Baseball

Today could be a sad day.  It could be the end of baseball.  Baseball is the perfect sport for teachers.  The pace of baseball is perfect for a night of grading or writing a blog post or looking for the perfect Native American Cinderella story.  Baseball is perfect background noise.  I love listening to The Cowboy or Joe Buck or The Hall of Famer or Tim McCarver call a game.  Baseball is peaceful and historic.

Sorry I just wanted to write a bit about baseball.

Back to our classroom.  Today we read the story The Rough-Face Girl.

This story is amazing.  In the front of the book it talks about the Cinderella story type and claims that there are over 1,500 versions of this type of story.  The students made a four square chart in their Earth and Sky reader's notebook.  In one square they were looking for facts about Native Americans, in another they were looking for all the different characters, in the next box they were looking for connections between this story and the Disney version of Cinderella, and finally in the last box they were trying to find the lesson of the story.  

Tomorrow we are going to read another version of this same story that comes from a different Native American tribe.  The students will look for similarities and differences between the two stories.  

We also continued to talk about determining importance.  One quick idea we have been doing has been listening to songs to see if we can determine the most important lines.  Yesterday we listened to "Yesterday" from the Beatles (that is a funny line), and today we listened to "A Place in this World" by Taylor Swift.  One of these songs was picked for me and the other was a song the students might like and know.  I will let you guess which song was for me.  

We were so impressed with the conversations that the groups were having about the important lines.  Then we take this idea of looking for important lines and try to connect it to the reading the students are doing in the classroom.  Earlier this week we had read an article about bats from Time for Kids.  

As a class we talked about the most important parts of the magazine.  Even today after a few days away from the article the class was able to recall the important details from the text.  We are going to keep talking about this idea of determining importance tomorrow when we look at a poem.  

Hope you are all having a great week.  

Earth and Sky

Today we started to talk about the earth and the sky.  Over the next 6 to 8 weeks we are going to be looking at how Native Americans told stories about the earth and the sky.  At the same time we are going to study the first groups of Native Americans that came to Ohio.  To kick off the unit I decided to show a video showing the beauty of earth.

As the students watched the video they wrote down what they saw in their new reader's notebook.  We also watched a video showing the night sky at Yosemite.  I wanted students to think about how the earth and sky would have looked when Native Americans would have first come to North America and Ohio.

We also took time to glue an article about Native American storytelling into our reader's notebook.  Groups were then asked to read the article using VIP post-it notes.  VIP post-it notes are VERY IMPORTANT POST-IT NOTES and we use these VIP's to mark VERY IMPORTANT PARTS of a text.  This fits with our new thinking strategy of determining importance.  

To keep with the theme of the earth and the sky I started a new read aloud book today.

This book is one of my favorites.  It is written by the amazing Grace Lin (you should check out some of  her other books including Where the Mountain Meets the Moon).  I picked the book because the story it tells weaves in Chinese Folklore.  In the book the class will hear stories about why there is only one sun in the sky and why the sun and moon come out at different times of the day.  These stories will hopefully fit right in with the stories that we will be hearing from different Native American tribes. 

Hope you are all having a great week.  

The Second Quarter

I could not believe today was the first day of the second quarter.  Even more surprising Friday is November 1st.  And the thing that is pushing me over the edge this week is my son turns three on Sunday.  Where does all the time go?

Today we started talking about a new thinking strategy determining importance.  I love this thinking strategy.  The ability to determine if something is more important than something else seems so important.  To introduce the strategy I gave the students a problem.

In the problem they were stuck on a raft in the middle of the Pacific after their boat had sunk.  They were left with 13 items in their raft.  They had a shaving mirror, some Army rations, two boxes of chocolate bars, 20 feet of opaque plastic, mosquito netting, and some other odds and ends.  Groups had to decide which item was the most important and which item was the least important.

In other words they had to determine what was important.  The reason I think that determining importance is such an important thinking strategy is because in the world today we are constantly bombarded with information.  The better we are at sifting through that information and deciding what is important, what is interesting, and what is not important...the better prepared we are for the world.

