Still Learning to Read: Sketchnoting

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.

Another reason I LOVE having a coach--Sometimes they push me to study things that I can't seem to find time to get to on my own.  This week, our literacy coach Heather Halli, helped my students and me think about Sketchnoting.  She sent an email out a few weeks ago, sharing an article she had read on Two Writing Teachers called Sketchnoting: My First Attempt by Dana Murphy.  I had been trying to attend one of Tanny McGregor's sessions on Sketchnoting but my schedule hadn't worked out.  So, Heather and I talked about sketchnoting informally after her email and we quickly shared resources over text and email for the last few weeks.  I had been meaning to watch Tanny McGregor's  and Shawna Coppola's Sketchnoting webinar that was recorded from the Ed Collaborative online PD Day but hadn't had the time. When Heather said she watched Tanny McGregor's EdCollaborative webinar on Sketchnoting, I knew I needed to watch it too. So I made the time. (See what I mean about coaches--after months of trying to make time to learn from Tanny, Heather's thinking helped me to actually move forward!)

Introduction to Sketchnoting

To begin our thinking about sketchnoting, we shared this video with my 3rd graders.  We watched it a few times and noticed new things each time.  It was a fabulously simple introduction to the idea of Sketchnoting called Sketchnoting for Newbies.

Sketchnoting for Newbies

Sketchnoting: Learning from a Video

The next day, we shared this image we found that we thought was a good example of Sketchnoting that we found in the post Adventures in Sketchnoting and a Book in Five Days by David Burton. Then we invited kids to create Sketchnotes on a short bird video we discovered. We watched the video 2 times so they could jot notes. The second time we watched it, we paused it every 20-30 seconds so kids had time to jot/sketch.

Sketchnoting: New Learning from Reading 

On the third day, I asked kids to Sketchnote while reading several things about maps on the site, Pebble Go. There was lots of information here and I wanted to see what kids did when they could work at their own pace--stopping to sketch and jot when they needed to.

Sketchnoting About Ourselves

Finally on Thursday, we decided to invite the kids to Sketchnote about themselves. We shared the Tips on this blog and then shared some of the other slides from this presentation on Tech and Learning. (We even printed some to keep around the room so kids can play with font, dividers, etc. as they get better at Sketchnoting.) We wanted kids to focus on the techniques of sketch noting so we thought taking away new content would help them think about structure, organization, design, etc. This was also the day we added colored pencils which seemed like perfect timing!

My Reflections on Our Week of Sketchnoting

This was one of the most exciting new things I've tried in a while.  In just a few days, kids were excited about the possibilities of Sketchnoting, they saw the power in making their thinking visible in this way, and we have lots to build on throughout the school year.  I saw changes in the ways kids read information as they were deciding where to put things on a page. I saw rereading with purpose as kids went back to think about information they missed on the first read. I saw kids who love to draw add more words to their thinking and kids who write lots think differently when added visuals. I am excited to see where this weeklong study will take us.  I'll  keep you posted!

(Our new edition of Still Learning to Read was released in August!  You can order it online at Stenhouse! You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook that began this week by joining our group here.)
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A Guest Post by Emma and Elizabeth : The #stickynotechallenge

(Today's post is a guest post by 3rd graders Elizabeth and Emma. They wanted to share their idea of the #stickynotechallenge and to invite you to participate with the hashtag and Padlet.)

Elizabeth and Emma started the  #stickynotechallenge. Emma and Elizabeth are both nine years old in third grade. First at writing workshop Elizabeth just finished a story and wanted to make a challenge. So she came up with the #stickynotechallenge and next she showed Emma. Emma liked the idea. They told Mrs. Sibberson.  She liked it too. The #stickynotechallenge board was a tiny wall nobody ever did it so it really was just for Elizabeth and Emma at the time. One day the question of the day was How do we spread awareness about the #stickynotechallenge? because only kids and few teachers see our board. A few days later Elizabeth and Emma walked into the room and Mrs.Sibberson had a surprise for everyone. Mrs.Sibberson bought us some BIG blue sticky notes and some medium pink,orange,yellow and green sticky notes.  Mrs. Sibberson told us we could use the wall outside of the room if we wanted to.

 The #stickynotechallenge is how we keep trying to ask questions. Outside of our classroom we have a big board. We write down our questions on a sticky note and we stick them on the board. On our board we have the rules of the #stickynotechallenge. Our board also has two signs. One says “Little Questions” and the other one says “Big Questions”. We also have “Question of the Month”. The Question of the Month is an opinion so there can be more  than one answer. Our first question of the month is What is your favorite color? Our question of the month got a lot of answers.

The #stickynotechallenge started one day on a wall by a table in our classroom.

The #stickynotechallenge grew when Emma and Elizabeth wanted "to get the word out". This is a photo of the first day, before kids and teachers added to it.

