Welcome to our book study on Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell's, Every Child A Super Reader. Educators in the state of Pennsylvania can earn Act 48 hours (continuing education hours) for successful completion of the book study. Act 48 hours are not awarded for time spent reading the text, but rather thoughtful consideration of the content read, posts in response to the questions, and comments to other participants' posts. Successful completion of the book study is defined as independent reading of the text and posting a least one comment to each blog post during the course of the study. If you are interested in signing up to receive emails when new blog posts are posted and/or wish to receive Act 48 hours for participation click here. We hope you will join us for this exciting way to interact about Every Child A Super Reader.
Our first host is Michael Williams, a second grade teacher from Harrisburg, PA. Michael writes: The first section of the book is a basic introduction to what explain the need for this type of book. It also gives a brief snapshot of how the book is organized. After reading the introduction I felt empowered. It left me with a sense of urgency to read more! The research presented in the introduction clearly demonstrates the need to raise readers that will have a love of reading and empower them become "super" readers. Chapter 1 focused on how reading can open possibilities for every child. A "super reader" was defined as "a child who enters a text with a purpose." I was expecting something much more elaborate, but after thoughtful reflection, it makes perfect sense. Adults don't read a text unless there is a purpose to do so. The students in my class choose books based on what they like and enjoy reading. The text level doesn't matter to them. They will find a way to read and understand the text because they want to read the book. Allyn and Morrell discussed that super reading leads to high achievement, builds empathy, builds sense of self/emotional resilience, and prepare them for the future. In today's society, this is what children need to be successful in life after school. Finally, 10 basic principles of raising super readers were shared. My two favorite principles were: #5 Super readers have access to many kinds of texts #7 Super readers need "reading role models." These two principles resonated with me since I feel it is very important to read in front of my students and I like to try to expose them to many kinds of texts. For some of our students, the teacher may be the only adult they ever will see that reads a book. What principles were of most interest to you? Why do you think you were drawn to them? Have fun reading Chapter 1! I cant' wait to hear your thoughts! Mike Williams
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Aileen Hower is our guest blogger this week for Goal 10, which is our final section of our book study.
Writing partnerships is a workshop tool to help lessen the "guilt" of not conferring with all writers in one's classroom every day. As Serravallo states, partnerships offer many benefits: "motivation and accountability, critical feedback in times of need, opportunities to get 'unstuck' when we can't figure out on our own what's next, more ideas for our topics, practice teaching or storytelling as oral rehearsal, a critical reader when we need it most, [and] an expert to compensate for our own weak spots" (p. 360). This list comes from Colleen Cruz's The Unstoppable Writing Teacher, which is a great book to help "solve" any writing issue a class or a student is having. Most importantly, writing is more "real" when the writer has a community to support his/her writing endeavors. Partnerships are not easy. There are personalities, understanding how to give appropriate feedback, and times when we need our writers to be independent. However, there is a time and a place within writing where these collaborative relationships can support and enhance one's writing skills. I am a fan of oral rehearsal strategies like 10.4 Talk around the Idea, Then Write. They help writers think before they write. I love the concrete nature of some of the strategies - how they offer writers specific aspects of writing to look for, or give writers actual things to say during the partnership. What did you like best? How do you see partnerships working in your classroom to help writing time flow more smoothly? Christine Hartzman is a repeat guest blogger for our book study on the The Writing Strategies. This week's goal continues to focus on the conventions of writing, but more specifically on grammar and punctuation. Christine will be heading to Teachers College the last week of June for the Advanced Reading Institute. Thanks for guest hosting, Christine!
Christine writes: The rhythm of the prepositions being repeated twenty three times around the classroom while the teacher stands in the front writing checks in her gradebook with a serious look on her face. About, above, across, after, against, among, around, at… Jennifer Serravallo begins Goal 9 by asking readers to recall how their teachers taught grammar to them. I was quick to flashback to seventh grade where Sister Mary A taught us to memorize, to memorize, and to memorize some more parts of the English language. In addition to the memorization technique, I had the pleasure of completing countless worksheets, diagramming many sentences, and labeling parts of speech to learn as Serravallo stated, “The Rules”. Currently, in my role as an instructional coach, I have experienced many classrooms in a variety of grade levels and in a variety of content areas. Conventions - grammar and punctuation - are typically the areas where students tend to have weaknesses and where teachers are in need of practical and timely tools to support their students. Once again, Serravallo provides a remedy with strategies that are an “invitation to play” rather than “to fix” mistakes. Here are two strategies that I want to share and to teach as writing tools for students at the start of the year: 9.16 Paragraph Starters Students analyze the beginning line of each paragraph in their writing. Then, students determine if they need to connect ideas, to transition in time, or to set up a topic or a subtopic. Need support? Students can look at paragraph beginnings in their independent reading books for paragraph starter ideas. Also, teachers can create an anchor chart of sample starters as a scaffold for students. 9.17 Read Your Draft Aloud, and Listen The student reads the draft aloud and listens to how it sounds. By reading aloud and listening, students can focus on sentence length, punctuation placement, and tone. This is a simple, a quick, and an easy strategy for students to use all year long. Which strategies will you invite your students to play with next year? How can you change the mindset of your students “to play” rather than “to fix”? This week's guest blogger is back to our first blogger, Michael Williams. Michael teaches 2nd grade in the Central Dauphin School District. He is also the past president of Keystone State Reading Association and Capital Reading Council.
