I am always looking for poetry appropriate for kids... that... doesn't... rhyme. With all of their exposure to nursery rhymes and songs, it seems children come to the classroom thinking all poetry must rhyme (which of course is the hardest kind of poetry to write well). So I was delighted recently when I found these two poetry anthologies at my library:
A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets, by Ralph Fletcher
A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, by Naomi Shihab Nye
Both volumes contain poems written by adults, but in the voice of a child or preteen. Subjects vary, circling around the experiences of childhood, and are treated honestly with the seriousness of a child. These are not "fluffy" my-brother-picks-his-nose kind of poems; they are heart-felt and resonate with me even as an adult. And they are minefields of metaphors, similes, imagery...all of the things we try to teach kids to do in their work! A few examples:
Memory Loss
by Ralph Fletcher
It's not like losing a wallet,
or even your best friend.
Losing your memory is
losing yourself.
Each sentence Grandma speaks
makes me think of crossing a river.
She steps from word to word
until suddenly
she stops in the middle, disoriented.
Should she go back or keep going?
Mom takes Grandma by the hand
and helps her safely to the other side.
If the Shoe Doesn't Fit
by Naomi Shihab Nye
you take it off
of course you take it off
it doesn't worry you
it isn't your shoe
Supple Cord
by Naomi Shihab Nye
My brother, in his small white bed,
held one end.
I tugged the other
to signal I was still awake.
We could have spoken,
could have sung
to one another,
we were in the same room
for five years,
but the soft cord
with its frayed ends
connected us
in the dark,
gave comfort
even if we had been bickering
all day.
When he fell asleep first
and his end of the cord
dropped to the floor,
I missed him terribly,
though I could hear his even breath
and we had such long and separate lives
ahead.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Reading Interventions: Phonemic Awareness
We often had struggling readers in first grade who came to us with very limited pre-reading skills (concepts of print, phonological awareness, etc.). Our curriculum did not address their needs adequately, so the first grade team worked together with the speech and language therapist to come up with some interventions. This is what it looked like in my classroom:
At the beginning of the year, I grouped students into Guided Reading Groups based on their DIBELS scores and a brief running record (if applicable). I also used the Phonological Awareness Inventory (PAI) developed by my district (based on the Phonemic Awareness Hierarchy of Skills found below). Once I had my groups, I had a pretty good idea of who had the ability to begin guided reading and who needed work on pre-reading skills, specifically phonemic awareness. I used the PAI to determine where to start with the latter students.
Phonemic Awareness Hierarchy of Skills
1. Identifying Words in a Sentence (clap one time for each word in a sentence)
2. Identifying Syllables (clap one time for each syllable)
3. Identifying/recognizing Compound Words
4. Identifying Rhymes
5. Generating Rhymes
6. Blending (I say c-a-t, student can tell me “cat”)
7. Segmenting (I ask what are the sounds in cat, and student can tell me “c-a-t”
8. Phoneme Isolation (What is the first, middle, or end, sound you hear in “cat”)
9. Identifying letter sounds (What sound does this letter make?)
I created tabs for each of the above skills in a 3-ring binder, and then organized activities behind each tab, using ideas from the resources listed below.
Resources:
Auditory Processing Activities. Copyright 1991 by ECL Publications. www.eclpublications.com.
Irresistible Sound-matching sheets and Lessons That Build Phonemic Awareness, by J. Wagstaff. Copyright 2001 by Scholastic.
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum, by Marilyn Jager Adams, Barbara R. Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri Beeler. Copyright 1998 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
The Phonological Awareness Kit: Primary, by Carolyn Robertson and Wanda Salter. Copyright 1995 by Linguisystems. http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=28#
Word Identification Strategies: Phonics from a New Perspective, by Barbara J. Fox. Copyright 2000 by Prentice Hall.
Each time I met with a group of students (2-5 in each group), I would spend no more than 10 minutes on 2 or 3 phonemic awareness activities. They were presented as “games” and done at a quick pace. I took brief notes (30 sec) after we finished. If I still had their attention after 10 minutes, we would do some work with a few sight words, work on concepts of print, or write a simple book together. The next day we would review the phonemic awareness activities from the day before, and if each student had mastered the skill, we would move on. If not, we would try other activities related to the same skill.
