Looking Ahead to 2013

The end of a year is ahead of us. Many people make New Year's resolutions. Some people reflect on the past year. Here are a few thought starters as you get ready for your break:

• My greatest wish for 2013 is...
• My favorite New Year's memory is...
• I'm looking forward to...
• The one resolution that shows up every year is...
• I'd most like to change...

Here are mine:

My greatest wish for 2013 is...that all teachers would have less stress and more time to share joys with their students.

My favorite New Year's memory is...when my son told us he was going to be a father for the first time.

I'm looking forward to...spending more time with all of the grandchildren..watching them blow out birthday candles, watching all their sports' events, playing with them at our pool, laughing at their funny sayings...

The one resolution that shows up every year is...to spend more time reading and writing.

I'd most like to change...the pressures that the teachers feel so they can again enjoy just teaching.

I'd love to see yours.  If you have time during your break, fill these out and send them to me at dkdouglas@hotmail.com    Merry Christmas!  Have a great vacation!

The Love of Reading

Graham listening to a story at Story Time

One of the best parts of being retired is to take Graham, my two-year-old grandson, to Story Time at the library. Naturally, I want him to learn to love to read as much as I do. One way to do that is to let children know that all kinds of people read. They need to see their parents, grandparents, and siblings reading!

Over the last couple years I have been collecting pictures of people reading in various places. To me this is just proof that reading is fun. Hopefully, one day I will be able to pull all these pictures together for a power point to share the Love of Reading!

Reading in Phoenix



As you travel around the school or neighborhood, be on the lookout for adults, kids, anyone reading.  Point it out to the children around you. Share with them the fact that everyone loves to read in all kinds of places. It should become a habit with them, too. When you have some spare time...READ!

Yes, even Dave reads!!!!





Looking Toward January: Informational Writing

In January many third graders will be writing informational text. This is very similar to what third graders have been doing in past years. When they were in K-2 grades, they wrote 'How-to' books and 'All About' books. That informational writing gave them the background to do the type of text they will write this year.

Students will be writing about things they are interested in and very familiar with. The purpose of informational writing is to teach others. It is important that they know a lot about their chosen topic. A possible way to begin after the topic is chosen is to separate it into subtopics. Each of those subtopics can be listed as chapters in the table of contents.

As students prepare to write this genre, it is important to have mentor texts that look like what they will write.  Books by Gail Gibbons or Seymour Simon are suggestions. These books should model the ways students will be sharing their information.

Each chapter or subtopic will have multiple pages. Students will need to decide what information they want to teach in each subtopic and how they will do that. One possible way to make those decisions is for them to try story boards in their notebooks using sketches and words. Ideas for those pages might be: "how-to" page; diagram with labeling page; compare and contrast page; or a "story" page. They would then choose paper that would be based on the structure that matches the information to be taught. Using what they have learned in previous grades about writing "All About" books, will help them know how to best present their informational writing.

Opinion Writing--Persuasive Reviews

In many second grade classrooms, students will be writing opinion pieces with the focus on persuasive reviews!  Right away most of us think about book reviews. However, I would urge you to go further than that. What about movies, places they have traveled or would like to travel, or restaurants. One student I worked with decided to write about a favorite restaurant of her family. The teacher then sent the review to that restaurant. What a surprise when the student received a gift certificate from the restaurant AND was told that they framed the review and hung it by their door! So, don't just limit the writing, challenge the students to write for REAL reasons!

A book that I like to use for support and ideas is Is That a Fact? by Tony Stead.  His chapter on persuasive writing has examples and structure for K-3 students. He suggests doing a travel brochure together as a class. You might want to gather some brochures about one certain place and let the children investigate them in groups. Making a chart of what they learned about their special place, will give them the materials they need. You will then record it as a class in a shared writing.

Another idea he shared was to ask the children to look in those brochures for words and phrases that they felt were persuasive. These words would also go onto a chart. After each workshop's focus lesson, the students would work as partners or groups to develop their own brochure. Later, lessons on revision and editing would also be included.

