Text Set: The Power of Studying One Idea Across Multiple Texts

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

Studying one idea across multiple texts is something we do so often as readers.  We can show our students the power of doing this when building understanding/learning something new. When we read across several texts about a single topic, we build knowledge, examine perspectives, build on first understanding, change thinking as we learn more, and ask more questions. When we think of standards, when we read across texts, we practice synthesizing, we are learning true research and we learn to support our thinking with evidence. This week's text set explores books to use to study the idea of protest marches across several pieces of short text.

Both of these books are fabulous for starting the learning about Marches. They both have basic information. Sometimes People March share many reasons for marching with good information at the end of the book. In We March, we better understand the experience of being part of a march though simple text and illustrations. Both will be good to set the stage for more learning about marches.

Marching for Change takes a close look at 3 different marches. These marches are 3 that students may know about and the book gives detailed information about each one.  There are photographs that will help readers connect to a visual. This book can be included in the research by reading about one march or all three. 

These two books take a close look at two different marches that may not be as well known to students.  Starting with the basics of marches and then getting to the specifics of different marches with these books will help children build understanding. Readers of All the Way to the Top may go on to read more about activist, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins current work. These books provide two ways to learn more--learning more about a specific march (The Teachers March) and learning more about a single person's role as an activist. Both ways of learning about marches and protestors are important to bigger understandings. 
 

Together We March can provide weeks of mini lesson work. The book explores 25 different protest marches. The introduction is one that will add to the study of marches in this text set. Then readers can read more about marches they may know about and discover less known marches to build initial understandings.  Each short piece provides a great deal of new information that will help readers build on, grow, and change their thinking. 

Children's participation in marches will most likely be of interest to young readers and these two books that look at the children's march of 1963. Let the Children March looks at the whole of the march while The Youngest Marcher focuses on the youngest child who was arrested for protesting. These books focus on two stories about a single historical march and the important role of children. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous independent children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

The 2021 Progressive Poem is Here!

 

This is the first time I've had a line so close to the beginning of the Progressive Poem, and the responsibility for setting the tone and direction of the poem is awe-inspiring. 

Kat Apel got us started the way Donna did last year -- each poet offering two lines from which the next poet can choose, then that poet offering two lines, and so on.

Linda Mitchell chose Kat's line

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

and offered me the choice of these two lines:

Easily contagious sharing smiles is my plan.

or

Don't fret about a fever, loss of smell, or taste

Let's think this through. If I go with the first choice, we've got a nice rhyming couplet out of the gate. Additionally, the seed-of-a-theme of kindness is carried on with the contagious smiles. And there's a plan offered up in that first choice. On the other hand, the second choice links the "case" in Kat's line firmly to COVID. And actually, that's a deal-killer for me. Enough with the COVID already!!

I'm going with 

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I checked with Linda, and she gave me permission to add the dash in her line.

Now, on to the choices I'll provide for Donna. If she wants to write another rhyming couplet, hopefully I've given her words she can work with. (Who am I kidding? Donna is the QUEEN of creative rhyming!) 

Maybe she'd like to pick up the voice of the speaker again? (Feel free to add a dash at the end of the line if you want...if you choose this one, Donna!)

I'll spread my joy both far and wide

Or maybe we need to elaborate on the plan to share smiles (and keep going with the middle-of-the-line dash). What are the things that give us joy?

Puppies, babies – what makes you giggle?

Have fun, Donna! Have fun everyone else! Just like every year, I can't wait to see what we create!

Here's where to find the poem throughout the month:

1 Kat Apel at katswhiskers

2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise

3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write

5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem

6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio

7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care

9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche

10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone

11 Buffy Silverman

12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche

13 Jone Rush MacCulloch

14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living

15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning

16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe

17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect

18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance

19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link

20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge

21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life

22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town

23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference

25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul

26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com

27 Rebecca Newman

28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core

29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering

30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.3

 

razor blade north wind

winter is not quite over

wear wool once more

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.2

 

dark, darker, darkest

those moments just before dawn

wren sings from the fence

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

The Poetry Friday Roundup is HERE!

 

Welcome to the first Friday of National Poetry Month! Susan has the Poetry Month Project Roundup for lots of Poetry Friday bloggers' projects. Today we'll get to see your work in progress!

The 2021 Progressive Poem is off to a great start! Follow its progress through the blogs at this post from Margaret.

And as for me? This year, all I can manage is a haiku a day. I briefly thought about skipping a year, but that didn't last. How could I NOT write a poem a day in April?!?!

Here are my poems from April 1 and April 2.

Now, on to the roundup!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

National Poetry Month 2021: #haikudiary

 

maple trees blushing

forsythia in full joy

forecast calls for snow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Text Set: Keeping Track of Characters

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. 

Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

Knowing and keeping track of characters is important for readers at all levels.  There are many ways to think about character, but one challenge readers sometimes have is keeping track of characters across a book. Keeping track of characters requires readers to know characters and to slow down and think about them. This week's text set will focus on books to support conversations on ways to keep track of characters across a text. 

When we talk about keeping track of characters across a text, I love to begin with books that have two characters who have a strong relationship. Often in books with 2 main characters, the two characters have similarities and differences and those differences often become important to the story. Using books such as Ginger and Chrysanthemum and Ling and Ting start great conversations about stopping to think about each character individually as we read. Sticky notes on the cover with things we learn about each character as we read is one way to make this thinking visible.

Making sure to include nonfiction in conversations around characters is important. This fabulous nonfiction picture book--Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams-- would invite conversations that build on the work in fiction. Keeping track of people in a story requires that you pay attention to the details about each character.  Connecting the strategies readers use for fiction to nonfiction is important. 

