Do You Workshop?

An editor of professional books for educators asked me recently why more English teachers don't use the workshop model. A good quesiton to which there are no easy answers. My short list includes mandates, curriculum packages, reading or English programs, testing pressures, the cannon, school culture and teacher flexibility. I left NCTE this past year thinking what am I doing? What am I doing in my classroom? What am I doing in my professional life? What do I believe in as a teacher and are those beliefs reflected in what I do, what I write, what I say and how I teach? It is somehing I have been thinking about for many months.

Have you seen Nancie Atwell's video in response to the NY Times article on the "The Futue of Reading" where Jonesboro teacher, Lorrie McNeill, discusses her use of the workshop model. After hearing Atwell speak at NCTE this past year, I wondered why the reporter or McNeill didn't mention that she'd spent a week observing and immersing herself in the model at Atwell's school. Though Atwell gave English teachers the workshop classroom with her landmark, In the Middle, originally published in 1987, the workshop model is not ubiquitous. You don't see in every middle school in every district or even in every state. You certainly do not see it every high school. Why is that?

A portion of my class time every day is allotted to reading workshop. Students are surrounded by books. I expect them to read 20 titles a year and I read to reach 100.

I read the books my students read.

What I have not done  is connect my content teaching--the stuff of English--to what we read independently. Instead it's as if, over here I'm teaching a whole class piece (novel, play, poem, article) and we're doing "stuff" with that whole class piece. I think to shift my instruction, I could design open ended mini-lessons that push students into their own reading to apply the strategy. I'm almost there.

Likewise, a portion of my class time each week is allotted to writing workshop. Ideally, I would give a mini-lesson on leads or sentence variety and send students into the pieces they are writing to practice the lesson, but that is not quite what's happening in my classroom. Instead we might all work on memoir at the same time. I will demonstrate a technique or a craft element. Students will then take that to their own work. Not quite workshopping. But at the same time we have to write mandated types of assignments for our school writing portfolio. We have to do three on-demand writing prompts handed to us by the district.

 The have-tos get in the way for me.

The workshop model is not as natural to me as breathing underwater is for a fish; it takes deep content and pedagogical knowledge as well as a finesse with planning and thinking on your feet. I understand why teachers might be reluctant to jump in--running a workshop classroom takes skill. Workshop meaning that students have choice--sometimes crafted or limited choice--to apply what I have taught during a mini-lesson to something they are reading or writing. I would like to transition to a full workshop. Really that is where my teaching heart is. Students need choice. They need to start where they are and read and write themselves toward a goal. But that goal might be different for each student.

Does it sound easy? Do you already run a workshop classroom? Why not?

Image: My 3rd period class during reading workshop.

Journaling through NCTE

I filled a journal during sessions at NCTE. I've been thinking a lot about journals and my journal habit, especially after some twitter conversations about them, so I thought I'd start my reflecting on NCTE with a little peek into my journal. I journal and I blog and I tweet, but journaling is different more primal, more creative somehow. I know that no matter how easy it easy for me to connect with the computer in my pocket, I'll continue to journal. I journal because:

• It's tactile and my brain processes information that way.
• It's visual and when I draw and sketch I make connections between information and my long term memory.
• It's fun.
• It helps me think beyond the surface of things.
• I've jounal sinced I was 15.
• I enjoy journaling.
• It helps me pay attention.
• I stay with the speaker in my mind if I journal; it keeps me focused.
• I'm less likely to talk to the person sitting next me if I'm journaling (definitely something my own high school teachers appreciated, I can tell you).

I barely remember a time when I didn't carry a sketch book or a composition book or a Moleskin or a mini-spiral Mead notepad around with me. I'm a journaler. My journal is what Fletcher would call my writer's notebook. In it go notes, ephemera--artifacts that get me writing--scraps of poetry, ideas, outlines for books, photographs and drawings.

I write my way to knowing. As E.M. Forster says, "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?"

When I take notes in my journal I code things. Red question marks are for quetstions (an obvious one). Q is for quotes I'd like to remember. A green, double-ended arrow <-> signifies a connection while a blue H notes where I record my thinking (also where I write things as if I'm talking back to the speaker... erase those when I publish my notes as they are more for me than for everyone). A green B denotes a book title and a light bulb an idea. If the light bulb has a red T or red W next to it, I've classified my idea for either a workshop (W) or for teaching (T). If I write LU I'm telling myself to look up something later to either verify or extend what I've heard. At the end of each conference day (or when I get a chance), I make an index type list on the back pages of my journal. I devote 1-2 pages to book titles and write down all of the green B titles I noted. I do the same for quotes, things to look up and ideas. That way, at any time, I can flip to the back of my journal and have an overview of what I captured.

