Even Young Students Can Learn From Videos of Lessons!

On Tuesdays, the writing community at Two Writing Teachers hosts the Slice of Life. Everyone is welcome to join in by writing, commenting, or just reading slices from around the world! 

Whenever I begin a coaching cycle with a teacher, we begin with data and student work. That way, we work together with the mutual goal of student growth. Recently, when I met with a second-grade teacher, she shook her head as we talked about the students who we should target.

"They definitely need help," she said. "But you'll have a hard time working with them because they are pulled for intervention during writing workshop all the time."

Together, we thought about what we could do for these students. After some more conversation, we came up with the idea of videoing minilessons, and letting the students watch them.

Full disclaimer: Second-graders do not watch and learn from a video without a significant amount of coaching into the concept.  It took 4-5 sessions of coaching the students to watch and pay attention to a video. They were all pretty sure that they should sit back and relax as soon as they hit play until I emphasized that they had some specific tasks to do. That being said, today, three of them watched the lesson before they left for their reading intervention, and two of them watched when they came back from it. Their comments? So far so good.

No doubt that the novelty of using the iPad may wear out, and no doubt that these students aren't having the same experience that their classmates are in a whole-group lesson. However, at least there is some access to instruction, and I am developing a growing collection on my Google Drive of three to five minute videos of lessons to accompany units. If second-grade students can be successful with this sort of flipped learning, I am sure that it could work for upper elementary students as well who head off for music lessons in addition to interventions.

Happy writing!

Introducing Young Students to iPads

Over the last couple of years of working as our district's Writing Coordinator and instructional coach, I have admired the work of our kindergarten teachers; I have come to believe that no one works harder than kindergarten teachers in the first few weeks of the year. Their job reminds me of herding cats. While I could find instructional practices to share in any of the classrooms, two of the teachers have done an especially amazing job of integrating technology into their teaching. We are fortunate in that each kindergarten classroom has five iPads, but we are also fortunate to have teachers who have invested so much energy into using them purposely.

Last year, by the time I visited Katie Bristol's kindergarten class, iPads were already a seamless part of writing workshop. This year, at a workshop I presented for several of our primary teachers, we were all interested to hear how Katie lays the groundwork for the rest of the year's use of iPads. She has invited me into her classroom every day this week, she has provided me with her lesson plan, and she has been eager to share the introductory work with all who are interested. So, here is a peek into Katie's introduction of iPads to her kindergarten class.

Each session began with a whole group lesson. On Day 1, the whole group lesson was described as such:

Followed by small group work and individualized practice opportunities:

Small Group Work:

• With each small group, remind the students first of how to properly handle the iPad by using 2 hands and keeping it on their laps or on a table.
• Next have the students sequence the pictures to show how to wake the iPad up.
• Once students have completed the picture sequence correctly, distribute the iPads.  Go through the procedure of waking the iPad up, one step at a time while the students follow along.
• If the students complete the guided practice successfully, put the iPads to sleep and have them try once more on their own.
• Repeat the process above (sequencing pictures, guided practice, independent practice) using the procedure of putting the iPad to sleep.

Sitting at a kidney-shaped table gave her plenty of opportunities to individualize her instruction and make sure that all students were learning how to perform basic operations with the iPads, breaking the task of taking pictures down into kindergarten-sized steps.

During these sessions, Katie worked with four or five students for two to four minutes, giving them just the amount of time that they needed to practice the skill of the day.

The four day mini-unit consisted of:

• Day 1: Teaching students hold the iPad, turn it on, and put it to sleep.
• Day 2: Teaching students to build on their skills and open and close an app
• Day 3: Teaching students to continue to build their skills by practicing the previously taught ones and adding on picture taking using the camera app. Katie emphasized the following criteria for picture taking:

 1) nothing important is cut out
 2) it is straight and
 3) there is an appropriate amount of background or extra space around the focal object (i.e. not too zoomed out)

It was so much fun to watch how seriously these students took their picture-taking!

• Finally, on Day 4, the students had a chance to practice their picture taking skills in order to make an alphabet book. An alphabet book was chosen as the format for this book because it ties in nicely in kindergarten-- both within their reading work learning about different types of books and their future writing work of labeling pictures.  Other book genres/formats may be chosen based on classroom needs.  The important part is that students are taking pictures for a purpose, not just playing with the camera. Katie used a pre-made template in Book Creator in order to make the book with her students. Here is a sample of some of the pages, with the pictures contributed by students on iPads:

• 
  
  
  

As Katie shared in her description of the book, "This book can then be printed and added to the classroom library.  It can also be emailed out to parents as an ePub or pdf."