Next we are going to try to study some of the big questions. Big questions are questions that have more than one answer. Some of our big questions right now are : What are civil right?, How can you learn Japaneese? Some ways we can study them are by using the internet and in books. We also found out that we can get other people’s ideas from the #stickynotechallenge. Just in case you are wondering why do we need to keep track of our thinking? We keep track of our thinking so our brains can get bigger and we get smarter. By asking questions we can get smarter and if someone answers our questions we would learn something. The #stickynotechallenge helps us know more. We created this so people learn more and they would become smarter. The #stickynotechallenge can help everyone become smarter. Kids and adults can do it. That’s what makes it fun! Why we say don’t write your name is so that  people can be respectful. If we told people to write their names we’re afraid that people might write great questions and then someone might not like the person and write a mean question. That’s why we say don’t write your name.

 One day Mrs. Sibberson said “Do you want to do a guest blog post on my blog?” Emma and Elizabeth said “sure”. We also made a Padlet that people from all over the world can write questions but our Padlet you cannot answer. That is the only negative. During writing workshop Mrs.Sibberson asked Elizabeth and Emma to go over to her table. Mrs.Sibberson asked us if we wanted to make a padlet about the #stickynotechallenge. First we had to decide what we wanted our background to be. We couldn’t decide--there wasn’t really a back round that matched. Luckily Bridget was sitting at that table and she said we also could upload pictures for our background. Mrs.Sibberson had a picture of our #stickynotechallenge board so we made that our background. Visit our Padlet and ask a question!!

RULES     

                               1.)Get a sticky note

                               2.) Write a question or wonder

                               3.) Don’t write your name

                               4.) Stick it anywhere

                               5.) Wait for someone to answer

                               6.) HAVE FUN!!!!!

                                    

WRITE IT READ IT SHARE IT

-#stickynotechallenge

Still Learning to Read: The Power of Graphic Novels

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.

I looked around the room the other day and was struck by the number of students reading graphic novels.  It made my heart happy.  I have built our classroom collection of graphic novels over the past few years and have added so many quality titles and it was pretty incredible to see so many in the hands of my 3rd graders. I realized just how important these books have become to my 3rd grade readers.

 Not only are students totally engaged in their reading but they are learning so many things about becoming a reader:  Readers are finding new authors who they love.  Raina Telgemeir, Dav Pilkey, Dan Santat and Jennifer Holm are authors they love and recognize. The books are making their rounds in the classroom without any guidance from me. Kids are being introduced to books with more complexity because they are willing to give new things a try when something is in graphic novel format.

Mary Lee and I have written about graphic novels quite often over the years.  Looking back, I realized that it was in 2008 that I committed to reading graphic novels because I saw the power they have for kids. Over the past 8 years, I have become a more confident reader of graphic novels and have fallen in love with them myself.  I have discovered so many amazing books and authors and am so glad I've been able to add so many to our classroom.

There are great resources out there for teachers and parents on the benefits of Graphic Novels.  One is
Raising Super Readers: The Benefits of Comic Books and Graphic Novels from Scholastic and the other is Raising a Reader! How Comics and Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love to Read with an introduction by Jennifer Holm Holm from CBLDF.

And if you need a great book talk on a graphic novel to share with your students, the amazing Livbits shares the amazingness of El Deafo and Cece Bell in one of her newest videos!

(Our new edition of Still Learning to Read was released in August!  You can order it online at Stenhouse! You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook that began this week by joining our group here.)

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Join the It's Monday! What Are You Reading party at Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers!

I read two great middle grade novels this week. Both were novels in verse.  These seem to get me out of whatever reading rut I am in and these two were definitely fabulous choices. I would highly recommend both of them for upper elementary and middle school students.

Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes

Unbound by Ann E. Burg

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Still Learning to Read: Books I've Handed to Kids Recently

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.

It is always around this time of year when I find that handing a book to a child can make a difference for the rest of the year.  This is the time of year when I know readers well enough to chit chat books on the way to lunch or at recess. This is the time of year when I start leaving a book in a child's book bin that I think they might like.  There is something about a young reader knowing that you thought about him/her specifically when you saw a book.  There is something about handing a child a specific book that strengthens a relationship.  This week, I noticed myself informally handing books to children in informal ways.  This is one of the most important jobs I do--so I have to know lots of books. Always. It seems that every year my kids have different tastes as readers, so I can't just recommend the books I've always recommended.  It is always a personal act--the act of recommending a book.  These are some of the books I've handed to kids (or ordered for kids) this week.

