Fosters.com - Dover NH, Rochester NH, Portsmouth NH, Laconia NH, Sanford ME
After spending 3 days with Tim Rasinski at the Lakota View Literacy Conference, Deborah and I came away with lots of theory and best practices concerning fluency in reading. Dr. Rasinski is considered one of the foremost experts on fluency and has published numerous books and studies on the topic. He warns us against making reading a "race to the finish" and talked quite a bit about prosody - the emotion, inflection, pacing, rhythm - of reading that is the foundation of comprehension. We will share more in the fall, but I found this article in Reading Rockets that addresses the warning to be careful about creating and valuing "speed" reading and giving kids the time to digest and ponder their reading. Let me know what you think...
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Once Upon a School - TED Video
I came across this TED video today and thought some of you might enjoy Dave Egger's message. It is geared towards volunteers in schools, but his message and work with volunteer networks is inspiring and we can all appreciate many of the points he makes. Here's the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html
Monday, June 14, 2010
Welcome...again...
Summer is a time we all need to stop the madness and relax a bit. We've all worked very hard to create a year of growth for all our students and quite frankly, we're exhausted! This past week we were able to celebrate the successes of the year - student showcases, end of year student/parent conferences, fifth grade graduation, field day...the list could go on and on.
But once we get caught up on some well-deserved rest, you and I know our minds will start mentally planning for next fall. I'll be posting some web sites, blogs, book lists, professional resources, and anything else I think might spark your teaching interests. Feel free to comment or add to this blog site.
Below is an article from Choice Literacy, written by Aimee Buckner.
Have a wonderful summer...see you in August!
Kathy
But once we get caught up on some well-deserved rest, you and I know our minds will start mentally planning for next fall. I'll be posting some web sites, blogs, book lists, professional resources, and anything else I think might spark your teaching interests. Feel free to comment or add to this blog site.
Below is an article from Choice Literacy, written by Aimee Buckner.
Have a wonderful summer...see you in August!
Kathy
Friday, June 11, 2010
An article from Aimee Buckner that you might enjoy:
One of the benefits of living in the South is the warm weather most of the year. Two of the downfalls, though, are the humidity and mold. Usually, opening the front porch each spring requires a bucket of suds, a scrub brush and knee pads, as I have to scrub down everything from the creepy green mold on the pillars to the leftover pollen dust stuck in the wicker furniture.
This year, I had had enough of that. I didn't have the time to do a deep cleaning, yet I love my front porch and didn't want to sit in the muck of it. So I bought a pressure washer - lightweight yet had a blast even a fireman would be proud of. There is something about power tools that makes me feel invincible. The vibration of the machine, the ease with which it does my work, and the (false) sense that it counts as exercise to hang on for as long as I do. I can understand why men grunt at the thought of "more power" with their tools. It just makes thing easier. In the kitchen, I feel the same way about my cooking "tools." I love my hand held grater that just requires me to turn a handle. I'm a believer in the Salad Shooter, and I couldn't live without my garlic peeler. Little tools that make cooking more enjoyable. My dad used to complain that my grandma couldn't cook unless she used every pot in the house. Women love their tools too.
So what does a writer need to work? What are the essential tools? Are there power tools for writers? I have given this a lot of thought and writers really don't need much. It's the only subject I teach that I don't feel compelled to go and buy additional resources and "stuff." All my students and I really need are pens or pencils and paper. The rest is all in our head - literally. But if writing on a regular basis were as easy as having pen and paper, there wouldn't be a need for my column, would there?
Writing Tools
There are three "power tools" that make writing happen for writers. As teachers, if we can provide these and/or the circumstances for these things to happen, our students will write and write well. These tools are - listed in no particular order - time, confidence, and audience. Surprised? I can hear voices in my head saying, What about computers? Dictionaries? White out? What about literature as models, grammar instruction, and the diagram of a sentence? These are all important tools, but none of them alone drive writers to write. And that's the key, to get in the driver's seat.
Time. All writers need time to write. It's not easy to carve time out of a busy personal life, nonetheless a hectic school schedule. But without a sustained and expected time to write, writers won't write at all. That includes published authors as well as young writers. If it's important we make time for it. It's a commitment, and it really is as simple as that.