Michael Writes: When we were dividing out the goals for people to blog about I didn't realize that I would get one of the goals that is my favorite part of writing...spelling! Now, that goal just doesn't focus on spelling, but rather all the conventions of writing. The goal has strategies for letter spacing, apostrophes, plural words, and homophones. Regardless, I love all that makes up the conventions of writing and I find myself being overly picky with my students about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Many of the strategies in this goal teachers have been using forever, but may just be called a different name. For example, "Talk like a Turtle" strategy is the same as stretching out a word to hear the sounds in order to help spell the word. I often encourage my students to "spell the best you can" and then come back to check the word. This is common practice among many teachers (I think) is outlined is the strategy "Spell as Best You Can-on the First Go." However, I did find some new, exciting strategies to add to my toolbox to assist my students in their revising and editing process. I absolutely love 8.10 "Use Your Resources to Spell." It helps to remind students that they have resources to use and MUST use them when writing. I feel as though I want to tape the anchor chart poster on my students' desks, writers' notebooks, my classroom wall, basically EVERYWHERE! I also was interested by 8.12 "Chin Drops" since multiple syllabic words usually give kids problems. This strategy has the writer count the number of syllables in a word by placing their hand underneath their chin while they say the word normally. I found myself trying this one out and it was pretty cool to use. Not too many new, earth shattering strategies in this goal, but good reminders and visuals to go along with what we are already using. What are some of your favorite strategies to help your students with the conventions of writing? Hope everyone has begun summer break! Great time to catch up on the blog! That's what I plan to do! Michael Miranda Aaron is our guest blogger this week for our book study on The Writing Strategies. She is finishing her first year as a Literacy Coach in the Carlisle Area School District. Prior to being a coach, she was a second grade teacher in Carlisle and Tulsa, Oklahoma for 3 years.
Miranda writes... A writer’s word choice helps to define their style and the share their voice. However, this is often one component of writing that I find myself skipping over. As a 2nd grade teacher, my focus with students was on developing basic sentence and story structure and the fluency to write more and more. Even as students move through the grades and build basic writing skills, the focus often transitions to responding the text, writing 5 paragraph essays, and more. As a teacher I always struggled to transition the focus of students’ writing to style. Serravallo provides many straightforward strategies for all writers to improve word choice. An approach to improving word choice is clueing students into parts of speech. Serravallo states, “Clueing children in to how sentences are structured and the ‘jobs’ that words have within a sentence will help them to make wiser choices when it comes to word-level revisions.” 7.3 Precise Nouns, 7.5 Verbs That Match the Meaning, 7.20 Choose Your Pronouns, and other strategies make word choice a simple process. I see students responding well to being given specific words to look for and then evaluate to improve their writing. This is also a much more meaningful way to work on grammar concepts within a writing project, rather than isolated sentences. Another strategy that stood out to me was 7.7 Alphabox. This strategy can be used throughout the Writing Process as students develop a pool of words related to the topic that can be used during writing. This could easily be done by individual students or as a whole group reference. Have you students and you made the transition from moving beyond just the content of writing to focusing on style and word choice? What strategies stood out to you as ones you’d like to try or may find the most useful? Please welcome Christine Hartzman as our guest host this week! Christine works as an Instructional Coach in the Boyertown Area School District.
