Day 28: #SOL16- Some missing lessons in our nonfiction curriculum

The Slice of Life Challenge is hosted by the inspirational writers of Two Writing Teachers. Each March, they invite people to join them in a commitment to write every day. Here's to another year of daily slicing!

Nicholas Kristof wrote a stunning editorial in today's New York Times about the role the media played in the rise of a politician. I'm still processing some of what he wrote, but one of the striking elements for me is the aspect of money. Kristof quoted one of my all-time favorite reporters, Ann Curry in his analysis of how ratings mattered to reporters.

“Trump is not just an instant ratings/circulation/clicks gold mine; he’s the motherlode,” Ann Curry, the former “Today” anchor, told me. “He stepped on to the presidential campaign stage precisely at a moment when the media is struggling against deep insecurities about its financial future. The truth is, the media has needed Trump like a crack addict needs a hit.”

It occurs to me that we don't do much to teach students to ask about who is making money. Who stands to gain financially from this story?  I'm not even sure I have ever done a good enough job myself of being aware of it. Reporting is a business, and social media has made it harder and harder to make a living as a responsible reporter of the news. We all have to make a living.

Earlier in the month, I blogged about a controversy in my own town that revolved around basketball. My daughter's team made the front page of the local paper twice in one week because of issues of social justice. When I first read the articles, I recognized them as a great example of irresponsible reporting. In our fifth and sixth grade nonfiction curriculum, we have lessons that challenge students to think about whose perspective is included and whose perspective is left out. What could the other side of the story be? I think this lesson is incredibly important. But it occurs to me that our curriculum is missing another lesson, entangled in another quote from Ann Curry: 

We failed to take Trump seriously because of a third media failing: We were largely oblivious to the pain among working-class Americans and thus didn’t appreciate how much his message resonated. “The media has been out of touch with these Americans,” Curry notes. 

Even if we are teaching about perspectives and whose stories are left out, I'm not sure we are teaching about who the reporters relate to, even without realizing it. I have some serious thinking to do about this.

I'm not crazy enough to think that the tale of Trump is one I'd ever use in our elementary curriculum, but Nicolas Kristof does make me continue to think about what educators have to teach students so that we are all responsible consumers of the vast amounts of information so readily available to us.

Happy Slicing,

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.

Over the summer, I will be working on our first-grade nonfiction writing unit. One of the requests from teachers was to have some titles of mentor texts with interesting introductions and conclusions. I spent time in the library and with our media specialist collecting some titles with a variety of beginnings and endings. 


Tooth and Claw by Jim Arnosky is a book that could me a mentor text in upper grades. It is full of linguistic craft moves--images, figurative language, varied sentence structure, comparisons--but the introduction is an example of an anecdote. Jim Arnosky tells the story of how a tiger let a little boy pass by, giving him luck.

An easier way for students to begin information books, especially when they are writing about animals is with a chronological beginning. Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace is an excellent example of this strategy. Written at a low enough lexile level for many first-graders, this book begins with "The tale of a tadpole begins in the pond." Predictably, it ends when the tadpole becomes a frog.






Frogs: Nature's Friends by Ann Heinrich would be a great pairing with the Tale of a Tadpole, and it begins with a frog noise and a splash into the pond. This is a great mentor text for beginning with a sound hook.




I have to say that even the cover of Snakes by Melissa Stewart could lead to some interesting observations. At first glance, I thought the cover was scary and that the mouth of the snake was wide open, but then I realized that it was a picture of the snake's skin shedding. As a mentor text for interesting beginnings, this book hooks readers with a series of questions written in rhyme.





Owls by Aaron Carr begins with the simple sentence "Meet the owl." It then goes on to talk to readers hypothetically throughout the text, as if they might meet an owl.  I could see young information writers being able to emulate this style, developing their voice and sentence structure.