After nine months of focused work on phonemic awareness, collaboration with para-educators and special education teachers (in addition to regular classroom teaching), we could see much growth in each student! Those students who were especially motivated and had involved parents made even more progress. We saw several students excel in second grade, and a few that exited the special education program after another year of work. This was amazing, considering they were far behind their peers at the beginning of first grade.
Additional Notes:
It was not unusual to spend several months on Blending or Segmenting activities.
We didn't get stuck on the rhyming sections. Rhyming is not the only indicator of reading readiness, so after I introduced it and worked with it, we moved on.
I did not wait until the last step of the hierarchy to introduce phonics. Often, my para-ed would work on letter identification using flashcards and matching or BINGO games. We also worked on sight words throughout the year and created pattern books so the children were “reading” even as they worked on their pre-reading development.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Don't Let the Pigeon Write This Book
I love Mo Willems' writing. He has a number of picture books out that are just fabulous. Not only is he a creative illustrator, but his writing is imbued with his wonderful sense of humor (the dry kind, like mine!). One of his popular books is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
Well, I just stumbled onto his blog tonight and found this inspiring post! It led me to imagine what the pigeon would find if he came to my school... Perhaps the principal's office, the swingset, the donuts in the staff lounge, the piano in the music room, the mailbox in front of the school...
So how's this for a writing activity?
Part One: Read a couple of the pigeon books by Mo Willems. Discuss what the pigeon wants in each book and how he goes about trying to get it. Talk about how Willems ends each story. Point out the talking bubbles or discuss quotation marks as a way to show that someone is talking. Take notes on chart paper for students to reference when they write their stories.
Part Two: Zerox and cut out a copy of the pigeon. Take photos of him sitting in various places in your school (this could be done by the teacher ahead of time or together as a class). Print the photos and distribute one to each student, or to each pair of students. Explain that this picture needs to be included somewhere in their story, either at the beginning, middle, or end. Model using one of the pictures as inspiration for a story: Think out loud as you construct an idea for a story: what does the pigeon want? Show students how you would begin your story (for younger kids, you might want to demonstrate writing the whole story). Then let the writing begin!
Of course, you will want to establish a teaching focus before beginning this lesson. Will you emphasize persuasive writing? Story form? Quotation marks? You also need to have a clear idea of what you want the final product to look like: individual stories? a class book? Think about how your students do their best writing: individually, in pairs, in table groups, or as a whole class? Perhaps you'll want to give out several photos rather than just one to each group.
If I were to do this in a first grade class (first half of the school year), I would take the whole class on a "field trip" around the school and have them give me suggestions on where to photograph the pigeon. We would then return to the classroom and go through the writing process together, crafting the story on sentence strips and putting them in a sequence that made sense. Then I would type up the story with the photographs and bind it as a class book to be enjoyed by everyone. The finished book would go home with each student, and once it had made it through each household, we would put it into our classroom library.
Since writing (and reading) can be so tedious for beginning first graders, this would give students an opportunity to contribute to the writing process and be creative without having to worry about the physical act of writing (we would of course be practicing this skill at other times). Also, once students have written a book together, they are immediately invested in learning how to read it!
Well, I just stumbled onto his blog tonight and found this inspiring post! It led me to imagine what the pigeon would find if he came to my school... Perhaps the principal's office, the swingset, the donuts in the staff lounge, the piano in the music room, the mailbox in front of the school...
So how's this for a writing activity?
Part One: Read a couple of the pigeon books by Mo Willems. Discuss what the pigeon wants in each book and how he goes about trying to get it. Talk about how Willems ends each story. Point out the talking bubbles or discuss quotation marks as a way to show that someone is talking. Take notes on chart paper for students to reference when they write their stories.
