Reading – Tavia Clark

Written Conversation

Written conversation is a pedagogical method that puts reflection, analysis and synthesis at the forefront of learning. Whether using this method with students or adults, it allows participants to engage in a learning experience where everyone is on a level playing field and all voices are amplified.

I have been using this method both for learning experiences for students and in professional learning experiences for teachers for the past 6 or 7 years, and the results are always the same. Participants walk away from the experience feeling empowered as learners and contributors.

My interpretation of the written conversation method is largely based on the work of Harvey Daniels and Buffy Hamilton. With the excellent guidance from these two educators, I have been able to craft various versions of written conversations – all of which allow freedom and space for reflection.

In October, I was able to bring this method to the NC Digital Leaders Coaching Network, a program that I help facilitate at Friday Institute. With a few minor adjustments (because of logistics), this method for “discussing” a text became the catalyst for our coaches to have very powerful conversations about their role in their districts and buildings.

*You can read more about this method in a Friday Institute PLLC blog post written by my colleague Greg Garner.

This method has been one of the most powerful pedagogical strategies I’ve used. I have seen the meekest and most unengaged students blossom and come to life as their voices are amplified. With my colleagues and other educators, I’ve seen this method give equal validity to everyone’s ideas, help people engage in active “listening” and serve as a springboard for deeper conversations and partnerships. And one of the most fantastic things about this is that anyone can do it – no tech required. It is truly a method that you can read about today and use in your classroom tomorrow.

How Written Conversation Works
As a pedagogical method written conversations are very simple. The facilitator chooses texts to be written around, creates the posters (large versions of the texts) and introduces the method to participants. Participants are then given short amounts of time to read and respond to each text (in a station rotation format) and to respond to the comments of their peers – all done silently, only through writing. During the activity I often schedule in a small group share where I pose a question and allow participants to partner up and discuss, out loud. This helps to ease the desire to say what you think, rather than simply writing it down.

Let’s start with the texts.
Written conversation requires that we stretch our idea of a text. We tend to think of text as simply written words – however, texts can be so much more. In the past, I’ve used infographics, charts, graphs, political cartoons, maps, images, poetry, tweets from Twitter feeds/hashtags, excerpts from both fiction and non-fiction works and even students created work. The texts you chose as the facilitator, depends on the conversation you want participants to have. I find that often, the most powerful written conversations give participants the opportunity to write around all different types of texts.

Written conversation is generally not a stand alone activity – it is often used as either an opening or closing to a larger learning experience. For instance, if AP US History students are preparing to write/answer a document based question, we might use a written conversation to analyze and synthesize the primary source documents they will be using in their responses. This method would give those students the opportunity to analyze the texts alongside their peers, making connections, asking questions and giving insight. The most important part about the texts used is that they are chosen intentionally. When using written conversation, I generally try to limit the amount of text on each poster. Regardless of which type of text I choose, I try to use an important chunk. The goal is to have participants analyze small portions of something, and you can always share the links to the entire text with them afterwards.

Now let’s dive into responding to the texts.
I like to take large pieces of bulletin board paper or anchor chart paper and use that as the backdrop for my texts. I try to blow up the size of the text to make it easily readable from 360° as participants move around the table or surface. I set up my written conversation as a station rotation with one text at each station. Participants spend a short amount of time at each station responding to the texts through the lens that we set based on the learning experience. I usually provide markers or Sharpies for writing and never ask that participants sign their names to their thoughts – this helps to create a safe environment where everyone’s thoughts are equally welcomed and amplified.

Prior to engaging in the activity, I take a few minutes, with participants, to discuss responding to the texts. I normally give four suggestions for responses:

Questions or comments about the text as a whole
Specific questions or comments about one part of the text (they may highlight, circle, underline, etc. to bring attention to that one part)
Connections to the real world (this is where we set our lens based on the learning experience at hand)
Responses to each other’s statements and thoughts

While I’ve never had a student or adult abuse this activity through writing inappropriate comments, this is also when we talk about how to engage in discourse.