During the conversations around the room I heard a student arguing that the mosquito netting should be number 13 (the least important).  He did an amazing job of explaining to his group that their was no need for mosquito netting in the middle of the Pacific.  He was right.  You are not going to find many mosquitos in the middle of the ocean, this item was not important.  I heard students arguing about whether the water or the food was more important.  I heard multiple students say they water was more important because you can live longer without food than you can water.

Our students are obviously off to a great start about deciding what is important.  Now I just want to show them how they can use this strategy to make them stronger readers!  If you want to know what the number one (most important) item was on our list, ask the students.  I was rather surprised by the answer.

Tomorrow we are going to start our new read aloud book.  I am a bit excited.  Hope you all had a great Monday.

Sharing and Sharing and Sharing

We continued sharing the menu board projects today.  The class was filled with mosaics, poems, book covers, Venn diagrams, and so much more.  It is so fun to see all the differences in the projects.  The students seemed excited and proud to share their work.

Sharing is also a big part of our writing time.  Each day when we finish writing we try to find time to share what we wrote.  Both classes are always so willing to share their words.  We have been talking about when we share our writing during our Cynthia Rylant unit we should be able to hear a bit of Cynthia in the writing.

Today was a perfect example.  We had a student share a piece of writing about Star Wars.  The piece started with, "In a galaxy far, far away..."  As the piece continued you could see tiny little pieces of Cynthia Rylant's writing in the piece.

In class today we had read Rylant's book The Wonderful Happens.

This story has a line weaved throughout the text:  and then the wonderful happens.  It was amazing how this student was able to weave this line into his story about Star Wars.  This was just one of many examples of how the class has been using Cynthia Rylant's writing to improve their writing.

I cannot wait to see the projects that the class creates when we are ready to take these ideas a bit further.

Hope you are all having a great week.

The Break is Over

Such a nice day to come back to school...rainy and cold and dark and dreary.

We are back, though, and it was nice to get back to work.  Today we started to read a newspaper about using maps.  One of my favorite comments was someone picking up the newspaper and saying, "I feel like my dad."

We are going to continue to look through and talk about the newspaper the rest of this week.  If you want to, you can find the newspaper in the social studies folder.

The class also got a chance to share their projects that they completed with their Charlotte's Web/The One and Only Ivan menu boards.  I loved getting the chance to walk around the room and see some of the projects.  I was amazed by some of the writing that went with these projects.  Today I saw some great I am What I Am poems and was blown away by some of the obituaries.  I am hoping to get a few photos of these projects so I can share them on the blog.

Not everyone has got a chance to share their projects, yet.  I am hoping by Friday the whole class will have had a chance to share their work.

Finally we continued to look at Cynthia Rylant as an author.  Today we read the book Tulip Sees America.

I loved how this book had a simple structure that we could easily follow.  I have been having the class look at certain pages of the book and notice certain parts of Cynthia's writing.  We are getting better and better at noticing the amazing things that Rylant does as an author.  When the students are sharing their writing, I can hear how they are using what they notice as a reader to make them better authors.  

I hope you are talking to the students about Cynthia Rylant or asking them to share their writing with you.  The writing is spectacular.  When they are done sharing, ask them how they tried to make that writing like Cynthia's.  

I cannot believe it is already Wednesday.  Hope you are all having a great week.

Looking for Answers

Today we read an article called Big, Hairy Spiders on the Move.  Before we read the article, I had the students just look at the title (it is a great title).  As we looked at the title we made a list of questions that we thought we could answer while reading the text.  I love this idea of asking questions that you think you can answer while reading the text.  The class made an amazing list of questions: How big are the spiders?  Where are the spiders going?  Were the spiders poisonous?

