Pernille Ripp

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, homework, no homework, Student dreams, student driven, student voice

Are You Doing Your Own Homework?

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016 Pernille Ripp

itec-passionate-learning-environments-google-slides-clipular

This summer as I saw my niece, who is now a sophomore, we inevitably spoke about her reading life. She used to be a voracious reader, we could not get enough books in her hands. Then she came to the whole class novel, which inspired this post, and since then her reading life has been limping at best. This summer I asked, as usual, “What are you reading?” She told me The Kite Runner and then scoffed. Surprised I asked why the reaction. She then told me that she had read the book and loved it but now had to reread it to annotate it. “The whole book?” I asked. “The whole book.”When I asked her why she was not quite sure, perhaps they would use parts for discussion.

I wondered then, as I often do, when I come across homework assignments that appear nonsensical, whether her English teacher had done their own homework? Whether they had taken the time to annotate the entire book themselves. Whether they understand the labor that was involved with that task and how it would take away from the enjoyment of the book. It seems to me that once again something that is meant to teach kids how to better thinkers, instead is implicit in the killing of their love of reading.

Several years ago I started to do my own homework. From the stories we wrote, to the essays, to the speeches, and to the presentations. I started to experience what I was putting on the shoulders of my students and I quickly realized that what I thought would just take a few minutes never did. What I thought would be easy hardly ever was. What I thought would be meaningful sometimes wasn’t. So I stopped giving homework, except for reading. I stopped going by the formula of grade times 10 minutes. I stopped handing out packets and instead vowed to stop talking so much and instead spend the time in class on discussion and work time. I expected pushback or concern, but have hardly gotten any in the last six years. Most parents express relief instead.

So every year I make a deal with my students; if you work hard in our classroom, you should not have to do work outside of English. If you give me your best then besides reading a good book you don’t have to give me anything more after you leave our classroom. And for most it works. Most of my students come ready to work, ready to learn, and they hand their things in. Not everyone, just like when we have homework we have those kids that do not get it done, I also have kids that do not use their time wisely. So I work individually with them, after all, the acts of a few should never determine the conditions of the many.

So if you are still giving homework, I ask you for this simple task; do it yourself. Go through the motions as if you were a student and then reflect. Was it easy? How much time did it take? What did you have to go through to reach completion? In fact, if you teach in middle school or high school, do it all, truly experience what we put our students through on a day-to-day basis. I would be surprised if the process didn’t shape you in some way.

I still do my own assignments, although I have been slacking lately. Whenever I do, I am reminded of just how much time homework swallows. Of sometimes how little actual practice it gives, or even learning. How homework is unfair because we have already been given hours of their time in school. How those who really need the practice do not need it at home, but instead with us as support in our classrooms. Do your homework, tell your students, and see how they react. Then ask them how they feel about homework. Let their thoughts shape you as a teacher, I promise you won’t regret it.

I am currently working on a new literacy book. While the task is daunting and intimidating, it is incredible to once again get to share the phenomenal words of my students as they push me to be a better teacher. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

Be the change, being a teacher, books, Literacy, picture books, Reading, Reading Identity

If Not Us, Then Who?

October 10, 2016 Pernille Ripp

When I was 17 years old, my history teacher pulled me aside and told me tone it down. “It” being my opinion in case it intimidated others. “It” being speaking my mind because sometimes I would come across so forceful that others did not want to engage. So I stopped speaking in his class. I stopped jumping in, afraid that I was going to rock the boat or upset the other students. I knew I had opinions, but I didn’t want to be known as someone who did not make room for others.

A long time ago I decided that staying quiet would not get me anywhere. That hoping that someone would understand what I needed without me actually speaking up was a delusion. That I could no longer wait until someone spoke the words that burned within me so I could quote them and pretend I hadn’t thought the exact same thing. I started writing, speaking, and teaching as the whole me, rather than the 17 year old girl who had been told to tone it down. It has been quite a journey since then.

