Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So What Do They Mean by Quantitative Measures?

Quantitative - capable of being measured (dictionary.com)

I always have to stop myself and think about which word I need to use: quantitative or qualitative?  Quality vs. Quantity?  Usually in my family this question would be central to a discussion about an eating establishment.  :-)  But, in this case, it's the two ideas that have been tumbling around in my head as I have been reading Text Complexity:  Raising Rigor in Reading.  Today, I'm trying to make sense (by writing here for myself and anyone else who might make the time) of the quantity piece of text complexity and what it means for helping kids self selective books and teachers choose books for instruction and mentor texts.

Funny thing is, quantitative measures are not easy for us as humans to come by on our own.  They are the measures that focus on word length, sentence length, high frequency words, semantics and sentence complexity.  As early as the 1920s,  researchers who have developed readability formulas, take these variables into account to help determine a text's complexity.  And though quantitative measures would not be something easy for use to do ourselves, computers have made it so that quantitative measures are some of the easiest information for us to obtain (and maybe rely on too much) about a book.  The goal according to the CCSS is to...

"systematically raise the quantitative expectation of text complexity systematically from elementary school so students in high school are prepared for the kinds of reading necessary in college and in many careers."

Have you seen what's expected from the CCSS?  The following is a table of the most common quantitative measures used in the field of publishing and education.    They each go about formulating reading levels a little differently.  The one that might be most familiar to you is the ATOS level used by Renaissance Learning (AR).  One that I'm seeing referred to more and more often in conversations about the CCSS is the Lexile level.  What you are seeing in the table below is how each measurement has been adjusted to try to meet the goal set by the CCSS in raising the bar.  Click on the table's caption for more information directly from the source.



Supplemental Information for Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy: New Research on Text Complexity

 
The one thing we've always sensed about these kinds of measures is that they only predict so much about a deep and rich text.  We know that some books have many levels of understanding and that sometimes simple fables can have a very complex idea embedded in them or a book  like The Hunger Games is probably not appropriate for most 5th graders, though many measurements put it at a 5th or 6th grade reading level.  A couple of red flags this book has also raised are that sometimes signal words, which might increase a books reading level, can also help a reader to understand the content and structure of a nonfiction text and that readability levels are really hard to target for emergent readers.  You'll notice on the chart above that the reading levels start in 2nd grade when students would be making the transition from a lot of effort in decoding to more effort in comprehension.

The big thing for me, in reading this section on quantitative measures, is that there is more to a book that we can first measure.  The subject of the book, what the reader will bring to the text, and so many other factors will impact the true readability of a book and a reader's ability to comprehend it.  I have knowledge and control over more of these factors than a computer program.  Though I can use readability measures as one tool for matching books to readers and instruction, I should not rely on it solely.  It should be given it's proper weight and power in the decision.

Ok, so hopefully somewhere along the way you've been asking yourself...so how exactly do these new complexity goals translate into books on my classroom library shelves?  How close to the mark am I in getting these books into the hands of my students?

Here's a link to a list of familiar titles.

Here's where you can go to put in any title and check out its Lexile Level.

This is a super long post.  Maybe it's just for me.  That's ok too.  The bottom line?  Quantitative measures are truly only a first filter on a book's readability.  The richer measures, the more time consuming measures, I'll tackle next.

Angie

One Word Summary: A Writing and Speakin Strategy

I was hoping this post would be the next installment on the text complexity issue, but honestly, I'm still digesting everything I'm reading.  Hopefully, next week I'll be able to add the next piece in my thinking to a post.

In the meantime, here is a great idea from Rick Wormelli call "One Word Summary."  After reading or studying any book or topic, students are asked to pick one word that describes or represents the material.  They follow this up with 2-3 sentences that justify their word choice.

The real power in this strategy is the conversation.  Kids are encouraged to listen to the words and justifications of others and then either connect and support their ideas or refute their ideas with evidence.  This might take a bit of practice to be efficient and respectful, but what an easy way to get kids to practice reflective writing as well as persuasion.  This strategy lends itself beautifully to all narrative and nonfiction content reading.