So many of my kids have become Raina fans. Raina's name comes up like she is a student in our class!  A few of us  were chatting informally as they came in the other day about them.  They especially love Smile and Sisters.  This week, I pulled out the Babysitter's Club Graphix. (I seem to only have #!--my other 2 have disappeared since last year so I had to reorder!)   Kids were thrilled to know about more books that Raina illustrated and there is a list of people waiting to dig into this series. (I love this kind of recommendation because it builds on what they love (Raina) but also introduces them to a new author that they might fall in love with (Ann Martin). 

One of my students had fallen in love with the Zita books  (By Ben Hatke) and was more engaged when reading them than I'd seen her all year. I remembered that I had received a review copy of Mighty Jack by the same author, earlier this month and I mentioned it to her and left it at her table the next day. She loved it and passed it on to another reader in the class who she thought would love it.

The Little Shaq books went around my room early in the year but they seem to be making their rounds again. Last week, I had a conversation with a student who was reading the 2nd book. We checked and were THRILLED to find out that the 3rd book in the Little Shaq series (Star of the Week) was due out THIS WEEK!  It should arrive today and was the talk of the room.  Not only did I get to hand a book to a child but this also built some awareness for those "hot off the press" books. 

The Treehouse Books were popular in my room last year and I realized they were published about a year earlier in Australia than they are here.  Lucky for Amazon, I can get copies of the books that are not quite published in the US yet which I think is the case with The 65 Story Treehouse which should arrive this week so one of my readers can read this last book (so far) in the series.

I bought the first two books in the new Super Happy Party Bears series after Ann DiBella recommended them on Facebook. I love having new books, doing a quick share in the morning before we start our day and handing them off to the first readers! Kids always love to be the first readers of new books so this is a fun way to hand books to kids.  I need to read this one as soon as I can get it back as it seems like a fun read for 3rd graders.

We visited the Columbus Zoo on a field trip a few weeks ago. My kids aren't reading much nonfiction yet so I picked up two of Jack Hanna's Wild But True books and gave them to a few of the first kids to walk in the room the next morning. I always love to hand books to kids in the morning as they start a buzz in the classroom with lots of kids curious about the books.

My students know me well enough now to know that they don't have to love any of the books I recommend to them. They know that they own their reading and that when I recommend a book, they are not obligated to read it. But, they also know that I think about them and their individual tastes and needs as readers and that matters. Knowing my kids as readers and combining that with what I know about books is one of my most important roles.  And one of my favorites:-) 

(Our new edition of Still Learning to Read was released in August!  You can order it online at Stenhouse! You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook that began this week by joining our group here.)

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Poetry Friday -- Below the Surface

image via unsplash

For Once, Then, Something
by Robert Frost

Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

This is a new-to-me Robert Frost poem. Seems important these days to look beyond the surface, no matter how scary that Something is that we might find there.

Irene has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Live Your Poem.

Micro Genres

image from Unsplash

Agrarian Fantasy, Amnesia and Memory Loss Fiction, and Hockey Romance are three of the “Trending Micro Genres” Audible recently identified in an email blast to members. The idea of a Micro Genre got me thinking differently about the books that have been popular in my 5th grade classroom in the first month of school.

As a part of #classroombookaday (the amazing ritual of reading aloud a picture book every day), I have stumbled into these Micro Genres:

UNIQUE RESPONSE TO A PROBLEM

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada

HUMOROUS NONFICTION

It’s All About Me-Ow by Hudson Talbot
The Disgusting Critters series by Elise Gravel

SAD BOOKS THAT END HAPPY

City Dog Country Frog by Mo Willems
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

When I look at the books students have chosen for independent reading, these Micro Genres have appeared:

MYTHOLOGY GRAPHIC NOVELS (really a format and not a genre, but let's go with it)

George O’Connor Olympians series

REALISTIC FICTION/MEMOIR GRAPHIC NOVELS (another format, but students are starting to learn that every genre can be found in this most favorite of all formats!)

Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
El Deafo by CeCe Bell

SURPRISING TRUE STORIES (biography and autobiography, but also historical fiction, because of that kernel of truth)

Growing Up Pedro by Matt Tavares
Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper
The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson

When I was in middle school, my favorite Micro Genre was BOOKS THAT MAKE ME CRY. I read Love Story, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grow, and Little Britches over and over and over again. Stretched out on my bed on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I could re-read one of those books between lunch and dinner, and I relish the tears rolling down my cheeks and into my ears as I read the saddest parts.

I’m realizing that when I have conversations with my students about genre, it will be important to help them stretch their definitions from the traditional but limited ways of looking at genre and format, help them to come up with narrower and more specific ways to think about categorizing stories, and help them identify the Micro Genres that will compel them to read and re-read.

What is (or was) YOUR favorite micro genre?

Books About Reading...Sort Of

Lines, Squiggles, Letters, Words
by Ruth Rocha
illustrated by Madalena Matoso
Enchanted Lion Books, November 2016
review copy provided by the publisher

This is  book about how life in a world of random, meaningless squiggles turns into a life of reading a world full of meaningful text.

