Poetry Friday -- Bracketology

Last Friday, we introduced the Battle of the Books to our 5th graders and showed them the tournament brackets that will be posted in the hallway.

Every 5th grader will enter a favorite book into the tournament by writing and presenting a summary of the book. This coming Friday, each of the four classes will vote the entries down to the 16 books that will enter the brackets. Competition will continue with head-to-head paragraphs about the books' main characters, the settings, key events in the stories, secondary characters, etc. The day before we leave for spring break, the entire grade level will vote for the overall winning book.

So tournament fever was in the air when we began Poetry Friday last week. One of my students made this bracket for his 16 favorite poems in David Elliott's In the Sea

The poem that wins the book for this student is

The Sea Turtle

Swims the seven seas
for thirty years,
then finds the beach
where she was born --
by magic, it appears.

How can she know to come upon
that far and sandy place?
Rare instruments of nature,
fair compass in a carapace.

© David Elliott, used by permission of the author



In his response to my request for permission to use this poem, David wrote, "...it's also my favorite poem in the book. One of the things I like about it is the juxtaposition of far and fair and how just the addition of one letter can change a word completely. I wish I could say that was a conscious decision on my part, but I'm not sure that it was. (Uh . . .can't remember.) Happy accidents can sometimes make a writer look much better than he is."

I got the "Bracketology" in the title of this post from Burkin and Yaris' post, "March Madness in the Classroom."

To try Bracketology in word study, check out this post at Thinking Stems.

Heidi has the roundup at my juicy little universe. Welcome back to Poetry Friday, Heidi!

Author Interview with Barbara O'Connor

I have a group of four students who have decided to do a blog series of Author Interviews. Their first one was with Barbara O'Connor and it is now posted on our class blog.  It is a great interview and this team has more interviews coming soon.

If you are interested in watching the interview, here is the link.

Pete the Cat -- I Can Read!

Pete the Cat: Play Ball! (My First I Can Read)
by James Dean
Harper, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

I love this cat. He has everything he needs to play ball -- bat, ball, mitt, and a realistic attitude about his ability to play ball. He tries to hit, he tries to catch, he tries to score, but he's not that good at any of it.

HOWEVER,

"Pete is not sad.
Pete did his best."

The perfect message (theme, if you're working on that kind of thing) for beginning athletes and readers alike.

Pete the Cat: Pete's Big Lunch (My First I Can Read)

by James Dean
Harper, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

I have a cat who loves to eat and loves to share. (Well, he loves to share whatever it is WE'RE eating!) That's exactly the kind of cat Pete is. (Except it looks from Pete's figure like he does a bit more sharing that William Big-Boned-Not-Fat Cartman Morris does...) When Pete's sandwich gets too big, he does the logical thing, he whips out his cell phone and calls his friends to come over and have lunch together.

Beginning readers who have loved the Pete the Cat picture books are going to love revisiting their favorite blue cat in these books.

And now for a few self-indulgent pictures of our favorite orange cat:

Vicki Vinton on Conferencing at #dublit13

I don't know about you, but I can NEVER get too many tips on effective reading conferences.

I was thrilled when Vicki Vinton (check out her amazing blog, To Make A Prairie) gave us 5 quick DOs and DON'Ts in her C session at the Dublin Literacy Conference. I've given these a try in the last two weeks and they work like charms!

(First of all, Vinton's metaphor for a reading conference was brilliant. She likened it to "parachuting into a text" and having to find your way around.)

DO focus on the reader's thinking about the book.
DON'T focus on the plot. 

(Do you know how hard it is not to sit down by a kid and say, "What's your book about?" Do you know how much more thinking the child will have to do if you don't give them this easy way out? Read on for the question that will stop them in their tracks and make them T-H-I-N-K think.)

DO begin by asking the reader what they're working on as a reader. (What are you wondering about, trying to figure out…)
DON'T open the door to a retelling of the book. Don't even let them get started with it!

DO ask the student to read a little right where he left off.
DON'T ask the student to re-read something they've already processed. (In one of the first conferences I did when I put this into place, I was thrilled that the reader anticipated the times when she would need to stop and explain things to me! Is that comprehension, or what?!?)

DO read a few paragraphs or page alongside the student.
DON'T take a running record as the student reads.

• As you read alongside the student draft your own understanding:
• What have you been able to comprehend? 
• What did you have to do to do that (infer, connect details, make a connection, etc)?
• Have you picked up any clues about possible themes or big ideas? 

DO ask the student to SUMMARIZE what you just read together.
DON'T ask the student to summarize or retell the whole story. After all, you want the conference to last about 5 minutes so that you can get to 3 or 4 more students that day and every child in the room every week!

Vicki Vinton is the co-author of

What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making
by Dorothy Barnhouse and Vicki Vinton
Heinemann, 2012

(I'm thinking I need to re-read this book.)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

For more great lists from bloggers participating in "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", visit Teach Mentor Texts!

4 Books I've Absolutely Loved Lately

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich

A Dog Called Homeless by Sara Lean

February Mosaic

This month's photos are documentary: Poetry Friday poem observations; book purchases; the quote wall by my classroom door (future blog post); Louise Borden, Ralph Fletcher and Vicki Vinton at the Dublin Literacy Conference (future blog post); English Shepherd mom with her English/German Shepherd pups that we temperament tested.

Coming Soon: March

It looks like March is going to be an expensive month! So many great books I am looking forward to!

**click**

That click in the title is the sound of us pressing the "pause" button on our blog.

We'll be back in a week.

We just need some time to THINK and REFLECT on yesterday's Dublin Literacy Conference, and some time to READ and WRITE ABOUT all these books that are piling up around us!

Poetry Friday -- Lit Conference Preso

Maria (Teaching in the 21st Century) and I are going to be presenting about Poetry Friday at the Dublin Literacy Conference tomorrow. If your ears are burning, now you'll know why!

Sheri has the round up at Sheri Doyle: reading, writing, reflecting on children's literature.

Starring Jules (As Herself)

Starring Jules #1: Starring Jules (As Herself)
by Beth Ain
Scholastic, on shelves March 2013

Jules is a list maker, a worrier, and a girl with a whole lot of pizzazz. Her friendship with Charlotte is on shaky ground, but she is hopeful that she'll become friends with the new girl from London.

Jules' pizzazz is spotted by a talent scout and she is given a chance to try out for a mouthwash commercial. The only problem is that that mouthwash is orange flavored, and Jules has an irrational fear of the flavor of oranges.

This is going to be a fun series for readers who love Clementine, Frankly Frannie and Just Grace. Although Jules has an artist mom, a chef dad, an apartment in New York City, and a teacher from Cuba ("...her English sounds like the music they play on the beach in Florida."), Jules is ordinary enough to strike a chord with all kinds of readers.