I love prowling low lexile nonfiction texts for examples of unusual beginnings and endings. An earlier post that I wrote when I was working with third-grade teachers is linked here, featuring a collection of books and creative ways to end information books. If you have any favorite mentors for nonfiction beginnings and endings, please share!

Happy reading,

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.

I wish that I could remember who recommended A Place for Wonder by Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough so that I could give that person their proper credit. Sometimes, when I am reading Monday posts, I just place titles into my Amazon cart, and I know that this is how I wound up with this book in the brown box on my doorstep. Whoever suggested it, thank you!

Even though many of the descriptions are of early primary classes, all elementary teachers could use the ideas in this book. Jennifer McDonough, the kindergarten teacher who writes reflections throughout this book, created a "What Do You Wonder" center in her classroom. The result was teaching students to ask meaningful questions. I loved the concept of teaching students about different types of wonders. There are "heart wonders"--what makes a good friend? But there are also "research wonders" that we can find answers to in books or in other sources of information. Additionally, there are combination wonders, and there are no-answer wonders. What a cool way to sort wonders and keep discussions going! 

A Place for Wonder has some important messages for classrooms. Encourage curiosity, tap into students' passions, teach how to ask and answer questions, create reasons for authentic research, and allow students to present their findings. Additionally, take the time to slow down and look closely, noticing what is around us with all of our senses. These skills can transfer to the close reading we want from students, as well as the detailed writing we want them to create.  I recommend this book as a practical reference with many lesson descriptions and templates to use, as well a resource to inspire curious, passionate learners. 

Happy reading! 

Takeaways from Wayland Literacy Conference

I had the honor of being asked to present at the Wayland Literacy Institute this year by Karyn Saxon, K-5 Curriculum Director at Wayland Public Schools in MA.  The two day institute was held last week in Wayland, MA.  My workshop was on nonfiction reading and note-taking strategies for grades 3-6.  Stay tuned to hear about my workshop later this week.  :)

As a workshop presenter, I had the opportunity to attend the keynote by Aimee Buckner on notebook strategies to support informational writing.  If you have not read any of Aimee's professional books on writer's and reader's notebooks, click here to check them out on the Stenhouse site.  Her most recent book is titled Nonfiction Notebooks and I have that at the top of my TBR pile now.  She also contributes to the website Choice Literacy, which is a valuable resource to educators so definitely check out the website if you haven't already.  Aimee is currently working on a new book on grammar in notebooks, which I am looking forward to reading.

Here are some takeaways from Aimee Buckner's keynote on Notebook Strategies to Support Informational Writing:

• Have students bring a glue stick with them to glue in a shrinked down chart at the minilesson so they don't have to waste time copying down charts, etc.  

• Have students do any revision and grammar lesson work in the back of their writer's notebook - turn notebook over and around so the margin is still on the correct side.  

• Read and evaluate students' writer's notebooks every 2-3 weeks using a rubric that you share with students so they know what is expected of them as notebook writers.  

•  Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman is a good mentor text to use for word choice and craft.  

• I See What You Mean by Steve Moline is a great professional book about visual literacy and how to take notes in a different format than it is in the source.  For example, if the source uses words, then you can draw pictures, create a flow chart, or other visual instead of using words.  This strategy of taking notes in a different format will help prevent students from copying the information directly from the source.  It also helps increase their understanding of the information because they need to synthesize and internalize the information in order to put it into a different format and into their own words.  Aimee had us try this strategy out using the section "Honey Jars" from Exploding Ants: Amazing Facts About How Animals Adapt by Joanne Settel.  

• Instead of having students use boxes and bullets to rehearse for drafting, they can also use post-its so they can easily rearrange the order. They can also check off the post-its as they include the information into their draft.  

• The National Geographic article, "Lively Lizards" by Lana Costantini, is a good mentor to use to teach introductions in informational writing.  Below is the link to the article online.  

http://ngexplorer.cengage.com/pathfinder/1009/pdf/pa_teachersguide_1009.pdf

Stay tuned to hear more about the Wayland Literacy Conference later this week! :)

Finding the Heart of Nonfiction--Such a Powerful Book!

