Posts filed under 'Reading'
Each January, Lisa Koch, coauthor of Beyond Leveled Books, cherishes her ritual of picking new books for the new year. She wanted to instill the same excitement about reading in her students, so she looked to her classroom comment box to see what students are struggling with when it comes to reading. The comments help her come up with a plan that not only gets her students into the school library, but also allows them time to read.
Each Christmas I receive a gift card to the local book store. I spend a few days thinking about what I will purchase with this card because to me it represents much more than the mere $25 I get to spend. It represents my new year. All of my choices, I might add, come directly from the self-help aisle.
My life can be easily chronicled just by looking at my new year’s book collection. I have spent time eating, cleaning, simplifying my life, organizing in three easy steps, running with beginners, completing the total money makeover, visiting South Beach… you get the idea. But, each year I am as excited as can be to take on my new project whatever it may be.
I have been trying to think of ways to get my students excited for reading in the new year. How can I spread my “self-help” excitement on to them with regards to reading? I started by looking at my class suggestion box. These are some of the notes I found that I thought could lead to something good.
- Mrs. Koch, you took Michelle’s picture when she got her library card, but you’ve never taken mine.
- Mrs. Koch, I don’t have anything to write down when you say are you keeping track of your reading. What does that even mean?
- Mrs. Koch, I can’t find a good book!
- Mrs. Koch, seriously, when do you expect me to find time to read?
- I need help sticking with a book- I start and never finish.
I think for the new year, I can start with these suggestions. I will address these as soon as I get back in January, then I will go on the rest of the suggestions.
#1. The before and after photo
When Michelle came in with her new library card, she was ecstatic. She was a freshman in high school and had never had her own library card. Our librarian has the forms for the cards in the school library and she offers treats if she “catches” students with their card. Michelle filled out the form, when the card came, she ran around the room holding it like she’d just hit the lotto. I took her picture.
When I go back, I am going to take a photo of my class — those with cards can hold them up. Those without cards can make the “it’s on my to do list” face. I will send those without cards, down to the library to get the form. I could have the form in the classroom, but I love to get them to the library whenever I can. Two weeks later we will take an after photo: a class full of students with library cards. It is so important and many teachers take for granted that all of their students have one.
#2 Set reading goals
Help each of your students set a reading goal for the new year. If you can, sit down one-on-one to discuss those goals and how the two of you can track them. Every one of my January books has a chapter on setting goals and the importance of having those goals down on paper. Our class may decide to post them or keep them to themselves. The important part is setting those goals.
#3 What do I do now?
Help your students find books they can connect with. Our librarian gives each student who asks her, three books. That way students have a better chance of connecting with at least one. I am going to give a book talk to my classes when I get back. I’d like to suggest some old favorites as well as books that were big in 2008. I might have students take time to share books they love in an informal setting. This will help others choose books. Another suggestion from the box was that we make a giant bookworm around the room. Each student could put up a circle when they finished a book. I love the idea if we can use it to start conversations about great books.
#4 Set aside time to read
This one is simple. We need to make sure our students have the time to read. Provide the time. Talk about this in your goal setting session.
#5 Keep it up!
Ask your students how things are going. Talk with them about books. Let them know what you are reading and see if they want to read it next. Keep up on who is reading what and follow through with your plans to help them. We all need encouragement. You may even have to pick up the book and read it too, just so you can talk to the student who loses focus.
Every time I read one of my January books, I say to myself, “I know this! Why do I need to read another book about it!” Of course we’ve all learned it somewhere. The trick is keeping those obvious practices front and center. With this list of resolutions, I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you can offer more suggestions to get our students excited to read.
January 5th, 2009
In the first chapter of her new book, Of Primary Importance, Ann Marie Corgill invites readers to “Step inside and breathe the writing workshop air with me.”
That is what a group of teachers from Riverside Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio, are doing for the next couple of months as they meet every other week to read and discuss the book.
Franki Sibberson, author of Beyond Leveled Books, is part of this study group. She and her fellow group members are going to post regular updates about their progress and discussions. The group met last week to set their schedule and to talk about questions they have as they begin to read.
We got together for our first meeting of our group that will be reading and discussing Ann Marie Corgill’s new book Of Primary Importance. We met last week to give ourselves a reading assignment before vacation and to focus in on the big questions that each of us hopes is answered during the course of the study group. Everyone in the group had a chance to preview the book and came ready with lots to think about.