Here's a link to an anchor chart if you want to give it a go.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_VBXnTxMgiVOXVtakx3LV8yM0k

Have a great weekend!
Angie (and Jayna)

Modeling Writing

There's so much more to tell you about text complexity, but I'm taking a brief bird walk to let the ideas from the book I'm reading percolate a bit.  Instead, I wanted to tell you about a few wise words Jayna and I heard recently from Linda Hoyt and Kelly Boswell (who coauthored Crafting Nonfiction with Linda).  I know they are wise words when they remind me about what I believe in, but have forgotten to put into practice.  These reminders are about how difficult writing can be and the empathy and scaffolding that need to be present for children to name themselves as writers.  Here's my top ten list.  I hop they spur you into a new practice next week.

Top Ten Things to Remember about Writing Instruction

1.  Modeling is not the same as explaining.  At first these two seem like synonyms.  But actually, one is instruction and directions.  The other is us actually doing the things we have asked the kids to do.  As we explain or instruct we position ourselves as teachers.  We tell kids what we want them to do.  We create anchor charts with them.  When we model writing we are positioning ourselves as writers and thinkers.  this isn't shared writing.  The kids are watching and listening and noticing.  We actually write in front of them while making our thinking visible.  See the nuance?  I wonder about the power of keeping these two things separate for kids.

2.  Keep your modeling short and keep it focused.  Ok, so this is a huge one for someone who just wants to squeeze one more thing in.  :-)  But the power is in the one, concise, well focused lesson.  What is the one thing I want them to notice in their writing and practice?  Find a way to make that visible and then stop!  Kelly talked about the lesson lasting 1 minute for every year the children are old.  First graders=6 minutes.  Second graders=7 minutes.  You get the idea.  Maybe I will.  :-)

3.  Limit the focus of your modeling language.  Ok, this is really part of number two, but don't go overboard with those 6 or 7 minutes by cramming too much in.  Kelly used a great analogy.  She asked us to imagine a garden hose that was on half pressure.  You can hold the hose up, but the water doesn't spray very far.  The grass a foot or two in front of you might get wet, but that's about it.  If you take that same water and focus your thumb on the front, you can get a smaller stream of water to go quite a distance.  This is what we need to do with modeling.  Narrow and focus the modeling and it will have farther reaching impact.

4.  Let them practice immediately.  Kids need an opportunity to practice while what you've modeled is still fresh. Too much time and space without practice is easily forgotten.  Oh, how true about so many things.  ;-)

5.  Go on a listening tour.  I love the way this is phrased.  It sounds like a vacation.  :-)  Actually, it means to wander and listen to what kids are saying.  To listen to them read.  To pay attention to their successes and frustrations.  You can learn so much about the next lesson when they are practicing.

6.  Be authentic.  Kids need to see you really writing.  This can make some of us sweat with anxiety.  That's ok.  Let the kids see it.  It's authentic.  It is worth pure gold for kids to see us authentically write and to be authentic writers.  Did you make a list of Christmas shopping?  Tell them about it.  It's writing.  Did you write a family Christmas letter?  Perfect.  Show them that you write and they'll be able to see they can too.  I've written a few things for reading intervention lessons and I'm always surprised at the attention I get.  When kids know they will learn something about me, they sit up and listen more closely.  They'll sit up for you too.

7.  Write high quality writing.  Write like an adult, not a 2nd grader.  We don't read them books written by 4th graders because they can only read at the 4th grade level.  We don't fall down in front of toddlers while we are walking to make them fell better about themselves as walkers.  :-)  We use mentor texts written by highly respected and published authors.  Give them your best writing when you model!

