Spotlight on Literacy
“The Deepest Heart of the Brain”
Caring Critique: Reflection and Response

by Rebecca McKay Director, Literacy and Professional Development with Muscogee Cornerstone Coaches

As the dust of Winter Conference 2008 settles….
To focus this article on Reflection and Response, I borrow a line from teacher researcher Betty Shockley Bisplinghof, who is quoted in Living the Questions: A Guide for Teacher Researchers (Hubbard & Power, 1999).

“Suzanne Lipsett in her book Surviving a Writer’s Life (1994) wrote, ‘I am not an intellectual and never have been; only, as both reader and writer, an intuitional, a responder from the deepest heart of the brain’ (xviii). I worry and wonder at this rejection of companionship between intellectual and inspired understandings. Must one necessarily eliminate the other? Or, as I propose, could response from the “deepest heart of the brain” be the most intellectual challenge of all?” (Hubbard & Power, 1999, p. 175)

Bisplinghoff goes on to say “positions of strength are formed from the intense response that is possible when the emotional and the intellectual are encouraged to scaffold for each other.” These quoted words describe what the Literacy Fellows and coaches did as they reflected on the impact of the 2008 Winter Conference on the schools they love.

Actually, reflections began even before the 2007-2008 school year started, when each Muscogee Cornerstone coach agreed to take an inquiry stance toward one element of the 2008 Winter Conference content: inquiry, science notebooks, comprehension strategies, and the use of the community as a resource.

On the afternoon of February 2, the last day of the Conference, questions flew from the intellect and heart of the Cornerstone coaches and Literacy Fellows:

• Could the conference have made greater impact?
• Were we focused enough?
• Why was it so hard to write units of study?  What would we do differently?
• Where was the rigor in our lessons?

By reflecting on experiences that occurred before, during, and after the conference, each team of coaches and the Literacy Fellows began to discover strengths in the work and to articulate responses to the learning over the previous nine months.

The Muscogee coaches’ reflections during the 2008 conference, which are included in this online newsletter, give readers a glimpse into an often hidden part of coaching, inquiry into what happens when coaching colleagues over time. These reflections and responses from the “deepest heart of the brain” help us to understand the value of hosting a conference and developing coaches as reflective teacher leaders.

Response from ‘the deepest heart of the brain”
Bisplinghoff’s question: “Could response from the “deepest heart of the brain” be the most Intellectual challenge of all?” describes the dilemma Literacy Fellows faced when giving feedback to the Muscogee schools, whose efforts provided for such a successful conference. In a video conference discussion of the 2008 Winter Conference, Sheila Brock, principal of Downtown Elementary, said:

“The process for the development of the Winter Conference was a good one. We know that the conference was well received but we want to know areas where we can grow. There should be something you can tell us that we can do to become better and better.”

An earnest statement like this begs for a response from the heart and intellect, since children are the beneficiaries of our counsel. Over the past month, Literacy Fellows have responded from the depths of their understanding to reflect on the puzzle pieces that went into hosting the conference.  Four areas have been identified to answer Sheila Brock’s query.  These will guide the support for Muscogee County schools in the coming year as well as the preparations for the 2009 Regional Conferences:

• Standards based lesson planning using Mark O’Shea’s research and revisiting his book, From Standards to Success, as well as the study group materials from the 2006 Winter Conference [available in the online version of this article]
• Rigor in the literacy block and continued study of science connections
• Study of text structures and genre studies to build curricula connections
• Units of study to build inquiry habits of mind

In this newsletter, the Cornerstone staff shares the beginning of discussions for the content of the 2009 Winter Regional meetings by including an article that takes up the threads of the four suggestions listed above. Andrea Frasier pushes our thinking forward as she writes about planning units of study that support inquiry, while Kim Gilbert offers her fluency lessons used in the video-taped sessions from the March 6 Focus Group.

Muscogee Coaches’ Winter Conference Reflections and Responses

Rigdon Road reflects on the use of the community as a resource
Bedereia Fuller and Queleria Thomas write:

There is a shared belief among the Rigdon Road teachers that the learning environment must meet the varied academic and social needs in order to prepare students for the next level of learning.  The Winter Conference focus on community resources was an excellent way for us to extend our learning. The feedback from demonstration teachers proved helpful as we inquired into the impact of the conference and the use of the community as a resource to guide instruction. Grace Williams a fourth-grade teacher has this to say;

“Once I completed this unit, I reevaluated how I teach. I like the Cornerstone principles and concepts. Expository writing in my class is really flourishing. The students are exploring to learn. We will complete the activities for the unit and hope to get the conservation fliers out to community in a few days. As the students look at the creek in our community, they can see why the work they are doing is worthy. I am reevaluating my teaching to change with my children.”

