Author: Pernille Ripp

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, who has taught 4th, 5th, and 7th grade. Proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

As I continue to sift through my notes from my week at Teacher’s College there are so many ideas I want to share with those who have not had the chance to go. So although these are not my ideas, they are definitely some that have made me think and I know will help me in the coming year as I focus on bettering my readers workshop. After all, let’s face it, I read a lot of book, but I will never be able to read all of the books my students bring into the classroom, and that is a great thing. That does not mean though that we cannot confer with them about their book and still have a quality discussion and exploration.

First a few notes on conferring the better way:

Know that it is okay to read the blurb on the back!
This is part of the child’s reading journey and should be treated as something sacred. Make sure you have ample time and energy to do it right rather than feeling rushed or unfocused.
Make sure you give clear and achievable feedback, preferably in a concise manner.

3 directions you can take:

Confer about reading behaviors.

This can be a discussion about how the child is as a reader. What is their rate of devouring books? How are they with distractions? What is their reading plan? Which books can they not wait to get their hands on? Fluency and expression can also be discussed here.

Confer about the book.

Have them work on retelling the story. Have them discuss the main character and how that main character is developing. Other things they can discuss are the problems, the motivations, the author’s purpose, and even what big ideas they are having about the texts.

Confer about skills.

This can be a discussion of past mini lessons you have taught and how they are using them.
Push for a second line of inquiry. So if a child brings up one aspect, push them for one more place or one more aspect to show how they know this of the text.
Or you can use this incredible cheat sheet for Bands of Text Level (courtesy of Teachers College) – research shows that texts that seem to be at the same level also share many of the same characteristics, so while you may not have read that particular book, if you can figure out the complexity of the text you can ascertain many general traits that the particular book may have and base your discussion on that. And while every book is not going to have these I found it interesting to think of how many books do have many of them.

There you have it. While nothing beats being able to discuss the actual book with a child because you know it yourself, there will be times when I know these strategies will help me. While I do not level my texts, I found it very interesting to see this breakdown of text complexity and how we can help students recognize how their text gets more complex.

In the end, this is about the child talking and you supporting them in their exploration. I think I have too often rushed in with too many questions, too much of my own thoughts, to really make a child think about the text they are reading. So treasure the one on one time you get with this child and their book and make sure they know just how much it means to you. And then be quiet and listen.

image from icanread

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “The Passionate Learner – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, student blogging, student voice

Give Students a Voice; How Blogging Changes Education

July 15, 2013 Pernille Ripp

image from icanread

I had the fortune of being asked by Kidblog (which I love so much) to write a little about how student blogging has changed my classroom and although this was published a long time ago on their blog, I forgot to cross post it here.

“Do you really mean it Mrs. Ripp, you want the truth?”

The student is hesitating, eyes are cast downward and they are waiting for the inevitable, the answer that most teachers will give, but it doesn’t come. Instead I tell them, “Yes, don’t hold back, tell me how you really feel about being a student in this classroom. My feelings won’t get hurt, I promise…”

The spring is back in the student’s step and they bounce over to the computer, log on to our Kidblog classroom blog and happily answer this week’s blogging challenge. And just like that, with that little question and one website, I have given my students a voice.

I didn’t use to want to hear how my students felt about their role in the classroom or our school. I didn’t use to care about what my students thought about their education, about their feelings or desires. I certainly never asked them to tell me what I could do better, or solicited advice. Yet, here I am, two years into a student blogging journey, and that is exactly the types of posts that I love the most. Those where the students bare their thoughts and really tell it like it is.

For too long, education has been done to students. We graduate with our teaching degrees thinking we know best. We know the research, we know what students need, and we know that we know. So we enter our classrooms as experts on education and students. We plan and create the lessons that students have to soak in whether they want to or not. We take just enough time to build a relationship and to listen to students but we often don’t ask the questions that students want to be asked. How often do we take the time to ask them what they think of what we are doing? How often do we genuinely care about how they feel about us, how they feel about their part in the classroom? How often do we ask them to please be honest, don’t hold back, and then don’t hold a grudge when they follow our directions. It is hard to be told that students are bored but a necessary step for us to become better teachers. Yet it takes time, students won’t be honest from the moment you meet them, we have trained them too well to be “rude” like that. So I start with blogging challenges that speak to their creativity like, “What is the color of fifth grade?” Then I ask them to change just one rule at our school, just one, and we inch into unknown territory. Students are always hesitant at first, after all, teachers don’t usually ask them to take ownership of their classroom. They are waiting to get busted by you or for your relationship to sour. It never does, I am thankful instead and I communicate that to them.

I have tried to start out having these conversations, rather than through their blog, but it was too much too soon. Blogging provide us with a venue in which students feel in control. They can record their thoughts, edit them, mull them over and then hit publish when they feel ready to do so. They have time to think of the question and of their response. I acknowledge that I am asking them to open up and at first it is frightening for them, but then, when they see that I change according to feedback, when they see that their words hold power in a positive way, then they find their voice. They don’t hold back and offer up topics for discussion. What they write on their blog, how they share, translates directly into our classroom. The trust grows, the discussions get livelier, and students become more invested.

