Partner Reading Rules

 Make sure that children understand partner reading procedures.

Students take turns reading.  (Everyone reads.  Students read alone “me” or students read chorally “we”.  Both students need to read either together or chorally.)

Students listen and follow along in the book while your partner reads. 

Students are polite if you help your partner.  (The teacher and students develop a monitoring chart or a fix-it strategy chart.) 

Students follow the teacher-made rule about how much to read. (“Each page the students switch.” or “Each student reads a handful of text then switches readers.”)

Students follow the procedure:  read, stop [reading], think [about the set purpose], and talk [about the set purpose]

Write to Live Twice

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. (Anais Nin, 1903-77)

After I write, I reread and revisit my writing journal.  I hope I teach my students to value rereading and revisiting their writing and thinking.

Alone to Think

“Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers. (Ester Buchholz)”

 

 

Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds  (This quote is from my Kindle so I cannot figure out the exact page number.) 

As I have read Reynolds’ book regarding presentations, I realize many of my instincts are correct.  I am definitely relieved!  I also realize as much as I know about my content, I have a lot to learn about the genre of presenting with powerpoint.  I read of many of the ‘common’ mistakes that Reynolds writes about and realize that I don’t make this error or that one.  For example, I already avoided transitions and sound effects and never use clipart.  Then I read another error and feel flushed because I have that slide in each powerpoint.  I use microsoft designs.  However, my favorite powerpoint  that I use frequently was created by my brother-in-law, who works in marketing and designs powerpoints.  I realize that I actually have good instincts, but did not know the reasons behind my decisions.  Reynolds’ book is helping me to solidify my thinking so that I am consistent and purposeful when designing a powerpoint to aid a presentation.  His main point is to develop the concept before the powerpoint.  I am also adjusting my powerpoints to reflect storyboarding instead of bullets.  I appreciate his advice of the 6 word minimum on a slide.  This book is aimed at the business side of presenting, but I did find lots of good advice to pull for my education presentations.

Thinking Aloud during Writing

Essential Question: How can I use “Think Aloud” to help me write my story?

Teacher reads the book,  How I Spent My Summer Vacation  written by: Marc Teague. Teacher uses the “Think Aloud” ideas from Writing Mini Lessons for Second Grade (pages 12-13) written by: Dorothy Hall, Patricia Cunningham, Debra Renner Smith.    Sometimes revisiting a selection written by a storybook author helps us to generate ideas for a story. 

 

 

Storytelling in Writer’s Workshop

A Place for Talk in a Writers’ Workshop by Erin Pirnot Ciccone writes about the importance of Storytelling in Writer’s Workshop. 

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/239

Story Telling in Small Moments

Small Moments stories only improves if students know how to tell a story. Lucy Calkins refers to this as storytelling. The staff at the Teachers College that work with Lucy Calkins recommends the following 5 steps for teaching children to storytell as a week long event.

1. The teacher models storytelling an event the class experienced together with rich story language across 5 fingers. The teacher tells the story multiple times. The students and the teacher tells the story numerous times. It is important for multiple retellings. This is an oral retelling of the story again today.
2. The class gathers to retell the same story with a storytelling partner. Teacher coaches students to remember characters names, say what the character said, etc. The teacher might retell before (or after) the students depending on how much support the students need. It is important that the students have multiple chances for retelling. This is an oral retelling of the story again today.
3. The students sit in a circle and retell the same story as a class. “Today we are all going to share the _____________________ (one story with one event) as one storyteller.” The children tell the story on their 5 fingers using repetition and rehearsal.
4. While children tell the story, teacher sketches the pictures across pages. It is important that the children are retelling the story across their 5 fingers. It is also important that the children are verbalizing the story. Repetition and rehearsal is leading to most if not all children repeating the story at some level.
5. The teacher writes the words on the last day to the story in front of the students (demonstration).

This procedure is repeated throughout the year to teach storytelling language. The same story is used for the week. It is an experience that all the children have shared. The teacher might guide the writing about a moment on the playground, singing a song, spilling pencils, a silly moment that the class experienced, or something else that has a beginning, middle and end within the moment.

