It's Monday! Here's What I'm Reading...

This month, I have committed to writing every day through the community at Two Writing Teachers. All are welcome to the March Slice of Life Challenge! It's not too late to join in or comment or just read... Many of my posts will be at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but the posts that relate explicitly to learning will be on both blogs. 


Over the weekend, I read The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. It definitely hooked me with an extremely high stakes plot. Mark, the 12 year-old main character, has cancer and runs away just before he is supposed to start a treatment. He has set a personal goal to climb Mount Rainier, and even with a raging storm, continues with his quest. Dan Gemeinhart has some wonderful passages about life, and the social issues around whether to tell the truth or keep a secret pulsates the entire book. An upper elementary book club would have some intense discussions about the morality/immorality of lying!

All that being said, with a 12 year-old main character, this book is classified as middle grade fiction. I would not want any of my 8 year-olds to read it. There are some violent scenes, some terrifying scenes, and some really emotional scenes, as the book deals with death, cancer, gangs, bullying, and intense hospital scenes. It's a book that you might want to alert parents about if you're passing it along to strong readers in your elementary classroom.

Happy Reading and Slicing,

An Information Piece to Make Us Smile

This month, I have committed to writing every day through the community at Two Writing Teachers. All are welcome to the March Slice of Life Challenge! It's not too late to join in or comment or just read... Many of my posts will be at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but the posts that relate explicitly to learning will be on both blogs. 

After I read Georgia Heard's, Finding the Heart of Nonfiction, I became much more interested in working with teachers to ensure that students maintain a sense of voice when they write information or opinion. The CCSS really don't talk much about voice, and a well-written encyclopedia article (although somewhat dry and voiceless) would meet the standards. 

Today, I stopped to say hello to a fourth-grade teacher.

"I have an on-demand piece that you have to read," she said.

I love it when teachers say that to me, but that's another post... Our most recent writing assessment was a performance task. Students had a couple of articles to read, a short video clip to write, and then they had to write an information piece about the Connecticut River. 

She handed me the piece. "I got a little worried when I read the first page," she said. 

A good hair day? I could definitely understand why the teacher was a little concerned...

But then I kept reading, and my jaw started to drop.

 We used Hudson Talbott's It's All About Me-ow throughout the unit as a mentor text, and clearly, this student had internalized it. I have written about this book here and what a great mentor text it is, but here is student writing proof. Don't you love her use of parentheses?

True to her introduction's suggestion of sections, her piece stayed organized by topics, and I have included another page. Maybe some of you will want to share in my amazement of how she wove in details as she personified the Connecticut River into the narrator. Please remember. This is a fourth-grader writing an on-demand piece for a performance task. She read, watched, planned, and wrote in two classroom sessions.

I talked to the student before I left her classroom, complimenting her and suggesting that she revisit this piece. I'd love to see it in a contest some day, and in the meantime, I share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Happy Slicing!!

Reflections in a Third-Grade Classroom

This month, I have committed to writing every day through the community at Two Writing Teachers. All are welcome to the March Slice of Life Challenge! It's not too late to join in or comment or just read... Many of my posts will be at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but the posts that relate explicitly to learning will be on both blogs. 

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of taking the time to slow down and process the learning that is happening. In one of the third-grade classes that I work in, I asked the students to do just that. 

"Before you go to your writing, I want you to just sit and reflect for a moment on the lesson you just experienced," I said. "You have a chart in front of you, as well as some work that you did in the last ten minutes. What did you learn? Consciously think about what you learned."

We did not ask the students to share their learning which surprised them. They are used to raising their hands and giving an answer. Instead, I told them to just take their learning with them to their work. Their classroom teacher gave students who wanted them Post-its so that they could write down their learning. I kept some of the responses and the different take-aways fascinate me:

 The first response is reflective of the lesson, as it was a lesson about planning and making sure that you will have enough to say about your claim, emphasizing the importance of front-end revision.

I learned that I should go back and rewrite things or add in more.

The next response was from a high level writer.  From her post, I can tell that she was thinking about and processing at the next level, contemplating the possibilities of revising her claim and thinking in terms of reasons and matching examples--high level thinking for a third-grader.

