Joan in Sky Class

Catching Up

2012-01-15T14:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged here, so I wanted to go over recent Units of Study that we have done. In November we looked at the questions of how authors and illustrators use pictures to support and enhance their texts. This study was inspired by Katie Wood Ray’s book, In Pictures and In Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing Through Illustration Study. The students were great "noticers" as we studied books. Then they worked to include some of the techniques we explored in their own books.

In December we studied “Small Moments." We looked at how authors zoomed in on particular moments in time. Then students choose their moments to zoom in on and worked to remember details to include in their books. Students wrote about moments such as losing a tooth, scary happenings on Halloween, touching a python, and a Thanksgiving party.

Celebration Time!

2011-11-06T16:11:00.003-05:00

A week and a half ago we wrapped up our first unit of study with a celebration of the students' efforts. Each student had chosen one book from their first efforts to publish. They re-read their choices, making sure that they could read them, that all the words were there, and that the book made sense and kept to its big idea. Revisions were made where needed. Then each book got a construction paper cover with title and author added to it.

For the celebration each student took a turn to sit on the Author's Bench (our regular classroom bench transformed by a piece of fabric for the occasion.) Since our unit of study was focused on where writers get ideas, the students told where they got the ideas for their books and then each read a page and showed the illustration. When the sharings were done, I passed a plate of fruit and each student chose a piece. We then raised our fruit and toasted our hard work.

Word Study 5 Ways

2011-10-23T14:11:00.001-04:00

In Language Group we work on studying how words are put together. We cover common spelling patterns. And we practice reading and writing frequently used words. The goal is that these words become part of the children's reading and writing vocabularies, part of the words that the children can read and write without having to break them down.

I have used various approaches to studying frequently used words over the years. The one I like best is from About the Author: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers by Katie Ray Wood with Lisa B. Cleaveland. Each student is given a sheet each week with five words from our Word Wall along with a checklist of ways to practice those words. Students are to choose five ways to practice from the checklist. Choosing how to practice the words adds to the students' investment. The list includes everything from rainbow words (writing the words using rainbow colors) to making the words with Unifix letter cubes to back writing to stamping them with letter stamps. A couple of years ago one of the students came up with the idea of finding and pointing out the words on the Word Wall. That way was taken up by the other students and now is on the list each week. This year’s students enjoy exploring the different ways, and each is developing favorites.

Why Generated Spelling

2011-09-25T16:13:00.000-04:00

In writing workshop I encourage students to generate spellings for words that they do not know how to spell. The beginning goal in writing workshop is for students to get their ideas onto paper, so that they can develop those ideas into cohesive pieces of writing. Young students who are concerned primarily with spelling words conventionally tend to be more conservative writers: “I love my mom. I love my dad. I love my dog.” They like to stick to words they are sure they know how to spell. Or they rely on others to help them spell, which undercuts their developing independence as a writer. Or they take so long to look for the spelling of a word, they forget what they were going to say next.

A willingness to use generated spelling frees the student to focus on getting those ideas into writing. I find once a student makes this step, the writing becomes more varied, and the student works with more confidence. When I ask students to generate spellings, I ask them to stretch the words out and write down the letters that represent the sounds they hear. The goal is for them to represent the words phonetically. As their understandings of words develop, they can draw on what they learn about how words work, for example using two l’s in spelling wall because they have learned to spell “ball.”

An additional value is that the process of generating spelling is a type of encoding. There is research that shows that the process of working to encode words supports a child’s developing reading skills.

In other parts of our language group work, we do word study. In word study we work to add frequently used words to both the students’ reading and spelling vocabularies. Over time we also begin to explore common spelling patterns and word families. So encouraging generated spelling in writing workshop does not mean that spelling is not important. What is important is to explore it in areas that do not undercut the student's developing independence as a writer.

Teach the Writer part 2

2011-09-18T17:35:00.000-04:00

I recently posted on my thoughts on the idea of "Teach the writer not the writing." Recently as I was catching up on some of the blogs that I follow, I found a wonderful post at Two Writing Teachers by Ruth Ayers on this very topic. It expresses the idea so well. Here is a link to it.

Teach the Writer

2011-09-14T14:25:00.000-04:00

"Teach the writer, not the writing." This is a phrase that I have heard from leaders of Writing Workshop, including Lucy Calkins and Katie Wood Ray. It is a point that Katie made in her workshop with us in August. I knew what she was talking about. I could picture myself last year conferencing with one of my six year old students. She had a nearly completed book that I felt had serious problems. Yet she was so proud of it. As I looked at her beaming over her book, I looked at it again. I focused first on what she was doing well. She was telling a story that she was excited about. Her book consistently focused on that story, and she had an interesting structure with a repeated pattern that added to her story. My concern was that she had rushed through her pages and had left out a number of words. She also had not put spaces between her words. Her spelling was semi-phonetic, so the leaving out of words and lack of spacing added to the difficulty of reading her piece, even for her. Yet what a lot of work it would take for her to go back and fix this piece of writing. I needed to focus on what she needed as a writer rather than what this particular piece needed.

I took a breath and considered my next words carefully. Then I pointed out the things she was doing well in her book. As the conference wound up, I told her that I admired her skill as story teller. But I added a request. I said, “I love your stories, and I can tell you’re excited about them. I think because you are excited you rush, and then you leave words out. That makes it harder for me to read your wonderful stories. The next time you start a book, I want you to stop after each page and read it over carefully. Be sure all the words of your story are there.” I made a note in my record book to check in with her early in her next book project to remind her of this. I also made a note to include her in a group with others who would benefit from a mini-lesson on spacing words later. Her development as a writer and her developing confidence as a writer were far more important than how that particular piece turned out.

Beginning Writing Workshop

2011-09-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

On the second full day of school we began Writing Workshop. We have not yet assigned students to the language groups in which they will continue their writing work throughout the year. Thus we began as a whole class. For the first day I led a mini-lesson focused on the kinds of books students might want to make. I shared some favorite books from our classroom collection of children’s literature. I also shared some books that students have made in previous years, using them to illustrate a wide range of topics, as well as to help new students see what their books might look like. Then I sent a few at a time to choose a blank booklet (some with lines, some without) with which to begin.

As all three of the Sky teachers were there, we were able to assist students who needed help. New students also learned that their classmates could be good helpers. By the end of this first workshop time everyone had settled on an idea for a book and had at least written a title or begun by making illustrations. A number of students were several pages into writing and illustrating. The first thing we heard from one student as she entered the classroom the next day was, “Can I work on my book today?”

A Day with Katie Wood Ray

2011-08-19T14:33:00.000-04:00

On August 11, 2011, Katie Wood Ray came to our school and spent the day working with a group of teachers from Early School, Lower School, and Middle School on writing workshop. The morning focused on preschool through lower elementary and the afternoon on upper elementary/early middle school. Many of us stayed for the whole day, as the presentations and discussions were relevant to the work all of us do with our students.

Those who have read my blog before know that I regularly draw ideas and inspiration from the work of Katie Wood Ray. The past two summers I have attended two-day institutes sponsored by Heinemann featuring Katie and Lisa B. Cleaveland, with whom she wrote my favorite writing workshop book, About the Authors: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers.