A friend and I decided to train and run the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. It's just a 10k, but we weren't runners. Heck, we didn't even walk unless it was to go somewhere. Exercise was not on our horizon. So this was a commitment - to run. What did we need? We needed to run and that takes... time. It became a juggling act of babysitters, weather, and opposite schedules. We did it though. Every chance we got, we squeezed in a run. This is how writers work. They commit to write. They work it into their schedules, sometimes squeezing it in, but mostly carving out time to work at their craft. Make the time.
Confidence. No one likes to do things they don't do well. I hate putting up hardware in my house. I can't find the studs, I always use a drill bit that's the wrong size, and even if I do everything right it takes me three times as long as the average homeowner. Putting up a towel rack was an all day affair until my dad came and saved me. (It took him less than ten minutes.) So I avoid putting anything up on my walls that requires a hammer and/or drill. I avoid it like the plague.
Children - heck, adults - won't write if they feel they're just spinning their wheels. As teachers, we need to find what they are doing well; even when the errors are yelling for our attention. As I wrote my first book, Brenda was my editor. I realized that her job was to be the cheerleader. She pointed out all the things she loved about what I was writing and asked for more. In a subtle way, I knew to drop what she didn't talk about and give her more of what she did. You guessed it, I'm a people pleaser.
Kids need to know that they're on the right track. Encouragement will propel them to write with more energy and zeal than pointing out all of the errors. One of the times I heard Lucy Calkins speak, she said (and I'm paraphrasing) that there are times we'll lean in and see absolutely nothing of grandeur in the students' writing. Our job as teachers is to lean in and say WOW anyway. Because this is what keeps writer's going - the idea they're actually good at it. And this makes them want to get better.
Audience. We write for a lot of reasons. Some are personal and secretive, but mostly we write because someone is going to read it. Someone - the audience - is going to take in every word and think about things the way I do - at least for a moment. Someone is going to picture in their mind what I drew with words. Someone will have a peak at my soul.
Audience drives writers. The exhilaration mixed in with the anxiety of someone reading your work is definitely a high. It's nerve-racking while someone is reading your work, but there is no other feeling like when the reader looks up at you - or writes you a note - that your work, your words are fabulous. It's definitely like that runner's high I keep hearing about.
As I trained for the Peachtree, my 'coach' kept saying, wait until you get that runner's high. You'll never want to stop running. It's been over a year since I started running and I finally felt that high last week. And to be truthful, it's nothing like the one you get when you've written something well.
TRY IT OUT: There you have it - three tools for writing: time, confidence and audience. Commit to writing every day - at home on your own or in your classroom.
Share your work with your students and/or a friend who can be your cheerleader. Or set those inner voices to "nice comments only." Build your confidence by reminding yourself you are a writer because you write. Lean in on your students' work and find something WOW.
Allow someone to read your work. Get their feedback - not what can you make better kind of feedback. Tell them compliments only. This is what I did when my mother wanted to read my manuscript for my book. I told her okay but only compliments. It was a definite high to hear her praise and led me to want to have more people read it.
One of the benefits of living in the South is the warm weather most of the year. Two of the downfalls, though, are the humidity and mold. Usually, opening the front porch each spring requires a bucket of suds, a scrub brush and knee pads, as I have to scrub down everything from the creepy green mold on the pillars to the leftover pollen dust stuck in the wicker furniture.
This year, I had had enough of that. I didn't have the time to do a deep cleaning, yet I love my front porch and didn't want to sit in the muck of it. So I bought a pressure washer - lightweight yet had a blast even a fireman would be proud of. There is something about power tools that makes me feel invincible. The vibration of the machine, the ease with which it does my work, and the (false) sense that it counts as exercise to hang on for as long as I do. I can understand why men grunt at the thought of "more power" with their tools. It just makes thing easier. In the kitchen, I feel the same way about my cooking "tools." I love my hand held grater that just requires me to turn a handle. I'm a believer in the Salad Shooter, and I couldn't live without my garlic peeler. Little tools that make cooking more enjoyable. My dad used to complain that my grandma couldn't cook unless she used every pot in the house. Women love their tools too.