I like Salma the Syrian Chef as part of this study on keeping track of characters because Salma is clearly the main character but she has several people who support her.  These characters are typically flat characters who help the main character solve her problem in different ways. As readers move into more complex texts, flat characters and those in supporting roles become more and more important. These characters are often hard to keep track of because readers don't get to know them well.  Charting these new characters as they come up is a good way to keep track of characters when there are several. 

One of my favorite graphic novels, The Cardboard Kingdom, is one that is filled with interesting characters. Not only are there many characters to keep track of but they also have fictional characters they portray in their play throughout the book. So, to understand each character, you need to know both of the characters identities.  This is a more complex book and probably best for grades 3-6. 

Operation Frog Effect is perfect for middle grade readers to think about characters and keeping track of different characters by knowing them well. This story is told from several perspectives--students in a class- and each is a different writing style, a different font, etc. Hearing from characters in their own voices makes this perfect for this conversation and learning. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

 

Poetry Friday -- Writing From a Mentor Text

photo via Unsplash

Here is the version we know and love. At the same time I was using this as a mentor text, my students and I were delving into "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. I think I understand WCW's poem better for reading it alongside Frost, and I think the two poems can be a text set.

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Here's my version:

This Is Just To Say -- I'm Retiring
by Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

I have taught
many decades
mostly in
this district

and now
you are probably
planning
for next year

Remember
this work is important
so energizing
and so necessary

Yup. I'm done. I have eaten the plums and they were delicious. Spring break begins tomorrow, and after next week, forty more days of being a teacher. It still seems a bit unreal.

I'm looking forward to hosting the First Friday of Poetry Month here next week. I'm really sorry about the hassles of this blog's endless loading. I've tried everything I can to fix it. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Susan has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Soul Blossom Living.

Text Set: Word Study and Vocabulary

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

We want to have joy and inquiry at the heart of our word study and vocabulary work. This week, I'll share a set of books that will celebrate words in various ways. Word study cannot happen without understanding the power and impact of words. 

The Great Big Animal Search Book is a fun book, and at first glance I had no idea all that was in here connected to words and vocabulary. This is a giant search book with really fun illustrations and so many facts about animals. It is a book readers can spend hours and hours with. AND it ALSO introduces readers to a variety of collective nouns (a WADDLE of penguins, a HERD of cows). Such a great way to discover the fun in collective nouns and to explore new vocabulary in the process. 

The Invisible Alphabet gives readers a unique way to think about words. This book is full of words that are invisible--things you don't see (such as AIR).  Reading through this book and then playing with other types of alphabet lists you could create based on a unique category like invisible would be great fun!

I love Ambitious Girl and they way that it takes a single word--ambitious-- and defines and expands on the definition through the whole of the book. Thinking deeply about the perfect word and all that it can be in descriptions and actions is worthy of conversation. 

This book could be used throughout the year for so many things. Just as the previous book explored one word, Dictionary for a Better World explores and deeply digs into several words using poems, quotes, and more. And each word fits under the topic umbrella of a better world. I want young readers to go beyond a dictionary definition of a word and to really think beyond a one-phrase definition. This book invites readers to think about powerful words in a variety of ways to build understanding. Discussing each word as well as its inclusion in the book's theme will add to any word study conversation.  

Of course you'd have to spend weeks with Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter before you brought it into word study. The book is powerful and says so much. The fact that there are only words and no illustrations is powerful. The way the words are set on the page is powerful.  So many Black voices are shared in this book.  A perfect book for talking about the power of words, the word we remember, the power of quotes, whose words have power, whose words do we study and remember, etc. could all be important conversations using this book as an anchor. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com. 

Poetry Friday -- A Poetry Challenge

My students love Poetry Friday. They've never experienced it the way we did it in the past -- browsing for a book on the tall white shelf full of poetry, sitting with a partner or two, heads bent over the book, looking for just the right poem, practicing until it could be said just right, then standing in front of classmates to read with loud enough and expressive voices...and getting the feedback of laughter for the funny poems, or sighs for the beautiful ones, and always the finger snaps of appreciation.

Poetry Friday these days is flying through the interweb to a breakout room, pulling up Irene Latham's or Amy LV's rich online resources, choosing a poem, practicing, then flying back to perform from separate squares in the Google Classroom.

Last Friday, several groups chose the same poem on Irene's site. Hearing the poem over and over again gave us a chance to think about the meaning of the title in relationship to the poem. Maybe you saw it? The poem is called WHY RIVER SMILES IN WINTER, but the poem is mostly about the snow. We wondered why the river was smiling, and figured it was kind of sneaky, greedy smile, since it is gulping the fair snow. A casual "We would love to know why you chose that title" resulted in an explanation and an invitation to join Irene for her last winter poem which uses Sleigh Ride by Winslow Homer for inspiration. (Thank you SO MUCH for your generosity, Irene!) One student took the challenge with me. Here are our poems:

picture via wikimedia commons

Sleigh Ride
By: J.L.
For: Irene Latham

Here we go, very fast
Off to make the good times last.
Our sleigh is zooming,
Our fun is blooming,
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

No need to hide,
No need to cry,
As we ride our worries away.
Here we go,
Happy today.
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

SLEIGH RIDE

shhh
say the runners
sliding through the snow

smack
say the reigns
asking horse to go

ching ching
say the bells
on the harness and the sleigh

flap flap
say the wings
of the crows that show the way

peekaboo
say moon and clouds
thanks for coming out to play


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Linda B. has a TIMEly post at TeacherDance for our Poetry Friday Roundup, and be sure to check in with Susan at Soul Blossom Living to share your NPM project and logo. She'll be doing the NPM project roundup this year because of some tech issues Jama's having.