List of Lists

The students have been working so hard in their writer's notebook.  I hope you are getting a chance to see what they have inside.  Today the classes worked on list of lists.  I had created a large group of post-it notes that students could come and grab off our board.  The post-it notes were filled with ideas for lists.  Some of the ideas included:  things that make you proud, favorite books, favorite movies, favorite things you do on a rainy day, and so on and so on.  Students would create a list and then go to the board to fetch another list that they could make in their writer's notebook.

Now I am a huge list maker.  I have a grocery list sitting next to me right now waiting to be finished for my weekly trip to Kroger's.  I always keep a list of books and a list of cd's and a list of movies.  I love lists for some reason. 

I know what you are thinking...list writing is not really writing.  I think I used to think that as well, but lately I have been seeing list writing everywhere.  Some of our students are reading poems in small groups and both poems are essentially just lists.  Also in every magazine I pick up or blog that I read there is always some sort of list.  The list of the five best summer movies to see and then a little blurb about each movie.  I know for certain that I will read a huge amount of list writing this weekend as I prepare for my fantasy drafts.  It seems like every fantasy article is a list (the top five running backs, the top five busts in your draft, and of course the top five sleepers).  

I think students could turn their lists into this type of list writing.  Also if nothing else they serve as a great way to gather ideas and build writing fluency.

Speaking of lists I still have a few things to cross off my school list, so I am going to get going.  I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday.  The time has been flying!!  

Fix-Up Strategies

Today we talked about how "good readers" do not always read perfectly.  I told the class that I did not think this when I was a student.  I always thought that good readers just read perfectly and reading came naturally to them.  When I was a student, I was never told that good readers lose track of their thinking or cannot figure out words.  This caused me to try and act like I was never confused by text or act like I knew every word.  It never occurred to me that the "good readers" in my class were fixing their thinking as they read.

We are going to spend the next few days teaching fix-up strategies that "good readers" use when they do not know a word or they lose track of their thinking.  I tried to show the students some of my favorite strategies today as we read the article "The Buzz on Bees" (you can find this article in the reading folder).  As I read we created a T-Chart that on one side showed where the text was causing my thinking to be disrupted and then on the other side I shared how I fixed my thinking.

Students are going to be practicing these strategies on the worksheet, Fantastic Fix-Ups (also in the reading folder).  I will also put a copy of some of the fix-up strategies that we will be using in the reading folder.

Today in the One and Only Ivan we were introduced to the characters Bob and Stella.  Bob is a stray dog, and Stella an elderly elephant.  I hope the students are telling you about this book because I think it is amazing.  If you want, feel free to ask the students about the book.  Here are some questions that you might ask:

Do you think Bob trusts humans?  Why or Why Not?
Do you think the hole in Ivan's domain is important?
Do you think Mack is a good character or a bad character?

Here is hoping the Reds can hold the lead tonight!

Honoring Approximations

A few summers ago I got the privilege of listening to Matt Glover speak.  Mr. Glover is the author of the books Projecting Possibilities for Writers and Engaging Young Writers.  When Mr. Glover spoke he shared the picture book Ish.

Today I shared this same book with my class.  I have not had a chance to share it with Mrs. Sanford's class but I will get to do that tomorrow.  The reason I love to share this book is because of the message. In the book a young man gives up drawing because his older brother laughs at his work.  His younger sister, though, inspires him to get back to work.  She inspires him to work by telling him that his work is "ish".

I love this idea.  I think too often that students are afraid to take risks in the classroom.  They are afraid that they might make a mistake.  I want the students in our room to be willing to take risks with their work, especially their writing.  These risks sometimes lead to amazing work.  

In our classroom I hope to honor our students approximations.  It is the same way that I look at Emerson's (my daughter) artwork.  I do not expect perfection from her art...I praise it and praise it and praise it some more.  At the same time I find a way to nudge her to make it even better.  This is my plan with our writing...praise it and then praise it some more and then find a place where we can nudge the student to improve their work.

Hope you are all having a great week.  Remember no early release tomorrow.

Time to get Meta

Today I got to teach one of my favorite lessons, reading cereal.  The idea comes from the amazing book Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor.

We were able to study this book as a staff last year and the ideas are amazing.  Reading cereal is one of the lessons from the book that I loved.  The idea is to show the students that reading is thinking.  I read aloud the book My Great Aunt Arizona.

As I read the book I showed the students the thinking that was going on inside my head.  I would show the students how the text (the cereal) would cause my thinking (the milk).  We talked about how this interaction between the text and my thinking is REAL READING. 

We are going to continue to talk about this type of thinking that we will be calling metacognition for the rest of the week.  Hopefully you will hear students saying the word metacognition and using some of the thinking stems like: "I am thinking..." "I am wondering..." "I am noticing...".  The students started to use some of this language today as they discussed our read aloud book The One and Only Ivan.  Here is a picture of the poster we made about metacognition.

We also got to start a 3-in-3 about summer.  This 3-in-3, where students make as many three word phrases as they can in three minutes, can be found in their writer's notebook.  Tomorrow we will finish this up by making a classroom poem about summer.  I love these 3-in-3's because they are great way to gather your ideas about a topic and it does not take too long. 

