Spontaneous Comics

Ever been reading a book aloud to your class and after discussing, want to do just a little more?

Recently, I read a book to my class about manners, which led into a great conversation about that good ole' golden rule.  And while we did a few turn-n-talks during the read aloud, I wanted to have the kids do more, since it was such a (small but) powerful book.

One of the upsides to my brain and it's ADHD is the spontaneous flow of ideas that are constantly floating around, trying to escape.  And this idea was a pretty good escapee, if I do say so myself!

Anyway, after reading, the kids got into groups of three or four and had to come up with the most important lessons connected to the book.  Once they had ideas, each member of the group (formed by who they were sitting near during read aloud,) went back to their own seat and drew ONE idea on a sticky note, comic style, complete with word balloons or captions.

As they finished their comic square, they put it on our comic strip.  When we were done?  It made a pretty neat read that the kids went up to look at throughout the day!  What I liked the best is it was a quick, simple way to assess the individual understandings of the story.  When I read each student's response, I could tell who was able to apply the theme of the book to the task, who is still in the literal phase, taking direct examples from the book, who followed the directions, and even quick spelling and handwriting observations.  All from a simple sticky note activity that took less than 10 minutes!

Reading

It's a well-known fact in the educational community that March is reading month.  As an elementary teacher, we do all sorts of things to make reading even more fun this month, using things like contests and give-aways to build enthusiasm for something that is expected every day of the year.  The whole year.  Not just the school year.

My classroom held four "events" for the month.  Week one had us decorating our door, with every Thinker creating a book cover for their favorite book.  Week two brought on a bookmark decorating contest.  My favorite was week three, where the kids got a ticket for a free book raffle every day they avoided the screen at home.  We called it "screen-time shut-down" and it was quite a success!  Week four will end with a morning of pajamas, stuffed animals, and blankets as we read away the morning before spring break begins.

It got me thinking, though, how at their age, kids don't understand how important reading is.  They don't realize how much their education can grow simply by remembering to do their "20 minutes" of reading each night.  In particular, my student's don't realize how lucky they are to grow up within a community that values reading, and is surrounded by books.

It saddens me to know that so many kids grow up without books.  One of the info graphics I found said that in poverty, there is often 1 book per 300 kids, whereas in a community like mine, there is often 13 books per every child.  Shocked me!

Importance of Nightly Reading Infographic.

Every year for curriculum night, I send home a handout that outlines the information above.  Considering I'm totally loving info graphics right now (and can't wait to start making them with my students thanks to a session at MACUL!) I found this graphic representation to be quite striking.  I will be sharing it with my class, too, as the graphic appeal will be a bit clearer to them, and hopefully, they'll start remembering their reading on their own……. hey, one can dream, right?!

See. Think. Wonder.

This is another fantastic Thinking Routine.  In lower grades, they call it see-think-wonder.  In upper grades, we often call it observe-think-question.

What do you see?

And that's exactly what we did.

As we were readying to do some close reading, I remembered an old game we used to play at camp.  You know the one I'm talking about?  The one where one person stands in front of the group for a minute, and the group has to "memorize" that person.  Then, the person steps out of site of the group and changes ONE thing.  Just one.  They return to the group, and it's the groups job to try and notice (see/observe) the difference.

Well, it did wonders for helping the kids start to NOTICE details in their reading.

It was a short, but extremely engaging way to kick off a new reading unit!

Character Study

We are (supposed to be) using Oakland Schools Units of Study for Reading and Writing this year.  The idea behind said units is fantastic - they are aligned with common core, provide anchor charts and step by step lessons.  They go into minute details of what should be included, and how to deliver the instruction.

That's all the detail I'm going to go into about the units.  You can read into it as much or little as you'd like!

What I am going to share is the Character Study unit we did.  I really, really enjoyed this unit, and so did the Thinkers.

Working in partners, the kids read different books that had a strong lead character.  They set their page schedule in their work booklet, and used the mini lessons to learn more about characters and character development.  One thing was missing from the unit, though, and that was a culminating project.

Hence, the "wanted" posters were born.

Now, ideally, these posters were going to be blabberized, and then used as an AR trigger image so that anyone could "hear" the characters "speak" but alas, the flu took me, and we lost time.  Maybe next year.  The posters still turned out really neat, though!

Read. Aloud. A lot!

Like many elementary teachers, I read aloud to my class on a daily basis.  Sometimes, if they're persistent enough, and I'm feeling giving, I'll even read a little extra.  This request usually happens when I end the day's chapters on a cliff hanger.

Which I do.  A lot.  Hey, it's fun!

Anyway, one of the things that was a tug-of-war decision for me was using our read aloud as instructional, or using it for pure enjoyment.  I know that there are schools of thought that argue for each side, and both are very valid.  I've found that we do snack time during read aloud, giving the kids a few minutes to chat at the beginning before I start reading.

