“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!” C. Joy Bell

I love this quote. We all know the components of books, and my new beginning really is like beginning a new book. New characters: children, peers, neighbors. New setting: town, school. New problem: Changing from Literacy Coach for grades K-5 to Curriculum Instructional Coach for K-2.  And the details, oh, the details! Just getting the IMPORTANT details in the story, and letting the minor details go! New solution: Keep reading! I'm not done yet!! Just like a book!!

As I'm beginning this new novel (which could be considered an action adventure/comedy...is that a genre?) I'm having to recall all my math training and fabulous Science, Social Studies, and Math lessons from my first series of books. But, I'm finding that my love of literacy, and the single minded literacy focus from the past few years is definitely influencing my view of the other contents.
And, is that a bad thing? 

Is reading AND writing important in Math, Science, Social Studies?
I'm finding teachers absolutely believe that reading is vital to all the other subjects. (Except for possibly the writing teachers...go figure!) However, I'm not sure teachers are finding the absolute value and necessity for WRITING across the content areas.

So, here's a challenge for you. Don't write at all for one day! Okay, you can write a story about your summer. But that's it! Don't write UNLESS you are in writing class. 

Realistically, you can't take me up on that challenge. You probably have jobs, which require e-mails to be sent and responded to, you have to write your lesson plans, you have to text your husband and children, you have to update your Facebook post, you have to caption your Instagram photo, you have to make your grocery list, you have to make your to-do list, you have to write parent notes, you have to send positive notes to your students....and the list goes on and on and on. Tired, tired, tired teachers!

Why do we put our students in the unrealistic box of writing in writing class? WHY???

 “Writing is the most extensive brain workout a kid can get,” said Steve Peha, founder of Teaching that Makes Sense. “It includes reading, logic, motor coordination and if writing for an audience, social emotional intelligence.”

Alright, let's look at the benefits of student writing from a teacher's point of view.

• Writing REQUIRES students to slow down their thinking. When they begin "explaining" their thinking processes in writing, the students THEMSELVES, may see their faulty thinking. If they don't, the teacher certainly can. Teachers can monitor student progress and gauge their strengths and weaknesses. It is VISIBLE thinking! VISIBLE, y'all. (How many times have you said, "If I only knew what Joey was thinking!")
• Writing is a great way to engage all of your students! You won't just hear from the kids who always  blurt out raise their hands.
• Writing helps you see gaps in instruction so you can adjust your teaching to insure that all students get what you're talking about!
• Writing saves you time. It can be a very efficient way to cover multiple standards at once because it is such a complex, multifaceted task. (We won't even MENTION the time saved in the copy room!)
• Students learn best by writing. "Kids learn the most through writing," said Mr. Peha. "If you're only gong to do one thing, writing is the highest payoff activity you can pick."

In content area writing, the thought process is important. But, revision and editing will just become a natural part of the process. And, the "writing" teacher will thank you. A lot!!

Lovin' Writing from the HEART!!

Our district focus this year is on using Mentor Texts to teach Reading and Writing skills. First grade teachers at my school all chose The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli as one of their Mentor Texts for writing.

I happily modeled a Writing mini-lesson in each class last week. The first grade classes are beginning their unit on Narratives, and The Best Story is a great way to begin this unit.
I started with reading the entire book (which ideally should be done BEFORE teaching any strategies or skills, but....). So, obviously, my mini-lesson was not that mini.
If you've ever read this book, you know that it just screams "Heart Map"! So...that was an easy decision.

                                                  I modeled a heart map.

The students made their own heart maps.



We shared our Heart Maps!

These wonderful teachers LAMINATED the heart maps, knowing that they will be used over and over and over!

Next lesson....getting ideas from the heart map and turning it into a small moment story!
I do love mentor texts!!

Nonfiction...Really!!

Summer...a time for getting that long, long list of "I'll do it this summer" started  completed! Summer is starting a bit later for me. I decided to teach summer school, adding to my shopping and retirement fund. The retirement fund is probably more important, but shopping IS my favorite pastime.

I was assigned third grade language arts, which is a new grade level for me. Since I was venturing into the unknown, I took a along little expert help...Finding the Heart of Nonfiction, by Georgia Heard

www.heinemann.com.  This provided the added bonus of trying out teaching with mentor texts in an actual classroom setting.

We all know, kids LOVE non-fiction. They love learning about animals, insects, interesting people. Win....win!

The running theme was reading and learning from non-fiction, and writing and teaching with non-fiction. The children also learned what a mentor text is...

 and experienced many wonderful texts.

The exciting thing about mentor texts is that you get to use a fabulous book over and over again! The days of having a different book to teach the same skill every day for a week, then start again...OvEr!

Finding truly wonderful books is overwhelming (thousands of books out there), but Georgia Heard has listed many easy to find books. For summer school I used Frogs, by Nic Bishop, Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea; The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of The Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry, and Whose Egg? by Lynette Evans.

Writing:

Each of the 7 essential craft tools was discussed by reading a page or two from one of the above books, discussing the author's craft used, and then giving the students a chance to try it on their own. Because of time limitations, and the fact that these students were struggling in some aspect of their reading and writing, we used a page from a very, very basic non-fiction book. Students took that page, and practiced one of the craft tools taught through the mentor text. The gradual release method (modeled, completed together whole group (shared), completed in a small group of  2-3, and finally attempted independently) was used throughout the process. Copies of a page from the mentor text and their revisions were glued into their very own non-fiction anthology. (Fancy for spiral notebook...)