8.  Gradual Release of Responsibility is HUGE!  Kids really, really, really (even GT kids, seriously) need to have an opportunity to experience I Do, We Do, You Do.  Make sure to model, work side-by-side, and then let go for a practice.  I would also add (thank you Jeff Wilhelm and Jim Fredricksen) that kids also need to Compose to Transfer.  This means that after the I DO, We Do, You Do, we also add an I Own opportunity where kids reflect on what they've learned and how it will impact their future writing.  THIS IS HUGE!  Brain research tells us that reflection and processing on a learning experience plays a key role in helping that learning stick.  Don't skip the reflection!

9.  Model everything!  Pay attention on your listening tours.  You might be surprised about what kids really need.  Maybe it will be a conference with one child, but I bet, if you listen, the lessons you need to model for all the kids will begin to surface.

10.  Don't forget that writing is hard.  Have empathy.  Remember that it's ok for kids to see you struggle.  Model not giving up.  Model keeping after.  Just model!

So, What Do They Mean By Text Complexity?

"So, what do they mean by text complexity?" was a question posed to me (actually probably a few times), at a CCSS training.  I answered with what I thought was accurate information, but wondered myself.  What is meant by "text complexity?  Are we currently meeting 'their' text complexity standards in Middleton?  How do I support teachers and kids in finding these kinds of texts for lessons and choice reading?

First, I went back to the CCSS to see what they specifically had to say about the issue.  These were the major ideas I summarized:

• There is significant research to show that over the last 50 years, reading levels and complexity real world, college and career reading how increased, while the work work we ask of kids has decreased.  This has left a significant gap for most graduating seniors and is why the CCSS have put an emphasis in this area.
• The CCSS advocates kids K–5 read and "apply the reading standards" to a variety of text types including:

• Stories:  adventure stories, folktales, legends, fables, fantasy, realistic fiction, and myth Dramas: staged dialogue and brief familiar scenes
• Poetry: nursery rhymes and the subgenres of the narrative poem, limerick, and free verse poem
• Literary Nonfiction and Historical, Scientific, and Technical Texts : biographies and autobiographies; books about history, social studies, science, and the arts, directions, forms, and information displayed in graphs, charts, or maps; and digital sources on a range of topics

When it comes to instruction level text, teachers need to select texts around their social studies and science context so that kids can "generate knowledge and....study those topics or themes in depth."

Emergent readers (K-1) should read decodable texts that corralate to their reading level and word knowledge abilites. Text listed in the CCSS are there as examples for lessons to develop comprehension, content knowledge and the joy of reading.

These points make a lot of sense to me, as I'm sure they do to you as well.  But, that still doesn't get to what complexity looks like at each grade level.

Three measures help determine the complexity, as shown in what I refer to as the "Triangle of Complexity" (best said with a Monster Truck voice just for fun).  These three measures TOGETHER help us make professional decisions about which books to use for instruction (think success with assistance) and independently (in a kid's ZPD).  The three measures include:

1. Quantitative Measures - Word length, sentence length, text cohension, vocabulary, or word frequency are all thing best measured by a computer.  The most common of these tools to me are AR reading levels.  More recently we've seen Lexiles.
2. Qualitative Measures - These are qualities best measures by a human like meaning or purpose, text structure, language conventions, clarity, and how much effort the content knowledge will require.
3. Reader and Task Considerations - This is my favorite of the three because it takes into account the professional judgement of the teacher. (YES!)  This piece takes into account the qualitiative and quantiative measuere, but also the motivation and purposes of the reader.  These are the things only a teacher, working with colleagues and students, could bring to the conversation. 

These are the basics, but they weren't enough for me...yet.  So I'll be back soon, with more I've learned about the 3 measures and what'll they'll mean to our decisions and your students.

Angie

Top Ten Professional Books

As part of the Boise State Writing Project, I've been reading a lot of great books this summer that have been impacting my thinking about learning and teaching.  Then a couple of weeks ago I found this fun blog post where a number of different teachers were sharing their Top 10 picture books.  Many matched books on my list, but other titles were new and I will be checking them out.  It also got me thinking.  What would be on my Top 10 list of professional books or nonfiction books?  So here you go.  The Top 10 Professional Books that have had an impact on my teaching...for now, but in no particular order.  Hopefully you'll find something for your shelf.