Why Written Conversation
As I mentioned, one of the most important aspects of this method is that it amplifies participants’ voices. In garnering reflection about the activity, I’ve found the following takeaways:

Most, if not all participants are engaged
Participants can share without fear, including uncertainties about a text
It helps participants see differing perspectives
Participants enjoy having their peers explain or offer clarity about texts or ideas
It offers a way to break down complex texts into easily manageable and understandable parts
Participants are able to learn, share and reflect during this single activity
Everyone has an equal voice

If you’re interested in diving into written conversations and exploring how you can use this pedagogical method with your students or colleagues, these resources might help you get started. I’ve also had the great pleasure of chatting with a few incredible members of my PLN about how they’ve used written conversations in their schools and districts. You can read more below about their efforts. Also, please feel free to reach out to any of them for more information!

Cathy Littleton | @LMESMediaCenter
What She Did
Cathy is a Media Coordinator who used this method with her middle school students. Some of her variations include:

Practice analyzing graphs and charts
Introduction to simple machines
Current events and making connections to content
Physics word problems – considering what is the question asks, how they know and strategies for solving

Alicia Ray | @iluveducating
What She Did
Alicia is a Lead Digital Learning & Media Innovation Facilitator. She used written conversations to engage teachers in discussion about The Art of Coaching for the group’s book study.

Cathy Musci | @CathMus
Cathy, an Instructional Technology Facilitator, used written conversations to lead an in depth discussion of the NC Digital Learning Competencies for teachers. She began by splitting the 4 DLCs by competency. Instead of creating posters, Cathy used the folder method (like the one mentioned in this post) to have participants respond to the texts. Each of her PLCs (grade levels K-5, 4 to a group) answered 4 questions written one in each quadrant of each folder:

What I do/have done
What I could do
What I have questions about
What I need help with

Note the different colored pens with signatures on the front to match. This gave her the ability to support individual needs as well as overall team goals.

As an extension of this conversation, Cathy created individual folders in her ITF Google Drive for each certified staff member to give them a dedicated location to store all that is related to the DLCs where they can “meet” to move them forward. She included a DLC checklist to allow them to focus on what they need to work on, a copy of the DLCs, a copy of the ISTE standards for students and DLC Teacher Reflection Guide.

Christy Howe | @christychowe
What She Did
Christy, an AIG teacher, has used this method in many ways. One that she shared was a version she used to co-teach and explore innovative instructional strategies with 5th grade. Students were given various resources and articles about Halloween. She used the folder method mentioned above for students to annotate what they noticed and learned from each text. Christy didn’t just facilitate the activity, she actually did this with students as a part of one of the rotations. Everyone used a different color marker, which the teacher assigned, so she could address any questions or concerns for each of the students.

Christy used this method as the catalyst for a modified Socratic seminar style discussion. Students reflected on what surprised them and what they took away from each text. They were studying theme, this became a lens through which they analyzed each text. She found that her students easily adapted to this way of discussing texts. Students felt safe sharing and did a very good job commenting on each other.

In her variation, the color coded markers allowed her to reflect on the types of comments students were leaving – which turned out to be mostly questions and surface level observations. She now knows where to go next time, what scaffolding is needed and what goals she can help students set for their comments next time. Christy also reflected on how written conversation allowed students to read so much more than usual. During the short activity, they got to read 6 texts, including one infographic, very heavy on images. Using this method gave students the opportunity to learn how to read different kinds of texts.

Lately I’ve Read

There are so many great things out there to read. Here are a few I’ve really enjoyed in the past month.

“No Such Thing As Offline” by Justin Barber

As designers the prospect of shaping these experiences is exciting, because it comes with a great realization that the next generation of users are designing the tools and the output as much as we are.

I love when I read something outside of the education realm that has many applications for teaching and learning. I enjoyed this article’s discussion of cultural competence and the shift from passive consumption to interaction and creation.

“Wish For More Self Control Can Backfire” by Cari Romm

…When people are forced to confront the gap between their ideal and actual levels of self-control, they end up psyching themselves out: Performance suffers because people with a strong desire for self-control sometimes disengage and withhold effort…

This is a great read, especially for all of my type A brothers and sisters. I find the idea that the more we want something, the harder it can become to attain, to be very intriguing.

“The Inefficiency of Words” by Robert Cormack

Inefficient words make it too easy. They fit into texts and short Twitter copy. They keep us from rambling. They confine us to mundane truths.

I have written about words before – my love of them, their power, the importance of choosing the right ones, and the power and danger of things left unsaid. Naturally, this article caught my eye. I love its discussion of the way our tech laden world is helping to shape our use of language. It definitely made me think twice about not just what I’m tweeting, but the words I chose when I write, speak, and communicate with others.