This third response is a great example of one that worries me. Where did the concept of character traits sneak in during an opinion writing lesson? This child's response gives me a clear shout-out to clarify the different types of writing and different purposes to keep in mind. I will make sure to circle back to her and try to clear up the confusion that may exist for her. Without her reflective Post-it, I wonder how long she would have written her piece and how she would have gone about structuring it.

Walking around and reading their opinion writing early on in the unit, I was impressed blown away at the level of their writing. Still with Maggie Beattie Roberts' wonderful voice in my ear, encouraging me to help students take charge of their own learning (she had worked with us the previous day), I asked the students how this amazing learning happened. How was it that they were writing such amazing opinion pieces so early in the unit? I jotted their answers on another Post-it and I wished that I had made a chart of what they said, but I am sharing a photo of my notes:

Here's what they said...

• We have charts, checklists, modeled pieces, a strong purpose, and showing pieces (their term for mentor texts). 
• Also, we can take all that we learned in the information unit and use it in this one. 
• We know what the fourth grade standards are so we can set goals.
• We are writing what we know a lot about. 

I'm not kidding.

Thank you, Maggie, for the reminder to take the time to think, really think, about the learning, and to remember to foster this important habit of mind.

Happy Slicing,

Slow Down and Reflect- an Idea Worth Remembering

This month, I have committed to writing every day through the community at Two Writing Teachers. All are welcome to the March Slice of Life Challenge! It's not too late to join in or comment or just read... Many of my posts will be at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but the posts that relate explicitly to learning will be on both blogs. 

We are incredibly fortunate in our district to have Teachers College Staff Developers come and work with us a few times a year. Since I have been in my position of Writing Coordinator, Kate Roberts has worked with our sixth-grade teachers. This year, Maggie Beattie Roberts has taken over this role, and I met her face to face for the first time yesterday. 

I'm going to pause and take a minute to give Twitter a plug. When Maggie walked into the building, I felt like I knew her because I have been in twitterchats and I have tweeted with her back and forth. I have read her blog, and I have tweeted favorite posts (all of them, actually, I think). I would not have believed that I would write this a couple of years ago when I was new on Twitter, but we hugged each other like old friends yesterday morning. If you are debating twitter, if you are on the fence...join. It really is an incredible forum for learning and developing friendships with like-minded people. 

Maggie said so much that inspired me yesterday, but the first share I will offer on this blog is an idea that she shared from Kylene Beers. 

"We're always so busy moving forward that we don't have a time to reflect."

I think that in context, Kylene was talking about notetaking, but the shared comment from Maggie made me think and reflect on many aspects of teaching and learning. When do we take the time to ask ourselves and our students:

• What did I learn today?
• What helped me learn?
• Why did it matter?

Additionally, when do we take the time to reflecting on the learning that has happened over a longer period of time, both for ourselves as educators and for our students, asking ourselves and our students"

• How does the work I'm doing now compare to the work I was doing at a different point in my learning path?
• What knowledge/understandings do I have from past units or experiences that can help me with new challenges?
• What tools, lessons, or other experiences helped my learning?
• How can I learn from the other members of my community? 
• What has been hard or held me back and how can I overcome similar obstacles?

I tried this with a group of third-graders, and the conversation we had amazed me. I will share their reflections tomorrow. 

Happy Slicing,

It's Monday--Here's What I'm Reading!

This month, I have committed to writing every day through the community at Two Writing Teachers. All are welcome to the March Slice of Life Challenge! It's not too late to join in or comment or just read... Many of my posts will be at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but the posts that relate explicitly to learning will be on both blogs. 

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

This morning, I have the perfect book to combine my Monday reading and daily writing worlds. On Saturday, I spent the day at a field hockey tournament, grateful for the pockets of time in between games so that I could read an incredible book.

