Thursday, June 18, 2015

The Poetry Friday Roundup is Here!




by Anne Vittur Kennedy
Candlewick Press, 2014

As the farmer drives away from the barn on his tractor, the farm animals (and other assorted animal friends) can be heard exclaiming, 
neigh neigh baa baa quack quack tweet
arf oink ree ree cluck cluck cheep!
And then the fun begins! The animals take a float trip down the river, have a picnic, ride a roller coaster, go water skiing, fly in a dirigible and have a formal evening dance. But all good things must come to an end. Dog alerts the animals
arf! ARF! ARF! ARF! ARF! afr! arf!
ARF! arf! afr! ARF! arf! ARF! arf!
And all (well, almost all) are back in place by the time the farmer has parked the tractor in the barn.

This delightful book, as you can probably tell from my two quotes, is told all in rhyming animal noises! As with all the best picture books, there is as much (or more) of the story going on in the pictures as in the text. You'll have as much fun reading this one aloud as your audience will have listening and joining in!




Just like the farmer is away from the farm, I am away from the blog today. Share your link via Mr. Linky and I'll look forward to reading all of your posts when I am home from the All Write conference on Saturday!













Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Live Photo Blogging From the All Write Conference!



Georgia Heard on Writing Nonfiction through Mentor Texts

"Mentor texts help writers envision the kind of writer they can become"

"We have to make the distinction between NF books to teach writers about craft & those we use for research."

Listening to Jennifer Serravallo talk about Goal-Directed instruction.


Oops! We've been so busy learning in our sessions that we forgot to take pictures and blog! Here we are downtown at Mud Love!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Making Comics with Bitstrips

Near the end of the school year, I introduced my students to Bitstrips. "Introduced" means I showed them where to find all the tools, gave them the login code and got out of the way.

After spending a ton of time creating their avatars, they got down to the (funny) business of making comics. You can imagine that with an available background of a bathroom, there were plenty of cartoons that would appeal mostly to a 10 year-old sense of humor. What surprised me the most were the comics that captured a moment in our classroom



or a moment in their lives



or something completely random that shows they were playing with the tools and wound up making something that made some kind of sense!


Every year, I have students who read graphic novels and want to make their own in writing workshop. I've never had success supporting these students because of the limitations of students to draw their own stories, the limitations of the digital tools I had tried in the past, and the lack of an accessible mentor text for beginning graphic novelists.

I think this coming year might be the year of the student-created graphic novel. Instead of renewing the three subscriptions to magazines no students in my classroom have read for the past two years, I am going to pay for a subscription to Bitstrips (digital tool -- √).

And I'm going to share this book (mentor text -- √) with my writers as a graphic novel/comic strip mentor text:


G-Man: Learning to Fly
by Chris Giarrusso
Image Comics, 2012

The book starts with a longer story, but the ones I really want to share with/study with my students are the 1-2 page "Comic Bits" and the two-panel "Mean Brother/Idiot Bother" strips. Every budding Kazu Kibuishi has to start somewhere, right?


Friday, June 12, 2015

Poetry Friday -- Intention




INTENTION
by Kay Ryan

Intention doesn't sweeten.
It should be picked young
and eaten. Sometimes only hours
separate the cotyledon
from the wooden plant.
Then if you want to eat it,
you can't.




Note to self: don't pave the roads to anywhere with good intentions. Act, do, decide, speak, be...without hesitation.

Jama has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Jama's Alphabet Soup

The July-December roundup schedule is now complete! Thank you, Irene, for taking the Christmas Day roundup!



Thursday, June 11, 2015

Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey

I love Jane Goodall. I love Anita Silvey. And I love National Geographic Kids.  So, UNTAMED:  THE WILD LIFE OF JANE GOODALL was a book that I HAD to preorder so that I had it the minute it was available!  I am so glad I did! I spent much of last evening reading this amazing book!

