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Mindsets and Moves
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Mindsets and Moves
Strategies That Help Readers Take Charge [Grades K-8]

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August 2015 | 240 pages | Corwin

What if you could have an owner’s manual on reading ownership? What if there really were a framework for building students’ agency and independence? 

There’s no “what if?” about it. When it comes to teaching reading, Gravity Goldberg declares there is a structure, one that works with your current curriculum, to help readers take charge. The way forward Gravity says lies in admiring, studying, and really getting to know your students.

Consider Mindsets & Moves your guide. Here, Gravity describes how to let go of our default roles of assigner, monitor, and manager and instead shift to a growth mindset. Easily replicable in any setting, any time, her 4 Ms framework ultimately lightens your load because they allow students to monitor and direct their reading lives. 

  1. Miner: Uncovering Students’ Reading Processes (Focus: Assessment)
  2. Mirror: Giving Feedback That Reinforces a Growth Mindset (Focus: Feedback)
  3. Model: Showing Readers What We Do (Focus: Demonstration]
  4. Mentor: Guiding Students to Try New Ways of Reading (Focus: Guided Practice and Coaching)

Get started on the 4Ms tomorrow! Gravity has loaded the book with practical examples, lessons, reading process and strategy lists, and a 35-page photo tour of exemplary reading classrooms with captions that distill best practices. All figures, student work and photographs are provided in vibrant, full color. 

We are in the midst of an ownership crisis, and readers of every ability and in every grade are more often compliant than fully engaged. Use Mindsets & Moves as that rare resource that 
makes something highly complex suddenly clear and inspiring for you. 


GRAVITY GOLDBERG is coauthor of Conferring with Readers: Supporting Each Students’ Growth and Independence (Heinemann, 2007) and author of many articles about reading, writing, and professional development. She holds a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a former staff developer at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and an assistant professor at Iona College’s graduate education program. She leads a team of literacy consultants in the New York/New Jersey region. 

Mindsets and Moves addresses, in a very engaging way, the most important aspects of classroom literacy instruction. It shows how to think about and interact with children around literacy. Thoroughly grounded in current theories, which are clearly explained and illustrated with stories and examples, the book is absolutely practical with excellent examples of lessons, anchor charts and all of the necessary details.” — Peter Johnston, Author of Choice Words and Opening Minds 

 
Chapter One. Reading on One’s Own: What We Really Mean by Take-Charge Independence
What Does It Really Mean to Read on One’s Own?

 
Examining Teacher Roles

 
Taking the Spotlight Off the Teacher

 
The Facets of Ownership

 
How Rigor Fits In

 
The Pitfalls of Turning Play Into Work: Motivation Challenges

 
 
Chapter Two. Shifting Roles: Be a Miner, a Mirror, a Model, a Mentor
The Gift of Problems: Creating a Willingness to Struggle

 
Shifting Roles Toward Reader Ownership

 
What Shifted?

 
Taking on New Teacher Roles: The 4 Ms

 
How Ownership Sits Within the Gradual Release Model

 
 
Chapter Three. Being an Admirer: Looking at Readers With Curiosity
Admiring Allows Us to See What Is There

 
Admiring Gives Us Glimpses Into Our Students’ Minds

 
Admiring Lets Us See Potential

 
Admiring Helps Us Recognize Individuality

 
Admiring Pushes Us to Be Precise

 
Admiring Gives Us the Small and Big Picture

 
Admiring Supports a Growth Mindset

 
Admiring Creates Growth Mindset Expectations

 
Language Impacts Mindset

 
Admiring Impacts Our Guiding Questions

 
Start Admiring!

 
 
Chapter Four. Creating Space for Ownership: A Photo Tour of Reading Classrooms
Reading Process Spiral

 
Reading Workshop Space

 
Class Meeting Area

 
Reading Notebooks

 
Tracking Reading Volume

 
Class Goals Chart

 
Book Club Tools and Spaces

 
Student Intentions

 
Small Group Instruction

 
Reading Nooks

 
Student Reflections

 
 
Chapter Five. Be a Miner: Uncovering Students’ Reading Processes
Using a Five-Step Process

 
Uncovering One Student’s Reading Process

 
Uncovering a Class’s Reading Processes

 
Choosing When to Be a Miner

 
Admiring Trouble

 
 
Chapter Six. Be a Mirror: Giving Feedback That Reinforces a Growth Mindset
Feedback Teaches

 
Preparing to Give Feedback

 
Being a Mirror to a Small Group

 
Being a Mirror to the Whole Class

 
Admiring Trouble

 
 
Chapter Seven. Be a Model: Showing Readers What We Do
Being a Model

 
Being a Model to One Student

 
Are We Really Modeling?