Stay tuned for the Top 10 Nonfiction List!

Angie

Revisit, Reflect, Retell by Linda Hoyt

This book is FULL of great strategies to use with kids of all ages.  I use many of them in CCSS trainings with adults.  They are simple and powerful ways to support thinking, reading, writing, listening and speaking.  I'm on my second addition of this book and it was worth upgrading.  I use this resource all the time.

Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli

This book has changed my thinking about how we discuss the crafting of writing with children.  It focuses on the use of high quality nonfiction texts as mentors of what quality writing looks like.  It puts students in a place where they not only listen to, read or think about the content, but they are paying attention to the author's craft and considering how they can use these same ideas in their writing.  I love this idea because often as teachers we are either insecure about our own writing or we don't take the time to write a piece that we can use in instruction.  Plus, this book is full of titles for amazing lessons that support the CCSS in writing.

Strategies the Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

This book has really influenced my thinking about getting kids to be strategic readers.  They have so many great ideas that help scaffold kids thinking about fiction and nonfiction.  They also do a great job of modeling their thinking so teachers can visualize what lessons and conversations might look like in the classroom.  There are also plenty of new children's books on my shelves because of recommendations from this book.

Get It Done!: Writing and Analyzing Informational Text to Make Things Happen by Jeff Wilhelm, Michael Smith and Jim Fredricksen

What a privilege to know these authors!  Great guys.  Smart guys!  I'm learning so much from their series of books that look at informational, persuasive and narrative writing with kids.







Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeff Wilhelm

I'm becoming more and more convinced that real and deep differentiation for all kids happens through inquiry.  A big, engaging question has room for every kid to question, research, read, write and grow.  They can each join at varying degrees of competence and with different levels of text complexity.

Words Their Way by Donald Bear, et al

This book really changed my thinking about the way kids learn to have control over spelling patterns and rules.  These authors have developed an assessment that is really informative about students' instructional levels and their suggested lessons and activities have made a big difference where they have been strategically applied with kids.

Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning by Jan Chappius

Rick Stiggins is a rock star.  I'm the president of his fan club.  :-)  Just to be fair, this book is written by Jan Chappius, a consultant from Rick Stiggins camp.  It should be read and studied and reread by every undergraduate going into education.  The principles in this book (a little easier to access than Stiggins book) are critical for every competent teacher to understand and apply to their classrooms.  The ideas about formative and summative found me 10 years into my career.  Never too late!

Whatever It Takes, by DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Karhaneck

This book gets at the heart of learning and what I wish every teacher, team and school was about.  The four PLC questions have stuck with me:

1.  What is it we want kids to learn?

2.  How will we know they have learned it?

3.  What will we do if they don't learn it?

4.  What will we do if they have already learned it?

Such simple question packed with so much deep thinking and hard work!  I think about these questions often when I'm working with kids and when I work with teams.  Maybe I've bugged you with a few.   :-)

Transforming School Culture, by Anthony Muhammad

I got to hear this man speak a few years ago right after I had finished this book. It was so impressive to hear his straight talk about school cultures and how to begin making learning centered changes when staff are resistant.  Now, I have to admit, I was NOT comfortable having other teachers seeing me read this book.  The title makes it look like teachers are difficult.  Muhammad makes the case that many teachers who resist change have good reason to resist.  In fact, he gives a lot of practical advice for helping figure out what different staff need to move forward with change.  I need to reread this one.  Who am I kidding?  I need to reread all of them.

The Differentiated School, by Tomlinson, Brimijion, Narvaez

Carol Ann Tomlinson has changed the way I think about learning and teaching in schools, but this book really helped form my thinking about how we service kids, especially with your program.  This was a pivotal book in instigating changes to gifted services in our district.

