Teach - Learn - Construct

Recurring themes

2012-02-19T21:42:00.001-08:00

One of the best parts of teaching over a period of time is that you can find patterns. I enjoy data and like looking for patterns, themes, and connections. It is just how my brain tends to work. One theme that pops up often is this: I love projects, but dislike the time investment. This tends to come up around midwinter break, or whenever I embark on a project.

Therein is the struggle. Everyone wants their teaching to be engaging and interactive. I'm not sure of anyone that gets into the profession thinking otherwise. Often that leads you to some sort of outcome that isn't a worksheet, and is difficult to quantify or measure (but you do because it is called assessment and not fun time). The largest impediment for me is time. It is less the time to teach, but more the time to put the skills into practice and create a presentation or analytical essay. You also have the time on the back-end scoring work (seeing gaps in instruction).

We recently worked on our explorer projects. We developed a rubric for evaluating explorers, mined information, compared explorers leading to this "thing". Kids did a great job and really grappled with whether the explorer they chose was truly a great explorer. But getting there is a tedious process. Couple that with technology and a desire to add bells and whistles and you begin to stretch a 2 or 3 day project into 5-7 days. That is just the assembly part. The legwork beforehand is another few days since you're reading and categorizing information, determine important information etc.

As much as I love the work they do, I wrestle with time. Do another project or give it a rest? Some kids need a little more practice reading and responding instead of more free-form analysis. I want innovation yet know there are some content pieces I need to get to. Time, projects, and my inner struggle are my recurring themes. Judging by how I write about them, and when, this will continue for a while.

Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham

2012-02-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

Recently I was browsing through the bookstore looking for something new. Faced out on one of the shelves was the book pictured to the left: Down the Mysterly River. The cover looked interesting, particularly as my kids love to read anthropomorphic stories like the Warriors, Seekers, or Wildwood. Something about animals that can talk generates a fair amount of interest.

It took me about 3 weeks to get through this story. I didn't necessarily become disinterested with the book as much as I was doing other things- reading blog posts, blogging using the mobile app, twittering... etc. During this break I finally finished the story in 2 short sittings, and am pleased to report that it was worth the time I spent working through it.

This has the characteristics of many fables, fitting with Willingham's previous work (writes the comic Fables). Max the Wolf (a boy scout) appears in a land far away from his boy scout troop. There he runs into a talking badger named Banderbrock. Together they go on the run from an odd group of people who are seemingly out to get them (the "Blue Cutters"). While on the run they pick up a bear named Walden, and a yellow tomcat named McTavish. No one knows where they are, or why they are there. But together they start to make their way through an odd land full of talking animals, yet teeming with danger. Their journey takes them to, and down, the large river in the middle of Heroes Wood called the Mysterly River. The journey involves great peril as they seek out answers to their many questions at the Wizard Swift's castle. Only time will tell if they'll make it.

Knowing that the author previously wrote fables provides some significant background knowledge. You recognize that the stories of the animals and Max have fable-like characteristics. They are approachable, and seem to speak towards the ideas of being kind, loyal, and truthful. The characters were also largely true to their animalistic nature. McTavish is a bit of a monster, as you'd expect a tomcat to be. He bickers with Banderbrock the badger, but also has the fighting spirit of badgers (not that I've ever encountered one). While it definitely gets a little heady, readers will like how the "mysterly" has resolution in the end.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Takes a while to really settle in, but enough action to capture the minds of a variety of readers.

Midwinter break!

2012-02-16T09:05:00.001-08:00

Midwinter break is here. I'm not sure I've ever been this excited for break. I'm a little run ragged between teaching, taking a class, and teaching a class. Add scoring 75 explorer projects and you've got a very tired Pete.

The plan for break is to get some things done. I have some planning to do to recalibrate heading into our spring break. I have a number of items to score and get into our online grade book. I've also got some reading to catch up on. I brought home 4 books that I (wishfully) hope to read over break.

Oh, and I hope to nap!

No Way He Makes It...

2012-02-12T18:10:00.000-08:00

My kids are pretty good at making predictions. I think it is a skill that many kids become fairly adept at, largely because they do so on a daily basis. The real trouble comes in supporting our predictions with evidence. We've gone over this process before. It goes something like this...

Me: Ok, so we've established the problem to be that he is taking a shot from half court to win a million dollars. What do you think will happen?

Student: Well he makes it obviously.

Me: Fantastic! He makes the shot, he wins the million dollars. What makes you think that? It is a long distance shot.

Student: Well, all kids stories end happily.

Right! I forgot! Most kids stories to that point tend to end relatively happily. Then it becomes a matter of teasing out the other details... he wasn't good until he got a coach. He really wants to make it, and he is listening to his coach... often coaches make you better, hence you'll be more likely to make it than before!

If you've read the blog before, I am a fan of Dan Meyer's WCYDWT (what can you do with this). The idea is to take banal problems, and bring them to life using the "technology that is ubiquitous." Often problems lack relevance or provide too much information, eliminating the need for creative problem solving. He uses this for math, but I'm going to use it to illustrate predictions in reading and how to write those out with evidence.

We are going to watch the final 10.8 seconds of the 2008 National Championship Game with the title of the video out of sight (Kansas vs. Memphis.. linked above). We'll start with what information we already have: 2 point game, guy from the leading team at the foul line about to shoot 2 shots. What are the possible outcomes of this situation? He could make both, miss both, or make 1 of 2. Now what information might you need to make a prediction? We'll look at how he has done on the season, and how he has done in this game. From there we'll make some guesses.

After that we'll watch until 4 seconds to go. The 3 point shot is about to go off. We'll repeat the process. What could happen? What information do you need? We're dealing with real life, not simply a kids book. In this case the statistics (if looked at longitudinally) actually lead towards the actual result, the making of the 3 point shot. He had been awful to that point, yet making the 3 pointer would bring he really close to his average, something they have worked on before. It doesn't matter what the prediction is, as long as they reference the evidence leading in that direction... we're going beyond "Well, I just think so."

Where does it go from there? We then apply that to modified passages on 3 settlements- Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth. They don't include the last 2-3 paragraphs that tell how it ended for the settlement (and few have the background knowledge to know the outcome). They'll make predictions, support it with evidence, and rank each from most to least likely to be successful. We'll post them on our online discussion board, and have a virtual (as well as in-class) debate about success. I'm excited for it.

True But Useless

2012-02-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

I've been wrestling with the Steven Johnson video about "where good ideas come from" all week. I watched his TED talk, found here, and rewatched his "innovation" video. I've also had some conversations with colleagues about innovation, as well as some of the technology content (and lack of time to teach it). The thing that has started to come into focus is that the notion of "not enough time" or "lack of time" is true but useless. It is true that we have a finite amount of time. It is also true that the abundance of standards makes teaching each one thoroughly a virtual impossible.

All of that is useless to me though. I am not going to invent an extra hour. The likelihood that I am going to become vastly more efficient is slightly unlikely, although some gains are to be expected (with practice comes some success). Instead I need to change my mindset. I know kids need to have conversations, as well as share their work with peers. Those things take time, and I wouldn't say that I found that time to be worthwhile previously. I thought that sharing a powerpoint or photostory was cute, but non-essential. There just isn't enough time to make that happen! Or is there?

Instead of worrying about time (that is useless! and even more time-consuming), I opted to place a focus on presenting our work and providing feedback. We had a hard and fast deadline for presenting our explorer presentations. They were due on Tuesday, and I had kids that needed additional time due to their own pacing, etc, stay in to work on them during their recess times. Once we started presenting, kids wanted to stay in to finish (there were only a handful of them). I placed an emphasis on all that wanted to present could, and those that opted out had the option of opting in later on if they wanted to. We were going to provide feedback that was positive and constructive, with an email going to each presenter with that feedback.

What happened? Kids became hypermotivated. There were some who wanted to be involved right off the bat. Others less so, but many jumped at the chance after seeing a few of their peers. Others wanted to go back and edit to improve their work after seeing the work of their peers. I would say that 90% of kids wanted to present their work. The feedback provided was largely helpful, usually specific, and aimed at the student work. My fear was that they would present and it wouldn't be useful for anyone. Instead it turned into an opportunity. This was the first step in a much larger process of slowing down and placing an added value on the peer conversations that will help lead us forward.

Innovation and Ideas

2012-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

In my tech class I watched a short video by/about Steven Johnson, author of "Where Great Ideas Come From." It was intriguing on many levels. First off, it appeared to be a collaboration with the Common Craft folks- the "in plain English videos" that are fantastic. The visual representation of Johnson's ideas are wonderful, particularly for someone like myself that can get lost in the web of interconnected concepts. More importantly, the subject matter for the video is at the heart of what we do as teachers. We want to inspire great thinkers, kids who can do the heavy cognitive work of analyzing, evaluating, and creating. While we, as teachers, want kids to be able to read, identify themes, solve equations, and write coherently, those are not necessarily the higher level skills we really want our kids to reach. You want them to do something with the information, make it their own.

The big takeaway for me was the incongruous nature of our classrooms and innovation. Your traditional classroom where you practice skills and apply them in somewhat real contexts does not lend itself to great innovation. Moreover, because of the amount of time that one needs to invest in the "slow hunch", we skip to easier to handle (and evaluate) skills. We want kids to collaborate but that requires more time than we believe is available. Perhaps that requires a rethinking of how time is allocated, the activities we place significant value on in our classrooms, and how we have students collaborate.

Watch the video and let me know what you think, particularly in the context of your own classroom.

Teaching Technology

2012-02-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

Beyond teaching 5th grade, I have also taken on teaching one of the tech classes in my district. I've taken multiple classes previously. Each has typically been focused on a program or resource- OneNote, PhotoStory, ActivInspire (for Promethean Activboards). They are great in that you get the opportunity to learn a particular tool really well so that you can use it with your kids. This class really isn't like those ones!

The class I am taking is centered on the soft-skills technology promotes. Collaboration. Communication. Research. This departs from the "here is a part of a tool, try this, use it with your kids and report back" model I have become accustomed to. The focus is on how to best use technology with kids, and ways we can empower them in the classroom. There is a large information dump, with some discussion (electronic and in person), before some work time centered on planning for integration of technology with your kids. We've used some different tools that are examples of what we are looking to create/use with our kids. Corkboard.me for a virtual corkboard where kids can post notes (maybe for norms, although I used it for student input into what projects should look like), Todaysmeet for an example of backchanneling (yep, could be done via Twitter but that medium really is not prevalent in elementary school!).

The big tale away for me is that teaching with technology requires time. Teachers need the time, and the willingness, to plan for how they want it to be implemented. They also need guidance in how to go about designing activities (guided and independent) that kids can be successful. You can't simply throw technology- iPads, netbooks, iPods and what not, at kids with the hopes that they will figure it out. That does them a great disservice. The whole process- implementing technology on my own, and learning how to teach the use of technology has been worthwhile. Hopefully I'll continue to grow.

Conferences

2012-02-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

Conference time is exhausting. You're focused on making sure you communicate everything you want to say. Beyond that you need to have quality instruction. You can't simply mail it in. There really isn't time for that (nor a place for that to be honest).

Perhaps the hardest part is the lack of routine and regularity. You get out early which would seem to indicate you could get caught up. Unfortunately I scheduled mine poorly, only giving myself two 15 minute blocks to plan and prep. Now I've got a bag of stuff at home which I said I would avoid. So much for that.

Leveraging Technology

2012-01-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

I'm in the midst of taking (and teaching) a technology class in my district. It is centered around 21st Century Skills, and how to teach those to your kids. The skills we're discussing, and working on, are largely soft skills- collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. They connect with ISTE's Technology standards for students.

There are a myriad of issues to ensuring that teachers meet these standards. Ignoring glaring infrastructure issues for many districts, I think the biggest issue is a lack of understanding (by teachers) in how to use tech tools with kids. When you move along the gradient of teachers and tech, you have a high watermark of those familiar with a myriad of tools and how they can be used in the classroom. That is combined with a willingness to use those tools regularly with kids, helping them build fluency with the tools. On the other end of the spectrum are those that don't use the tech regularly (perhaps the Tech Lab once a week?!), and aren't fluent with the tools themselves. That, to me, is a big problem.

Teachers need a familiarity with the tools available to them. They need to have used them, seeing possible pitfalls along the path. Willingness to use the technology is certainly a part of this process- which is another issue altogether. But being willing does not necessarily mean that you will use the technology with your kids effectively. The issue of effectiveness, and how I can be more effective in my technology usage, is one that I'm wrestling with. I'm hoping that it will lead me to a significant change in how I plan to use computers and other tech tools.

Great Conversations... Take Time

2012-01-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

We're in the midst of building knowledge about explorers. In particular, we're looking at European Explorers as this is the foundation for colonization (and ultimately government). We're aiming at the Social Studies History standard that there are eras in history. One of those eras is when Europeans encountered native people, colonized and brought about devastation. The end product is going to be a "something" that kids create where they evaluate information pertaining to these explorers.

Today was the second day of whole group class discussion on this topic. We need some sort of system to evaluate them. If you were going to choose between two cars, you'd probably look at a variety of factors- some that are good and some that are bad. As an adult we don't make that system clear and evident (usually). That was step one in this process: create a rubric. I asked them to create a 4, 3, 2, 1 rubric for the actions of explorers. They are familiar with the 4 through 1 scale as that is the same system we use for grading. Creating the rubric was relatively easy and painless in groups of 3-5. Moving into the whole class discussion... slightly different tone in the room.

The kids did a fantastic job. We started on the fringe- the 4s and the 1s, because those are the easiest things to work on. We can agree that killing the natives is a Level 1... it is the in-between descriptors that caused us the most trouble. We had some great ethics conversations, about slavery, about what should happen to natives, taking land, etc. Should putting natives as slaves be a 2 or a 1? It was difficult to grapple with, but important for my kids. I pulled sticks to get kids to share, called on volunteers as well as had them passing to someone else. It wasn't a conversation between 4 or 5 of the 25. It was beautiful to see.

Admittedly, as a teacher, the hardest part is allotting time to make this work. They need the time to grapple with the ideas, and the put them into a level. They need time to discuss with their peers, and to think. When it bogs down, the natural inclination is to punt and say "We'll finish later" or "I'll put in the rest." That wasn't my reaction this time. Instead, we sat in the uncomfortable-ness of not knowing. We argued our points back and forth, and we voted to solve problems. It was a beautiful thing, and incredibly worthwhile. It will make the project significantly easier, and promote much more buy in.

Snow Daze

2012-01-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

My district has been out for the past 3 days. We were in on Tuesday, but that really was a struggle. Kids are way too excited to see snow flakes, and dislike the change in routine (2 hour late start... and a 60-90 minute or so early release). I am a creature of habit as well, and prefer the normal wake-up and schedule.

The past 3 days I've been hoping we don't go in. Why? I really dislike snow driving, going back to my east coast days, so staying inside was the preferred option. The only problem is that I don't get nearly as much done during this time. At school my to-do list is ever present, a stickynote on my desktop. Not as much at home. I opt to be lazy... even with the to-do list.

That being said, I am going to get going today. I finalized my conference schedule yesterday. I have some grading to do, and some things to enter into the electronic gradebook. No more of the daze that has been lingering. As much as I need rest I need to get some work done (and not leave it for the weekend or.... Monday).

The Take Home Bag

2012-01-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

I would venture a guess that almost every teacher is familiar with the "take home bag." It is the bag of stuff you bring home with the hopes of working on it at home. Sometimes this gets done, and other times it is left in the bag. The bag is the burden of many teachers trying to give feedback to their kids, get stuff graded, and figure our where their kids are. I've virtually sworn this off.

For my first 2.5 years I brought everything home. 75 writing prompts? Yep, they go in the bag. "I'll grade a couple after dinner." Grading happened less than 1/3 of the time. Worse, the contents of the bag were the source of anguish as I felt like each passing day I was letting my kids down. A day more was a day further removed from the assignment, making feedback less and less relevant. At some point I just couldn't continue to do that as it was failing my kids, and was making me feel awful.

Opting to not grade isn't an option (nice double negative, right?!). Instead I've broken down my grading. I have 75 kids, since we swap kids in our grade level. I will do 10-15 at a time. During the week I strive for 10-15 a day, and then 2 or 3 sets of 10-15 on the weekend. For example, I have a pile of 70+ writing assessments. I went into the weekend with 35-45. It is easier to sit for 10 than 30+. I get tired as I keep going, and fatigue isn't good for scoring... so I take a break. It makes life a little easier, and works me towards getting kids feedback at a faster rate.

During the week this works too. We've got report cards coming up, which means 25 comments. How about 4-5 a day? 5 a day means that they are done in a week. It also means that each comment is fresh, and not at the end of your wits end. Your comments are more authentic, and likely of greater value instead of (alright 3 more to finish all of them... or, another 10..etc).

If you are bringing home the bag of papers every night this might be an option for you. Try it and let me know.

Selling Books

2012-01-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

One of the things we've been working on are book reviews. Your typical book review for intermediate kids is somewhere between a summary and a piece of garbage. A piece of garbage you say? Yep. They really don't sell the story to kids, and kids aren't really excited about writing them. Beyond that the book review just becomes an exercise in jumping through hoops for the teacher. Call me crazy but I'm not so excited about that.