I'm hoping to be able to continue to share some of the work that Katie does with her students. Now that they all understand the basic and important function of taking pictures with the iPad, she'll move on to teach them how to make their own books as she introduces them through various  writing genres throughout the year.

Happy Writing,

Slice of Life: Play and Grammar

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!

One of the challenges of my year is rethinking and redeveloping our grammar curriculum. I have read many great books on the subject--The Power of Grammar  and Grammar Matters remain at the top of my list for anyone looking for elementary-geared recommendations-and yesterday, with the snow storm, I started writing some of the lessons we will fold into units.

As I watched the UConn women play South Carolina (Go UConn! --they won, if anyone is interested), I perused websites for grammar games. My twelve year-old snuggled into me and coached me through a battleship game at http://www.quia.com/ba/144044.html?AP_rand=604647634. It definitely kept our attention and we had to practice our subject-verb agreement. We also went on a treasure hunt at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en30stru-game-verb-subject-treasure-hunt.   This website has many interactive games to capture the gaming spirits, and Cecily paid more attention to finding treasure than the layups and three-pointers happening on the television set. Cecily was less interested in the extensive array of lessons offered at learnzillion.com. I knew that learnzillion offered great math lessons, but I was not as aware of the resources available for writing and language. Wow! If you haven't registered, I highly recommend doing so and allotting time for exploration.

Play is such an important part of learning, and we have so many resources available during this age of access! The #caedchat was all about play last week--if you have time, read some of the tweets about the definition of play and the importance of it for learning. Also, don't miss Julieanne's post about the importance of play in lives and learning.

Happy Slicing!

Using Technology for a Kindergarten Student's Planning Process

Sometimes, our kindergarten students can say so much more than they can write. Sometimes, they can think of such great ideas, but they just can't remember those ideas when they get to the third or fourth page. (Sometimes, maybe even the second page. Okay, sometimes, maybe even the first page...)

This morning, I stopped by one of our kindergarten classrooms and the teacher, Hayley Brown, excitedly showed me how her student was working on her writing. This student had a clear story to tell about the first day of school and the read aloud that she remembered. This young student explained to me that sometimes she forgets what she's going to say, but her recording helps her remember. Her teacher walked away as the student showed me how she could find her video, locate the place where she needed a reminder, play it a couple of times, and then write. 

Wow.  WOW!

She impressed me enough to blog about it tonight. Her teacher asked her mom if we could share this young writer's voice and finger as she plans her story. 

The pages that you will watch her plan in this video are full of words now. Enjoy the planning and process of this young writer!

Slice of Life: It's a Great Time to Start Kidblog!

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!

I am probably preaching to the choir to many of the people who will be reading this post, but I'm going to preach anyway. If you are thinking about getting Kidblog started in your classroom, now is the perfect time. Here are some reasons:

1. Unless your students become obsessed with posting videos, it's free.
2. It's a new year, so it's a great time to start new things. If you love it, what a great thing to start in September with a new class. (If you hate it, there's only half a year left...)
3.  It's almost March, the month that many of us associate with daily slicing. Starting Kidblog now would give you enough time to work out kinks and possibly set up some collaboration with another classroom from a different part of the country. (How cool would that be for students?!?!)
4.  Blogging gives students organic opportunities to practice their keyboarding. Any student who is proficient on the keyboard will do better on the assessments that most of us will administer in the next few months. (I didn't want to mention high stakes assessments, but they are a reality...)
5. Nothing teaches writing better than writing. We slicers know how motivating it is to have responses and comments. And, if we really think about it and analyze our posts, we know the sort of posts that generate a lot of responses. Students can learn this, too. They can learn how to write for an audience, in a way that gets people to pay attention. What an important skill for them to learn!
6. You will get to know your students better than you already do. Many students will share emotions, fears, conflicts, and passions that are jam-packed days just don't provide time for us to get to know. One of our teachers shared her students' posts with me and I have all kinds of conversations to have with some of her students. Admittedly, these students are not mine, and maybe I would have known about some of the skiing adventures or riding obsessions if I saw these children every day. But days are packed in our classrooms, so we might not know as much about our students as we think we do. 
7. You will laugh. Students are funny, even when they don' be. One student wrote that another should "check her grammer." (I didn't comment that she should "check her spelling." I just had a chuckle that I'm passing along.)