Highlights on the 11th included exploring ideas and routines for Units of Study, working on strategies to use when conferencing with students, and expanding our understanding of the idea of approximation, which helps us have appropriate expectations for our students. We loved seeing video of conferences, especially seeing Katie tackle a particularly difficult one with a reluctant writer. All of us have been challenged by this kind of student and admired the patience, care, and tenacity that Katie brought to this conference.

The day did not disappoint. It was a perfect way to feed my excitement about the coming school year. Oh the many possibilities that await my students and me in Writing Workshop!

Poetry Study

2011-04-17T17:54:00.002-04:00

Our most recent Unit of Study has been poetry. For my lessons I draw from resources such as Regie Routman's Kids' Poems: Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry, Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parson's Poetry: Powerful Thought in Tiny Packages, which is part of Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum, and my frequent source of inspiration, About the Authors: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers by Katie Wood Ray with Lisa B. Cleaveland. I love Regie Routman’s emphasis on reading and talking about poetry by children. From Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parsons I draw mini-lessons that help the children focus on specific aspects of poetry such as how to decide on line breaks. From Katie Wood Ray I get the basic structure I use in our study as we read various examples of poetry by both children and adults and discuss what we notice the authors doing in their poems. I also incorporate lessons of my own that I have developed over the years.

As always, some students “catch on” to poetry more quickly than others. Often some of the students who are most prolific with prose writing can be hesitant about poetry. Working together we help each other learn some of the ins and outs of this kind of writing. We talk about how important it is to read our poems out loud as we write them to get a feel for how they sound. As one students said, “I read it and it sounded more like a story so I changed it to make it sound more like a poem.” Another student talked about making her poem sound more “poety.”

At the end of our unit each student chose one poem to put in our group’s poetry collection. I also got to choose one poem written by each student for the collection. We then edited and revised the poems using peer conferences and student/teacher conferences. The booklet of poems was ready in time to share on Grandparents’ Day with our visitors, which made it extra special.

Structure Study

2011-01-23T12:22:00.000-05:00

In January we’ve been doing a Unit of Study based on the structure that authors use in their books. We have looked at some books where the structure is a clear, repeated pattern. We also have looked at some books that have a traditional story pattern, such as describe a problem, tell some unsuccessful ways to solve it, then solve it. One student described this in one book as “the character’s happy, then sad, then still sad, then happy again.”

When I conference with them, I am asking them about the structure of their books. It is easier for some to be aware of and articulate this than others. I am hoping that as we analyze more books and as I share examples of what classmates are doing, all the students will become more aware of structure and more intentional in the use of structure in writing.

Illustration Study Celebration

2011-01-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

Not long before Winter Break we celebrated the books that the students published as part of our illustration study. At our celebration each student told about his/her book, read a selection, and talked about how illustrations added to the writing. We toasted our efforts with brownies this time.

Illustrations that Enhance Our Writing

2010-11-23T13:56:00.000-05:00

Our latest Unit of Study has been focused on the question: What smart illustration decisions do author/illustrators make in their books? This study was inspired by Katie Wood Ray’s latest book, In Pictures and In Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing Through Illustration Study. The children have been wonderful at looking at books and noticing the smart things being done in the illustrations to communicate information, feelings, character, storyline, mood, point of view, passage of time, and more. I have recorded a lot of their “noticings” on a chart. We are also using the chart to note when one of us tries something we’ve seen in the books. We keep the books we are using for the study in a basket where students can refer to them as needed. After Thanksgiving break, students will be asked to choose books they have written to publish. Each choice should be a book that can go into the basket with our study books, because of interesting illustration choices.

Celebrating Our Writing Work

2010-11-03T13:49:00.000-04:00

We have wrapped up our Unit of Study on Where do writers get ideas? Each student chose one of the books he/she had been working on to publish. The students read over their choices carefully, checking to be sure they had not left out any words and that Word Wall words had the Word Wall spelling. Then each read the book to a classmate to be sure it was "reader friendly." Last week we had a celebration. Each student showed the published book and either read a selection or told about it. Each also told where he/she got the idea for the book and why he/she wrote it. We “toasted” our efforts with apple slices to finish up our celebration.

Just Right Books

2010-11-01T13:49:00.002-04:00

I most often use this blog to write about our work in Writing Workshop. We also do a lot of reading work in our group. Just as in Writing Workshop, I do mini-lessons that focus on different aspects of reading. One of the first lessons I do is on choosing “Just Right” books, the kinds of books that will help the students’ development as readers the most. A Just Right book is one in which a student is interested. It is also a book that the student can read almost all of easily, figuring out the few words that he/she does not already know. And it is one that the student can understand. It doesn’t leave the child wondering what it was about.

This doesn’t mean that it isn’t helpful at times for children to read, and re-read, and easy book. Easy books support the child’s ability to read smoothly and with expression. Re-reading also allows a child to notice details that may have been missed the first time through. And, of course, children will often be attracted to hard books, especially if the topic is one that is compelling or of particular interest. Those are great books to read with a parent, teacher, or partner to help.

Word Study

2010-10-28T14:44:00.000-04:00

Word Study is work that we do to support both our writing and our reading. One focus in word study is finding the patterns in words. We can identify "chunks" or rimes that a group of words have in common. For example, the chunk -an is in many simple consonant-vowel-consonant words. The word "can" is on our Word Wall and knowing it can help students recognize others words, such as man and van.

We have been adding 5 words a week to our Word Wall. These are all frequently used words or popcorn words, as some call them, because they pop up a lot. The goal is that these words become part of the children's reading and writing vocabularies, part of the words that the children can read and write without having to break them down.

For practicing our Word Wall words I use an activity from About the Author: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers by Katie Ray Wood with Lisa B. Cleaveland. Every Monday I give each student a sheet that has five of our word wall words plus a checklist of ways to practice those words. Students get to choose which 5 ways to practice the assigned words. Choosing how to practice the words adds to the students' investment. The list includes everything from rainbow words (writing the words using different colors) to making the words with manipulatives such as letter stamps, Wikki Sticks, or Unifix letter cubes to using a pointer to find the words on the Word Wall. The students enjoy exploring the different ways, and each is developing favorites. They are becoming more comfortable with the 5 Ways routine, so that we are using this time more efficiently.

Book Study

2010-10-10T16:41:00.000-04:00

In our writing workshop mini-lesson time, we have been busy reading books and then studying them. Since we have been focusing on where writers get ideas, the first question I ask after I read a book to the group is "Where do you think the writer got the idea for this book?" After we discuss that, I ask what they noticed the writer doing in the book and what they especially liked that the writer did. We talk familiarly about what Bob (Graham) does or what we like about what Ruth (Horowitz) does in her book. I record student's observations on a chart that we can refer to later.

Abuzz with Writing

2010-09-28T15:47:00.001-04:00

Today was an exciting day in writing workshop. Every student was absorbed in working on a book, busy illustrating and writing. Voices were quiet as students helped each other and shared their writing with each other.