Sylvester and Magic Pebble

This is one of my favorite lessons.  DON’T MENTION THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hide the cover from your students. 
Probable Passage   Click here for directions of how to do a probable passage by Kylene Beers. 

http://www.learningpt.org/literacy/adolescent/strategies/passage.php  Beers wrote the book,

http://www.amazon.com/When-Kids-Cant-Read-Teachers/dp/0867095199

More directions are here: 

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAPredictingUnderstandFluency35.htm

 

1.  I introduce this lesson with a probable passage.   First, I read this list of words to the kids (I also write it on the board or give the list of words to the students. (wolf, Sylvester, shiny, lion scared, red pebble, dogs searching, rain ceased, Acorn Road, lion, Mrs. Duncan, howling all night, wishes).  The students sort the words under the story map categories.  Then we discuss them a little bit. 

2. Talk about how to write a story. For example I might say,  “Once upon a time there was a wolf named Sylvester. He had a friend that was a lion. The lion was scared of a shiny, red pebble he found on Acorn Road. The dogs were searching and howling all night long. Sylvester wishes his friend wasn’t afraid.”    Then the students write a story using the above words. If they don’t use all the words it is ok or even if they only use a few words. Whatever they do is ok. We’ll repeat this activity several times throughout the year.  Have the kids stop writing after 10 minutes.   Students turn and talk with their writing partners.  Everyone is engaged and shares.  Let them write about 5-10 more minutes. Then collect their papers.
3.  I have the students sit on the floor while I read to the kids. Tell the kids “Let’s find out the way that the author, William Steig, used these words… As the students hear a word/phrase from probable passage, they might put a thumb up.  After reading, discuss the story and how their predictions were different from Steig, but thinking of the words/phrases prepared them to think about the story. 
Second Reading of the Sylvester and the Magic Pebble  - List cause and effect on board. 

The teacher makes sure the students understand about cause/effect.  The teacher reads the selection or leads the students through the reading stopping on pages that have cause and effect examples.  After Reading the students and teacher discuss the possible Cause and Effect ideas from selection. 

Here is a list of possible Cause/Effect ideas in the selection. 
Sylvester collects rocks –  He finds a red, shiny pebble.
Sylvester wished the rain would stop. – It ceases.
Sylvester sees a lion –  He is frightened.
He is frightened –  He wishes he is a rock
Parents were worried – They looked for Sylvester
Sylvester was lost – Parents went to police
Parents found pebble –  Mother wished for Duncan
Duncan found – Everybody happy

Social Studies Connection to Sylvester and Magic Pebble

A Map of Oatsdale
Talk about maps. Maps help people know how to get around. Begin by asking the class where Sylvester lived. He lived on Acorn Road in Oatsdale. Then reread to the class the part in the story that tells about Sylvester being less than a mile away from his home during the time that he was a rock. Have the class brainstorm parts of Oatsdale. MODEL Draw the places on the board. Then have the kids make own map or work with partners or small groups. They can pick.  (Strawberry Hill; Acorn Road; the Duncan’s home; the place where Sylvester found the magic pebble; lion’s home).

8. As a final end of the day activity, I give each child a red spray painted pebble (little rocks from the beach) as a story bit. The kids love going home and telling their parents about the story.  The idea of a story bit is that it is a ‘bit’ of a reminder about the story.  “Hey, mom!  I will remember to tell you about my story because I am holding something in my hand to remind me about the story.”  Many teachers also type up a summary of the story to help the parent know if the story that the child is retelling or summarizing matches the ‘real’ one that occured in the classroom.

Read Aloud to Students

We read aloud to our students for lots of reasons. 

“If we knew 10 books as well as we know our best friend, we’d have everything to teach writing for a whole year.”Lester Laminack

Touchstone Text or Mentor Text Activity

“With a room full of authors to help us teach, teaching writing doesn’t have to be so lonely  (Katie Wood Kay, page 150, Wondrous Words).” 

 

Mentor Text and Touchstone Text are synonyms in some circles and different words in some classrooms.  Both are correct in professional literature in my experience.  Teachers might want to define the words in their own classrooms with students.  Janet Angelillo in her book, A Fresh Approach to Teaching Punctuation, has clear, student-friendly definitions. 