Reading:

Reading strategies for non-fiction (non-fiction features, author's craft discussed through the mentor text, stop and jot) were practiced independently by the kiddos in non-fiction books of their choice. Because of the diversity of reading levels (16 students ranging from Guided Reading Level C to P), students were able to practice the same skill in their own comfortable reading zone.

All guided reading was also in appropriately leveled non-fiction books, with the teaching point emphasized with each guided reading group. During share time, each student was able to confidently contribute!

Whose Egg?  was especially fun...filled with chances for inferring. Then students wrote their own "flap" about something they read in a non-fiction book during independent reading. On the outside flaps, they gave clues about their subject, on the inside, they wrote and illustrated the "answer".

Although our time together was short (just 3 weeks) it was FILLED with learning...from books AND from each other!

Are we there yet?

Our school year is coming to an end. This is normally a time of extreme "busy-ness". So much to do, and so little time.
Of course, being a Reading Recovery teacher, it's also a time of extreme stress. Students being tested, data input, records and millions  hundreds of books put away.
However, putting all that data in, has been wonderful as a Literacy Coach. The progress made by my students has been amazing, but, of course, I know the work that went into them. I'm glad it shows up on paper!
But, looking at data of the students I did not "directly" instruct, and the growth made, makes my heart happy! Knowing that consistent Balanced Literacy components in the classroom has made that Tier 1 instruction stronger, every child is a better reader and writer, makes my Literacy Coach job very rewarding. I hope the teachers see the growth, and want to get stronger and stronger.
I am Lovin' Literacy! I (almost) can't wait until next year!! (I hope I don't accidentally pack my professional books...)

Kindergarten Interactive Writing

Spending the last few weeks in Kindergarten has been, well, enlightening. After recovering from the shock of the honesty of 5 year olds ("Are you having a baby? Well, no! I think I will be living on the treadmill, though!) and their interesting eating habits (Why DO they put IN their mouth what they spent so much time getting OUT of their nose?), I really, really enjoyed my time doing interactive writing with these little toots angels. Really.
I started my time in Kindergarten by observing the teachers and conferencing with the kiddos during Writer's Workshop. We noticed that spacing, capital/lower case confusions, and use of the word wall were skills that needed some teaching and practice. Interactive writing is one of the BEST ways to accomplish this, giving the boys and girls practice with just the right amount of support.
So...the journey began.
The Book Fair was occurring my first week of modeling Interactive Writing. So, we began with a pattern story, based on the "If You Give A...." books by Laura Numeroff.

 

 

The next week, the Kindergarten students were learning about procedural texts. That just happened to be the week of Valentine's Day/parties/love. Making hearts seemed an easy enough task. You know, cut out simple heart shapes, then write about how to make hearts! Luckily enough, it also became a problem solving activity. Just go with it....

 

 

The next skill to be taught, based on the Kindergarten TEKS, was captioning. I began by reading aloud The Umbrella, by Jan Brett. We then sequenced and labeled the animals who were in the umbrella. A caption about our "illustration" was then written.

 





 And, we finished off by adding a page to Jan Brett's book, The Umbrella. She is an awesome author, but Kindergarten authors made that great book a little bit better. At just the point in the book where the animals "kersplash" into the water from the umbrella, 5 year olds "kersplashed" onto the carpet, froze, and thought about what they might say if they were the animals. We wrote a few of the "quotes" together, and then the students were split into small groups, where they made animals. The classroom teacher and I went to the small groups, and the children wrote what their animal might have said. This is a version of Interactive Writing, done in a small group.  These are just super cute!!

 

 

The process for these interactive writing sessions is basically the same. To encourage spacing and one to one correspondence, a child is chosen as Space Girl/Boy. This is generally a child who is having a hard time with these concepts in reading and writing. To encourage the process of linking and analogy, children with same beginning sounds in their names were asked to write, other children were asked to  write word wall words, point at the word wall words, or write parts they knew and heard. Conventions were taught and expected during this time. I also introduced Elkonin boxes as a means of hearing and recording sounds in words. The kiddos had their own laminated copies of boxes, which they all filled in with a dry erase marker. At times, the students also had white boards, which enabled them to write as the child at the easel was writing. Children are now excited to link, find words they know on the word wall, and space between words. This is done independently and confidently. The difference in these four weeks is astounding and exciting!! 

 



And so it begins.....
Why not begin a new blog along with a new job?
LITERACY COACH!
This is a new position in our district, so when I say new, I really mean new. The world of education is filled with "new". Really, every day is a new day. That's an understatement....sometimes every hour is a new adventure. So, new doesn't really scare me!
Being out of the classroom for the first time in 16 years...a little scary.Going through Reading Recovery training again, after  being out for 7 years, a little scary.Working woth people over 3 feet tall... MAJOR fear setting in.
Because this is a brand new position in our school district, I don't know who I'll be working with, what we'll be working on, or even if I'll be doing staff development in 2 weeks. Writing this  blog will help organize my thoughts, give me a place to vent, and hopefully help some teachers along the way.
I usually spend my summer planning for next year. I haven't dome a thing for school this summer. Can you believe it!? Even my Pinterest surfing has not been educational! Hey...I'm betting there are some Literacy Coach pins on Pinterest.
Okay, off to create a new board on Pinterest and "surf" a little. Stay tuned...