The Main Thing

tweeted out August 2016

Back in August, Donorschoose.org asked Twitter followers to post a selfie with their "school year's resolution" for 2016-17. Motivated by a summer's re-read of Penny Kittle's Book Love and the pile of new (from Donors Choose) and used (summer garage sale finds) books on my office floor, I committed to slicing a little more than 25% of class time--fifteen minutes per day--for independent, self-selected reading.

#SDW Risk.

And, I think, it was worth it. We still followed our set curriculum, which included a whole class novel every quarter; in addition, over half of my students this year read at least one book from my classroom library, and 80% checked out independent books from the school library. 50% read three or more. That's a win. Could I have done a better job of integrating their choice reads into our articles of the week, writing instruction, grammar and vocabulary? Absolutely. My to-do list gets longer every day as I reflect on ways to build from here.

Tim Joynt, our former principal and a tremendous teacher advocate, advised the staff a couple years ago that when we're feeling overwhelmed by initiatives and expectations, we should remember to "keep the main thing the main thing." Literature and language--the reading of it, writing about it, discussing of it, and creating our own. That's my main thing. Keeping that at the heart of every decision I've made this year in planning, teaching, and assessing has made this my best year of teaching.

So far.