For Whom the Bell Tinkles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!"