Middleton School District Gifted and Talented Program Guiding Principles

Over the last few years, we have worked hard to support teachers and gifted and advanced students make academic growth in the Middleton School District.  Our first goal is to support teachers in this endeavor, because they are the primary facilitators of learning for students.  To make the best use of our day in each building, we work to collaborate with teams to coordinate group instruction based on grade level learning targets and assessment data.  Our hope is that this coordinated effort will lead to greater growth and fewer curriculum gaps than the old pull-out model.

Below are the guiding principles for our program.  These goals were developed with district leaders and are aligned with the Middleton School District Strategic Improvement Plan. and approved at the district level.  We are open to questions you might have and look forward to continuing on the journey to see these principles fully realized in Middleton.

Miss Young and Mrs. Eichelberger

Middleton School District Gifted and Talented Program

Guiding Principles

2012

v  Support Classroom Teachers and Build Capacity for Differentiated Instruction

Ø  Support teachers with strategies, curriculum, and other materials to promote differentiated instruction for gifted and advanced students in the regular classroom 

Ø  Collaborate with teacher teams in academic decisions for students that may require different pacing, depth, complexity and/or acceleration.             

v  Utilize RtI Systems and Assessment Data

Ø  Help determine curriculum decisions based upon screening, diagnostic, formalized testing, informal assessments, and progress monitoring data through an integrated school improvement model

Ø  Align gifted and advanced interventions to coordinate with school-wide model and goals when possible to support the whole model

Ø  Provide insight into research-based models and strategies for gifted and advanced students

v  Focus on Student Outcomes and Academic Growth

Ø  Promote partnerships with teachers that utilize data resulting in academic growth for advanced and GT students

Ø  Support lesson planning and coordinating of small group instruction focused on the Common Core State Standards

Ø  Encourage the integration of critical and creative thinking, problem solving and metacognition

v  Advocate for the Needs of Gifted/Advanced Students and Families

Ø  Work with school teams to advocate and advise on the academic, social, and emotional characteristics of gifted, advanced, and twice exceptional students.

Ø  Support the academic needs of families with gifted children through resources and information about upcoming opportunities

Ø  Continue to encourage partnerships between the districts and families focused on student learning and motivation through the Parent Advisory Group



Kid Architects - A Fall Workshop

The Middleton Gifted and Talented Program is pleased to announce that we will be offering an after school workshop for our 3rd through 5th Grade Gifted and Advanced Math Students.  Kid Architects will use LEGOs to explore famous buildings from around the world, as well as elements of construction design. 

The workshop will be hosted at Middleton Heights Elementary. 

3rd-5th Grade Girls - Tuesdays, Oct. 9th and 16th

3rd-5th Grade Boys - Thursdays, Oct. 11th and 18th

Parents will be responsible for transportation. 

 A healthy snack will be provided.

The workshop is free of charge thanks to a grant from Capital Educators Federal Credit Union.

For more information please download the pdf file linked to the image above.

Inquiry Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=lwCmCJ8OhWY&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb9cr4FPU_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x-pTBZw8mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp9ayDJFm3Q&feature=related

Persuasive Writing in 2nd Grade - Book Reviews

What exactly does persuasive writing look like in 2nd Grade?  Mrs. Forse decided to jump into persuasive writing with her 2nd grade advanced readers this past week after spending some time studying the new Common Core State Standards for Writing.  She had the kids begin by writing book reviews to convince others to read their favorite books.

First, Mrs. Forse created an anchor chart about the pieces of a good book review:

1. a hook
2. a brief summary that doesn't give away the ending
3. the reviewer's favorite part
4. who they would recommend should read the book

It was my privilege to model what this might look like.  I used the book Punt, Pass and Point, by Bonnie-Alise Leggat.  I love this book because it was written and illustrated by a third grader, which is a big selling point for kids.

After we modeled the book review to the left, kids were asked to select a favorite book of theirs to write a book review on.  The initial reviews were good, but showed some confusions and missing pieces.  Mrs. Forse took this information and did what great teachers do, she gave them another model.  This time she used the book Goodnight Goon, by Michael Rex, a parody of Goodnight Moon.  The kids loved the humor in this book.

