Today I learned...

I was looking back through my teaching notebook today and I reread a quote from Chris Lehman. He reminded us at the Dublin Literacy Conference that we should high five our students for their first ideas. We should celebrate those approximations for often. Nobody gets it right the first time, so why would we expect our students' first idea to be spot on all the time?

I'm going to work on that...I'll be intentional in high-fiving first ideas more often! It's not about getting it perfect, it's about at least trying!

I often think of the courage it takes to try new words in a new language, let alone to try a complete sentence. This is why when English language learners make grammatical errors in their speech, we understand this is part of a process of learning a language. When I hear our reading teachers discuss about students' work and they would say, "here is a good example of something he is using but confusing." That sentence rings true for ELLs as well. Their attempts to using the language show they might be using plurals but confusing the endings in plurals. 

Adopting a "Let's high five students' first ideas more often" is a healthy approach to looking at progress and growth. Thank you Chris for your words.