I have been meaning to write a post about Finding the Heart of Nonfiction by Georgia Heard for a few months, but a couple of issues have gotten in my way. First, I want to really do her work justice as it is one of the most useful books for writing instruction that I have ever read, but second, and more importantly, I have loaned it to several teachers over this time and their feedback has been so positive and so grateful that I have not wanted to ask for its return. One teacher, whose student just won a state contest for her entry on nonfiction, said, "this book changed my teaching life."

Georgia Heard spends the first part of the book really breaking down what a mentor text is and what is involved to use mentor texts meaningfully in the classroom. Regardless of whether we are talking about fiction or nonfiction genres, she writes about what mentor texts are, why to use them, how to choose them, and then how to use them with students. She offers suggestions for mini-lessons, inquiry lessons, and even provides note-taking templates, as well as several examples of student work and evidence of student learning. I was truly hooked by this book on pp 22-23 where there is a Try This exercise, suggesting the use of different lenses to read two different texts about seahorses. One is a wiki.answers entry and one is from Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea  by Chris Butterworth. Both of these texts give important information about seahorses, but the latter is full of figurative language, imagery, and precise words. What an incredible lesson for teaching students the value of beautiful words, even--no especially!--in nonfiction!

In the second part of the book, Georgia Heard provides a chapter for each of seven nonfiction craft tools: focus, turning facts into scenes, leads, points of view and voice, precise language, text structures, and endings. Since I have read this book, I have had opportunities to develop some units and to coach teachers and students to use some of the strategies in this chapter and trust me, they are effective!

FOCUS: She uses the analogy of the hearth because it is "a place in a home where family and friends come together to warm and comfort themselves. If we think of focus in writing in the same way--the hearth of a piece of writing around which all the details and words gather--it's a helpful metaphor. " (p. 41) LOVE THIS!

Specific, creative strategies follow to help young writers focus topics with suggestions for mentor texts, teaching ideas, and writing tips. I especially love the idea of helping students to focus their nonfiction writing by developing a poem about it. Because poetry does not explicitly have a place in the Common Core States Standards, I am always looking for ways to weave it into units and what a meaningful strategy!

TURNING FACTS TO SCENES: One of the most memorable parts of this book for me is on pp. 52-53 where there is an excerpt about tarantulas from Jean Craighead George that is packed full of not only knowledge and facts about these spiders, but also of description, narrative techniques, figurative language and precise words. Because Georgia Heard gives exercises for more and less experienced writers, there are choices for teachers to use as examples with students to give them practice in turning facts into Jean Craighead George-like texts. Like poetry, voice does not explicitly live within the words of the CCSS, but descriptive language does!  And this chapter visibly demonstrates the progression of good writing to great writing.

LEADS: I love teaching leads, since this is the quickest way to hook or lose readers, and the tips, ideas for charts, examples and exercises found here are inspiring. We used some of the ideas in our fourth-grade informational writing unit and our students loved having a repertoire of leads. We developed charts that presented the information on p. 61. Now, as students are moving into their research-based essay unit, they are transferring their knowledge about leads!

POINT OF VIEW AND VOICE: This chapter is seven pages long and the pages have plenty of white space, but there are SO MANY ideas and SO MUCH knowledge to present students. Students should understand the differences between first person, second person, third-person objective, and third-person omniscient. There are suggestions of how to present this information and then for how to inspire students to try out different techniques within their own writing. Our students really enjoyed writing letters from the perspectives of different famous people in their information books, a lesson that was inspired from these pages. When we think about the importance of writers understanding audience, these are powerful pages.

