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Welcome to the Choice Words Wiki for Agassiz! As we read Choice Words by Peter Johnston over the year, this will be a place to comment and add your reflections of the book.

Chapter 1 and 2 questions: Please pick one of the questions below and respond to it on your page in the wiki.

1. Reflect on when you were in school. Can you recall a time when a teacher made a comment to you that either helped you as a learner or hindered your ability to learn? 2. Remark on a comment that you found interesting in Chapter 2. 3. Do you agree or disagree with the implications of the teacher remarks listed in Table 1.1? Explain why. 4. Where do you think student learning may benefit from more explicit teaching?

Reflection question for Chapter 3: What do you do already to create identity? How will reading Chapter 3 change or inform what you do or will do? Because of my work with Lucy Caukin's program, I have created identity with my students in writing workshop. I must say that constantly addressing the students as writers felt strange to me at first, but I have become used to doing it by now. After reading the third chapter in Choice Words, I realize that identifying the students as writers helps them establish themselves as true writers and gives them the responsibility of figuring out what topics they will choose to write about. After finishing the third chapter, I also realized that I don't have enough conversations with individual students. It seems I'm usually trying to finish some lesson, constantly watching the clock, worried about keeping up with pacing charts, etc. Throughout my teaching years I have made lots of comments like, "You're quite the math student," "What a great job you do in reading," etc., but I will be more aware of my choice of words after reading Chapter Three. I also won't be telling kids that I'm proud of them anymore!

For upcoming P.D. days, please have read the following: 9/23 Chapter 3 10/28 Chapter 4 11/18 Chapter 5 and 6 1/27 Chapter 7 2/3 Chapter 8