Biographical Poems

I've had so much fun in 3rd grade the past couple of weeks. In reading workshop they have been researching an inspiring African American for Black History month and created a poster to show their learning. Their classroom teacher invited me into their classroom to take their research and bring it into writing workshop somehow. I decided that it would be fun to take their research and write a poem about their subject. As a mentor text we used the book below:

Their classroom teacher read many of the poems aloud. When I came into the classroom I used one of the poems to imitate for my writing mini lesson with the research that one of the students supplied me with about her subject: Rosa Parks. See my mini lesson below:

I used the strategies of imitating a mentor author, thinking aloud, and modeled writing to show these 3rd graders how to construct a poem. I was using chart paper without lines, so I used a highlighter to show them where I would make new stanzas. I wanted them to stick to one event/topic when they wrote about their subject. Once I was done modeling, students were able to have a go with their subject. Many students were able to come up with many versions of poems about their subject. 

I came back the next day to show students another way that they could take their research to construct a poem by imitating the same mentor text.

See chart below:

I wanted students to try a quick write about one topic/event about their subject. Again, I modeled using research supplied by one of the students, but this time the subject was Jackie Robinson. After we did the quick write, through think aloud and modeled writing, I demonstrated how writers can remove extra words from their writing to construct a poem. Again, I sent students off to have a go using this strategy. Once they had a poem, they took it through the writing process. They are currently in the publishing stage using Chromebooks to type their work in GloogleClassroom. Once they are done typing, they will find an image to upload into their document.

I will post more once they are done :) What do you think about taking research and presenting it in a different format than the traditional essay? 

Interactive Writing

I started the year very hesitant and overwhelmed to attempt Interactive Writing in our first grade classroom. I didn't understand it and it made me nervous. What do we write about? How do we keep it authentic? We attempted to tie it into our work with our author study of Kevin Henkes and his books. Our class especially enjoyed his books about his mice characters: Lily, Chester, and Wendell. We decided to discuss their character traits by providing evidence from the texts. We made a list of their traits around their illustrations (yes, I have been teaching myself to draw this year, too!) and we noticed similarities and differences amongst these different characters. Here are some pictures to show where we started this journey of interactive writing: 

What do you think?

More to share later :)

Blogging Update

It has been awhile since I have blogged and I promised my Blogging Club that I would get much better at holding myself accountable since I would be blogging beside them every week. The problem is we had a snow day, followed by President's Weekend, so I got a little lazy. With that being said, I decided to update our school's website tonight by adding a new page with all of my bloggers new blogs. You can check it out by going to East Coldenham Elementary School; Teachers; Literacy Consultant: Launa Kruithof; EC's Blog Club. I'm excited to see their excitement and enjoyment for blogging! I can't wait for them to post their first post this week and start their second.

Now, my new goal: get back to blogging about my experience in learning Literacy in the K-2 classrooms! So much to tell...maybe tomorrow...😜

Blogging Writing Club

I'm SO excited to announce that I am starting a Blogging Writing Club at my school for 4th and 5th grade students! My Principal came to me asking me if I was interested in starting some sort of writing club at our school. Of course I said I was interested, since I am the Literacy Consultant for the building. However, I knew that I didn't want to do just any ordinary club. I didn't want to do a school newspaper...I thought about a poetry club...maybe an extension off of the school website somehow? No, nothing seemed right. It wasn't until I sat down with our District's Technology Coach, Jim Treloar, that we came up with the idea of creating a club where students would be able to make their own blog!

What would they blog about? ANYTHING is the answer. We are constantly asking students to write for us...but, how much experience have they had sharing their thoughts on an on-line blog? I bet none! Do they even know what a blog is? I want my students to make their blog about what interests them. A place for them to share their thoughts...maybe like an on-line writer's notebook? Now, that would be cool. I can't wait to discover what THEY want to write about and share with the world. My plan is to share with them my blog and what I write about: literacy of course! I'm sure they will figure that out before I even show it to them. 

When we first thought of this idea, Jim asked me, "How many students are you thinking?" I laughed at him and said, "I don't think that many will show, maybe 10? I mean they have to write. You think they really will want to come and write for me? For an hour in the morning, before school?" Boy, was I blown away by the response that we received back from our students. In our small school with only two sections of each grade level, we received 22 responses! TWENTY-TWO! That's a whole class worth! Wow! I just realized I have a blogging class. :) I wasn't expecting that! 

Well, tomorrow is the first day full of introductions and getting them started. I can't wait to get these blogs off the ground and see what they come up with to write about. 

Are you blogging in your class?

Wish us luck! 
xo

Literacy for All

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Lester Laminack's session on flipping reading workshop into writing workshop. This topic is discussed in his new book: Writers ARE Readers. Of course I had to purchase his book and he signed it! I'm getting quite a collection of signed books in my collection. 

If you ever get the opportunity to see and listen to Laminack do it!! He doesn't disappoint. While he makes you think and reflect on your teaching, he also makes you laugh! He should have an act as a comedian. His session did not disappoint and was one of my favorite sessions so far!

I can't wait to read his book and try out some of his lessons in some of my colleagues classrooms.

More to come....

Literacy for All

I'm so excited to attend Literacy for All Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. I'm currently surrounded by hundreds of teachers of literacy. I can't wait to see many of the gurus of literacy present! I'm ready to push my thinking forward. I'm taking the stance of a learner. ALL teachers should always have this stance, once they quit thinking of themselves as learners, we must remove ourselves from the classroom. We must put our best selves in the classroom each day for our students, the future of our world. So, I ask you...what will you be learning more about this week? 

Literacy Centers

Independent Work Management..."centers" or "jobs" in the K-2 classrooms seem to be quite overwhelming for teachers. I have learned that it is very important to take your time introducing centers to your class BEFORE you begin your work with Guided Reading. This will pay off later as far as behavior management and working independently is concerned. Use a Work Board and teach your students the rules and expectations from the beginning. 

Teach one center at a time while being explicit with your teaching. Revisit this center for a few days. Once you are certain your students can control the center independently, add on a new center. Repeat.

It is important that your centers are meaningful and authentic. It's not just busy work. It is meaningful work that supports their learning about literacy. NO WORKSHEETS! They fail you time and time again. Learning skills in isolation does not teach a reader how to read. There are SO many great center ideas in the Fountas and Pinnell Phonics books! Use them to back up the skills that you've already taught. Don't overthink your centers. You can keep many of the same centers just change out the principle for the week. I'm looking forward to incorporating poetry and technology in my centers this year...more to come on that! 

 

What are your favorite centers to use with your students? Some that I think I will start with this year are:

*Independent Reading

*Browsing Boxes

*Read Around the Room

*Listening Center

*Poetey Center

*Magnetic Letters

*Various Phonics Centers

(Start simple...)

Things to Remember:

1.Take your time (go slow to go fast...)

2. Be explicit with your teaching

3. Retech

4. There is nothing too small to teach and revisit

5. Don't teach a new center until you are certain your students can control the previous one(s).

6. Keep them meaningful and authentic. No WORKSHEETS

7. Don't overthink them