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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.

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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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Writers' Notebooks...Time and Space to Grow Thinkers

3/27/2016

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One of the most powerful tenets of writing workshop is the absolute decision-making freedom of the writer to choose what to write about in his or her writer's notebook. But that decision-making ability is a skill that must be explicitly taught. Young writers don't always come into our classrooms understanding how to identify the stories of their lives.  When I was an upper elementary grade teacher, I often sat next to student writers who had no idea what to write about when asked to jot down seed stories in their notebooks. They were not prepared to think on their own; they were waiting for "the assignment". I would then need to sit next to the students for much longer and try to draw out their stories by asking lots of questions to help them generate ideas. 

The writer's notebook gives students a place to keep their story ideas. And the stories come from their own lives, not from the teacher's instructional plan. This critical practice offers students the opportunity to see that each of their lives has value and is full of small moment stories.

But, most importantly, the writer's notebook is a space for thinking. Beautiful blank pages on which to nudge that thinking into written letters, words, sentences, paragraphs....stories!

Writing is the graphic expression of thought. And it is that thinking part of the process that students need to experience and practice on a daily basis. 

Even in kindergarten.

We began a unit of study about using Writer's Notebooks at the beginning of March in kindergarten. Our goals were basically two-fold:

1.  Teach kindergarten students how to write in their journals (the nuts and bolts of using the pages and space in the notebooks).

2.  Teach kindergarten students how to think about writing in their notebooks (generating ideas, seed stories).

The scope and sequence of the unit was somewhat brief because the whole idea was to encourage the writers to explore and discover their own unique ways across the pages of their notebooks. Our beginning lessons included:

     * Move Your Clip! Students will practice the processes and procedures required to maintain this organized tool for keeping their ideas and stories neat and useful. Resource - Priceman, M. (1994). How to Make an Apple Pie. New York, NY:  Random House, Inc.

     *  What is an Idea? And Where Do I Get One?  Student writers will continue the work of learning where ideas come from. They will understand that writers record ideas and give them attention by turning them into stories in their writer’s notebooks.
Resource - Yamada, K.  (2013). What Do You Do With an Idea? Seattle, WA:  Compendium, Inc.

     *  Don’t Move Your Clip...Until You’ve Finished the Story Student writers will be introduced to the idea that, just like in previous units of study, turning ideas into stories may take multiple days to finish and writers don’t move on (or move their clips to the next clean page) until they have finished the one they are working on.
Resource - Becker, A. (2013). Journey. Somerville, MA:  Candlewick Press.


     *  Creating Pictures That Tell the Story Across the Page Student writers will be introduced to the idea that illustrations help to tell the story and should fill the space above the words with color and detail.
Resource - Jonas, A. (1989). Color Dance. New York, NY:  HarperCollins Publishers.

We taught these first lessons across several days, and then we gave the writers many days of writing time. Many days. Of writing time. Here is what it looked like.

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By the end of the unit, our writers were working independently in their notebooks for 20 to 25 minutes a day. We let them spread out around the room in an effort to minimize the chattiness that was happening at the tables. And it worked!! They understood the privilege of sitting on beanbag chairs or in the housekeeping area or spread out on the carpet. And they wrote. And wrote. And wrote.

All of their ideas were their own. Their teacher and I did not offer any prompts, only support for the stories they were writing. As you would expect, the ability of each writer to compose a story completely independently was varied. However, each and every one of our writers was able to come up with an idea on his or her own and attend to that work for 20-25 minutes at a time.

This week I will be assessing the kindergarteners' writing. Another important decision we had them make was which story they wanted us to grade. The writers brought their notebooks to me, and we placed  shiny stars on the stories they thought were examples of their best work.

I will share some of their work with you next time. I know it won't surprise you. Because you, like me, know that #allkidscanwrite!

​Have a great writing week!
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Crossing the Finish Line

3/20/2016

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The Home Stretch!!! 