PRECISE LANGUAGE: As I stated earlier in this post, voice does not explicitly live within the CCSS, but when writers use sensory words, precise nouns and verbs, figurative language, and domain-specific vocabulary, voice emerges. One of the exercises in this chapter is to guess whether there are more concrete nouns, active verbs, or adjectives in a given passage. If you want an engaging activity to use to help students understand the power of nouns and verbs, as opposed to juicy adjectives, check out p. 81! I also love that Georgia Heard presents lists of words to avoid: things, stuff, beauty, niceness, glory, devotion.

The chapter about precise language is the longest of the seven chapters, and I'm not going into all of the details of it. Suffice it to say that there are several lessons, strategies, exercises, student samples, writing tips, and even games that jump off these pages and would help any level teacher provide engaging instruction about language and the importance of words.

TEXT STRUCTURES: I have thought of text structures as a relative strength in our curriculum, but I still found plenty to learn in this chapter. Again, there is a framework that wants to jump out of the book and on to a chart for student use in the classroom. There are also strong and clear links to the CCSS for both readers and writers, since the Standards emphasize that students study and learn about craft and structure.

ENDINGS: I see a lot of endings that go something like: "That's my book about...I hope you liked it." Do these endings give the sense of closure that the CCSS require? I'm not sure, but they definitely don't give me the sense of closure that I want! Finding the Heart of Nonfiction includes specific strategies for getting students to develop endings that are more satisfying--circular endings, question endings, chronological, quotation, and reflective endings... There are descriptions, strategies, examples, and reproducibles for of all of them.

Without the bibliography and index, Finding the Heart of Nonfiction is 123 pages long. The font is average and there is plenty of white space on many of the pages. However, it changed the way I think about the instruction of any sort of nonfiction writing. I know that my post is longer than usual, but I hope that it has inspires you to find yourself a copy.

A Peek into our Nonfiction Research and Research Based Argument Essay Unit

Last week, we completed our Nonfiction Research Unit and Research Based Argument Essay Unit, which are integrated units in reading and writing workshops.  Below are the charts we created as a class during the unit.  I tried to put the charts in the order (somewhat) that we created them in to help give you a snapshot of what our work looked like in our classroom.  

At the beginning of each unit, I always launch it by discussing the purpose of the unit with my students and WHY we are learning this set of skills.  After identifying the purpose, we also think about which skills/strategies we can transfer from our previous unit to the new unit.  Below you will see our two charts for these lessons: 

During each reading and writing unit, we create class charts that identify the teaching points taught in each mini-lesson so students can refer to the charts throughout the unit.  Below you will see various teaching point charts that students constantly referred to while working independently.  These charts are the footprints of my mini-lessons and our learning together during the units.  

At the beginning of a new writing unit, I always launch the unit with an inquiry lesson where students immerse themselves in a mentor piece of writing to identify the characteristics/qualities of the type of writing.  Below is a chart we created after reading 1-2 argument essays that lists the parts of an argument essay. We created this chart together and continued to add to it throughout the unit as we read more examples of argument essays and as we began to write argument essays ourselves.  The chart to the right is a "How to" chart that visually teaches and reminds students of the steps to writing an augment essay.  

            

During reading and writing units, we create charts with examples, phrases/stems, and helpful strategies. Below are examples of the charts we created:

                       

             

At the end of each unit, we have a class celebration that culminates the work students did as readers and writers.  Students always have a voice and a choice in how we celebrate and share the work they did during a unit so at the end of this integrated unit, they brainstormed ways they could present their new learning with their classmates.  Below is the chart where I jotted down the ideas they shared out after they met with their research groups to brainstorm ways they can share what they learned from their research.  Each research group ended up choosing a different way to present their research and opinions which was great! One group used the Corkulous app I have on my iPad, while other groups performed skits, verbally presented both sides in a panel presentation, and used Google Drive.

In addition to this type of sharing, we also had a writing gallery to share their research based argument essays.  For the gallery, students created a comment sheet to put next to their argument essay so their classmates can leave comments after reading their essay.  Once students had their essay and comment sheet side by side on their table, students began the gallery walk by sitting down to read essays their classmates wrote and leave them positive comments. After the gallery walk, students return back to their seat to read the comments their classmates wrote on their sheet.  To culminate the gallery celebration, I ask if anyone would like to honor someone for their writing.  Students take turns to verbally honor one another for something they admire that they did as a writer.