For those of you who are already blogging with students, please share reasons to start. For those of you who are thinking about it, go for it! 

Happy Slicing!

Flipping a Minilesson

Our district had a technology conference last week and one of the take-aways for both of us was the potential for flipping some lessons. Mostly, we had envisioned flipping as a high school concept. High school students could watch a lecture on line and then come in ready to work on problem sets with their teachers. Until last week, we had not considered the possibility of elementary students watching a writing minilesson, but after listening to a keynote from Jon Bergmann (read some of his work when you have a chance! Or even check out his TedTalk!)

Melanie Swider's students have been working their way through integrated social studies, information writing, and nonfiction reading units and they have been writing pieces about specific explorers. Many of the lessons have been about structure, organization, text features, and the research cycle, but, by looking at their pieces collaboratively on Google Drive (shout-out to Google Drive as a collaboration tool!), we decided that they would benefit from a lesson about incorporating geographical terms and awareness into their pieces. Many of their pieces mentioned the places explorers went with no orientation for the readers.

Melanie Swider videoed herself speaking through the components of a classic minilesson complete with a connection, a teaching point (information writers use  important vocabulary when they are writing to teach readers), a place for active engagement, and a link to the work that they were doing. For this first experience of flipping, Melanie broke the video up into four parts, totaling about five minutes in all.

Melanie Meehan had a lot of fun with the video and the students because we wouldn't let Melanie Swider talk as the rest of us watched her lesson. The goal for the students was not only to learn the teaching point, but also to learn how to interact with a video. Therefore, Melanie Meehan stopped it in several places, reminding the students to take notes. They have watched their teacher create charts enough in her lessons that they were able to create some pretty impressive charts in their notebooks. How powerful for them to watch their teacher, take notes on a lesson, and have the tracks of their learning right there in their notebooks!

Below are examples of notes students took while watching the video lesson on including geographical terms into their writing.  As you can see from their notes, students truly internalized the teaching in the video, were able to determine which parts were important to jot down, and were able to clearly organize their notes using various note-taking forms.

 

 

After the lesson, students used their notes to help them revise their informational writing pieces by including geography terms to make them stronger and clearer to the reader.  As students wrote, they had their notes out from the video lesson as well as the map they labeled in a previous lesson to use as a reference.

Our goal is to provide students with a few more opportunities to interact with a video of a minilesson all together, before assigning this work for homework. Then, the homework check will be the notes that they create in their notebooks, and the work of the workshop will be the greater challenge of integrating their new learning into their writing. Stay tuned!

If anyone else has tried flipping elementary minilessons, we'd love to hear. We'd especially be interested in the platforms that you are using, as we are still trying to figure out the safest, easiest way to provide access for students who are under thirteen years old.

Happy writing,

Tweetdeck--So Simple and So Helpful

We had a coaching meeting in our district on Friday. Our agenda included sharing successes, as well as sharing challenges. We were also asked to bring an artifact of a tool that we had been using. I brought the chartbook where I keep all of my mentor charts for teachers, and I shared that. But, when one of the technology specialist shared an app for reading QR codes, it occurred to me that I should have shared my tweetdeck. While twitter has become my go-to resource for inspiration about any aspect of education, tweetdeck is incredible for helping to manage it. Even as I shared it, there was a series of tweets on my #educoach column about helping literacy coaches (from Choice Literacy, linked here), prompts to use when coaching teachers from Shira Leibowitz, an article about setting goals with teachers from Jim Knight,  and a wonderful graphic of a pencil representing technology integration:

A screen shot of my tweetdeck looks something like this:

I can slide the columns up and down to see more and less recent tweets, but I can also adjust the order that my columns are in, which I've explained later in the post.

In order to use tweetdeck, go to tweetdeck.com and then hit the "sign in on the web" button:

From there, you can use your twitter id and password and then customize the screen to be the chats and hashtags that you want to follow. When there's a chat or hashtag that you want to follow, add that column and you see all of the activity about it right there in one place. You can tweet right from tweetdeck, adding an image if you care to.  Sometimes, when I am participating in a chat, I put the notifications column next to the chat, so that I can pay attention to the comments back to me. You can move the columns around by using the grey column on the far left, adjusting to have various ones side by side in what ever way helps you to pay attention to the incoming information. 