As we enter into this last week before Spring Break, I feel like American Pharaoh at the Belmont Stakes! Charging ahead at breakneck speed. Days and weeks (and months and years for our Triple Crown Winner) of hard work and training all coming down to the final lap. And as his trainers felt about their indomitable horse, I feel about our spirited writers.

Proud. Nervous. Excited. Responsible.  All at the same time. Will these first grade writers be able to take this complex unit of study and create a graphic narrative that tells a story through pictures and only a few words? It's as if I am a spectator in the stands, and all I can do is cheer and clap and watch as the students apply all that they have learned as they approach the finish line with their finished products!

And I can tell you with tears in my eyes that when a young writer hands me his beautiful six-panel graphic narrative that artfully tell his story of helping the world by picking up trash with his Grandma, I know that we've crossed the finish line together.

Let's go back and deconstruct his work. I know that some who see his pictures will wonder what all of the excitement is about. But there is so, so, so much more writing and thinking behind his beautiful piece...

First, we read a book. In this case, it was Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green, by Eileen Spinelli. This student was inspired to write a story about a time he became aware of trash in his neighborhood...and how he wanted to help change the world.

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Next, (and months later), our writer chose this story out of three others to expand into a graphic narrative. You may have noticed that he had some words written below each sketch and sentences. He was listing the words that described his actions (movements) and feelings in each part of his story. He then moved those words onto a list outside of his sketchbook.

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After some revision, our writer had a word storyboard of sorts from which to begin his graphic narrative. Remember, this entire unit is built around the question of how we physically move  to positively impact our own lives and the lives of everyone around us.

So, now the writer began the work of composing story panels that would tell his story primarily in pictures, with only speech bubbles or text boxes for word context.  I think this was the hardest part of the process. These writers had to decide how to lay out their stories across six story panels. Do you see that he organized his word list using "b", "m", and "e" to identify how he was going to lay out his story? Sort of like organizing paragraphs, right?


Sometimes, the story wasn't entirely clear for readers through our students' pictures. In fact, this writer was faced with a reader who wasn't sure what the character was doing in his first picture. The words "That's bad" did not contain enough information for his reader. And so, as he continued to draft, our writer cut out a speech bubble, and added the words "trash is falling oh no", adding enough context to his panel for his reader to understand his story!

Here is his finished product...

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I am literally sitting here with tears running down my face. I am in awe when I look at the beauty of his pictures. When I see how he has drawn himself and his grandma feeling unhappy about the trash (notice it is the only panel with a brown background). When I look at the last panel and can see and feel his joyous jump. When I "read" his thoughts at the end of the narrative - a heart and exclamation point. When I know that this is his story of helping to clean up the world around him. The writer has certainly told a story of how he saw a problem, moved to make a difference, and ended up making a positive change in the world.

And this is just one example! All of our writers are making beautiful stories. And they are all winners; they will all cross the finish line with what they have learned about writing and drawing and storytelling in their hearts.

I feel exactly like my student writer, "stoupendus"!!

Have a great writing week!

#allkidscanwrite (and draw!)
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Confessions and Conferring

3/13/2016

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"Conferring is at the heart of the writing workshop." Lucy Calkins, (The Art of Teaching Writing, 1986, Irwin Publishing, pg. 223)

Ms. Calkins is so right...and it is never more evident than when you haven't done it. Conferencing is when you have the opportunity to teach the writer, by himself, one on one. When you sit side-by-side and talk with the writer about how it's going. When you listen to the writer tell you about his work.

You look for great moves to compliment, even as you research what to teach him as he reads his words aloud to you. You consider future teaching points based on what writing he's done. You note his progress. And you stay in touch with him. 

I am a believer! And I consider conferring a non-negotiable component of the writer's workshop. Always have...

Here's my problem. 

Time.

As I am teaching our graphic narrative unit of study to two first grade classrooms, I am also responsible for continued remediation work with my reading groups. I see six or more groups of students daily. My day is divided into 30-minute blocks.  Even for writing. 

