Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

My 5th graders loved The Lemonade War. When I had the book as an option during novel study, it was a top 2 or 3 pick for over half the kids. When I looked at top books towards the end of the year, this was one of them. I didn't have much of a chance to read it during the school year, but brought it home in hopes of getting to it. Now I have!

The plot revolves around Evan and Janie, brother and sister who are best friends. Well, they were best friends until Janie gets a letter from the school telling her family that she is now going to be in Evan's class in the upcoming school year. Why? The school is small and they are merging some classes, and Janie gets moved up since she is very bright for a soon to be 3rd grader (well, now 4th grader!).

Along the way a few things come out. First is that Evan and Janie are part of a single parent family, as their dad left a while back (a non-central issue in the story). Second is that Evan is not quite as bright as his sister, and he is at the age where he knows it- this is consistently shown as Evan struggles with math problems. Janie does not see Evan as less smart, and is the consummate idealist.

As Evan is angry about the impending doom of having his sister in his class, he challenges his sister to a lemonade war. Sell the most by Labor Day when they go back to school. You learn quite a bit about sibling relations/rivalry, math, and the economics of selling lemonade. I found the story to be approachable to kids if not a little low for many of my readers. That might have been why they liked it, a break from some of the usual stories in a fun and almost thoughtless way- almost like a beach book we read during the summer.

Rating: 3 of 5. Easy to read, not a difficult plot to follow. Good for readers with siblings, or those who like a little competition.

Monday, July 16, 2012

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy has been on my bookshelf for quite some time. Meloy is married to Colin Meloy who wrote Wildwood as well as the Decemberists. It looked interesting in an old world-follow a character-get into a storyline type of way. The book sat because a newborn happened, and there really isn't as much time as there used to be!

The story revolves around Janie, an American who has parents that may or may not believe in Communism during the building of the first nuclear weapons. This forces them to leave LA for London, living in a small flat. Upon arrival they see the apothecary, and the intrigue starts to build. The apothecary is a cross between a pharmacist and a magician, making the unbelievable possible.

As the story unfolds Janie becomes enamored with the apothecary's son Benjamin. Together they start spying on people in the park, and are pulled into a world of espionage and counterterroism. As the apothecary vanishes Janie and Benjamin go in search of him, a journey that involves changing shape (think aviary!), befriending a jailed pickpocket, escaping detectives from Scotland Yard, and stowing away on a ship.

I really enjoyed the story. I found the story to be believable, and not to bog down in minor plot lines. Meloy kept the main thing the main thing- the apothecary, what he was doing, and finding him. The other story lines all fit neatly within the main plot and are not overly distracting. I'm excited to push some of my more advanced readers into this over the course of the next school year.

Rating: 4 out of 5- really good, and I don't typically like historical-esque fiction. 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Common Core Standards

If you haven't looked at the Common Core Standards you probably should. A vast majority of states have adopted them (40 some odd), and they will likely replace your state standards soon. In Washington, this will take place in 2014 but some districts might make the move sooner (if I remember correctly). Since I have the time, since I'm at jury duty, I went through them today. I had done s previously but not in great depth. Today I went through the English Language Arts section. They simplify the Washington standards. Instead of EALR 2 with a variety of components, you have a standard that has some specificity. They are relatively easy to navigate. Go through your grade level and read the various descriptors. What I like is that the descriptors make sense. There is movement, in reading, from the explicit to the implied. You move from citing ideas from the text to making inferences, and using context for a variety of applications. That isn't necessarily new, but the implementation previously involved selecting the appropriate inference. Having kids select something doesn't necessarily guarantee you are getting a gauge of their reading. It could also be good multiple choice selection or some combination of the two. The last piece is the emphasis on integration. You aren't simply looking at technology standards but rather looking at how they are a part of communication- ways to research and present information. It is how we already do things, but included in one document instead of 3-4 (reading, writing, technology, and some sort of content). To me this is a step forward.

End of Year Redux (Part 3)

First let me start wby saying that I am at my jury duty summons, hence the lack of time away from school stuff. Lots of really interesting information gathered from my end of year surveys. Most were things that I already knew or suspected. The next step is to think about next steps... Technology needs to be leveraged. It integrates wells with literacy and project based learning. What I need to do more of is doing more with particular tools. Instead of doing 1 photostory then another two months later, I need to follow it up more immediately. This will help as I expand the various tools available for kids later in the year. This might mean doing a few shorter projects- those not 2+ weeks in duration. It also might mean having less integration with content areas- more sproduct focused as opposed to duly product/content. More reading! I have two different ideas. The first is making reading the primary homework. Since our district is going to be adding a new online learning platform, I could have some short response work for them to post. In some ways this would mimick the flipped classroom- less lecture in class, more done in advance. This would provide good information about their understandng prior to arriving, helping narrow in on some of the students with misconceptions. It would not eliminate reading during my literacy time. But would allow for more novel study books, and/or more social studies content learning (and time for projects). The last thing I am thinking about connects to our use of journals. I need a better system for dividing it into parts. Currently I do front/back with social studies in front and reading literature in the back. Unfortunately the back just isn't what I want. I need more space for word work/roots, and a division between strategy work and novel study. While we apply the strategy with the novel study, I wonder if that makes the journal a bit disjointed. By that I mean you can't see the continuous train of thought around a book. I'll likely used the Reader's Workshop model for journals as a guide. Soon I'll post more about changes in my curriculum map, and how I want to change the way kids demonstrate understanding.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

End of Year Redux (Part 2)

As part of my end of year survey I wanted to know what things went well, and what didn't. I asked for two things that the kids liked, and one thing they might change. Here are some of the results, and some quick thoughts.

