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The 2 Sisters Joan and Gail modeling The Daily 5™ Do you love teaching but feel exhausted from the energy you expend cajoling, disciplining and directing students on a daily basis? Are you questioning the value of busy work but afraid that ceasing from such activities will lead to chaos in the classroom? Have you heard the phrase, “work smarter, not harder” but don’t have a clue how to start? If so, you’ll want to read this book! We set about designing a structure that would ensure all children were working at their level of challenge while taking responsibility for their learning and behavior, and that would provide meaningful instruction blocks without extensive preparation time for teachers. Based on literacy learning and motivation research, The Daily 5™ has been practiced and refined in our own classrooms for 10 years and shared with thousands of teachers throughout the United States.
Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article As I continue to think about word study and what it means in the upper elementary grades, I can't help but remember David. I had David as a 4th grader. He was a great speller. My job was to support David where he was as a speller -- in his case, at the Derivational Stage. David's writing was always very linear. This thinking led me to wonder where grammar instruction fits into a reading and writing workshop. by Jeff Anderson, I am working hard to embed this part of literacy instruction more authentically. In writing workshop, my students have always been comfortable listening to words and phrases we love. Beginning with Sentences As I continue to think about expanding my word study program to include a broader perspective of how we use words beyond just spelling, I've realized I've never taken it a step further to think about how authors craft sentences or phrases. Jeff Anderson, author of Mechanically Inclined, inspired me to think about the best way to use sentences. Beach References .
Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article When I began teaching, Mark McGwire was breaking the home run record in major league baseball. We sat in the stands and cheered homeruns 67 and 68, awed by the consistency of the record-breaking power hitter. A few months later I began my student teaching experience. I remember feeling frustrated because things didn’t always go as smoothly as I planned. My practical husband said, “It’ll just take some time to gain experience.” “But I want everything perfect now.” He chuckled. “McGwire hit 70 homeruns last season.” “And he struck out 155 times. More than a decade later, his words still replay in my mind. , Stacey Shubitz and I identified components of a successful workshop. Many components need to work together in order for writing workshop to run like a well-oiled machine. Instead, begin with reflection. Complete the third column by considering the things you are curious about when it comes to the pillars of writing workshop. These are all solid goals for writing workshop. How about you?
Online - Fifty Writing Tools At times, it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. You can borrow a writing tool at any time. And here's a secret: Unlike hammers, chisels, and rakes, writing tools never have to be returned. They can be cleaned, sharpened, and passed on. Each week, for the next 50, I will describe a writing tool that has been useful to me. I have described most of these tools in earlier lists, first of 20 and then 30. As you study and discuss these, please remember: These are tools and not rules. My friend Tom French, who won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, told me he liked my tool list because it covered writing from the "sub-atomic to the metaphysical level." With that as both introduction and promise, let us begin. {*style:<a href='
Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article As children walk over the threshold into the school each morning, they are greeted by Jason with a smile. Next to him is a dry erase board and easel. There is a new handwritten message on it from Jason, cataloging simple things like the day of the week, an upcoming event, or a reason for the school community to celebrate. Just as important, students are invited to start the day reflecting on their literacy with a question or prompt at the end of the board, with space to write about it so that their ideas can be read by other children as they enter the school. "It took awhile for students to become comfortable writing in that blank space on the message board, especially since the question changes every day," Jason explained to me later. These two girls are responding to the day's prompt: I admire the character ______ because _______. The concept of "first fruits" is powerful for me. I'm glad you're here. Important things are often written down. One other first fruit message was potent.