We began with a mini-lesson that focused on the book "Let's Get a Pup! said Kate" by Bob Graham. I chose this book for us to study for several reasons. First Ellie had written a book on a similar topic last week, and I thought that would be a neat connection to make. Also several students have begun using dialog in their writing, and this book has a good amount of dialog, including in the title. And finally in the About the Author section of the book, Bob Graham speaks clearly about where he got the idea for his book. Now that we have covered a lot of the basic procedures of writing workshop, we are now moving into a focus on where writers get ideas (inspired by Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland in About the Authors.)

Fred and Lee Slideshow

2010-07-22T12:54:00.003-04:00

Toward the end of the school year we did a digital storytelling project in my language group. I asked the children to think of what adventures our frog stuffie, Fred, and our Lemur stuffie, Lee, might have on our playground. The children had been taking Fred and Lee home for months and writing in a journal about what they did together there.

Each child planned out a picture of Fred and Lee at some spot on the playground. After taking the pictures, each child looked it over and wrote about what Fred and Lee were doing. Then we looked at the pictures and writing together. A couple of the children suggested we should make the pieces more connected so it seemed like one story. One suggested we use the picture of Fred and Lee on the playground "car" to link the individual pictures. We worked together to smooth out the story. Someone suggested they come back to the class and tell the other stuffies what they did, and I took a picture to go with that. Here's the final product (minus the music- I'm still trying to figure that out!):

Fred and Lee

View more presentations from joandwalker.

Summer Reading, Shared Reading

2010-07-03T13:28:00.004-04:00

Summer is a chance for all sorts of reading. I have several different piles of books to work on. Some are related to my teaching (a couple on writing workshop, a couple on teaching math, one on teaching reading, one on science and wonder, a few journals to catch up on.)

Other books are for pleasure, exploration, and sharing. Sharing books makes them special. Some are books I share with my granddaughters. When I go to visit, I like to stick one or two books for them in my suitcase. The picture shows the three of us sharing a book by Oliver Dunrea that I took to them in April. I discovered his Gossie book series several years ago when looking through the children's section of my favorite independent bookstore, The Regulator Bookshop, in Durham. Rachel was a toddler at the time, and we both enjoyed reading these book together. My daughter-in-law Liz told me last winter that Rachel's younger sister, Isabel, had discovered them and was carrying them around the house, asking others to read them to her. So I was excited to discover one I had not given them yet.

I also enjoy reading books that others have recommended. One of the books I am currently reading, The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman, is one I got from a cousin when we gathered with a group of cousins at the beach in May. Another, The Case for God by Karen Armstrong, was recommended by a cousin-in-law that was part of the same group. So many books, so little time! It's great to have family and friends who can help one find some of the gems out there.

Book Spine Poems

2010-05-07T13:58:00.003-04:00

I subscribe to quite a few education related blogs. One of my favorites is A Year of Reading: Two Teachers Who Read. A Lot. This blog is by Mary Lee and Franki. A post there recently features a new idea for me: a book spine poem. You can check out the poem to see what inspired me. This idea has captured my fancy.

The kids aren't here today as it is a teacher workday. Between getting the tasks done that I had planned for today, I have been playing around with this type of poem. Not surprisingly (partly because I love math and partly because I have a shelf of math books close to my desk) math is the theme here.

Word Choice in Poetry

2010-04-01T13:17:00.001-04:00

In our recent poetry mini-lessons, we have worked on how our word choices and our endings for our poems affect the way our readers experience the poems. Recently we worked together to come up with words that describe and tell about spiders. Then we drew from those words in two different ways to make two different poems. The resulting poems showed us how important the word choice and the end of a poem are. We talked about how a good poem can leave us with a clear picture in our mind and often with clear feelings. Here are the two poems:

Quiet Spider
Quiet spider
Patient spider
Spinning
Weaving
Twirling
Long, thin, silky threads
Making a silvery, soft
whirly, twirly web!
Wow!

Creepy Spiders
Spiders, spiders, spiders!
Creepy, creepy spiders!
Smooth, shiny black widows
Hairy, bushy tarantulas
Crawling on their 8 legs
Crawling and sneaking
Up on me!
Ahhhhhhhh!

As Quiet as

2010-03-22T14:18:00.004-04:00

Last week we read the book, Quick as a Cricket, by Audrey Wood. We have used her work to inspire us as we write poetry. A couple of days later we talked about what we are working toward when we center ourselves for our quiet settling in time at the beginning of the school day. We brainstormed comparisons for quiet as, peaceful as, and calm as. Looking at our list, I chose one, as peaceful as a lamb, to model how to stretch it out to make it a fuller image. Drawing ideas from the students, I added to our simple simile. "As peaceful as a lamb" became "as peaceful as a lamb sleeping on soft hay in a grassy field." Then each student worked with a partner to stretch out some of the other comparisons from our list. They came up with some lovely images, which we will make into a book and illustrate together.

As quiet as a cloud floating in the blue, blue sky.
As calm as a bird in a nest at the top of the tree at night.
As peaceful as a kitten sleeping in its soft, cozy bed.
As quiet as meditating on a cloud drifting along.
As calm as a butterfly drinking some nectar.
As peaceful as a sky kitten sleeping on a cloud in the sky.
As quiet as a little mouse snug in its warm, cozy home.
As calm as a dove flying over the ocean.
As peaceful as a swan swimming in a beautiful lake.
As quiet as a dark, empty room in an abandoned house.
As calm as a lotus flower bending gently on a windy day.
As quiet as bark on a tree resting in the breeze.
As calm as the ocean on a windless night.
As quiet as a rabbit nibbling on clover in the spring.

Writing Poetry

2010-03-22T13:57:00.001-04:00

We have been reading and writing poetry the past few weeks. For my lessons I draw from resources such as Regie Routman's Kids' Poems: Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry (I love her emphasis on reading and talking about poetry by children) and Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parson's Poetry: Powerful Thought in Tiny Packages, which is part of Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum. I also have lessons of my own that I have developed over the years.

It is an exciting time as we explore this very different way of looking at and writing about the world.

Mystery Lemur

2010-02-13T17:37:00.002-05:00

A little over a week ago a box appeared on the bench where we gather each day. On it was a velvet frog with a word balloon above it. The frog introduced himself as Fred and invited the children to submit yes/no questions about who was in the box. They excitedly wrote questions. The next day "Fred" had answered their questions, giving them clues. More questions, then answers followed. The students worked to think of good yes/no questions that would give them helpful information. After a week several of the students had solved the mystery of who was in the box. They wrote "Is it a lemur?" and they got the answer, "Yes!"

So we opened the box and met Lee the lemur. Now students will take turns taking Fred and Lee home for a night. Fred and Lee have a backpack that they "ride" in along with a journal for students to record their adventures with Fred and Lee.

Word Wall-Encouraging its active use

2010-02-03T14:11:00.004-05:00

We have continued to add 5 frequently used words to our Word Wall each week. Every week each student gets 5 words from the Word Wall to practice in Word Study 5 Ways.

