Pernille Ripp

being a teacher, books, Literacy, Reading, Reading Identity, students, students choice

Find Them a Book

April 15, 2016 Pernille Ripp

It was just before school ended that I realized that he hadn’t really read any books. That my feeble attempts at finding just the right book had been just that and that he had successfully managed to mostly fake read throughout the entire year. I remember the feeling of how I had failed, wondering how I could have been so blind. Chalk it up to 120 students. Chalk it up to my first year as a 7th grade teacher. Chalk it up to 45 minutes or to the demands of all the new, but still how could I have let a student slip through my fingers that way? How could a kid fake read in our classroom when my mission is exactly the opposite?

So I wrote a post-it note to myself and taped it to the wall by my computer. Nothing fancy but a stark reminder of what I needed to do the following year. “Find them a book…”

A year later it still hangs there. New tape applied when needed. No fancy script or colors. Yellow, slightly faded, yet so important still. Find them a book, indeed, and then find them another, and another, and another, until one day they no longer need me and they find their own.

I think of this as one student, a self-identified child who dislikes reading, has just finished sharing with me how The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is the best book he has ever read. How nothing will ever compare to that book, but that he will continue searching for one that might, but he might need my help. That he loved that book so much but now is not sure what to read.

So we book shop together and I dig deep for all of the books that he may like. I stack them high and walk away hoping that in that pile he will find a book that will move him forward on this new fragile path. That in that stack he will see glimpses of what it means to be a reader.

Because we may tell our students that they just need to find the right book to fall in love with reading. We may spend hours helping them dig into who they are as a reader. We may put book after book in front of them in the hopes that they will find The One. But it is not just about The One. It is about the one after and the one after that. It is about the many. Because it is in the repetition of falling in love with a book that we fall in love with reading.

So when a child finds their book, we must pay attention, because this is when reading is at its most precarious. This is the moment where they start to see that one great book was not just a fluke, but instead a taste of what is to come. What is waiting for them on our shelves.

So find them a book. Then find them another and another. Fill your classroom and schools with titles that beg to be read. Teach them what to look for and know when to walk away. We may start our journey with reading when we find the first book to fall in love with, but we choose to continue that journey when we find the next one.

This post is a part of the Age of Literacy that ILA encourages all of us to participate in on APril April 14th. How are you a literacy leader? If you are wondering why there seems to be a common thread to so many of my posts as of late, it is because I am working on two separate literacy books. 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. Those books will be published in 2017 hopefully, 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.

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, Literacy, student voice

Somewhere in My Education #AgeofLiteracy

April 14, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Somewhere in my education, I was taught to let others speak before me I was taught to wait my turn. To eat my words if that turn never came. I was taught to listen. To raise my hand. To share when asked. To give praise to others but downplay my own achievements. I was taught to be a good girl, someone who sat still, said “please” and “thank you” and always offered to help, even if it meant sacrificing my own creativity.

Somewhere in my education, I was taught to plan lessons for fictitious children that would make my classroom look like a mini UN with a smattering of acronyms. That came to us fed. That came to us with clean clothes and new supplies and unshattered dreams. That came to us believing that school was still about them and what they had to say had value. Who loved to read, to write, to discover, and all I had to do was preserve that notion of loving literacy. That those who needed more than what I could offer would always get it in some way.

Somewhere in my education, I was taught who the leaders were and to follow their ideas, for they had paved the path and certainly knew more than I ever would. In that same education, I was taught the research I needed to be better, and so I grew, but I was never taught to trust myself. I was never taught to seek more than just what was presented to me. I was never taught to see myself as a leader because good girls don’t lead, they follow.

But within this age of literacy where we fight to keep our students reading, where we have to know our research before others tell us what best practices are, we are all leaders. We are all of importance. Our ideas matter because our ideas change the way students feel about the very act of reading or writing. What we do now will not end with us today, but instead will live on in the lives of the students we teach. So we are leaders when it comes to the very ideas that shape the literacy identity our students have. Our words carry weight. Our words can harm or protect, so we must believe that our words have value.

So I hope today, that you will look in the mirror and tell yourself that your words should be heard. That your words deserve a larger audience than just you. That your ideas are worth spreading, even if no one asked you to. That when you change a student’s perception of what literacy means that whatever you just did then needs to be shared. That you can be a leader, that you probably already are.

