It Started with a Question

Guided Reading

The Classroom Library

My Context w/ Mr. Freire

Bulletin

by Rebecca McKay
Director, Literacy and Professional Development

As the school year comes to a close, Cornerstone network schools have scratched the surface of our study on closing the achievement gap.  We know that summer reading and learning are important elements as we journey toward improving schools for students as well as for teachers.  Addressing summer reading for students is critical, but what about summer reading for teachers?

Roland Barth speaks to teachers as learners in Improving Schools from Within.  He explains:

“Just as potters cannot teach others to craft in clay without setting their hands to work at the wheel, so teachers cannot fully teach others the excitement, the difficulty, the patience, and the satisfaction that accompany learning without themselves engaging in the messy, frustrating, and rewarding “clay” of learning.” (Barth, 1990)

Ellin Keene reaches a similar conclusion from her informal research of 17 exemplary reading teachers who work daily to improve equitable learning for students.  Keene discovered seven traits in teachers who moved their instruction from what she calls “good to memorable”.  The first trait is teachers who as researchers of their own reading and metacognitive habits. 

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Eye on Leadership
Back to the Future: What wisdom are we taking with us?

by Edna Varner
Cornerstone Leadership Associate

Over this year Cornerstone and its partner districts have focused on our future, developing a model for district-wide scale up that will significantly increase local capacity to create schools that “blow the lid off school attainment, dramatically and swiftly reduce the achievement gap, and enhance the life chances of all children”.   From its inception, Cornerstone’s mission has been about results, beginning with our description of a literate student and following with the research that outlines how we get there.  Have we made progress?  Yes.  Have we experienced what Schmoker’s book describes as “an era of unprecedented effectiveness”? Not yet.

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