginning of the year you will: set high and clear expectations for their reading and writing; communicate these expectations verbally, but also in writing in the form of anchor charts, checklists, rubrics, and other forms of feedback; introduce surveys and interest inventories so that students can communicate who they are as learners, take ownership and invest in their work, and learn to read and write long and strong; and make learning active and relevant by asking students to make decisions about their reading and writing and create daily plans, using planning strategies for writing and/or creating “I will” statements.


3. Develop a Positive Emotional Environment: 

The emotional environment is defined as the “relationship” part of the environment and includes building connections and positive feelings towards learning. The year is off to the right start when you create a positive tone in the classroom.  You can do this simply by getting to know your readers and writers and allowing them to get to know you.  Share stories from your summer, your childhood, your life outside of school, and listen to students as they share tidbits from their lives.  Capture these stories and weave them into the fabric of the classroom, into your lessons, and into the decisions students make as readers and writers.  In addition, interactions with students help to develop a positive tone and emotional environment so consider how you will incorporate strong communication during lessons through verbal exchanges or nonverbal signals, during conferring and other forms of differentiated teaching, and a during a reflective and active wrap-up at the end of reading and writing time.
4. Organize Materials and Supplies:
 Learners need materials, both print and digital, and before the school year starts we need to organize materials and consider how they will be used and managed.  I think it is important to create a system that will create independent, engaged learners.  We want for students to have their reading and writing materials organized, personalized, and accessible to themselves and to all teachers in the room.  In fact, researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute have found that clutter distracts from learning (Doland 2011) so remove clutter and organize for access and success!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Considering Time, Choice, and Space:  A Launch Unit

As a classroom teacher, I always started the year with a beginning of the year unit, otherwise known as the launch.  I believe that there is no other place to begin than at the beginning, and for me, what matters most is fostering the community, cultivating engagement from the beginning, and doing what Bev calls "setting the table" for a year of learning. The launch is a unit that does just that -- launches our year of learning, including how we will spend our time as readers and writers, what materials, strategies, texts, and tools we can choose, and how we will exist and flourish in our shared community space.

I believe that it is essential to launch the year in this way and to always remember that our goal is to get students started as readers and writers by getting them reading and writing.

To ensure that this unit goes well and becomes the foundation for a year of engaged reading and writing, start by creating unit goals, and center those goals around time, choice, and space.   Goals could include:

By the end of this unit, students will:

• Read and write independently for increasing periods of time.
• Set reading or writing goals.
• Recognize and use a various purposes for reading and writing.
• Utilize a variety of materials including writer’s notebook (or writing paper) to generate writing.
• Utilize a variety of materials to support reading including texts, book boxes or bins, digital reading space (school created database, Shelfari, or DOGO news work great), sticky notes.
• Choose books based on interest, purpose and fit.
• Make choices and write in a genre based on purpose.
• Experiment with genre, strategy, purpose, and/or audience as a reader or writer.
• Internalize the routines and structures of reading or writing workshop.
• Identify qualities and strengths as readers or writers.
• Support a community of readers or writers.

They key is to start with your end objective and carefully choose 3-5 goals for your reading unit, and 3-5 goals for your writing unit.

Next, you will want to think of a progression of lessons (across approximately two weeks) for the unit. The lesson progression should feel cohesive, and should in essence tell the story of the unit.  A well-planned unit, like a good story, has an arc to the teaching -- the teaching and learning flows from day to day and has an intentional beginning, middle, and end.  Again, I use the lens of time, choice, and space to consider lessons within the unit.  

Lessons that Build the Space:

A launch unit will have just a few lessons regarding the classroom space.  We want to establish the community and routines, but understand that this will develop through the structures, daily work and rituals, and interactions around the read aloud, so we don’t want too many days of these kinds of lessons.  Some lessons could include:

• Read aloud a text that explores the idea of community.  Discuss, write, draw what an ideal reading or writing community looks like.
• Read aloud a text that celebrates words. Discuss, write and or draw reading or writing preferences or habits, strengths and goals.
• Build identity by modeling reading habits and preferences.  Share your summer reading stack.  Students share summer reading and/or reading favorites and preferences. Can use survey or interview format- print or digital to conduct an interest inventory.
• Explore what reading and writing time will look like and sound like. Engage students in the discussion to cultivate interest and autonomy.
• Explore what makes a strong reader or writer. Class and students set goals for reading or writing.
• Introduce students to reading materials, including the classroom library.  Set up book bin and digital reading space.
• Introduce writing materials including the primary writing tool, print and digital.  Students personalize tool.