Somewhere in my education I found my voice. I found my brave. I found my driving force, which will always be the students. Somewhere in my education I found out I could be a leader, even though no one told me so. Perhaps it is time for others to find the same.

being a teacher, being me, testing

The Test Does Not Care

April 13, 2016 Pernille Ripp

When the test passes we will resume learning in all of its glorious messiness

We teach our students to ask questions, to share, to discuss. We teach them to find help when they need it, take their time when they can, and to always use their tools.

They sit where they are comfortable in order to access the learning best. They reach out to those they trust and they use us whenever they are lost or just want to make sure that the path they are headed down is, indeed, the right one.

We try to create learning environments where discovering facts is only the first step of the journey, using them as a way to further understanding is the next. We use our shared ideas to further the knowledge of others. Where mistakes happen and we try again. We try to create learning environments where students have a voice, where they have choices, where we try to make it personal so that the experience they have makes sense for who they are.

We do not pride ourselves on the scores that they get but instead on the books that they read, on the aha moments they have, on the growth they show. We pride ourselves on who they are as learners and not just what they produce. Their value is bigger than a number.

And yet…

In two weeks, my students will sit in rows in a bare room and spend four days taking the state standardized test. They will not be allowed to ask questions. They will not be allowed to help each others. They will not be allowed to use the very resources that I have taught them to use.

We will not reflect. We will not discover. We will not question. We will not grow. Not in a way that matters, anyway. Instead, they will sit, they will read, and they will answer. I will sit, I will watch, and I will make sure no one cheats. I will have a few scripted responses that I am allowed to say if a child asks a question. Once done, someone hired by the state, who has no idea who my students are, will grade their answers as if a short response will ever give a proper window into what they really know.

Because let’s be honest, the test does not care that they have grown in ways that cannot be measured.

Because the test does not care how hard they have worked to get where they are.

The test does not care that they may finally see themselves as a reader. Or a writer. Or a learner. Or even as someone who deserves to be a friend.

The test only cares for multiple choice. For pick the right answer. For write it right or it will be counted wrong.

So in two weeks when my students are reduced to nothing more than an entry ticket, I will hope that they know that they are bigger than that. That they are worth more than that. That everything they have done, how hard they have worked, how much they have grown may not be measured on the test, but I know. And so do they. And when the test passes, because this too shall pass, we will resume learning in all of its glorious messiness. We will fill our walls with what we need and our voices will ring true again.

I hope I have taught them enough. I guess the test will tell. Or perhaps maybe it won’t.

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.

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, being me

Share You

April 12, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Share you. because no one else is. @pernilleripp

I didn’t know I had a story to share until I started sharing it. Until I started writing. Until I started speaking up. I didn’t know that the thoughts I had every day or the small ideas I came up with would matter outside of those 4 classroom walls. Not until I shared. Not until I had the courage to find my voice. Not until I hit publish and those things I had thought by myself were no longer my private thoughts. They were now public. They were now searchable. They were now open for judgment.

It still scares me to this day.

It still stops me at times.

There are conversations that I will never have on this blog. Topics I will never broach. And yet, those that once seemed terrifying sometimes lose their fear factor and find their way out into the open, just like that. And sometimes those thoughts start conversations that I could never have dreamed of that led me down a new path.

Yet, this blog is not just about me. It is about the kids that I get to teach and their stories that I get to share. The little things they ask me to change so that we can be better educators. And so I write for them because when I found my voice I knew I had to help my students find theirs.

So this past weekend when I sat at the amazing WGEDD conference with other educators and they told me of what they do in their classrooms, I asked them if they had shared those ideas in some way. Is there a place where others may find their genius? The answer was no. It often is, and I couldn’t help but wonder; what if?

What if we all found the courage to share more?

What if we started by sharing those small ideas that make our lives better? Those little things that may not seem flashy, or innovative, or any other buzz worthy adjectives you can think of. Those ideas that just work, that make our jobs easier, that make education better for our learners.

What if we found our courage because we realized that we are experts in our own right and what we have to share is worthwhile? That we do not have to wait for someone to give us a title, to pay us money, or to even give us permission (although if you need that; here have mine).

What if we found our courage to share more so that our students would also share?

There are too many who are silent. Who are afraid. Who do not think that what they do can help others. But they are wrong. Together we are better, and we never know what little idea may make the biggest difference to someone else.

So share your thoughts. Share your dreams. Share you. Because no one else is.