Recently I read a post at the Stenhouse Blog as part of their Quick Tip Tuesday that talked about ways to make the children more familiar with where words are on the Word Wall, so that they are more likely to use it as a resource as they write. It was thus interesting to me when not long after that one of my students, Leo, thought of a new way to practice his words. He said he could use the pointer and find each one on the Word Wall. His idea proved popular with the other students, so now I have added it to the list of Word Study 5 Ways list, calling it "Word Wall Find."

Chunk Lists

2010-01-26T13:42:00.003-05:00

As a language warm-up some days, I present the students with a "chunk," a frequently used cluster of letters (also known as a phoneme or rime.) They work to think up words that end in that chunk, and we make a list of them. We add each list to a growing "Chunk Wall" above the chalkboard. I often draw the chunk from the list of phonograms in the appendices of Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas. They helpfully identify the 37 most frequently used phonograms by putting asterisks by them.

Pattern Book Celebration

2009-11-24T13:23:00.001-05:00

Students have been hard at work on their pattern books. Last week each student chose one of the pattern books that they have written to get ready for our celebration of pattern books this week. Editing points this time included being sure that there is space between words, that word wall words are spelled conventionally, and that sentences have punctuation at the end. Once the books were ready, we made covers. Yesterday we had our celebration. Each student had a choice of reading the whole book or reading a selection from it. After the books were shared, we “toasted” our efforts with cookies.

Routine Work

2009-11-21T17:32:00.001-05:00

I learned long ago both as a parent and a teacher that while establishing routines with kids can be a lot of effort, in the long run it pays off. I see that in Writing Workshop, where the time we spent early in the year going over and practicing routines pays dividends in that the children move smoothly and efficiently into their writing work after our mini-lesson each day. Now that we are in our fourth week of Word Study 5 Ways, word study time is beginning to flow more smoothly, with the students spending less time asking questions and figuring out what to do and more time focused on their task.

I have begun using a Monday Checklist with my students. On the checklist are items such as “Check my Reading Folder. Remove books I am through with. Be sure I have some just right books in it.” Another item has them check their Word Study folders for the Word Study 5 Ways sheet for that week, looking over it to be sure they know what the words are and beginning to plan out getting the practice done over the course of the week. These kind of beginning of the week routines help our week go smoothly.

Invested Writers

2009-11-11T19:43:00.004-05:00

I told my group today how impressed I am with them as writers. All of them settle down each day after our mini-lesson to write. I don't hear anyone say, "I don't know what to write about." They are full of good ideas. If they ever are unsure which idea to use, they have learned to ask a fellow writer for an opinion. Writing workshop is full of the buzz of writers at work, not only writing but asking for help, talking over strategies, and sharing ideas. Since one of our first units was on where writers get ideas, we are working on freely sharing our ideas. We talk about how it is okay to get an idea from another writer's book. We just need to be sure we make it our own by expanding it with our ideas. Today we shared some of the pattern books we have been working on. Students were great about complimenting their fellow writers.

Word Study 5 Ways

2009-11-11T13:55:00.008-05:00

In Language Group we work on studying how words are put together. We cover common spelling patterns. And we practice reading and writing frequently used words. The goal is that these words become part of the children's reading and writing vocabularies, part of the words that the children can read and write without having to break them down.

I have used various approaches to studying frequently used words over the years. Last year I found an idea in About the Author: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers by Katie Ray Wood with Lisa B. Cleaveland. Each student is given a sheet each week that has a checklist of ways to practice five frequently used words from our word wall. Students are to choose 5 ways to practice from the checklist. Choosing how to practice the words adds to the students' investment. The list includes everything from rainbow words (writing the words using different colors) to play dough words to back writing to spelling with Unifix letter cubes. The students so far enjoy exploring the different ways, and each is developing favorites. This week we added a new way: Wikki Words, in which students form the words with Wikki Sticks.

Pattern Books

2009-11-03T13:44:00.004-05:00

We recently celebrated our first efforts this year in Writing Workshop. Now we are focusing on pattern books. In this unit I use ideas from First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons. We have been reading a variety of pattern books. After we read each book, we talk about what the writer is doing in the book and how that affects us as readers. We work to come up with a name for the pattern. We have come up with names such as Making a List, Opposites, Rhythm Pattern, When ... Then, See-saw, and Pat-a-Pat Pat (for a repeated refrain-the students wanted to use the repeated refrain from a favorite book, Wet Dog by Elise Broach, to name the pattern.) We are making a chart of these observations.

Students are now trying their hands at writing pattern books. Several have finished a first pattern book and are exploring what pattern they want to do for their next book. As students try different patterns, we will add to a part of our chart that asks "Have any of us tried this?"

How to Help our Readers

2009-10-26T14:36:00.006-04:00

The past couple of months we have worked on our writing while learning our writing workshop routines. Some of our mini-lessons have focused on where writers get ideas. We read a variety of books and then discussed where we think the ideas for those books came from. The author information in some of the books was particularly helpful to us in figuring it out.

Other mini-lessons have focused on things we can do to make our writing more readable. The other day I asked the group to help me make a list of ideas we have covered that help our readers. Here is the list they came up with:
Make spaces between words. Stretch words and put down the sounds you hear. Make the letters big enough to see clearly. Use punctuation!

I have made a chart of these ideas and posted it with some of our other charts. Since then a student has said we should add "Use our word wall to help with spelling" and I will add that to the chart soon.

Mo Willems Excitement

2009-10-11T12:45:00.008-04:00

Our Lower School was one of 200 schools and libraries chosen to participate in the recent Mo Willems Simulcast. It was great fun (he and his books are endlessly entertaining.) And it was inspiring for all of our student writers, as he talked about how he began writing as a child and about his writing and drawing process. We got to see his studio and hear him read his two newest releases, one of which, Big Frog Can't Fit In, is a "pop out" book.

Several students in my writing workshop have begun figuring out ways to add pop-ups and pop outs to books they have written. On Friday afternoon we did a project that involved making a pigeon pop-up. Students quickly embraced the project and put their own creative spin on it. Several students are working on a pigeon card game with different pigeons (including the fearsome Dark Pigeon) on the cards, each worth a different amount of points.

For more information on the Mo Willems simulcast see http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/2009/10/simulcast-success.html

Writing a Big Book Together

2009-09-28T08:27:00.006-04:00

In addition to the individual writing that the children are doing, we have made our first book together. We recently read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. Then we read a "big book" that my language group put together last year inspired by that book. My current students got excited about what animals they wanted to include in a new version. I drew names to determine the order in which each student could choose an animal and color to use. We made sure there were no repeats on animals or colors. Then we set to work illustrating our book, inspired by Eric Carle's vibrant illustrations in the original book. Our book is called What Do You See? and features an array of our own colorful animals. The photo shows some students looking over the list of colors and animals that they chose.

A Busy Group of Writers!

2009-09-20T14:25:00.005-04:00

We are beginning our fourth week of school. I have enjoyed getting to know my Language Group and to begin our work together. I have discovered that they are a busy group of writers. All of them have been intently working on filling booklets with their stories and pictures. Some are adding details to a book that they began the week before last. Others have moved on to new boosk. Topics include trips to the beach, monsters, an art museum, and a car crash. Some of our mini-lessons have focused on the procedures of writing workshop, such as getting our writer's tools and what to do when we finish a piece. We have worked on stretching out words and writing down the sounds we hear in them, when we don't know the spelling. And we have shared some of what we have been writing with each other. Some have been comfortable sharing with the whole language group, while others have chosen to share just with one partner so far.