If you are already on twitter, I highly recommend tweetdeck--add a few columns with some favorite hashtags. Given the fact that you are reading this post, I recommend #tcrwp, #twtblog, #educoach, #engchat, and #elachat, but sky's the limit--there's no shortage of information out there. 

So much to learn!

Kindergarten Students Using Book Creator

Last year, I wrote a post about Book Creator. Mel and I had used it for our poetry celebration and the students loved typing their poems, selecting pictures to go with them, and then recording themselves reading the poems. I also used this app with some of my students with special needs so that they could dictate stories across the pages. When I worked in the classroom, I was always using my iPad with my students and I was always impressed at how intuitive this technology was for them--they always could figure out more than I could. This week, I was reminded of this when I went to visit a kindergarten class.

The teacher had been asking me to come during learning centers for about a week. I was a little surprised because usually I go to classrooms during workshop. "You won't believe what they are doing independently," she said. I am so glad that I made it to the opposite end of the building because she was not exaggerating. The students are in the middle of their Looking Closely unit. They have collections of various natural items--leaves, rocks, twigs, acorns--and during writing workshop, they have been writing about what they notice when they look closely at these objects--it's a great integration of science and writing! However, during learning centers, three students worked on iPads, using Book Creator to make digital books.

I sat and watched these children turn on the iPad, open the app, create a new book, and get to work. One of the girls was clearly the table expert. "How do you do the recording?" a writer asked. "Here, I'll show you." She tapped on an icon and created a recording. Then, she deleted the recording and instructed her classmate to go ahead and try it herself. Success followed, and both girls continued their work. How is that for collaboration and independence?

The stick is long.

Since the app offers the choice of writing with a finger or using a keyboard, I watched one student write his words with his finger. He took a picture of the stick that he was observing, and then got right to work crafting the words that would go with his observations. His only struggle was having the iPad upside down and making the cover swing awkwardly. As soon as his teacher reminded him to keep the cover on the down-side, he was independent. This same child worked for a little while without the iPad while I was watching and I took a picture of his digital work sample, as well as his written sample.

The stick is short.

I definitely found myself wondering why he remembered to space his words on the iPad, but not on the paper. I think that there is a tremendous opportunity for transfer here, as this could definitely be pointed out to him.




I loved watching the girls work on their book, as well. In the fifteen minutes that I watched, the resident expert Book Creator wrote four pages about her observations of an acorn. Each page had not only the typed words, but also the recording of her reading the words. The app does indicate misspellings and I was so glad to see her ignore the red lines underneath her words, or I wouldn't get to share my favorite page that she wrote:

It has three swirls on it.

 Again, I have to reiterate, all I was doing was sitting and watching the children work. They took pictures, typed or wrote, and recorded anywhere between two and four pages. "You should see some of the other books some of the kids have done," the teacher said to me before I left, and she showed me the digital shelf of books that students had written on other days. Amazing work in a kindergarten classroom.

Enjoy the weekend,

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! 

Using Google Drive for Book Clubs

Since we have been embracing Google Drive this year in our classroom and trying to use it in as many ways as possible, I decided to try using it for book clubs too.

Last week, my students were grouped into book clubs and they selected at least three social issue books, during our book pass, that they were interested in reading during this unit.  Usually, the next step is for each book club to complete a "book club contract" and fill out a calendar of how many pages/chapters they will read for each conversation day (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  These documents are usually on paper and then we have to make photocopies so each member as all the information and that they put them in a safe place so they don't lose them (which some still do...).

Yesterday, I ventured into using Google Drive for these documents instead and it was fabulous!  I uploaded the documents to Google Drive and shared them with the whole class.  During reading workshop, each book club had one laptop and went onto Google Drive to complete the contract and set up their calendars for their first two books. They shared these documents with one another and with me.  Now students can access their calendars and any other planning sheets for their book club conversations at home without having to worry about forgetting it at school or misplacing them - why didn't I think of this sooner for book clubs!

Most book clubs decided yesterday that they will have one laptop available during their conversations to use Google Drive - stay tuned to hear how they are going to use it!

