Unit of Study on THEME (middle, part 2)

Subtitle: In Which I Integrate Reading and Composing Workshops

Tuesday I wrote about how I laid some of the groundwork for studying theme with 4th graders. Yesterday, I described the Theme Project we're working on in Composing Workshop.

This exploration of the idea of Theme is in preparation to write Literary Essays, a genre that depends equally on work in Reading and Writing (or Composing) Workshops, so at the same time that I started spinning the Theme plate in Composing Workshop, I began my first round of Literature Circles in Reading Workshop. I chose titles on a wide range of reading abilities, and all short enough for students to complete in the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. All four books have pretty obvious themes. The choices were:

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

Tommy Trouble and the Magic Marble by Ralph Fletcher

Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan

Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher

Each child has a little folded paper booklet in which they keep track of the characters and character traits, most important events, possible themes, questions, predictions, sketches and such. These booklets have helped guide their first foray into literature circle discussions. I'll be interested to see if they want to continue with something like them in future literature circles.

In read aloud, I decided to do a shared reading of Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. I collected enough copies from the public library so that every child can follow along as I read. This book is complicated enough to make it a perfect pick for shared reading in fourth grade. I can help the students navigate the flashback/memories, notice all the clues in the beginning of the book about something unspoken in the family, and think about the ways MacLachlan uses poetry and songs to reinforce the themes in her story.

Coming up tomorrow: what happens when poetry and music are added to the mix.

Unit of Study on THEME (middle, part 1)

Subtitle: In Which Writing Workshop Becomes Composing Workshop

Yesterday's post told about how I laid some of the groundwork for studying theme with 4th graders.

Other groundwork had been laid long before I ever imagined this project: although my writing workshop looked fairly traditional (paper on pencil) in the first trimester as we studied Narrative Structures, I had spent some time introducing my students to applications like ComicLife, Pixie, Pages, and GarageBand. I'd been itching for them to have some way to USE these applications -- some authentic content -- so that I could shift our WRITING Workshop into a COMPOSING workshop, where we would use the design process to make things (workshop style) with our words and ideas.

The trimester-long multi-media multi-genre project that I imagined was this: every child would pick a theme, then they would explore that theme by making things that illustrate or describe or embody their theme.

To prepare to explain the Theme Project, I made a chart listing all the themes we'd identified in the video clip and THE LION AND THE MOUSE, and specific themes that are mentioned in our state's 4th Grade Language Arts Standards. The last section of this list has themes we've added since the project began -- we've talked about theme as "the moral of the story" and read both traditional Aesop's Fables as well as Scieszka's SQUIDS WILL BE SQUIDS, and some of those final themes were brainstormed when students couldn't find a theme they wanted to work with on the big list, while others came from our read aloud (more about that tomorrow).

Posible themes:

practice

perseverance (don't give up)

honesty

confidence

*

friendship

helpfulness

family

power

*

overcoming challenges

loyalty

kindness

love

*

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Do unto others..."

service to others

celebration

leadership

loss

healing power of language

arts make our lives better

I also made a list of possible things to make. Notice that not all are digital:

poems (original, collected)

narrative

skit (video? iMovie?)

interview(s)

images (original photos, Pixie)

music (GarageBand)

podcast

Keynote

ComicLife

mural

collage

sculpture

We talked through these charts and then I sent them back to their writer's notebook to make a web with the theme they'd chosen in the center, and around that theme, a few of the things they wanted to try to make.

And we all lived happily ever after? No, but this is what I love best about teaching: launching a big project that is untested and not completely planned to the minute...and then teaching off of and around all that happens when the students take hold of it and make it theirs.

Some of the challenges we've had so far have been understanding that this is a project around a theme (big idea, moral of the story kind of stuff) and not a topic. But they're 10. We'll get there. I'll tell you about this journey in more detail in a future post. Maybe on Friday...it would fit with Poetry Friday...

Then there was the child who was making a list rather than a web. For every theme, she was picking a something off the Possible Things To Make list. A little one to one correspondence going on that needed to be shifted into "web one theme" mode. This project will really stretch my literal thinkers. For some of them, it might have to be more of a project on a topic rather than a theme. (I think that's called differentiation...)

And then there's the ongoing struggle with the student who's unwilling to let go of a successful character he created (original comic superhero) during the narrative structures project. I can't seem to get him to understand that his character can be a part of this project, but this will not be a project about his character. (This isn't differentiation, this is where the teacher puts her foot down...)

Tomorrow: How I have integrated reading and writing workshop (because the ultimate point of all of this is to get them ready to write a literary essay).