Katie Wood Ray! Yay!

2009-07-04T08:51:00.004-04:00

Earlier this week I attended a Katie Wood Ray conference sponsored by Heinemann in Asheville. Five other colleagues from Lower School were there as well: Natasha, Tom, Kathy, Charlie, and Lisa.

It was fantastic! Inspiring, enjoyable, and full of good ideas for us to use to deepen and broaden our students' writing experiences. Having six of us there from our school gave us a chance to discuss the ideas together and consider how they related to what we are already doing at our school. The title of the conference was Developing Curriculum for Writing Workshop. A lot of our work focused on immersing our students in books and pieces of writing from specific genres as a way for them to learn about writing in these genres. There was also work on how to study the craft of a piece of writing and learn from that.

We explored books. Each table had a collection of books from a specific genre. I was delighted that our table featured some wonderful poetry books (I have added several to my wish list.) We saw video clips of teachers working with their students using the ideas presented. We did some work on our own, studying a genre, brainstorming our own topics for that genre, and choosing a topic. And then each one of us was asked to begin writing a piece in the genre we had been studying. After all, if we ask our students to go through this process, doesn't it make sense for us to experience it ourselves? Overall a well-thought-out experience for us with an inspiring guide.

I am left with a lot to consider, study, and mull over before school begins. And a lot to look forward to in the fall.

Writing Realistic Fiction

2009-04-28T13:39:00.003-04:00

My students are all busy writing their own realistic fiction stories. Students have thought up a basic story focused on a problem that is realistic. They have stretched out the problems to add more details.Then they began their stories with a focus on what makes a good beginning. That got us looking again at some of the realistic books we have read and analyzing how they began the stories. We then had a mini-lesson on making a "bridge" from the start of your story to your problem, how to develop the problem rather than just jumping right into it.

When I conferenced with students yesterday, I noticed that several had done a good job of stretching their problems out, but then went on to solve the problem in one or two sentences. They were not putting the same care into developing their solutions as they had in the problems. So today's mini-lesson focused on how we can stretch out our solutions. Students then worked on their solutions in their stories, conferring with their writing partners and conferencing with me, where needed. The stories are really starting to come together!

Soul Writing

2009-04-20T15:17:00.004-04:00

Last Friday we took a break from our story work and did some "Soul Writing." In this kind of writing we go out and find a spot in nature, taking our writing notebooks with us. After a minute for each student to find a comfortable spot and settle down, we begin working in silence. First we notice what is around us. What do we see? What do we hear? What do we smell? What do we feel (in the sense of a soft breeze on a cheek or the grass tickling our legs)? It is an exercise in focusing on the present moment and the natural world around us. As the students notice these things they record them in their notebooks.

On Friday we sat in the area of the playground that overlooks the neighboring pond. A couple of large wisteria vines climb on the fence and into some of the trees. After we wrote for about 15 minutes, we gathered and those who wished shared what they had written. We enjoyed noticing when someone else had noted the same things we did.

Realistic Fiction

2009-04-15T14:22:00.004-04:00

We have been reading and analyzing books in the category of realistic fiction. We include in that category books in which animals are the main characters, but they are like people and their activities are realistic for people. Examples of this are the Russell Hoban Frances stories and many of Kevin Henke's books, such as A Weekend with Wendell. We are making a chart that outlines the main problem in each book and the solution. As I often do, I am drawing ideas from Stephanie Parson's First Grade Writers.

Now we are starting to think up realistic stories of our own and tell them to our writing partners. Our work on considering books from children's literature has helped them develop a better understanding of this genre. Initially there was talk of stories about chimps going to other planets and Star Wars. Now they are talking about kids who lose their dog and children learning to play basketball. Soon each will choose one idea to expand into a story book that will be the book shared at our Authors Tea in May. For this celebration we will invite parents to hear the students' read their books.

From Notes to Poems

2009-03-25T13:15:00.006-04:00

This week I have drawn on mini-lessons from Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parson's Poetry: Powerful Thought in Tiny Packages, which is part of Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum. I brought in some items from nature (rocks, shells, seed pods, leaves, feathers) for the students to use as they practiced looking with a poet's eye and seeing things in new ways. Each would choose an item and consider it, then write notes about it. Some went on to form poems from their notes, while others focused just on the notes to start with.

Today I brought in a vase of tulips for us all to consider. The students worked with their writing partners to make notes as they looked at the tulips with their poets' eyes. Then we shared the words we came up with and formed them into two poems in a shared writing exercise. After that each student worked to take notes from earlier in the week and form them into a poem. Here are our shared poems:

Vase of Tulips

gentle pink
rich green
reaching up, up
to the sky
like an upbrella!

Vase of Tulips

It looks like a lilypad with dragonflies
green swimming in water
pink petal wings lifting
up, up

Choosing a Strong Ending

2009-03-24T13:42:00.002-04:00

One mini-lesson that I have done is on finding a strong ending for a poem. For this lesson I used two poems I wrote as a shared writing with my language group four years ago. Both are about spiders, and they use many of the same words. As a group we came up with words and phrases that came to our minds when we thought about spiders. Then I recorded as we put together a poem using those words and phrases. One poem ends with the phrase "Long legs weaving, A beautiful web!" We agreed that was a strong ending for the poem which we titled Cool Spider. Then I took some of the words from the end of that poem and put it at the beginning of a second poem. Drawing from the same brainstormed words and phrases, we completed the second poem. It ended with "A little bit scary." I asked if we could find a stronger way to end the poems. One student suggested, "I think I'll go now!" The others liked this ending, so the new poem became Scary Spider. Two poems, similar words, yet they leave the reader with very different feelings. Here they are:

Cool Spider
Big fuzzy spider
Creepy and crawly
A little bit scary.
But what is it doing?
Long legs weaving
A beautiful web!

Scary Spider
Big fuzzy spider
Long legs weaving
A beautiful web
But creepy and crawly
A little bit scary.
I think I’ll go now!

Poetry!

2009-03-24T12:15:00.004-04:00

We have been working on writing poetry for a little over a week. Of course we have been reading poetry all year, but now the focus is on writing poems. For the past eight years I have been drawing a lot on Regie Routman's book, Kids' Poems: Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry. I love her emphasis on reading and talking about poetry by children. Other children become the mentors for my group. About half the space in this book is taken up with poetry by first graders. She includes the original drafts which include invented spelling and any reworking the author did on paper. She also has the final typed-up and illustrated version.

Since I began using this book, I have collected poetry from my own students to use with my groups. I also have the anthologies that each year's group puts together. For the anthology each student can choose one poem she/he has written and I get to choose one. Some of the students that I taught last year have discovered the anthologies I have put out and are enjoying finding their poems from last year. Students also get excited when they find a poem that an older sibling wrote in past years.

The Mystery is Solved

2009-03-10T13:56:00.002-04:00

Today several of the students had solved the mystery of who's in the box. They wrote "Is it a rabbit?" for their questions yesterday, and they got the answer, "Yes!"

