This week we are finishing the book!!!! I wish I would have read the Giving and Getting Feedback chapter last week as I was babysitting my granddaughter and my daughter came home from teaching her second grade class one night talking about “Shawn” and the difficulties he was having accepting responsibilities for his actions. It did not help Shawn’s mother called to yell at my daughter because Shawn was so upset because the other kids were making him get in trouble. I will be sharing this book with her and especially this chapter! The chapter once again reminds me of how important it is to TEACH what may seem to be obvious skills to children. The concept of self evaluating may seem to be a high expectation for preschoolers but is such an important skill as they move ahead socially and to be successful with academic standards. Besides the suggestions in the book what would be some simple developmentally appropriate ways for preschoolers to learn to self-evaluate?
I was very struck at the bottom of page 167 with “ we don’t want them to make choices to seek our approval.” How could we also send this message to parents?
And finally on page 178 I really felt she summed up the book with: “...by teaching the emotional language with the social skills, we can layer on the academic content and have successful and rigorous discussions, questions, discoveries and achievements that go far beyond any scripted curriculum.” So powerful to get the suggestions in the book in place to be create a learning environment. I hope this book study has giving you suggestions that has changed your practice.
We have offered this learning opportunity in this blog form knowing how difficult it is for professionals to get away from the classroom for PD. We are still held accountable that it has changed practice which benefit students. Please fill out the following impact survey and evaluation: https://docs.google.com/a/cesa9.org/forms/d/1RZVqLouE1abNojYfpQvrVZ55xKuXxSJ-2KDgZfLQo0Y/viewform At the beginning of this book group I listed the expectations to get a certificate to be posting two times and giving a resource. Half of you have been able to do that. I hope that the rest of you can post at least once in this final week and we will send out certificates next week. Thanks!
AND we have a few more book winners! Eveyln Azbell won Open This Little Book, Laurie Jacoby won Whimpsy’s Very Heavy Things and Lindsay Steig won My Blue is Happy! I will get these to you soon!
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Romy Deegan writes: One of my favorite resources is my collection of Howard B. Wigglebottom books.
Howard Learns to Listen
Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey on His Back A Tale on Telling the Truth
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns about Bullies
Howard B. Wigglebottom Listens to His Heart
Howard B. Wigglebottom and Christmas
Written by, Howard Binkow and Susan Cornelison
All great lessons for all ages.
I often follow the first book on listening with giving out Wigglebottom stars as incentives.
Just finished the book. I really enjoyed this book study. The chapter on feedback was very good. I will be incorporating how to give specific feedback into my social/emotional lessons the next 2 weeks before holiday break. I liked how the author described how to give positive feedback even if you didn't like the overall painting..etc... Even if you don't like something, there may still be a part of it you like and authors/artists can learn from all comments and accepting feedback is an important life skill.
This was a really great book that I wish I would have read sooner. There are so many things to comment on and many things I will definitely be using. Each year at the beginning of the year I am reminded all the things I have to teach that by the end of the year seem common practice. It is a good reminder to not expect students to know and understand things that I haven't taught.
Some books to be added to the resource list:
The Motivation Breakthrough - 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out child by Richard Lavoie
Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax
The final chapters of the book remind me a great deal of the growth mindset concept and now that I've read this, I am going to go back and reread Peter Johnston's books, Opening Minds and Choice Words. There is something about our culture or educational system in general that seems to create situations that aren't conducive to giving and receiving feedback. As a reading teacher in a high poverty school, so many of my students really need all the emotional/social pieces in order to be available for learning.
* final resource: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard developingchild.harvard.edu. They have a free newsletter and tons of great online resources on many of the topics we are dealing with in working with young children.
This has been a great book read. I loved, in Chapter 12, the lesson using Go Dog, Go! to teach about respecting differences. I think it is important, and it was a good reminder, that children need to be taught how to respectfully and politely disagree. This is a life skill that carries over through adulthood. I believe it is important to teach students how to state positive comments and/or feedback to help establish an atmosphere of trust and respect, which is crucial to any learning environment.
2 additional resource books:
I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson
I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont
This book has helped me greatly in thinking about how I talk and deal with young children that are having difficultly with self regulation, following directions, and getting along with others in the classroom setting. I have been able to directly apply ideas with more understanding. It helps me to be more patient.
I have gotten a lot of wonderful ideas from this book. The focus of the work I do is engaging families with school. So while I don't have a classroom there were many activities in this book that could be modified to support learning at home and reinforce what the students are learning at school. In Chapter 13 the author's heartfelt section "Making a Difference in Children's Lives" made many good points. My take away from this whole book and something I will be sharing was in the third paragraph on page 178. Rather than being dismayed at a child's difficult behaviors and saying "if only....." we should be asking "How can I help?"
The resources I'd like to share are a couple books about parent and teacher communication and family engagement.
"The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers can Learn from Each Other" by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
and
"A Cord of Three Strands: A New Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools" by Soo Hong
As I have read through the final chapters it was nice to note the resource book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? I feel that has been a very positive thing in my 4K classroom. If your class isn't bucket fillers, you may want to consider it. :-) It does take time and planning, but well worth the positive energy it creates. I also collect notes from parents each month that I read to my students at morning meeting. The students truly enjoy to get notes from parents as well. (Parents have become accustom to this activity, and have been quite good with sending notes, or completing a special note/phrase that I send home). Students love to go back and look through message from other students and parents. It provides a source of positive feelings whenever they choose, or need a pick up message. Another great resource is "How Full is Your Bucket for Kids" by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. Thank you for letting me share. Check out the bucket fillers on Teachers Pay Teachers as well. Happy Holidays! Kristin
My book suggestion is Mine-O-Saur by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. It is a cute one that I read in the beginning of the year about a dinosaur who doesn't want to share. Have You Filled a Bucket Today? is a book that I keep hearing about as well and plan to purchase. My daughter's preschool class used it and each student had a cute bucket with stars in it. She loved the concept and we use it at home now too. She taught me!