Once I start reading?  They're usually hooked. X Our Daily 5 CAFE board is right by my read aloud chair, which makes a great place for modeling some of the strategies that are on the board.  This helps with instruction in a very organic, natural way.  Most, if not all of our read alouds happen this way - me reading, using the ever-growing board of strategies, and the kids munching away until a cliff hanger leaves them slack jawed.

Something I started this year, though, is a project or activity AFTER read aloud.  This is a great place to bring in some of the Thinking Routines that we use in the district- my favorite for read aloud being chalk talk.

In this case, prior to our reading unit on character study, we did a mini character study using our read aloud and a chalk talk.  The kids went from poster to poster "talking" with their "chalk."  We did this a few times with the main characters in the story.  Then each group was given a poster to analyze, and they had to create a character sketch of just that character. I think it was kind of fun, and so did the kids!

The Dot.....

Have you heard of or read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds?  It's a very simple story, yet, there are SO many ways it can impact a classroom and connect to curriculum.

For my class this year, I found the book in a backward sort of way.  See, I found this really neat app called colAR via my twitter network.  Yes, it's supposed to be spelled that way, cause the AR stands for augmented reality.  Now, I'm not an expert by any means on augmented reality, but I am pretty good at finding ways to make things fit into the curriculum and justify spending precious instructional time on said activities.

So when I found this app, and saw how you can totally bring to life your dot drawing, I had to dive in.  Really.  It was a must.

How did I connect it to curriculum so that I could spare time in our overly scheduled day?  Good question.

First, we read the book and took it at face value - absorbing and exploring the basic lessons of believing in yourself, trying your best, perspective, perseverance- you know, the good stuff.  From there, the Thinkers illustrated their own dots, drawing pictures that represent them- what they're good at, what they enjoy doing, what they're proud of, etc.

Then came the fun part.

Using the (free) colAR app on our four classroom iPads each table got to play with their dot - which became a three dimensional toy on the screen.  Even better, it was curriculum night, so the dots were proudly displayed on desks so that parents could download and play themselves that evening.

It was a big hit all around, but how, you might be wondering, does it tie in to curriculum?  I mean, this is 4th grade, we don't usually have time for celebrations like International Dot Day (9/15) and things like that.

But this was different.  See, we study a bit of government in 4th grade.  And we always start the year off with a constitutional exploration, including the preamble (we write our own!) and symbols of the United States.

Symbols.  Yep.  Now you're thinking.

So day one was the fun day where we read the book and created our dots, complete with symbols that represent us, what we like, what we're good at, and so forth.

Day two is where the connections connected and the lightbulbs lit.

Cause it was time for us to design a class flag.  With symbols that represent our classroom.  Which is how the Thinkers spent a good part of their afternoon (after, of course, we reviewed the dot story, played a little more with our dots, and discussed symbols that represent us, the United States, and our classroom.)

I can't wait to see what the Thinkers come up with when the flags are revealed later this week!

Reading Garden

I love my classroom.  I've been in this exact room for 12 years.  Yep, 12 years.  A half of a year spent student teaching.  One third of a year spent in a long term placement.  And ten years calling the room my very own.  (Reader's Digest Version: Student taught in what is now my room, followed by a year and a half of being the building sub, before I got hired into my same room!)

Anyway.  The room used to be windowless.

The Original Reading Garden

Well, that's not entirely true.  It had one tiny window, about two feet by three feet, that I dubbed "the drive thru" as you couldn't leave it open for any amount of time or it would create a wind tunnel.  Because of the lack of natural views, I turned my reading corner into a garden, alas, the reading garden.    I built a white picket fence, lined it with fabric that looked like grass, and mounted it on a wall where there were beautiful blue clouds covering the ugly brick.

Wait.  It gets even better.

I was gifted a beautiful wooden park bench (thank you Original Thinkers!) which only added to the park like setting already blooming.  Then, I bought a tree.  (Not a real one, mind you, cause my black thumbs would have killed it in a month!)  And after weeks of searching, I finally found a stone rug.  Or, more like, I made a stone rug.

It was a beautiful, relaxing, peaceful setting that everyone who visited absolutely loved.

Then, things changed.

Step 2: add the grays

Step 1: purple stones

Last summer, I got REAL windows.  Ones that open.  Like, with screens and everything!  They're awesome!  I love the natural light!  Finally!

Except..... it meant a MAJOR room re-arrangement.  Potentially eliminating the garden.....

Step 3: accent grays

Thankfully, with a bit of creative thinking, garden removal didn't have to happen!  Instead, it underwent a mega overhaul, complete with two brand new bookshelves!  With all the changes, I had to create a new stone rug that would fit the modified space.  Back to Home Depot for a four foot by five foot canvas drop cloth I went!  Here's the outcome:

The new Reading Garden! (Park bench relocated by the math corner)

There's still lots to organize, as with the two new bookshelves (tall ones!) I was able to add about 400 more books to an already overcrowded library..... but hey, that'll be part of the fun, having the kids organize the new and improved Reading Garden!