The ideas and energy generated at the March Reunion, hosted by Advancing Literacy and friends of Teachers College, continue to resonate. It was lovely to dive into foundational reading, digital literacies, and AI. It was beautiful to explore ways to make our teaching more culturally responsive and more celebratory of multilingual learners. It was inspiring to see practitioners innovating from research, designing morphology studies, addressing foundational gaps with older readers, practicing fluency in joyful ways. Seeing all these educators give their time to teach and learn with colleagues inspires so much hope.
Carmen Agra Deedy reminded all of us of the power of storytelling. It’s not just the content of Carmen’s stories that mesmerize, though they do entrance - especially the way adults in her stories learn from children, and how much her characters learn and teach about love. It’s that when Carmen tells a story she brings her whole spirit and body to the experience. Carmen’s gestures act out the story. Her voice brings alive each character. Her vast pleasure in the magic of stories is contagious and captivating. I’m reminded of the power of an irrepressible storyteller, and inspired to be more vivid with my own storytelling during read aloud and writing workshop.
Join Carmen Agra Deedy as she teaches about storytelling in writing workshop and listen to her explain how to use your voice as an instrument when reading aloud. Share the joy!
Eduardo Briceño held us captive in a different way. Eduardo talked about the learning zone and the performance zone, describing Cirque du Soleil. Eduardo described how Cirque du Soleil performs literally in the performance zone, without nets. The stakes are high and the performance is not a time to embrace failure. But they practice in a learning zone, with nets. The stakes are low, and learners can fail and adjust and learn from mistakes. Eduardo had us think about the performance paradox - that we often learn a huge amount as novices, but once we feel proficient, we stagnate. Hmm!
Eduardo’s words left me thinking a lot about school, and how important it is not just for kids but also for teachers to flourish in a learning zone. When threat perception is too high, when all emphasis is on performance, then growth becomes impossible. Let’s consider how we can care for colleagues, how we can set goals that inspire learning and experimentation. Eduardo had us think about setting learning goals as a school community. That too made me think, as all too often, school goals seem to be set as achievement goals, not learning goals. I hope, this spring, that many of us will be thinking about what we want to learn about our children and families, what we want to learn with our colleagues, and how we can create communities where it’s okay to not be perfect.
You can watch Eduardo Briceño’s Ted Talk: How to Get Better at the Things You Care About, to hear more about the learning and performance zones. And to really explore more about creating environments where people love to grow, read Eduardo’s new book, The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action.
I’m also thinking, in the wake of Eduardo’s talk, about newcomers and multilingual learners, and how negotiating school in a new language can feel like a performance zone. In Carmen Agra Deedy’s storytelling, she ranged across Spanish and English, translanguaging, celebrating her linguistic and cultural heritages. Carmen and Eduardo stir us to make school more beautiful and joyful for every child. If you’re able, join us for our Multiliteracies and Bilingual Literacies Symposium, July 1-2, in-person at Teachers College, where we’ll have the opportunity to learn with Teachers College faculty, including Professor María Paula Ghiso and Professor Patricia Martínez-Álvarez.
