Stenhouse Newslinks
February 29, 2008
C O N T E N T S
1) How to take collaborative teaching to the next level
2) PD Corner: Teacher study groups
3) Plan for these summer PD workshops with Stenhouse authors
4) Semicolons on the subway
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1) How to take collaborative teaching to the next level
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What can new instructional teams do to build unity and foster respectful, trusting professional relationships? How do you achieve substantive curriculum integration that meets required standards and engages all students? And how can team members collaboratively reflect on their teaching to improve practice?
In their new book TeamWork, Monique Wild, Amanda Mayeaux, and Kathryn Edmonds offer a guide for collaborative teaching that's full of captivating stories and insights. Winners (as a team) of Disney's "Teacher of the Year" award, the authors share their successful strategies for building relationships with students and families, engaging at-risk students, integrating instruction in a standards-driven environment, and much more.
TeamWork starts shipping in mid-March, but you can preview the entire book online now:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0711.asp?r=n133
TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades
5-9
Monique Wild, Amanda Mayeaux, and Kathryn Edmonds
Foreword by Jack Berckemeyer
192 pp/paper * $18.00 * Available mid-March
http://www.stenhouse.com/0711.asp?r=n133
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2) PD Corner: Teacher study groups
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"You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators without teachers having the same characteristics."
--Michael Fullan, Change Forces
More than idyllic, Jan Fisher's Teachers.Net article, "If It's Wednesday It Must Be Study Groups" offers practical advice and norms for teacher study group meetings. Read it and pass it on to get a group going at your school:
http://www.teachers.net/gazette/AUG00/fisher.html
Wondering about types of groups or group routines? Ebony Roberts describes book groups, mentor groups, instructional groups, and more in "Join the Club!":
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/jointheclub.htm
"What Are the Issues that Study Groups Confront?" (Chapter 6 of the NCTE book Teacher Study Groups) tackles such topics as how to integrate new members, whether principals should be included, how to encourage regular attendance, and dealing with conflict:
http://www.stenhouse.com/rdsgissues.htm
Jennifer Allen's new video, Teacher Study Groups, lets you peer into the process as a group of teachers discusses writing workshop challenges. View a sample video clip:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0498.asp?r=n133
And the free Read, Share, Teach workshop guides from Stenhouse are a rich resource for study groups, with step-by-step explanations for guided professional reading, collaborative activities, careful assessment of student work, and assignments for trying teaching strategies between sessions:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/readshareteach.htm?r=n133
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3) Plan for these summer PD workshops with Stenhouse authors
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Time to start planning for summer! Check out these summer workshops across the country featuring Stenhouse authors.
Reading Is Thinking: Stephanie Harvey's Reading Comprehension Institute
June 25 & 26 (Chicago) and July 30 & 31 (Denver)
Provides an in-depth comprehension overview; explicit comprehension instruction; strategy lessons in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; a process to merge comprehension with content; teaching with short text; a variety of children's work samples; and suggestions for assessment and evaluation.
http://www.stenhouse.com/assets/pdfs/harvey_chicago.pdf
http://www.stenhouse.com/assets/pdfs/harvey_denver.pdf
Debbie Diller's Summer Institute
July 17 (grades 3-6) and July 18-19 (grades K-2) * Houston, TX
Learn how to best design and teach with literacy work stations and small group instruction to provide differentiation and purposeful practice for students.
http://www.debbiediller.com/DDillerInstitute.pdf
Choice Literacy Summer Workshops for K-6 Literacy Leaders
June & July in Oregon, Ohio, and Maine
Features Stenhouse authors Jennifer Allen, The Sisters (Gail Boushey & Joan Moser), Aimee Buckner, Andie Cunningham, Brenda Power, Ruth Shagoury, Franki Sibberson, and Karen Szymusiak.
Topics include: Literacy Coach Jumpstart, Helping Struggling Readers (Grades 3-6), Mentor Texts, Coaching Content Literacy, and Leading Meetings and Study Groups.
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm
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4) Semicolons on the subway
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"Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants."
A recent New York Times article tracks down the source of an impeccably used semicolon on a subway placard:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18semicolon.html
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