“Staying in the Discomfort Zone” by Julie Zhuo

The key to growing while staying in the same job is setting new challenges for yourself. Expect more of yourself than anyone else does.

Julie offers awesome tips and advice in her weekly mailing list where she answers a reader’s question. I particularly enjoyed this piece about stretching and pushing ourselves to function with a certain amount of discomfort, while still remaining intentional in our thoughts and actions. She ends the piece with solid advice about how to remain in the discomfort zone and use this to your advantage.

“Bored Out of Their Minds” by Zachary Jason

Yet we’re still keeping them in the kind of education system… that wants nothing from them in terms of their own ideas. School has already decided what matters and [what it] expects from you. It’s like an airplane: Sit down, strap in, don’t talk, look forward. Why would it be meaningful?

This should be required reading for every educator. Students become increasingly bored as they get older. This article pinpoints the research behind the reasons why this happens and gives practical, important advice for how teachers can counteract this boredom by making curriculum more resonant, personalized, and meaningful for every student.

“How Elon Musk Learns Faster and Better Than Everyone Else” by Michael Simmons

Learning transfer is taking what we learn in one context and applying it to another. It can be taking a kernel of what we learn in school or in a book and applying it to the “real world.” It can also be taking what we learn in one industry and applying it to another.

One of the first people I think about when the word genius is mentioned is Elon Musk. I am so intrigued by his work and his ability to know so much across so many fields. This article breaks down a little of what makes him so special through discussion on the expert generalist and learning transfer – concepts that can both be applied to education, easily. I also enjoyed the focus on exploring personal learning practices.

“How to Make Feedback the Focus” by Arthur Chiaravalli

Most importantly, however, is what students do with the feedback once they’ve received it. As Dylan Wiliams points out, No matter how well the feedback is designed, if students do not use the feedback to move their own learning forward, it’s a waste of time.

Feedback is a crucial piece of assessment. This piece focuses on how to make feedback more powerful for students – offering feedback without scores or grades and being reflective and intentional about why and how we assess students in the first place. Emphasis is placed on student agency and ownership and how we can leverage feedback, both from teachers and peers, to help build these.

Intentionality

I have a confession – brace yourself. As a former librarian, I’ll probably lose so many cool points for admitting this, but I hate writing book reviews. I love talking to people about what I read, but when it comes to reviewing something, I struggle, and generally fail. It’s always hard for me to articulate exactly how a book makes me feel – because that’s just it, if it’s worth reviewing, it’s because the book made me feel something and probably hit a personal cord. Also, sharing my feelings is not always easy for me. So, I’m more inclined to rate it on Goodreads, maybe snap a quick Instagram picture of the cover, and write a short sentence about how you should read it too. But, yesterday I finished a book that I feel like I need to say some things about.

So, it’s called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***. I know what you’re thinking – that sounds awfully cynical, negative even. Before I started reading it, I felt the same way. But what I found were awesome anecdotes, not on how to not care about anything, but on being very intentional about what we chose to care about and invest our time and energy in.

So here are a few of my favorite takeaways, in no particular order:

“We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction and insecurity, because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do the most work to innovate and survive.”

Instead of focusing on the wrongs done to me, I have to train myself to view dissatisfaction, insecurity, let down as an opportunity to redesign my circumstances. This view makes it easy to understand the principle of the sphere of influence. Some things are just out of our control; however, our reactions to these things aren’t. We might not be able to change what someone does to us, but we can always change how we let it affect us.

“Emotions are part of the equation of our lives, but not the entire equation.”

I’d scream this from the rooftops if I could! As someone who struggles with sharing emotions and sometimes even admitting and understanding my own emotions, I value the idea that rational, realistic thought means just as much as listening to your heart. And when we think about where we invest our love, time, and energy, rationality becomes paramount.

“If you want to change how you see your problems, you have to change what you value and/or how you measure failure/success.”

I am too hard on myself. I, like many other people, tend to set my measurements for both success and failure on those of others – and comparison is a dangerous thing. Oftentimes I set very unrealistic measurements for success, which are almost always impossible to attain. I operate under the assumption that I could be doing more, doing something better, because look at her, she’s doing so much. This leads to unrealistic measures of failure – instead of celebrating myself and even the smallest victories, I’m constantly feeling as if I have not done enough. What I’d like to see, for myself, is a more realistic gauge of both my success and my failure, focusing on viewing the failure as a stepping stone to accomplishing my goals.