Janet writes, “Mentor Texts refer to single books, poems, or an author’s larger work that children, as individuals, decide to study.  Therefore, it is possible for each child in the class to have a different mentor text or mentor author.  A child might take on one book by Patricia Maclachlan as a mentor text or might study all of Maclachlan’s work as a mentor author.

Touchstone Texts refer to classwide texts that are used again and again in the classroom by the teacher and students for whole-group conversation and instruction.  There are usually only 2-3 touchstone texts in each genre for a class.  They are loved and known by all and help create a common conversation (page 63).”

Criteria for Picking Touchstone/Mentor Text
In Units of Study in the Writing Workshop, Isoke Nia lists 10 ways to find them.  The 10 ways are also listed in The Reading Teacher.  The Reading Teacher, 61(5), pp. 411–414, DOI:10.1598/RT.61.5.5, Touchstone Texts: Fertile Ground for Creativity, Irma Sturgell.  I use these as guidelines to choose our touchstone text for the feature article study.

Selecting Touchstone Texts
1. You have read the text and you love it.
2. You and your students have talked about the text a lot as readers first.
3. You find many things to teach in the text.
4. You can imagine talking about the text for a very long time.
5. Your entire class can have access to the text.
6. Your students can read the text independently or with some support.
7. The text is written by a writer you trust.
8. The text is a little more sophisticated than the writing of your best students.
9. The text is a good example of writing of a particular kind (genre).
10. The text is of the genre that we are studying.

 Wondrous Words:  Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom (1999) Katie Wood Ray suggested using touchstone texts as part of a teacher developed writing workshop and selecting  texts that meet this criteria.  

1.   Have background information included. 

2.  Have a writing concept that is interesting. 

3.  Remind readers of other texts. 

4.  Are crafted with interesting structures. 

5.  Are full of crafted ways with words. 

6.   Are ones in which writers take risks

I encourage teachers to choose 3 or 4 books that they use as their mentor text or touchstone text.  In the book. Wondrous Words, by Katie Wood Ray, she has a chapter called, “Books I know and Love.”  Ray’s list of books helps us being collecting our favorites.  Often our students love certain books and willingly reread them.  The idea of a touchstone text is that we reread a text for numerous teaching points in the classrooms.  The students begin to refer to the author as a mentor or teacher.  The student learns reading strategies and writing strategies from this mentor text. 

Reading Lessons with a Touchstone (Mentor) Text
Most teachers purposely teach several reading lessons so that the whole class is familiar with the mentor text.  It usually works best if all the students have access to the text read.     For example, on day one the comprehension / reading lesson teaching point might be for adjusting predictions.  On day two the comprehension / reading lesson teaching point might be summarization.  On day three the comprehension / reading lesson  identify how the character’s feeling changed throughout the selection.  These three teaching points are examples of many possible teaching points based on state standards and students’ needs.  By the end of the third day, the students are comfortable with the story and know it well enough when the teacher begins to use it as a touchstone / mentor text.  The students start reading like writers – noting the how the author used words to convey meaning. 

Writing Lessons with a Touchstone (Mentor) Text
The teacher refers to 1 of the 3 or 4 touchstone texts during a conference.  The touchstone text is familiar to the students due to the previous work.    The teacher marks writing teaching points with sticky notes throughout the book before sitting down to confer with students.  This assists with the touchstone text conferences between the students and teacher.  

As the teacher notices what the student is doing in a piece of work, the teacher comments on the writing giving feedback on the positive things.  “I see that you have ________.  You also _________.”  “You have done some smart things as a writer, such as _______.”  Next, the teacher names something specifically the child could work on that the touchstone text author does.  The teacher is using the literature in the book to model the specific teaching point.    The teacher is teaching the kids to read like a writer.  The teacher is careful to pick literature that is within the the range and similar to what kids can do.  During a touchstone text lesson the teacher points out how the author used the craft technique that the teacher wants to teach.  Then the teacher asks the student to notice the craft technique on another page that the teacher is teaching.  Finally the student applies it immediately in their own writing so the student can try it out with the teacher assisting as needed before the conference ends and the student is on their own.    As the students start to imitate the writing moves that the author uses in the textstone text they gain confidence as writers.   “This is a compound sentence like author, ____________, wrote. You could write a compound sentence too.  Let’s look at how the author wrote and use it as a model  [ sentence comma conjunction sentence endmark ].”    

