Email that I sent to MS-HS Team

Dear busy busy colleagues and co-worker; each with a personal or professional goal/task staring you in the face, not to mention the exponentially shorter days to the end of the year that are tumbling toward you,

Please take time to visit the library to read some of the brief books Mr. Oakley’s 7th grade student’s have written based on their reading of Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass.

Here’s why you should:

1) The books illustrate that the “in the trenches” hard work that Steve and his co-teachers are are doing with the close reading of texts is paying off. These “knowledge products” have their own voice, use supporting detail and quotes, effectively use visuals not as decoration but as tools of communication, and most importantly, “understanding the key concepts of the original text” runs like a river all through them. Inferences about the human spirit and condition, immersion in the time and circumstances, and higher-level thinking inhabit many of these efforts.

2) It’s what colleagues do to celebrate the accomplishment of another colleague.

3) It is fundamentally encouraging to see the development of skills and humanity that will serve them well both in school and life.

4) And, like all student work that we share in a public forum, it will give you the priceless opportunity to stop a student in the hall you hardly know and motivate them to their core by saying “good job.”