Part Two: Zerox and cut out a copy of the pigeon. Take photos of him sitting in various places in your school (this could be done by the teacher ahead of time or together as a class). Print the photos and distribute one to each student, or to each pair of students. Explain that this picture needs to be included somewhere in their story, either at the beginning, middle, or end. Model using one of the pictures as inspiration for a story: Think out loud as you construct an idea for a story: what does the pigeon want? Show students how you would begin your story (for younger kids, you might want to demonstrate writing the whole story). Then let the writing begin!
Of course, you will want to establish a teaching focus before beginning this lesson. Will you emphasize persuasive writing? Story form? Quotation marks? You also need to have a clear idea of what you want the final product to look like: individual stories? a class book? Think about how your students do their best writing: individually, in pairs, in table groups, or as a whole class? Perhaps you'll want to give out several photos rather than just one to each group.
If I were to do this in a first grade class (first half of the school year), I would take the whole class on a "field trip" around the school and have them give me suggestions on where to photograph the pigeon. We would then return to the classroom and go through the writing process together, crafting the story on sentence strips and putting them in a sequence that made sense. Then I would type up the story with the photographs and bind it as a class book to be enjoyed by everyone. The finished book would go home with each student, and once it had made it through each household, we would put it into our classroom library.
Since writing (and reading) can be so tedious for beginning first graders, this would give students an opportunity to contribute to the writing process and be creative without having to worry about the physical act of writing (we would of course be practicing this skill at other times). Also, once students have written a book together, they are immediately invested in learning how to read it!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Retells in Kindergarten
The use of conversation is so important in students' writing development. Younger students especially benefit from talking about stories and ideas before actually writing them down. And because the physical act of writing is particularly demanding for these students, focused discussions can be considering a form of pre-writing.
We do a lot of retells in first grade as a way to teach sequencing (beginning, middle, end), plot development, and other elements of stories. Recently I found this post describing work in a kindergarten classroom around a retell. The book they read is called The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza. My favorite part about this lesson is the use of felt characters to orally retell the story. Students can do the oral retell as part of their "choices" during the literacy block. What a wonderful idea! If you click here, you can see a video of one retelling using the felt materials.
As you can see, the teachers took the students through multiple readings and oral retells of the text on to focused mini-lessons and eventually writing down their own retells. The writing samples given show remarkable work for a kindergartener!
Note: If you wish to re-create this series of lessons in your classroom, keep in mind that these kindergarten teachers used their students' interest in this story to prompt the writing and retelling activities. You may have a more appropriate picture book in your classroom that your students gravitate to that would be more suited to these activities!
We do a lot of retells in first grade as a way to teach sequencing (beginning, middle, end), plot development, and other elements of stories. Recently I found this post describing work in a kindergarten classroom around a retell. The book they read is called The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza. My favorite part about this lesson is the use of felt characters to orally retell the story. Students can do the oral retell as part of their "choices" during the literacy block. What a wonderful idea! If you click here, you can see a video of one retelling using the felt materials.
As you can see, the teachers took the students through multiple readings and oral retells of the text on to focused mini-lessons and eventually writing down their own retells. The writing samples given show remarkable work for a kindergartener!
Note: If you wish to re-create this series of lessons in your classroom, keep in mind that these kindergarten teachers used their students' interest in this story to prompt the writing and retelling activities. You may have a more appropriate picture book in your classroom that your students gravitate to that would be more suited to these activities!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Resources: Children's Books and Reading Programs
I was revisiting Esme Raji Codell's website today (author of Educating Esme, the spunky diary of a first-year teacher) and found some gems:
The Best New Children's Books
Esme reviews new children's books on her blog. She provides a wonderful range of fiction and nonfiction, picture books and chapter books, read-alouds and books for independent reading. In addition to the day's featured title, Esme includes books that you might enjoy that relate to it. For instance, in yesterday's post, she highlights Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass, followed by several other "tweenage" books written by Mass and then a listing of realistic fiction appropriate for this age group.
Special Reading Programs (promoting the enjoyment of reading)
Here are several ideas for promoting reading in your school. Ranging from storytime breakfasts to weekly baking sessions to a book parade, they can be used as PTA-sponsored fundraisers, student body-sponsored activities, inspiration for an after-school class, or as the culminating activity for a school-wide literacy week.