So we opened the box and met Mimi the rabbit. She reminds us a little of Knuffle Bunny. Now students will take turns taking Fred and Mimi home for a night. Fred and Mimi have a backpack that they "ride" in along with a journal for students to record their adventures with Fred and Mimi and a digital camera so that they can take pictures of Fred and Mimi at their houses. Later we will make a slide show with the pictures and the students' writings.

Who's in the Box?

2009-03-09T13:08:00.005-04:00

My language group has been trying to solve a mystery. Last week a box appeared on the bench where we gather each day. On it was a velvet frog with a word balloon above it. The frog introduced himself as Fred and invited the children to submit yes/no questions about who was in the box. They excitedly wrote questions. The next day "Fred" had answered their questions, giving them clues. More questions, then answers followed. The students are working hard to think of good yes/no questions that will give them helpful information. We know now that it is a stuffed animal, and the animal is a mammal. They also know that the first letter in the kind of animal it is, is the same as the first letter in one of their names, but not a letter that is close to the beginning of the alphabet. The students are close to figuring out who is in the box.

Conferencing

2009-03-03T19:43:00.004-05:00

Writing Workshop conferences are times when I sit down one on one with students to talk about their writing. Sometimes it is a check in: "What are you working on today?" Sometimes I have something I want to focus on, a goal or question for the student, a skill to emphasize. Sometimes the student requests the conference. Some of my favorite conferences are when a student is excited to read me has just been finished.

I had one of those today. Levi wanted to read me a story he had just finished. In his story it is the main character's birthday and he has to go visit his cousins. He likes to visit them, but not on his birthday. As Levi read, he would stop to share where he got his ideas or why he made certain choices. He told me that he started the book after we read Cynthia Rylant's book, The Relatives Came. When he described the car as going "Vroom," he told me he was inspired by the book we read, Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant, which explores night sounds in the country. He is thinking so intentionally about his writing! Levi smiled at me as he read, and I could tell he is proud of his efforts. I asked his permission to share with the group some of what he did, and he nodded with a grin. "Writers, let me share with you some things Levi did in his new book…"

Descriptive Writing

2009-02-25T14:26:00.005-05:00

Sky Class has been reading and discussing books by the author Cynthia Rylant for our author study this year. In my language group we have been studying her books for examples of descriptions that bring her stories to life. The students have been working on using such descriptive techniques in their own writing. In her Night in the Country we noticed how she described the sounds as well as the sights of the country.

Today those who wished to share were given a chance to share descriptive words they have added to their writing. Emma called up the "taste" of a loose tooth, "In my mouth it tastes like metal." Charlie has worked to use descriptive words when he uses dialogue, using "muttered" and "yelled" rather than said. Stiles described a soccer move as "like a rainbow." Livy chose to say she "jumped into the saddle" rather than got in the saddle. Yasmin described how a jumping horse sticks its front and back feet out.

For Whom the Bell Tinkles

2009-01-30T19:29:00.006-05:00

As the children have been revising and editing their small moment stories this week, it seems like the volume level in the room has been rising. A lot is excitement over their stories, but there is also some off-topic chatter and unasked-for advice escalating the noise level. So I pulled out a small brass bell that a student gave me years ago and gently rang it in the middle of Workshop. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me. "Writers," I said calmly, "I am happy that you are so excited about your work, but the noise level is making it hard for some of your fellow writers to concentrate." Several students nodded their heads at this. I explained that I had used the bell because I did not want to raise my voice to add to the noise, so I used the bell to get their attention. Then I went on to request that we remember how quiet the room gets when everyone is busy with their writing and that we work to find that quiet, busy space again. They all went back to work and I noticed that most used whispers when they needed to confer with their writing partners. Quiet was restored, at least for the time being.

Revision

2009-01-28T14:48:00.003-05:00

We have been reading over our Small Moment stories with our writing partners and working to finish them up. Today we had a mini-lesson about revision, and students worked to read through and revise their stories. Some added in more words to make their stories clearer. Others added in details. Some added to their pictures to enhance their stories. Soon we will be having another celebration to wrap up our Small Moment unit!

Inspiring Authors

2009-01-21T08:50:00.006-05:00

In Writing Workshop we often look at children's authors for inspiration and ideas for our own writing. Last week during Sky Class storytime we watched an interview with Mo Willems, a classroom favorite especially for his Piggie and Elephant books. The students enjoyed watching him talk about things such as his first book, how he gets started on books and develops characters (he draws them first, as we often do,) and how the Pigeon character just has to be in all of his books. The students continue to enjoy reading his books and one is even taking on writing a Piggie and Elephant book, as Mo Willems suggested they do in his interview. You can see the interview at http://www.pigeonpresents.com/grownup.aspx by playing "Mo History."

Encoding and Decoding

2008-12-29T15:21:00.002-05:00

An article in the September, 2008, issue of Educational Leadership (a publication of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) looks at how phonics are taught and should be taught. In her article, “Why Phonics Teaching Must Change,” author Jeannine Herron refers to recent reading and brain research for clues on how children can learn to read efficiently. The focus of the article is the difference between decoding (going from printed letter to sound in reading words) and encoding (going from sound to letter in constructing words.) She concludes that phonics instruction should “focus on students constructing words before trying to read them.” In programs where children are encouraged to construct the spelling of words so that they may write, this is already happening. That is one of the pluses of using a writing workshop model in working with young children. See my earlier post, “Hiss Joins the Party” for one description of how that can be encouraged.

Developing as Readers through Writing Workshop

2008-12-07T07:47:00.002-05:00

In addition to honing their writing skills through Writing Workshop, students also develop their skills as readers. When we read books from children's literature, we practice noticing the language and other elements that authors use in their writing. We discuss how those choices affect us as readers. I have seen this kind of focus carry over to the students' independent reading. The other day a student brought me a book he was reading. He was in my language group last year and is in Natasha's this year. He was excited about a phrase in the book in which the author describes someone's face as lit up "like a Christmas tree." He said, "Listen to this!" As he shared this simile with me, his face was also lit up like a Christmas tree. It was one of those moments that teachers treasure.

Questions and Answers

2008-11-23T12:19:00.003-05:00

We are currently focusing on writing Question and Answer Non-Fiction in Writing Workshop. For this unit I am again drawing ideas from First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons. After reading several books of this type and analyzing them, we have begun working to write our own. I have done mini-lessons on generating a question that one is interested in and has some knowledge about, as well as the ability to learn more. Then I modeled choosing a question and planning out a book based on that question. It has to be a broad enough question to generate a variety of answers to keep the book interesting. One child came up with the question, "What color are hippos?" and we talked about how that would be a very short book. We have also talked about fact-checking our information. Several students now have non-fiction books on their topics to support them as they gather and check information. We have also looked a few things up on kid-friendly Internet sites.

By the end of the week some students had finished a first book and begun a second one. Others were working to expand their first books. After Thanksgiving each will choose one from what they have written to revise and edit in preparation for another celebration.