Then we read the article and searched for the answers to our questions.

http://tweentribune.com/junior/big-hairy-spiders-are-move

Here is a link to the article if you want to read the text.  This idea of always finding our answers or evidence in text is going to be something that we try to teach all year long.  We are going to keep using this title-question-search strategy when we read articles.  If you want to reinforce this strategy, you could have our students practice it at home when they are reading.  

We also continued to look at Cynthia Rylant's writing.

Here is the book that we read today.  I love this book.  We talked about how Rylant structured the book  going from room to room.  She talked about the PORCH and then LIVING ROOM and then the KITCHEN and then she kept going through the house.  Tomorrow we are going to try and write using this room to room structure in our writer's notebooks.  

Cynthia Rylant

Today we read another Cynthia Rylant book.  So far this week we have read...

I have really enjoyed reading her books aloud to the class.  After we read Scarecrow today we looked at some of the sentences that Rylant used in this book.  Here is one of the sentences that we looked at, "His hat is borrowed, his suit is borrowed, his hands are borrowed, even his head is borrowed.  And his eyes probably come out of someone's drawer."  

As we looked at the sentences from The Relatives Came and Scarecrow I asked the students to read like a writer.  This is going to be a term that we try to use all year long.  Reading like a writer to me would be like watching a basketball game with Lebron James or going to a concert with Paul McCartney...they are going to notice things that I do not notice.  I want our student to get good at noticing things that a writer uses to make their writing interesting.  Once they notice these things they can try to use them in their writing.

In class today we had students trying two Cynthia Rylant sentences.  We even came up with names for the things we were noticing in her writing.  We are going to call the sentence above an "Echo Sentences" and another technique is going to be called "The Andpeater 3000."  It is amazing to see how quickly the students can see these techniques and then fit them in their writing.  We had one piece about gymnastics that was a perfect example of how writing can become more interesting when you are using other authors as your teachers.  

This is the same technique we are using with our book reviews.  By looking at the four book review examples that I gave to the class we were able to figure out how to write a book review.  We started to put together our final drafts of our book reviews today.  The class had practiced writing the hook and then the summary section and then the ending of the book review in class.  They are not going to work to fit these pieces of the project together and give me their first book review.  

You can find the sentences from Cynthia Rylant in their writing folder.  You can also find their book reviews in their writer's notebook.  Hopefully you can see how they used the book reviews and Cynthia Rylant's words to make their writing shine.  

Our New Writing Teacher

Today I introduced the class to our new writing teacher.  Her name...Cynthia Rylant.  Cynthia Rylant has written over a hundred books for children.  She has won the Newbery Medal and the Newbery Honor.  To put it simply, she is an amazing author.  Who better to teach our class about writing.

Unfortunately she cannot physically be with us in the room.  So we are going to do the next best thing, fill our room with her words.  As we read her books we are going to try and learn three things about her writing:  What topics/subjects does she write about in her books, how does she structure her books, and how does she craft her writing.

We started off by reading one of my favorite of her books Long Night Moon.

We realized that she was writing about the different types of moon, we noticed how she structured her writing going month by month through the year, and we saw how she used a list sentence followed by a simple sentence to describe the moon.

Then the class went out and tried to write like Cynthia.  I was blown away by some of the writing.  One of my favorites was a story about someones week.  They borrowed Cynthia's structure of going month by month but instead went day by day describing their week.  The story was a perfect example of how a writer can stand on the shoulders of other writers.  I love this idea of "standing on the shoulders of other writers."  I heard another teacher use this phrase this summer in a class at Miami.  

I want our students to realize that by looking at the best writing of other authors we can experiment with what we find.  For the next two weeks we are going to look closely at our new teacher's writing.  Then we are going to experiment using her structure and her craft.  I hope by the end of the unit the class will be writing projects that give us a glimpse of what they learned from Cynthia.  

Book Reviews

Today we looked at some book reviews.  I had found four book reviews that I really liked.  All the book reviews were about different books.  You can find these book reviews in the writer's notebook.  I asked the class to tell me what they noticed about the book reviews.  I thought both classes did an amazing job of noticing what the authors had done to create their review.