The Best New Children's Books
Esme reviews new children's books on her blog. She provides a wonderful range of fiction and nonfiction, picture books and chapter books, read-alouds and books for independent reading. In addition to the day's featured title, Esme includes books that you might enjoy that relate to it. For instance, in yesterday's post, she highlights Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass, followed by several other "tweenage" books written by Mass and then a listing of realistic fiction appropriate for this age group.
Special Reading Programs (promoting the enjoyment of reading)
Here are several ideas for promoting reading in your school. Ranging from storytime breakfasts to weekly baking sessions to a book parade, they can be used as PTA-sponsored fundraisers, student body-sponsored activities, inspiration for an after-school class, or as the culminating activity for a school-wide literacy week.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Resources: Grammar, Punctuation, and Vocabulary
Books I want to check out:
The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk
Image Grammar by Harry Noden
Mechanically Inclined by Jeff Anderson
The Giggly Guide to Grammar by Cathy Campbell
Practical Punctuation: Lessons on Rule Making and Rule Breaking in Elementary Writing by Dan Feigelson
The last book, by Feigelson, was reviewed on a new blog I found recently called Two Writing Teachers. You can read their review here. Also on their site I found a great strategy for teaching vocabulary using Sensory Webbing. You can find that post here.
The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk
Image Grammar by Harry Noden
Mechanically Inclined by Jeff Anderson
The Giggly Guide to Grammar by Cathy Campbell
Practical Punctuation: Lessons on Rule Making and Rule Breaking in Elementary Writing by Dan Feigelson
The last book, by Feigelson, was reviewed on a new blog I found recently called Two Writing Teachers. You can read their review here. Also on their site I found a great strategy for teaching vocabulary using Sensory Webbing. You can find that post here.
First Grade Journal Entries: Incorporating Skills and Creativity
Below are some excerpts from two of my first graders' journals written during our morning journal time, without any prompting. You will see that the students are experimenting with some of the skills they are learning in class: adding details, writing in sequential order, using a closing sentence, and incorporating voice.
12-9-05
On the 22nd I'm gonna go to Montana.
12-13-05
I'm excited to go to Montana! At Montana my grandma and my grandpa is living there!
12-15-05
On the 22nd I'm gonna go to Montana. My grandma and my grandpa live there. Last year my grandpa helped me build a birdhouse.
1-3-06
I'm happy when I go to Montana to see my grandma and my grandpa.
1-12-06
On the weekend I'm gonna finish my basketball hoop. My dad and I got two more things. The thing is putting the sand in and digging a place for my basketball hoop.
1-17-06
This weekend I had a basketball game. I didn't know the score.
1-19-06
Last night my dad put up a basketball [hoop]. My friends was outside. My friends is Josh and Kyle. My friend Josh played basketball.
3-6-06
This weekend I slept over at my grandma's. My grandma got a sports car. The roof goes off. I was the first kid to be in the sports car. Then I slept over at my friend's. He got a game cube. We played basketball. My friend won the first, then I won the second.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow I am going to get a new game for my PSP. It's going to be fun! You should try it. I like to play with my PSP. Why? Because it's really, really fun. Who does not like to play with a PSP? 2 people.
We are learning about Tell Me More. Tell Me More is about writing more, like this tip. Why do bears eat us? We do not taste good.
Hey everyone, how are you? Great. Fine. Give me your money or else. You have to give me your 1,000 or 100. Reese, can you buy me some money? Ok. Why don't you want my money? You want my money? Stop asking that question. You cannot do this to me. Oh great. Oh yes I can. Now do this: aaahhh.
Dominique Rhodes is number 33. He is the best on the Colts. He has a girly name. Who in the world will want a girly name like that?
The pacer test is today. I don't like it. Makes me sick. I might barf. I don't like to run and run.
It's the best day ever. I woke up and the sun smiled at me. I went outside and skipped to the crusty crab. Then he was gone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though their writing isn't refined, and sometimes doesn't make sense, it reveals what is important to them and, I'm happy to say, sounds like them. Voice is the hardest thing to teach, but when you help students get into the habit of writing every day (thus developing greater facility with words and with the physical act of writing), teach them the elements of good writing, model good writing, and then give them the opportunity to write about what they care about, their voice will be very apparent!