Five Little Pumpkins

2008-11-03T14:48:00.006-05:00

Halloween is always a fun time with young children. Last week we used Halloween rhymes and songs for reading practice. Five Little Pumpkins is a group favorite. Students enjoyed taking turns being the pumpkins. We checked to be sure each pumpkin had the correct label (first pumpkin, second pumpkin, etc.) Students could refer to the pocket chart if they forgot their lines. At the end the pumpkins enjoyed "rolling out of sight!"

Word Study 5 Ways

2008-10-27T19:28:00.005-04:00

I have for many years included some version of word study in my program. Word study is a time when we focus on the way words work, including phonics, frequently used words, chunks that are elements of a variety of words (sometimes referred to as word families), and spelling patterns. I have drawn on resources such as Pinnell and Fountas's Word Matters. Over the years I have tried a variety of formats.

This year I am trying an approach from a book I have been reading this fall, About the Author by Katie Ray Wood with Lisa B. Cleaveland. She includes a sheet that has a checklist of ways for students to practice a group of frequently used words to help them add those words to their spelling (and reading) vocabulary. Students are to choose 5 ways to practice from the checklist. The list includes techniques I have used before. What I like is that students can choose from the list which gives them more investment. The list includes everything from rainbow words (writing the words using different colors for each letter) to play dough words to back writing. The students so far seem to be enjoying exploring the different ways and each is developing favorites. Back writing is a general favorite though initially it gave some of them pause, as they asked, "What should we use to write on people's backs?"

Pattern Books

2008-10-13T13:09:00.007-04:00

We began our Pattern Book unit last week. In this unit I use ideas from First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons. We began by reading several pattern books over several days: A Party and Our Granny by Joy Cowley, In the Sky by Peter and Sheryl Sloan, This Train by Paul Collicutt, and When I Was Young by Jamie Lee Curtis. After we read each book, we talked about what the writer was doing in the book and how that affected us as readers. Then we worked to come up with a name for the pattern. We came up with names such as Making a List, Pairs of Opposites, and 1-2-1-2 (or see-saw). We are making a chart of these observations.

After we had analyzed several pattern books, I did a mini-lesson on deciding on a pattern to try and starting a book based on it. Now the students are working on their own pattern books. Over time we will read more books, analyze them, and add them to our chart. We will also see which of us are trying the different patterns and techniques in our own writing.

Celebrate! Celebrate!

2008-10-04T12:43:00.002-04:00

We had fun on Friday as the students shared the pieces they had chosen to "fancy up" for our celebration. Some had chosen a one page piece to share. Of those who chose a booklet, most wanted to read just one page, but one read his whole booklet. They were a supportive audience for their fellow writers. We will continue to work on our reading our work, as some voices were too soft to hear clearly. After all had shared, I poured out some juice and gave a toast to their work this past month.

Next week we will begin a focus on pattern books, drawing from First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons.

Some of the students who were in my language group last year had noticed our preparations for the celebration. They asked me to get out the books I kept that they wrote last year. (They took some of their books home.) I had had them on display in our book area last year, but had packed them away for the summer. I have put some out now to join the new ones from this year's group. (Our classroom is a mixed age group with students six to eight years old.)

Celebration Excitement

2008-10-01T13:40:00.003-04:00

This week each person has chosen one piece of writing from his/her writing folder to share on Friday, when we will have our first celebration of our writing. We have had mini-lessons on how to fix-up and fancy-up our writing (drawn in part from Launching the Writing Workshop), and everyone has been busy working on the piece that is chosen: seeing if all the words are there, and adding any missing ones; for some, working on being sure there are spaces between words; adding to the pictures and coloring the pictures; perhaps, choosing a couple of important words and getting those in dictionary spelling. Some are adding construction paper covers.

Our celebration will be simple since it is our first one. Still the young writers are getting excited. We will read our stories to each other and toast our efforts with juice.

So Many Ideas, So Little Time

2008-09-25T12:51:00.004-04:00

This is the time of year when I find my mind whirling with all the mini-lessons I want to do. I am starting to see the potential coming out in my young writers, and they are so new to so much of this writing work.

I have to slow myself down and remember that we have the whole year. I also need to remember that too much, too soon is never a good idea. We have begun using pre-made booklets in Writers Workshop, following a mini-lesson from Launching the Writing Workshop by Lucy Calkins and Leah Mermelstein. Most of the students have taken to using the booklets with enthusiasm, and it is helping them to expand their pieces more.

I am currently reading About the Authors by Katie Wood Ray with Lisa B. Cleaveland. This book focuses on the K-2 Writing Workshop. In this book they talk about starting the year with pre-made booklets. It is something that I want to think about for next year. Years ago, before I started doing the Writing Workshop approach, I would start the year by giving my six year old writers blank booklets made by folding together several sheets of legal size paper and stapling them. It always worked to get most of the children making books that included both pictures and words.

Courageous Writers

2008-09-22T15:32:00.003-04:00

Today we worked together to make a list of all the things we have learned/talked about that writers do. The kids came up with a great list that included "They think first about what to write," "They tell true stories about their lives," and "If they don't know how to spell a word, they say it slowly and write down the sounds they hear." I told them examples of each item in the list that I had seen members of our group doing in Writing Workshop.

This year our Lower School is focusing on 5 C's to help make our philosophy more explicit to our students. One of the 5 C's is being Courageous. I told my writers that I have seen each of them being a courageous writer, whether writing a word he/she was unsure of how to spell or reading a piece to the group or doing the best to write or draw something when it was hard.

Revisiting Our Writing

2008-09-20T17:25:00.002-04:00

We have covered a lot over the past couple of weeks. As I watch my young writers and conference with them, I realize that quite a few are starting a new piece every day. As I look over their sheets, I see that they are often putting down a couple of sentences and then moving to something else. I remember conferences with these students where they told me out loud more than what has made it onto their papers.

So yesterday I did a mini-lesson to remind them that there are often rich possibilities in adding to a previous piece. In the mini-lesson I flipped back through the chart tablet that I have been using for mini-lessons, commenting fondly on different stories I had written. Then I paused at one I had done about a trip I took to the zoo. I reread it and then commented, "You know, I did a lot more than see the polar bears that day." Then I closed my eyes and recalled how much I loved the aviary. I described the birds and their singing and all the plants. "It made me feel like I was in a tropical forest." Then I opened my eyes and proclaimed that I wanted to add that to my story. With excitement I did so. Then I recalled specific pieces children had been working on and remembered what those writers had told me out loud.

As I sent them to their writing spots, I asked each to look over all that they have been working on and to see if one piece was one that could be extended. It was neat to watch them going carefully over their work. I think several were quite surprised by how much they have written. Most found something to add to among their papers.

Hiss Joins the Party

2008-09-17T15:28:00.007-04:00

Some years ago, a fellow teacher referred to how teachers are often like cooks. When we first try a lesson, we may follow closely a very set plan (or recipe) whether someone else's or our own. Over time we begin to vary the recipes and improvise some.

Last year I stuck pretty closely to the "recipes" I was using, both from Lucy Calkins and from others such as Stephanie Parsons(First Grade Writers) and Katie Wood Ray. This year I am starting to play around more with the basic recipes.

