Today my fifth article was published on Edutopia!
Kathy Collier
Empower Students by Cultivating Agency
My fourth article was published last week!
Empowering Students by Cultivating Agency
Thank you to all of you who have taken time to read the article and provide feedback. If you want to comment on the article you can do so here on my personal blog… or find the article on Twitter (Twitter Link).
Coaching Partnership Tools: Part I
As I engage in mid-year reflection on my goals as an instructional coach, I would like to share some of the tools I use to plan and engage in coaching meetings. I call these coaching meetings “partnership meetings” because both my colleague and I are learning together. It is my job, as a coach, to reflect on, and plan for the conversations. Intentional planning focuses on ensuring that conversations focus on my colleague’s goals and priorities, while centering students, especially our formerly marginalized students. In this post, and an upcoming part two, I want to summarize some useful coaching tools. Continue reading “Coaching Partnership Tools: Part I”
Unearthing Joy
Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning, by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is a book I have excitedly been waiting for! Now that it has arrived, I am savoring every chapter, both the content and the beauty. The playlist that accompanies every chapter and the images to color with each chapter are inviting and inspiring. The language is like poetry and I can hear Dr. Muhammad’s voice as I read her words. In this post, I want to summarize some of my first impressions.
Empowering Elementary Students With Disciplinary Literacy
I’m so happy to share that my third article has been published! Here it is:
Shifting the Balance: Disciplinary Literacy Connections
I’m finally making time to read Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, thanks to a colleague who is reading it with me and discussing direct application of the reading to her classroom. As I’m reading, I’m making connections to Disciplinary Literacy. In this post I want to explore some of my initial connections and takeaways. As always, I look forward to feedback and ideas from my readers, as I know many of you are reading, or have already read the book!
Continue reading “Shifting the Balance: Disciplinary Literacy Connections”
What’s Most Important?
As I review the posts from the past year, I see two major themes: language/voice and equity/justice. I am grateful for having had the time to reflect, synthesize, and write throughout the year; and I appreciate all my readers out there! Today I want to focus on the theme of language/voice as I believe that when we give space for students to share their experiences, their ideas, and their genius, we are working towards equity and justice.
Disciplinary Literacy and Equity
Over November break, I started reading Disciplinary Literacy in Action: How to Create and Sustain a School-Wide Culture of Deep Reading, Writing, and Thinking, by ReLeah Cossett Lent and Marsha McCracken Voigt. I couldn’t put the book down! In this post I want to begin to synthesize the book by discussing one of the themes I found across the chapters, Equity. Continue reading “Disciplinary Literacy and Equity”
Data Protocols
Over the past few weeks we have engaged in data talks at my school and several colleagues from other sites have asked me to share effective protocols for data talks. Ever since I began developing my facilitation and coaching skills, protocols have intrigued me. Not only do protocols provide structure and a predictable, transparent routine, but they also can be intentionally designed to support asset-based and equity-rich conversations. In this post I want to share some of what I have learned and, as always, I hope to learn from reader suggestions and feedback.
Joint Construction
Joint Construction is a critical component of the writing curriculum, as it nurtures a writing community and it models negotiating writing moves. In this post, I want to describe what Joint Construction is and give some tips for negotiating the writing of texts with students.