I really valued the section in Chapter 12 that stressed finding something you like or something positive in what may seem like a negative (or not so good) situation. I think both children and adults can use that support and reminder. I enjoyed how the author mentioned focusing on a positive first is important and it establishes an environment of trust, respect, and kindness...all essential in developing that relationship that we value so much.
It's important for our students to understand we can disagree about something and neither person is "wrong." To respectfully disagree is a life skill.
I book coming to my mind that related to this chapter is I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont.
Resource: We Get What We Get by
Many of us use "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit", this author puts this little lesson to words and pictures! The little boy throws fits at home but knows this rule at school until he slips at home and his family realizes that they should use it at home as well. We are constantly trying to have consistency at home and school.
I forgot to add the author and now I can not find my copy of the book. It is a scholastic book. Another series that my own children us in school about social behaviors is the Howard B. Wigglebottom books! They LOVE them.
In Chapter 12 “Giving and Getting Feedback” I was reminded about the importance of really listening to students. A new thought for me is how language supports autonomy and how that promotes self-regulation. After reading this book, I want to improve how I give feedback. I want to focus on listening more carefully and helping students take responsibility. As a culminating activity I would like to read “Brave Lion, Scared Lion” by Joan Stimson and promote the idea that taking responsibility for our actions is brave and sometimes scary.
I enjoyed reading this book and getting ideas on new things to try in the classroom along with new books. In the 12th Chapter I liked the idea on how to teach kids to tell someone they did not like something. I have been trying hard with my kids to remind them that one friend may not like something but that doesn't mean others can't like it.
Here are some of the books that I use in the classroom are:
"The Mixed Up Chameleon" by Eric Carl
"I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting off a Little Self-Esteem" By:
Jamie Lee Curtis
"The Tale of Two Beasts" By: Fiona Roberton
"Bossy Bear" By: David Horvath
Finally getting to comment! Thank you for sharing this book and providing this platform. At first I was a bit hesitate when I started the book (in the intro) because it seemed she was grouping all students coming to school with a first language other than English as coming from poor and academically uneducated families. As I got to the meat of the book, I liked the approach she took to having art play an important role in her classroom.
Two children's books that I absolutely love are:
The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater (a classic!)
I'm Special, I'm Me by Ann Meek
Teacher resource:
The Learner-Directed Classroom: Developing Creative Thinking Skills Through Art
by Diane B. Jaquith and Nan E. Hathaway, Editors
As I reflected on Chapter 12 I thought about how knowing the importance of giving and getting feedback to student growth and actually giving appropriate feedback are two different things. I feel as though I know this, but in the hustle and bustle of the classroom I admit my feedback isn't always what it should be to foster student specific growth. I believe the key is to make it intentional which is the essence of what Mary Anne Buckley wrote about in this book. I also reflected on how giving feedback to students with special needs, especially in our early childhood classrooms often requires a different delivery. More specifically, there receptive and expressive language are typically at a different level than their same aged peers so it needs to be provided differently. So, as educators we need to make sure we are delivering appropriate feedback at students' developmental levels. Chapter 13 was a nice conclusion to the book. We all seek transformation for our students. I hope for the same transformation each year in my own professional growth.
I liked the section of chapter 12 the author titled, Language that Supports Autonomy. Too often children perform just to get approval from adults. Internalizing the love of learning or other behaviors is what drives us creatively. Not only do we need to encourage children to take responsibility for their learning but also, to take responsibility for their behaviors. Instead of, “He made me do it.” The author’s quote, “Mistakes are inevitable-it is what we do after making them that matters.” Wow! That’s powerful. What a wonderful idea to share with children. If they could believe this they would see failures as opportunities to learn and be more likely to challenge themselves without fear of failure. I also wonder how we can build the skill of giving and getting feedback into our practice with our colleagues. We are good at sharing our successes, but how often do we get feedback we can use to improve our skills of teaching.
In Chapter 10, the author mentioned the book, You Can’t Say, You Can’t Play by Vivian Gussin Paley. I want to also recommend the book. We use Social Stories often throughout the school year to teach a variety of skills. Our office staff routinely conducts Live Theater during the children’s lunch in which they demonstrate and act out the wrong and right way to behave in different situations. It may be for standing in line, sharing, walking down the hall, being kind or whatever behaviors the children made be presenting that need support.
A children’s book that supports children’s identity of self is The OK book, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
It was interesting how the author wove peer writing conferencing into her discussion of providing feedback. Through modeling and practice -even little learners can provide powerful commentary.Empowering students to realize there is always room for improvement and they do have control over it is essential. Establishing a growth mindset in students through our use of feedback is critical, although I find it tricky to deliver 100% of the time. This book has given much food for thought.
From Romy Deegan
To sum things up. I found the book to be written like the Spirituality for the teacher and their classroom. I am delighted that this book was chosen. I read each night before I went to sleep. I plan to work again with this book over break and see how I can keep the key topics of each chapter going when planning and writing my daily intentional message for my students.
Teaching social emotional development always a challenge.
Romy
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