Unit of Study on THEME (beginnings)

This week, I am going to do a series on the unit of study on THEME that I've just started in my 4th grade classroom. I knew as soon as I mentioned it last week that I would need to write more about it.

Our district focus for 4th grade writing workshop this trimester is "Literary Essay." I couldn't imagine my 10 year-old writers maintaining any interest in a workshop dedicated to nonstop literary essays. I knew I needed to get my students wrangling with the big ideas they would need to address in a literary essay. Big ideas like theme.

First, I showed my students this video that Doug Noon shared on his blog Borderland, and we started our conversation about the difference between plot (the story; what happens) and theme (the deeper meaning; the author's possible message; the possible message we infer whether the author intended it or not).

My students were completely captivated by this video. We watched it over and over again. Some were so amazed by the tricks that they declared it to be "fake." We talked about the "plot" (a movie about bike tricks) and the "themes" (practice, perseverance, follow your dreams, have confidence, believe in yourself).

(And how did I get this video off YouTube and into my classroom? Zamzar made it into a QuickTime file.)

The next day I shared THE LION AND THE MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney (I reviewed it here). The students picked right up on the themes of family and power and helpfulness.

This video and book laid the foundation for me to introduce the multi-media multi-genre project I had in mind for my students. Tomorrow I'll continue this series with more details about the project and how my writing workshop has been transformed into a composing workshop.

Giving Back, part 2

Last week, Franki wrote about Giving Back at this time of year:

It is the time of year where lots of people give back to families and organizations. We all have causes that are important to us and we support those causes in many ways.

She wrote about two of the organizations she'll be supporting this year and asked blog readers (and me) to share some of the organizations we'll be supporting.

One organization I'll support this year is Kiva. Last year, Franki gave me a gift certificate to Kiva and I used this gift to help a farmer in Cambodia buy two oxen for use in his rice field so that he would not have to hire laborers with oxen to plow his field. All year I have received email notifications of the repayment of this small loan and I've thought about the big ways I was helping someone across the world with what was, to me, such a small amount of money. This year I'll reinvest the money Franki gave me last year, I'll add some more of my own, and I'll be giving at least one gift certificate so that another person has the chance to change a life across the world.

Another organization I'll support is the Kit Carson County (Colorado) Cattlewomen's Pink Chaps fund. When I was back home in November helping my mom after her surgery, we were sitting at the kitchen table one afternoon as she was opening get well cards that had come in the mail that day. She opened one envelope and gasped. Inside was a check for an incredibly generous amount of money; an amount that will be a significant help with medical bills and other costs in the coming months. It was from the KCCW Pink Chaps. A little research into the group and how they disperse these funds revealed that they do fundraising all year and then divide the money they raise by the number of people who have been nominated to receive help. I'll contribute to their fund so that another cancer survivor in a rural area where the network of support seems as sparse as the trees will be able to gasp with surprise when they open an envelope and sigh with relief when they realize that there are lots of people who directly and indirectly care about them.

In the comments of Franki's post, Jenny told us about Students Helping Honduras, and Andi reminded us about Greg Mortenson's (Three Cups of Tea) Central Asia Institute that helps build schools for girls in remote Pakistan and Afghanistan.

How about you? How are you planning to give back (locally or globally) this holiday season or in the New Year?

Poetry Friday -- Happiness

HAPPINESS

by Jane Kenyon

There’s just no accounting for happiness,

or the way it turns up like a prodigal

who comes back to the dust at your feet

having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?

You make a feast in honor of what

was lost, and take from its place the finest

garment, which you saved for an occasion

you could not imagine, and you weep night and day

to know that you were not abandoned,

that happiness saved its most extreme form

for you alone.

(the rest of the poem is at Poetry Foundation)

I was looking for a poem about staying late at work until my desk was completely. cleaned. off. Or one about what it feels like to (finally) look up and see different stuff on the big bulletin board in the classroom, or one about that feeling when I remembered that my students have a guidance lesson, (which means I have the gift of time). I needed a poem about turning a corner and feeling like maybe, just maybe, the worst was behind us for a little while.

You can see what I found. It's a poem about happiness. That scoundrel happiness who decided to mosey on back, and who we (as always) welcome with open arms.

The round up this week is at Random Noodling.

Wow! THANKS!

Didn't realize we'd been nominated for an Edublog Award in the Best Group Blog category...THANKS for the nomination!!

If you feel so moved, THANKS for the vote, too!

And, once again, Wow! THANKS!

(All the categories are here.)

Giving Back

It is the time of year where lots of people give back to families and organizations. We all have causes that are important to us and we support those causes in many ways. I wanted to share two of my favorite organizations.

