As mentioned in the September newsletter, we will focus our attention this year on some of the earlier pillars of reading instruction to help understand the current interventions being employed within our curriculum and to potentially play with some of their elements in our own classrooms. To establish some common language, I am going to begin by defining three important terms of reading: dyslexia, phonemic awareness, and phonics. The first, dyslexia, is an often used, and largely misused term. Depending on who you ask, you are likely to get a different answer. In a general sense, people use it to indicate someone struggling with reading. Perhaps they have observed that the reader or writer transposes letters backwards or flips the order of the letters as they decode. Perhaps the reader struggles with multisyllabic or unique words. Or perhaps they read very slowly and deliberately. While all of these are ...
AVHS was built around the idea of a circle. It began as a quirky, architectural choice in the building’s original design with these massive circular windows that span the height of both floors and look out from the building’s front facade. In the last wave of remodeling, the circular theme has become infused throughout the building. Our marquee at the front incorporates the circle, our expansive commons area uses the design in the carpet, massive circles hang from the ceiling, and the newly painted walls are decorated with them. Even the exterior walls of our theatre follow the curve of a circle, defying the usual square corners of large rooms and buildings. It is a different feel from the traditional spaces of schools, where we have become accustomed to hard angles, straight lines, and clean, tidy box-like clas...
For as much as a sense of community is needed for a rich, transformative educational environment, I am aware that there will always be resisters. These are students who, despite our best efforts, simply refuse to join the community. There may be many different reasons for their resistance. And the truth is, discovering the reason is not always necessary or important. And despite our own wishes to have everyone included, community does not happen when it is forced upon people. On a certain level, I understand the nature of a classroom will always include a type of involuntary participation in community and that it will always feel a little contrived, maybe even forced. Yet there is a distinction between a classroom where conditions are created for students to more willingly join into community, and one where students are coerced into group action. For those who resist, careful ...
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