“Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context. The ability to read, write, and communicate connects people to one another and empowers them to achieve things they never thought possible. Communication and connection are the basis of who we … Continue reading What is literacy?
On behalf of children, on Day Twenty-Three of National Poetry Month Speaking Points (Do They?) Glowing screen split intographs, trendlines, colorsa virtual sea of dataand faces of colleagues floatingwith the question:“You are the literacy person—what do you think?” What I think is thatthere’s no secret codeor formulaor magic bulletor any infallible translationof impersonal little dotsscattered … Continue reading Question (of literacy) poem
Every year, my school hosts Literacy Lunch. It is a time for families to come share in the love of reading, writing, and learning in classrooms, followed by a meal together in our cafeteria. Literacy Lunch has sometimes been a vehicle for explaining English Language Arts curriculum, and shifts in standards, to parents. Mostly it’s … Continue reading Living literacy
As my colleague and I present at a reading conference for educators this week, I watch the participants’ faces. Eager. Expectant. Reflective. Smiling and visibly misting over in turn, as my colleague and I talk about the diversity of the third, fourth, and fifth grade students who sign up, some of them multiple times, to … Continue reading Magical literacy and learning, part 2
Yesterday my colleague and I presented “Magical Literacy and Learning: The Harry Potter Club” at the North Carolina Reading Association. While we waited for the preceding session to end, I watched other educators gathering in the hallway outside the closed door where our session would be held. I could hear whispers: “Harry Potter . . … Continue reading Magical literacy and learning, part 1
I was sixteen years old the first time I went to New York City—that’s the same age, according to his own writing, that St. Patrick was kidnapped in Britain and carried to slavery in Ireland. I didn’t know this fact at the time. I arrived in the city that long-ago day with my high school … Continue reading In the name of St. Patrick
As a literacy coach and intervention team facilitator, I am tasked with communicating expectations of my administration and the district to my colleagues. It’s a tricky position (correction: these are tricky positions. Plural. Sometimes I feel like Bartholomew Cubbins, wearing 500 hats). At present, my fellow educators are, in the wake of COVID, undergoing state-mandated … Continue reading Expectations
That email you sent.Almost didn’t open it.Seemed like random spam. Thank God I did, though:I hope you remember me…the little girl who halfway wrote a book‘bout five or six years ago…-How could I forget? Never finished itbut now I’m writing this one…-You are still writing! You can’t know the giftit was, assisting your craftas it … Continue reading Dear student…
with thanks to Tammi over on Ethical ELA for sharing the “sevenling” poem. She writes: “The sevenling is a seven line poem written in two stanzas with an additional single line wrap up. The first stanza (lines 1-3) consists of three lines with connected ideas, details, statements. The second stanza (lines 4-6) also contains three ideas, … Continue reading Brave beginnings
I recently wrote a post for the CCIRA Professional Development Blog on the sometimes spirit-crushing work of literacy education. I will not list all of the contributing factors here; I will just say that there are many, especially during this long year of COVID-19. Prior to to writing the post, when asked what teachers are … Continue reading Digging for awe: Golden shovel poems
lit bits and pieces 