Lessons that Establish the Reading and Writing Time:
Lessons around time are all about establishing the reading and writing time, and getting students reading and writing. Some lessons could include:

• Model writing ideas and where they come from.  Create a tool that captures student ideas and where ideas come from.  Possibilities include Map of the Heart, Welcome to My World chart, or topic/genre t-chart.  Be sure to include ideas that come from a variety of inspirations including memories and wonderings, hopes and observations.
• Use the words of authors to explore idea generation.  Share author quotes, visit an author’s website, read the about the author section of a favorite text, or read texts that specifically address author’s ideas.  Use this as the inspiration for writing.
• Discuss the workshop structure and model a reading or writing conference with a student. Students practice conferring with a peer around writing ideas.
• Model choosing a topic and writing on that topic.  
• Model stretching yourself as a writer.  Set a goal to write longer and stronger by extending amount of writing or amount of time writing.
• Model choosing your first independent book of the year.  Connect the book to preferences and previous reads. Create a short stack of TBR books.
• Model stretching yourself as a reader.  Set a goal to read longer and stronger by extending the number of pages read or the amount of time reading.
• Model collaborations around reading or writing.  Establish short term partnerships.
• Model managing your time during reading and writing workshop. Be sure to include strategies to continue reading and writing (choosing a new text or topic, reading or writing in a new genre, having a quick conference to get “unstuck”).

Lessons around Choice:
Lessons around choice are all about exploring the choices and decisions that readers and writers make, explicitly modeling strategies for making choices, and providing students lots of time and opportunity to read and write and make choices.

• Model choosing a genre to write in and how to write in that genre.  Connect to preferences and previous writing.
• Model choosing a genre to read, then choosing a text from that genre. Connect to preferences and previous reads.
• Model strategies for generating writing.  Ask students to choose a strategy that will work for them.
• Model strategies for getting “unstuck” as a  reader or writer. Ask students to choose a strategy to use when stuck.
• Model authentic reading response (partner/small group talk, use of sticky notes, retelling to self, blogging, etc.).  Ask students to choose a method of response to use after independent reading.       
• Model risk taking as a reader or writer by choosing a new and different purpose, topic/text, genre.  
• Model a few strategies for making plans for reading or writing. Choose one and demonstrate how this serves as an inspiration for reading or writing.
• Model choosing a beginning of the year writing piece (an entry) and "polishing"  the writing by bringing it through a quick process, and then celebrating the piece and the launch.

The launch matters.  It is your way to "set the table" for your year of reading and writing and begin to engage your students in a year of authentic and powerful learning!

– Patty

Titles to Launch the Year

Titles that Build Community and Create Space and Culture
Wolf, Becky Bloom
Waiting, Kevin Henkes
Beautiful Hands, Brett Baumgarten and Kathryn Otoshi
Martin's Big Words, Doreen Rappaport
"L" is for Library, Sonya Terry
Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books, Kay Winters
The Other Way to Listen, Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, Judith Viorst
Hoops, Robert Burleigh
Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, Mark Alan Stamaty
Wonder, R.J. Polacio
The Librarian of Basra, Jeanette Winter
Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, Andrea Davis Pinkney
America Street: A Multicultural Anthony of Stories, Anne Mazer
Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories, Sandra Cisneros

Titles that Support Use of Time

The Best Time to Read, Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom

What Do Authors Do?, Eileen Christelow

Seeing the Circle, Joseph Bruchac (and other books in the Meet the Author and Author at Work series)

BookSpeak!: Poems about Books, Laura Purdie Salas

How to Read a Story, Kate Messner

You Have to Write, Janet S. Wong
Any Questions?, Marie-Louise Gay
Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
How Writers Work, Ralph Fletcher
Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink, Gail Carson Levine
How Writers Write, Pamela Lloyd

Titles that Support Choice as Readers and Writers
Ask Me, Antje Damm
The Wonder Book, Amy Krouse Rosenthal
In the Land of Words, Eloise Greenfield
Frogs, Nic Bishop
If You Were a Writer, Joan Lowery Greenfield
The Important Book, Margaret Wise Brown
Written Anything Good Lately? and Read Anything Good Lately? Susan Allen, Jane Lindaman
Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems about Growing Up, Donald Graves
Childtimes, Eloise Greenfield

Special thanks to Lisa Horst, Cortney Steffens Malandra, Jaime Margolies, and teachers from the Memorial School in Emerson, NJ for the use of classroom pictures in this post!

Doland, Erin. 2011. “Scientists Find Physical Clutter Negatively Affects Your Ability to Focus, Process Information.” Unclutterer blog. http://unclutterer.com/2011/03/29/scientists-find-physical-clutter-negatively-affects-your-ability-to-focus-process-information/.

Atwell, Nancie.  "The 'Most Powerful' Classroom Innovation -- by the $1 Million Teaching Prize Winner." The Washington Post. April 16, 2015. Web. August 20, 2015.