We made a poster of what the class noticed about reviews.  Here is the poster we made:

1. The book reviews had a hook to catch the reader's attention.
2. The book review shared the title and author of the book.  This was done after the hook and then a few of the authors repeated the title at the end of the review.
3. The book review told you a bit about the book.  The review made the book sound exciting but did not spoil the book.
4. The book review made a challenge to read the book or ended with a cliffhanger.
5. We also noticed some extra things in just a few of the book reviews.  Many of the book reviews used questions.  We also saw a few of the book reviews talk about the genre of the book

We are going to use this list to help us write our first book review about The One and Only Ivan.  

I love this idea of looking at mentor texts to help us learn about different types of writing.  When I am learning about anything, I like to consult an expert.  I do not know how many videos I have watched about fixing things around my house.  I do not consider this cheating...I consider it learning.  Unfortunately I think some students think it might be cheating to look at other writers to find ideas.  I want to change that perception.  As we write these book reviews I am hoping that the students see how we use mentor texts to help make our writing stronger.

Publishing

This week we are working on publishing our first writing projects.  The students are busy making their last minute changes to their final drafts and checking their spelling and adding illustrations.  It is fun to run around the room and have conferences with the students and see the choices that they are making about their writing.  I cannot wait to see the final products on Friday.

We also started to talk about the main dish projects from our menu boards.  Students were deciding between a mosaic about Charlotte's Web or a Venn Diagram comparing Charlotte's Web and The One and Only Ivan or an obituary for Stella and Charlotte.  The class now has a rubric for the projects that are planning to complete by next Friday.  If you have any questions about these projects, feel free to get in touch with me.

We continued to talk about questioning today.  I wanted to show the students how I ask questions before I read, during my reading, and after my reading.  I showed students how I do this with the book The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.

I really loved this book.  I saw so many connections with other Chris Van Allsburg books.  Then the students practiced asking questions before they read and during their reading and after their reading as we looked at an article from Time For Kids.  

Cannot believe that it is already Wednesday.

Questioning

We started another thinking strategy today.  I showed the students a tool that I use in the kitchen quite frequently a garlic press.

 As a class we started to make a list of questions that we had about the object.  Here are some of the question that we asked:  Who invented the object?  Why does it have holes on the bottom?  When was it made?  Is it an antique?

Then we did a question blitz about pumpkins.  The students had about five minutes to write down as many questions as they could about pumpkins.  I loved some of the questions...Why do we carve pumpkins at Halloween?  What is the most pumpkin seeds ever in a pumpkin?  Are pumpkins a fruit?  Why are pumpkins orange?  Then we picked two questions that the class could research.  The two questions that we picked were...What is the world record largest pumpkin?  Why do we carve pumpkins at Halloween?

Optional homework is just what it sounds like, it is optional.  If the students want to try and figure out the answer to one or both of these questions, then they can try it for homework.  If they do not want to figure out the questions, then they do not need to complete the assignment.

Our new thinking strategy is obviously the strategy of questioning.  I love teaching this strategy because to me it is one of the most important strategies.  I also think that sometimes students think that asking questions makes them look "dumb."  I am hoping this week we can change this perception.  I want students to realize that by asking questions before they read, during their reading and after their reading they can help themselves become better readers.  I also want them to realize that asking questions shows a type of curiosity that can help them find answers about the world.

Students also got rubrics for the appetizer projects.  There are three appetizer projects and the students need to pick one appetizer to complete.  The three projects include making a new book cover for The One and Only Ivan and Charlotte's Web, writing a six word summary of both books, or writing an "I am Who I Am" poem about Charlotte and Wilbur.  You can find these rubrics in the reading folder.  I also gave an example of my Ivan "I am Who I Am" poem and a six word summary I wrote for Finding Nemo.  I am hoping these examples will help the students complete these projects.

Hope you are having a great week.

A Big Week

I am sorry about the brief absence from posting.