The book is also perhaps a commentary on school learning vs. real life learning. The pages where the character is learning his letters in school show children seated in rows of desks, while the teacher displays a chart of the letter and writes it on the board. The dialogue between students and teacher consists of teacher saying, "A is for apple," and the students repeating the sentence. It is when the character leaves school and enters his print-rich world that he can connect his learning to what he sees in his everyday life.

The Polar Bear
by Jenni Desmond
Enchanted Lion Books, November 2016
review copy provided by the publisher

Like Jenni Desmond's 2015 book, The Blue Whale (reviewed here), this is an imaginative work of literary nonfiction, featuring a little girl in a red crown who is reading the same book we are. As we watch her reading, we can see how she's processing the information and making connections to the text. The book is filled with lots of polar bear facts, and in the end, when you understand the bears' dependence on ice for survival, your heart will be filled with much sorrow about climate change and the loss of polar ice.

Still Learning to Read: Organizing Assessments

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016 and continue through the school year.

"Try the Starbucks App. It's life-changing," my brother told me a few months ago. He was right. I can order my morning tea from my house right before I leave and it is ready for me when I arrive.  No more long lines. No more trying to predict how long my morning drive with tea stop will take. My mornings are calmer and more predictable now.  A small change, but life-changing nonetheless!

A similar thing happened a few years ago as I was trying (still...in my 28th year of teaching) to figure out how to manage all the assessments and things I wanted to save through the school year on each child.  I used to have file folders that worked fine but assessments have become a bit more complex.  And for assessments to be useful, I want to have access to them and full file folders are not always that easy to access! Even though much of what I keep, I can keep online,  I like to keep a lot of paper things. I've always believed that every piece of work can tell you something about a child and I know having lots allows me to see change over time.  When I moved to 3rd grade and tried to make sense of our 3rd Grade Guarantee Law, I had to figure out a plan for all the paperwork that went along with that, This new mandated paperwork, along with the daily classroom assessments I have always kept became a bit overwhelming (well, maybe more than a bit...).  I needed a new plan.  Our Literacy Coach, Gretchen Taylor, shared with me the system she had used the year before as a middle school teacher--she had a mailbox/file type slot for each child in her 5 middle school Language Arts classes. That way, when she wanted to add a new note, assessment, piece of student work, etc. she just dropped it in.  Easy and quick and very accessible at all times.

So, I set up the same thing and have kept it going ever since.  I have cabinets in my room for storage. They are above the student cubbies. I have taken over the front portion of 3 of those and house 8 student files in each one.

So each student has a file that I can toss things in when needed. I can also easily access anything I want. This helps me in a variety of ways:

• First of all, I don't have to spend a lot of deciding what to keep. I do that a lot--try to decide if something is worth keeping.   With this system, there is plenty of room to drop things in and there is no reason to keep them forever--I can keep them as long as I need to.  So any student samples that may be worth keeping, any quick checks I do, even a sticky note with an observation about a child can go right in these files.
• This is the perfect system for sharing information with others.  When I get ready for parent conferences, I can pull the pile of information out. I have lots to look at when finishing up comments for report cards. And when the Reading Support teacher or the ELL teacher comes in to look at some of the assessments or wants to add something new, they don't have wait for me or sort through my piles for what they are looking for. They have access to these anytime they need them.
• I rely a great deal on digital tools for collecting and reflecting on work but there are mandated assessments, test reports, reading plans and work samples that are better saved as paper copies--better for me because I can spread them out and look at them when needed. This system lets me look at individual work more easily. It also invites reflection across time.

Because I am a person who make piles and who likes to look again and again at student work, this is the perfect organization tool for me.  It is a simple idea that really changed my teaching life as it made all of the paperwork more manageable and more useful for me.

(You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook that began this week by joining our group here.)

Our new edition of Still Learning to Read was released last week!  You can order it online at Stenhouse!

Poetry Friday -- Quite So Much

Quite So Much

If it weren't for the clouds
I wouldn't love the blue
quite so much.

If it weren't for the cold shock
of the first step into the river
I wouldn't love dry land
quite so much.

If it weren't for the surprise of bright yellow fungus
I wouldn't love dead trees
quite so much.

If it weren't for the constant chatter
and the loud enthusiasm of children
I wouldn't love silence
quite so much.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016


Our fifth graders went to Highbanks Metropark last week for a field trip put on by the Ohio River Foundation, a group that works towards "protecting and restoring the Ohio River and its watershed." The Olentangy River, which runs through Highbanks, is a part of the Ohio River watershed. Our students took part in several activities that determined the health of the Olentangy River, and that reinforced the need to conserve our fresh water resources. This poem was inspired by our field trip.


Violet is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Violet Nesdoly | Poems.