So, what has happened is a terrible shrinking of my writing time with individual students. It seems that my 30 minutes gets eaten up with my mini-lesson and ad hoc fire extinguishing! I hardly get the phrase, "Off you go!" out of my mouth before the writers are lined up in front of me.

"I need 'Middle' paper."

"Can I start over?"

"I can't find a blue colored pencil."

..or the much more urgent need to catch up a student who missed the last week of instruction because she has a new baby in the house or had the flu.

Methodical, thorough, student-driven conversation about the work itself is nowhere to be seen. I am strictly held to the clock. The writers may have an additional 15 minutes to work, but I don't have access to them then. I am out the door to round up my next reading group.

This is where I desperately want to insert professional development. Ideally, I am creating a unit of study that will be sustainable, that teachers of future first graders will want and be able to use successfully. Lesson plans can be written. But the real pedagogical work still taunts me. My teaching heart knows that what really needs to be shared and learned through lots of coaching experiences is how to conference with students - and that includes all of the hard work of preparing for the conference. Simply reading a lesson plan is not enough. I want teachers to believe. In a lot of things.

     *all kids can write
     *writing is non-negotiable
     *teaching the habits of mind of writing is more important than the writing itself
     *teaching writing takes time - prep time, planning time, writing (teacher) time
     *IT IS ALL WORTH IT!!!

So, how do I do it? This morning I spent hours looking at student work. Work that amazed me, made me laugh, made me cry, worried me, startled me, made me proud. I looked at every single panel composed by every single writer. And I made notes. Notes that will drive my conversations with these writers this week.

But, lots of this work will be catch up. I have missed some opportunities to have timely conversations with student writers about their work that might have given them more direction. 
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This writer has done a great job listing the actions, feelings, and speech bubbles text for his panels. But, the reader is still unsure of the story.
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More than half of the narrative is finished. Could including more detail in some of the panels have helped the author tell his story with more clarity? Should the text in his speech bubbles be more contextual?
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This writer begins with a strong story panel. But the second one is less clear. The reader is not sure what is happening.
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By this time, the writer is not using her prewriting work to continue the middle of the story. No action or feelings words are listed. No speech bubbles are included.
Happily, both of these writers still have the time and space to continue drafting and revising their graphic narratives before a deadline. But, I know that had I been able to sit down next to each of them earlier in their processes, the teaching would have been more thorough, more precise. And the learning would have been in the moment.

It matters.

So, going forward, I have to think long and hard about how to invite teachers into a practice brimming with conviction that conferring with students is the heart of teaching writing. 

The beauty of it all is that once you have committed to sitting, side-by-side with students, you fully recognize the value and embrace the opportunity to truly get to know your writers.

This week I will be doing a little less teaching, and a whole lot more conferring with our authors. I can't wait!!!

Have a great writing week!

#allkidscanwrite
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Fear No Art!!!

3/6/2016

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"High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation." - Jack Kinder.

Sound like a familiar theme? If I believe nothing else about our youngest writers, it is this idea that their achievement is firmly, inexorably connected to our expectations! And this week in first grade, as we began the work of drafting our graphic narratives, it was beautifully evident.

Let me walk you through our process. And remember, this is after we have already written four stories, chosen one, and gone back and elaborated on the chosen piece in our sketchbooks!

To start, we listed verbs describing our movements and actions in the beginnings of our stories. Then, we added adjectives to describe how we were feeling as we moved. These first pictures are the ones I am using as a model for the students.
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After we went through that process for the middles and ends of our stories, we had a list of verbs and adjectives from which to draft our story panels. 

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As writers, we then had to make decisions about how to use the word lists to tell our stories across six or so story panels. Some writers simply started with the first two words (1 verb and 1 adjective) to begin their stories; others chose more. The students learned that decision-making is part of being a writer and that being purposeful with those decisions helps make stories clearer to readers.

Next, we used a template to gather our thoughts and begin drafting. I wanted the writers to have a storyboard of sorts on which to record all of their thinking and planning relevant to individual story panels.