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Shane Evans was left on my desk with a note:

When I get this sort of note, I read the book! If I could put this book on every reader of this post's desk, I would. It's that good. The Red Pencil is written in verse and the beauty of the images, the figurative language, and the play with fonts and spacing render the gruesome story and the horrific events readable and incredibly compelling. Set in Sudan, Amira lives in a tribal village with her parents and her sister until the Janjaweed militia attack the village, killing people and animals, and destroying homes. Andrea Davis Pinkney included an incredible author's note, explaining the reality of the situation with facts and details, her research process, and her hopes for the future. 

This is a book that will inspire writers with the powerful verses that weave the story. I am including just a fragment of the chapter, Waking the Moon:

When the moon winks,
 then waves good-bye,
 it is a bad sign.

A hiding moon is a curse.

It means
the worst
luck is sure to fall.

If a curtain of clouds 
closes
on a swelling moon's smile,
we have reason to frown.

This fragment is only a tiny sampling of the beautiful language throughout this book. The Red Pencil will also inspire artists because Shane Evans uses seemingly simple, but deceptively complex, pictures to show so much emotion. Most importantly, this story will inspire empathy, as it tells of unthinkable events with hope, compassion, and beauty. Upper elementary students will ask questions and search for answers about lives that are so very different from the ones they live. 

Happy reading and slicing!

It's Monday! What are You Reading? The Terrible Two

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John just came out in January and I heard how funny it was so I couldn't wait to read it this weekend.  It is a very funny book and will be a hit in my 5th grade classroom - I already have a list of students who are waiting to read it! Miles Murphy, a prankster, moves to a new town and discovers his new school already has a prankster! As he begins to pull pranks of his own, he is shocked (and you will be too!) to discover who the other prankster is and then the war begins between the terrible two.  This is a perfect book to put in the hands of reluctant readers too because it will keep them engaged and make them laugh! It looks like this is the first book in the series so I can't wait for the next one. :)





Happy Reading! :)

Trying to Get Those Third-Grade Opinions Flowing...

Thanks to Stacey, Dana, Tara, Betsy, Anna, and Beth, the amazing writers and thinkers who host the Slice of Life community every Tuesday. Everyone is welcome to join with posts or comments at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com!

This afternoon, I got to work with one of our third-grade teachers as her students work their way through the first week of their opinion writing unit. I committed to working with a group of struggling writers for a few days in a row in an effort to jump start them. We'll see how that goes... Admittedly, this work is a deviation from the usual choice and independence that we strive for in writing workshops, but we are experimenting with gradual release of writers who tend not to produce too much.

Yesterday, the five of us (the four students and I) thought of various ideas around what they might want to change, and we tried to write a collaborative piece about having a classroom pet. This didn't go so well. They each took different reasons to work on, reasons that we had thought up together, but... J. wrote almost nothing, M. wrote very little, and P. struggled because he didn't think that we should have a pet in the classroom. T. wrote a lot, but some of his work lost focus. Because I wanted them to feel like they accomplished something big, I combined their work and made copies for each of them. They were a little miffed that the pencil didn't show up on the copies, and they were also wishing that they had written more. 

"Don't worry," I said. "We will have another chance to write a piece together today."

They were thrilled to see that I had Sharpies for them to use. (I didn't tell them that they each had different colors so I'd know who wrote what and that they had pens so that they couldn't erase!)

Today, we wrote about why they love their teacher, and their responses were heartwarming. Sometimes, we can write opinion pieces to celebrate something, and they were so happy to do this! They were much more inspired by this topic than by trying to talk their teacher into a pet.

I first had them give me a bunch of ideas about why they liked their teacher, and I wrote their reasons, memories, stories, and examples on Post-its. They discovered that the reasons, the examples, and the stories sort of "team up," and the Post-its allowed us to move ideas around into groupings. Once we sorted the Post-its, we worked on balancing the piles a little--making sure that there were enough examples and details for each of the reasons. With minimal debate, each of the four students committed to write each of the four piles.

I worked on having them verbalize what they were going to write until T. and J. were basically bursting. 

“Please, can we just get writing?” T. said. (Yes, he really did say that.)

 M. was VERY worried by spelling. The permanence of the pen was a little debilitating to her at first, but once she got going and let go of the concept of perfect spelling, she got a fair amount written.