Key Elementary investigates comprehension strategies in science
Rebecca Westerman and Karen Wetherell share:

Synthesizing as a comprehension strategy came in a variety of the children’s products of discovery while working on the unit of study. Discussing and sharing findings helped the kindergarten class process for meaning which is ultimately what teachers desire. Many times a child's schema changed because his perspective, opinions, and/or understanding changed. Using their information for presentation, recreating, ordering, recalling, and retelling, the kindergarten students were able to make a whole from the pieces of information they gathered through their inquiry. The evidence that synthesizing was the strategy of choice is found in the photographs of the kindergarten halls and walls and their science notebooks.

From an interview with Kim Brown, Key kindergarten teacher:

“Participating in the Cornerstone Winter Conference and teaching the unit focused on the Chattahoochee River’s Ecosystem forced me to grow as a teacher.  I had to research ways to teach things like drought, floods, pollution, etc. that I don’t normally teach my kindergartners, and make it appropriate for 5 year olds.  In teaching this unit, I realized that the children were more capable than I previously thought.  It was challenging for both the children and me and they eagerly rose to the challenge.  Kids of all ability levels were up for not only tackling the topics but also the rigorous T-charts and 3 column charts they drew and completed in their science notebooks.  They seemed to do better when things were above them and their work exceeded my expectations. Even when they had problems constructing their three column charts, none of them quit or even balked at the work.  As we progressed through the unit, the children’s questions lead the learning and often took the lessons in a different direction than I had previously planned.  They had real ownership of their learning.  Another significant observation was that because the kids were more engaged with this rigorous work, I saw fewer behavior problems.  They absolutely love science!”

The coaches summarize the interview with Kim:

“We think that the gist of Kim’s experience was that the new work was challenging and rigorous.  Her participation in the conference caused her to teach new topics and expose the children to new expectations that she wouldn’t normally have for them.  She was amazed at how they rose to the challenge of the rigorous work.  This was true of all of the children not just the most able.  The work produced exceeded all her expectations and she eagerly shares it with everyone.”

Downtown coach reflects: Winter Conference inquiry and lesson planning
Susan Wilheit [transcript from videoconference session]

“I am amazed at what students can do.  Downtown teachers pulled together Even though it was hard and some teachers wanted to get out of doing the demonstration lesson, they stuck with it. Even our parents helped with the kids. We started in May and all our lessons had the same components, same books, we came together as a group…we had ownership of lessons…Learned more about lesson planning…We grew in confidence as teachers, our expectations for kids soared…our children have come up a notch higher and they are driving the learning.”

See St. Mary’s response to science notebooks in a stand-alone article in this newsletter.

Reflection and Response to Science Notebooks in a First Grade Classroom
By Kelly Williams and Nekia Roberts, St. Mary’s Coaches

In the beginning I thought “Oh no …. not another notebook!” But I believe that science notebooks changed the way we work with science and nonfiction in our classroom.

After reading Science Notebooks: Writing about Inquiry by Campbell & Fulton, Nekia and I began to think about science notebooks as a “collection point” for all our kids’ thinking in the area of science and stopped thinking about the notebooks as strictly another “place” to have kids write. It was exciting to give the kids their first notebook (a file folder with blank paper stapled inside) and explain to them the purpose of their first scientific tool. And frankly, most of the time we were amazed at how they used the notebooks! They became gatherers of information, observers of the smallest details, and recorders of just about EVERYTHING! They were constantly on the look out for things to write about in their new favorite notebooks!

Some practical things to consider when beginning the use of science notebooks: (1) Read Science Notebooks: Writing about Inquiry and use as a resource guide. Campbell and Fulton lay out a logical introduction of science notebooks in elementary classrooms that are applicable all the way down to our kindergarten and first grade classrooms. (2) Think about the format of the science notebooks that would be most beneficial for your class. We used file folder notebooks made with blank copy paper and created new notebooks as we began new units. We also created and taught our kids to use lined paper that they placed under the blank sheets of paper as needed. This way they had access to lines as needed but had plenty of room to sketch their findings or record their data. (3) Model, model, model! Think about what you want your children to be able to do with their science notebooks and teach them the needed skills up front. If you want students to create graphs from their findings, show them how to use rulers, colored pencils and label appropriately. However, the most important thing about science notebooks to remember is … just try it!

Reflection and Response: A Process for School Leaders
For coaches to succeed in leading teachers to change their practice in ways that impact student learning, reflection and response from “the deepest heart of the brain” are essential. See the summary below and read the article by Carol Rodgers to learn more: Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking. [Teachers College Record Volume 104 Number 4, 2002, p. 842-866 http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 10890, Date Accessed: 3/12/2008]
How can coaches make certain they are giving caring critique that includes reflection and authentic response? Try the following steps and tools as you guide teachers:

Exemplar of Coaches’ Worksheet for Reflection and Response (pdf)
Template for Reflection and Response (pdf)