 
Planning to Model for the Whole Class

 
Preparing to Be a Model

 
Modeling, Not Assigning

 
Admiring Trouble

 
 
Chapter Eight. Be a Mentor: Guiding Students to Try New Ways of Reading
Being a Mentor

 
Break Down Strategies Into Steps

 
Mentoring a Small Group of Readers

 
Mentoring the Whole Class During a Read Aloud

 
Admiring Trouble

 
 
Chapter Nine. Teaching Students Strategies for How to Be Admirers
How to Talk About Your Reading Process

 
How to Set Goals for Yourself as a Reader

 
How to Reflect on Your Mindset

 
How to Give Each Other Feedback

 
How to Ask for Support

 
 
Chapter Ten. Embracing Curiosity: Entry Points for Getting Started
Entry Point 1: Shift Roles

 
Entry Point 2: Shift Lenses From Deficit to Admiring

 
Entry Point 3: Shift Your Focus From the Teacher to Students

 
Entry Point 4: Shift Classroom Spaces

 
Entry Point 5: Shift Toward Feedback From Students

 
Entry Point 6: Shift Toward Feedback From Trusted Colleagues

 
Entry Point 7: Admire Yourself

 
 
Appendices
 
Appendix A. Student-Focused Reading Checklist
 
Appendix B. Continuum: How We Might Shift Our Instruction Toward Ownership
 
Appendix C. Chart of Balanced Literacy Reading Components
 
Reproducible Classroom Charts
 
Be a Miner
 
Be a Mirror
 
Be a Model
 
Be a Mentor
 
References
 
Index

Supplements

"Gravity Goldberg shows readers how to re-imagine their role as reading teachers in order to help students become readers who are engaged and independent.  This warm and very practical book will be a treasured guide for teachers in the challenging work of growing readers who truly have ownership of their reading."

CARL ANDERSON
Author of How's It a Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers

Thought provoking, practical, and inspiring all at once—it is one of those books that is so chock-full of wise ideas that I will delight in dog earring and marking up its pages with a highlighter.

GEORGIA HEARD
Author of The Revision Toolbox and Finding the Heart of Nonfiction

"Gravity Goldberg brings to the field wisdom and how-to's that are at once ancient and brand new, and her 4Ms process has the power to create the paradigm shift we need."

SHARON TABERSKI
Author of Comprehension from the Ground Up and The Common Core Companion, K-2

"This is that rare kind of book that will be useful to teachers in any setting, whether they are classroom teachers or literacy specialists, whether they work with children who struggle in some way or those who exceed expectations in any way.  Gravity includes practical examples and helpful resources that show teachers how to truly see and know their students, first, so that they can tailor instruction that fits their humanity, lifts their work, and engages their intentions as readers and learners."

KATHY COLLINS
co-author of I Am Reading with Matt Glover, Growing Readers, and Reading for Real

"Top 3 things I admire about Mindsets and Moves by Gravity Goldberg: 1. She helps us move young readers to new heights by naming the brilliance in what they are already doing; 2. She provides models and tools for teaching reading that feel fun and humane; and 3., her clear and engaging language will inspire ambitious conversations in teacher study groups and college reading classes, making us all happier and more powerful reading teachers."

KATHERINE BOMER
Author of Hidden Gems: Naming and Teaching from the Brilliance in Every Student’s Writing

"The premise that we as teachers must consider students' strengths is a timeless one. What’s rare is that Gravity goes well beyond this premise to offer clear suggestions and classroom examples… This is where the power of Gravity's book lies: in the credo that all students are indeed engaging and working hard at reading, and that we need to see and nurture those efforts."

GRACE ENRIQUEZ
Associate Professor, Lesley University, and coauthor of The Reading Turn-Around

"This is a valuable book not just for reading teachers, but for anyone who teaches anything.  Gravity Goldberg shows us how to begin by observing and admiring what our students already do and how they do it.  She shows us, further, how to give feedback, model new strategies, and mentor students without undermining their ownership and enjoyment of the activity and their improvement."

PETER GRAY
Research Professor of Psychology at Boston College and author of Free to Learn

"When you read this book, you feel like Gravity is right there with you, shoulder-to-shoulder, seeing your students as they deserve to be seen—with wonder and curiosity."

KATIE EGAN CUNNINGHAM
Author of Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning

"I am impressed by Goldberg’s shifts in her own thinking and teaching that placed the focus always on the students’ behaviors rather than on the teachers’.  I also like the way she forged ideas based not only on ideas from the literacy community but from other areas of research such as business leadership and psychology as well. Additionally, Goldberg’s charts and other graphics make her ideas extremely clear and provide quick access to the key points when I want revisit them. And her specific classroom examples clarified the points extremely well and make her a very credible expert because she has obviously walked the talk!"

Nancy Allison
Literacy Coach and Author of Middle School Reader

“Unlike most approaches, Gravity Goldberg shows how to shift the educator's typical role from that of a manager to encouraging kids to take charge of their own reading processes. The idea is to evolve and encourage a 'growth mindset' that offers a model for new ways of reading.” 

Midwest Book Review, April 2016

Gravity Goldberg

Gravity Goldberg is an international educational consultant and author of eight books on teaching. Mindsets & Moves (Corwin Literacy, 2015) put her on the world stage with its practical ways to cultivate student agency, leading to speaking engagements and foreign translations of her work. She has almost 20 years of teaching experience, including positions as a science teacher, reading specialist, third grade teacher, special educator, literacy coach, staff developer, assistant professor, educational consultant, and yoga teacher. Gravity holds a B.A. and M.Ed. from Boston College and a doctorate in education from Teachers College,... More About Author

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ISBN: 9781506314938
$39.95