At the GVWP's PLLA (Professional Leadership and Learning Academy) SI (a kind of "advanced SI") last week, we read all or parts of:

Framework for success in postsecondary writing by the NWP and others.

The garden at night: Burnout and breakdown in the teaching life by O'Reilley

Writing analytically by Rosenwasser and Stephen.

and excerpts from Mike Rose's blog and a response to Arne Duncan's letter to teachers.

Thanks, Ralph and Debra, for these first posts and the glimpses into the rich reading at your institutes. Wow--

I went immedately to the Piasa Bluffs Ning and was drawn in to the conversations shared there.

I just yesterday sent a link to an NWP Radio show that I think you were on, Ralph, about readiing in the summer institute so I thought I would add to this thread: Invitational Summer Institute: What Will Your site be Readinig in the 2010 Summer Institute.

Looking forwrad to reading more about reading.

 

We split our readings into four categories: 1. 21st Century Literacy: Depending on the reading group, participants read either Because Digital Writing Matters (Eidman-Aadahl, et. al.), The Digital Writing Workshop (Hicks), or iWrite (Wilber). 2. Pedagogy: The elementary group reads Wondrous Words (Ray); the middle school group reads Teaching Middle School Writers (Robb); and the high school/college groups reads Write Beside Them (Kittle). 3. Teacher as Leader: Everyone reads How Teachers Become Leaders (Lieberman & Friedrich). 4. Teacher as Writer: Everyone reads Bird by Bird (Lamott). We've used lots of other texts for this category over the years. It was Lamott's turn again, which is good timing because when our participants gets stressed about all of the new technology possibilities, I can just say, "bird by bird and app by app." I'm looking for a spot to fit in the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, even if it's just as a suggestion for something to read before Labor Day. Thanks for a great question! I look forward to seeing what other sites are using. Mitch Nobis Red Cedar Writing Project

Each summer, we update this big honking binder of articles for the SI. Like Mitch's site, we have categories. There are five: Writing, Technology, Cultures, Pedagogy & Research. We update annually, asking the new Summer Scholars to recommend articles from their summer research trifolds, as well as the site at large.

We also give each Summer Scholar two books. This year's were Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Perl & Schwartz's Writing True. We love these books, which are both encouraging & useful, a rare combo :).

For articles, we usually begin with Kathleen O'Shaughnessy's Writing a Bicycle, which highlights the usefulness (and rigour :) of 'teacher lore.' Last week, we read Dwight Watson's piece, Historical and Contemporary usages of the “N” Word:         Deconstructing the Content and Context in a Multiracial, Middle School language Arts Class. We also have an article 'share,' where each Summer Scholar chooses an article from the binder and does a 2-minute review for the rest of us.

The final week, we ask Summer Scholars to read an article on teacher research, preparatory to the invitation to join our year-round, site-wide teacher inquiry cohort.

And of course, we tell them the binder (did I mention it's HUGE?) is an ongoing resource, useful not only for their work this summer, but later, as well. We fill it with as many diverse resources on the five topics -- which we define broadly and inclusively -- as we can find. There are pieces from English Journal, from NWP, from Educational Leadership, from Mike Rose and Diane Ravitch and Pedro Noguera and as many different perspectives and voices from education as we can include. :)

I don't know if this helps, but I do know that every year a Summer Scholar tells us s/he used one (or more!) of the articles from the binder w/ a parent, a colleague, an administrator. And isn't that part of the point? To enable each of us to access the research we know supports informed, inquiry-based practice?

One new book we tried this year was the award winning YA biography: Philip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, which tells the story of a 15 year old girl who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus 9 months before Rosa Parks' historic act. Our Fellows loved the book and it has provoked a lot of discussion both in our ISI and on our Connect site. This text, which includes photographs, interviews, and excerpts of news articles, has supported our work to get our Fellows to look past formulaic approaches to writing (a HUGE problem in our service area).

We're also using more traditional articles about teaching writing, Because Writing Matters, and selections from both Digital Is and the NWP site.

For the Advanced Summer Institute we held here at the NVWP, a revisioing of our site work, following the retirment of the inimitable Don Gallehr, we all read Jim Gray's classic "Teachers at the Center". Reading this account of the early years of the BAWP and NWP affirmed for all of us the core of our principles and practice, and reminded us of the entrepreneurial and reflective spirit of our Founders. Somehow in reading this account we gained courage and practical insights into how we begin again in the face of these considerable funding challenges.    

I already see two of our major texts on the list (Because Writing Matters and Bird by Bird). The other text we've enjoyed using is On Writing by Stephen King. I profess that I am not a Stephen King fan, but I found his "tool box" chapter to be a useful writing metaphor that helps me - and my students - think about our process and writerly needs. 

Our goal this year was to first begin focusing on teacher as writer then move to teacher as reflective practioner then move to teacher as researcher and conclude with teacher as leader -- we fitted our readings around those as well.

We began with "One Year to the Writing Life" to initiate that process to becoming a writer. They read some chapters before SI and then we read/discussed during SI. We also sprinkled in other readings (such as Lamott's Shitty First Draft).

We also conducted personal explorations of our own literacy so it would inform our classroom practice and research. These readings included things like DeRosa's Literacy Narratives as Genres of Possibility and Rick Evans' “Learning School Literacy” 

Our writing groups explored (and will continue to explore as they share during our follow-up meetings):

- From High School to College

- In Pictures and In Words

- Inside Out

- Writing Circles

- Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone

Last year we gave them all the articles in one lump before the SI and heard reports that our Fellows were overwhelmed so we decided to sprinkle them in at appropriate moments instead. This approach seemed to work better for us. I think they understood more how/why those specific articles were chosen as they were linked to specific lessons and discussions and events.