Journal writing is not the only way for students to have choice during writing, and it doesn't work all the time with every student. Its success really depends on what your purpose in journal writing is. My main purpose was for students to write every day, at the same time, for a specific amount of time. I wanted them to develop ease with writing, so that when they had to write for an assignment, it was not such a challenge for them. I wasn't as concerned about the content, although we did talk about what was appropriate (They couldn't write about video games for days on end; no violence; no unkind words about others.) and where they could get inspiration. Because the students had much control over the content, and since they could choose to start with a drawing or text, I rarely had trouble getting anyone to write.
The most exciting thing I saw in journal writing was the application of skills I was trying to teach. Often I would encourage students to share their writing aloud and then praise the way they were using a certain skill. (And inevitably, the next day someone else would use the skill and want to share!) It was a fun way to give the students choice within writing and accomplish my goals as well!
12-9-05
On the 22nd I'm gonna go to Montana.
12-13-05
I'm excited to go to Montana! At Montana my grandma and my grandpa is living there!
12-15-05
On the 22nd I'm gonna go to Montana. My grandma and my grandpa live there. Last year my grandpa helped me build a birdhouse.
1-3-06
I'm happy when I go to Montana to see my grandma and my grandpa.
1-12-06
On the weekend I'm gonna finish my basketball hoop. My dad and I got two more things. The thing is putting the sand in and digging a place for my basketball hoop.
1-17-06
This weekend I had a basketball game. I didn't know the score.
1-19-06
Last night my dad put up a basketball [hoop]. My friends was outside. My friends is Josh and Kyle. My friend Josh played basketball.
3-6-06
This weekend I slept over at my grandma's. My grandma got a sports car. The roof goes off. I was the first kid to be in the sports car. Then I slept over at my friend's. He got a game cube. We played basketball. My friend won the first, then I won the second.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow I am going to get a new game for my PSP. It's going to be fun! You should try it. I like to play with my PSP. Why? Because it's really, really fun. Who does not like to play with a PSP? 2 people.
We are learning about Tell Me More. Tell Me More is about writing more, like this tip. Why do bears eat us? We do not taste good.
Hey everyone, how are you? Great. Fine. Give me your money or else. You have to give me your 1,000 or 100. Reese, can you buy me some money? Ok. Why don't you want my money? You want my money? Stop asking that question. You cannot do this to me. Oh great. Oh yes I can. Now do this: aaahhh.
Dominique Rhodes is number 33. He is the best on the Colts. He has a girly name. Who in the world will want a girly name like that?
The pacer test is today. I don't like it. Makes me sick. I might barf. I don't like to run and run.
It's the best day ever. I woke up and the sun smiled at me. I went outside and skipped to the crusty crab. Then he was gone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though their writing isn't refined, and sometimes doesn't make sense, it reveals what is important to them and, I'm happy to say, sounds like them. Voice is the hardest thing to teach, but when you help students get into the habit of writing every day (thus developing greater facility with words and with the physical act of writing), teach them the elements of good writing, model good writing, and then give them the opportunity to write about what they care about, their voice will be very apparent!
Journal writing is not the only way for students to have choice during writing, and it doesn't work all the time with every student. Its success really depends on what your purpose in journal writing is. My main purpose was for students to write every day, at the same time, for a specific amount of time. I wanted them to develop ease with writing, so that when they had to write for an assignment, it was not such a challenge for them. I wasn't as concerned about the content, although we did talk about what was appropriate (They couldn't write about video games for days on end; no violence; no unkind words about others.) and where they could get inspiration. Because the students had much control over the content, and since they could choose to start with a drawing or text, I rarely had trouble getting anyone to write.
The most exciting thing I saw in journal writing was the application of skills I was trying to teach. Often I would encourage students to share their writing aloud and then praise the way they were using a certain skill. (And inevitably, the next day someone else would use the skill and want to share!) It was a fun way to give the students choice within writing and accomplish my goals as well!
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