“Growth is an endlessly iterative process…personal growth can actually be quite scientific. Our values are our hypotheses: this behavior is good and important; that other behavior is not. Our actions are the experiments; the resulting emotions and thought patterns are our data.”

As someone who tends to see things very literally (my husband often calls me Drax), this was a #micdrop statement. I love the idea of seeing growth as a scientific process. To me, this makes me feel so much more at ease with allowing myself space and vulnerability to accept areas where I need to be honest about choices and change.

“How will the world be different and better when you’re gone? What mark will you have made? What influence will you have caused?”

This is the ultimate self-reflective question. As I wrote last month, I want to leave no disaster in my wake. I’ve spent most of my life trying to make a positive impact on the people around me. I’m a fixer and a helper by nature, so leaving behind a legacy that I’m proud of and that has helped as many people as it can is so, so important to me. As I continue to grow, I realize I want to be more than nice and caring, I want to be inspiring. I want to make people feel confident in their own abilities and intelligence. I want to cause influence that leads to positive change.

How to Play the Gig

Last month, I came across this post by Jason Kottke on a list of advice that jazz pianist Thelonious Monk gave to a fellow musician. The post is playful and the advice is both practical and humorous, but after reading it a few times, my mind started making educational connections.

As educators (whether we teach kids, adults or both), we play a similar role as musicians. Each day we enter our classrooms, schools, or work spaces and play a “gig.” Sometimes that gig is successful – we hit each note just right, we engage our audience, and leave them wanting more. Other times, we fall flat – our audience just doesn’t connect with what we’re playing and we are unable to evoke any emotional response. I don’t know any educator who has a perfect day, everyday, but I know hundreds who reflect on both the perfect and imperfect days and use this to grow.

Here’s some of my favorite advice from the list:

“Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.”
How often have you heard a colleague say, “Well, that’s not my job” or “I teach ______, not _______”. Unfortunately, these conversations happen every single day. As educators, our job is to make sure kids are receiving the most amazing learning experiences possible. We don’t teach English or Science or History or Math – we teach kids. Nurturing them, their dreams, their imaginations, their wants and needs comes first. This is all of our jobs. We aren’t hired to simply disseminate information to students, we are hired to inspire them in their own pursuits and help to prepare them for whatever is happening now and whatever comes next. So, even if you don’t identify as a drummer, you are still a part of the band and we all have to be in sync to make the magic happen.

“You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?”
Do you love what you do everyday? I don’t mean do you have an awesome day everyday – I mean do you enter your classroom, school or work space knowing that what you do matters? That what you do is impactful? That what you do is making a difference and changing the world? If you don’t dig what you do, or believe these things, then why are you doing it in the first place? Because, your kids and colleagues will know.

“Avoid the hecklers.”
Once negativity set in, it can run rampant, infiltrating an organization quickly, destroying its culture. Most of us have probably experienced hecklers at some point. Unfortunately, this can be a consequence of being fabulous! It’s important to remember that regardless of what others say, we must do what’s best for our kids and colleagues. I would go further to say that instead of avoiding people who try to tear you down or undermine your efforts, embrace these people and try to change their minds. There’s always a tipping point.

“The inside of the tune is the part that makes the outside sound good.”
You’ve probably been inundated with TPACK, SAMR, the 4C’s and countless other learning frameworks. These things have their place. They are great reminders of what good lesson design is and the components that we should be sure to reflect on and include. But sometimes, our conversations about frameworks revolve too much around technology integration and not enough on good, solid pedagogy. If we think about tools and resources as being the ‘outside’ of the song (lesson), the bells and whistles, the part that catches our students’ eyes and ears, we have to have place importance on the ‘inside’ of the song (pedagogy) or how we deliver the tune to our audience. Fancy tools and resources are great, but it’s the delivery that will make the learning stick.

“Don’t play everything…”
There’s so much information swimming around in our world. I just attended two educational conferences in the past two weeks and the amount of tools, resources and learning opportunities I experienced is huge, almost too big for me to wrap my head around. It’s very important to not get lost in information – don’t allow the sheer volume of new things to try or new ideas to cause you to shut down or become intimidated. When I was a School Librarian training teachers, I always told my colleagues to reach up and grab one thing out of all of the things and try it. If that one things works, if it’s transformational, if it’s good for students, keep it and continue to use it. If it isn’t worthwhile, let it go and try something else. We don’t have to know everything and often it’s better practice to thoughtfully and intentionally work with a few tools and resources than it is to try everything available.