As educators we speak up all of the time. We speak up for ourselves when changes need to be made in our schools. We speak up for our students when they need us to advocate. We speak up for our own needs and hopefully for the needs of our students. We speak up when we see injustices that need to be righted, when our teacher stares are not enough.

So I think it is time for us to speak up and let our voices be heard because when I look at my classroom library, when I really study the books I am able to put in the hands of my students, I cannot help but wonder; where are the books from non-white authors? Where are the picture books that center around kids that are going about their every day life that look like some of my students? Where are the holiday books, the birthday books, the first day of school books, the books that share small slices of life that have characters that are not white?

While I buy the ones that I know of thanks to blogs like Reading While White, We Need Diverse Books, and the Nerdy Book Club, I am constantly reminded of how few there are out there for us to purchase. When I receive a package of books I am constantly reminded of how often the kids in the books look just like my own kids in all of their whiteness. How my kids must take it for granted that, of course, the books they read have people in them that look like them. That I do not have to scour the internet to find books that remind them of themselves because those are the majority of books out there. That in book upon book being white as a character is the standard not the exception.

We need diverse books. We need own voices books. We need more than what is out there and so we need to raise our voices. There will be no change if we do not say loudly; “This is not enough. This is not ok.”

So as educators we can speak up. We can reach out and demand better. We can spend our precious budgets on books that do not just offer up more white narratives, but actually mirror the diversity that we are surrounded by. We can tell publishers that we need books that show all of the kids we teach. We need books about Native American written by Native American, or other #OwnVoices authors. We need books that go beyond the standard stories being shared so that when all of my students open up a book they can find a character that looks like them. Or when my own white children read a book, they will see a character that does not look like them and understand that that too is the norm.

For too many years we have waited for publishers to notice the major gap that has been created, and while changes are under way, the process won’t speed up until we speak up. So use your voice, use your connections, use your money to show the world that when we echo that “We need diverse books!” it is not just because it is a catchy phrase, but is the truth.

being a teacher, books, Literacy, picture books, Reading, Reading Identity

It Was Never for the Adults

October 8, 2016October 9, 2016 Pernille Ripp

On the very first day of book shopping this year, with the piles of brand new books waiting on the tables. Sharpened pencils ready, to-be-read lists in hand. Time set aside to meander. Books displayed and discussed. On the very first day of book shopping, two kids refused to even look. One sat in a corner, hood up, eyes down. Another child, more than an hour later, but this time at a table, arms crossed, no to-be-read list, no pencil, not even a word.

I approached both with caution, sometimes children who so actively refuse to even pick a book remind me of a wounded animal. They are someone who clearly has not had a good experience with books. Someone who must be treated with the gentlest of hands, because otherwise, it will just become another power struggle and one that I will never win.

As always, I asked quietly; What is wrong? How may I help? Then wait, hold my breath, and soon the refusal. Soon the dismissal, “Leave me alone, I don’t like books, I don’t like reading.” Whatever the words, the stories always so familiar. The emotions raw, the conversation careful, and yet unexpected. It happens every year. So after a few gentle moments, I pull out my secret weapons; my graphic novels and my picture books. I grab a pile of those perpetual favorites or some brand new ones, I place them in front of the child and I walk away.

It happens without fail, a few moments later, a page being turned, a book being read, the angry stance in the shoulders gradually fading away. Books change minds. The right books change lives.

Yet if I were to take the advice of some. If I were to listen to the words of those who say they know better. If I were to be a “real” teacher of English, those books would not have a place in my classroom. No more Captain Underpants, Where Is My Hat, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. No more Tales from the Crypt, the graphic novelization. No more rows of picture books waiting to be read and shared. Those books that many of my students think they are too old to read. Those books that some might think are not appropriate for a student to read. Those books that some deem too easy, not enough, not real reading. Those become the books that capture my hardest students. Those become the portal that lead them back into believing that they too can be readers. That reading can be for them. That reading is something that matters.