We are a group of teachers who teach at Riverside Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio. There are 12 of us in the group, K-3 classroom teachers, principal, reading teachers, a math teacher and me. It is a great group and we are going to try to meet every other week for a few months starting in January.
We started the meeting looking at the book so we could decide how much we should read. Someone suggested that we read Chapters 1-5 because those chapters are all about the set-up and routines. It seemed like a lot to read, but then we remembered that we had almost a month to read and that it made sense to read that part of the book to start. So, we are reading from page 1-83 before we meet in mid-January.
Everyone had previewed the book so some of the talk was around how to use the book—some people hope to get an idea or two, others looked through it and want to follow many of her units to add some structure to their workshop. We are all hoping to get different things from our study group.
We brainstormed those questions that we hoped to have answered by the end of the study group. We shared the things that we hoped to learn. They included:
My kids love to write but where do I go next with them?
Is it better to teach forms of writing or to let kids have free choice?
How much editing makes sense? What should I edit? What should I let go?
What level of writing should I accept? What is a realistic expectation for primary kids?
Which authors and mentor texts work?
How important is the finished product?
How do I balance process with product?
Where does prompting fit in? How do you work to help kids get away from needing a prompt?
How do I keep kids’ interests when they are working on a piece over several days?
How do we keep kids engaged through the process?
How do I best manage the tiem?
What can I do with all of the kids who rush though the process and come to me saying, “I’m done.”
How do I help kids generate ideas? What prewriting work is best?
How can kids be more independent in the process?
So, these are the things we are thinking about as we begin our talk. We all left excited to read and think about our questions. We talked about mid-January being a long time to wait and we think we will probably have lots of informal conversations with each other before our next formal meeting.
We’ll post updates every time we meet—sharing our individual thinking and growth because of the book. We are excited to share our new learning.
December 18th, 2008
This week’s tip about working with English Language Learners comes from Emelie Parker and Tess Pardini, authors of “The Words Came Down!” English Language Learners Read, Write, and Talk Across the Curriculum, K-2 (2006). Throughout the book, Emelie and Tess discuss ways to use daily routines, visual cues, and physical action to build a classroom community where primary ELL students thrive. In Chapter 5 on reading workshop, for example, they provide this example of using a “bubble space” metaphor to introduce independent reading time:
After the whole-group read-aloud and mini-lesson, it is time to break up for independent reading. At this time, the students read from their own reading boxes. The boxes contain familiar books that they reread for practice. Each time they reread a book, their understanding deepens and their control of phrasing, fluency, and expression increases, so this is an essential element of our reading time. Their reading boxes also contain books that are at their instructional level, requiring them to do some reading work that is appropriate for them. We have introduced all these books during guided reading lessons. Even the students who are preemergent readers have their own reading work to do independently. If they do not have appropriate-leveled text to hold their attention, they will become bored, reluctant to engage with the text, and possibly resort to distracting behavior.
A favorite lesson for some primary teachers at Bailey’s [Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia] to introduce children to the expectations of independent reading is a reading response to a Big Book called Bubble Gum by Gail Jorgensen. The children in the book learn to blow a bubble bigger and bigger and bigger. The last page has a great illustration of a popped bubble all over the children. The class enjoys acting out an innovation on the text of Bubble Gun. Without speaking, they pretend to unwrap gum, stick it in their mouth, and blow and blow. As they blow, they spread their arm outs wider and wider. They carefully walk with their arms spread out to a place in the room where no one can pop their bubble. If a child steps into or sits too close to someone’s “bubble space” then the balloon pops. Loud words can also pop a bubble.
After the children can do this without fuss, the teacher explains that they will now take books inside their bubble to read alone. Later, after children learn to read independently in a bubble space, we show them how to let a friend come in and sit shoulder to shoulder in their bubble for buddy reading.
December 16th, 2008
Two teacher-bloggers found inspiration this week from the second edition of Beyond Leveled Books by Franki Sibberson, Karen Szymusiak, and Lisa Koch.
“After reading the foreword, the list of mini lessons, and the first chapter I knew that I had much to gain from this book,” writes Sarah Amick at Amick’s Articles in her review of Beyond Leveled Books. The book “draws you in during the first chapter as they persuade you to move away from the bookroom, away from the prepublished books from your basal, and to really evaluate the books you are placing in the hands of your children,” Sarah continues.