Reds need two runs in the ninth and I have to get ready for the reading cereal activity we get to do as a class tomorrow.  Hope you are having a great start to your week.

The Short Week

I do not know if that counts as a week, but it sure felt like a whole week.

Today was great we continued to read The One and Only Ivan.  Both classes are having great discussions about the book.  In the students read aloud notebooks students are showing their thinking in all kinds of ways.  One way that we talked about was keeping a character web.  The students have been keeping track of what they have learned about Ivan on this web.

We also did a bit more in our writer's notebook.  Students started to make a list that we called, "things I like to talk about."  The class started to tell me and write down places, people and things that they loved to share with others.  The list got longer and longer for many of the students.  We heard about pets and vacation spots and family members and a whole list of other amazing ideas.

Then I had the students cross out the word talk and replace it with the word WRITE.  And that is exactly what we did...we spent time writing.  It was amazing to see all the authors get to work.  When we were finished we met at the rocking chair and students shared their writing.  As usual that writing blew me away.

I cannot wait to see all the different types of writing that students put in their writer's notebook this year.    Remember students can always bring home their writer's notebooks to share their work and hopefully to write a bit more.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Blink of an Eye

Wow that was quick!

Today when the students started the day they had to write down one word on a notecard that explained how they felt about coming to school.  Then on the back of the card the students had to explain why they picked that word.

On my card I wrote the word excited.  I was and still am excited about the year that is in front of us.  It was great to hear all the different words that students picked.  We had excited, nervous, joyful, happy, and so many more.  Then we put the notecard into our writer's notebook.

We also started our first read aloud.  We are reading the amazing book The One and Only Ivan.

I cannot explain how much I love the book.  I have an autographed copy that I got last year.  The book was the winner of the Newbery Medal, so I am not alone in singing its praises.  The students started keeping track of their thinking in their reader's notebook and I was so impressed.  I hope you can find time to talk with them about this new book (but to be honest we just read a few pages).  

Tomorrow is already Friday, that cannot be correct.

The First Day

Wow!  The first day is finally going to be here.  I hope that you are all as excited as I am about the coming year.  We are going to get to do so much this year.  I just wanted to keep it short tonight because tomorrow there is going to be so much to tell you.

For anyone that is nervous about the first day, I hope you can relax in knowing that your teacher gets just as nervous (even after 13 years).  I usually toss and turn all night trying to imagine our first day.  So no being nervous about your first day just let your teacher have all the nerves.

Tomorrow is going to be AWESOME.

The Room

Today I got to meet most of you at our conferences.  I cannot wait to meet the rest of you tomorrow.  Tonight I just wanted to post some pictures of our room because I know it is not possible for everyone to attend these conferences.  Hopefully these pictures can give everyone an idea of the layout of our room.

Our Door:  I am pretty impressed with the door this year.  If you are wondering, yes that idea was stolen from Pinterest.

Books Books Books

The Room:  I love our room.  It is so big.  The area over near the rocking chair is probably my favorite. The area sits perfectly below two gigantic skylights and it is the perfect place to read aloud.

The Spider:  I love the spider it has been a member of my class since my first year of teaching.  I am thinking he needs to have his own twitter account about what he sees in our room.

Hope you are enjoying your last days of summer and are getting excited to come back to school.

The Reasons

If you ask my mom what I learned in school, her response would be that I learned nothing.  The reason she believed this is because everyday I would get home and my mother would ask me about my day and I would tell her we did nothing.

This is one of the reasons that I wanted to start this blog.  I want you to see that we are in fact not up to "nothing" in our room.  I want you to see the books, articles, poems, and other texts that we are reading.  I want you to hear about the conversations that we are having with each other.  I want you to see the amazing writing that the authors in our room are creating.  I want you to see it all.  That is why I  plan to blog each day filling you in on the happenings of our room.  If I slack off on this goal, you should call me out.

Another reason I wanted to start writing was I think school has changed a lot since I was a student.  I do not remember teachers using terms like metacognition or schema or inferences (although maybe they did, remember I learned nothing).  I do not remember writing territories or learning about a writer's craft or about sentence smack down.  I do not want this "teacher language" to get in the way of you having a conversation about our day.  Hopefully by posting our posters and talking about the professional books that I read, you can know this "teacher language" and be ready when your conversation gets around to schema.

Finally I want to show the students that I am a writer.  I will ask your students to write.  I think it is important, very important.  If I want my students to write, I should show them the possibilities of writing.  Here is a possibility...a blog.

I hope this blog helps you find whatever you need, but what I want from it most is for it to help you have conversations about our day.

I want this blog to give you a look inside room 215!

In the Beginning

I love walking into the room for the first time.  The room is quiet and filled with possibilities.  Over the next few weeks I get to transform this room into the room that you will walk into in a few days.  I think my favorite part is getting out our books.  The best part of my job is getting to share my favorite books with you.  I think my books will be the biggest difference that you see from the picture above when you walk in my room.  Books will surround you.

In a few days I will post the after pictures of what the room looks like after all the work that we are putting into the room.  Hope you are enjoying the last few days of summer.