Subtext – Engage Readers and Deepen Understanding The next session I am attending is about Subtext, a tool I have been wanting to learn and explore. Check out their presentation materials here. “Subtext is a free iPad app that allows classroom groups to exchange ideas in the pages of digital texts. You can also layer in enrichment materials, assignments and quizzes—opening up almost limitless opportunities to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills.” Subtext allows students to engage deeper with reading material both individually as well as collaboratively. Subtext allows you to personalize your reading experiences in the same way we see with other tools (change font size, highlight and tag, use a dictionary) but it also allows broader application – access your Google Docs, Search Google and copy to your Drive, etc. Finding content is more flexible using Subtext (Using digital books and content) as well as through tools like Newsela (that you can use to tweak levels of reading). There are different ways to use subtext:
Try Wikibrains for Brainstorming Wikibrains is a neat brainstorming website that I tried out a few months ago. Since then it has been revamped to make it easier to navigate and organize ideas. The concept behind Wikibrains is this; when you brainstorm on Wikibrains you're also performing a basic Internet search at the same time. To create a brainstorm web on Wikibrains start by entering one word or phrase. Wikibrains has private and public brainstorm webs. Applications for EducationsWikibrains could be a great tool to have students use as a story starter.
Teaching Authentic Writing in a Socially Mediated World Email Share June 28, 2012 - by Susan Lucille Davis 122 Email Share I need to confess. As an English/Language Arts teacher with nearly three decades of experience teaching writing in her professional backpack, I am supposed to know what I am doing. What I Know and What I Don’t Know I know that a focus on building skills to communicate effectively in our media-driven, socially-networked world is more essential than ever. I should say, actually, that the problem is that I don’t know where to start. What about the Common Core State Standards? As I understand them, the Common Core standards still generally address writing in very traditional ways: as exposition, as narrative, and as analysis. My List of Contemporary Writing Activities Note that the Common Core emphasis on traditional rhetorical modes can be employed in many of these arenas. A Conundrum and a Sign of Hope Yet, attending a second day of ISTE Unplugged introduced me to the Global Education Summit , where I found some hope.
Focusing Moments for Writers One of the most powerful ways to help struggling writers is to help them to focus their stories. I have been reading many samples of student work over the last week from across several grades and there is no doubt that children love to tell stories. I have read many accounts of car rides on the way to vacation followed by play-by-play, day-by-day accounts of the entire trip. In some of the narratives, I've even gotten to read about the car ride home right up until the garage closes behind them. I know that many of these students have had instruction on "seeds versus watermelons"-- one of my favorite third-grade lessons involves drawing a watermelon slice to represent a big idea such as "vacation" and all of the seeds represent the small moments of the vacation. Strong personal narratives, realistic fiction stories, and imaginative fiction stories generally: occur within an hour or two of real time.
Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article Last week Tammy joined a kindergarten teacher, Vicki Haley, for her writer's workshop. As we all know, the reality of kindergarten is that even with the best-laid plans we can get off schedule. When Tammy first arrived, Vicki apologized that she was a bit behind, and shared that her students were getting ready for show and tell. We had planned to focus our time on strategies for generating important topics for personal narrative stories in writer's workshop. Two sentences into the first show and tell, and we both knew that this was our opportunity for teaching. Acting Out the Story of Your Object At first, students just told about their object -- what it was, why they brought it, or where they got it. Teacher: So tell us what happened first. Student: Well I found this shell. Teacher: Show us how you found it. Student: I was walking on the beach. Teacher: So you were walking down the beach and playing in the water -- who were you with? Student: My dad and my brother. Student: It hurt.
Guest Post | A Teenager on How Writing Helps Makes Sense of His Loss Youth CommunicationShateek Palmer Occasionally we collaborate with an organization called Youth Communication to feature true stories by young people that help add a new voice or angle to a topic we’re covering on this blog. Last year, for instance, teenagers from the organization wrote about Trayvon Martin and college debt. Below, an essay by Shateek Palmer, a student at Central Park East High School. It originally ran in Represent, a Youth Communication magazine by and for young people in foster care in New York City. Shateek explains how writing has helped him express his emotions and feel less “alone in the world” since he was 9 years old. Explaining My Life: Writing Makes Sense of My Losses By Shateek Palmer The first time I ever wrote about my feelings was when my grandmother was placed in the hospital. I felt good when I was writing about my grandmother because I was expressing my feelings without anybody knowing about it. But two months later, I found out that A.C.S. A Bad Surprise