So what does a writer need to work? What are the essential tools? Are there power tools for writers? I have given this a lot of thought and writers really don't need much. It's the only subject I teach that I don't feel compelled to go and buy additional resources and "stuff." All my students and I really need are pens or pencils and paper. The rest is all in our head - literally. But if writing on a regular basis were as easy as having pen and paper, there wouldn't be a need for my column, would there?
Writing Tools
There are three "power tools" that make writing happen for writers. As teachers, if we can provide these and/or the circumstances for these things to happen, our students will write and write well. These tools are - listed in no particular order - time, confidence, and audience. Surprised? I can hear voices in my head saying, What about computers? Dictionaries? White out? What about literature as models, grammar instruction, and the diagram of a sentence? These are all important tools, but none of them alone drive writers to write. And that's the key, to get in the driver's seat.
Time. All writers need time to write. It's not easy to carve time out of a busy personal life, nonetheless a hectic school schedule. But without a sustained and expected time to write, writers won't write at all. That includes published authors as well as young writers. If it's important we make time for it. It's a commitment, and it really is as simple as that.
A friend and I decided to train and run the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. It's just a 10k, but we weren't runners. Heck, we didn't even walk unless it was to go somewhere. Exercise was not on our horizon. So this was a commitment - to run. What did we need? We needed to run and that takes... time. It became a juggling act of babysitters, weather, and opposite schedules. We did it though. Every chance we got, we squeezed in a run. This is how writers work. They commit to write. They work it into their schedules, sometimes squeezing it in, but mostly carving out time to work at their craft. Make the time.
Confidence. No one likes to do things they don't do well. I hate putting up hardware in my house. I can't find the studs, I always use a drill bit that's the wrong size, and even if I do everything right it takes me three times as long as the average homeowner. Putting up a towel rack was an all day affair until my dad came and saved me. (It took him less than ten minutes.) So I avoid putting anything up on my walls that requires a hammer and/or drill. I avoid it like the plague.
Children - heck, adults - won't write if they feel they're just spinning their wheels. As teachers, we need to find what they are doing well; even when the errors are yelling for our attention. As I wrote my first book, Brenda was my editor. I realized that her job was to be the cheerleader. She pointed out all the things she loved about what I was writing and asked for more. In a subtle way, I knew to drop what she didn't talk about and give her more of what she did. You guessed it, I'm a people pleaser.
Kids need to know that they're on the right track. Encouragement will propel them to write with more energy and zeal than pointing out all of the errors. One of the times I heard Lucy Calkins speak, she said (and I'm paraphrasing) that there are times we'll lean in and see absolutely nothing of grandeur in the students' writing. Our job as teachers is to lean in and say WOW anyway. Because this is what keeps writer's going - the idea they're actually good at it. And this makes them want to get better.
Audience. We write for a lot of reasons. Some are personal and secretive, but mostly we write because someone is going to read it. Someone - the audience - is going to take in every word and think about things the way I do - at least for a moment. Someone is going to picture in their mind what I drew with words. Someone will have a peak at my soul.
Audience drives writers. The exhilaration mixed in with the anxiety of someone reading your work is definitely a high. It's nerve-racking while someone is reading your work, but there is no other feeling like when the reader looks up at you - or writes you a note - that your work, your words are fabulous. It's definitely like that runner's high I keep hearing about.
As I trained for the Peachtree, my 'coach' kept saying, wait until you get that runner's high. You'll never want to stop running. It's been over a year since I started running and I finally felt that high last week. And to be truthful, it's nothing like the one you get when you've written something well.
TRY IT OUT: There you have it - three tools for writing: time, confidence and audience. Commit to writing every day - at home on your own or in your classroom.
Share your work with your students and/or a friend who can be your cheerleader. Or set those inner voices to "nice comments only." Build your confidence by reminding yourself you are a writer because you write. Lean in on your students' work and find something WOW.
Allow someone to read your work. Get their feedback - not what can you make better kind of feedback. Tell them compliments only. This is what I did when my mother wanted to read my manuscript for my book. I told her okay but only compliments. It was a definite high to hear her praise and led me to want to have more people read it.
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