I would love to hear how others are using Google Drive with students during book clubs so please share!  Stay tuned to hear more about how we are using Google Drive during our book club units.

Ways we are Using Google Drive in our Classroom

A couple months ago, my students began using Google Drive and it has transformed the way we work in our classroom.  I keep asking myself, why didn't I set them up with Google Drive sooner??  It has lifted the level of motivation and collaboration among students.

Here are some of the many ways we are using Google Drive in our classroom so far:

• Writing Workshop: We are planning and drafting on Google Drive by using laptops daily. Since we are using Google Drive for our writing pieces, students are able to share their writing with writing partners and other classmates they want feedback from to help them as a writer.  They also share their writing with me each day so I can leave comments and read their writing daily to help inform my future instruction.  I have noticed that since students are able to view my comments on their classmates' writing, their own comments and the feedback they give their writing partners has greatly improved.  

• Writing Workshop:  As part of our current literary essay unit, we wrote a class literary essay using Google Drive.  The students loved being able to all work on one document at the same time and co-author it together - it was so cool to hear their excitement about the experience! 

• Reading Workshop: At the end of each chapter book read aloud, we always have a whole class conversation and I type up the transcript of their conversation on the Smartboard so they can build upon one another's thinking and can work on lifting the level of their interpretation.  One of my students had the great idea this week to type the conversation in Google Drive instead of a word document so we can continue the conversation at home and during the week - it was an awesome idea!  The students were so excited to be able to keep the conversation going - yay! 

• Writing and Reading Workshop: I share different documents with the students during workshop teaching such as mentor texts, lists of thinking stems, planning sheets, and so on.  This week, I set up a group on Google Drive that includes all of my students so now I'm able to easily share documents with the whole class with one push of a button.  The students actually asked me to begin sharing these documents with them via Google Drive so they can have access to them whenever they need them and not have to worry about whether or not they left it at school or have misplace it.  

Stay tuned to hear more about how we are using Google Drive as learners in our classroom! 

Using Google Drive with Students

Last week, each student in my class set up their own Google Drive account - thank you Bryan! :) The students were beyond thrilled to get started using their Google Drive and loved the idea of being able to share writing with one another and me whenever they want someone to see their work or want feedback.  They were super excited to find out that they can work on the same document at once with someone else - perfect timing for our mini-research clubs in nonfiction!

First, each student created a folder labeled "______'s Portfolio" and then created sub-folders within their portfolio for each subject area.  Then they shared their portfolio with me so I can have easy access to all of their work from anywhere...school, home, and on-the-go using iPad/iPhone.  Students started using their Google Drive this week when we started our nonfiction research in reading and writing workshop.  Students are sharing their notes, summaries, research plan, sources, and so on with one another as well as leaving comments for one another and working on documents together - it is awesome!  I love being able to see what they are working on and even while they are in the process of typing and talking with one another about their research - I get to see their collaboration in action and it is powerful.

Here are some comments from students about using Google Drive:

• "It's great to share notes with my research group and comment with one another at home."
• "It's easier than working alone and then consulting when we get back to school because you can both work on the same document at the same time and look at each other's work and revisions."
• "It's easier to save and share documents because you don't have to worry about forgetting your flashdrive and it autosaves for you while you work."
• "It's convenient because you can continue to work with partners and group at home without having to be in the same place."

Stay tuned to hear more about how we are using and loving Google Drive! :)

Thursday is Technology Day! Pinterest

I hesitated to explore Pinterest for various reasons. I didn't understand it. (Disclaimer: I still don't understand parts of it.) I was spending enough time on Flipboard reading posts and twitter feeds. I had a pile of books that I wanted to read. Jessica Johnson, who is one my favorite people to follow, wrote a post about Pinterest over the summer and I put it on my mental to-do list, but I really didn't explore it until a few weeks ago. I waited too long.

As an instructional coach, I am always looking for ideas to share with teachers and there are infinite ideas for sharing on Pinterest. People create "boards" out of pictures or images from the internet and the boards can be of any topic. You can search by topic, by person, or by subject to find pins; one great pin leads to another leads to another leads to a great new blog leads to a great new website. You can find "pinners" who you especially like and follow them.