What Went Well?
--Using the netbooks/technology was universally liked. We used them on a near daily basis for research, typing, project creation.
--Lots of reading. Most mentioned enjoying our novel study, book clubs, or 20 Book Challenge.
--Projects. Loyalist/Patriot Speeches, Designing a County, Evaluating Explorers.
--Our issue research (CBA). Kids enjoyed researching a topic and then making a presentation that advocated for people to do something.
--Having choices. I let kids sit where they wanted (unless they made poor choices/negative learning choices), choose their presentation format, and read books of their choice. Big hit.
--Memoir/Memory Writing. Kids liked being able to reflect on their time, and write with feeling about it.

Quick thought 1: None of this information is groundbreaking. I expected these to be common themes. We stuck with them because of the enthusiasm kids had for the various projects, and typically worked hard to wrap up in a reasonable timeframe so that we didn't burn out (see the next session for more on this).

Quick thought 2: I need to find a way to leverage my technology time so that it isn't necessarily about using new toys or tools. If I can integrate them earlier on in short projects (not necessarily integrated), then it will shorten some of the time needed for the projects. Part of the project time was spent teaching the tool since many of the kids hadn't used Audacity or Photostory at all (or much) previously.

What Could Be Done Differently?
--Extended deadlines. Deadlines approached and toppled some of my kiddos that work slower.
--More writing. Yep, more writing.
--More projects/technology/presentations.
--More than 20 book challenge/different novel study books

Quick thought 1: The extended deadlines was an expected piece of feedback. I have wrestled with this issue before- how long to go since you have the vast majority of kids that are done and others are not even close? I know I need to do a better job of making modifications to help those kids ensure that projects are done in a timely fashion (and well, with the content understanding).

Quick thought 2: Writing sometimes ends up being the odd item out. I embed writing into everything, but the large scale writing projects are often lost. I need to find a way to tie those in around the same time I do novel study- read and then do some writing projects.

More reflections on the school year later.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

2011-12 End of Year Redux (Part 1)

At the end of each school year I gather some information from kids. I want to know the following...
--How many books did you read?
--What are two things you liked from Social Studies/Literacy this year?
--What is one thing you would change in Social Studies/Literacy in the future?
--What were your top 3 books?

I've sat on the surveys for about a week, giving myself this first week away from school and kids. Since I was getting an oil change this morning I figured I should compile their information. Below is some of that data, and some quick thoughts. I'll have more in depth reflection later. This looks at information from my three groups, or "rotations." In particular we will focus on books today...

Books, Books, Books!
First rotation total books read, and average: 794 books, 36/student
Second rotation total books read, and average: 372 books, 23/student
Third rotation total books read, and average: 1408* books, 50*/student
Total books read, and average: 2,574 books, 39/student
*One student is a voracious reader, and read 300 books... total does not include his 300.

Quick thought 1: My second group has students that are pulled. If those students are excluded, the rotation average is close to 30 and is in line with the other groups. The first and third groups have a few students that are voracious readers (80+ books). If you were to find the median it would be close to 25 in each of the first 2 groups, and 35 in the last group.

Quick thought 2: The 20 Book Challenge worked well in motivating kids to read, and read a lot. Reluctant readers were over 20 (by and large), and those who loved to read were pushing themselves to read more and with variety.

Top 15 Books
1. Hunger Games
2. The Lightning Thief
3. Swindle
4. Harry Potter (a few appeared, I lumped them together)
5. The Last Apprentice
6. Mockingjay
7. The Lemonade War
8. Catching Fire
9. The Name of This Book is Secret
10. Rules
11. Maximum Ride
12. Gregor the Overlander
13. 39 Clues
14. The Last Olympian
15. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

Honorable Mention:
-A Mango Shaped Space
-Popularity Papers #1
-Al Capone Does My Shirts
-Strange Case of Origami Yoda
-How to Steal a Dog
-Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Quick thought 1: The Hunger Games as a whole were a big hit, which is a huge testament to older siblings reading the books as well as the release of the movie. I did very little pushing of the series because of the complex nature of the books. Most get them on some level, some get them on a more complex level (dystopia, control of the state, etc).

Quick thought 2: Kids love reading books in a series, or by the same author. Books by Gordon Korman were all over the feedback, and they were always popular in the classroom. Rick Riordan, Christopher Paolini, and Suzanne Collins were also popular authors.

Quick thought 3: Kids want to read more complex books. If someone suggests books they will read them. Book talks, book clubs, and book reviews all contributed to kids finding a variety of books. It also helps to suggest a wide range of books in the 20 Book Challenge, as well as purchasing a good range of books for your classroom. Over 90% of the money I spend goes to my library. Well worth the expense.