Mrs. Forse reading Goodnight Goon.



Then Mrs. Forse had the kids use their original anchor chart, turned rubric, to build a review for Goodnight Goon.  They spent quite a bit of the discussion figuring out how to summarize the book, but making sure to leave out the ending so that they didn't spoil it.



Looking at the rubric and building the book review. Click here to see a larger version of the SmartBoard Anchor Chart.

 After writing their class version of Goodnight Goon the kids went back to work on writing and revising their own reviews.  It was fun to "see" the thinking and hard work.





Some of the early drafts were very impressive when you consider they were being written by 7 and 8 year olds.  Stay tuned.  I hope to add a few examples here soon.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Angie

Oreo Jenga and the Central Tendancies

Wow!  That title sounds like a really bad name for a garage band!  :-)  But actually, it was a ton of math learning and fun. An idea I got from a fellow teacher blogger at Runde's Room.

The advanced third grade have been learning about range, mean, median, and mode.  This is outside of their regular grade level curriculum, but has been know to show up on the math ISAT for advanced students.  I wanted them to have a fighting chance at the terms and what they mean (no pun intended) when they see them.

So...we collected data!  How many oreos could they stack without them tipping over?  They could only use one hand and once the oreo left their hand they could not touch that oreo again.  This proved difficult.

So they started stacking.  Each with 2 turns.

It was so hard not to touch them with both hands!

Then they watched them finally...

...tip...



...over!

Each student took two turns and we used their highest stacks to determine the

range: the difference between the highest and lowest value

mean: the average stack

median:  the middle value

mode:  the value (stack size) that happened most often

By far, calculating the mean was the most difficult because we had tons of addends to accurately total.

Here's the data we collected from two of the schools.

Interestingly, between all three schools, there was a central tendency of 18. :-)

The kids were overjoyed to find out that if they see a mean, median or mode question on the Math ISAT, they likely will not see quite so many pieces of data. 

Have a great weekend and weekend!

Angie



Girls and Math

I think this article from Stanford University has some important research implications about how we instruct and motivate girls in math.  Many of our own Middleton girls fall into this trap of not seeing themselves as capable and confident mathematicians.  Unfortunately, we see many of our girls, even those gifted and advanced, pulling away from advanced course work and careers in mathematics.

Food for thought as you firm up MTI Unit Studies and begin to think about instructional strategies.

Angie

http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2012/sugar-and-spice-and%E2%80%A6-math-under-achievement

Nonfiction Text Structures in One Page



Click here for the Google Doc PDF



Many of you have been using and like Beth Newingham's anchor charts for nonfiction text structures.  Nicole and I took those anchor charts and another reference sheet we came across and morphed the two. 

This one-pager is a nice compliment to the anchor charts that you can give students as a reference when they are trying to identify the structure in a passage.  It includes possible questions and signal words.  I particularly like the questions because they seem like the questions the authors would be trying to answer for the reader.

Enjoy!

Angie

Greek and Latin Roots

Check out this fun way to have kids study their Greek and Latin roots! This would be a fun way to do some last minute ISAT prep. All you need is some plastic Easter eggs (Anyone going to have TONS of these next Sunday afternoon?) and a small definition sheet. Different roots go on different halves of the eggs. Kids put the pieces together to create words and develop possible definitions. After there are a few definitions in each newly created egg, teams open them and choose either what they decide is the correct or most likely choice. The flexible side of this is that kids could create invented words or use actual vocabulary words. Either way they become more aware of roots and their basic meanings.

http://teachinginroom6.blogspot.com/search/label/Root%20Words

As always, I'd be glad to help you put this together!

Angie

I found a little time this week to process and add my thoughts to the "Diving into Nonfiction" page on the blog.  Nonfiction Mentor Texts is full of great ideas and I'm finding there is a strong connection to the CCSS Writing standards.