Read her entire review here
Stacey Shubitz at Two Writing Teachers attended a session by the authors of Beyond Leveled Books during last week’s NCTE. Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak were joined by Cris Tovani (I Read It, but I Don’t Get It and Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?) and Patrick Allen (Put Thinking to the Test) to discuss authentic assessment in reading workshop. Stacey writes that she will be able to connect what she learned to her writing workshop and shares how she will change her lesson charts to empower her students as writers. “I now think there’s a sense of agency we can create in our young writers by using a statement in the first-person as opposed to the third person,” she writes and gives the example of her upcoming persuasive letter writing unit of study chart to demonstrate the power of and importance of the language used in the classroom.
November 25th, 2008
As a young teacher, I realized that I needed to be the catalyst to connecting my learners to literature…independent reading needed to become an integral and focused component of my daily reading program, not simply an activity for early finishers or for settling down after lunch.
Tony Stead’s new book, Good Choice!, is a comprehensive guide for creating lifelong readers through independent reading and response. You’ll discover how to:
- establish routines to make independent reading a natural part of each day;
- excite your students by providing a range of reading materials — including magazines, newspapers, maps, and computers — based on their interests and abilities;
-
make the best use (and avoid pitfalls) of leveling for independent reading;
- use mini-lessons and conferences to expand kids’ reading repertoire;
- help them discover the many purposes for reading, become active participants in the selection process, and read more at home;
- assist students as they respond to their reading, for both engagement and assessment.
Throughout the book, Tony provides classroom transcripts and student samples for grades K-2 and 3-6, with special sections that tailor ideas to kindergarten and grade 1. You’ll find dozens of graphic organizers and reproducible forms and rubrics, as well as a list of useful websites for independent reading and research.
You can preview the entire book online now!
November 24th, 2008
Franki Sibberson, Stenhouse author and blogger extraordinaire at A Year of Reading, recently reviewed Ann Marie Corgill’s new book, Of Primary Importance.
“Ann Marie is all about the “whys” of her teaching,” Franki writes. “She understands the theory behind all that she does and her book helps us think through our own writing workshops. She also spends a lot of time talking about the issues she has with mandated curriculum and the importance of workshop. But she also gives us some nuts and bolts. She shows us her yearlong plan and then goes into depth with each unit of study—sharing book titles and planning that goes into each unit.”
Read the entire review here. And also be sure to check out Franki’s new book, the second edition of Beyond Leveled Books.
November 13th, 2008
Sarah Mulhern is a sixth grade language arts teacher in New Jersey. Her blog, The Reading Zone, not only focuses on her teaching and students, but also showcases the work she and her students do with Monarch butterflies. In this guest blog post, you can read about how Sarah integrates Monarch butterflies into her curriculum. A short commentary follows her entry by Herb Broda, author of Schoolyard Enhanced Learning
Chrysalis. Pupa. Larva.
Typical vocabulary for a middle grades science class, but not the norm for a 6th grade language arts class. However, if you were to peek into my classroom during the first month of school, you would see students reading, writing, and observing our monarch butterflies. My bulletin boards are plastered with monarch posters, butterfly quotes, and maps of North America. The tables have tomato cages, butterfly nets, and potted milkweed covering the season tablecloths.
Our word wall includes the words chrysalis, pupa, and larva alongside language arts words like genre and visualization. While this may sound odd for a Language Arts class, I raise monarchs with my students every fall. From egg to adult, we care for and eventually release our butterflies for their journey to Mexico.
Our classroom theme is “Journeys”, as my students are on the final leg of their journey to middle school. They also get the chance to emerge every morning, as a new person- just like our caterpillars. However, this is only the beginning of our connection to monarch butterflies.
What many people do not know is that monarch butterflies are amazing creatures. They begin their lives as small yellowish eggs on milkweed plants across North America. When they hatch they are so small you need a magnifying class to find them! For the next two weeks they will do only two things- eat milkweed and create frass (caterpillar poop!). During those two weeks they will shed their black, white, and yellow striped skin four times. The fifth and final time they shed their skin they will become a chrysalis (n.b. butterflies form a chrysalis while moths form a cocoon.) This chrysalis is a bright green that is flecked with gold spots. The monarch remains in this chrysalis for approximately ten days before the green outer layer becomes clear and we can see the butterfly inside.
When this happens, the adult is ready to emerge! When my students enter my classroom in September they are immediately greeted by our first caterpillars. We begin our reading and writing workshop by sharing our monarch experiences- we read picture books and non-fiction about monarch butterflies and we write about our shared experiences in our writer’s notebooks. Two weeks ago, we were extremely lucky and both of my language arts classes were able to view a monarch emerging from its chrysalis during class!
