Comments for LitLife Blog

Comment on HANDOUTS FROM PAM’S MARCH 19, 2009 PRESENTATION IN ILLINOIS by Michele Zwart

Michele Zwart — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:53:23 +0000

You were great Pam. The stories were funny. I can’t wait to get a copy of the Complete 4 book.

Comment on Evidence-Based Instruction: Why Schools Disregard What Actually Helps Kids Read Well by pam allyn

pam allyn — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:13:44 +0000

Amen, people.

Laurie: your point that the consumer (student) doesn’t have any say in the product is GENIUS. Let’s bring the kids into the conversations and see what program they will select: rote, boring basals or real, powerful life changing literature…hmmmm is right. GENIUS!

Comment on Dream Fieldtrips: Kolmanskop, Namibia by Jenny Koons

Jenny Koons — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:13:05 +0000

These “dream fieldtrips” are really inspiring to read. They remind me of the vastness of information, content, ideas, and places to which we can expose our students. While we can’t always spend the time we’d like out of the classroom, we can use technology and imagination to broaden our students’ perspectives daily.

Comment on Look on the Sunny Side by Laurie Pastore by pam allyn

pam allyn — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:15:29 +0000

Fantastic. I LOVE this. There has never been a more important time than now to be hopeful and to sustain generosity. Thank you for this, Laurie.

Comment on Virtual Realities by janice hurewitz

janice hurewitz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:10:19 +0000

great resource to share with teachers

Comment on Evidence-Based Instruction: Why Schools Disregard What Actually Helps Kids Read Well by lspastore

lspastore — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:15:54 +0000

Hmmmm.
Let’s connect the dots.
1. Texas, Florida and California combined make up 30 percent of the nation’s $4 billion school textbook market.
2. Textbook companies generally cut costs by marketing the same books chosen by these three states to the rest of the country.
3. The current president of this country hales from Texas. His brother runs Florida.
4. Most textbook companies also write, print and grade standardized tests.
5. GWB was responsible for initiating No Child Left UnTortured. NCLB requires that all states test their children annually from third grade on.
6. In January, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings marked the sixth anniversary of NCLB by testifying to the growth in reading and math tests across the country. This press conference was held in a school in Florida. FLORIDA.
7. Most districts are responding to this renewed political pressure for school performance by purchasing curricular packages.
8. These packages are frightfully expensive. The textbook market does not operate according to the same economic principles as a normal consumer market. First, the end consumers (students) do not select the product, and the people choosing the product (faculty) do not purchase the product. Therefore, price is removed from the purchasing decision, giving the producer (publishers) disproportionate market power to set prices high.
9. Just because your paranoid does not mean that someone isn’t out to get you.

Comment on You Cannot Become a Better Reader If You Are Reading Text You Cannot Understand by pam allyn

pam allyn — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:33:13 +0000

That is a really powerful story. Thanks for sharing it. It’s profound, really.

Comment on The Muse by pam allyn

pam allyn — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:48:45 +0000

I also loved this article!

I thought his translation was absolutely masterful; it actually brought tears to my eyes.

Comment on You Cannot Become a Better Reader If You Are Reading Text You Cannot Understand by lspastore

lspastore — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:59:54 +0000

You can’t be a better writer if you are always asked to write things you aren’t interested in either. Don’t we know this to be true? Years ago, I sat in a high school gymnasium, taking my teacher tests for certification. I had to write two essays over the four hours I was stuck in that echo chamber. With every scraping chair and muffled cough, I found myself losing focus. But then the test asked to me to write a response to a teaching scenario. I don’t remember the prompt, or the details, but the sounds of the gym faded away, and the task became almost enjoyable. I was writing about something I loved to do, something I believed in, something I felt passionate about.
Weeks later I received my results in the mail. I passed (phew!), but what was most interesting was my written scores. Remember, I had to write two essays. The first essay was a response to whether or not older Americans should have to retake their driver’s license when they reached sixty five. I could have cared less about that issue at the time, and my scores showed it. I did marginally well on that essay, but then I compared that score to the essay about teaching. I nailed that essay. I was hard to believe the same person wrote both pieces.

Remember to allow your writing be joyous, to encourage your students to write about what they love, or hate, or what drives them crazy. Passion is the secret. Passion helped six consultants from LitLife write six books in a single year!

Comment on Change by lpastore

lpastore — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:04:27 +0000

Here is the thing about change. You can change the sheets (me) or you can change the world (Pam). Honestly, though, you can’t very well do one without the other. Each of us needs to move forward in our lives at our own pace and rhythm. This is the only way to manage the discomfort of change. Because change is hard. I watch the faces of the teachers in my sessions. Eager, leaning forward, engaged learners can switch to puzzled, confused or frustrated learners in a turn of a phrase or a new slide on the powerpoint. We have to be sensitive to the pace of change, the speed at which we expect new ideas to root and flourish. Sometimes my work is measured simply by the bond I forge with a teacher. Today she knows I respect her decision to consider my ideas, but not act on them. Tomorrow she will step forward into the work because I allowed her to set the conditions of her learning. Process is as important if not more important than product.
When I started this work, I assumed (why?) that all adult learners were like me – ready to reinvent things at the drop of the plan book. I have had four careers since college, so changing things up is more my status quo than anything else. So I sat with teachers and we wrote curriculum, and some of the participants took these ideas and ran with them, and others took them and filed them, in a dark, lonely file cabinet or a binder than no one ever opened. But I visited their classrooms and noticed who was actually putting their toes in the water, and who remained huddled under the beach umbrella. Gradually, with the help of my colleagues at LitLife, I came to appreciate that some teachers need us to clear the way, pave the road, lay out the map – give them a Triptik for Teaching. I did this the other day. I brought the model unit. I walked through each day of instruction. I showed them the recommended texts. And a teacher, who has sat back in her own shadow for FOUR YEARS of my work leaned into the conversation and said, “I could really do this.”
I will continue to let Pam change the world. But I have learned that each and every one of us can change more than the sheets. We just need the right conditions to do so.