And finally…

“Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.”
Embrace your genius. Don’t be afraid of failure. Try the things that scare you. And as the late Princess Leia once said, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway…You don’t have to wait to be confident.”

Original Image Source

Lately I’ve Read

Since coming back to work from the holiday break, I’ve been moving non-stop. There’s so much I want to write about; professional development I’ve been doing in districts, NCDLCN and how amazing this year’s coaching cadre is, the wonderful work I’ve seen while shadowing my colleagues, but I just haven’t had time this week to focus my thoughts in a way that would justify any of those experiences.

Instead of focusing on one, single thing this week, I am going to share some of the awesome things I’ve been reading – things that have caused me to take notice, reflect on my practice and, ultimately, continue to learn and grow.

“Great Artists Write” by Paul Jun

This piece tackles the idea of self reflection through writing. Since I’ve been personally writing and reflecting on my new experiences at FI, I was instantly drawn into this. I love the idea of using writing as a way to champion our creativity, critical thinking and clarity. And, as someone who taught writing to high school students for most of her career, I believe in its power to transform people. This post also offers practical ideas for kickstarting your own reflective writing – all of which are super accessible.

“You’re working hard. But are you heading towards the right life goals?” by Jessica Abel

I came across Jessica Abel’s site by accident through someone else’s tweet. But I am so glad that I did. I have loved all of her posts I’ve read so far. This one, challenges our ideas of goals and setting goals that are not only attainable, but goals that we are passionate about – simply put, the right ones. I love her assertion that creative success is mostly about defining success for yourself, envisioning not just your future projects or productivity, but your actual, future self. I enjoyed her advice for setting goals and the candor with which she tells her own story of failed attempts.

“Hate PD? Try Voluntary Piloting.” by Krista Taylor

Without giving too much away, this is a piece that all educators should read. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard complaints about professional development – it’s too long, too short, doesn’t apply, boring, confusing, not enough tools featured, and the list goes on and on. This model of PD is different though. It’s small, grass roots and asserts that even a small, passionate group of educators can spark transformational change. This one will inspire you to act.

“How I Come Up With 20 New Ideas a Day” by Rodd Chant

This post offers such a great idea for being creative each day! He gives a few, simple ways to come up with new ideas, whether they turn into to larger projects or not. As someone who works around brilliant, creative people, I feel pressure to constantly be innovative, even though this isn’t always easy. I love his advice that you have to let your ideas flow without editing yourself, since, at the end of the day, idea creation is all for you. Whether an idea is good or bad doesn’t matter, all that matters is that it happens.

“Man on the Moon” by Jonathon Wennstrom

I was drawn to this post for two reason. First, it’s written by an educator, someone in the trenches. Second, it’s simple and all about impacting students. He gives us a siren call to check our egos at the door so that we can simply focus on doing impactful, transformational work. While the post is short, it reminds me of why I love being a part of the PLLC team at FI – we are about the work, not about the accolades. We come together to focus on creating learning experiences that lead to impacting students. It really is that easy. We don’t compete, compare or criticize, we just do good work.

“A Class Where Students Create the Curriculum” by Natalie Orenstein

I wish all students were able to have learning experiences like the ones described in this post. I wish that it didn’t take an act of Congress to enable these conditions (thanks Greg) and I wish that this story was the norm, not the exception and was reproducible in every district. Even if it takes baby steps to create these types of experiences for kids, it’s worth dreaming and working towards.

“We Ask Our Kids What They Learn Each Day. Why Don’t We Ask Ourselves?” by Rupa Chandra Gupta

I love this post (and most of the things published on EdSurge). It will make you reflect and consider the difference between reactive and proactive learning. As a true believer in the importance of lifelong learning, and as someone who is always looking for opportunities to learn, I think it’s worth the time it takes to read this if it makes someone consider being more proactive and seeking out opportunities for growth.

“32 Productivity Tips from the World’s Top Designers” by John Brownlee

This article is exactly what it says, tips on how to be more productive this year. While the tips are from people in the design world, the suggestions are very relevant to anyone – and have many applications in education. I enjoyed reading this and will be using some of what I read to help myself be more productive. Besides, shouldn’t we be working smarter, not necessarily harder?