Even better, we were able to view through the document camera, which allowed us to zoom in for an even closer look. We have used that experience as a shared memory and have been writing a class personal narrative during the active engagement aspect of our writing workshop. This serves as a model for my student’s independent personal narrative projects.
While we read and write about our monarchs in September, our monarch theme continues through the rest of the year. Monarch butterflies from east of the Rocky Mountains make a lengthy migration each spring. Some of them travel upwards of 3000 miles, from Canada to the trans-volcanic mountain range southwest of Mexico City. The trans-volcanic mountains will be home to millions of monarchs for the months of November to March. The butterflies migrate to the sanctuaries of the in the Mexican states of Michoacán and México.
And this is what makes monarch butterflies so amazing. While the summer generations have a life cycle of approximately one month, the last generation born in August/September will live for upwards of nine months. This generation will make the long and dangerous journey to Mexico, to small sanctuaries that they have never visited. Their great-great-great grandparents made the journey from Mexico to the United States the previous spring!
This migration shapes our curriculum for the rest of the year. We participate in
Journey North’s Symbolic Migration by creating paper monarchs. On the back of these monarchs we write letters in English and Spanish, working with our Spanish teacher, and the butterflies are mailed to the Journey North offices. Journey North then sends them to schools around the monarch reserves in Mexico. We can even track our monarchs’ progress on the Journey North website! In the spring, each child will receive a paper monarch from somewhere in North America. Just as our fall monarchs do not make it back to us in the spring, we receive different paper monarchs in the spring.
In the spring, each student logs onto Journey North and plots their monarch on an interactive map. They can see if their monarch has made it through the winter and can connect with the creator of the monarch they received!
All of my experience with monarchs is courtesy of an amazing organization in New Jersey-the Monarch Teacher Network. The Monarch Teacher Network is a growing network of pre-k to secondary teachers who have received training to use monarch butterflies to teach a variety of concepts and skills, including our growing connection with other nations and the need to be responsible stewards of the environment. The group hosts workshops across the country and has a sister organization in Canada. This past February I was privileged to join the MTN on a fellowship trip to the monarch bioreserves in Michoacan, Mexico.
This life-changing journey was chronicled on my blog, which you can view here. I visited the mountaintops which are home to billions of monarchs each winter. I also spent time at a bilingual P’urhépecha school in Santa Fe, Michoacan, Mexico. The few hours I spent with those students and teachers forever changed my world view. When I came home, I was able to share these experiences with my students.
We don’t just focus on monarchs in my class, though! The monarchs lead us to discussion on responsible global stewardship and conservation. Last year we had a fantastic time participating in a project called Voices…From the Land. In Voices, students use natural materials to create (and photograph) “eco-art” in an outdoor setting. The art is based on that of Andy Goldsworthy. The students then write poetry or prose about the art and their experience… giving the art, landscape and authors a “voice”. Students then layout, design and publish a full-color hardcover book of their photographs and poetry, sharing books with other schools in the project. The schools involved come from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Peru. Last year, we produced a gorgeous book of art and poetry, along with receiving similar books from a class in Canada and New Zealand. This year, we hope to correspond with students from that school in New Zealand! In one simple project we covered curriculum areas from language arts, science, technology, and social studies.
Every year my students fall in love with the monarchs, and I fall in love with them all over again. We build a community around our caterpillars, say goodbye to our butterflies as a family, and work hard to be responsible citizens of the world. My teaching was revolutionized by my time spent with the Monarch Teacher Network. It was the best professional development I have ever participated in- which explains why I spend part of each summer as a volunteer staff member training more teachers! If you are interested in the Monarch Teacher Network workshops, please check their website. If your state isn’t listed, leave a comment and maybe we can work something out! Every year the project expands to new states (and continents)! If you have any experiences, questions, or comments about monarchs in the classroom, please comment!
Wow! What wonderful ways to integrate the monarch butterfly into so many aspects of the curriculum! I want to be sure to reinforce the mention of the Journey North website that is included in the entry. Journey North includes several highly interactive activities for students.
The Tulip Project, for example is a wonderful way for students to take part in a real scientific experiment. Bulbs are planted in the fall and you record the zip code of your school. In the spring you note when the bulls first emerge and then record when they are in bloom. What I love about the activity is that students plant the bulbs in the fall and then can monitor the results of their own labor in the spring.
As students all over North America record the emergence and eventual bloom of their tulips, an interactive map allows classes to follow the progression of spring across the continent! It really is one of the simplest interactive scientific projects that I have seen. Be sure to check out Journey North—there are a number of other interactive projects available there also.
