Pure Writer's Workshop

The Twins

The towers,

The panic nagging,

The smell of death thick like fog,

The sound of screeching, trapped people,

The sirens blaring,

Relatives hoping...praying.

The place of death,

The scar is still there,

The sadness haunts

the wreckage.

--Clayton

5th grade

 

Yesterday, on the anniversary of 9-11, I was able to visit a fifth grade classroom in my hometown. When I got there they were just beginning the focus lesson in writing workshop. The unit of study this month is 'Discovering our own Writing Process'. Various lessons had been taught to help shape the writing no matter what genre the child was using.

 

As the students went off to write, I scanned the room and then sat next to a few students. Each student had their own agenda and was busily working. Hunter was drafting a picture book set in 1939 with a flashback to 1929. I chatted with him and offered a suggestion to help the reader know the main characters a little better. Ellie was revising her poem on rats. They would soon be getting rats for a science project. As she read her poem we realized she was using her senses to describe. She decided to add a few more lines about the senses to help the rhythm of the piece. Katie was working on her novel about a kidnapping.

 

"It's going to be really long," she said, as she flipped through page after page.

 

Next came sharing time. Clayton shared the beautiful poem about the twin towers...a fitting piece for the day. Faith shared a poem called Grandma's House. She used what she learned in the focus lesson: Writers use space to allow a reader to enter a piece of writing.  But, she also used vivid details to paint a picture in the reader's mind.

 

Grandma's House

Grandma's house was always clean,

Grandma's  house used to always have mints,

Grandma's house was so much fun.

Grandma was always sitting in the turquoise rocking chair.

And sometimes when I go there I still see me and my grandma sitting,

I still see me and her sitting there eating mints and watching TV.

--Faith

5th grade

Visiting a classroom where writer's workshop is happening with ease and precision, is a true joy!



Classroom Discussions Using Common Core Expectations

Yesterday I spent time in a fifth grade classroom during their reading time. After talking to their teacher about what was happening in the room, she asked if I wanted to do a read aloud/think aloud with the class.  She knows me really well because I never can turn down a chance to read to kids! It had been a long time since I have had that opportunity, so I jumped at this experience.

She had planned on reading the book Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna. It was one that I had read many times, so it was not a problem to know when to stop and talk in special places. I also knew I wanted to not only share the books message, but to see how the students did with talking about their thinking.

The teacher and I did an introduction and even read Madonna's dedication at the back of the book. I read. We stopped and they turned to partners and talked. They were seated in a circle on the floor of their gathering area. After talking to their partners they then shared with the whole group. The children understood the meaning of the book and could tell you the moral of the story along with the theme. Normally, I would be satisfied with how the discussion progressed. However, with the idea of Common Core State Standards, students need to do more than that. They need to carry on the discussion with only a little push from the teacher/facilitator.

First of all, the students would look at me rather than at each other when they shared their ideas. I did talk to them about speaking to the whole group, but it didn't really sink in with them. They didn't understand they were to have a discussion with the whole group. What they need next is to see how strong communicators use signals to talk to one another during a discussion. When we talk in groups such as at family gatherings we signal with our eyes, nod our heads, or join in at a pause. When two people start to talk at the same time, one of us knows to wait and listen.

To allow them to learn this skill I am going to suggest a game for the teacher to try. Here is how it goes: Have everyone in the class count from one to how ever many students there are in the class. They will not be assigned a number or raise their hands. They are allowed to only say ONE number.

The teacher would start by saying number one! Then another person will say tow and another will say three. They can only say a number once. If more than one person says a number, they must figure out a way...without speaking...to go on. If they can't decide who goes next, then the game starts again. The game ends when they have counted from one to the end number.

When the game has been played through one time, ask the students to do it again. This time ask them to watch and think about what is happening. What signals or moves do people make to let you know who wants to talk? Be specific. The students should NOT go in the same order as before!

When they are done have them talk about how they figured out when they could say the next number. Make a two column chart: BODY SIGNALS.......HOW THOSE SIGNALS HELPED.

After the game, do the think aloud for the day. When it is time to discuss, say, "What are you thinking?" They can then use the body signals to keep the discussion going!

Using a Mentor Writer, Thanks, Debbie!

One of my mentor writers is Debbie Miller, author of Reading With Meaning, The Joy of Conferring, and Teaching With Intention. Being a founding member of the All Write!!! Consortium, I had the privilege of playing host to Debbie in my school district and therefore getting to know her personally.

As I have been developing my new activities as a retired teacher, I remembered the introduction to her book, Teaching With Intention. In her welcome she talked about leaving her classroom and moving all her 'stuff' home to her basement area. She developed a place for planning and reflection. The book even offered a couple pictures of her new place.

My reading chair



Book Baskets



 

For some reason, over the years those words and the pictures stayed in my mind. So, this past summer I did the same thing. I placed my books into shelves and baskets and made a planning and reflection place. I made a reading and writing space.




My grandparent's library desk

So, once again, Debbie has become my mentor as I start visiting schools and classrooms, writing blogs, and working with my grandchildren.
With a dozen grandchildren, I'm sure we will play a little 'school'.

Going Deeper With Comprehension

One of the books I had started using before I retired was Talk About Understanding by Ellin Oliver Keene.  In this book Ellin helps us rethink classroom talk to enhance comprehension.  This book is full of ways she helps students pull things out of the book and really think about their thinking.  Since I get more out of seeing someone actually do what they talk about, this book is wonderful because it also has a CD of her in the classroom.