Blogging allows us to take it to the next level; international discussion. Now students are not just telling me how they really feel but anyone who will read it. Blogging allows us to start discussions, to compare our school situations to those around the world. To realize that we can change the world when we discuss the every day. School stops being done to students and instead becomes something they also have some control over, they also have an active part in because we have provided them with a mouthpiece and a captive audience. Finally, students know that they do matters, what they think matters, and what they say matters. So when they see assignments change because of their feedback, when they see the role of the teacher change because of what they told me, that’s when they know that their voice matters. Students run to their blogs to tell me their thought of their prior week, they use their blogs to invite others to debate the merit of homework, tests, and grades. They write directly to our principal asking for longer lunches, extra recess, or perhaps just a little of his time. No longer needing an adult to pass on their message, they have found a way to share it with the world. All through the power of a blog.

inspiration, Reading

The Smart Things People Said at Teachers College

July 12, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I spent a week being inspired at Teachers College in NYC and while I wish I could report on every thing that was said there, I thought I would just share some of the more memorable quotes I heard throughout the week.

Rub a fiction book and a nonfiction book together and create a spark – K. Bohne Holder

We must create the counter narrative to education – Lucy Calkins

Kids should be reading books created by authors, not by corporations – Lucy Calkins

Look for the beauty in your colleagues’ rooms and then share it with the world – Lucy Calkins

The most effective feedback is what students tell us through action, words, and products and then using that to change our instruction – Chris Lehman

Reading fiction allows us to be what we never could be – Kylene Beers

Let me tell you what happens when we give a kid a text that is too hard; it is too hard, that is what happens – Kylene Beers

We confuse decoding with reading – Kathleen Tolan

Regurgitation does not equal understanding – Kathleen Tolan

Book clubs are not shares, they are conversations – Kathleen Tolan

We can over-manage kids into not speaking during our reading conversations – Kathleen Tolan

My job as an author is to get readers to turn pages – Christopher Paul Curtis

Don’t let anything come between you and your love of teaching – Kathy Collins

If you have the capability to doubt, you also have the capability to wonder – Kate Roberts

Be the change, reflection, students

We Must Be the First to Stop the Labels

July 11, 2013August 18, 2015 Pernille Ripp

Right after birth

Brandon was the first to notice it. Moments after delivery, he asked the nurse, “What’s that on his face?” and he pointed to my newborn perfect little baby boy’s face and then waited. The nurse looked at it and said “Probably a port-wine stain…” At the moment I didn’t think much of it, perhaps it was a bruise like the doctor said, perhaps it was a strawberry birthmark that would go away, but a port-wine – probably not.

The next day we had the verdict, yes, that nurse was right and he would need to go see a dermatologist quickly because of its placement. (For those that do not know what a port-wine stain is, it is is birthmark that continues to grow as it fills with blood leaving the skin disfigured and dark purple as a person ages.) Later we were told that because of the placement on his face, we had to get treatment or the further growth of the birthmark would pull his skin up into his nose and away from his teeth, meaning he would have a harder time breathing and eating.

But that night in the hospital, all I could see were two little babies who needed me.

Yet, now 3 years, I realize how often I stare at that birthmark. How often I wonder what his face would be without it? I know that in the scheme of things this is incredibly minor, a mark that treatment will hopefully help (so far it has helped very little). And yet, it catches my eye too often and I realize that I have to be able to look past it. That his face is still beautiful, that he is still perfect, that I did not do something wrong during my pregnancy. That the world may judge him based on this mark, and that I therefore need to be the first champion of him, his rock if he ever needs it.

I think to the children in our classrooms that come to us with labels, whether physical or emotional ones. That come to us with people’s eyes already upon them, expectations different somehow because of either choices made or things out of their control. I think of those children and how I have to be their biggest champion at school, how I have to be the one that looks past everything and sees them for the whole kid they are. Not whatever the world would rather categorize them as. I have to be their rock if they ever need it. I owe it to them and I owe it to Oskar.

For a long time, I didn’t post pictures to Facebook of Oskar right after treatment, he looks much like a prize fighter after the laser has done its work. I didn’t want people to see how bad he looked, how much pain he had gone through. I didn’t want him to be judged. Now, though, I know that he does not care. That he still has a life to explore whether I can see past this birthmark or not. That he will not be stopped by something out of his control and neither should I be. My little boy is perfect, this is the way he was made, and no, I didn’t do anything wrong in my pregnancy to cause it. He bears no label as long as I do not create one for him. And neither should any of our students.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. The 2nd edition and actual book-book (not just e-book!) comes out September 22nd from Routledge.

new teacher, new year, Reading

What Will You Do the Very First Moment of the First Day of the Year?

July 10, 2013 Pernille Ripp

image from icanread

Yesterday I started setting up my classroom for next year, yes really, with 2 months almost left of vacation, I couldn’t wait to get in there and see what I needed to change, what worked already, and just fiddle with the room. As I shelved new books that have found their way into my reading life, I pondered, how will I start this year?

