No More Sharpening Pencils During Work Time and Other Time Wasters

“We need to evaluate how we spend time in our classroom by asking whether it is proportional to how valuable the activity is in fostering students’ independence and growth.”
—Elizabeth Brinkerhoff and Alysia Roehrig

Time is precious, and every teacher needs more. No More Sharpening Pencils During Work Time and Other Time Wasters shows you where to find it as well as research-based ways to align every classroom minute you can with the goals you have for learners.

The most important learning in any classroom occurs when students actively engage in work that matters, so clearing away anything that siphons off learning time is crucial. Elizabeth Brinkerhoff and Alysia Roehrig provide tools for assessing your classroom time, a summary of pertinent research, and suggestions for planning and teaching that help make every minute count. Their strategies will help you create and leverage instructional opportunities by:

• finding new efficiencies in your classroom management
• improving alignment between instruction and learning objectives
• increasing the time students spend in higher-level thinking.

“If we want students to become adults who spend their time in purposeful, constructive ways,” write Elizabeth and Alysia, “we need to give them opportunities to spend their time purposefully and take responsibility for how their time is spent.” Give them the time to become independent with No More Sharpening Pencils During Work Time and Other Time Wasters.

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Elizabeth Brinkerhoff is coauthor of No More Sharpening Pencils During Work Time and Other Time Wasters, part of the Not This, But That series, edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. Elizabeth taught elementary school for 26 years in the Volusia County, Florida, schools. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at Florida State University, where she can further her passion for helping future educators and improving instruction for students who are at-risk for academic difficulties. Her research addresses to teachers' use of academic language and differentiation through the use of student formative and summative data.

Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning. Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers' workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.

Alysia Roehrig is coauthor of No More Sharpening Pencils During Work Time and Other Time Wasters, part of the Not This, But That series, edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. At Florida State University, Alysia is Learning and Cognition Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Educational Psychology. She is also a faculty member of the Florida Center for Reading Research's Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Science. Her research interests focus on issues related to effective teaching, primarily the professional development of teachers and the literacy learning of students. She has published articles in The Elementary School Journal; The Journal of Literacy Research; Science; and The Teacher Educator. Her most recent article, "The Nature of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Reflection During an Early Field Experience," is currently in press.

Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and also in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke received her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Duke's work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, Duke was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. She has also received the Michigan Reading Association Advocacy Award, the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, and the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award. Duke is author and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text through Project-based Instruction. She is co-author of the books Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, now in its second edition; and Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K - 8 Classrooms. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Effective Literacy Instruction: Research-based Practice K to 8 and Literacy Research Methodologies. She is also editor of The Research-Informed Classroom book series and co-editor of the Not This, But That book series. Duke has taught preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Among other roles, she currently serves as advisor for the Public Broadcasting Service/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ready to Learn initiative, an expert for NBC News Learn, and advisor to the Council of Chief State School Officers Early Literacy Networked Improvement Community. She has served as author or consultant on several educational programs, including Connect4Learning: The Pre-K Curriculum; Information in Action: Reading, Writing, and Researching with Informational Text; Engaging Families in Children's Literacy Development: A Complete Workshop Series; Buzz About IT (Informational Text); iOpeners; National Geographic Science K-2; and the DLM Early Childhood Express. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.