When we return from vacation, we will begin our Historical Fiction Book Club Unit in reading workshop and our Poetry Unit in writing workshop so stay tuned! :)

Workshop on Close Reading with Kylene Beers!

If you ever have the chance of hearing Kylene Beers speak, jump on it! She is such a dynamic and engaging speaker with a great sense of humor too! I had the privilege of attending her workshop last week at TCRWP. The title of her workshop was, "It's Rigor,  not Rigor Mortis: Strategies that Create Attentive, Close Readers Who Actually Want to Read." If you have not read her recent professional book, Notice and Note that she co-wrote with Robert Probst, then add it to the top of your TBR pile! Click here to read my post about this professional book.  

She began the workshop with having us turn and talk to define the word "rigor" and explained how it can be easily misunderstood.  She said, "Rigor resides in the energy and attention given to the text, not in the text itself.  Also that rigor without relevance is just hard!" 

During the workshop, she shared a few different strategies that we can use immediately in our classrooms with students.  The first strategy that I loved was called, "Possible Sentences." For this strategy she said to have students number 1-5 on their papers and tell them that they are to write five possible sentences using the words that you listed on the board/Smartboard that were taken from a nonfiction article.  Tell them they may use up to three sets of words in each sentence, but no more. Also that they may add additional words so they can write complete sentences that make sense.  Have students work in groups to do this, but make sure you have each student write their own five sentences instead of having one student be the writer for the group. This will ensure that each student is engaged in this activity and trying out the strategy instead of being a passive learner and only observing.  Kylene Beers had us try this strategy out during the workshop and displayed the words on the screen below for us to use when writing our 5 sentences.  

*Photo taken by me during workshop

The words are from the article Hard at Work from Times for Kids in 2003. Click on the link below to access the entire article.  

http://socjusmath.wikispaces.com/file/view/HardatWork.pdf

While students are writing their 5 sentences using the displayed sets of words, create a 2 column chart that can be displayed for students to see.  Title the left hand column "Sentences" and the right hand column "Questions." Have students volunteer to share their sentences and as they share them, type them into the left column of the chart.  This is still all happening before students read the article.  Then have students turn and talk to share questions they have based on the information in the sentences they wrote that are displayed now on the chart.  Go one sentence at a time and have students generate questions they have from that one sentence. 

Example of possible chart: 

Sentences	Questions
Ten year olds in the poor country of Ecuador are being forced to work.	Who is forcing them to work? Where are the parents? Where is Ecuador? Is it only for 10 year olds? Do boys and girls do the same work? How are the kids chosen?
Ten year old children work 12 hour workdays earning as little as $27 per week.	Why 10 year olds? When do they go to school? Do they go to school? Do parents have a choice? Who is supervising? How do the parents feel about this?
With heavy knives they climb banana trees for as little as $27 per week and are exposed to harmful chemicals.	Were they trained for this work? Why type of harmful chemicals? What are the effects of the harmful chemicals? Who are the bananas for? Is this legal?

After generating and sharing questions, give students the article to read.  Then have them write 1-5 on their paper below the sentences they wrote.  If the information in their sentence is correct, they write no change needed.  If not, then they need to rewrite the sentence to make it accurate.  When kids have to go back into the text to see if their information is accurate and/or to rewrite their sentences, that is close reading.  

This is a strategy you can use with any article and Kylene Beers said that once students write their sentences and generate questions about the information, they are begging to read the article because they are interested in the topic and want to find out what it is really about.  She said that it completely engages students while also teaching students to read closely.  She told us that when using this strategy with articles, we need to make sure we use tier 1 words (everyday language) from the article to make sure students are familiar with the meaning of the words. If they aren't familiar with the words, this strategy will not be beneficial for them.   