Instead we have been working on spicing up the book review. We've been working on book reviews like bloggers would write. An example is here. Kids were a bit reluctant to roll into it. They often go back to the standard retelling. Instead I have been prodding them into jumping right into the story... show, don't tell. They go through main parts of the story leaving out the finish. Afterwards they conclude with a paragraph about their expert opinion- why they liked it, and what the author did well (made characters believable, great description, etc... with examples!).

This has been a process. I can't say it has gone well throughout. It is easier to go to the old reliable than to try something new. That being said, they have really been coming along. The quality is improving as kids begin to build suspense into their writing, allowing the reader to feel the same suspense (or action) that is a part of the story. The best part has been seeing kids read them on the back wall where our book reviews are posted. Kids are looking for those books, and they almost never stay on the shelves... no surprise.

Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise

2011-12-30T18:00:00.000-08:00

One of the books that has gotten some tread in my classroom is Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise. I picked it up over the summer because it was a 2012 Sasquatch Awards nominee. It is a bit different than you're typical children's book in that it is written in the form of letters between the various characters as they talk about events that happen. It also has some illustrations that fit well with the story and the writing.

The setup is as follows: Ignatius Grumply is a children's author with writer's block. He needs a summer home to set up shop and get his writing done. Enter Anita Sale (yes, "aNEEDa Sale"!). She tries to dissuade him from 43 Old Cemetery Rd, but to no avail. Once there he finds a boy, his cat, and a ghost. He doesn't know about the ghost Olivia C Spence, but eventually comes to gather that she lives... what follows is a fast read that works for good and struggling readers alike. The nuance in the names and actions will get laughs out of the more experienced readers. But it reads easy enough for those who won't necessarily get the nuance.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Good read, not great. Has its place in the intermediate classroom library.

Dead End in Norvelt

2011-12-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

Ever have a book recommended to you but you couldn't quite finish it? Have you found yourself reading a book that you feel like you should like because of the author, but just couldn't get into? How about a book that you didn't really have no affinity for, but no real reason to put it down? That sums up Dead End in Norvelt to me.

I enjoyed the previous works of Jack Gantos. Joey Pigza was an interesting character lacking the typical qualities of a hero/protagonist. You could fall in love with his faults, and see things from a different perspective. When Dead End... came out, I was hoping for a similar story. Instead it was closer to Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, only that it lacked the storyline for 3/4 of the book.

Jack lives in Norvelt. It is a town built by Eleanor Roosevelt, and was built to help people be self-sufficient (small houses, plots of land to farm, etc). The only problem is that the old way died, giving way to industrialization and modernization. One woman is charged with chronically how the original Norvelters live and die: Miss Volker. After getting grounded, Jack is enlisted to help Miss Volker write obituaries for the original Norvelters. Along the way you see Jack grow up, and you learn lessons from the old. But the story doesn't really pick up until halfway, or two-thirds the way through when a Hells Angel dies and people begin to wonder why these original Norvelters are dying.

This wasn't my favorite Gantos book. I felt like the story lacked a real clear plot. It was a biography of sorts, which is not really my genre. I like the payoff that comes through seeing a protagonist struggle and attempt to solve a problem. I also wonder whether a majority of my kids will enjoy it, feeling similar to me in wanting a payoff in the end.

Rating: 3 out of 5. The ending helps make the story, but it seems to take forever to get there.

The Gap Between Recognition and Implementation

2011-12-04T18:13:00.001-08:00

Perhaps the best part of my first year of teaching was getting to observe in the classrooms of far more experienced teachers. In particular, one visit was incredibly powerful. The class had been reading The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle as a class novel/literature study. One of the things that they did was use Activotes ("clickers" if you will) to have students voice their opinion. From there students would offer why they made their choice, and debate their respective reasoning.

I walked away with a vision of my own. I wanted to kids to have discussions about books, but also to write about books. I also wanted to have them talking about ideas, and debating. What did I do? I modeled responses to literature ("What is one word to describe the character?", "What is the problem in the story and how do you think the main character will resolve it?") along with some basic criteria for "is it good enough." This gave students a baseline for whether the response that is at standard.

Since last year I've had kids scoring responses on a 4 through 1 scale. The point is to uncover "good enough" looks like. We'll look at a few different responses modeled after student work past and present, and score them. We did this last week and the discussions kids were having were fantastic... When you hear kids say "That response referenced the text, and explained why they chose strong to describe the men.." you feel really good because they are getting it. The issue I ran into was that not all kids were making the leap when it came to their own responses.

Why was that? Part of it was because of the way I crafted the questions for their novel study books. When you don't necessarily provide multiple avenues for kids to travel down then you won't get the quality you're looking for. That was one reason. Another connected to stamina. Writing a quick couple of sentences gets you just above the threshold, and is "enough." This was an instance where I gave feedback to almost all in order to have them improve. Most knew that they could add more, and simply needed direction. More of the same is planned for this week. Should be fun.

Innovation in Education?

2011-11-30T21:14:00.001-08:00

I have tried to distance myself from local education reporting. While on the one hand I am drawn to it, I also feel a strong reaction to those not clearly articulating the day to day interactions of teachers and students in the classroom. Everyone has a solution to a problem they feel a part of. Today I read the editorial Innovate Washington State's K-12. First off, a few things...

1) My wife is Nationally Board Certified, and I plan to go through the process. I believe it to be highly rigorous, and an intense process where you demonstrate your effectiveness as a teacher.
2) I fully believe I work in a relatively innovative district... it is a rigorous evaluation process, standards based, lots of technology, and high academic achievement.
3) I know I am not the best I can be... Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule applies. I'm getting better everyday, and am constantly improving. But I don't think I am great, and definitely not the greatest of those in my building... experience does matter (although not necessarily linearly).

I took a significant amount of umbrage with some of the editorial. I fired of the following email, largely because the editorial lacked the innovation I felt like it would have brought. That doesn't even mention some of the the lack of harmony in the message. Alas.

----

Hi Robin,

I read your editorial in the Seattle Times today and was struck by a number of things. First, I should tell you that I am a third year teacher in the Lake Washington School District. I'm one of the "junior teachers" you mention in your editorial. I couldn't help but wonder about about my future pursuit of National Board Certification. On one hand you state that "there is no credible evidence that they help boost student achievement" when talking about Nationally Board Certified teachers. This is after arguing that students need to be around high-quality teachers because it "is the key ingredient to student success." Doesn't this seem incongruous? Is going through a rigorous process to reflect on teaching practice that is reviewed nationally not proof of being high-quality? If you are stating that the stipend doesn't help students then you point is unclear, and needs further support.

I was also struck by how short-sighted reducing teacher professional development days seems. You should know that teachers often feel unappreciated, underpaid, and isolated from their peers. Reducing two days where teachers can come together as a community to collaborate would further isolate teachers. As one of the junior teachers, I appreciate the opportunity to learn from my senior counterparts and feel like I am a part of a community. That doesn't even mention the opportunity to further my own practice (shouldn't a teacher be a learner also, just as a principal should be a teacher-leader?). Beyond that, please further illuminate what less costly ways we could use to further our practice. Simply offering a cut isn't innovative.

I am all for education reform. Our system has a myriad of flaws. I'm also aware of the economic situation of our state, and the lack of effective revenue streams to fund education (and other state services). But if you want to offer solutions, please offer those that have a sense of what it is like to be in the classroom. Offer solutions that have a sense of the people often best meeting the needs of our kids.

Respectfully,

Pete Hanson
5th Grade Teacher

Reading Conversations

2011-11-29T17:45:00.001-08:00

My social studies/literacy block has migrated exclusively into literacy. I'm really excited about how things are going thus far. We're doing novel study, which is really another way of saying literacy circles, book clubs, or guided reading. The latter of those is the most tenuous, but still fits.

In reality my literacy block is a combination of many different practices. It uses a workshop model, pulling out lessons from the Units of Study for Reading. I have kids writing in journals with stop and jots, or making notes on sticky notes. I conference like I might in the workshop model, or with guided reading. I will take notes in OneNote, having kids give a retelling before some oral reading. I'll follow that up with positives or constructive pieces. I am also using the Guided Reading model of writing about reading, focusing on analyzing texts, making inferences and predictions. Finally it comes together with end of the week book club work where we are talking about books.

Compared to last year I am having kids write less. I used to give kids a Fact Question Response sheet, with another sheet for an element we were working on (setting, character map etc). But I found that to be a bit much. Some kids struggled with the amount of work, or just simply weren't detailed enough. Instead I've found the workshop model to be more successful, and to give me more time to work with kids on what they are reading.

The best part of it all was in my last group today. We were talking about characters and how we describe them. Kids had listed a variety of traits, internal and external. I did a short read aloud from Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, focusing in on how Lynne Jonell describes Emmy. At a stopping point I had kids turn and talk to describe Emmy thus far. The room erupted in conversation, and kids were excited to describe her, almost as though they couldn't wait to tell their shoulder partner. When we group shared the level of character traits were fantastic. Kids were making connections to characters in other books (unprompted) and able to explain why they thought Emmy embodied a particular trait ("she has a little bit of mischief in her, because you can see she kinda wants to do what the rat is telling her."). I couldn't have been happier.

Studying Fiction

2011-11-27T15:17:00.001-08:00

The first three months of school have been devoted to non-fiction. While I have kids reading fiction through our 20 Book challenge and silent reading time, I haven't placed on emphasis on understanding fiction. My goal has been to develop the non-fiction reading skills, and establish continuity with our social studies content. That will change starting Monday.

I am still navigating the Units of Study for Reading. I like elements of the Reader's Workshop while also liking elements of Guiding Readers and Writers. We'll kick off fiction by getting into book clubs (literature circles). With my 75 kids I'll have 7-9 different books I am using simply because of the sheer number of books needed to get this thing going.

The bulk of the work will be around characters. We are going to start with envisioning. To do that we'll be using our journal to write down details from what we read. Towards the end of the week we will also look at timelines of stories, making notches to chart important events. Once we have established some basic elements (characters, setting, first events) we will look a little deeper at characters. In particular we will start to use those characteristics to make predictions, giving evidence rooted in what we know and our connections with the text. The unit is a work in progress, but I am excited to get it moving.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

2011-11-23T14:45:00.001-08:00

Jack Gantos recently released Dead End in Norvelt. I've had a few of his books in my classroom, but really hadn't been interested in digging into them. A few weeks back I opted to give Joey Pigza a whirl, wanting to check in on Gantos before reading his more recent work.

The story is about a boy named Joey Pigza who is different than his peers. More specifically, Joey Pigza has ADHD (or ADD, can't remember which) and finds himself getting into trouble. He struggles to control his impulses including swallowing the key to his house (part of a trick he was performing for his classmates). Joey hasn't had the easiest of lives either. His mom and dad left him with his grandma when he was young, with mom returning when he is now in 4th grade. As the story unfolds you watch the struggles of a family trying to keep it together and cope in the midst of difficulties.

There are many layers to this story. The most obvious teaching point is how students who are not "normal" are perceived, and how they perceive themselves. Seeing the world through different shoes could be really impactful with kids. Another layer is how people cope with difficulty. Joey's mom opts to have Joey mix her a drink, as well as giving in to Joey "needing" some candy. Natural questions are: Why does Joey's mom decide to give in to Joey asking for candy? Is that a good thing? What is that doing for Joey in the short-term/long-term? You are left with the feeling that those who struggle are in a lose-lose situation that is difficult to overcome. If nothing else, it provides kids a perspective that they may not have themselves... particularly if they are of a status where struggle is not common.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Better than average and worth reading. Not necessarily a must read, but definitely useful in the classroom.

Be Thankful

2011-11-23T14:36:00.001-08:00

We aren't the craftiest group in 5th grade. We tend to stick to academics, and integrate the arts through some projects. Today was our last day before the Thanksgiving break, a short day of 3 hours.

What can you get done in 3 hours? You can get a Thankful Turkey done! We put together turkeys, and had kids paste them on a piece of construction paper. They needed to write the phrase "I am thankful for..." on the top, and then have 5 things they are thankful for on the feathers. The kids were really reflective, and had great things on those wings (school, family, food, the Earth, etc). They also got to put the turkey in a scene, as we integrated a little bit of our art docent lesson from last week (perspective with foreground and background). Seeing kids make scenes where the turkey was sitting on a plate or being chased by a farmer further illustrated the comedy that starts to develop as kids get older. It is a bit more nuanced than the primary grades.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Numeric Grades and Feedback

2011-11-21T17:27:00.001-08:00

Everyone has been there. You worked really hard on a paper, a test, a resume, or something. You submit it and wait. What are you waiting for? You are waiting for the thumbs up or thumbs down that tells you whether you did a good job, or tells you where you stand. Was there feedback given aside from the yes/no/a-ok? Did you read it?

My hunch tells me you didn't genuinely read the feedback. You were content with the A, the B or B-, got it, didn't get it. That was enough feedback for you unless you needed to improve it to jump through a hoop. From there you moved on because you had new things to tackle. You're busy and stopping to really read the comments or feedback takes time, as does integrating the feedback into your habits to make change. I could be wrong, and therefore be guilty of projecting my own educational experience on others. But I don't think so.

Typically I drift to the philosophical question: Why is that? Why does that happen? That doesn't move the needle for me. I have a hunch from my own experience, and I'm comfortable going with that for the time being (that hunch: feedback is a critique on your work, and the truth can be hard to face... whether bad or good. It is easier to get the evaluation and move on). What I am concerned with is the following: How do we change habits to get kids to utilize feedback so they can improve their skill set? Said another way, how do we get kids to not worry about the 3 on the top of the paper and to read the comments for understanding? I say "not worry" because embedded in that question is the fact that kids need to know where they are at. At times they need the 2 or 3 on the paper that symbolizes whether they met the standard (and therefore being on the right track). The 3 provides the comfort that comments don't.

I don't see comments and grades as naturally incongruous. I don't think it is an either or debate. As currently constructed they are, but they don't need to be. That's what I want to tackle next.

PhotoStory in Year 2

2011-11-16T20:57:00.001-08:00

In my first year I didn't teach kids PhotoStory. I was trying to keep my head above water, and opted for other methods that students could present their work. In year two, particularly once we went 3 to 1 with netbooks, I broke out PhotoStory with the kids. It was mildly successful, although there were some things I needed to do differently. This year I have busted out PhotoStory fairly early on with big dreams of righting some of my previous mistakes.

The Set-Up
We have been reading about a myriad of American Indian Cultural Regions. To me, this presented an opportunity for us to do the following:
1. categorize information (Geography, Natural Resources, Culture, etc)
2. analyze the information for strengths and weaknesses
3. compare and contrast information from different regions

The big question one always have with this sort of thing is: Now what?! I opted to have kids create a PhotoStory persuading others to settle in that region. In doing that, they would need to synthesize all of that information into a persuasive piece.

Differences in Year Two
One of the things I have done differently is providing enough scaffolding leading up to the PhotoStory. Kids need to practice analyzing information in different ways. They need to look for strengths and explain why they are strengths. These can then be used in their PhotoStory. Another change was printing out the storyboard they used. Instead of having kids type into a form I created, I wanted them to be computer-free. This would keep the focus on the narration and content.

The result has been dramatically different (I think...). We aren't finished, but kids are making great strides. They are writing really persuasive pieces that use specific details to describe their assigned region. They are making comparisons that accurately reflect why their region would be more desireable ("Come to the Southwest region where the climate is always warm and dry unlike the Northwest where it rains all the time."). While it is a different cohort, and we aren't done, I'd like to think the scaffolding has helped them be far more successful.

Learning to Proofread

2011-10-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

We worked on our word choice over the past two days. We looked at two samples of writing, one which mimicked some of the formulaic writing I read in our writing assessments and another without the transitions (and more voice). We had partner and whole group conversations about why a piece was or wasn't at standard. Kids talked about how one sounded like a robot, and didn't sound like me. They also talked about the word choice and description.

After showing kids a Wordle word cloud, we had similar conversations. More words, better description, larger cloud. I set kids loose to read an article called the Disappearing Dollar. They needed to pick a side of the debate (Dollar Coin or Dollar Bill), and then write about it. They used Wordle, and eventually posted on our discussion forum. The result? Great writing with voice and word choice. You could actually see a kid talking in a way that mimics their writing. They added details that gave you a mental picture of what they were writing about. Seeing them toggle between word cloud and writing was awesome.

The one downside was in their proofreading. Oh my goodness! I'm not sure if it was because they typed it first, or just weren't paying attention as well as they could have. Either way, their writing ended up lacking that attention to detail that they paid to their word choice.... but proofreading can be fixed. Word choice is far harder. We're making progress!

2011-10-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day. Yep. We're going to start to examine our writing a little more closely, and start to put it together into a coherent, multi-sentence, sophisticated piece. I will restate the following from yesterday: My kids can write. Where I am taking issue is with the overall sophistication in their work. At times it is more formula than substance, almost checking off the box on the writing checklist instead of really putting feeling into it. That isn't always, nor with all students, but it is certainly an affliction.

Where we'll start tomorrow is with two examples of tackling the same writing prompt they had yesterday. The first will look a little something like the image to the left after it is been put through Wordle. While it looks like quite a few words, phrases and expressions... it really isn't. It follows the formulaic process of "first, then, next." The writing is also riddled with sentences that are a little empty. For example: "I like running because it is outside. Running outside is fun." Does it accomplish the task of writing and explaining your favorite activity? Kinda. Does it tell you much about this favorite activity? Not really. My example mimics some of the prompts I have read (or parts of them).

Now we'll also look at the example to the right, also from Wordle. The first thing that kids will notice is the volume of words by comparison to the first piece. Hmm, why is that? Word choice and sentence variance. If you change up your sentences, and vary your wording you end up with a larger word cloud. Is a larger word cloud better? It certainly can signal more sophisticated writing, even if "really" and "like" are two of my most used words. The beauty of that is conversation is how it naturally brings us to: How did you get there? At that point there real work begins.

We are going to start from their basic structure. We'll use the topic sentence and details. The difference is that we are going to work on explaining those details or making connections to those details... "Awesome, you like running. What is it about it? Being outside? Tell me what that is like...". We're also not going to beat a dead horse. We're going to do this in response to a news article from Time for Kids about transitioning to the dollar coin. Kids will need to say if it is a good thing or bad thing, and why. It seems like a lot, and is... but should be relevant, challenging, and engaging. We'll use Wordle to check our word choice and volume. Finally, we'll post on Communicator and respond to each other. Big undertaking that should be interesting.

Formulas in Writing

2011-10-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished scoring 75 fall writing assessments. I was struck by the number of similar styles kids used in their writing. Transitions like "First, Second, Third" or "First, Next, and then" were prevalent. There were also a myriad of expansion sentences that didn't add as much as you would want. I learned quite a bit about my kids, but was also left with a variety of questions. Some sentences left me as a reader wanting to know more about a particular topic, but being left a bit on the empty side. My kids can write, that much is certain. When I say my kids, I mean ALL of my kids can write. Really. It's true. But at times I wonder whether the process or formula is getting in the way.

The question that I was left with was: would I rather have kids that can write by formula, or those that have voice but could struggle to get started? To me, I'd rather the former than the latter. I think it is easier to model clay than to make clay. If kids have a fall back, default to which they can utilize when they struggle, then I am all for it. Everyone needs a safe zone. While I am great a motivating, writing can be an intense struggle for kids. It is like any area where kids struggle (math, reading, anything): I'm not good at it so why try. The mountain at that point becomes Everest, not one of those small east coast mole hills (I can say that being an ex-east coaster).

We as teachers need to do a better job giving kids tools for their toolbox. I use Units of Study, which has more of a flowy, go through the writing process approach. Others tend to use Step Up to Writing... formula, transitions, IVF, here is how it is done. Both work. But kids need a little bit of both. My challenge is to ensure that their voices get louder as they use (or break free of) these transitions and formulas.

When Tech Tools Disappear

2011-10-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

Teaching today isn't quite teaching from 20 years ago. The technology innovations, and their prevalence have made their use (and teaching of how to use them) a vital part of practice. Ultimately, if we are to prepare kids for a future we need to embed these tools in our work. We need to do this even if we don't know what the future looks like. One thing is for certain: the toothpaste isn't going back in the tube, and technology isn't going away.

My district has a technology levy, and the use of technology is expected. We are actually paid to be trained to use particular tools (in fact I helped create a class for this year). I think the funding comes through the levy, although I might be wrong (I have been known to forget). The funny thing about these classes is that they are tech tool dependent. If the tool goes away, your class doesn't exist.

That brings me to an issue that arose on Friday. One of the tools that my district adopted is going away... and we don't know when! The company that is responsible for managing the tool (an online forum/portal that was secure) is pulling it from the market because of an economic slowdown issue. We don't know when it will be unavailable, we just know it is going away. There is an upside to this: the same strategies we were using for an online forum can be translated into in-class work. Instead of posting online, I can have students print responses and post them on a bulletin board. Kids can then make handwritten or typed responses to reply. I could also have them email or send responses to a dropbox. I can then print them with names, or anonymously, for kids to reply to. We can analyze and give feedback in small group or whole class settings.

The beauty of the online format has been seeing kids respond to each other. They've agreed/disagreed and been specific in their feedback. Kids can then go back and edit, which they have! The power of the online discussion has let kids who are quieter move to equal footing. Seeing this tool go away (although they are going to find another service that is similar) will be sad. But it is just part of the world we live in... things change, innovation happens... global slowdowns happen!

Wildwood by Colin Meloy

2011-10-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

My school just had a book fair hosted by the University Bookstore. It was well done, and had many quality books. One of the books I picked up was Wildwood by Colin Meloy. Yep, it is the same Colin Meloy who is the lead singer for the Decemberists. Let me tell you this: it is 500+ pages of wonderful.

The story is about Prue McKeel and her journey to find her brother. You see, her brother Mac was swooped up by crows and taken to a wooden area called the Impassable Wilderness. Those familiar with Portland OR (where the book is set) will recognize this as much like Forest Park. Along the way she runs into a boy in her class named Curtis who follows her into the wilderness, thus beginning a long and weird sequence of events.
In the wilderness they meet a band of talking coyote soldiers, a postman delivering mail to different parts of the "wood" and other assorted talking animals. What Prue doesn't realize is that 1) she is special and connected to the wilderness somehow, and 2) she needs to save her brother before the former ruler of the Wood, the Dowager Governess, feeds Mac to the ivy (yep, I said it was weird!).

While a relatively large book, I think kids will identify with the characters. They will enjoy Prue and her quirkiness, as well as her determination to find her brother. They'll also like how Meloy weaves the animals in the story. The animals bring a different dimension, embodying many of the traits of humans while as maintaining their animal qualities. I'm excited for my kids to read it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Long but well written with threads that ensure the story moves along.

Discussion in Online Formats

2011-10-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

I enjoy getting kids talking to each other. While I enjoy talking, that isn't the most effective format for learning. Kids need to wrestle with ideas, and discuss things thoughtfully with their peers. Previously I've done that in a myriad of ways. We'll have literature circle groups where kids talk about books. We will also talk as a whole group, debating using thumbs up/down (or through "clickers"/Activotes) and talking about why we agree/disagree. Those have been great strategies, and I plan to continue to use them.

Currently I'm in my second full week of using Communicator with my kids. In short, it is an online, secure portal where my 5th graders can post to a discussion board, post on a blog, and create a wiki. I can effectively track their work using an RSS feed. All the while no one needs to worry about outsider drifters coming in and doing anything elicit. Hooray! We're using each of the functions in a different capacities, and with different rates of success so far.

What I'm most excited about is the discussion their having currently. Thus far I have posted two analysis/judgement questions for them to respond to, each linked to our work in Social Studies. They needed to evaluate different landforms/geographic features, and explain which would be most difficult to settle near. This required understanding of landforms, and their potential impact on humans. The conversation has been great! We've started posting our responses, and quickly the question turned to "can I reply to someone else?" I limited that at first, modelling how we want to give constructive feedback that is specific (positive and negative). The response has been overwhelming. Seeing my kids give great feedback and edit their posts to make them more specific has been wonderful, and precisely what I was hoping for.

Not all kids thrive on the in-class discussion. This other method is simply another way for me get kids engaged, and get kids talking to each other. So far, so good!

Data and Teaching

2011-10-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day. She was talking about how her school was climbing up the missed AYP ladder that NCLB has established. Ultimately that has resulted in her school focusing on teaching to the test- the results of that not yielding what they (school/district admin) have hoped (still really low, still "failing").

I understand the argument against one high stakes test. There are kids who have really good days, as well as really bad days. A kid might miss the standard by one question, whereas one makes it by a question. The delineation seems somewhat arbitrary, and the kids mentioned above usually are very similar in their skill sets. Eliminating the test wholesale isn't really a valid option for me. I'm ok with the idea that we need a yearly measuring stick. It could be helpful information for kids, parents, and teachers.

What I struggle to grasp is the logic behind teaching to the test. I understand the stakes that necessitate this sort of practice- jobs are at stake for adults, funding for the school, things of that nature. But if the test is based on the state standards, why not just continue to use the state standards? My teaching is rooted in those standards, and I make sure to periodically check which standards I still need to incorporate as the year goes on. I'll use some of the state released test items throughout the year, but not as my only teaching materials. They are a means of exposing kids to the question format, as well as test-taking strategies. But as a whole, when we use the released items I highlight the strategies we already use (go back to the text, look for clues, monitoring to see if the story or response makes sense).

The whole concept made me scratch my head. I've really tried to get away from the national/political end of education. But comes up from time to time and I'm still left confounded. I won't even get into the other issue at hand: who is actually responsible when cohort groups don't achieve, and what should be done with that information (the former being an easier question to answer than the latter I think).

Book Reviews and Communicator

2011-09-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight's homework was to write a book review of indeterminate length on the book of your choice. I started with the idea of who has "liked, kinda liked, or loved" a book before. Virtually every hand goes up. I then asked, "who has thought 'man this book has stunk, or wasn't very good'?" To that a variety of hands went up. Fantastic! Everyone has an opinion, and some people actually get paid to give it through book reviews (not to mention book reviews). I was aiming at relevancy, and think it was achieved when I found some kids (particularly those less included to write/read) got that crooked head, "really?" look!

For me this is a starting point. Who can take an assignment like this and organize it into a piece of writing that makes sense?! Who struggles and needs more scaffolding to make their writing happen? Other items will come out of this too, such as who was really in need of support and tried like gangbusters alone... or who needed that parental support. To each of my groups I prefaced this with don't worry about writing a giant piece, but instead work until you feel finished or feel like you can't add anything. We'll go from there.

Not only does this start some of my writing work, it helps me with content for our online portal. We use a site called Communicator, a secure portal that lets us host an internal site with a blog, wiki, and discussion board function. Book reviews will be central to this. Kids always ask "what book should I read next?" and I often say... "ask a friend." This will be a great way to get kids interested in reading other kids books... and writing for an authentic audience. I am excited!

A Long Three Weeks

2011-09-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

I essentially crawled into a hole for the last three weeks. My focus has been on getting everything set for school, getting to know my kids, and marathon training. Yep, I'm currently two week out from my fall marathon so that was sucking up time also! In the last three weeks we've had our first day, welcome back assembly, welcome back bbq, done pre-assessments, grouped kids for our rotations, met about special education students, and had curriculum night. This week seems like it is the first without anything really happening as far as events are concerned.

Where are we at? We're in a good place. Our groups are rolling, which means that kids are now knee deep in Social Studies/Literacy work. We've discussed non-fiction features, and been using them to find information. We've also started to did into geography, and kids have really been digging it. My homeroom has started a little beginning of the year project also: their biographies as word clouds. We start by typing up a short bio of ourselves (at least 10 sentences). Then we plug it into Wordle. From there, we need to look at the cloud to decide whether we want some words to be larger or not... if so, you need to write more about it! We've been doing it on our netbooks as well, so the sound of kids just typing away and whispering to their table group is pretty awesome. The talking you tend to get when kids are struggling to get going can be frustrating- this wasn't one of those times.

Could I write more today... sure. Instead I need to vow to blog more often. So I will! Perhaps a snip of my Wordle coming this week.

The Endless Summer

2011-09-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

My first two years of teaching I had mixed emotions about the end of summer. While I was excited to teach, I was also longing for some more time in the sun (and sleeping in past 6am). This year has a different feel. Once Monday hit, I was excited and ready to be back. I was ready for a little structure in my life created by waking up at 6 every morning, and a schedule with the kiddos.

All of that was brought home yesterday. Yesterday was my school's Meet and Greet. It is an opportunity to families to come to school, check out their classroom, meet their teacher, introduce themselves, and tour around the facilities. The number of people in our 5th grade was astounding, which is fantastic since that means a large turnout. Some of my former kiddos came by to say hello too (also great). The best part about it is feeling the energy in the building- kids are nervous and excited, the same going for adults. Many (kids and adults) are excited for school to start back up.

This is it. The last weekend of summer.

Darth Paper Strikes Back

2011-08-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

I made my rounds of local bookstores on Friday. I typically like to have a good feel for books that are out and available, which means visiting every few weeks. When I visited the UBookstore by the University of Washington, I came across the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. I loved Origami Yoda, but wasn't all that crazy about Angleberger's second book Horton Halfpott.

The back story is as follows... a geeky 6th grader named Dwight has made an Origami Yoda that he puts on his finger. He offered advice to kids who thought he was crazy, but often followed the advice (sort of like "I'm not really sure what to do, so I might as well follow yoda"). Yoda often turned them in the right direction... or was it Dwight?

The entire first story is mini-stories, vignettes, from kids that used origami yoda successfully. Along the way, a kid named Harvey is the villain to Dwight's hero. He cast the shadow of doubt about yoda being true, instead offering up the suggestions that Dwight is just talking crazy, or that the advice is ambiguous (for Star Wars fans, isn't Yoda always ambiguous!?!). In the end we don't find out whether Dwight is yoda or not, leading us into Darth Paper Strikes Back.

Harvey loves Star Wars too, making his own origami... Darth Paper. In the first story everything goes right... in this one, without the guidance of origami yoda (since he might to be kicked out of school for details I won't reveal), Darth Paper brings about the ways of the dark side. What can go wrong does go wrong. The story is about trying to make sure Dwight doesn't get kicked out of school. It is well done, just as the first one was, and a tremendously fast read. Well done.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Only gripe is that it is dangerously close to the first story, following the same story pattern. I'd like to see a bit more variation, but still really enjoyed it.

The Curse of the Bane

2011-08-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks since I have put up a book review. That is largely because I've lacked some of the desire to push through books. Whether it is the sun, the Internet, or something else, I've dwadled through this last book.

I really enjoyed the first book in the Last Apprentice series. I likened the book to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, but more realistic and with a mixture of old world witchcraft lore. The second book, the Curse of the Bane, started very slowly. We are reintroduced to the Spook and his 13 year old apprentice Tom Ward. Tom is the 7th son of a 7th son, which makes him special in old world lore.

The crux of this story surrounds the Bane. It is an old creature that used to wreck havoc on the countryside, but was bound to the catacombs under the city of Priestown. Now the Spook is going back to try and finish off the Bane once and for all. Along the way there are a myriad of complications, the biggest being the Quisitor. Why is he the biggest obstacle? He is judge, jury and executioner for witches or those that deal with the dark. Unlike the Spook, he has little or no idea of how to identify those aforementioned people, essentially making him a thief and crooked government official. The story makes me want to read the third in the series (it has at least 8 books), but I've got a few others to read first.

Rating: 3 of 5. Was better than average (I don't want to give a score of 2.5, that is like being noncommital) but not great. Next up is either Darth Paper Strikes Back or NERDS.

Technology and Instruction

2011-08-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

My district is moving towards mobile devices in the classroom. On the elementary level it is a 3-1 ratio, and on the secondary level it is 1-1. I'm really excited about it. I was part of the pilot this past spring, and really enjoyed it. The goal is to make it so that kids aren't just getting technology in isolated instances (i.e. "let's go to the tech lab for our technology time"). The netbooks can be woven into any of your lessons, helping you teach paperless and getting kids to collaborate safely. Love it!

I can combine that with the fact that I have 12 desktops in my classroom. Since my classroom is a former shared space, connected to 4 different classrooms but not the main hallway, I inherited other people's computers. It was a place where computers were so that they didn't have to be in the classroom- a little silly to me, but I understand some space concerns. The desktops are a tremendous asset. I can use the netbooks, or have the desktops if a teammate is using mine. I have enough for roughly half my group which works well. The flexibility it provides is great, and makes sure I've got technology available whenever needed... assuming I am using best practices, not just technology for technology's sake.

Sorting Through the Rubble

2011-08-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today was as good a day as any to organize my classroom. My wife was in literacy trainings, and the clouds looked (although weren't) threatening. I want to dig into curriculum work, but really want to get through some clutter first. The goal was to take my classroom from assortment of miscellaneous furniture to being an organized assortment of miscellaneous furniture that looks like a classroom. I think I accomplished that goal.

Above are two images of what my classroom looked like post-school year, and post-cleaning. There are a few issues I wanted to resolve. The first I resolved a few weeks before, and can be seen in the first image: put the computers against the wall. When the tables are perpindicular to the wall they jut out, and allow for kids to play with the cords. Who doesn't like to pull out a mouse cord, or unplug a monitor?! The second thing I needed to do was create a space for my student "mailboxes." Perhaps that deserves a second post entirely, but I really struggled with take home mail routines. Kids get returned work or some announcements (usually the latter is once a week) put in their mailboxes, but rarely take them home. My thought was that it was due to the clunky tall blue mailboxes (kinda blurry in the picture on the left) that were positioned away from the door. I needed to rectify that situation!

Above are three shots, from left to right of my classroom (while standing on my desk!). You can see a few things: first is that I created a space by the door for my student take home mail. It is on a rectangular table that used to have two computers on it. In a game called "Musical Table Swap" I took the table in the first image up top (with nothing on it) and put two computers on it, thereby allowing me to move that to the door, and the table by the door to the center table group. I am not sure I'll keep that table there, but I might. I also was able to create space for an extra bookshelf (the far right side of the last picture) by moving it right by the door.

My three big organizational think-abouts for the next few days are: 1) How do I want to execute my student returned work, and mail process? 2) How do I want to use my wallspace effectively this year? and 3) Where can I create more space for new books in my classroom?

Dude, Where's My Planbook?

2011-08-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

My first year I taught using the traditional planbook. I'd essentially fill in a basic schedule, and a generic title for what I was teaching (i.e. "Sunken Ship, GLE 3.2" etc). I would do more extensive planning using a form I adapted from student teaching, laying out objectives and student/teacher actions. That process really didn't lend itself to being very reflective, since it was in a book that I really didn't want to flip back through (why flip backwards, when you can fill it going forwards?!).

During that year my district started using OneNote. Essentially: a binder with pages where you can use it as you would Word, but share it on a network with others. Pretty great for work done as a team, since each teammate can add, subtract, edit or view the document (assuming they are on the network). You create a section like you would in a regular binder, then create pages to fit in those sections. You can insert files, add links, pictures, to-do's, questions, notes etc. I really didn't start using it for my own practice until the summer when I thought it would be a great way for me to record my notes about books I was planning to use with kids in guided reading or literature circles. That gave me the brilliant idea of taking notes about on the various pieces of Units of Study for Writing... leading me into using it as my planbook.

I was excited about continuing that usage this year. My hope was to go back through the notes from the start of the year this week (since I actually made notes in the margins, and had to-do's in the plans- something I didn't do as much of with the pencil/paper version). Unfortunately I need to start from scratch this year. Why you ask? Because I had my computer re-imaged since our district is going to Windows 7! I pulled a ton of stuff off the desktop before summer, anticipating the re-imaging. But when I inquired about when laptops would be re-imaged I was told that they weren't planning to do anything with them until the fall. When I went in to do some curriculum work for technology this past week I was able to work my way into getting it updated (teacher desktops were done, but I don't have a desktop... I have a laptop!)... and hence lost the stuff I hadn't put on the network or my flash drive. Bummer.

Next time I'll tread more lightly instead of hastily jumping for joy that they were going to upgrade my laptop!

Emerald Atlas

2011-08-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

A bit of disclosure: I once worked in a bookstore. It was around the time that Harry Potter was coming out in movie form, and JK Rowling was ever-delaying the release of her next book. The hordes of crazed parents wanting the next book, or asking for one of the other books (after ignoring the giant stacks of them directly in front of their faces) turned me off from reading the Harry Potter series.

With that in mind I introduce you to the Emerald Atlas. If you believe the hype, it has a chance to replace Harry Potter in kidlit lore (not sure why I believe the hype since I didn't read Harry Potter, see above). The Emerald Atlas is the story of three children, orphans, who are sent to a new orphanage in Cambridge Falls. It is an odd place since there are no other children there, and it seemed to appear out of nowhere. What happens next is a story of time travel, and fighting against evil.

Kate, Michael, and Emma are unaware of how (or why) they are time traveling. Along the way they find out the town of Cambridge Falls is being held captive by an evil Countess. She discovers who the kids are, and how they are important in the grand scheme of things. Later the kids meet a mysterious Dr. Pym who reveals some of their past, as well as some of their future. The hunt is on for the (Emerald) Atlas, and the other two Books of Beginning that have been hidden away by magicians for hundreds of years. I'll stop there for fear or revealing too much of the plot.

Rating: 5 of 5. Different from my other Mock Newbery contenders, but has a chance. Harry Potter fans may scoff at how good it is, and the comparisons, but it seems to fit for me!

Bookstores, Beastologists, and the Internet

2011-08-08T15:50:00.001-07:00

About two months ago, Borders Books and Music announced they were closing up shop. It seemed like a foregone conclusion to me because of how well their direct competitor, Barnes and Noble, has done (note: I worked at Borders in college and enjoyed it, likely owing my love of books to that job). That got me thinking: what would happen if all bookstores went by the wayside? Would shopping for kids books be the same if you just used your one-click Amazon.com shopping?

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I shop at a variety of book outlets. I hit Barnes and Noble to browse the new books, picking up books to see if my kids might like them. I head over the Ravenna Third Place Books for their mixture of new and used books. I get more bang for my buck there. Lastly, I shop Amazon when I am a little lazy and know what I want. Often that means buying more than I should because I want free shipping!

The Internet is a big part of the bookseller demise. I'll admit that Amazon is fantastic, and I can get virtually everything I'm looking for (not a guarantee at the other options). But I will seldom buy books there sight unseen. Why? My preference is to be able to flip through the book prior to purchase. While Amazon lets you read the first few pages, but sometimes you need to see if there are illustrations, or a variance in text later on (or chapter length etc).

That leads me to Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist. I likely wouldn't have purchased this book without a trip to the bookstore. I saw it faced out at Barnes and Noble (as an aside, I saw recommendations for the book the Emerald Atlas on twitter, bringing about this trip). I thought the book looked slim on pages for my kiddos but the cover was intriguing. As I flipped through the text looked to appropriate and the writing was engaging. Since I was buying other books, I opted to bring this along. Great choice. It is approachable for kids in the middle grades, not overwhelming like some of the 200-300+ page books. It fits into that category of realistic fantasy without being too wordy. I'm excited I got it. It isn't a Newbery winner or contender, but a nice addition to the library. Hopefully neither of my brick and mortar bookstores will go under any time soon.

Bird in a Box

2011-08-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

Bird in a Box was another of the books I'd purchased for my Mock Newbery Project. The story was one that I ended up enjoying, but that took me some time to fall into. It is three separate but connected stories. Set in the 1930's, these three African American kids have seen more than most kids should have seen. Their stories are set against the backdrop of the famous boxer Joe Louis having his fights broadcast to radios across the country.

The three stories are engaging in their own right. Each chapter is a point in time, with a section for each child. Where I caught myself looking back into the book was in differentiating Willie from Otis. One has fled his abusive father, while the other had his parents pass away in a car accident. They become tied together through the orphanage they are living in. Following me? I know a few of my kids will be lost in the stories of each kid, later getting confused as they try to connect events to each character.

Overall I really enjoyed the story. You could feel the pain of each character, but also the hope that they held close to their hearts. I wonder if the story would have felt more cohesive if it expanded more on one character rather than having all three. All three were well done, but they seemed like vignettes at times. I certainly see this as a Newbery contender. One of my favorites of the summer.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Social Studies/Reading Notebooks

2011-08-05T16:35:00.001-07:00

When I started two years ago my team was hoping we would integrate social studies and reading together. In effect, I'd teach a major of reading through the social studies content with some use of our reading textbook (as a supplement). At that time we had just adopted a new set of social studies materials, which conveniently came with a student journal. There were some elements of the journal, and I used them often, but there were quite a few pages I opted not to use for one reason or another.

This year we are going into our second year without the student journal that accompanies the material set. While we still have access to the pages (in pdf form), I've moved to tailoring my journals to the reading instruction I'm doing (the pages are more content based instead). Last year's experiment was largely successful. I would write questions aimed at strategies I was teaching, or at content I hoped kids to uncover. The questions were glued into student journals, and they'd respond below the question strip. This cut down on paper usage, but monitoring journals was a monster pain. Additionally this didn't account for any of the reading work (fiction/non-social studies) we were doing.

As I've been going through Guiding Readers I realized I need to better organize the student journals. The first full page is going to be their table of contents where we'll log each entry. I'll model this with my own journal under the document camera. A sample might look something like:

9/19 p. 1 The Hunger Games response

9/20 p. 1 Hunger Games response/S.S 1.2-3 Questions

9/21 p. 2 Catching Fire response/S.S 1.3 Questions

With each day they will write a minimum of a few sentences about what they are reading. Beyond modelling this at the start of the year, I will also have a few options for students to chose from in writing about their book- summarize what they read, describe a character, analyze a character's actions, etc... Students will have choice over time, but we'll start with more structure and guidance as part of the gradual release process. To help the monitoring process I'll collect journals every week (or every third week since I have 3 groups... that part isn't fleshed out yet) to give feedback. I can look through journals to see what kids are saying, and how they are interpreting text. I might also have the journals as a way for kids to keep a record so that they can create a written response in our online blackboard-esque system at the end of the week (alleviating some of the legwork with journals on my end). This will also start to simulate more dialogue about books. The prospect of having a written dialogue is exciting for me, and one that I want to move in the direction of.

Lack of Top Scores

2011-08-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

As I've been perusing sites for Mock Newbery possibilities one thing has become apparent: people don't like giving out top ratings. No matter if the top end is 4 or 5, you seldom see it. Now it isn't to say that I am dishing out top scores left and right, but I couldn't help feeling a little angry. "Angry?," you say. Yep, angry. Why is that?

In the day and age of everyone getting stars and ribbons, I'm here to tell you the top score should be given out cautiously. Let's be frank: some books are better than others. This is obviously subjective, but I think we can agree that not all books are "great". Some books are ok for one reason or another- plot, storyline, character, author's voice, etc. Additionally, some books just aren't very good because of a similar set of characters as those that are ok but usually with more deficiencies. You can add onto that other issues like font and styling which are the publisher's work, not the author's, and play a big role in a book's perception. Would you bring every book into your classroom? I doubt it.

Now that we've established that there is a gradiant, my question is why do we see so few top end scores in reviews? Is it because there just aren't great books out there? To me both arguments fail to hold water. Great literature does come out every year (umm, the Newbery Award? various local awards like Sasquatch and Young Readers Choice?). The awards aren't foolproof, but they do often have a stringent criteria and aren't to be taken lightly.

Is it because we are comparing books to childhood favorites? I'm not comparing Okay For Now to Where the Red Fern Grows to see if I feel the same. Instead I need to assess the book based on some sort of written or unwritten criteria, and decide if it is great or worthy of that top end score. I use Okay For Now because it I felt like it was great. For a book set in the 1960s-70s to make someone not having lived through that era to make someone enter that world is incredible. The depth of character was fantastic, and the storyline kept you wanting to read on in a non-action story. I don't expect everyone to have the same feeling, but I can't help wondering why it is 4 out of 5 out 4.5 out of 5. That is the equivalent of saying it gets an 80% or 90%. Really? Not in that top percentile?

I don't expect every book to receive a top rating. But as I scroll through reviews I can't help but feel like people are holding unattainable standards. When you see 30+ books and they have 1 (or 2) that is top end, you start to question those doing the rating. The same can be said if all reach 5 stars- it just isn't likely!

The Trouble With May Amelia

2011-08-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been reading a book that you were told was really good, but you were only passively interested in? That about sums up my experience with The Trouble With May Amelia by Jennifer Holm. The story is a sequel to Our Only May Amelia which was a Newbery Honor Award recipient in 2000. I found my experience with this story to be similar to my experience with The Penderwicks. I'll digress to that in a second.

The Trouble With May Amelia is one of the Mock Newbery recommended books for 2012. From those that I have seen on goodreads, and via various library blogs, this was to be a fantastic book. The storyline surrounds a girl named May Amelia Jackson who is growing up in Washington state at the turn of the 20th century. Her family is Finnish, and have settled in an unincorporated area on the Nasel River. This area is accessible only by boat, and the living is tough.

May Amelia's family struggles to get by with the work on the farm, and with many children (all 7 are boys except for May!). May Amelia fights for her place in her family, particularly as her father has proclaimed girls to be useless. The real trouble begins when a man comes to town looking for stakeholders in a company that plans to incorporate a town in this otherwise inaccessible area. The plans are to make this the Seattle to the south. It is then that the story really picks up, and you watch the growth of May Amelia and her family.

What I discovered through reading this story is rather simple: I struggle identifying with protagonists that are female. This was the same experience I had with the Penderwicks. I found myself wanting the main characters to stop needing to prove themselves as able or ready. The Penderwick girls were confident, but the story didn't give them enough assertiveness. I wanted them to act a bit more, which perhaps is another similarity in the stories (and might be another issue I have these types of stories). May Amelia proved herself to be more than able, but I wanted her to be more assertive. I stuck with it to see what would happen to May Amelia, and to see if she'd change.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Well written, aside from lack of quotation marks (my kiddos may be annoyed by this). Storyline was good but dragged. Last 60+ pages (last third) were well done.

Organizing My Week

2011-08-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

I have yet to find an order to my week that is to my liking. That statement was true until earlier today. To digress, one area I have been looking to hone in is how I organize my reading instruction. Previously it has been a hodgepodge of social studies instruction, literature circles, and word study.

I've used the non-fiction in social studies as my vehicle for reading strategies, and it has worked out ok. Literature circles came about as I said "oh goodness (perhaps another nasty word substituted there) fiction is a gaping hole! how can that be?!" The literature circles were an attempt to get kids reading fiction in a more holistic manner, as the 5th grade reader only presents part of books... and how do you really understand what an author is doing when you don't see the beginning, middle, and end? Word study was another "oh goodness..." sort of remark, since word derivations are a 5th grade standard (get it, derived?! word study joke!).

Looking at Guiding Readers today, I came to the realization that I have a basic structure already in place. My challenge is sticking to it, and picking out the most important pieces. What does that structure look like?

Monday: Reader's Workshop- 5 to 10 minute mini-lesson; 50 minutes with guided reading groups, and including some reading response work towards the end.

Tuesday: Social Studies- content and strategy work; critical thinking and response; writing with some use of Units of Study

Wednesday: Word Work Wednesday- depends on the focus, but it has largely amounted to work with prefixes, suffixes, latin/greek roots, that sort of thing.

Thursday: Social Studies- content and strategy work; critical thinking and response; writing with some use of Units of Study

Friday: Social Studies- content and strategy work; critical thinking and response; writing with some use of Units of Study

Now in the Social Studies time the overall breakdown is 15 minutes of Independent/Guided Reading, and 40-45 minutes of content. That allows me to continue to work with readers and give them specific instruction tailored to their reading needs.

A few other things have become apparent. First is that I need to have kids organize their Social Studies journal. My plan is to use is as a reading/social studies journal, with kids keeping track of their work in a table of contents. This is already done in science, so it will be a continuation of that practice. I'll also be able to track their progress with kids leaving their journals for me to check periodically. The second piece is that I will need to be flexible in my use of that Friday time, allowing for kids to meet face to face with their literature circle group. I hope to pair this with the online component where they'll be blogging and message boarding. Organization will be key, particularly for me. The earlier I hone my process for the kids, the smoother this will go. The end should be more strategic instruction, and increased learning... or so I hope.

Theodore Boone... Grisham's Foray Into KidLit

2011-08-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

I was never much of a John Grisham fan. In fact, I'm not a huge law person. I like laws, and the order that they can create, but I'm not overwhelmed by their intricacies. It should come as no surprise that I wasn't jumping at the first chance to purchase Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer when it first came out a year or so ago. Seeing it in paperback made for a far more appealing and cost effective purchase.

To be brief: Theodore Boone is the only son of two lawyers, living in a mid-sized city (I think it said 75k people or so- more on that later). He loves the law and wants to be a lawyer. Kids in town ask him for help, and he happens to know about all of those associated with the law in his town. When the first murder in 50+ years happens, everyone is fascinated by the case, Theo included.

The story takes a variety of twists and turns, and doesn't necessarily finish up in the end. Of course it is left open for a second story, which you get the first 3 pages of at the end (Theodore Boone, the Abduction). This first story felt more like an introduction than a full blown story. You learn about Theo, his family, the major case, and the big players in the legal field in town. But you really aren't brought from beginning to end like many stories.

I have 2 other issues with the story: the first is Theo as a character, and the second is the setting. Obviously those are two major issues! Theo is only in middle school (or junior high), yet his legal prowess seems very advanced. I think many of my students would question the plausibility of this fella! His access to legal areas, and his overall knowledge of the legal field were far and away beyond any typical kid. It isn't that all kids need to be normal or average, but you do need to be able to identify with them... he seemed a tad more adult than most. The setting is a gripe for me, but perhaps not for my kiddos. In size, it is like many of the towns/cities surrounding Seattle... except larger (by about 25k). The old time feel of the town simply doesn't jive. To me that is more an issue with getting your facts straight. But... you need to be able to believe the author to believe the story as it progresses, which is why it is an issue.

Rating: 2 of 5. Not a bad first go at children's books for Grisham, but left quite a bit to be desired from the prolific adult writing.

Inside Out and Back Again

2011-07-28T16:36:00.001-07:00

I'm slowly working my way through the books on the Mock Newbery 2012 list. Is there an official list? No. But there are different sites, libraries and librarians, that are starting to compile a list of possible contenders. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is on that list. If I were to use one word to describe it, it would be: moving.

This wasn't entirely what I'd expected. I had briefly read a few reviews, and saw it on multiple lists, so purchased it feeling it would likely pan out as a good investment. What I didn't know until it arrived was that it was a story written as poetry. Poetry. Hmm. I'm not a real big poet, feeling like a fish out of water or a bull in a chinashop. I fear what I perceive to be the flow and rhythm. I fear not understanding the message the author is implying.

I dove into this head first, at least after the first few pages where I waded in cautiously. In conquering the above fears I found the story moving and powerful. It is the story of a girl living it Vietnam in a time of internal strife. Her father is gone missing, part of the war effort. Her family, struggling to survive, eventually leaves on a boat to Guam. From there they leave as refugees to the United States, Alabama to be exact. It is at that point that I truly felt Ha's (the girl) struggle. She is smart, kind, and strong, but mocked as a stranger in a new place. The struggle to fit in pulls at the heartstrings, and her interactions in the school brought me to my own classroom. I wondered about the ELL students in my classroom, and the struggles that they must experience (even on a much different level). The story made me wonder about my own practice and how I can develop into a champion for my ELL students.

Rating: 4.5 of 5. I struggled with it in the beginning but the middle to end were magnificent. Certainly a contender for the Newbery Award in 2012.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

2011-07-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you've got to read the books that you've got. When I started two, almost three, years ago I inherited a decent sized classroom library. One problem with that: they were relatively dated. By dated I mean 10+ years from publication date in most cases, and that is being generous. Therein is the challenge for the teacher. How do you make sure that you have new books that kids see in bookstores like Barnes and Noble (believe it or not they still actually go there, I've seen them!) as well as old books?

Part of that challenge is alleviated by publishers sprucing up books with new covers. New covers make timeless books look relevant to kids today. Out with the smaller, thicker, tiny font books (mass market books as they are called by booksellers). In with the slightly larger, more space between lines/font, and shiny cover. That is what led me to Hatchet.

I have about 10 copies of Hatchet at school. I opted not to use it for novel study/literature circle because of the size of the book, and the size of the print. It had also been some time since I'd read it myself (although I am not 100% sure I read it as I am confusing it with Call of the Wild). After reading it, I think I'll use it. The story of Brian surviving in wilderness for almost 2 months is moving. I think kids will see the story of growth, and conquering fear in an empowering manner. How can I do that? or I can be just like Brian, taking control of my anger. Perhaps it is far-fetched, but I do see where kids will at the very least be able to identify with the themes in the story. Now I pick up a few more with the fancy cover... hmmm.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5. I prefer books with more dialogue but the story was very good, and you wanted to know what would come of Brian as he struggled to survive in the wilderness.

What to do?

2011-07-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I needed to drive over to my district office. Since I was making the commute I figured I should stop by school to assess where my classroom is at. I stayed for about 40 minutes, and resisted the urge to start arranging furniture.

There are some furniture issues I want to take care of in the coming weeks. I have a cabinet, one that has a TV on it that I don't really want, which is difficult to organize. I'm considering building shelving for the inside of it, at least on the right side. The left side of it is my construction paper area. That is one issue. Another issue is that I need to make some changes to my book shelving. I have a few bookcases, two which are stacked, to hold most of my classroom library. The problem is that I have book sets that I need to better organize, and I buy books regularly (necessitating the purchase of another bookcase).

What else needs to happen? Physically I need to move some computers around to give greater access to my whiteboard (which is largely blocked). I need to clean out some leftover things that have accumulated, and which I don't want! That can be added onto the curricular pieces I want to work on. Alas, shutting down work for a few days before really pushing once August hits.

Small Persons With Wings

2011-07-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Summer book reviews continue! Fancy that. Small Persons With Wings (by Ellen Booraem) is another potential Newbery Award book this year, at least if you follow some of those trying to predict the winner. Do I agree? Not so much.

Small Persons With Wings is a story of growing up and make believe. Mellie has grown up with a "small person with wings," a fairy by any other description (but they don't like to be called that). She has enjoyed having Fidius around so much that she told all of her classmates about him. When she tried to bring him in for show and tell he left, leaving her with nothing to show (and resulting in being made fun of by her peers). Worse is that she seemingly hijacked a birthday party of one of the cool kids, leaving her to feel that girls wrath throughout her childhood.

Mellie is referred to counselling because of this make believe issue. When her parents come in for an intervention, they confess that fairies don't exist. The result is Mellie stifling her beliefs, and pouring herself into art and science books to keep out the make believe thoughts. The family eventually needs to move to Boston because they've been told that Mellie's grandfather has passed away. Upon arrival they meet a horde of fairies, the Parvi Pennati, which prompts her parents to admit that they are aware of the existence of these small fairies... er, small persons with wings. The rest of the story takes the reader on a journey learning about the Parvi, why they are there, and a plan to help the Parvi return what they've lost over the years.

Does this book have a home in my classroom? Absolutely. I enjoyed it, particularly because of the lessons about bullying and self image embedded in the storyline. I think it has a niche with those students that like a little twist on reality, added fantasy to your typical storyline without too much of a departure. Where it falls short of some other books is that the story seemed to drag too much in the middle. The beginning pushed you along and you felt for Mellie. Once you arrived in the middle too much time was spent on the Parvi, magic, and the people next door. It had enough twists to keep you interested, but not enough meat in the story to really make you want to finish (*I used to be a big closer of books that I lost interest in, but have since opted to try and finish most of my summer reading in order to be fluent in kid lit.) I don't see the Newbery in its future, but we'll see.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Cursory Understanding

2011-07-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

Piggybacking off yesterday's post about patient problem solving, I stumbled upon a great find. Way back at the start of July the Tempered Radical posted about the death of the Google Wonderwheel, a tool that broke down complex concepts into smaller pieces that are related (and may be part of what you are looking for). In truth, I'd completely forgotten about it during our CBA research this spring. It would have been really fantastic for kids to break down broad issues with complex relationships, or at the very least distill them into more manageable, bite-sized pieces.

The Radical posted about a tool called WikiSummarizer. Essentially you type in search terms, or concepts you are researching, and they are distilled into related topics found via wikipedia. Now it isn't foolproof, but gosh it would have been really helpful. How? Well that brings us back to the notion of patient problem solving.

Say you are one of my students and you have seen a news story on deforestation (maybe a 30 second spot, 60 seconds if you're lucky). You decide that you want to work on the issue of deforestation for your CBA (classroom based assessment). The major premise is that you think it should be stopped because you know that trees are important for the environment-- big bummer that loggers are cutting down the trees ("stop the loggers!"). Where search becomes problematic is that you have a limited knowledge base to draw from in your assessment, yet you are intensely interested in the topic (bike safety? not a big bike rider, not so much. clean drinking water? doesn't seem applicable in our developed area.. etc). Interest is important, but it begins to wear thin when the articles you are trying to decipher are over your head. Patience only goes so far, and certainly can erode even the most interested and patient problem solvers.

Enter the Wikisummarizer, or so I envision. Kids might not necessarily use it first, but it can be in that first tier of resources. After kids start their search, they can refer to the wikisummarizer to help move them along or confirm/refute ideas they have on the topic. Instead of not necessarily knowing what other search terms or steps they could take, they've got another tool to access and move them along. It makes me excited.

Sleepless Sunday Nights

2011-07-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'll admit to having three issues:

1) I love Google Reader
2) I hate Google Reader during the school year
3) I do very little in the evening, school year or summer.

Issues 2 and 3 mesh really well. I used to spend my evenings before bed cleaning out my google reader feeds on my phone. Long story short: phone continually updated, crushing the battery, largely because of the enormous number of feeds I follow, and hence was wiped off the phone. The summer nights are great times to get that Google Reader professional reading done... even if you don't want to.

Tonight I started with dy/dan, a blog that I really enjoy. The construct, while focused towards math, applies to all of learning: how can we make sure that the problem we present to kids is interesting from the get-go without giving kids all the tools to solve it, therefore fostering their inherent problem solving ability. The idea transfers well from math to literacy, because all too often kids are too impatient to find information (in an article, book, newspaper, etc). Ah, but a solvable problem that they are inherently interested in holds promise. Alas I digress...

In my cleaning tonight I stumbled upon a post with the following quote from a blog (irrational cube) he happened to be reading:

Even though it’s the middle of summer, my job as a teacher seems to be unavoidable in my day to day life. I’m not just talking about the unavoidable questions of “so what do you do for a living,” but the places my mind drifts to when I have nothing else to think about. During silences in conversations, or when I close my eyes at the end of the day thoughts of my soon to be classroom are constantly filling my mind.

Those thoughts are similar to my own. I'm married to a teacher, and I am still a very unpolished version on a teacher. I have, and will likely continue to have, warts. I strive to improve, thinking of ways that I can improve my reading and writing instruction so that kids can improve. August is almost here. The realization that we are back at it is right around the corner. The moments where you are thinking of your classroom (or soon to be classroom) are important- they help set the stage for what is to come.

Running and Teaching

2011-07-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Long distance running is my hobby outside of work. I run more than most, which is to say that I put in 70+ miles a week. I run even more during the summer, largely because of the time on hand but also because it is time to build up for a marathon. The parallels between my hobby and my career are uncanny.

The most obvious is the amount of time needed to be successful. Long distance running is built on one's aerobic capacity, your ability to process oxygen. How do you improve that? You do it by running, and running lots of miles. Teaching is the same, both in preparation and in actual work. You really can't be effective without doing your reading, getting to know your kids, assessing to find their strengths/weaknesses, and learning new practices (amongst many other items). Shortcuts rarely work out in either of these, leaving you underprepared for a race or underserving those you are teaching.

Both of these activities require patience. A few weeks back I was struggling with a hamstring issue that was causing my hip and IT band to rock out of alignment. The frustration was consuming, if for no other reason than the fact that no one wants to run in pain. Instead of throwing in the towel I needed to continue with exercises to strengthen my quads and hamstrings as well as using a foam roller every night to roll out the knots in the muscle. Similarly, teaching requires patience in spades. Your instruction may not work out the first time. You'll need to reflect on what is going on, what isn't working (and why), and make alterations. Teaching rarely is an instant gratification career, leaving you waiting for the big leap forward.

Planning is integral to the success of both activities. If you aren't clear what you are teaching, when you plan to teach it, and how you'll know if they got it then you're in trouble. Does that mean you won't change that plan? Absolutely not. Changes happen because of student interest, success of lessons, district initiatives, and countless other issues. But it is difficult to succeed without knowing where you want to go and how you plan to get there. My preparation for Chicago (and every marathoners preparation) is similar. I can't just go out and run hard everyday, or run a bazillion (that's a lot!) miles each week. I need to know what I want to hit on race day, and where I've already been. From there I can start to tailor a plan to hopefully get me to the race, and ultimately the finish line, where I want to be.

Lastly, neither activity allows for you to rest on your laurels. Any achievement you get is fantastic, but has little bearing on your future trajectory. Why? Stopping running (injury and rest aside) brings about an almost immediate loss on fitness. Others continue to train as well, bring about new challenges to where you've been. Even trying to simply maintain where you are is difficult. In teaching you'll find that new kids will always walk through the doors with new personalities, challenges, weaknesses, and strengths. New initiatives and practices will come up that you'll need to develop fluency with. The second you stop working and learning is the second you begin to slip backwards. Just because you were a distinguished teacher in the past doesn't mean you'll continue to be that way forever. You need to keep working.

Reaching Balance

2011-07-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

I've slowly started the process of reading professionally. I opted to take Guiding Readers and Writers with my while camping. After doing some kid lit reading, I decided I needed to start the ball rolling on improving my practice. I've also done some reading on the Units of Study Reader's Workshop from the series I purchased earlier in the year. There are a few things that I want to address over the course of the summer:

-Balancing reading/writing instruction
-Balancing reader's workshop with social studies materials/instruction
-Being strategic in using technology to meet our reading/writing goals
-Better and more strategic/planned use of formative/summative assessment

Guiding Readers and Writers is a bit daunting. It isn't a book you'll read straight through. Instead it is better to read in chapters, particularly being strategic in those chapters that will meet what it is your looking for. Sounds simple, but being a linear person it really isn't (after Chapter 1 I should read Chapter 2, not 7!). From the limited amount that I have read, there are a few things I've determined. I'll address one of them today.

My big takeaway thus far is that reader's workshop and my social studies instruction do not mesh very well. Reader's Workshop features an emphasis on Independent Reading. After a book talk and/or mini-lesson of 10 or so minutes, students read independently. They work on charting their progress afterwards as part of a debrief. The lessons are meant to support students as they choose their own books. There are elements of this that I intend to use, but I can't use it wholesale. Why? The way we have our literacy work setup currently is largely through social studies/non-fiction. Obviously there are two glaring holes: 1) where is the fiction/independently chosen books, and 2) where is the independently chosen non-fiction.

Can I integrate the Guiding Readers/Units of Study information? Yes. I just need to be a little choosy. I'll likely do a mini-lesson on Monday. I'm undecided if that means I'll do an entire day of Reading Workshop, monitoring kids reading through some conferring. That might also mean I do 15-30 minutes of reading followed by some social studies work. I'm leaning towards the former, as the latter ends up being scattered. The remainder of the week will likely involve my usual 15/45 minute split of independent reading with social studies instruction. I've got a lot to learn... at least I've got my books organized in one area currently (as seen below).

From Drop Box

Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt

2011-07-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Okay for Now... one word: fabulous! While it is at the upper end of reading for kiddos in my grade level, it is a great addition to my library. Why is that? The story was incredibly realistic. As a reader, you could empathize with the struggles of the main character (Doug Swieteck). The problems were incredibly realistic, yet the storyline was not nearly as predictable as others I've read.

The long and short of it: Doug is a character first seen on the fringes of the story The Wednesday Wars. His father has lost his job so the family is moving out of Long Island (NY) to a mill town further north. There are a myriad of issues for Doug to overcome. His father is negative, almost to the point of being abusive (certainly a bully). His older brother of two years is a bully who runs with a bad crowd. His oldest brother is in Vietnam and set to come home soon, but not the same. All of this is added onto the fact that Doug can't read yet is heading into 8th grade.

This story shows many things. You see the growth of characters. You see characters change (for the better). You also watch the goings-on in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and your reputation precedes you. Best book of the summer by far.

Rating: 5 out of 5... definitely on the short list of the Newbery Award in 2012.

Juniper Berry by Kozlowksy

2011-07-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

Recently I ordered a handful of books that bloggers have noted as possible Newbery candidates for 2012. Typically I don't order hardcover books. I find the price to be a bit much, and the size/heft of paperback books to be preferable. But since many of the Newbery books are new releases I found myself in the position of *needing* to order them in hardcover. Alas I digress (as an aside, my goodreads list is here).

That brings me to Juniper Berry by M.P. Kozlowsky. I'd seen it prior to doing my Mock Newbery research, faced out in a Barnes and Noble and later in Third Place Books. The basic premise is that sometimes wishing for things can lead us down a path to being someone we don't want to be- whether consciously or not. It is a classic tale of temptation and using will willpower to avoid "darkness."

Juniper Berry's family should be a fairy tale. Her parents are movie stars. She lives in a large house with seemingly endless methods of amusing herself. But something is awry. Juniper's parents grow increasingly dark and angry. Her fairy tale is disintegrating. One day, in the rain (oh the symbolism!), she meets a boy named Giles. His life has a familiar ring to Juniper's, and they find that their parents are connected by this twisted old tree in the woods. What follows is Juniper and Giles trying to resist the temptation of having the dreams made a reality. They'll also try to reclaim the life that they had once before. I enjoyed it... it wasn't my favorite. Juniper lacks depth as a character, and the storyline is familiar. But it was well written, and there are enough twists in the story to keep you reading.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Wednesday Wars

2011-07-14T13:16:00.001-07:00

I was very impressed with Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars. In fact, I'd say it was fantastic. I wouldn't expect much less since it was a Newbery Honor book in 2008 (as a sidenote, I'd never heard of the winning book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village until today). This story was vastly different than what I expected, which is to say that I really didn't read the book jacket very carefully!

The story is centered around a sixth grade boy named Holling Hoodhood (nope, it isn't a misspelling:). We watch him over the course of his school year, particularly focused on Wednesdays. Why Wednesday? That is the day when half of his class goes to Catholic school at 1:45, and the other half rolls out to synagogue shortly thereafter. His teacher, which Holling thinks is out to kill him, starts off by having him do menial tasks around the classroom: clean erasers, clean out the put cages (rats mind you!), etc. Later she has him read Shakespeare, which he really dislikes because of the old world writing that is difficult for an adult, let alone a 6th grader, to understand.

What makes the story captivating is the backdrop. This is during the late 60's when the Vietnam war is happening. This touches many in the story, from the teacher (Mrs. Baker) to others in the school community. Walter Cronkite is being watched at night, and there is a bit of tension that the reader can feel as the story winds onward. Lastly, you have the family with a strong willed father (determined to be the businessman of the year), the mom who is going along with the will of Holling's father, and Holling's sister who listens to the Beatles and runs away to find herself. All the while you follow Holling as he struggles to find himself and grow up in middle school. The growing up plays back into Mrs. Baker's assignments to Holling of reading Shakespeare. Overall, well done.

Rating: 5 out of 5. Growing up is a theme in many stories, but it is done masterfully in this story. It made me really excited to read Okay for Now, a follow-up of sorts to the Wednesday Wars (but with one of the side characters as the main character... it is high on the Mock Newbery lists I've read thus far).

School of Fear

2011-07-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

I picked up School of Fear around the holiday break (way back when it was 2010!). At the same time I had 1-2 kids who were already reading the book since they'd purchased it, or received it as a gift. The early reviews from kids were that it was awesome. As a few other kids read it I noticed a struggle to finish it, particularly as kids hit the midway point. That isn't a good sign, but it still remained on my to-be-read list.

There is a fairly basic premise to the story. Four kids have very different phobias. The fears range from avoidance of water to believing bugs are everywhere (so you bring repellent with you to spray everything!). All of the kids are brought together, through their own doing or that or their parents, at the School of Fear. It is an odd place with an odd teacher. The teacher's motto: a beauty contestant is always prepared. She has an odd way of helping them overcome their fears... until she dies unexpectedly. That is where I'll leave the summary, so as not to reveal the ending.

I was less than impressed with the story. I found the 4 kids to be funny at the start of the story, but their humor wore off somewhere around the middle (which jived with what I was seeing in my classroom). It picked up again in the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the story, but it wasn't enough to save the lull in the middle that was filled with dialogue/arguing amongst the kids. There is a second story out in hardcover. I opted to wait until it is out in paperback, saving my money for something a little more substantial.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Better than average because of the humorous phobias. But missing some of the substance in the storyline that I'd seen already this summer.

Revenge of the Witch (Last Apprentice Series book 1)

2011-07-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited to read the Revenge of the Witch. This was a continuation of reading books I recommended to kids (but didn't have time to read myself during the school year). Early in the year I'd gotten the Ranger's Apprentice books for the kids, and they were a huge hit. As I continued my search for different series that kids would like, I eventually picked up the IQ books by Roland Smith and the Septimus Heap series. But I'd been drawn to this series, yet hesitant to pick it up since it was in the YA section. Getting it after Spring Break, it turned out to be a nice addition to my library.

I really enjoyed Revenge of the Witch. Joseph Delaney seemed to write it with the intent of keeping the integrity of old English lore in tact- those of ghosts, boggarts, and witches. The witches, ghosts and all are warded off from those in the county by a man named the Spook. The Spook is in need of a protege, an apprentice, which is where we begin to learn about our new apprentice, Tom Ward. He is the 7th son of a 7th son, which makes him special. In particular, he can see, hear, and sense things that others cannot. His parents need to find a job for him, and agree to have him as the Spook's new apprentice.

Tom is not necessarily comfortable in his new work. His first test scares him mightily. The Spook and the Apprentice aren't necessarily welcomed with open arms either, and can you blame the people for that? They deal with witches and ghosts! The story has a scary element to it that made me pause for a second. But the story certainly doesn't have the blood or violence of some other stories, more the intimation of potential danger that can put you on edge. Like the Lightning Thief in some ways, I was intrigued by the old lore embedded in this story, and the realism that Delaney is able to weave throughout this story. I could see many of my former students behaving similarly and thinking the same thoughts as Tom. Overall, very pleased with it and excited to read the next books in the series (thankfully I brought the first 4 books home!).

Rating: 4 of 5

Swirling Thoughts

2011-07-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about my how I am going to run my book reviews for the fall. Since we will have Communicator, our one stop shop for class wiki and blog, I am going to use that for our our book reviews. I'm leaning towards having kids post one review per month. There will be certain criteria they will need to include, which I will teach. They will need to tell the story of the book without giving away the ending. They'll also need to include the elements they liked, and who they'd recommend it for.

What I really want to get into is a Mock Newbery or Young Reader's Choice competition. It has the potential to be fun. If I have multiple kids reading the same books, then the dialogue should be really robust. I also plan to have kids doing their novel study books online- at least partially. I'll have a question for each book (possibly generic, possibly specific) that the kids need to respond to. They'll then participate in responding to their peers through commenting. My guess is that I'll do this every other week- one week in person, and another online. The other great part of that is how I'll be able to have kids for different rotation groups (since I see 3) talking to each other about the same book.

I've got a few other ideas, but they are really in the infant stages currently... way more than those above. Since I'm reading so much, everything is related to how I will change my reading instruction. I'm excited!

Mockingbird by Erskine

2011-07-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

I am a bit of a book fanatic. In my spare time I cruise over to bookstores. I often say I'm just browsing, but I will typically walk away with 5-10 books to bring back to my classroom. Part of that is because I have a running list of books I want to pick up. I've scoured Newbery lists, Young Readers Choice, Global Reading Challenge, etc looking for new books to get. Sometimes I have that list physically, but more often not.

Mockingbird has been on my list for about a year now. It was out in hardcover (fun fact: I really dislike hardcover books- size, weight, cost!) and I was to get it from the library. Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead I waited until it was in paper to get it. When that happened, I immediately purchased it. Time was short, so I did what I always do: pushed it towards some of my kids allowing them to be the litmus test. The early reviews from them were very positive... so it ended up on my summer reading list.

The story is about a girl with Asperger's. Her family has just been befallen by a second tragedy. First was the passing of her mother due to cancer, and the second is the passing of her brother after a school shooting. Her trouble has less to do with his death, and more to do with the emotion that everyone says she is supposed to have. Being on the autism spectrum, she struggles when things aren't black and white.

Over the course of this story you get a small glimpse into what might be happening for someone with this disability. Processing things that take nuance and finesse are incredibly difficult, and making friends is hard. Couple those with the tragedy those around you are dealing with (and you too, but in a different way) and you have a mountain to climb. While the subject matter is touchy, heart wrenching in fact, the power of seeing our main character (Caitlin) work to overcome these many struggles was incredible. I'm really excited to have other kids read it.

Rating: 5 out of 5. It didn't win the National Book Award for nothing I guess.

Horton Halfpott

2011-07-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed Tom Angleberger's first book, the Strange Case of Origami Yoda. As I was walking through the bookstore the other day I saw Horton Halfpott, his second release. Since I was so excited about his first book I had to give this one a read.

A few words... If you don't like old English, this book is not for you. If you are not really into irony and sarcasm, this book probably isn't for you. If you don't like books with more than 4-5 points of view, this book probably isn't for you. Then who is this for? Well good question.

The story is about a servant named Horton Halfpott who works at M'Lady Luggertuck's mansion. She treats the staff poorly until her corset is loosened (no joke!). At that point all goes awry. Luggertuck's nephew wants to come stay at the mansion to woo a neighbor girl. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately for the story) Luggertuck's son devises a plan to steal the "lump," the source of the Luggertuck fortune, and convince the girl to marry him instead of the nephew. Ah, but the servants and Horton need to save the day. Horton, the noblest and quietest of the servants, becomes our main protagonist. He is certainly a likable character, far more than the Luggertucks. That is where I'll leave it so as not to give away any of the storyline.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Not overly predictable, but certainly not of the same high standard that Origami Yoda set.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

2011-06-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I had one or two students reading the Maze Runner. I looked at the back cover and read the description, and was certainly intrigued. It was definitely going onto my list of books to read this summer. I just needed to go buy it!

Well I purchased it a week ago, and was excited to tear into it. Part of the reasoning was because it was part of the Young Readers Choice Awards, a Nominee for 2012 in the Intermediate category (more on that later). After finishing it, I really enjoyed it. I just need to figure out if I am going to bring it into my classroom (and when!).

Synopsis: There is a maze. No one knows where it is, why it is there, or how anyone has gotten there. There are boys in the maze. One comes out of this box (think elevator shaft that transports them there) every month. There are also things called grievers that come out at night and can shock or kill. Oh... and no one has any previous memory, as it appears to have been wiped clean.

Then a boy named Thomas arrives. All is the same, he has lots of questions, and life continues on. Thomas has hazy, fleeting feelings that he remembers something about this place. Everything changes the following day... a girl arrives, which is odd for two reasons: 1) no girl has ever arrived and 2) it breaks up the two year pattern of one person, once a month. From there you can say the book gets running. Thomas yearns to become a runner, someone that maps the maze looking for an exit. He gets his chance after saving two boys trapped in the maze. His skills are needed as their world appears to be rapidly speeding towards a conclusion. I'll save any more, for fear of giving away too much.

I liken the book to the Hunger Games. This past year I didn't bring out the Hunger Games until January because it was so advanced. I'll likely do the same with the Maze Runner. There are elements of the book that I question (example: they save shuck it, which is an obvious allusion to the curse). That being said, I felt like the same conversations I had with kids about the Hunger Games would apply here.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (lost the .5 because of the shuck it business mentioned above).

Shadow Children by Margaret Peterson Haddix

2011-06-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

I just finished up Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This is the first book in the Shadow Children series. Haddix's other series, the Missing, was a huge hit in my classroom this year so I wanted to give this series a go. I found it to be interesting, dark, and potentially a bit over some of my kids' heads with the content.

What's it about? Luke is the third child in his family. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but the country is in totalitarian post-crisis state. In years prior, famine had spread throughout the country causing the rise a military dictator. He instituted population laws, stating that families could only have two children. The third child, if found, could be taken away and the family would be in significant trouble. Luke is a shadow child- he is destined to never see the outside world.

Luke struggles with this, angry for much of the book, until he realizes that there are other third children. One lives nearby, and he sneaks out to meet her. She introduces Luke to things he has never seen- computers, junk food, etc (all because the government has banned many of these things). She dreams of being free which inspires Luke. But this is a tricky, tricky matter putting Luke's (and Jen's) family in danger.

Long story short: I had this in the classroom this year after mid-year. The kids who liked Found and Sent enjoyed this book. Some put the book down, which I believe was connected to the content. The book deals with a dystopian landscape, not unlike that in the Hunger Games. Overpopulation and famine are issues. Issues of food quality and government restriction exist as well. While they are questions raised today, I wonder whether some of my kids will have the schema to really put the puzzle pieces together (and the stones throw from realism in the story).

Rating: Three out of five stars (I know, the rating is new... but I want to get in the habit of doing this since I will ask my kids to do this in the fall).

Next up: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Alvin Ho, Allergic to... Everything

2011-06-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Alvin Ho (book 1) by Lenore Look. It is listed as a Young Readers Award nominee for 2012, so I decided to give it a read. After doing so, I was left unimpressed. The story is about a 2nd grader, Alvin Ho, who is quirky. He doesn't talk at school out of some sort of fear, and he tends to be rather literal or cautious in his actions.

I have a few qualms with the story. The first is that it doesn't really have much direction. Alvin matures a little towards the end of the story, finally making a friend (something he lacked throughout the entire story). But it ends up being a myriad of vignettes chronicling Alvin's day in and day out. Beyond that, Alvin's oddities are many leaving him a tad overwhelming as a character. While many of his oddities fit for someone in elementary school, I've rarely seen all of them wrapped into one with kiddos.

Long and short of it: the book will make it into my library, and is much like Judy Moody except better. Some of my kids that struggle getting into books will enjoy this as it doesn't require intense amounts of focus to stay with the storyline.

Top 5 Books: 2010-11 edition

2011-06-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

I pushed books on my kids like there was no tomorrow. I'd purchase books, read them, and then really get kids into them. They, in turn, recommended them to their friends. Using informal observations of which books magically came back on the last day, along with what I saw kids reading, here were the Top 5 from the 2010-11 school year.

1) Percy Jackson series- in particular the Last Olympian (since it came out in paperback this year).

2) The Hunger Games- the first book was most popular, but the second one also made the rounds. Some made it to Mockingjay, but it was certainly the least popular of the bunch.

3) Warriors- Whoa. Not a huge cat fighting, personification type of person, but this was huge in my classroom.

4) Guardians of Ga'hoole- Same as Warriors to some extent... but with owls.

5) The Kane Chronicles- Red Pyramid and Throne of Fire were huge hits. I am not sure I saw the former in my room after the first month. It just circulated!

Honorable Mention: The Lost Hero (Riordan is well liked in my classroom), When You Reach Me, Moon Over Manifest, Al Capone Does My Shirts, and Found (Sent and Sabotaged by Haddix were also well liked... this was particularly liked).

Chasing Vermeer

2011-06-26T06:45:00.001-07:00

Just finished reading Chasing Vermeer. We have copies of this in our leveled library, and I have one in my classroom library, so I figured I'd give it a go. The story is about two kids, Petra and Calder. They live in Chicago and go to 6th grade at a school located at the University of Chicago. Their teacher is an art aficionado, and is big on flying by the seat of her pants.

At that point a famous painting called A Lady Writing goes missing with some mysterious ransom notes thrown in. The kids then try to find out where the painting is, and why their teacher (and two others that they know) seem to be mixed up in this crime. The chase to find the painting, and the quest for the "real" Vermeer works leads them into danger, and is captivating at times.

There were a few missteps, in my estimation. First is the problem solving ability of the kids. While 6th graders are bright, these two seemed to jump to conclusions awfully quickly, particularly an issue since they weren't friends to start with. Friends tend to finish each other's sentences, but these two were not really friends to start with. The second issue, for me, was the addition of pentominos. What are pentominoes? Essentially they are figures (letters) comprised on 5 squares. Together they can be put together to make rectangles. Calder uses them throughout and they tend to be ominous signs... except that Calder and Petra always guess what the letter means (since Calder fiddles with them and pulls them out of his pocket when nervous). I'd much rather be left to predict meaning than be told.

On the whole, I think the kids will find it enjoyable. I don't think it will be one of my top books, but it will be checked out for sure.

That's a Wrap

2011-06-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day in the classroom for the 2010-11 school year. We finished with kids on Wednesday, I got myself checked out, and then returned yesterday to clean out files before summer. It feels nice to be done, and to have a break from school (plus sleeping in until 7:30 or 8 instead of 5:45 is great!). This is my post-year reflection, and thoughts moving forward.

What went well?
The year as a whole was a success. I certainly felt more comfortable with the resources I was using, and with the pace that I was teaching at. As much as teaching is about data, it is also a social science where feeling and perception are important. On that end, it went well. Particular units/topics/pieces of instruction went over well. Studying the colonies and American Revolution were great, and our end of year CBA where students chose topics to investigate (deforestation, bike laws, video game violence) were all well received. My integration of technology into those areas likely helped those areas along, as we utilized netbooks for research and assessment (PowerPoint, PhotoStory, Publisher, etc).

I also felt like I did was far more effective with novel study. I used a wider variety of novel study books, all of which I'd read. I tailored my questioning to the books (as opposed to generic questioning), and focused on inferential/analysis questions. Kids were having really good discussions with their peers about books, which certainly made me very happy. I also felt like my classroom library lent itself to high quality reading. I bought a ton of books, and pushed them out to the kids. They responded by reading them (happily), and recommending them to their peers. This was a huge part of the 20 Book Challenge too. I'd say over 75% of the kids met the 20 book threshold, which I am happy with.

What could have been better?
At the start of the year I'd really wanted to integrate writing with social studies. In particular, I wanted to use the Units of Study throughout my social studies work. I abandoned that relatively quickly, largely because of the amount of time needed to make a piece of writing happen. Instead of having a few pieces of smaller writing to start with, I jumped into something a bit longer. That became a time vacuum, and I needed to move forward. It is something I want to continue but will investigate ways to better integrate it.

More discussion, particularly around analysis and inferential questioning. I did quite a bit with that this year. I'd still like to do more. I also want to better track my data using excel and pivot tables- more frequent, less invasive, natural harvest of data. I mean exit slip, short reading response types of things. I can do better.

What is ahead?
Lots of summer reading. Currently I am reading Chasing Vermeer, and have started the Golden Compass, and the Graveyard Book. I have about 20 books on my shelf. I also want to read Guiding Readers and Writers, but likely won't crack that open until mid July.

Mock Newbery

2011-06-22T16:29:00.001-07:00

As I have been laying around this afternoon (nice to say, finally!) I've been scanning the Internet for books. I plan to hit the bookstore tomorrow to create a stack of books I want to read. Of course that makes me think of possible Newbery Award winners. I loved this year's selection, Moon Over Manifest, particularly because it came out of nowhere to win the Newbery.

That leads me to a plan for next year. This summer I am going to use some of the various resources out there to compile a list of 10-12 books that I want to circulate, and get kids to read in the fall. That will be in hopes of having our own Mock Newbery discussion in the fall. This will work well with our movement to Communicator, an online system that essentially creates a hub for blogging and wiki-ing. I'll share some of those resources I've found soon!

Bittersweet Symphony

2011-06-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

School ended today. I will admit that I was running on fumes as we reached the finish line. Scoring the social studies CBA (classroom based assessments), reading assessments, and writing assessments left me drained. 65 assessments each, give or take a few, making for a huge strain on the brain. Add to that a field trip, whole school talent show, and end of year party and you've got a very tired teacher.

I was sad to see the kiddos go. Some of our kids from last year visited us again, and were sad to be leaving. Our kids this year were a good group also, and were sad to go (but excited for summer!). We were sad to see them go. But onward to summer. I have a few things to accomplish, and below is a tentative list....

Clean my computer files- tomorrow!

Clean all my paper files- tomorrow!

Do some room re-arranging- tomorrow... or in August.

Reflect on the school year- tomorrow or Friday (wrap it up! Blog about it tomorrow)

Do some professional reading (Guiding Reading and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell is high on my list, as is going through the Writer's Workshop books, and Reader's Workshop books)... mid/late July!

Read 2+ kids books a week... reviews to come. Only way to stay current!

Tomorrow I'll put a wrap on the year by going through some of the kids' reflections. From there it is time to relax and not think about school for a bit!

Angling Towards the Finish

2011-06-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

We're 2.5 weeks out from the finish of the school year. There is quite a bit to accomplish in the coming weeks: 2 sets of assessments, pushed back this late because of state testing; a field trip; a grade level party; grades and comments! This week is going to be tough!

The first order of business is going to be scoring the CBAs. I have scored 11 of the 13 I've received, and plan to finish the other 2 shortly. I'll get the other 52 tomorrow, which means I'll need to budget my time wisely. The upside is that I need to administer the Spring Writing Assessment, which will take 2 days (why two days- I need to have all the kids participate, and I see them for an hour per day... so 2 days!). During those times I'll score CBAs, hopefully getting through all of them by Thursday (13 per day, although likely 5-6 on Monday and 15 per day the other three days).

After the CBA commenting and scoring comes the writing assessment grading. That will take place Friday and over the weekend. The major difficultly in that is the amount of time it takes to read and thoughtfully comment. Checking the writing against the rubric is fairly easy after you've gotten into a groove of 3 or 4. But writing comments is a bear, largely because commenting needs to be specific and useful to the writer. Good job and needs work are too vague to really make an impression. I'll admit that part of me is conflicted because the kids often look at the score and disregard the comments, but that is for an entirely different post.

The last thing I "need" to do is get back to reading kids books. Kid lit is fantastic, and was a huge focus for 3/4 of the year. But I'm more than a little tired. Reading kids books, while enjoyable, reminds me of what I need to do for my kids. That is great... but a little exhausting in June.

Two and a half weeks. Lots of to do. I definitely need to make time count.

To Do List

2011-05-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

It is Memorial Day and I'm working. What is on my to do list? Good question.

Processing receipts for reimbursement- I have an Excel spreadsheet to track all my school expenditures, but I like to double check.

Reading 65 current event summaries- We had an in class reading/summary current event on the coming end of NASA's shuttle program. Now I need to read, comment, score, and enter into the online gradebook.

Find a few more resources for some of the CBA topics- some kiddos are coming up empty on the research front, and not because they aren't trying.

Re-map out this week- I typically map out my weeks a week or more in advance. In this case I need to re-evaluate where we are in our CBA, and what needs to happen in order to be sure we are successful.

Re-map out next week- Stuff gets pushed around, so I need to see where some of the assessment work needs to be placed in order to make sure it ends up in the gradebook (and on the report card). Assessments include the district writing prompt for Spring, and our Spring Reading Assessment.

Make a first pass at report card comments- I've got 16 days until report card comments and grades are due... knowing I have writing and reading assessments to score/comment, and CBAs to read/score/comment, I better get cracking.

Not too much. Just enough to keep me busy, right?

A Promising Start

2011-05-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Two of my three groups have started the CBA. I anticipate it taking until next Friday with a few extensions mixed in. For a few there will be some simplification- narrowing of topics, resources in order to help with problem solving. While a wide net allows for student choice, it does not help those students that struggle organizing information or getting started (a broad array of choices can be overwhelming).

For the two that started, so far so good. I have gone through discussing issues and possible solutions. I've had students collaborate on solutions, and discuss compromises since not all people want it solved in the same way. We got off to a slow start, but a vast majority of kids have workable issues and understand who some of the stakeholders are on each side. From there they had some freedom to search on their own prior to the guided research lesson.

Research and culling information from articles looks like it will be the most difficult piece. My experience has been that we (meaning those who are under the age of 35 +/- a few years) are not the most patient bunch. We see something and want the answer before us. What is with this writing to explain both sides stuff?! It is increasingly so the younger you get (I know, painting with a broad brush). Reading a 2 page article on recycling, particularly when I am not versed in the intricacies of the concept, is yawn inducing and difficult. Tomorrow we are going to take our issue and write it as a question, then look at keywords associated with that question:

Issue: Recycling
Question: Should people recycle more than they do?
Keywords: recycling, increase, decrease, amount, recycling program, garbage, trash, cities, people

From there I am going to model searching... We'll find an article that looks good, but doesn't work (by reading the first 2 paragraphs... then skimming for the keywords, since our search program highlights the keywords). Then we'll find one that does work (same process), and work to cull out 2-3 key sentences before bookmarking for future reading. My objective is that they can analyze sources for relevance to their topic, so it should be an interesting day of research.

Why I Like the Netbooks

2011-05-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

We are three months into our netbook pilot. As with any tool, you need to exercise your professional judgement. I can see some teachers opting to pull them out at any opportunity with a variety of activities that don't necessarily further students' understanding of concepts, or don't utilize the tool effectively. An example of that might be simply sending kids to a website (that is technology use right?!). That isn't the way that I have, or plan, to use the netbooks.

What I'm really excited about is the ability to go paperless. I've mentioned this previously here. If you follow #edchat on twitter you'll often see mentions of dropboxes, and other paperless tools. We have those in district, cutting out the need for many outside tools or sites. On Friday I opted to have the kiddos do a current events summary of an article on the space shuttle Endeavour (by the way, 2nd to last shuttle launch from NASA). After firing up the netbooks, the kids went to our class wiki to find the article. They opened the article, and most read it on the netbook. Since I had it in Word instead of as a PDF, they were able to highlight information right on the screen (some opted to print, but that was about 10-15% of the kids; I know you could highlight in a PDF assuming you have Acrobat... we just have Reader). Once they finished reading they started typing their summaries, saving them to their network drive. After that they dropped it into a folder in our class dropbox, which makes grading a snap.

Next year I'll likely do two different lessons on finding main ideas. The first will involve printing an article (integrating the netbooks, adding a printer as well- which can be a pain!) and highlighting or underlining on the page. We'll look at the underlined work to see if it encapsulates the article, as well as taking the time to debate which information is essential to understanding the article. The second lesson will be entirely paperless. Once we've worked on the skill, we'll integrate technology through practicing highlighting information (and possibly using the strikethrough tool). I see the possibilities, but also the glaring need to ensure they have success as readers and tech savvy students.

Sidewalk Art

2011-05-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Got sidewalks? Parts of my neighborhood don't (as seen to the left... although that is from flickr and isn't me!). An image like that one to the left is going to be the opener for my CBA. As part of the guided release process we will do some visual discovery using 1-2 images from my neighborhood. From there we'll talk about questions we wonder about, and if there is an issue depicted. The natural progression should be: I see a place without sidewalks, the issue is whether all neighborhoods should have sidewalks. People need to be safe when walking around their neighborhood.

I really like the state CBA. It asks kids to ponder current issues by thinking about stakeholders, and how rights or the common good are impacted. The key is effective modelling. Kids need to see how to brainstorm different issues, research different points of view, and put it together in order to persuade others to see your position. We've worked at length regarding seeing multiple points of view, but it can be difficult applying it to a new setting that is more open-ended. I'll likely give lots of freedom, but enough structure that kids see where we are going. Graphic organizer? Yep, you need to use it. Presentation format? Yep, needs to be PowerPoint, brochure, or essay. Can you do any issue? Sure (although guns, death penalty, and drugs are out- those not school appropriate). Will some kids need more monitoring and guidance? Yep. You just need to know who those kids are.

CBA Launch

2011-05-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are next on my list. Instead of some of the in-depth work that I wanted to do, I am doing more simplistic reading comprehension work. As I mapped out the final few weeks I saw how little time I really allotted for the CBA. I expected that the question formulation, research, drafting, revising, and completion would take 2 weeks. It should... but not when the 2 weeks have other odds and ends mixed in (like Memorial Day, Field Day, Talent Show, etc). Ugh!

The solution is to condense a few things in order to ensure enough time to finish the CBA in an appropriate amount of time. The goal is to go over branches of government and talk about rights, with a progression into particular issues that kids brainstorm. We'll start the brainstorming together, using a WCYDWT sort of thing. There are a few different approaches I am tossing around. One might be 2-3 images (something like the arrival of construction equipment, a map, and blueprint) and 1-2 questions for kids to wrestle with- how might this impact the community? what are the positives/negatives of this event?. Another idea is to have one image (something like open green space, or a wetland) and start entirely from scratch- what does this image make you think of? how is this image important to the community? I am not 100% how I want to approach it, but I do know that the latter was done (by me) and was successful in some ways.

The ultimate goal is to get kids wondering about issues around them. I want kids to ask questions that naturally lead them into research, and naturally lead them into supporting/refuting their opinion. I do know that I am going to restrict the presentation formats. Just because you have access to 8 or 9 different platforms doesn't mean you need to use all of them. I've got 7-10 instruction days left before it starts. Should be fun!

Making American History Current?

2011-05-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

One of the things I struggle with is making American History applicable in 2011. Some students just can't identify with history. It ends up being boring, and lacking in some of the advantages of artifacts and things in present-day. To me, that is what draws me to things like WCYDWT and Dan Meyer's other math problem solving ideas. Using multimedia that is visually interesting, and inspires questions that you want to solve gets kids really involved in learning.

On a daily basis I teach reading through social studies (and with some novel study). Specifically, I teach American History pre-1800. My teaching includes the Stamp Act. It includes the redcoats. It includes US government in basic structure. In what ways can I integrate present-day multimedia beyond simply drawing analogies? That is the challenge I am going to wrestle with heading into the close of the year. I've got some ideas for the CBA (classroom based assessment) that I'll share tomorrow (hopefully).

Real Math

2011-05-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this on twitter... quite funny.

Persuade Me

2011-04-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of finishing my pre-American Revolution unit. Kids get a feel for the colonies, what types of jobs are available, and how they were different. Then they get a feel for why the colonists want to split from Great Britain- things like the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party. The last section, before diving into the American Revolution, are some speeches for and against independence.

The oddity of this unit is that the kids know the ending: the colonies split (hooray) and win independence (double hooray). The nitty gritty they don't know, nor do they necessarily need to know in 5th grade (bits for sure). But the broader aspects are where they often hold complete fallacies. For example, most of my kids thought that everyone thought slavery was bad (not true- although I am glad they hold that sentiment now, good starting point). Most thought that a majority of people were patriots wanting independence ("Come'n, who wants to pay taxes on paper items?!").

One of the pieces we are doing is a dual reading/writing one. I had kids pick 1's and 2's, then had one student pick a piece of paper out of a bucket. There were two papers in the bucket, and the one she drew was the side (and other's with her number) needed to represent in a bit of speech writing. Why assigned a side? Well we know how it ends, right? Wouldn't you want to be on the winning side too? The excitement in the room when people were drafted into the loyalist and patriot camp was fantastic. It really set the tone for their research since all of them want to have really persuasive speeches. Hopefully that will carry into this week, and some great work and speeches.

Standards

2011-04-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

I've had a handful of conversations about state standards of late. To paraphrase all of those conversations: your curriculum is your state standards. The confusion comes with adopted materials that teachers have at their disposal. In any given set of materials you have any number of holes. By that I mean teaching those materials alone will cover a vast majority of your standards, but you'll likely miss a few standards because you don't have a kit hitting that science standard, or a unit that includes money, etc.

Is that a big revelation? No, it isn't. But you need exercise some professional judgement before going through units 1-20 in lockstep.

New Platform

2011-04-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

My district is moving towards a roll-out of a new online platform for elementary and secondary students. The platform is an online one-stop site for kids and teachers to access and communicate. I wasn't able to go to the first training because of a conflicting training, but tinkered with it today. I spent about an hour adding discussion posts, creating a blog, adding pictures, and adding "news items." This should be a great addition to the repertoire.

I currently have kids submitting assignments via a dropbox on our district network, and we use our class wiki fairly heavily (although we don't edit it in quite the way we did last year). I have wanted to start a blog for kids, but was reluctant to do so because of privacy issues. While this blog will be restricted to staff, and students, I feel significantly more comfortable with the level of privacy. The audience piece will be different (not people globally or even in the greater Seattle area) but I think it will work out just fine. Why I am doing this on a Saturday is beyond me. Maybe I'm just that much of a geek who has little better to do than think about the instructional possibilities that will grow my practice.

Library Cards

2011-04-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

I had a student yesterday who asked: "Mr. Hanson, can I still borrow books from your library next year?" I replied, "Sure you can. You're always welcome to borrow my books." To which the student said, "Good, because you have a lot of books I still want to read and I'm not sure they'll have them in 6th grade."

If there is one thing I have worked hard to do, it is maintaining my classroom library. I have a shelf in the front of the room with "new books" which are either new or new to my classroom. To have kids talking about books, asking me what they should read next, and an exchange like that above, couldn't make me any happier. There were kids who weren't excited about reading before this year that are plowing through whole series' of books. It makes me excited to go find some more books!

Trends in Reading

2011-04-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

My kids were describing their characters, outside and in, today. I phrase outside and in because the outside is often the most common first go-to for my kiddos when it comes to describing characters. The start is often something like...

Well he is tall, with brown hair.

She is a girl that is 12 who has short curly hair.

What I have stressed is that the external characteristics are not the only important piece of information. It certainly helps you visualize what the author is trying to convey, letting you truly see who that character is in your minds-eye. But the real work begins when you start to understand who the character is, what they do, and how they interact with others (next week we'll work on how you take those characteristics and hypothesize/theorize about solutions). It is fascinating to see the evidence kids provide for characteristics, and how they put it all together.

But where this is going is how successful my kids are with specific skills in reading. Today was story elements (GLE 2.2.3? or 1? or something like that) while tomorrow might be predictions. Either way I need to track those individual skills. Previously I mentioned how reading is often seen (by me at least) holistically. You might not be good at predicting, but you can evaluate, compare, and identify story elements. As a whole you are in good shape. But for me I need to do a better job tracking those individual skills. So what I am doing is breaking out my assessment by the pieces I am doing for my instruction- ie. story elements, inferring, etc. I'll still track the whole. But I want to be sure I am watching the individual skills. This way I can filter assessments, and see whether those are part of an overall trend (i.e. not very successful with story elements) or whether it was a blip on the screen. The visual in simply playing around today was powerful, and should help me better meet kids needs.

Project vs. Content

2011-04-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we'll have a finish day: finish up the outstanding work, and make it truly outstanding (instead of it standing out for not being finished!). As I have mentioned a few times before, I struggle balancing moving kids along versus letting them work through content and programs to finish really good projects. A great example is our Best Explorer Project. For a few it was a zip, and they moved through it rather quickly. But for the majority it was a slow crawl through the content, project planning and implementation process. At some point 2 days becomes 3, becomes 5, becomes two weeks! The length of time is not for lack of understanding. The vast majority understand the task, comprehend the content, and are working through putting it together. But when it was planned (by me!) the amount of time anticipated for completing the project was vastly different than the amount actually required. Great learning moment(s), but not so great currently. What do you do? I have gone through the list of 3 different items that have projects/work that needs to be turned in, and created a list of those needing to submit work. Tomorrow we'll work on a brief piece of work for our novel study books, then turn our attention to completing those projects and moving on. Some of this is rooted in the netbooks we have, and the blessing/curse that they provide. We have them so we use them. They have been a great tool, and allow kids to do a variety of publishing and research projects. But they also end up being the ultimate distraction- can I add another animation? can I add some music? do I need to change the start/end location on the picture with PhotoStory? Great for allowing kids to create visual media, but also great at extending projects from 2 days to 10 (particularly when you don't want to!). Not a problem with my kids, since they are trying to make really good projects... not to mention the fact that they are trying to understand how to use different programs. But a learning experience for me.

Managing Units of Study

2011-03-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am a proponent of the Units of Study, and the workshop model. The idea is to give short mini-lessons on strategies and skills that kids can use in authentic settings. During the independent work time you confer with kids, and monitor how successful they are with what you are teaching. You then wrap up with a sharing session that highlights student work, and gives students the opportunity to see student work that is (or approximates) what the lesson intended. Where I have struggled is meshing that together. In a broad sense "Units of Study" is composed of 4-6 books with 16 lessons in each. I can't necessarily teach with "Units..." wholesale. We have other reading materials, and I am also responsible for Social Studies (a literacy rich content area for sure). How do you take a really good resource, and use it while still using the other materials you have? That is where I am trying to spend some energy during this break. A great example is in reading the Units of Study for Writing book entitled "Literary Essays". The idea is to get kids writing about books by analyzing characters, and the author's word choice, therefore living in the shoes of the characters being studied. As I have been reading through it I have seen glimpses of what I already do on a much smaller scale. In my novel study packet I have had kids comparing/contrasting themselves to a character. I've had them analyzing character traits, and explaining why. But what I see in "Units..." that I haven't done is having kids add more of their feeling into their writing. That is one thing "Units.." does exceptionally well. It gets kids to empathize with characters, and pour that onto the page. I haven't stressed that, but have simultaneously hoped for it. I feel silly now, but see it as an opportunity to grow. My wavering on whether to do a third novel study has grown into a resolve to give this a try. I'll likely simplify the process for responding so that they can focus on work on employing some of the new instruction. Definitely excited.

Ways to Spend Your Time

2011-03-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

Spring Break is here. It is half over, but it feels great. How do I fill the time?

Read kids books. Already done with Moon Over Manifest (2011 Newbery Award Winner), and the Westing Game (also a Newbery Winner). Currently in the midst of Catching Fire (Hunger Games book 2) and purchased Heart of a Samurai, and Mockingjay.

I run. Lots. Aiming for 90+ miles this week, which is great considering I was sick last week.

I plan my coming weeks.

I think big picture about instruction...

Questions I'm working over, but will address in another post...

In what ways can I mesh the Literary Essays book of the Units of Study for Writing with my current novel study structure? So many good things in there that I do, but in a different way. How can I reinvent what I already do to be more impactful?

How can I better utilize the end of my day? I'd virtually given up on read aloud because of where it fit. My writing instruction also hasn't been what I had envisioned either. Not coincidentally, both were/are in the last 75 minutes of my day.

What technology tools can I leverage to do quick checks of reading comprehension? Is it google docs with a quick form? Is it using my district dropbox? I wasn't too thrilled with the latter, but that could have been my setup not the implementation.

What quick assessments can I use to monitor skills, and better adjust my instruction? This dovetails on yesterday's posts where I want some quicker checks that I can put into a spreadsheet to help track how kids are doing on particular skills in order to ensure timely feedback. I do this... but without the papertrail that I want (or need).

Data Driven

2011-03-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

I did some exploration today regarding the use of data in directing instruction. More specifically, how I do put Excel to work for me so that the data can be disaggregated. If you are interested in the ways that Excel can be used then you need to check out School Data Tutorials. I can certainly get myself around Excel. But I really hadn't done much with things like Pivot Tables or Filters. Definitely worth checking that out.

Where's the Data?

2011-03-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Data is a touchy subject in teaching. We are moving, or already have, towards being a data-driven profession where our instruction is based on that information. That is scary for some, a necessary evil for others, and entirely fine for another group. I feel like I fit into the latter of those groups, but that is a feeling... data is devoid of feeling! That, to me, is where the hangup is. Data removes the heart and soul from teaching, leaving you with numbers which you wonder "are they really representative of that kid? was it just a bad day?" Where I've struggled of late is capturing the minutia in data. Here is what I mean. I teach literacy through social studies. I'll teach reading skills, we'll practice using them, and we'll use all of those skills holistically to comprehend text. When I assess, I'm often assessing holistically. That is, I am not simply looking at inferring but rather summarizing, monitoring details, envisionment, etc. When it gets scored, I don't say you are below standard in inferring, but above standard in summarizing. I note those areas that need work, but look at them holistically in order to determine where they are at as a reader. You can always be weaker in a particular area, but show proficiency in total. I struggle to capture the data when it is broken out by reading area. I know it because I make some notes, and group kids for reteaching on those areas. But as a whole I don't have a spreadsheet, or data collector, that shows that progress over time.... and I want that. That's going to toss and turn in my brain for the next foreseeable future. Author Post-Script: I had seen a post on the Tempered Radical waaaay back about this sort of thing and decided to go digging. I found it in this post, and how he used Excel to solve that problem. Worth checking out.

Video Killed the Radio Star

2011-03-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to watch/listen to some of my wife's national boards for teaching videos yesterday. As part of the super rigorous process you videotape a few lessons that you taught. They are 5+ minutes in length and show different parts of your teaching- some of your instruction, some student response. She taped way more than she ended up using, largely because you need to make sure what you have fits the criteria for the particular entry you are writing for. That got me thinking about videotaping my in classroom. I haven't done any taping this year in my classroom. I taped 2-3 times last year as part of the New Teacher Support Program. It was really helpful to see what I was doing and exactly how I was doing it. How was I selecting kids? Was I selecting some kids more than others? Where was I standing? How did that impact student behavior? What level of questioning was I using? Was it aimed at my objective, or was it confusing and misdirected? I'm considering taping 1 lesson a week to see get an idea of what I am doing. It will also get me more comfortable with the videotaping process in advance of my own run through National Boards... in 2 years.

How sick?

2011-03-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

I'm finally on Spring Break. It officially started on Friday at 3:01pm, but it feels like it started today. Why? I was sick almost all week. I would wake up feeling ok, slight cough and little runny nose, and head into work. I'd make it through until 3:30 before packing up to head home. On the ride home I'd feel achy, before laying down for 11-12 hours. The next day I'd repeat the process. I was far better Thursday evening and Friday was 1,000x better but still congested. All of that got me thinking. I went it for a few reasons. First, it is a pain to write sub plans. By the time I would have had them written I would have lost some of that much needed sleep time. While I have the skeleton for my sub plans set, it still takes time to adjust. That is particularly so when you utilize technology heavily like I do (plus we were doing a tech project). Second, I feel like I will provide better instruction than a sub regardless of my level of health. 10% of me is better than 100% of a sub, which is not to knock subs (they have a tough job, but I know my kids and know our instructional goals). If I were in another profession would I make the same decision? If I were in marketing or advertising or some other area of business, would I make the same choice? I doubt I do. While I have a tremendous amount of loyalty I doubt I'd decide to buck up and head in.

Teacher Evaluation

2011-03-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I was cleaning out my Google Reader. I often leave my education postings to the weekend, not wanting to burn myself out on education during the week (between 7am-5pm, and twitter postings, it can be a bit much). One post I found today (from Dan Meyer) was a link to a Washington Post article on teacher evaluation. Teacher evaluation is a huge topic of discussion, particularly because of the documentary Waiting for Superman. In a nutshell, the discussion post-WFS has dealt with "bad teachers" and how to get rid of them. That doesn't even go into where "good teachers" come from, or where the line of teachers to replace the bad teachers is. Alas I digress.

The Washington Post article was difficult to read. I cringed a few times as I was reading, particularly as the evaluation wrapped up. The teacher had adjusted to meet the needs of his kids, but it appeared from the article that his lesson was flawed from the get-go. There are many blanks, largely because it is a reporter, the evaluator, and the teacher. Evaluation is objective, which is what scares people. If you don't get along with someone then they might be prejudiced in their evaluation of the teacher. The article showed that the teacher cared about his kids, but didn't clearly show if his planning set him up for effective instruction. I wonder a little bit why he moved from showing the commutative process to place value. Wouldn't you already have an idea about place value issues through some pre-assessment? It seemed a little curious to me.

The article made me think about teacher evaluation in my district. Administrators have a pre and post evaluation meeting with you to accompany your observation. This goes along with a summative meeting at the end of the year. Administrators gather where your lesson fits in your instructional plan, why you are doing it, and how you'll instruct to meet the needs of your kids. If you alter your instruction you can discuss why you made that change, and what signalled why that change should be made. Is there a chance that bias or prejudice comes the process? Sure, we are human beings. Do I know if it happens? I can only speak for my own experience, which I judge to have been very fair thus far (so no, it has not happened to me or someone I know of). I also operate under the premise that I am going to be judged fairly, not worrying about the emotion tied to evaluation. There isn't an expectation that you are perfect, but you definitely need to know what you are doing. You need to be thinking about the evidence that will speak to the effectiveness of you instruction. But shouldn't you already be doing that?

We are in an objective profession. We aren't perfect.

Too Much!

2011-03-15T20:08:00.001-07:00

I ordered the Units of Study for Reading at the start of March. I've been looking for some other materials to help me get my head around how I organize my literacy time. I combined Social Studies with novel study and our Houghton Mifflin materials. But I have always felt that the time is disjointed. My concern is that using either of the above materials too much ends up tilting the needle too far away from something that needs to be incorporated (i.e. lots of social studies means no fiction; lots of Houghton Mifflin means less authentic reading time AND too little authentic non-fiction).

Well the Units of Study arrived. As excited as I was to receive it, I was also overwhelmed. I've already got my assessment book to read, not to mention the class I need to attend. But I'm also leading our tech training on Friday, which gives me a little pause- you want to do well, but nerves always set in to some degree. Lastly, I have a project I want to get off the ground on Monday, so my available time has diminished significantly. If only there were more time!

Ant Farm

2011-03-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

While we aren't getting an ant farm for the classroom, we are starting to read about the colonies. I'm particularly excited about it because of how I am planning to integrate technology. Previously I had kids read about 8 different explorers then compare them, and present a "Best Explorer" project. The project was done entirely paperless, and it worked out very well (albeit a little long because of snow). The products that the kids made were great, accomplishing the objective of comparing and contrasting explorers based on particularly information areas (background, motives, impact on native people). Kids also, for the most part, did a nice job making clear evaluations of who was best and why. Those that didn't were largely mired in presenting information and not connecting the dots in their presentation (not particularly egregious).

Where everything steps into high gear is with the colonies project. This will not be entirely paperless, but we'll cut back on the paper use quite a bit. My objective is for kids to analyze information describing the colonies. Working in reverse, I'll be assessing them two-fold:

1) by looking at a group (2 people to maximize participation) PhotoStory product advertising one of the colonies, and persuading people to live there (*assuming you can get in your time machine and go back to the 1600-1700's).
2) by looking at a short paragraph written independently explaining why someone would want to live in one of the other colonies (not the one they did in part one).

Assessment part one feeds into part two. They get a chance to work together in analyzing a colony in part one, which will be a more formal check for understanding. Part two allows for the kids to stand alone. We'll use the Photostory presentations as a jigsaw type of activity, which will also shorten the overall length that they need to read. Since Photostory is on each of the netbooks, I am pretty excited about how this should take off. Now I just need to create the storyboard for them to use!

Novel Study Take Two

2011-03-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

I'm running a second round of novel study. This time around I've changed it up. Many of my concerns were expressed here. Running groups with 65 kids is challenging, there isn't much of an alternative. While I've seen whole classes read the same book, I'm not sure I could make that work in my classroom. The variance in reading levels makes it quite challenging.

What has changed this time around? The reading kids need to do happens mainly at home. I provide one 15 minute block for kids to read, but they are otherwise expected to get it done for homework. I went through the math with 2 or 3 kids that said they didn't have time, and they actually have close to 2 hours during the week AT SCHOOL to get it done (time in the morning, afternoon, and when we transition- reading as a settling activity we have all kids do). I've also taken away many of the other pieces of homework so that they have a focus on the reading.

What else has changed? I am having kids do discussion questions (3 of them) before meeting with their group. Previously it was one kid responding on paper for their group, and it never gave me a real eye into their thinking (duh, that was the point!). Looking at their response sheets, and listening to their groups, I was really excited about the change. Kids who said "I didn't understand that" were coming to a better understanding. Kids were excited to talk about their books with each other. I also felt like it was more equitable since everyone had something to contribute.

I'll continue to tweak. But for now, a good start. Lots to do heading into Spring Break!

Talk About It

2011-03-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

There are times that having vibrant student discussion can be like climbing a mountain. The overt questions are fairly forgiving, if not scalable for most learners. Conceptually there is little rigor, and kids often feel fairly safe responding. Why? Because being wrong is on a lack of knowledge, a gap in their learning.

But there comes a point where the climb becomes difficult- make that the proverbial snow line, or perhaps a little further up when you start to feel the work load increase. Often this is when students need to analyze information, evaluate it, and maybe even offer an explanation for their evaluation. The fear is no longer that you don't know information, but that you won't see the information the way your peers do.

This week we had a discussion session about explorers. I crafted four slides for my Activboard flipchart that one might feasibly see in a "Best Explorer Presentation." This was spun to the kids as "These are slides that were created last year, but have been touched up to make their look more presentable." In actuality they were the result a mental compilation of slides I have seen in PowerPoint presentations in my two years of teaching. I handed out the slides, reminding kids that we were going to only be looking at the Ideas/Content column on our rubric. We then examined slides one by one, scored them based on the rubric with NO half scores. Kids needed to look at the criteria and make an evaluation that they would explain to a peer (and potentially the whole group).

The result: Fantastic student discussion focused on characteristics of a good presentation. I pulled popsicle sticks for who would respond, telling what they chose and why. The next people to respond needed to state if they agreed or disagreed and why. Kids did a fantastic job being respectful of each other, but also pointing to specific things in the rubric and slides that helped them make their evaluation. Beyond that, they then were working on their presentations and had great success integrating elements of the Level 3 (at standard) and Level 4 (exceeding standard) presentation into their work. Hopefully this yields a great set of projects, and some great learning around comparing, contrasting, and evaluating!

Are We There Yet?!

2011-03-05T16:34:00.001-08:00

The title can mean a variety of things. Spring Break? Not there yet, but I wish we were. The red circles around my eyes are evidence of how tired I am. Finished with explorers? Nope. Wish we were, but the project we are working on has been pushed into next week. Hopefully it will end by Tuesday. Are we to novel study unit number 2? Nope. See reasons for explorer project above!

The upside is that I think we are doing some really great work. Our work on "Who is the Best Explorer?" has gone well (but a little long). Kids are analyzing information about explorers, and asking really great evaluative questions. They're wondering which explorer had the best/worst impact on native people? Who accomplished the goal they set out for? Whose accomplishments were more important or notable? While some of the questioning is subjective (well, most of it is subjective), it has forced them to analyze the information they see in a critical way. The only real downside, as I stated previously, is that it has taken longer than I'd like (we've got other things to work on!). I speak to one of our discussions this week in a post tomorrow or Monday.

A positive outcome from our explorer project has been familiarity with netbooks. We're piloting them in our grade level, and the kids have done a great job with them. They are incredibly respectful of them, and have treated them really well. I had few issues with kids going off to sites they shouldn't, or using them during instruction. The initial work with being patient as they load, being patient when waiting to get your netbook, and holding them appropriately has paid dividends. When kids are able to bring their netbook to someone's desk to show them work on the netbook, and kids don't knock stuff over, I consider it a small victory. Good stuff happening... even if it is a little bit slower than I'd like!

Teaching Paperless

2011-02-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Teachers use lots of paper. I am as guilty of it as anyone. I have a reading packet for my kids, helping track comprehension over the course of the week and recording new vocabulary words. I also have kids print out their current event summary, and their article each week. I've given them the option of emailing each, or writing down the URL to their article, but the majority opt to print.

This week I am doing my best to go paperless. How am I doing it, and what are the kids doing? Good questions. The kids are working on the question: Who was the best explorer (during the Age of Exploration)? The question requires kids to gather information, compare explorers, determine which information is most important, then evaluate that information to respond to the question. They'll take all of that information, and all of that work, and create a project that they will submit electronically. Beyond the writing, reading, social studies standards (not to mention critical thinking) I'm also focused on getting kids familiar with using our netbooks.

How am I going paperless? I decided that I would have 3 documents kids would be using (one of which they had from a week ago). The two that I would normally print are posted on our class wiki. Yesterday I had them save both documents in a particular way, user name then file name. As they do work they will type directly into the two planning sheets. When they complete the sheets, and their project, they will submit them through a dropbox. I have one set up on our network where kids can move files into the folder, and I can then evaluate them (with different color comments, then emailed back to them). I think it is a step in the right direction. More to come!

A Break Well Spent

2011-02-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

My three days off (plus the weekend!) were certainly needed. While I did a little bit or work yesterday, today was the only real day that I got down to work for a substantial amount of time. I worked on honing my plan for this week, as well as mapping out the week after that (first week of March). That being said, I went book shopping and I read 5 books that I might be using for novel study as well as one other book. My time was well spent.

I was able to make my way through the following books:

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Wood
Loser by Jerry Spinelli
A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

I really enjoyed all of them. As I've done in the past, I opted to dog-ear pages with possible stopping points for kids. I then took those pages and put them into my OneNote notebook for novel study books. Instead of constantly needing to go back and re-read books I can use these questions to refresh my memory. My hope is that I can get kids to think more deeply about the author's message by using some stopping points with questions aimed at analyzing character and plot.

Netbooks

2011-02-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

My district is in the midst of moving to a 1-1 netbook-student ratio. That ratio holds true through the secondary grades, but is more like 1 set per grade level (or 2-1 student/netbook) at the elementary level. I'm a bit of tech geek/nerd, so this is fantastic. The effect is similar to teaching in a tech lab, which I almost already have (2-1 ratio currently).

We've been piloting it in my grade level since last week. The initial teaching of how to treat them, how to manipulate the touchpad, and how to get familiar was a bit time intensive. Logging in, since it is wireless (and there are 20+ other machines logging in simultaneously), took longer than usual. But each subsequent usage has been far more efficient. We use the downtime to read, largely because it means kids need to have their hands away from the touchpad or keyboard (plus we have novel study as an ongoing project). So far so good.

This past week was part of the acclimation period. This coming week we will be going ahead with the netbooks full bore. I was inspired by a project-based learning video from Common Craft. Instead of project based learning, we're going to be more question-based. The question: Which of the 8 explorers we've studied was the best explorer during the Age of Exploration?

We've already done some of the background work. We have read about these 8 explorers, and asked questions to fill in missing information using some internet research on the netbooks. To respond to this question, kids will need to do an initial evaluation to narrow down their comparison to two or three of the eight. After that they will need to compare/contrast these explorers, and think critically about the information in order to make a final evaluation. Once they've done that they will need to synthesize it into one "thing"- poster, PowerPoint, Photostory, or essay. The thing will show why their explorer is the best, and will need to include accomplishments of the explorer as well as comparison statements between their explorer and another (i.e. "Unlike other explorers, like Hernan Cortes, Jacques Cartier did not attempt to conquer native people"). Assuming I provide enough scaffolding, I think this will turn out really well. It should also put the netbooks to great use, as kids will be responsible for creating multiple documents on the netbook and doing additional research. Can't wait!

Books to Read

2011-02-17T07:17:00.000-08:00

Today is the start of midwinter break. We stretch it out from Thursday to Monday, and get back after it on Tuesday. I really dislike taking time off. While I know I need the physical and mental break, I still find it difficult to break away. This break is no different. So what is on tap? Lots of reading. Some of the books I want to tackle include:

A Week in the Woods- Andrew Clements
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle- Avi (never read any Avi, so it needs to be done!)
The Breadwinner- Deborah Ellis
Bridge to Terabithia- Katherine Paterson
Hatchet- Gary Paulsen
The Westing Game- Ellen Raskin
Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler- Konigsburg
Bud, Not Buddy- Curtis
Maniac Magee- Spinelli

Most of the above I have skimmed (or read in the case of Frankweiler, Bridge) but want to go through in the case I want to use them for future novel study. I've also go Mockingbird by Erskine, and Catching Fire (Hunger Games) by Collins to tackle as I want to keep reading stuff that I want kids to pick up independently. Books books books! Not a bad way to spend my break.