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Finally, after we listed the action words, feeling descriptors, and wrote any supportive text via speech bubbles, we began to draft.

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Eventually, my plan is to cut out the pictures and mount them on a black background with a white mat! It is going to look outrageous!!!!

Below is some of the art of this most amazing group of first grade graphic narrative authors!!! We have just begun the creative work of drawing our stories, and it is not without its challenges. But, just look at the composition of these story panels! Each panel represents an author's composing process - prewriting, sketching, writing, drafting, revising and represents the writing domains of idea, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency (through illustration).

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We will continue this process through the middle and end of our narratives, drafting and revising as we go! And for every high expectation I have for all of these writers, I will also remember that they are first graders. I will remember that I want them to LOVE to make graphic "novels"! I will remember to respect whatever level of skill they bring to this work! And their achievement will equal my expectations.

Because, I know...

#allkidscanwrite
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Show! Don't tell!

2/28/2016

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"Show the readers everything, tell them nothing." - Ernest Hemingway. These are wise words that writers live by. I propose that they become wise words that writing teachers live by as well.

But first I would make a few changes....Show them how to do the writing, every bit of it. Simply tell them what to do - never! 

When I began this work, writing a graphic narrative unit of study for first graders, I was brainstorming with a stakeholder. And one of the talking points during our discussion was making sure that the students watched me, the teacher, create the art during our lessons in a very genuine, transparent way. Um, in other words, it's okay if you draw like a first grader. So do your students! You will be making the art accessible to them if they see that your work is as simple and as imperfect as their own. In fact, the less developed you are as an artist, the better!

What?! (Now, he did not really say those words, but the implication was that there was real power in the fact that I would be modeling the work at the same level of expertise as my students. Hmmm...)

While I could accept that premise intellectually, as a teacher I struggled with the idea of modeling anything less than what would meet my own expectations. Does that make sense? In other words, I could handle drawing something primitive and simple. But could I handle drawing something "bad"?? Because, let's face it, I am no artist! I have never been worried about writing in front of students; but the thought of drawing in front of them had (and still has) me somewhat unnerved.

I believe this is the same thinking that has many writing teachers nervous about composing in front of their students. When you are the teacher, you are used to being in control. Writing in front of any group, even kindergartners, can make you feel vulnerable. The process of writing anything at all is complicated. And trying to manage that creative process with upwards of twenty-five pairs of eyes staring at you is intimidating. Change those kindergartners to third-, fourth-, or fifth-graders and you just know they are judging your work. (They're not, but it certainly feels that way!)

This week in my first grade classrooms, I realized with sudden clarity that we were going to need to move away from our mentor text, Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons, by Agnes Rosentstiehl, and begin to rely more on my own modeled drawings using our class story. Mostly that is because the theme of our graphic narratives is one of motion and positive change. Our mentor text is  more one-dimensional. In order to successfully compose a narrative with such a dynamic story line, we will need to create a story arc. 

"Yikes!" I keep thinking.  What have I gotten myself into?

So, I have come back to the drawing board...literally. As of right now, the students have done the following:
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     * written four stories centered around how they helped solve problems using physical actions and achieved positive outcomes

     * chosen one of the four stories to become their graphic narrative

     * identified 6-8 verbs that describe their actions chronologically across their stories

     * identified 6-8 words to describe the feelings that go along with each action word

     * fine-tuned their verbs and adjectives to more precisely describe their actions and feelings

     * drafted two story panels.

I try to collect their work after each session and evaluate how the work is going. It became clear to me on Friday that the students need more support with being able to lay out a story across 6-8 story panels. The verb/adjective word lists were a good idea, and they are giving the writers some context for their drawings. However, we need to build a little more "composition" into the narrative, connecting each panel to the one before and the one that follows. I think the structure needs to be, say, a 2 panel beginning, a 2-3 panel middle, and a 2 panel end, give or take.