For me, I have been using it to organize the charts that I create and see so that I can use them as coaching tools. I have started boards for various grades for specific units and genres. While I keep a traditional  paper notebook of charts, Pinterest lets me manage and develop a digital chart collection. I'm trying to manage my Pinterest fetish so for now, I am limiting myself to only literacy boards, but I'm sure that in due time, I will expand my board topics into other areas of my life. If you haven't dabbled in Pinterest, I highly recommend it as a limitless way to find inspiring lessons and ideas for your classrooms and any other aspect of life that you want to explore.

CCSS and #rwworkshop on Twitter

Thursday is the day that we dedicate to technology. Twitter is a resource I use all of the time to connect with other educators and share ideas. 

Last night, I participated in a twitter chat about workshop instruction and the Common Core State Standards. Kellee Moye and Mindi Rench facilitate the monthly reading and writing workshop twitter chat every first Wednesday at 9pm ET. If you're not on twitter, this might be worth taking the plunge. 

Kellee and Mindi posed questions throughout the hour and I am sharing the questions and some of the answers. If you want to read more about it, you can visit the archive at http://rwworkshop.wikispaces.com/. I had never visited this wikispace until tonight and believe me, a person could spend A LOT of time there--enter at your own risk! 

Question: How do we keep the love of literature/reading while still being as rigorous as the standards?

Here, the conversation emphasized and re-tweeted Kate Roberts' comment:

Kate Roberts ‏@teachkate@iChrisLehman A2 First step: Love what we do, what we show to kids and the work they produce. Our <3 shld get as big as the rigor #rwworkshop

We also talked about data and the importance of using data to inform instruction. Christopher Lehman was the special guest of the night and one of my favorite tweets was from him:

Christopher Lehman ‏@iChrisLehman

@MelanieMeehan1 YES! "DATA" is not a monster out of a computer print out. It's what we gather, live, every day in workshop

I think that we all agreed that workshop instruction involves constant and continuous assessment so that we differentiate our lessons, conferences, and small group instruction. Assessment is not exclusively for accountability; it is to also to check for understanding and guide instruction.

Question: What part will poetry play in #rwworkshop as we transition to #CCSS?

Teresa Bunner ‏@RdngTeach

@kelleemoye Poetry is great way 2 explore the deeper, critical reading CCSS is looking for. Short pieces lend to rereading #rwworkshop

was one of my favorite tweets of the conversation. Another common belief is that poetry offers pathways to the common core because poetry can be within any of the three genres--informational, narrative, or persuasive. Poetry also offers strong opportunities to teach students about figures of speech, skills that are embedded in the standards and it offers struggling readers opportunities to read and re-read, increasing and improving fluency.

Question: How will technology play a role in workshop and #CCSS?

Tony Sinanis ‏@Cantiague_Lead

Tech does need to be more than just a fancy add on. Let's use it to let kids collaborate, create & share! That's college ready! #rwworkshop

Joan Cansdale ‏@joancansdale

Q5: Tech can provide important means for authentic writing and teach critical reading skills. #rwworkshop

Kate Roberts ‏@teachkate

Technology is a way to engage students to the learning of the future. #rwworkshop

These were only three of the many tweets about technology and the CCSS. Many of the others reflected the belief that educators should be embedding technology into our daily practices and facilitating students’ explorations of it whenever possible. These practices will increase the rigor in classrooms and serve as clear pathways for students to meet the expectations of the CCSS.

Conversations about the reading and writing workshop continue throughout the month because people use the hashtag. #rwworkshop. Anyone is welcome to "listen" or "chat." Comments and tweets are always welcome!

Using Digital Texts and Pop Culture in Mini-lessons

This past summer, I posted about my new learning from Kate Roberts' session on Using Pop Culture, Media, and Technology in Writing Workshop at the TCRWP Summer Writing Institute (click here to read my post about this session).  This past Saturday, I was excited to see that Maggie Beattie Roberts was offering a session on Teaching Writing using Digital Texts at the TCRWP Reunion.  One of my goals this year is to incorporate digital texts and pop culture into my reading and writing mini-lessons so each time I have the opportunity to attend a session on it, I jump at the chance.  In both sessions, I learned ways to include short video clips in purposeful ways to teach the qualities of writing and literacy skills in our mini-lessons.  Both Kate and Maggie shared how our students are immersed in pop culture in their daily lives so we need to think about how we can tap into that and use it in our classroom instruction.  