With a recent post on the English Companion Ning, Penny Kittle reminded me that we rarely get to peek into each others' journals, so I thought I'd invite you into mine. I've scanned a few pages: my opening word art piece, notes I took during Gary Anderson and Tony Romano's session on creative nonfiction and an index page of quotes:

Peek Into My Journal

I have just started to go back through my notes and sit down with teacher friends to talk about what I learned and thought about while I was there. I've been holding off writing about NCTE. If I put it off I can still savor the ideas, sink into the swirl of thoughts, chase rabbitt trails and research citations--pretend it's not over. Until next year, I can hold onto that thinking in my journal.

Would You Please Un-block?

The argument for controlling and censoring web content in schools goes something like this: we need to keep students safe; we need to keep predators out of our system; we need to keep students on task; we need to limit distractions. We need to limit students's access to sites on the web in order to protect them from pornographic or other inappropriate content. We need to control what our people can and can not do on the Internet from schools.

Why? Why not teach students (and teachers for that matter) what is appropriate? Why not teach folks how to be good digital citizens? I want students to feel empowered to learn, electrified by ideas, and enabled to succeed. I can't foster those creative and capable habits of mind if students are stuck in the web sandbox.

Today, I'm at the district headquarters learning about Moodle and am reminded of Dean Shareski's post, "Control is a Worthless Pursuit." He also wrote about filtering here. Like Shareski, I am not averse to district tools. I enjoy using them and am grateful for them. However, in my--probably adolescent mind--I feel a disconnect between what happens at the district, or what's allowed, and what happens at schools or what is allowed in our schools. There is a"do as I say not as I do" at work here. That whole "do as I say thing" vexed the teenaged me.

My thinking began with a discussion about messaging within the Moodle system.

A teacher asked, "Can students send messages to each other?"

The facilitator, who is all for giving students free reign inside the Moodle system, answered, "Well, I'm going to say that we sure wouldn't be working in a collaboratative environment if we could not send messages to each other." He continued with the idea that kid's messaging each other while on a Moodle site is a managment problem, not a system or a Moodle problem. He will not block students or block the messaging function.

Yes! One for the students.

Interesting. Why? Because the district is controlling when it comes to blocking and filtering out-of-system sites at schools. Outside of Moodle, students cannot access email at school-- personal email accounts; there are currently no district wide email accounts for students even though we have access and approval for two systems (ePals and Gaggle). Outside of Moodle, discussions or chats or blogging is discouraged: flat out blocked at school sites.

Within, Moodle, however, teachers can create online course content using Moodle which is approved by our district for use with students. We can email within the Moodle system. We can message within the system. It's as if the district must always be in control of the web environment in which students work. As a parent of an 8 year old, I can see the benefits of that, but as a 21st century learner, I resent it.

At the district, however, it seems that you can access anything. I can access all of my Nings, my blogs, twitter and who knows, I may even be able to dip into Facebook from here (I can. I checked.). Should I? If it's not instructionally relevant, no, I shouldn't. But should I be allowed to collaborate via the web with other educators? How can a district that pushes collaboration bind teachers to building-only resources? I learn a lot from my PLN--after hours, of course, when I should be grading papers.

Why can't I do some of these things from school? Any url with blog in the address is blocked. Twitter is blocked. Nings are blocked. Blocked, blocked, blocked. Firewalls are high and mighty in our schools.

There's a disconnect between what is available and allowed for administrators and what is available and allowed for teachers and students. Why? Is it that way everywhere?

Sometimes I wish I had the problem Bud Hunt wrote about in his post, "Would You Please Block This?" Instead of asking for sites to be blocked, it seems teachers in my district are asking for sites to be un-blocked.

I teach in the 12th largest school district in the nation. We have more than 5,000 teachers. One, unfortunate soul gets all of the "please un-block" emails. I've heard they are deleted as they arrive. We don't even get a canned response for our un-block requests, but that's another issue isn't it?

I want to empower students and teachers to learn. Everyone learns. What are we learning now? How can we empower learners when we keep them contained? What do you think about this issue? What happens in your district?

Image credit: Badjonni. "Neutron Man Presents."