Commentary by Herb Broda
November 12th, 2008
This week, our editor Bill Varner was insipired by this week’s presidential election in his choice of poetry.
Frederick Douglass
By Robert Hayden
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
Read the rest of the poem here
November 7th, 2008
Nothing says fall more than Halloween. In my town, people from the more rural sections descend upon my neighborhood in wild costumes. Some of my neighbors really go all out with haunted houses and decorations. I love taking the kids trick or treating out in the crowded streets. Here’s a poem by Kenn Nesbitt called “Halloween Party.” I could see myself in this situation!
Halloween Party
By Kenn Nesbitt
We’re having a Halloween party at school.
I’m dressed up like Dracula. Man, I look cool!
You can read the rest of the poem here
October 24th, 2008
If the stack of reading journals on your desk seems impossible to conquer and you find yourself at lunch quietly calculating the number of pages you have to read tonight, you are not alone. Many teachers across the country struggle with giving valuable, meaningful feedback to reader’s notebooks, but find it hard to keep up with the responses.
Pam Juday, a reading specialist from Elkhart, IN, said that teachers in her building would like to use reader’s notebooks, but they hesitate because of the time required to keep up with responses. “One teacher, who is responsible for around 50 students, reported that she saw a significant decline in quality and motivation when she failed to keep up with her responses,” Pam wrote, asking for suggestions from our authors.
So we asked Adrienne Gear, author of Reading Power, and Cheryl Dozier, author of Responsive Literacy Coaching to help Pam and teachers in her school find a solution to managing reader’s notebooks.
Adrienne’s response:
As a literacy mentor in the Vancouver School district (Canada), I have worked with many teachers who have begun to use reader’s notebooks in their classrooms. Successfully managing the marking of these notebooks has been an issue that often arises. Here are two ways that teachers in my district have attempted to solve this:
1) Students might write 3-4 entries in their reader’s notebook per week, however, the teacher will only respond to ONE of these entries. Students select, indicating with a star inside the margin, which response they would like the teacher to read and respond back to.
AND/OR
2) Another way to cut down on daily responding is to divide your class into 5 small groups. Each group is responsible for handing in their reader’s notebook on a different day during the week. (i.e. Gr. 1 – Monday, Gr. 2 – Tuesday) Groups and “hand-in” days are posted in the classroom. This way, if there are 30 students in the class, for example, the teacher will read and respond to six per day. This is more manageable than reading and responding to 30 notebooks two-three times each week.
I believe that we need to be realistic about the amount of responding we can manage each week. However, one careful and thoughtful response per week is, in the long run, of more benefit to the students than several short and “tired” responses. When students look forward to their teachers’ one longer response each week, motivation is less likely to be compromised.
Cheryl’s response:
While there are numerous benefits to reader’s notebooks, it can be daunting to take a pile of reader’s notebooks home over the weekend – especially if the pile remains untouched until Sunday evening. I now respond to a set number of reading responses each evening. Then, I am much more likely to engage deeply as I read. Sometimes my responses are short, sometimes they are lengthier. Regardless, when I write a response, my guiding question is: “Is this response thoughtful and genuine?” I want my responses to be open ended and focus on continuing conversations.
I see reader’s notebooks as places for conversations – reader to reader. I love reading children’s responses and seeing how they interpret, question, or read against texts. Through their responses (written, artistic), we can learn where children are confident as readers. What authors or genres resonate for them? We also learn what is harder for them to navigate. Do they take risks as readers and writers? When I read responses, I often gain additional perspectives, begin to ask new questions, or make connections I had not considered previously. I see reader’s notebooks as generative spaces to engage in a collaborative dialogue.
Writers write for an audience. When students do not receive a response, they may take their responses less seriously. I agree, it does take time to respond to letters written by students. The benefit? When we view these letters/responses as windows into children’s understandings and how they make sense of and connect to books, we learn from and with one another. Student responses serve as an anchor for continued conversations.
Several questions come to mind: How are we defining responding to students? What do our responses look like and sound like? Are there ways to open up responses (for both teachers and students)? In addition to responding in writing, I have also asked children to select a piece or sections they would like to share with the class to encourage multiple or contrasting viewpoints. Responses in notebooks can serve as conversation starters as children discuss texts together. After engaging in conversations with partners or with the whole class, students can then revise their responses. Younger children often sketch responses and are delighted to share these with their classmates.
October 13th, 2008
Previous Posts