Flashback to me pacing in my classroom on Friday. Even as my excitement is building right along with this unit of study, I know I have to keep it accessible to 6- and 7-year olds. When is it too much? I tend to reach for the stars in terms of expectations and creative trajectory...

But, then I remember. All kids can write. And if we don't try, we will never know what we can accomplish. So, I will add lessons on building story mountains, and using space creatively, and drawing facial expressions to illustrate our feelings. Too much for first grade? I think not!!

Today I will be at the drawing board, creating a story arc with my panels. Don't worry. It's just practice and preparation. I will show the students how to do this with their own stories by thinking and drawing right in front of them.

Here is where I am starting...

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This was draft number 1. Time for draft 2 and crafting a story arc across 6-8 panels. I know now that I need to be able to draw in front of you all as well!    :)  I'll share as we go!

Have a great writing week. And remember....

#allkidscanwrite


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Keep Them Smiling!

2/21/2016

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I went teaching.

What did you see?

I saw 19 kindergarten writers smiling at me! 

We are published!

Our young writers have completed the fourth unit of study of the year, and we are, of course, as proud as we can be of their work and their continued enthusiasm for writing. The students worked through an eight-lesson Kindergarten Pattern Book unit of study that lasted across 3+ weeks due to snow days and delays. Highlights included introducing  the idea of keeping a writer's notebook in which to store ideas for future writing. And we took two field trips (one inside and one outside) on which we looked for those ideas!

The scope and sequence of our unit was as follows:

Lesson 1  - Introducing the Mentor Text

Lesson 2  - Journal Brainstorming

Lesson 3  - Sounding Out Our Words

Lesson 4  - Adding Describing Words

Lesson 5  - Collecting Ideas

Lesson 6  - Choosing Our Best Ideas

Lesson 7  - Drafting Our Stories

Lesson 8  - Revising and Editing Our Stories

What is of utmost importance to remember is that our primary goal is to teach these young students how to think like writers. We want them to understand the process of composition. We  know that their work will be approximate - and that will be just fine with us. We are wrapping so much teaching up in these lessons, but we know that this is just the beginning. Our writers are going to need lots and lots of practice with not only the work of composition, but, remember, they are still learning letter formation! Not to mention word and sentence formation!

Whew!! And to think, they are still all smiles when I walk into the room. Really! Every single one of them!

At the end of the week, as we were revising and editing, we asked the students to add their names to the cover/title sheet and to fill out an About the Author page to complete their books. I want these writers to understand that projects end. That there is a point at which the author puts his or her name on the work and says, "I'm done." I want the students to hold a completed project in their hands so that they get this concept. Authentic writing must include a finished product. And you, as their teacher, must express as much pride, enthusiasm, over-the-moon excitement as you can as you place those finished products in their hands. We want them to shout (okay, use their indoor voices), "That was great!!! What's next???" Following are examples from two of our authors' books.
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This writer brings depth to her compositions, but she has resisted stretching out the sounds in words to approximate spelling. She has been content to use initial sounds only. We have explained to her that using initial sounds only in her spelling makes it difficult for her readers to understand her stories.
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We modeled the spelling for the pattern words, "I saw a.....looking at me." You can see that this same writer is trying harder to include more sounds in her spelling of "shadow".
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On her final page, our writer used environmental cues to correctly spell "yellow", and included the beginning and ending sounds in "sun" to approximate the spelling. She has come a long way!
Not all of our kindergarten writers are as advanced as the one above. But, as you can see below, even this young writer who must work so hard to put his thinking on the page leaves the unit of study with a smile on his face!

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This writer's words are minimally expressed. We can make out "red bird", made easier by the excellent drawing! However, our writer is still struggling with spacing between words, stretching out and identifying sounds in words, and capitalization and punctuation.
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This self-portrait, by the same student, simply makes my heart happy! Despite the struggles, despite the hard work, this little writer is still smiling!!
So, we keep on keepin' on! With attitudes like those of the students above, our work moves forward with great momentum!