We did not touch on introduction or conclusion, but we’ll get there. For right now, just grouping like information and including details to develop their ideas was enough. Tomorrow, I’m thinking we will write about one of their essential teachers, working through the same process but more quickly, trying to get to the concept of introducing and concluding statements. Ultimately, I want them to take the confidence they're gaining as writers and transfer the skills they are practicing to topics of their own choosing and pieces that they plan and write on their own.

Gearing up for March!

Happy writing!

It's Monday! Here's What I'm Reading...

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what

others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

Unfortunately, the chapter book I was planning to share this week was not a book that I enjoyed enough to share with this community. I prefer to say nothing if I can't say much nice, so this week, I will only be sharing a couple of picture books.

A Thirst for Home by Christine Ieronimo caught me by surprise with its emotional impact. While this book definitely highlights the struggles that people have in our world to obtain clear water, it also deals with the painful choices that families and parents have to make in order to survive. With beautiful language and imagery--"the sun was always smiling down on me and whispered my name with its hot, sticky breath--Christine Ieronimo introduces readers to Ethiopia, and then with painful images, she writes about the loss and separation: "Emaye cried, and her tears were like raindrops so precious that I tried to collect them with the scarf she gave me." This book is another resource for building empathy, global awareness, and personal responsibility in elementary students.


Coming Home by Greg Ruth also surprised me. From the cover, I assumed that it would be about a parent coming home from serving, but it's almost a wordless picture book and a beautiful tribute to people who serve our country and people who wait for their return. The pictures are incredibly powerful and full of details, each one with layers of stories. I could imagine some really sophisticated conversations coming out of this book.

Happy reading!

Task Avoidance Leads Me to My 2015 One Little Word

Thanks to Stacey, Dana, Tara, Betsy, Anna, and Beth, the amazing writers and thinkers who host the Slice of Life community every Tuesday. Everyone is welcome to join with posts or comments at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com!

Yesterday was a day off from school. I woke up, read a book, wrote two posts, and read a few blogs. Then, I got up, did some laundry, returned a couple of phone calls, and paid some bills. I even write some notes I'd been meaning to write before ten in the morning. Sounds pretty productive, right?

Full disclaimer: my productivity was a complete exercise in task avoidance.

I was avoiding the hard part in the book I am writing. Somehow, being busy, even just looking busy made me feel more justified in not sitting down in front of the computer and writing. that. chapter.

I reminded myself of some of the students I watch in workshop. The ones who sharpen their pencil. Who get a drink of water. Who go to the bathroom. Who spend all their time looking for that perfect mentor text. They look so busy, but somehow manage to write very little.

Isn't it so much easier to find other things to do--even important things to do--when the thing you are supposed to be doing is hard? My aha moment, writing about myself struggling to write the chapter I'd been avoiding, involves my 2015 One Little Word, acknowledge. Sometimes the work that we want to get done is the hardest to get started. Maybe if I acknowledge this fact for myself, the next time I sit at this computer will be to write the next hard section.

Maybe...

Happy Writing!

It's Monday! What are You Reading?

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

One Voice by Cindy McKinley is the sequel to One Smile. If you haven't read her first book, One Smile, it is about a little girl named Katie who smiles at a man, who is sitting on a bench, on the way to her bus.  Her smile inspires the man to smile at someone else and the pattern continues throughout the story until the smile circles back to Katie at the end  It is a great story of how one smile can pass onto someone else and make their day a little brighter.  
One Voice is another circle story about the concept of "pay it forward" and how one kind act can lead to another.  In this story, a young boy's act of kindness creates a chain reaction of kindness.  Each kind act inspires the person to do something kind for someone else until it circles back to the young boy, Jacob, at the end of the story.  This is another great story to read aloud to students to discuss the power of small acts of kindness whether it be a simple smile or a gesture.  