I don't think there can ever be enough books about Jane Goodall. She is one of my very favorite people to read about.  Even though I have no desire to work outside or to do anything close to the kind of work Jane Goodall does, I see Jane's story as one that invites all of us to make a difference in the work in a way that matches who we are and what our passions are.   I am fascinated by so much of her work--how she discovered her passion, how her passion evolved, how she changed so much about the ways that animals are observed and that she continues to have such a strong voice in the world.

Here are some of the things I loved:

-The foreword is by Jane Goodall and she tells a bit about her life and then gives a personal invitation to join Roots and Shoots.  It is a great message to readers and a great way to begin this book.

-The photos in the book make me happy.  There are some that I've seen before and others that were new to me.

-The book is chronological and starts with Jane's childhood with some facts I already knew from other books and movies. But there were new stories and I felt like I got to know Jane Goodall a bit better--what her childhood was like and how supportive her mother was in her life.

-I loved the chapter on Gombe and the work there but I mostly loved how well the book explains how and why Jane Goodall really has become a celebrity and why her work is so important. I think for young readers, the writing will allow them to see the impact of her work and also understand why it matters.

-There was a section about how scientific observation has changed since Jane Goodall was in Gombe and how technology has made things easier and more efficient.

-There was lots about the Chimpanzees and their personalities and the book includes a Gombe Family Scrapbook at the end--sharing some info about several of the chimps Jane knew.

-The book expanded on what I already knew about Jane and spent lots of time talking about her current work with animals and the environment.  It was interesting to read about the work she is doing to protect chimpanzees being used for research as well as those in zoos.

I really LOVED this book and I think kids will too.  This book was longer than I expected which made me happy.  I am thinking it is perfect for 4th through 8th graders. But I think it definitely has a place in my 3rd grade classroom.   The photos will draw children in but the writing will is done in a way that makes the work of Jane Goodall accessible to young readers. So excited about this book!



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Chris Lehman will be Speaker at 2015-2016 Literacy Connection Events

Mark your calendars now!

The Literacy  Connection is happy to host Chris Lehman as our 2015-2016 speaker. As we do every year, we'll host a yearlong study around a professional book. This year, the book will be Falling in Love With Close Reading.  The year will kick off on Saturday, October 3 (in Dublin, Ohio) with a full day session with Chris.  There will be 2 after school sessions offered for those wishing to participate in the yearlong study. Then we will end our year on Saturday, March 12 for another day with Chris Lehman.

I love these events because they start great conversations with colleagues and friends. I wasn't able to hear Chris speak at the Dublin Literacy Conference but everyone who heard him said that his work in close reading is great for all grades K-12.

So, save the date--you can pick and choose the days you want to attend, or like many teachers--attend all 4 for this yearlong study.

More info to come but as you are thinking about your own learning for the 2015-2016 school year, this might be one you want to add to your calendar!


Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Slice of Life -- The Power of Moments




I wrote a blog post last August about our "failed" fly fishing trip to Vermont. I decided that I wasn't going to let one big expectation for this school year determine whether or not it was a good year. I made the choice to capture one shining moment every day, all year long. I bought myself a little purple journal, and every day I "caught a fish." What a gift I've given myself! Moments that would have been lost in the swift current of the flow of time are saved there for me to look back on and remember. It was a great year, and I lived it one day at a time.

My students and I captured moments every week when we created our "Top Ten" for the weekly newsletter I sent to parents. I have those newsletters archived on my class website.

On Tuesday, in the silence after we clapped the fifth graders out of the building and cheered the buses out of the parking lot, I wrote this Top 10 for the school year:

10  Our Friday routines (Poetry Friday, Top 10 and newsletter, blogging, Genius Hour), including "LUNCH!" and the laughter that brought us every week.

9  The list of read alouds on the closet door. We shared so many great books, and spent an hour finishing our final read aloud on the last day of school.