The book has several chapters discussing her thinking. Then the following chapter takes you step by step through what she did in the classroom. You could watch the whole session and then read her step-by-step run down of it.  Or you could watch a part, read about that part, watch another part, stop and read about that part. This would be an excellent book for grade level collaboration or a book study.

A picture book that Ellin uses is One Green Apple by Eve Bunting. Ellin takes this book and stops at various places to have the children talk about their thinking. I liked how she talked about character empathy, setting empathy, and conflict empathy.  She explained that when the students connected with the text it was for a purpose of helping them understand the story. When a child had empathy for the character, it helped that child understand how the character felt because the child had felt the same way. When a child had empathy for the setting, it was because the child had been in that same setting and could visualize how it was in the text.

Ellin says it like this: "Advocacy implies that a reader may follow one character or plot element more intensively and may have the sense of being "behind" the character, wanting events to evolve in a particular way."

It is important the think alouds take the students deeper into the meaning of the text, but not tell them what to think!

Happy Reading!

Raising the Quality of Writing to Meet the Common Core

As we enter the month of September, many of the fourth and fifth grade classrooms are working on new units of study. Not only new to this year, but also new to them and their teachers. Following the common core state standards focuses on more rigorous writing, the units might be on Raising the Quality of Personal Narratives or Memoir writing.  Always before those units have been done in the spring when students have had a chance to collect many different types of writing and can draw from those. Actually, doing it in September is not much different.

 As the students are writing their personal stories, this time they will focus on what makes a quality piece of writing. They will write stories that have tension in them, like the Edge of Your Seat stories. They could write pieces that show turning points in their life or life-themes.

This might be a time to go back and review what makes good small moment stories. It would benefit the whole class to again write in their notebooks lists of things that would make a story that would keep their reader on the edge of their seat. Things like: first time they did something, last time, a time they were scared, an important event in their life, or a funny story. These lists would be something done quickly in their notebooks.

Another thing to review at the beginning of this unit would be the list of what makes good writing. This would make a great chart to develop as a class and post in the room. They would be reminded to ask themselves if they are using action, developing dialogue, taking time to add the thinking of the characters. Are they using descriptive details?

Starting off this unit with things that are familiar to you as the teacher as well as the students, keeps the workshop comfortable. By working on collecting these small stories for at least a week gives the writers a chance to feel comfortable in the new community of writers as well as the actual writing taking place. Collecting stories is a great way to begin getting ready for the larger task ahead of them. In the next few weeks they will be asked to spread their wings and try to go deeper and become even better writers.

Remember to take baby steps and enjoy your writing workshop!

Making Learning Personal

One of my retirement projects is to work with my 4-year-old granddaughter, Meron. Her mom is doing preschool with her, so I volunteered to do two days a month to prepare her for kindergarten.  She comes to my house and we do "school".

Here's a peek into our morning:

Here she is doing reading. We learned what a title is and what an author is. Then we predicted what we thought would happen in the book. We took a picture walk and then read the book together. At the end of the day, she got to pick a book to take home from a book bag. We also worked on reading the Alphabet Book.

Meron did some button sorting for her math time. She looked at all the buttons and then decided to sort them into buttons that were just alike. She dumped all the buttons onto the floor in order to see them better. We also did counting and wrote numbers during math time.

We did some writing, starting with practicing her name on a sentence strip. Then she wrote a wonderful story. It was about her brother, Lane, who threw a tomato at a squirrel this morning. Max, her dog barked and barked at the squirrel. She also could tell me that SHE is the author of this book.  At the end she put: THE END...well, that is what she told me it said! Even preschoolers can do writer's workshop!

Here Meron is with her Science Notebook.  She looked at two feathers and described them. Then she looked at them through a magnifying glass and found more things to describe them. We taped them into her notebook along with the descriptions.

After we finished each section of our day, she would cross it off our schedule board. She gathered her new book from the book bag, the book she wrote and an alphabet chart and number chart to take home. Oh, yes, and the left over snack!

Gramma Preschool is fun for Meron AND Gramma!!!

Investigative Education at ANY Age!

Many school districts have been in session for several weeks.  However, there are still a few that are just now starting out.  One of those is a preschool in my hometown. This preschool is special to me because a fellow retiree friend is starting her second career as a teacher of 4/5 year olds.  I have had the chance to visit the room twice as she was getting it ready for those kiddos tomorrow morning! Here are a few pictures I took in the room:

This is my favorite place...the writing area. It is full of all kinds of writing materials including pencils, paper, and crayons. There is also a basket full of various types of blank books just waiting for stories. I know that Connie, the teacher, will introduce each of these things before she turns the students loose to create their own writing pieces. Later, they will get to work on their own projects...no prompts for these children!

Here is the reading area. This is only one little corner of the room. Another side has a big rocking chair just waiting for someone to do a read aloud. There are also bags with a book and extra materials in it for the children to take home and share with their families. Don't you just want to curl up with a good book here in this space?

This space is shelves of jars filled with all kinds of things. After the teacher introduces the jar (one at a time), the children will have a chance to choose one of them to explore, investigate, and problem solve.  Under all those shelves you see many picture frames with NOTHING in them.  That is because the students will be making those pictures as they create master pieces...whatever they want and decide should go into those frames.

What can we take from this classroom?  When you walk into this room, you know immediately that the room belongs to the children...not the teacher. It is kid-friendly and just crying out for those kiddos to discover and learn whatever their hearts desire! Is your classroom like that?

Happy First Day of School. Preschool Friends! Can't wait to come back and visit when you all are there!