We have already had a Writing Workshop mini-lesson on stretching out words and writing down the sounds you hear. Today in our word study time, I used an idea I got from Deb Renner Smith's blog, Writing and Reading Lessons, to reinforce the practice of stretching out words. She featured reading ideas centered on Beanie Babies (http://www.debrennersmith.com/2008/04/fix-it-strategies-with-beanie-babies.html). I took the idea of using Hiss the Snake and flipped it around to stretching the words, hearing the sounds, and writing down the letters for those sounds. I used a format based on one described by Richard Gentry (Breaking the Code: The New Science of Beginning Reading and Writing) among others.

I began by introducing Hiss and saying I liked him to help me stretch out words because he is so good at stretching. As I stretched Hiss, I slowly said the word s-n-a-ke. (Maybe not the best word as it begins with a consonant blend, but it was so appropriate for Hiss.) As I pronounced the letters, I asked the students to raise a finger, starting with the thumb, for every sound they heard. The kids ended up with numbers from 2 to 4. I asked what was the first sound they heard, etc. until we had identified the 4 sounds. Then I asked each of them to draw 4 boxes, one for each sound we heard. Next I enunciated the sounds one at at time and asked for volunteers to tell us what letter they would use for that sound. Each ended up recording either s-n-a-k or s-n-a-c. I emphasized that we were not recording the dictionary spelling of snake, but the sounds we could hear in the word. We went on to do several c-v-c words based on pictures that I had (top, etc.)

Lower Case Moons

2008-09-15T19:49:00.004-04:00

Well, it looks like I'm not making my initial goal of blogging every school day. I was out Friday as we went up to Massachusetts for our new granddaughter's naming ceremony.

Spending time with our 3 1/2 year old granddaughter Rachel (big sister of the new baby) always gets me thinking about how children develop their language and thinking skills. We went to a restaurant Friday night. Rachel looked at three large round lights on the wall behind our table and said they were "three full moons." Then turning and looking at three smaller, also round, recessed lights on the ceiling, she proclaimed, "Those are lower case moons." Then she laughed and I had to join her, adding a high five. In his book, Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner talks about the "synthesizing mind" which integrates ideas from different disciplines. It seems to me that this kind of playing around with categories and making connections between round objects, moons, and the idea of lower case letters is the kind of thing that lays the foundations for a synthesizing mind.

I hope that as we rightly work on the "nuts and bolts" of Writing Workshop, we also continue to celebrate the language children use, the creativity they express, and the connections they make every day as they construct their understanding of the world.

When I'm Done mini-lesson

2008-09-10T13:53:00.002-04:00

Today I did a mini-lesson based on one in Launching the Writing Workshop focused on what they should do when they think they are done. I had printed out the poster from the CD and mounted it. As always we first reviewed (briefly!) what we had done in our previous lesson. I went back to the story I had written yesterday about losing my first tooth. I modeled adding to the picture and then adding to the words. When I finished I read it over again, and decided it was done for now. Then I modeled getting another piece of paper to start a new piece. I showed them the poster and asked them point by point if I had done what the poster said. They identified that I had. Then I asked them to show me that they could do the things on the poster.

We had a great writing time. I have a TA, an Upper School student named Hannah. She was a big help, as it gave me a second person to do mini-conferences with some of the students, helping the ones who had a harder time getting started putting their ideas on paper. Most started out working on the piece they began yesterday. Several finished those pieces and then began another one. We had no announcements of "I'm done!" before Writing Workshop was over. Several had trouble stopping when it was time. In our sharing time I asked one person to share what she did: She added to the beginning of her story, because she remembered something that happened before what she wrote yesterday. She added a piece of paper on top of what she wrote yesterday. Then several others shared what they had done.

Second Writing Workshop

2008-09-09T11:43:00.004-04:00

Today we sat again in our meeting spot. I had the chart that I wrote on for our last mini-lesson. I asked the children what they remembered that I did last time. They were able to tell a lot of the things I did. Then I went through the process again, writing a new piece. I thought of an idea (closing my eyes), drew it, and then wrote about it. Today I wrote about a memory I have of when I was 6 and I was the only one in my class that had not lost a tooth. I hoped all year that I would lose one. Then on the last day of school, my first tooth came out. I dripped blood all over my report card!
The children then came up with their ideas and shared them with a person sitting by them. (I will set up regular writing partners later when I know the children better.) Once they shared, I sent them off to their writing spots. It was a productive day. Everyone got a picture and at least some writing down. All of them came up with an idea that they were excited about. A few are at a very beginning place with their letter/sound recall, so I conferenced with them to provide extra support as they worked. When we stopped writing, I gave them all their new writing folders and explained the system for the front flap with the green dot being for work they will continue to work on, and the back flap with the green dot being for work they believe they are finished with. One of the students had attached a second piece of paper to add to his story. When we had our sharing time at the end of writing I had him share what he had done.
Next time I will do a mini-lesson about what to do when you are done.

Writing workshop introduction

2008-09-03T13:29:00.004-04:00

Today I worked with all of the new-timers in Sky Class. I introduced the writing workshop, basing my mini-lesson on the first lesson in Lucy Calkin's Launching the Writing Workshop. I modeled deciding what to write about: I talked about how much I liked pandas, but verbalized that I had no real experiences with pandas. I then talked about remembering when I went to the beach with my son Ike and my granddaughter Rachel. I closed my eyes and described what I was seeing in my mind. I remembered walking on the beach and wading in the water with Rachel. The water was calm at first. Then all the sudden a big wave hit us. I looked at Rachel. I was worried that it would scare her, but then she laughed. I then sketched a picture on chart paper of what I remembered and labeled parts of the picture. Then pointing at the paper I planned out my first sentence; "I went to the beach with Ike and Rachel." I began to write it, talking about how if I was not sure what letters to write, I said the word and listened to what letters I could hear. I then finished my story, read it over, and showed how if I wanted to change something (e.g. put beach instead of ocean), I would cross it out and write above it.

Then I asked each of them to close their eyes and think about something that each had done and to picture it. I had each turn to another and share the idea. I showed the paper choices, then called one person at a time to choose a sheet of paper and find a space to begin drawing and writing.

Once they settled down, I circulated and checked in with individuals. Most easily drew their ideas. Some went easily on from this to writing. Others were stuck on beginning the writing part. When that happened I had the student tell me about the picture, then I slowly said the first sentence he/she told me , pointing to the place on the paper where it should be written. Some needed help figuring out what letters to write, and students near them helped some. By the end of our time, about half had filled the half page set aside for writing and told a coherent story of something they had experienced. One other wrote that much but her sentences were disconnected. The rest had written from 1 to 3 sentences. For those whose writing was not readable , I wrote beneath what they told me, telling them they had done the kid writing and now I was doing the grown-up writing.

Welcome to the Sky Class Blog!

2008-03-15T10:03:00.005-04:00

Welcome to my Sky Class Blog! I am exploring blogging as a new means of communciation. It is Saturday morning and I am here in Matthew's room in Middle School with 10 other teachers learning about blogs and wikis and how we can use them as teachers at CFS. I hope this will be a place to post my thoughts about teaching in general as well as notes on my experiences implementing the Writing Workshop model in my language group.