So when I see a call for censorship, for teachers telling students what they exactly need to read. When I see a call for parents to study our classroom libraries to make sure that the books we have are not inappropriate, too emotional, or lord forbid too fun. When we are once again told that something that is too easy for our kids, not challenging enough, not enough of whatever the right thing is. That is when I am reminded of who I serve. That is when I am reminded of who my library is for. Because it was never for the adults of those children I teach. It was always for the kids. And those kids need all of the great books we can hand them.

Be the change, being a teacher, global, global read aloud

On Global Collaboration and Projects You Can Join

October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 Pernille Ripp

I started the Global Read Aloud in 2010 not knowing what it would become, not knowing how it would truly make the world smaller, connect many children and change my own life. I started it with a simple need in mind; more global collaboration and connections for the students I was teaching. I knew that the power of a great read aloud could not be disputed, I knew what a read aloud could do to to foster community. I knew what the right read aloud would do for us as readers, as thinkers, as human beings. And so I started a small project that since 2010 has taken on a life of its own.

This Monday we kicked off the 7th annual Global Read Aloud. It was the day that I gave up on my Twitter account pretty much. There simply was no way for me to keep up. With more than 937,000 students participating this year, give or take a few, I do believe we may be one of the largest, if not the largest, globally collaborative multi-day student project in the world. I cannot help but stand in awe of the number. Stand in awe of this little idea that grew into something more than I could imagine. But not just for the sheer number of children involved, but more for the lives that it is changing. For the experiences it is creating. I stand in awe of the invisible lines stretching around the globe as students connect, discuss, and share who they are with others who happen to be reading the same book as them. Imagine a world that is truly becoming more connected and you have the vision of what the Global Read Aloud is doing for the world. And my project is not alone. Other dreamers and thinkers are seeing the need for projects to unify children around the world, for better learning opportunities that include bringing the world in and the students out. We can certainly create our own, I do all of the time for the sake of my students, or we can join in on these pre-existing projects to make the world smaller. To make the world kinder. To make the world more empathetic.

Global collaboration and the way it shapes student learning experiences should not be something we just do once in a while, it should be often, it should be meaningful. It should be something our students come to expect not as something new and flashy but as something necessary for them to discover who they are as learners. Our students have a voice, they have a need to learn about others, they have the right to not just experience our differences but to know what makes us all so similar. Global collaboration provides us with our starting point, these projects become our starting point as we try to bring the world in.

To see the global projects I know of and that others have graciously shared, please access this padlet. If you know of others that should be on here, please add them. At least this is a start for what is out there.

https://padlet.com/embed/1zqnmichpq6w

Be the change, being a teacher, being me

One Small Act

September 30, 2016 Pernille Ripp

In this world that seems more divided than ever.

In this world where headlines scream more about the bad than the good.

Where stories of goodness and kindness seem so far and few in between.

Where we read of suicide caused by bullying, of children that feel so lonely. Of adults who are not sure where they fit in so they stop trying altogether.

In this world where wherever we turn we seem to be reminded of all that is wrong with the world, we need our classrooms more than ever.

We need spaces where kids feel that they belong, feel that they the prevalent voice is one of kindness, not of tearing apart.

We need opportunities to make the world smaller, more understanding, more of all of the good.

Today, in our classroom, as a child stood frozen in fear of public speaking, another child got up quietly and stood right beside him. Stood there and coached him gently, let his presence be known and tried to speak him out of his fear. I stood there with tears prickling my eyes, knowing that no one had told that child that to be a friend meant to stand beside someone, to be a friend meant to be there in times when we might not seem as needed.

As the rest of the class sat quietly, we moved on to another thing. But this moment of a simple act of kindness is one that I will remember for a long time.

This world may seem like it is slowly self-destructing, but our kids, our future, they can still change it; one small act of kindness at a time.

being a student, being a teacher, student choice, Student dreams, student driven, Student Engagement

Some Ideas for Channeling High Energy Needs Into Better Learning Opportunities

September 27, 2016October 8, 2016 Pernille Ripp

I have the honor of teaching an incredible bunch of very energetic kids this year. Their kinesthetic energy level is high throughout the day, couple that with some also voicing loudly how bored they are in school and I have the best kind of challenge ahead. This will be a year to remember.