Don't forget to check out the All Write!!! website for a set of lessons on persuasion for K-1. These lessons focus on writing book reviews, but I am sure you could use them for movies, travel or restaurants. This could become your favorite unit of study!!! 

Our Last Monday Read Aloud Before Christmas

The last read-aloud suggestion for 2012 is another Cynthia Rylant book. This one is illustrated by Diane Goode.  In this book, the author writes a personal narrative. She never uses her name, but the writing is in first person. Since Cynthia Rylant spent much of her time with her grandparents, this has to be taken from her life. Again, this is a perfect book to be a mentor text for personal narratives.

This book is full of writer's craft that teachers can use with their students. She uses the senses to add details: "...I pulled boxes of ornaments from her closet, which smelled like wool and mothballs."  She uses the power of three: "There were silver icicles and white glass stars and soft angels."  Also, notice the use of and in that sentence! A definite craft move. She teaches us how to use punctuation as a craft move, too.  "Every Christmas Santa gave me just what I wanted: a new doll."

There also is a circular ending with..."But in that closet of wool and mothballs, there would be boxes of old ornaments, waiting."

Looking Toward January: Opinion Writing

You just have to admit that even six or seven year olds have an opinion.
Ask them:

• Do you want to stay up late at night?
• Would you like ice cream or spinach for dessert?
• Do you want a longer recess?

Yes, they have opinions! The difficult part is defending those opinions or even persuading someone else to agree with their opinion or change their mind in favor of their opinion.  That is why next month's unit of study for many first and second graders is going to be hard.

Since we are looking toward January, there are a few things teachers can do to get ready for that unit. One thing is to expose children to that type of writing now! Here are a few books you might want to use as read alouds to introduce and discuss what these authors are doing:

• Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? Please!? by Lois G Grambling
• I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaugman Orloff
• Earrings! by Judith Viorst
• Dear Bear by Joanna Harrison
• Should There Be Zoos? A Persuasive Text by Tony Stead
• Dear Fish by Chris Gall
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by mo willems
• Click, Clack, Moo! Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
• Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague

Doing read alouds to expose children to opinion writing, will help them have a vision for what it looks like. Making an anchor chart of their noticings now, will be helpful when they begin to write later.

For first graders, this unit is made up of writing letters and speeches. You will begin with letters so it is important that your writing area has stationary and envelopes in it. The stationary can be made with simple lines appropriate for letters. It can even have decorations or clip art on it. This is something you will want to have ready at the beginning of the month.

A great support for this unit is the book by Sarah Picard Taylor: A Quick Guide to Teaching Persuasive Writing-K-2. This is a small $8.00 book with loads of information including samples of kids' work. Check your professional library. You might just have one in your building! More to come next week for second grade persuasive writing!

Looking Toward January: Historical Fiction

Both fourth and fifth grades in many districts will be writing historical fiction in January. Now would be the time to begin immersing the students in that genre. Using historical fiction in read alouds. literature circles, and whole group teaching will allow children to become familiar with that type of writing.

There are two ways students can learn about a time period. One is to use the unit of study happening in social studies. As the class is studying a historical era, set all of their writing stories within that one era. They can use not only the social studies text book, but also film, photographs and stories set in that time period. It is important for them to develop images of  the time and place to draw upon as they create stories set in that context.

Another option is to set the stories students will be writing in the era of the Read Alouds they will be interacting with during whole group reading time. All of your read alouds for this month would be the time and place in history you have chosen. Material for this option can also come from folders of articles and photos from the time period the teacher has gathered.

I am including, in this blog, a list of historical fiction picture books that could be used for this unit. For my Monday book suggestions next month, I will be using these books and going deeper with descriptions of those books. For now, here's a list to get you started:

•  Lewis and Clark and Me by Laurie Myers
• Smoky Nights by Eve Bunting
• Delivering Justice by Jim Haskins
• The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
• January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco
• A Good Night for Freedom by Barbara Olenyik Morrow
• The Harmonica by Tony Johnston
• The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

Choosing books that fit your era of choice will give students a good starting point for writing this genre. Making anchor charts with lists of things they notice in this reading will also give you a place to start when you begin the writing workshop in January!