8  Our "words to live by." I loved that wall full of inspiration.

7  One Little Word. I hope the students will choose another word to live by each January. One word is so much better than a whole list of failed resolutions.

6  Our weird math schedule. At first it was so awkward to have 10 more minutes of math after related arts. But with time and flexibility, we worked that 10 minutes for all it was worth. I need to remember not to get hung up on things that don't work out the way I planned. I need to be flexible and creative and make the most of what I'm given!

5  Book clubs. The conversations and learning were priceless.

4  Open-ended ("rich") math problems. My learning curve for math instruction went steeply up at the end of the year when I started designing my own math problems, rather than finding them online. I can't wait to continue improving my math instruction next year!

3  Choice in writing workshop. The writing the students did at the end of the year, when they could choose their genre and topic, was phenomenal. I need to figure out how to build choice time into writing workshop throughout the year in between our mandated units of study.

2  Genius Hour. What a grand experiment this was! I think most of the students would put it at #1 in their own Top 10 for 5th grade. It was one of the best risks I've ever taken.

1  My class. It took longer than usual for this class to gel as a community, but perhaps it was because that gel didn't come easily or early that it made it so much sweeter when it finally happened. This group was filled with such an amazing collection of smart, funny, quirky, sensitive, creative, helpful, talented, honest, enthusiastic...characters. I am a better person for having spent the year with them.


Monday, June 08, 2015

Stenhouse Blogstitute is Coming!







Stenhouse's popular summer PD Blogstitute will celebrate its fifth year this year! 

Starting a week from today, on June 15th, head over to the Stenhouse Blog for a series of posts from Stenhouse authors -- two per week -- "designed to challenge your thinking and share new ideas that you can incorporate into your planning for the next school year." 



Friday, June 05, 2015

Poetry Friday -- Silence




Silence
by Billy Collins

There is the sudden silence of the crowd
above a player not moving on the field,
and the silence of the orchid.

The silence of the falling vase
before it strikes the floor,
the silence of the belt when it is not striking the child.

The stillness of the cup and the water in it,
the silence of the moon
and the quiet of the day far from the roar of the sun.

(you can read the rest of the poem here)



I'd like to add a stanza to this poem about the silence after the busloads of cheering children round the corner and disappear from sight, the sudden unnatural silence of the school building and our empty classrooms.

And I'd add another stanza about the silence of the house the next morning as we get reacquainted with each other over a cup of tea and to-do lists.

I would finish with a stanza on my knees in the garden, weeding the beets and zinnias, the silence broken only by the buzz of a hummingbird  in the coral bells.



Buffy has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Buffy's Blog, and the July-December call for roundup hosts is here.

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Poetry Friday -- Call for Roundup Hosts



It's that time again. Six months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

If you'd like to host a roundup between July and December 2015, leave your choice(s) of date(s) in the comments. I'll update regularly to make it easier to see which dates have been claimed.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape or form (Mr. Linky, "old school" in the comments-->annotated in the post, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in! If you've never participated, but you'd like to get started, choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you're not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch...and learn! One thing we're finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? I'll post it in the files on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group, and I'd be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. Speaking of the the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group, I'll try to set up reminders on the calendar there (currently it's not letting me in). Plus, I'll put the schedule on the Kidlitosphere Central webpage.

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It's like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

And now for the where and when:

July
3   Donna at Mainely Write
10 Katie at The Logonauts
17 Kimberley at iWrite in Maine
24 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
31 Keri at Keri Recommends

August
21 Catherine at Reading to the Core
28 Sylvia at Poetry For Children

September
4   Linda at TeacherDance
18 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty
25 Janet at Poetry For Children

October
16 Amy at The Poem Farm
30 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

November
6   Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat.
13 Bridget at Wee Words for Wee Ones
27 Carol at Carol's Corner

December
4   Buffy at Buffy's Blog
11 Tara at A Teaching Life
18 Diane at Random Noodling
25 Irene at Live Your Poem