Honoring Stories through Performance

Performance engages young learners as "entire people, physically, mentally, vocally in the creation and exploration of text" Gus Weltsek. Gus illustrates through his work shown in this video how he encourages and uses the young men's own stories so that they can begin to use these experiences to understand and engage in the curriculum of school in a personal way. Truly honoring students lives through story empowers these learners.

This advice to teachers from

Rebecca Alber about how to inspire summer reading holds true for teacher's summer reading as well. Choosing an author or two to read for the summer is a productive practice. Authors like Naomi Shihab Nye or Cynthia Rylant who write across genres and generations are particularly inspiring.

1) Invite students to give Book Talks to the entire class. Who influences kids the most? Their peers, of course, so providing children opportunities to pitch books to classmates can be incredibly effective and powerful.

2) Introduce kids (and especially those reluctant readers!) to a book series. This will inspire them to seek out the next book, and the next, and the next.

3) Provide your students and their families with the “Latest and Greatest” in fiction and non-fiction for the grade level you teach. I’ve had students come back to me the next year, and there are x’s by several book titles (they used the reading list I gave them as a check list!)

4) If teaching older kids, set up a Facebook page all about books. Students will then be able to share with their classmates (and you!) updates on what they are reading and post their book reviews.

5) Start or end class with a Read and Tease. This means you read a few enticing lines from a book (it can be the opening words, or midway through). For my students, I’d give a dramatic reading of the opening paragraph and then place the book on the rim of the whiteboard. At the end of class, at least 2 or 3 students would ask to check it out.

Everyone has a story to tell. As I read anything it seems I am looking for a connection that relates what I am reading to my own story. My first introduction to digital storytelling came from Deneen Fraizier Bowen who showed several digital stories in a keynote address I attended a couple of years ago. It was the story that caught my attention initially- a teacher struggling to uncover the amazing potential of each of her students in the midst of standardization and uniformity. But as I was challenged to make my own digital story I realized the power of the other modes (in my case photographs, computer images I found, music, and my own voice) were more powerful as a whole that any of the individual parts. The process I experienced in choosing and creating was transformative. Digitales has one of my first stories and stories from many others who have experienced the power of storytelling 21st century style.

The importance of a classroom library for ALL teachers.

Making Sure They Are Learning | Edutopia

Authentic assessment of reading comprehension- but even more than that understanding of 'a plan' for students to continue to grow as a reader

Making Sure They Are Learning | Edutopia