Middle School Literacy Leadership

The discussion between Pink and Friedman resonated with me.  Comments like “liberal arts are more important than ever” and “artistry, empathy, narrative, synthesis- is the big differentiator” validate my thoughts about the importance of our work.  We need to improve interdisciplinary efforts, internet education and discrimination of sources.  I thought of Professor Zhao at the 21st century conference and his comment about the number of US patents and how revealing it is about our creative bent.

I also loved the comment about the importance of “yes, but”  instead of “no.”

And finally I admit to coming close to tears as Friedman mentions Gates and Jobs and “Something’s not quite right about the system.” I think  he’s right and I think we need to find some new ways, some new approaches to help more yes, but-ers thrive in our classrooms.  What do you think?  De

“Students (and adults) who cannot identify an author’s purpose will go through life susceptible. It is imperative that our students, as readers, be able to discern the fine line between someone trying to inform them versus someone trying to sell them something. We should cultivate in our students the ability, for example, to understand the difference between straight news and veiled persuasion (though that distinction is getting very blurry). Students who cannot determine when analysis crosses the line into persuasion are vulnerable when they leave our schools. I chip away at this vulnerablity daily. Everytime my students read anything, I ask them why the writer wrote it. Anytime my students write an essay, I have them complete the following sentence stem at the top of their papers: ‘The purpose of this essay is to ______________.’”
Topic Blast: What do you do to chip away at our students’ vulnerability?

Why am I starting this blog ( is that really the right term or should I say website?)

There is so much talk about moving our students and ourselves into the 21st century, and I wonder how do we really do that? How do we change the look and the feel of education when it has been the same for so long? Think about the changes in the world in our lifetimes. Last night I was in the Target parking lot and as I was starting my car to leave I realized that the cars on either side of me were occupied, strange to say the least. I hesitantly glanced into the cars and saw young men in each driver’s seat; lights in the cars were on and the young men were hunched over the steering wheel. My initial nervousness turned into a chuckle as I realized that both of them were furiously texting messages. Five years ago that would not have happened, and yet some classrooms look exactly the same way they did 35 years ago when I started in education. The pundits are right.. something is wrong here.

Last week I went to a conference and I heard Alan November and my mind has been prickling ever since. Did you realize that you can log on and listen to any lecture given at Stanford University… for free? And, you can enroll your child in an online HS program for 12,000 dollars a year and he/she can earn dual credit?

So back to my initial question… why this site? We can’t move our children into the 21st century if we don’t go there ourselves. So let’s get comfortable ( or should I say stay uncomfortably challenged) with the options available to us and at the same time use the technology to learn, to communicate and to become the best literacy educators we can be.

I propose that we use this site to communicate with each other, posing questions, venting, challenging, exploring, swapping ideas and lesson plans and I bet by the time we’ve done this for a while, we’ll be doing it with our students too!

So, blog on!