If you are wondering why there seems to be a common thread to so many of my posts as of late, it is because I am working on two separate literacy books. 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. Those books will be published in 2017 hopefully, 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.

being a teacher

Driving Across North Carolina, Luckily Knowing We Were Only Passing Through

April 10, 2016 Pernille Ripp

The words from my friend Jess deserve to be read by every single person out there. While I cannot guarantee that, I can use this blog as a way to hold up her voice, because if we let hatred rule our government, if we let hatred rule our decisions, then we will not be the America we set out to be; a land with freedom for all.

Crawling Out of the Classroom

Two weeks ago, my wife and I drove with our three-year-old daughter from our home near Chicago to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

For most of the drive, one of my my biggest worries was the said three-year-old daughter and the likeliness that at any moment it was possible for her to turn into something resembling a monster should the conditions warrant such a transformation.

For most of the drive, one of my biggest worries was where we could stop for a bathroom break since my daughter’s idea of giving us advanced warning of her need for a bathroom involves approximately thirty-five seconds before it is too late.

For most of the drive, one of my biggest worries was what podcast we could listen to in order to stay entertained ourselves without exposing our daughter to anything too intense.

For most of the drive my worries included: How much battery was…

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being a teacher, Literacy, Reading, Reading Identity

Reading Conferences With Students Within the 45 Minute English Class; Yes, It’s Possible

April 8, 2016April 19, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Confession time; I am terrible at conferring with my students. This once proud foundation of my elementary classroom is now a crumbling pillar in my 7th grade English class. Call it a victim of the 45 minute I have to teach everything in. A victim of the so much to do. A victim of not quite knowing how to make it productive. Whatever it is, the conferring that I know I should be doing has simply not been getting done.

Yet a few weeks ago, I realized that the one thing I needed the most (besides more time, more books, more knowledge) was the simple conference. The one to one interaction with every single one of my students if even for just a few minutes. Because conferring is the one way I can really reach all students. Is the one way we can connect the best. Is the one way that I can really see what each child needs. Conferring is the best way for me to be a better teacher to all of the needs must of us are faced with. So even within the 45 minute English class, with almost 120 students spread over 5 classes, there had to be a way. There had to be tweaks that could be made to make it work so an experiment began.

So what has worked and what have I discovered?

Reading conferring happens within the first 10 minutes of class. Every day we start with 10 minutes of independent reading. While nothing new, I now am much more purposeful with how I spend the time. So that 10 minutes is a perfect time for me to confer with students., therefore when the bell rings and the timer starts, so does my mission.

That my individual reading conferences focus on reader identity rather than on typical mini-lessons. There is no way for me at the moment to do one-on-one lessons and still make it to all of my students within about 2 weeks. So I instead focus on their reading identity and gather clues for what types of mini-lessons I need to create for small groups. That being said there are exceptions to the rule if I uncover a particular dire situation where a child is then given the full 10 minutes of time. This purpose for the conferences allows me to do quick check-ins and get to more kids.

That within those 10 minutes of independent reading I can shoot for meeting with 3 students. I come to the students, equipped with my binder and pen, ready to ask them questions. By me moving we save time and they can get as much reading time as possible until we meet.

That I need just one question to start every conference. I used to prepare for all of my conferences by coming up with several questions aimed at a specific child. Now every conference starts with, “What are you working on as a reader?” The direction of the conference then is directed by their answer.

That I need a simple system to keep track of notes. I used to take a lot of notes during my conferring but now find the need really just for three different things; my observations, their answers, and next steps. Every student therefore has a sheet with three different conferring boxes on it, each class has its own 1-inch binder for me to keep track and I write down only what I need to better teach the child. That means I am working on writing down only the essentials, in the moment, and still try to think of what to help them with.

So how has it been? Pretty amazing actually. The concentrated 10 minute effort means that I am fully attentive to what the students are saying ant thinking of other things. The short note-taking sheet means that I am ore focused in what I write down as well as what we need to work on next. The students seem to like it because they are getting more attention and still getting reading time. And the things I have uncovered? They are things I would not have uncovered no matter how many reflections I had students do, no matter how many small group lessons I would have conducted.

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So while the 45 minutes of English class will never be ideal, it will never be enough, it will never feel like I can provide each child with the type of learning experience they deserve, it cannot hold us back. It cannot hold me back. And I cannot be the only one that is trying to do this. What has worked for you?

PS: As far as writing conferring, I use the entire class-time when we write meeting one-on-one with students. This has proven to be more effective for the students than doing a mini-lesson for the whole class since their needs are so diverse.