During our math units, we try to provide students with real life problems to practice math concepts to see how the skills apply to daily life.  This year, I have many students in my class who are sports fans so I wanted to try to find examples of word problems that revolved around sports.  During my search on Amazon, I discovered the Math Everywhere series by Katie Marsico . In this series, there are four books: Ball Game Math, Shopping Trip Math, Kitchen Math , and Math on the Move.  In each book, there are a variety of multi-step word problems that revolve around one category such as sports, shopping, baking/cooking.  There are answer keys in the back of each book that not only provide the answers, but also explain the steps taken to arrive at the solution. I envision using the problems in these books in a variety of ways: daily challenges, weekly challenges, problem of the day, group or partner problem-solving, etc.  I think it is so important for us to provide students with real life applications in math and this series definitely helps us do that! 

Happy Reading! 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

When I ordered El Deafo by Cece Bell, I didn't realize it is a graphic novel. I usually don't like graphic novels, so I almost returned it. However, so many people have raved about El Deafo that I decided to keep it, and I'm glad I did. The fact that the main character is a rabbit is another potential stumbling block for me in this book, as I generally prefer books with people, but Cece is a pretty human-like bunny. She relays her hopes and struggles with honesty, insight, and humor. Additionally, she teaches readers about the reasons for deafness, the struggles of deaf people, and the different ways deaf people are able to communicate. I laughed at loud at some of her adventures as she learned to lip read, and I completely understood her aversion to American sign language. 

I'm not sure how effective it is to use graphic novels as read-alouds--has anyone tried it?--but this book would be a great book club title to use in a character or social issues unit. Talking about El Deafo would lead to conversations about empathy, friendship, perceptions and realities, as well as learning differences and disabilities. 

On a different reading note, I have to give a shout-out to The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. An incredible reader recommended it to me so strongly that I ordered it that night. A memoir, written to honor a  mother's well-lived life, this book is full of great books, wise words, humor, and important insights about how to lead meaningful, fulfilling lives. 

Happy reading!

Quick Ideas and Strategies to Prepare Students for Writing Assessments

As we get closer and closer to the administration of the SBAC in our district, many teachers are asking about how to get their students ready for this assessment. I have been collecting ideas and resources for our teachers, as well as helping them realize that all of their instruction, all of our curriculum will help students be ready for this assessment. You don't study for it. You don't "prep" for it. You have good, engaging, purposeful instruction and learning happening in classrooms throughout the year.

That being said, I have some ideas, charts and handouts for teachers and students to help them navigate the writing portions of the SBAC. (I'm sorry, PARCC takers, I have not spent time analyzing the PARCC sample assessments so I don't know how helpful these will be...)

1. Make sure your students understand that we can categorize writing genres into three types of writing. I wrote about this in another post , but have developed another chart about this, as well.  This chart that I am sharing is one that I developed in a flipped lesson. (I'm not confident enough to link the video, but I would share it with anyone who wants to send me their email for it...)  I could picture developing this chart with or in front of students. They need to know that they already know this information.

I think that it's important to also emphasize to students that these types of writing should not be pure. Stories contain opinions and information. Information contains opinions and stories. Opinions contain stories and information. However, it's helpful for all of us to learn the characteristics of writing types by categorizing them.

2. I have many teachers ask me about the vocabulary they should be using. The more that we can use different terms with students, the better, not only for the SBAC, but also for life. A thesis and a claim can usually be used synonymously. If you google what the difference is, you might be inspired to write a blog post about just that. (I might do that later this afternoon...) A feature article is almost always informative in nature.


This chart is a useful one to help students realize how much of what they will be asked to do on the SBAC, they are already doing. It's also helpful for teachers to see how much they are already teaching.



3. Teach the basic prompts for the three types of writing. The directions for the SBAC are complex and overwhelming. The directions, in and of themselves, are an exercise in close reading. Writing Pathways (Heinemann Press) contains basic prompts for each type of writing with quick descriptors of them. Give students exposure to basic prompts of the three types of writing so that they can flex quickly among them.  They will feel better if they know right away how to tackle planning for any of the genres.

4. Give students as many opportunities to compose on the keyboard as possible. Typing stories they have already written is a very different skill. Yes, that might help them with their keyboarding speed, but they need to be able to think and write from their brains to their fingertips.

I know that this won't be everyone's favorite post to read, and it hasn't been my favorite post to write. That being said, we can give students a few strategies so that when they see these assessments, they feel prepared and confident.

Take care,