I Believe

Originally written February 8, 2016: During a cohort gathering with my district's professional learning network, we were asked to write our beliefs as teaching practitioners. Here's mine ...

I believe students are the ones who should be doing the reading and writing. They should be the ones discovering and processing in order to learn. My role is to facilitate learning – to provide tools and strategies that are meaningful and relevant, then coach and encourage students to build a love (or at least like) for reading and writing.

I believe students need time to read what they want to read – I have not backed off on this practice this year like I have in the past. I go back to when I was a first-year teacher out of an alternative teacher certification program. I didn’t know all the details of reading and writing strategies so my kids mainly read and wrote every day. To this day, that year was the highest growth of test scores I ever had as a teacher. You become a better reader and writer by reading and writing. I will never give up time for either.

I believe in reading with my students whenever possible. If it’s beneficial for preschoolers, why not middle-schoolers?

I believe in writing with my students while they’re writing. This helps model that I struggle with writing on demand also. I want to get better about providing time for writing every day. Kids want time to free write.

I believe in studying what good writers do – including sharing student writing within the class when they’re willing to share. Giving them opportunities to imitate what other writers do helps build confidence.

I believe in having conversations with kids about what they’re reading and writing and help guide them to what their next steps should be.