This week is going to be a big week.  On Friday we finished up Charlotte's Web.  I forgot how much I loved that book.  We will finish up The One and Only Ivan tomorrow.  I have really enjoyed reading these two books in two very different ways.

Today I introduced the menu board that we are going to complete to wrap up these two books.  A menu board is a group of nine projects that the students can pick from to show their thinking.  Each student will be responsible for completing one appetizer project and one main dish project.  There are also some dessert projects that are optional.  Students will receive extra credit for completing these projects.

I asked the students to show you the menu board tonight.  I was hoping that the students could come prepared tomorrow knowing which projects they would like to complete.  The projects are going to be due on October 18th.  The class will have class time to work on the projects but they can also work on the projects at home.  Tomorrow I will start giving the students rubrics to show them what we are looking for in each projects.  These rubrics plus the menu board can be found in the reading folder.  I am hoping to get these rubrics and the menu board posted tomorrow night.

Today we also passed back the first drafts the students had turned in a week ago.  I was able to write a page of comments for each student to think about as they complete their final draft.  You can find these comments along with the first draft in the writing folder.  The final draft of the project is going to be due this Friday.  Hopefully the students can use the comments to help them improve their final drafts.  Again the students will have some time to work on the writing projects at school but they are more than welcome to work on their final drafts at home.

I loved reading and making comments on the first drafts.  We have so many different projects.  We have poems and stories and a magazine article and an ABC baseball book and so much more.  I love getting to read the student's words.  After the students turn in their first projects, we will be having a writing celebration.  Our writing celebrations allow the students to share the work with everyone in the class and even other classes that we might invite.  These celebrations will hopefully persuade the students to do their best on their final draft as they will get a chance to share their writing with a large audience.

Hope you all had a nice start to your week.

Sentence Smack Down

Today we got to play a little Sentence Smack Down.  Sentence Smack Down is one of my favorite lessons of the year.  In class we have been talking about what makes a sentence.  The students knew that sentences needed a capital and a period but I wanted them to know a bit more.  We started to look at two-word sentences.  In fact the students right now our hunting for two-word sentences in the books they are reading.

When we started to look at these two word sentences we noticed that the two-word sentences had a subject and a verb.  That is the whole idea of Sentence Smack Down.  For our first round of Sentence Smack Down we looked at simple sentences from The One and Only Ivan.  The groups had to find the subject (which we have found usually comes at the beginning of a sentence) and they also had to find the verb (which we have found usually comes right after the subject).  After the groups found these parts of the sentence they copied them onto construction paper.

This is where the fun begins.  We dance over to our Sentence Smack Down Arena and groups share their subject and predicate as they smack them onto the Sentence Smack Down mat.  We are going to keep looking at simple sentences and how authors create them.  I hope that by looking at these sentences the class will truly understand what makes a sentence.  Then we can start to look at some more complex types of sentence.  We are also going to keep looking at these two-word sentences that authors use.  I am hoping we can figure out why authors use these two-word sentences.  Then students can experiment using a two-word sentence in their writing (I have actually seen a few already show up today).

So I hope you ask the students about Sentence Smack Down.  Please do not ask about my dancing it is not good.  Tomorrow is a big day for us in Charlotte's Web...I have to go prepare myself.  Hope you are having a great week.

Visualizations

Today we continued to talk about visualizations.  I wanted the students to understand that when a reader visualizes they not only picture what they are reading but they also try to visualize using their other senses.  They can smell, taste, feel, and hear certain parts of the book.

We read a book called In November by Cynthia Rylant and talked about all of the different things that we could hear or smell or taste.  Then when we read Charlotte's Web we looked for places where we could visualize using our five senses.

I also had the class practice writing using their five senses.  Today we wrote about a fair.  I found a picture of a fair and the class used the picture to help them write.  I was so impressed with the descriptions the students were able to create about the fair.  You can find these descriptions in their writer's notebook.

Speaking of visualizations I am going to keep it short tonight because this is what I am visualizing:

Go Reds!!