Thank you Kylene Beers for an outstanding workshop! I am planning on using this strategy soon with 
my students! If you use this strategy in your classroom or try it out, please share! 

Enjoy the weekend! 

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. Some of my very best reading recommendations come from this pathway!

It's a busy time of year and I have not been able to sit down and read a book that requires sustained attention. However, I have a few books and articles to share.

I picked up several nonfiction books at the Scholastic Books Warehouse sale a couple of weeks ago. I had read about How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg a while ago and I thought that it sounded funny. It's not only funny, but you can learn A LOT from this book. There are many mini-history lessons throughout this book, as it tells about the deaths of various people from Cleopatra to Darwin to Columbus to Beethoven. Some of the morbid descriptions of death might inspire middle-schoolers to research more about the eras or the people, as there are many historical and scientific references and facts woven into the end-of-life stories. For example, I had no idea that Darwin was afraid of people, obsessive about lists and record-keeping, and married to his first cousin. Did anyone else know that of his ten children, only three were able to reproduce and two died as babies? Sort of ironic given his scientific specialty of genetic survival of the fittest...

Because the CCSS are big on students writing introductions and conclusions to informational pieces, I am always on the lookout for nonfiction books that contain these elements and can serve as mentors for students. I have been consistently impressed with National Geographic's nonfiction books and so I bought Everything Rocks and Mineral by Steve Tomecek at the book sale, as well. This book has an introduction and a conclusion, as well as several text features that I don't always see. There is an interactive glossary, several referenced websites for further research, an index, and many narrative elements woven throughout the pages. It really is a great nonfiction mentor text!


Within my reading life, I have to give a shout-out to twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. What an incredible collection of posts these teachers/writers/amazing thinkers put out each week! While I have always loved this blog and Ruth and Stacey have always been inspirational to me, there are now five writers for this blog and every single post is a session of professional development. Thank you to each one of them: Stacey Shubitz, Tara Smith, Elizabeth Moore, Betsy Hubbard, Dana Murphy and Anna Cockerille. This is an incredible source of learning.

Happy reading,

News-O-Matic app - The Daily Newspaper Just for Kids

The News-O-Matic app, by Press4Kids, delivers the daily newspaper just for kids! Each edition has five new articles based on current events around the world.  I came across the app about a month ago and was very intrigued because I knew I could connect my iPad to our class Smartboard so we could read the daily newspaper together. The subscription to the app was very reasonable at $10 for the year (they have subscription deals frequently).  If you aren't sure if you want to subscribe yet, you can read some of the editions to try it out before committing.  Once you subscribe, you are able to access past issues in addition to receiving the new edition daily.  

I love how the newspaper is interactive and you can see the five new stories at one glance to see which one or ones you are interested in reading first.  Once you make a decision, you click on the photo for the article and it brings you directly to that story.  The articles cover all the latest current events and are written in a kid-friendly way.  Within each story, there are nonfiction text features such as headings, bold words, quotes, etc so it is a great resource to include more nonfiction reading skills within the day. Each story also includes an "act" and a "fact" button.  When you click on the "act" button, it will tell you what you can personally do to make a difference and get involved. When you click on the "fact" button, it gives you an important fact related to the story.  This app is also completely free of ads so there are no worries about anything inappropriate popping up while reading the daily newspaper articles with kids.  

Almost every day, I connect my iPad to the Smartboard during morning meeting, while kids are eating snack, or at closing circle so we can read the newspaper and the kids love it! They are so engaged, learn a lot of new information, and also get inspired by some of the stories.  For example, there was one article about a child who was granted a wish through the Make a Wish Foundation and they were immediately inspired to get involved with the foundation and have already started brainstorming ways we can raise money for the foundation.  This app was well worth the $10 for a year subscription and I highly recommend purchasing it and using it in your classroom! 

Enjoy!