The Reading Village is an organization that brings books to children in Guatemala. There are many organizations that bring books to kids but this one is a little different. If you visit the website, make sure to watch the video about the founder. Instead of just bringing books to kids, Reading Village is committed to creating a culture of reading in Guatemala. They do this by training teen volunteers and making them leaders in their communities. The things that are happening are amazing as lives are being changed by books.

An organization I just recently learned about is Hannah's Socks. Again, I am in awe of an amazing child making a difference in the world. Hannah began collecting socks for people when she realized that many people in the homeless shelter where she was serving food, had no socks. She is now 9 years old and hopes to donate 60,000 pairs of socks this year.

Hannah's Story - In Images, Words, and Music | Hannah's Socks

These are two of the organizations I will be supporting this season. I would love to hear about the organizations you are supporting this year. I have learned of so many great organizations from blog posts I've read.

live, laugh, celebrate

live, laugh, celebrate

by Ferdinand Protzman

National Geographic, 2009

304 pages, 3.51 lbs.

review copy provided by the publisher

This is a book about life, and joy, and celebration around the world.

"Humankind just cannot resist a celebration -- whoever we are and wherever on Earth we may be, someone has a reason to cheer..."

Picture after picture, page after page, we see that people around the world are not so very different from us in the urge to celebrate births, weddings, new homes, new leaders, religious events, graduations, parades. Picture after picture, page after page, we see that even though the urge or event is similar, the way it is celebrated is as diverse as the people who celebrate.

Here is a sample:

This would be a great book to give as a gift, and a great book to put on your coffee table.

I'm thinking it will also be a great book to have out for my 4th grade classroom right now.

My students are beginning work on multimedia multi-genre projects that are based on a literary theme each of them has chosen from a big list we've created from reading fables and other theme-rich stories (friendship, family, perseverance, use of power, etc.) and this book provides a way for me to show them how this author gathered images on the theme of celebration.

• We can study the way he organized his images, and study the essays he includes at the beginning of each section of the book (Cycles of Life, Around the World, Life of the Party).
• We can look at the way each photograph is attributed to the photographer with information about the city, country, photographer and year, along with a short descriptive caption.
• And we can study the photographs themselves, identifying the ones that speak most strongly to us and figuring out what the photographer did with light and composition (and sometimes luck) to capture the moment in a way that makes us want to look, and look again.

This will be a great mentor text for our theme project, and a fabulous look at celebrations around the world!

TOFU QUILT and a couple more cool teachers

Tofu Quilt

by Ching Yeung Russell

Lee & Low Books, Inc., 2009

Review copy provided by the publisher

This is the story of a girl growing up in a culture that values boys. Luckily, her mother scrapes together the money to send her daughter to school, where Yeung Ying falls in loves with books and stories and writing.

This is the story of a writer being born -- it is about her false starts and first steps and her perseverance and her dream.

This is the story of the impact a few good writing teachers can make on a writer's early life. The poem, "mr. hon," (did I mention, this is an autobiographical novel in verse?) tells about Yeung Ying's 4th grade teacher:

He reads us

a Chinese translation of a story

about three American boys from

a long time ago,

who rode a raft on the Mississippi River.

.

.

.

And Mr. Hon is the first teacher

who displays my stories

marked, "Great work!"

on the classroom bulletin board

even though

I

am

just

a

girl.

Not until her seventh grade teacher does Yeung Ying get encouragement again, when she hears, "Your story really comes to life" and "You write very well./ Keep trying./ You can be a writer someday."

I nominate Mr. Hon and Mr. Lee for inclusion on our list of 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature. (We are up to 128 Cool Teachers. Has there been a Cool Teacher in a book you read recently?)

For a fabulous review of Tofu Quilt, complete with mouth-watering photos, head on over to Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup.

Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000

Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000

by Eric Wight

Simon and Schuster, February 2010

ARC received at NCTE

The dedication of this newest Frankie Pickle adventure reads, "To my dad, who is always there to help -- even when I don't know how to ask." I'm thinking there is perhaps a fair amount of autobiography woven into this story, and as a child whose earliest mantra was, "Do it SELF," this book rings true for me as well.

Frankie gets too tied up in his own imagination to receive his Possum Scout merit badge for knot-tying. This means he won't move up in rank from Pygmy to Shrew with the other boys in his troop unless he wins the Pine Run 3000. Which is this weekend.

I won't reveal the rest of the plot, which involves messes, mistakes, revelations, disqualifications, and unlikely displays of good sportsmanship.

This book is another winner by Eric Wight, and luckily, we will only have to wait until June for book three!

My review of the first book, Franki Pickle and the Closet of Doom.

Eric Wight's website at Simon and Schuster.

Eric Wight on Twitter: @Eric_Wight

News of the next book: