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When just a little has to be enough...

4/24/2016

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"Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little." - Edmund Burke.
     And isn't that the way we often feel when we teach writing to young students? That we can "only do a little"? Our work with them in the precious year we have together seems so fleeting. How can we possibly have made a difference in their writing lives when they leave our classrooms in June? 
     We do make a difference when we teach writers and not writing. When our focus is on helping the writers sitting in our rooms develop habits of mind that are sustainable beyond our doorways, we are extending the influence of our teaching beyond the moment. I had a personal reminder of the importance of valuing small influences this week.
     As writing teachers, we must firmly and with clear vision understand the impact of our time with our students. We may "only have a year" with these writers. Or, we may "have a whole year" with these writers!! It depends on your perspective. I say embrace every bit of the teaching time you have with your writers. In the scope of their learning lives, it may seem like "a little". But some piece of your instruction may, in fact, change the way they think about writing for the rest of their lives!
     This week in kindergarten, we began our eighth unit of study - "All About" Books. One of the most important goals of a coach, whether coaching a student or a colleague, is the gradual release of responsibility. My colleague, the teacher who welcomed me as a coach into her room last September, has taken on the role of principal planner for this unit. She and I have worked so well together this year; our collaboration has been full of great discussion and side-by-side teaching. She had a vision of moving our students into a nonfiction writing project, and her vision is defining the unit.
     Our first objective was to expose the students to the idea of doing research. They will be writing a book about rhinos as we teach the mode of writing to inform. The teacher's first lesson was centered around using an online site to do research. Here is her plan:


Lesson Objective:    Students will learn how to use an online site to find fun facts (research) for their "All About" book topics.

Materials:    Classroom projector
                     Online database or research site
                     Chart
                     Markers

Connect:    Tell students that today we are starting a new project. Remind them that they have been working on telling stories from their own lives  using pictures and words in their journals. That is called narrative writing. Today, they are going to learn to write about “true” things. That is called informational writing. Say, “We are going to do ‘research’. Does anyone know what that means?’ Wait for answers. Then add, ‘Research means you find information about something so that you can write about it for a reader.’”

Teach:    Today we are going to learn about rhinos! That will be the topic for our very first "All About" book. Does anyone know anything about rhinos?

Make a chart of any ideas the children have about rhinos. (They are big. They have big bodies. They like mud. They like to run fast.)

Tell the students that some of what they think may be true, some may not. Tell them that we will do research to find out. Discuss with the students that not everything you read on the internet may be true. It is important to use only those sites that have good information.

Go to the site you have chosen.

On the first site we chose, we noticed there were different categories about the rhino - Habitat, Body, Life Cycle, Food, Fun Facts, Related Articles.

Depending on the amount of time you have, decide how many categories to explore in a session. We guided the students through each one, listening to text read aloud, clicking on highlighted keywords, and discussing the content.

Active Engagement:    After exploring the site for as much time as you decide, lead the class in a discussion of what was learned. Write the information on chart paper. You will find that they remember the information that was most appealing to them!

Example:

All About Rhinos

  • They weigh 5,000 lbs.
  • They have one or two horns.
  • They are endangered.
  • They eat 30-60 lbs of food every day.
  • They are mammals (mommies feed their babies milk; hair or fur on their bodies; warm-blooded; breathe air)
  • Their habitat is the grasslands (African savannah or in India).
  • They eat grass and leaves.

Link:        Read over the facts that the students have learned from using the online site. Remind them that online databases help you find out what is important about a nonfiction topic when you are doing research.

We will spend additional time looking at online sites and adding to our chart. Next, we will begin working with the idea of organizing our information for our readers.

As I watch my colleague working on this unit of study, I remember that I will not be in her classroom next year. And I wonder if we have had enough time together for my coaching to have been of lasting value to her. 

In the end, it may have been "just a little". But, it also might have been just enough!

Do all that you can for your writers. We may never know the true scope of our influence. But we will always know that we taught them what we could in the time we had with them. 

#allkidscanwrite

and

#allteacherscanteach

Have a great writing week!

​
 

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Oops.....

4/22/2016

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Last Sunday's post ended up being published on the main blog page. Sorry for the mix-up! I'll see you here again this Sunday!

Hope you're having a great writing week.

#allkidscanwrite

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A Tale of One Piece in Two Parts

4/10/2016

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"I am relaxed and tranquil, and I like to live in peace. But I am not lazy...That's just how I am. I like to do things slowly, slowly, slowly." - Eric Carle, "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said the Sloth (2007, Penguins Young Readers Group). 

And so it goes in our kindergarten classroom...with our picture books inspired by Mr. Carle's famous book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You may recall that we originally worked on this unit of study back in October, right after we launched the writing workshop in kindergarten. At that time, most of our students did not have enough letter-sound knowledge or letter formation skill to write the text that went along with their illustrations. We were just beginning our journey. We were learning about the thinking that happens when we compose, whether in pictures or words. Here is our curricular calendar for that unit of study:

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Notice the notes at the bottom of the calendar. We purposefully declined to rush our students through a project that they were not ready to complete. Thinking back on the unit now, I can remember how hard every student worked to create a character, draft the character's progression through a week of eating, and compose the illustrations that depicted that journey. It was thoughtful, dedicated thinking. 

But we recognized that writing the text to accompany the pictures would take most of our writers far beyond their Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) at that time. And so, we put the project away. We were "not lazy", in Mr. Carle's words. We just decided to do this work "...slowly, slowly, slowly".

And, so, we recently brought the students' pieces back out and asked them to finish their stories by adding the text. We reread our mentor text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then "reread" our pictures. It did not take our writers long to remember their stories! Some of them had written their own repeating phrase while others used that of the mentor text, "...but he was still hungry" as their anchor line on each page.

We found that most students had clear spaces between words, punctuation at the ends of some sentences, and phonetic spelling that included the most prominent sounds in non-sight words. Here are some examples:



There is the story of the Very Hungry Shark. The composition of his illustrations, done in October, are much less organized than this writer's text, written in April. We asked the student writers to have some fun with their stories. This very hungry shark ate, among other things, pizza, ice cream, and starbursts!

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And, finally, there is the work of one of our most hard-working writers. She writes the story of the Very Hungry Horse, and we can see the effort she put forth to create a character that lived across many pages. Her text is less developed, but this work represents some of her best thinking! We are so very, very proud of her.

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The student writers will add covers that include the titles of their books, as well as their names as authors and illustrators of the work. This has turned out to be an interesting and informative study of our writers' growth across the year. Their classroom teacher, experienced and knowledgeable in the development of kindergartners, especially in the area of writing, frequently comments on how far these students have come as writers this year.  

As we complete testing this week in reading, I am interested to see the impact of our writing work on the students' reading levels. There is no doubt in my mind that they are doing substantial reading work as they write - we ask them to reread their writing to us multiple times a session. This practice alone has strengthened their concept of print and concept of word mastery.

As excited as I am to see and smell the spring blossoms and to feel the warming sun, I can feel the bittersweet stirrings of sadness as I can see the approaching end of year. Thankfully, we are not done yet; we are hatching our next unit of study even as we speak.

And, so, I will take a deep breath, slowly, slowly, and enjoy the spring with our kindergarten writers.


Just like the sloth in Eric Carle's book, "I am relaxed and tranquil..."

I am in no hurry.

Have a great writing week!

#allkidscanwrite
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A Positive Lens

4/3/2016

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Whenever I am getting ready to assess a student's writing, I use a lens of positivity through which to view his or her work. I look for what the writer is doing well, based on all of the instruction we have offered. I look for evidence of the writer trying the writer's moves we have introduced. I search for possibilities - what is this writer thinking of doing? As Katie Wood Ray states, "'What does this piece of writing show me this child knows about writing?' It's that simple, and it's that complex." (Ray, K. 2004. About the Authors Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers. Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann, pg. 121)

So, this week being a week of assessment. I spent the better part of a day of my Spring Break exploring kindergarten writers' notebooks. And it was magical. Not because every story was perfect. Not even close! But because all of our writers showed us what they know about writing.

They showed us WHAT THEY KNOW ABOUT WRITING!!

Remember, the classroom teacher and I did not give the students any direct prompts or starters. We simply gave them time each day to write their own stories.

Here's what they know: 

     * Stories include characters (who is in the story?)
     * Stories have a setting (where does the story take place?)
     * Stories include action (what happens in the story?).

They also know that:

     * There should be capital letters at the beginnings of sentences and punctuation at               the ends.
     * There should be spaces between words.
     * Writing goes from top to bottom and left to right.
     * Illustrations add details to stories.

We taught mini-lessons about all of these things. We read stories, mentor texts, and talked about why and how authors make decisions as they write. And then we let them write. And make decisions.

Here is some of what they wrote, and how I assessed with positivity.

​




This writer has two characters, herself and her mom. The story takes place in a park, with a few details in her illustration. There are several events in the story - "I ride my bike.", "My mom came.", "We had a race.", "I won." Her text is spaced correctly and her letters are clear. Those are huge positives! What will I work on with her going forward? Correct letter formation, including upper and lower case use, and end punctuation (only one period for four sentences). What about her writing will I compliment to the moon and back? Her lovely story that had a beginning, middle, and end. Her sweet voice ("We had a race. I won.") Her thinking that led to the successful composition of a story that came from her own life! 

​Love it!

And I am only assessing that which we have taught. No more. No less.



This writer tells us a story about watching a baseball game with his family. There are many characters, brother Brody, his family...and you can see them all sitting in the bleachers on what was assuredly a clear, sunny day! We know where they are, who is there, and what they are doing! Between the text and the illustration, this writer has composed a sweet, if short, story. What would I work on with this writer going forward? Perhaps adding details to his text. We will also work on his letter formation. But his punctuation is correctly placed and his words are nicely spaced!

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Our last writer has written a clear and concise story. There are two characters, the author and a dinosaur. The story setting is at the zoo. And as for action, the dinosaur is eating trees! Note the correct upper case and lower case letter formation, end punctuation, and word spacing. This is one of our more advanced writers, and going forward I will encourage him to spend more time in his stories and develop the action with more detail. He is capable of that work, and it is my job to nudge him toward maximizing his potential.

Sometimes when I look with a narrower lens that is without positivity at the work my kindergarten writers have produced, I imagine greater criticism. Or lesser appreciation. I cringe when I think that others will look at this work and see only mistakes or gaps or sloppy words and pictures. I shudder when I think that others will look at this work and not appreciate the absolute dedication and steadfast determination that these authors pulled from within themselves to create stories from their lives. Or the belief in themselves as storytellers that had to exist in order for them to place their pictures and words on blank paper for readers to read.

It is with these youngest writers that our work begins. If we can plant in their writers' hearts the seeds of confidence that their words matter, that their words are beautiful, that their stories count, then, and only then, will we have done our part to ensure that #allkidscanwrite.

Have a great writing week!!
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