Just to practice what I preach, I've been using Linda Hoyt's Key Word Strategy from Revisit, Reflect, Retell to process what I'm reading and to then summarize it on the "Diving into Nonfiction" page of this blog.  It actually really helped me make quick work of my reflection.  I'm looking forward to trying it with kids soon.  Here's a quick run down of how the strategy works.

1.  Kids read a text challenging enough to push their thinking.

2.  They reread the same selection but keeping in mind that they are selecting a few important words.

3.  As they find the words they write them on a sticky note and place it next to that paragraph. (On a side note, if you only give them one large sticky, the physical act of ripping the sticky for each word actually has a kinesthetic/brain influence on memory.)

4.   After they finish the reread they take all of the sticky notes and set aside the text.

5.  Students then use the sticky notes to orally retell what they learned to someone else (or to themselves).  This part of the retelling is an especially important step for kids who need scaffolding, but benefits all kids in the pre-writing process.

6.  Lastly, they use the sticky notes to write a summary.

I'm including a link to an anchor chart of the strategy and an example from a workshop I got to take through the Boise State Writing Project with Linda Hoyt last summer. 

Anchor Chart

Key Word Example

If you are interested in reading more, let me know.  I'll loan you a copy of the book.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  May your weekend be blessed!

Angie

A Reason to Read Nonfiction

I recently came across Seymour Simon's website. Do you remember Seymour Simon? Here's a few of his MANY nonfiction books for kids.

On his blog he posts questions for kids to research and post about. He gives away his books and responds to their writing.   Today's post includes a picture of a baby squirrel with a cast on its arm. Yes, you will say "ah."  It would make a great writing prompt.  Ask Mrs. Mitchell about her trait lesson on voice using animal picture.

If you are looking for an authentic (and quick) reason to have kids read and write nonfiction, I suggest following this blog. You might stumble across the perfect opportunity.

Seymour Simon's Blog

After a preassessment on learning targets, Cheryl had determined that her advanced second graders needed the most focus on setting and the beginning, middle, and ending (early plot) of a story.  The group looked at a number of fractured fairy tales and discussed how these stories had changed because of the setting.  (I've included a few of my very favorites at the bottom of the post.)  She used a graphic organizer she located on readwritethink.org.  This was a great way to make the kids think about not only the place, but the time and the environment.

The next step was for the kids to develop their own settings for a fractured fairytale based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Cheryl gave each student a large piece of construction paper for their background.  They could add anything to the setting except the characters.  It was fun to watch the kids during this creative process.  Some stuck with very basic objects for their settings, others chose bowls of fish and beds of seaweed.  There was room for each stretch as they were ready.  When their setting was complete they could then create their character stick puppets putting each on a tongue depressor.

Do you notice "Goldifish"?

Each child then had a chance to share their story.  They hung their setting up on the chalk board and using their puppets, told their story from beginning to end.  Reflecting afterwards, Cheryl and I realized that this was such an excellent formative assessment and that there was real power in the kids movement of the characters through the story.  We got a true picture of how they grasp the beginning, middle and end through this retelling.  We saw a few begin to go off track and self correct.  More than anything, the kids seem thoroughly engaged by the activity.  Here's a link to the retelling checklist she used.

A retelling in action.

My favorite part though, was the kids' answers to Cheryl's request to each child as they finished their retelling, "Tell us about your setting and what you chose."  Almost each student started with, "Well I was thinking about how...." Oh, my, how I loved every minute of hearing them talk about how they thought about their new setting and decided on each piece.  There was a lot of joy witnessing this kind of meta cognition in 7 and 8 year olds.

Mr. Meyer's students also recently finished a fractured fairytale comic book with his advanced readers.  They were highly engaged with this writing.  Many wrote and wrote pages for their stories as they worked through their ideas.  This in and of itself is a huge feat for this age group.

Newly Added!  Mrs. Smith also shared a great project her kids did based on vocabulary.  They created characters and scenes and developed stories to illustrate their vocabulary words.  Here's one of the videos they created.

If you'd like to know more, please let us know.  Lastly, a few of my favorite fractured fairytales.

Angie