After attending these sessions, I learned that in writing workshop, we can use videoclips as a demonstration text to show how writers use a particular skill or strategy.  For example, to show how writers use backstory in narratives we can show a video clip and have students pay attention to the dialogue and how people act to help them gather information about the backstory.  In argumentative or persuasive writing, we can show a videoclip and have students pay attention to the character's claim and reasons and then chart them with boxes and bullets.  In informational writing, we can view a video clip to learn ways to include elaboration.  For example, while viewing, we can identify when we hear/see: problems, geography/location, statistics, comparison, facts, cause/effect, features, point of view, and so on.  

After this summer, I created a YouTube account and created folders to begin saving video clips I come across that may be good to use as mentor texts and demonstrations texts in our reading and writing workshop.  For example, I created a folder for book trailers that I can show to recommend books for independent reading and for our read alouds too.  I also created a folder for video clips I can use during reading workshop and writing workshop mini-lessons.  For example, today I showed a short 3 minute YouTube video clip from the movie, Akeelah and the Bee during my mini-lesson to have kids synthesize the skills we learned during our character unit. Students turned and talked to their partner mid-way through the clip and then again at the end to share their thinking about the character's relationship as well as a theory they can develop based on the characters' actions and decisions in the scene we watched.  The students loved watching the clip and applying their literacy skills to a different form of media. 

 I am excited to continue to work on my goal of including digital texts in my mini-lessons in meaningful and purposeful ways.  I would love to hear how you are including pop culture and digital texts into your mini-lesson instruction so please share any and all ideas you have! :) 

Incorporating Technology into Morning Meeting

Each morning, we gather as a class for morning meeting to greet one another, share, and participate in a group activity.  This year, I decided to have a theme for the activity for each day of the week.  For example:

• Monday - Math Monday (e.g., math puzzles from Edgar Allan Poe's Pie: Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems) 
• Tuesday - Technology Tuesday (e.g., book trailers on YouTube or other short video clips related to a current unit).  
• Wednesday - Wonder Wednesday (Wonderopolis - we read the Wonder of the Day, watch the short video clip, and have a great discussion)
• Thursday - Teamwork Thursday (e.g., team building activity that can be related to a unit of study, grammar, and so on).  

By having each day dedicated to a certain theme, it has created a sense of routine for morning meetings in our classroom that kids can now expect and look forward to each day.  Also, it is a great way to incorporate more technology into our teaching and learning during morning meeting.

Students have loved watching the book trailers on YouTube and have even started thinking about maybe trying to make their own!  I have shown book trailers for read alouds and during book talks for new books added to our classroom library.  It is a great way to introduce a book to students in a visual and engaging way.  So far, we have watched the book trailers for: Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick; The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate; The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen; Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

They also get very excited on Wednesday to see what the Wonder of the Day is and have a chance to share their opinions and thinking about it with one another.  One of our favorites was Wonder #710 How Does Technology Change Lives?  This one sparked a great conversation that sparked us to reflect on all the many ways technology impacts our lives each day and how it may change our lives in the future.  I love the new feature on Wonderopolis where you can customize the Wonder of the Day by clicking on the "Wonderize it" icon.  Once you click the icon, you can choose what you want students to see on the screen: Ever wondered?, Did you know?, Video, Photos, Activities, Vocabulary.  Depending what the "Wonder"is, I sometimes choose to include a video along with the "Ever wondered" and sometimes I opt out of that and want the text to read instead.  I love that you can customize it though to fit your needs!

I'd love to hear how you are incorporating technology throughout your day, including morning meeting, so please share!

Thursday is Technology Day

Earlier this month,  I wrote a post about Evernote, one of my would-rather-not-live-without programs these days. I mentioned Evernote Clipper but I am going to say a little more about this feature tonight. If you go to the link, http://evernote.com/webclipper/, you will see the tab to install clipper. (Mine says installed since I have already done this.) Here is what you should see:

Once you install this, you will be asked for your user name and password. Once you enter that, the program will install the clipper onto your toolbar and you should see the little elephant head in the dotted square:

Now, the fun begins. While I still do use Pocket for some of the blogs that I come across, the Evernote Clipper allows me to clip posts and file them into specific notebooks. For example, if I come across a post about generating writing topics (thank you Ruth Ayres!    http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/topic-choice/), I can clip it and file it into a notebook that I have designated for writer's notebook collecting. That way, when I want to find a post, I have a much easier time finding it! Unfortunately, the links within the clipped blogs do not work with this system. However, I can cut and paste them and return to the site in order to access the link. All in all, this is a free tool that has been incredibly useful to me for saving and organizing the information that I come across on the internet. I'm sure that there are more ways to use the Web Clipper and for those of you who know some, please share! Happy clipping!