Not how will the day go? Not what will we do? But how will I start the day, that very first day, with my so far 26 new students. In the past we would have done an ice breaker, we would have done a pretend quiz on me (I know it’s mean but funny once the kids get that the quiz is about me and not curriculum), in the past I have even showed them exactly the way I wanted them to enter the room. Great way to show who is the boss.

This year, I want it to be different though, I want us to focus on our passions and I want that to be the very first thing we do. So instead of rules, instead of games, I will read a picture book to them. Invite them to the carpet, tell them to get comfortable, and then share one of my passions; books. I hope they have the courage to share their thoughts as w read, I hope they have courage to show their emotions as we read, I hope they have the courage to show that even though they are now the oldest kids in the school it is ok to think picture books are magical.

Which book? I don’t know yet. It could be the incredible “Bluebird” by Bob Staake, which is just as powerful as any books with words I have ever read. Or how about the funny “Creepy Carrots” by Aaron Reynolds that show us that things aren’t always as they seem. Or “This is a Book” by Dimitri Martin which would be a wonderful way to showcase another of my passions; blogging. Or in the end it may be “Chu’s Day” by Neil Gaiman so that I can tell them that every time I read it aloud to Thea, she giggles when Chu doesn’t sneeze and that she is starting school this week too for the very time and I know that we start a new chapter with her just as I do with my new kids. Perhaps it will be that one. No matter the book, though, what matters is the thought behind it.

So what will you do the very first moment with your new kids?

Reading, student voice

Reading Book Clubs – A What To Do and What Not To Do

July 6, 2013 Pernille Ripp

image from here

I have had the privilege of being a student at Teachers College this week and thus now have a brain bursting with ideas of what to do in reading this year to continue to grow our passion for reading. One of the ideas I cannot wait to implement is book clubs, something I have implemented with limited success in previous years, mostly because I was going about it in a wrong manner. While I wish these were my ideas, they are not, they are the ideas of many of the fabulous instructors at Teachers College so please check their stuff out for even more great ideas. And as always, make it your own!

What I was doing wrong:

Thinking it was all about me. I used to run book clubs like a guided reading group. I facilitated all conversation, I decided the rules, I decided what to do.
Have large clubs. I thought it would be easiest if I grouped many kids together because then I would have to read and keep track of fewer books.
Have them meet on different days. Again, since every club had to meet with me I had to do it on different days meaning I didn’t have much time to pull other small groups.
Deciding the book. I thought I should determine the exact book because I knew best.
I set the goals. And they were not really individual goals, they were for the group not for the kid.
I thought it was about the reading and their opinions, not their thoughts. So kids just needed to speak about something, not actually engage in a discussion.

What I will do now:

Groups will be small. 4 kids at the most and they will get to write a list of 12-15 kids they would like to be in a group with.
Groups will meet at the same time. The noise level will work for everyone because everyone will be engaged in their own discussion.
Book choices will be determined by the kids. There will be many choices for them of which book to read together.
The kids set the rules. They determine how they want their book club to function, what the consequences should be for kids that don’t do their part, and how they will share.
The kids set their group goals. The kids will be setting their own goals for their reading, including how much to read and what direction they want the conversation to go in.
The kids set their individual goals. Whether with me through a conference or by themselves depending on their ability, they will also make these public to the group so that they can support each other and hold each other accountable.
I will coach in. I will not be in the middle but rather in the circle with the kids, helping if I need to, fishbowling for the class when needed, scaffolding if needed, and whispering in kids’ ears to get them to engage in the conversation.
Kids will problem-solve their club when needed. They need to fix their clubs to create their learning community and that comes through working through problems, trusting each other, and growing together.
Give kids the tools they need to push their discussion further: help in the beginning, prompts for later, chart paper, post-its – whatever they need.
Confer often. Pop in and out when needed and trust the kids. This is about digging deeper into the text not just sharing ideas or opinions.
Support the kids to think deeper and discuss deeper. Remind them that they should build off each other’s ideas and not just share their thought.
Book club meetings will be short. These will be 5 or 10 minutes at the most so that students can have high quality , intense discussions, not drawn out conversations where they are not sure what they should discuss next. This will also help create a sense of urgency and excitement.
Students will sit together in their clubs even when it is not a book club day. That way they can still rely on each other for help as they read their book, even if they are not officially meeting.
You can put kids in book clubs without an actual book. Early in the year you can group kids so that they start developing the trust and also develop their discussion habits. I love this idea of a mini group that they know is theirs to use throughout the year, even if they are not actually reading the same book.

In the end, my biggest take away was that these book clubs are about the students developing deeper thoughts about their books through engaged discussion. As Kathleen Tolan said, “We are not teaching kids to get them ready for the next grade, we are teaching them to get them ready for life.” Book clubs are meant to be passionate discussions about great books that make us think. I cannot wait to give this experience to my students.

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “The Passionate Learner – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress but until then I muse on education on my blog “Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension.” Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.