​"That's great! What's next?", you shout (not using your indoor voice!). Well, we are thinking about a unit of study centered around using journals (writer's notebooks) as places to not only record our ideas, but pages on which to compose stories.  

We'll keep you posted!

Have a great writing week! And remember....

​#allkidscanwrite
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Watch Out For That Speed Bump!!

2/14/2016

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Writing a unit of study is not for the faint of heart!! In fact, I find my heart beating wildly on this Valentine's Day morning...and not because someone special is downstairs making my favorite breakfast (he really is!). But because I hit a large speed bump this week in our first grade graphic narrative unit of study. And I need to back up and take another approach to this writing if it's going to work.

We began the unit on Monday with a few days of immersion in the graphic novel genre. I showed the students the book A Day at the Fire Station, by Lori Mortensen, and we talked about how to read a graphic novel. We noted that the story is told in panels (boxes) with pictures and speech bubbles. We talked about how you read a graphic novel from left to right and top to bottom, just like any other book. (Mortensen, L. (2011). A Day at the Fire Station, illus. Jeffrey Thompson. North Mankato, MN:  Capstone Press.)

I then gave each group of three students another example of a graphic novel from our school library and a stack of sticky notes. I instructed them to look through the books and write down what they noticed about the writing on a sticky note to share with the class later. As I walked around the room, listening in on their conversations, I noticed that many of the students were writing notes about the content of the story, and not the form or structure of the writing.

​
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One student thought the characters in his example "look creepy"! And another student noted that the story "is scary". They were examining a typical graphic novel in which the characters are drawn with dark colors and larger than life expressions. This clearly impressed them more than the structure of the writing!!
Once I redirected the students to look closely at how the graphic novels were written instead of what the novels were about, they became more focused and identified some important commonalities.

​
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This writer noticed how smaller images of the main characters appeared on other pages in the book, including the title page.
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Now the writers were paying attention to the writer's/illustrator's style and form on the pages of the graphic novel, including the use of color.
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The students noticed that the story panels were of different sizes and shapes across the pages of the novels.
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This writer captured a most important common element of graphic novels - "there are more pictures than words"!
So, the next day, the class and I made a "Writing Graphic Narratives" anchor chart:
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Writing Graphic Narratives

  • Writers have to “write” with pictures and a few words.
  • Writers use what people say (dialogue) to move the story along and they use speech bubbles to do so.
  • Sometimes writers use text boxes inside the story panels to help tell the story.
  • Writers have to decide how much of the story to include in each story panel.
  • Writers have to decide how many story panels to have on a page.

    ​The next BIG step was to decide which of our four stories we wanted to use in our graphic narrative unit. I had originally wanted to use all four stories to chronicle the first graders' journeys through the year; however, I decided that we would start with one story, see how it goes, and then re-evaluate our goals. And based on what I found out the next day, that was a very good decision indeed!!

    My instructional plan was to move into our sketchbooks, find our story, and list all of the verbs in the sentences we wrote to go along with our pictures. I had practiced this move with my own story...

    ​

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I showed the students how I used both the words in my sentences and the pictures of my story (some not seen here) to identify the "moves" I made in my story. (in pink)
Once the moves were identified by looking for verbs in the written sentences or remembering them from the pictures, my idea was to make a story panel with each one of those moves...So, I sent the writers off into their sketchbooks to find those verbs and identify those moves.  

And that's where this writing teacher's forward momentum hit the speed bump. Most, if not all, of the students have very  little written text to go along with their pictures. They don't have a firm grasp of what an action word (verb) is, nor how to independently identify it from a picture.

And now, after posting all of this for you, I can feel my heartbeat beginning to pound! This will be the work of today, and possibly tomorrow if we get the storm that is predicted. I am going to hit the brakes and take a long look at the speed bump. My next lesson will need to include more work with the idea of "moving", and how the students, as the writers/illustrators, conveyed the movements in their pictures. Maybe we will make a class list of words that go with movement, verbs, that students can use to identify their actions. Then, and only then, I will take my foot off of the brake pedal and begin to move forward slowly again.