Thursday is Technology Day- Wonderopolis

While the number of apps available to us seems to be increasingly infinite (oxymoron intended), the number of apps that we use on a regular basis is finite. Therefore, we are adjusting Thursday a bit. While in the past, we have written about specific apps, we are going to have Thursdays be technology-oriented and not just focused on apps.


Today, I'm giving a shout-out to Wonderopolis.org. Tony Wagner wrote A Global Achievement Gap in 2008 and described seven survival skills that are important to "what it means to be an educated adult in the twenty-first century" (p. xxv). The seventh survival skill that Wagner writes about involves curiosity and imagination. He states that "(students) have to be new and improved knowledge workers--those who can think in disciplined ways, but also those who have a burning curiosity, a lovely imagination, and can engage others empathetically." (p.39)

One way that we have found to teach students to ask questions is to model asking questions; Wonderopolis is a great forum for doing this. The National Center for Family Literacy is responsible for Wonderopolis.org and describes it as "a place where parents can seek and nurture a brighter world for their children through the power of discovery, creativity, learning, and imagination." That being said, many of the comments about today's wonder, What Can You Make in a Slow Cooker?, were from classrooms and yesterday's wonder, How Does Technology Change Lives?, has significant relevance to education. The video that accompanies Wonder #710 could inspire innovators and inventors and is completely worth the two minutes! Other examples of questions to ponder are Why Do Some Things Rust?, Why Was Morse Code Invented?, How Many Different Ways Can You Read? and many more. (704 more, as of today...) While some questions have the potential to inspire deeper conversations, almost every wonder I have read has kept me reading.

Melanie Swider has instituted "Wonder Wednesday" in her fifth grade classroom and her morning meetings include lively discussions of Wonderopolis questions. Additionally, if you are on twitter, there is a #WonderChat hashtag. Reading through the comments had my whole family wondering, hypothesizing, researching, and laughing. I'm sure it would inspire the same in your classrooms. How are others using Wonderopolis in classrooms? Please share your experiences!
Happy wondering!

Thursday is App Day- Evernote

One of the apps/programs that I have been using on a daily basis in order to organize my life and remember what I need to do is Evernote.  The more that I use it, the more I am addicted to it. Evernote is classified as a productivity app and it offers several features that I use in order to make note-taking and record keeping easier. For example, I can record and take pictures within the program. Just today, I took a picture of a whiteboard that I wanted to remember and put it into the notes that I was taking during a meeting. One of the teachers I met with today shared that she likes to record students as they read and we agreed that Evernote would be a great way to document and record progress.

I can access Evernote through an app on my iPad, as well as through the internet via evernote.com. All of my information is password protected so I can access it through any device that has internet access. I find moving files and creating new notebooks to be easier from my desktop, although I use my iPad to create new notes several times a day. I have customized notebooks for the different parts of my life. For example, I have a folder for my meetings with my supervisor and I can keep track of all that I need to do for her. Last night, we were tweeting about how some teachers are using Evernote for record-keeping and conferring, creating notebooks for each student; they are finding this to be really effective.

Evernote clipper, which is a feature of Evernote that I installed on my computer's toolbar, lets me copy an Internet page and "file" it within that folder. If I come across a post or an article that relates to conferring, I clip it and select my conferring notebook for storing it. I'm finding this to be so much easier than printing and filing or bookmarking pages!

I am beginning to explore the Evernote trunk and would love to hear about how others are syncing areas of their Evernote lives. This is a free app and website that seems to have endless possibilities!

5 of my Favorite Apps for Teaching

On Thursday's, we post a different app that we recommend for teachers and/or students to use in the classroom.  Since we are getting ready to begin the new school year, and some of you may have recently purchased an iPad, I am reviewing my Top 5 apps that I love to use!  Click on the app links below to read how I use the apps and why I love them! 

Dropbox 




Confer 

Upad 

Pocket 

PowerTeacher

I know I said 5....but here are two of my other favorites! :)

Goodreads

Common Core App 

Happy App Shopping! :)