 

The Teacher’s College recommends this activity for A Touchstone Text:
The activity has several purposes:   (a) to relate the text (narrative, informational, expository) to poetry;  (b) to determine important information, main idea; (c) to foster accountable talk among students; and (d) to practice expression and fluency.
(1) Before reading the touchstone text again, give each child a sticky note with the instructions to write down the one line or phrase from the touchstone text that made the biggest impression on him/her (an “ah!” “oh!” or “aha!” moment) – a sentence or phrase that stood out.  They write the exact words from the text.
(2) Read the story to the class again.
(3) Have children “turn and talk” to a neighbor about their line, how it affected them, and how the author accomplished that effect.
(4) Then have the children stand in a circle around the room and read their lines. The first child reads the title of the book and the book’s author. Then he/she says: “a poem by _______(class name)” and then reads his/her line/phrase. Continue around the circle with each child reading his/her chosen line/phrase.
(5) You can then write the poem on chart paper to display in the room. It becomes a poem of the book.

Having a special place in the classroom for the touchstone text or mentor text is important.  Some teachers reserve a bookshelf or a basket on a bookshelf for the books.  It key that the students go back and re-read the book.  If the students revisit the book, it is similiar to visiting an old friend.  The students remember the writing and reading lessons that the teacher has taught along with the wonderful story line the author wrote. 

How this plays out in a classroom is written about here: 
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/JK55.html

and here: http://quest.carnegiefoundation.org/~dpointer/jennifermyers/touchstonetexts.htm

and a video example here: http://www.learner.org/workshops/writing35/session3/sec2p2.html

 Mentor Text book list to teach reading strategies  http://www.mauryk12.org/Literacy/Mentor%20Texts.htm 

Touchstone Book List with Teaching Points listed here: http://teachers.mpcsd.org/cbrewbaker/Brewbaker/TouchstoneWishList.html

List of books to teaching writing strategies:  http://www.mauryk12.org/Literacy/Mentor%20Texts.htm#Touchstone%20Texts 

The Teaching Point: A text (or part of a text) can use a repeated phrase as a transitional device at the end of sections of text vignettes, descriptions, or ideas.

Ralph Fletcher writes about the Recurring Lines…
Fletcher compares recurring lines to rolling a snowball.  The line gains power and weight as it gets repeated.  Such lines can give cohesion to the piece and leave the reader with a sense of closure.  Repeated Phrase As A Transitional Device Book Suggestions:      
Gifts.  1997. Phyllis Limbacher Tildes.   
Grandpa Never Lies.  2000.  Ralph Fletcher. Illus. by Harvey Stevenson. 
Making the World.   1998.  Douglas Wood. Illus. by Yoshi and Hibiki Miyazaki      
Mothers Are Like That.   2000.  Carol Carrick.  Illus. by Paul Carrick.         
On the Same Day in March:  A Tour of the World’s Weather.   2000.  Marilyn Singer.  Illus. by Frane Lessac.     
What a Wonderful Day to Be a Cow.   1995.  Carolyn Lesser.  Illus. by Melissa Bay Mathis.

Professional Development Resources

Calkins, Lucy. 2003. Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Collins, Kathy. 2004. Growing Readers: Units of Study in a Primary Classroom. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Laminack, Lester. Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature: Making the Most of Read-Alouds Across the Day. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Mere, Cathy. 2005. More Than Guided Reading. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Miller, Debbie. 2002. Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Routman, Regie. 2000. Kids’Poems: Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry. New York: Scholastic.

Ray, Katie Wood and Lisa Cleaveland. About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

 

Personal Narratives or Small Moments

When students write a personal narrative or small moment, they need to carefully reread their writing.  The writer asks themselves why their topic is important to them and then write about why their topic matters to them.  Students find the focus for their writing and write small in terms of time.  Writers slow down time to convey what matters to the reader.  Writers see the movie in their mind, asking where the story begins.  Figuring out where to start a story precising is a skill that takes many misteps.  Stories have a beginning, middle, and ending.  Not only write about what happens, but their response and internal thinking must be included for the story to feel complete.  Writers include thoughts about their small moment narrative.