Teachers College Reading & Writing Project

Over the weekend, I attended the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project 86th Reunion at Columbia University. This informative professional development offered more than 140 workshops, keynotes and closings on state-of-the art methods in the teaching of reading, writing, performance assessments, and the Common Core. The topics included were the following: argument writing, content area reading and writing, opinion writing for very young writers, writing about reading , getting students to CCSS levels, Danielson and teacher effectiveness, phonics, guided reading, critical literacy, digital literacy, and etc.

Along with several hundred public school teachers, I had the opportunity to pick a number  of workshops that interested me to attend throughout the day! The first workshop I went to was lead by Audra Robb. She spoke about different strategies teachers can use to educate their 4th-8th grade students about poetry. Robb discussed ways to help students interpret poetry. 

Poetry Example:

In Mother's Shadow by: Janet Wong

I walk behind Mother
through the woods
careful
not to touch the poison oak
she points to with her stick

She sees snakes before 
they move.

She finds her way
by the smell of the trees.

She stops to rest
the very moment
my shoes grow
heavy
she gives me water,
she gives me shade

in her steady 
shadow.  

Prompts to Stimulate Discussions:
1. Students work in groups of two and have a debate.
*Partner 1: views Mother as a positive figure. 
*Partner 2: views Mother as a negative figure.
2. Good readers can see both perspectives.
*Whose perspective do you see? 
*How does your perspective affect your understanding? 
3. Sometimes words can have literal and metaphoric meanings.
*What does the woods symbolize?

Colleen Cruz presented a workshop that posed another view on video games. She discussed how video games, like Minecraft, can be used to help students learn and strengthen their reading. Cruz mentioned several aspects of a gamer that teachers must understand and consider when using this approach to reading, like the following: semiotics, persistence, feedback, and social connections.
Semiotics
-This includes vocabulary and the rules of the discipline.
-Educators should teach students that reading is another world of semiotics. When gamers play a new game they ask themselves, "What kind of game is this?" the first thing they do is try to drive a car. If they can't do that, they try to find a weapon and their targets.
- Students should think of reading a new book in the same way. They should ask themselves, what kind of book is this? What language do I need to know? What rules do I need to know?
*Example: If a book is fantasy, students can ask themselves: "What do I know about Fantasy?"

Persistence
-Students should realize the same persistence they, as gamers, use to solve levels in a game is the same for when they are reading. 
*Example: When students reach a word in their books that they don't know how to read, they should try everything just like with Minecraft. They should keep trying until they get it.

Feedback
-Gamers are attracted to games because when they solve a problem or accomplish something in a game, they instantly receive feedback with an award. In Minecraft, for example, when gamers create something, they receive immediate feedback when their creation immediately works, which is their reward for their hard work. 
-In the same way, educators should reward their students and give them immediate feedback when they reach their reading goals or use a reading strategy to pronounce a word as he or she is reading.

Social Connection
-When gamers play video games they aren't playing alone. They are playing with other games around the world. 
-Educators need to think about how they can provide opportunities for their students to experience social connections while they are engaged in a book, just like when they are playing games.