So I have been googling, I have been asking, and I have been spending a lot of time trying to think of ways to channel their energy into something great. Not to get them to quiet down necessarily but to get to a place where their energy is a tool rather than a hindrance. I have a lot to learn still, but a few things I have tried I thought I would share with others who may have the same awesome challenge we do.

Yoga balls. I have invested in 18 yoga balls and while the bouncing drives me a little bit nutty at times, I cannot help but marvel at the sight. After all, if this is what the kids need even right away in the morning then I cannot imagine putting them in regular chairs. Sure we have popped a few in the 6 months I have had them but when I am at a super store I pick up a few more just in case. Note; I have not switched all of my chairs for yoga balls because for some kids they are a nuisance or a distraction. Besides paying attention to their preferred seating arrangement is also giving me clues to their personality. We also have other alternate seating such as bean bags, exercise bands around the chair legs, office chairs and regular old chairs, but the yoga balls have made the biggest difference.

Switching up seating arrangement. I am a huge proponent of “choose your own seat” but this year in a few of my classes I have been doing a little bit of seat arranging to spread the energy. You see, when I have one really high energy cluster they may get really sidetracked but when I disperse the kids throughout the classroom their energy transfer to the new group. This does not always work and I am still tweaking it to get it right, but I like what I am seeing so far.

Picture book read alouds as calming tools. I end my days with a group of amazing boys. They are bouncing off of the walls by the time they get to me so sometimes trying to teach them is like a game of who can interrupt the most. Not because they are rude but because they are wired and excited. Today I had them sit on the floor with me, away from anything they could fiddle with and then read them Where the Wild Things Are in honor of Banned Books Week. I read it in the most soothing of voices, even when the Wild Things roar, and it was incredible. Immediately their demeanor changed, their voices hushed and for a few moments we got to work at a level of concentration and focus that I had not seen for a while. There is something incredible about the power of a great read aloud. There is something incredible about story time on the floor.

The turn and talk. When I teach my kids, i know I cannot be the only voice in the room so very little of our discussion is done in whole group, instead we utilize the turn and talk almost constantly. My students want to share, they want to discuss, they want to participate and so I need to make sure they all have the chance. Not just those that have enough courage to raise their hands in the air.

Incorporate brain games. I work with really smart people and one of them suggested I use some of the same brain games that another colleague had used. Genius. So in some of my classes, when we have worked for 15 to 20 minutes, the students will get 3 to 5 minutes of brain game time. All of our brain games are cooperative not competitive. All of them have very few props and are easy for kids to participate in. We play tri-bond, we build card houses, stack cups, hit a ball through the air as many times as we can without it falling to the ground and we do riddles. I am searching for more brain game activities to do with the kids as I see the benefit of them using their brains in a different way after working hard for awhile.

Writing before speaking. My students all process at different speeds and some times the very first thoughts that come to mind are not always the deepest. So we have started a write before we speak routine whenever they are doing formal discussion. It is simple; each child has access to a whiteboard (or they write right on the tables covered in whiteboard contact paper) and before they discuss something they take a few moments to write down their thoughts. Having these few minutes to gather their wits, channel their energy and also come up with something interesting to say means that all of the students have a better chance of being a part of the learning.

The right to move. Students in our classroom have the right to move as they learn. They are not asked to sit down; they can stand, nor are they are asked to sit still. As long as their movements do not distract others, they are perfectly fine. This is important because for some of our kids they listen better when they are in movement. They learn better when they have control over their bodies.

I know I need more ideas than this. I know I am only scratching the surface as far as incorporating more movement into our days but at least this is a start. This is a way for me to think more consciously about the need for movement and to embrace needs of all of the children that enter our classroom rather than just the quiet, compliant ones. So if you have more ideas please let me know, I would love to be inspired by your great ideas.