You know, speed bumps are placed in the road before us for a reason. As teachers of writing, we are used to these bumps in our journeys to teach the complicated process of composition to and instill the habits of mind in our writers. We know to pay attention to them, to reflect upon their impact on our teaching, and to find ways to move ourselves and our students past them successfully.

So, I'll be planning a new route this Valentine's Day (after I enjoy that wonderful breakfast made my wonderful husband!) I hope your day is filled with happy hearts and very few speed bumps!!

Have a great writing week!

#allkidscanwrite
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Got Energy?

2/7/2016

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The energy was palpable! You could almost hear the kindergarten students' hearts beating as we lined up to go outside for our writing field trip on Friday. They clutched their sketchbooks and pencils with both hands and could not keep the smiles off their faces. They wriggled and shifted and bumped into each other. Our reminders to use quiet voices as we moved across the hall to the bus loop doors were less effective than usual. Those little writers could not wait to get outside and start noticing the world around them.

Got energy?

It's what it takes.

What we are trying to build in our classroom is excitement, a culture of enthusiasm wherein these kindergarten writers see writing as an opportunity for exploration and expression. How do we do that? And, more importantly, how do we extend it beyond this writing, beyond this unit, beyond even this year?

That's what we are trying to figure out! :) In our classroom, the teacher and I ask each other, "What next?" all the time. I rely on her multi-year kindergarten teacher's expertise when it comes to curricular and developmental expectations. She relies on my multi-year writing teacher's expertise when it comes to growing the habits of mind and building the classroom community that will produce students who think like writers.  

We both agree that whatever is next - next minute, next day, next week, next unit - must be engaging and transferrable. The engaging parts are those parts that include lots of energy, creativity, and exploration. The fun that keeps the kindergarten writers so excited they can hardly sit still.  The transferrable parts are the thinking and the process parts - that knowledge and those skills that will follow them from this writing to the next. From this year to the next.

So, when we went on our writing field trip, our goals were twofold. First, we wanted the student writers to go out, look at the world around them, notice some things, and then capture those things in their sketchbooks. We are going to ask the students to go back to their sketches to remember what they saw on their field trip when we write our pattern book starting this coming week.

But, second, we wanted to begin to build in our young writers' minds the habit of keeping a notebook (or sketchbook) in which to enthusiastically record what they notice in their lives - passing blue cars, fluffy-tailed squirrels, shifting shadows. And later, hopefully, they will use their notebooks to begin to capture the stories of their lives with words, just as descriptive and oh, so, important to hold onto. Noticing is a verb. It requires purpose, attention, and, yes, energy! We want to encourage our student writers to look at the world around them with eyes that actively see. With energy!

I brought the students' sketchbooks home with me this weekend, and I have been looking through them this morning. Some sketches are so brief and without detail, I will be interested to see if the writer remembers what he or she saw based on the drawings. Others included extensive picture details, some letter labels, and even some word labels. Our next lesson will be to go into our notebooks and choose two or three ideas to include in our picture book.
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This writer took our directions to "quicksketch" seriously! We reminded him to include enough detail to remember what he had noticed on our field trip.
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This writer drew most of his images with just enough detail and shape to be able to identify them when he goes to choose which ideas will go into his pattern book.
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This writer included lots of detail in her sketches, from the top left image of her shadow on the ground in front of her, to the letter labeled bird and yellow sun, purple dress and blue car.
Tomorrow we will do a lesson on choosing our best ideas from our sketchbooks to include in our pattern books. I will share that lesson with you next time, and, hopefully, have some stories to tell about our writers' progress in their picture books.

Our mission is to maintain the energy level for this project. We can't go on field trips every day...but we want our writers to clutch their sketchbooks and pencils with both hands, keep those smiles on their faces, wriggle and shift in their seats and WANT to write every day! 

We want all elementary school writers to be enthusiastic and eager to explore their lives and the world through writing. Let's get it started in kindergarten!

Have a great writing week!

​#allkidscanwrite
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