Christine writes... Stop, Elaborate, and Listen! How many times have you said to a student, “add more details”, and the student responds with a string of adjectives in the writing piece? Think about it... did you show your students how to add those details or did you provide a model for students to emulate in their work? In Goal 6, Serravallo shares and explains multiple ways of adding details and improving the quality of details to a student’s writing piece. The fantastic part about Goal 6 is the amount and the variety of strategies that Jen Serravallo shares in this section. No matter what the piece or grade level, there are multiple strategies for your students to try! Some of my highlights or “must try” strategies are as follows: 6.5 “Nudge” Paper Keep post-its or scrap paper handy for this one! This strategy allows students to try something in a writing piece, but here is the catch - students don’t need to keep it. Whether it be in the writing notebook or in a writing station, students can try a new idea on a separate piece of paper and decide later if the idea should stay or go. Kids need to know and to learn that some ideas can be abandoned while others are “on target.” Bonus: This strategy works with any type of writing. 6.11 Take Notes from an Illustration or a Photo If you are trying to figure out how to connect text features and writing, this strategy is for you. Using a photograph or illustration, students can jot quick notes - words or short phrases about what is being learned from the image. Then, students can use the idea in a writing piece to further explain a specific topic. Bonus: Students are using close reading skills by analyzing the image portion by portion. In addition, this strategy can be used with any genre and with any grade level. 6.24 Use a Refrain Do your students have a “go to” line in a piece of writing? A line that is repeated over and over again. In this strategy, students look for a line or lines that can be repeated in multiple places in the piece. What I like about this strategy is that the students need to reflect and to question themselves as writers. Questions like, “Does the refrain make my piece better?” , “What meaning does the line communicate?”, and “What can I add on?”, will assist students in making impactful and effective decisions about their writing. Bonus: This strategy can be utilized with narrative writing, persuasive writing and POETRY! No matter what the goal or strategy may be, keep in mind to start small -try one or two strategies and then add more to your toolbox. You will feel less stressed and less overwhelmed about knowing everything from Serravallo’s book and your students will respond in the same way in their writing. Think back to a time when you said, “Add more details!” Which strategy from Goal 6 could you have shared with your student or students? How would that strategy impact their writing pieces? This week’s post is written by Aileen Hower. Aileen is a member of the South Central Reading Council, is Vice President of KSRA, where she is also the social media coordinator, and the K-12 Literacy/ESL Supervisor for South Western School District. Additionally, she teaches graduate level reading courses for Cabrini University.
Aileen writes... In thinking about providing writers voice and choice, to promote engagement in writing, some teachers wonder how to teach organization and structure, which are more formulaic, with less student choice. This is why I appreciate Serravallo’s reminder to “Think of organization and structure as the bones of the piece, or the framing of a building. Without bones, your body is a blog. Without a frame, the building collapses. A writer may have the ability to pick a topic and add in lots of details, but if the frame isn’t there, if the piece isn’t organized, the reader will become confused” (p. 162). Serravallo shared that strategies in this section will help writers match genre and meaning to the structure within which they write. Also important to address, Serravallo makes sure to offer strategies for how to help students write bold beginnings, mighty middles, and endings that tug at the heart. She shares, “organization and structure is about more than just planning for the overall piece, it also… help[s] writers strengthen the parts of their piece” (p. 162). I love the progression charts on pp. 163-165 that help teachers know when certain skills can be taught and what comes next. I was really drawn to all strategies that included oral rehearsal or drawing as a step toward staying organized in one’s writing (5.2, 5.11, 5.23, 5.29). I appreciate letting the writer practice in speaking or drawing before writing words on the page. I have taught 5.18 Start with a Plan in Mind with third graders. What a powerful way to show writers that not all organizational structures work with all topics! These are just two types of strategies from this section that I appreciated. Which strategies stood out to you? Which ones were your writers most in need of this school year? This week’s post is written by Jennifer Shettel. Jen is a member of the Lancaster-Lebanon Reading Council and an associate professor at Millersville University, where she teaches literacy methods courses in the Early, Middle, and Exceptional (EMEE) Education Department.
Jen writes... Goal 4 is all about helping writers develop focus. Common themes that emerged throughout the strategies in this chapter are passion, spirit, and heart. I really loved this emphasis and it caused me to rethink writing in a more passion-driven sense which clearly helps writers hone their focus. Strategies like “Find the Heart” (4.3, p.138), “Find Your Passion to Focus” (4.8, p. 143), and “The ‘So What’ Rule” (4.19, p. 154) all emphasize this approach to writing. One of my favorite strategies is, “Write a Poem to Try On a Focus” (4.10, p. 145). I thought this was a great idea and something I hadn’t considered using with my writers. Writing your piece as a poem really does help you “zoom in” on the important parts and could clearly help writers develop focus. Another strategy that caused me to have an ah-ha moment was, “Their Topic, Your Idea” (4.13, p 148). While writing to a prompt can be overdone in our current assessment-driven climate, the idea that real writers sometimes are given a prompt was mind-boggling to me. I wrote, “Prompt writing in the REAL WORLD!!!” in the margins on this page. What strategies in this chapter were new to you? Which ones might you try before the school year ends? Emily Reed is our guest blogger this week for Goal 3: Generating and Collecting Ideas. Emily is a Reading Specialist at Dillsburg Elementary in the Northern York County School District. Also, she is the Co-President of the Capital Reading Council and is the Director of Membership Development for the Keystone State Reading Association.
Emily writes: The blank page can be scary to writers at any age. I have heard these words many times. "I don't know what to write." "I don't have anything to write about." I am sure that those words have flowed to your ears as well. "Tapping into personal passions and interests is a crucial part of becoming independent, self directed lifelong writers." I love how Jennifer focuses on the idea that writing is inside of each one of us. We just need to know how to get it out of us and onto the page. There are so many wonderful strategies in this section. I can't wait to try them all! I really want to try 3.4 Photo Starts. The idea of collecting photographs to help spark a story is such an interesting idea. Looking through photo albums always help me remember things I have experienced. I think this would really appeal to my students, at any age. This strategy also could get families involved in the writing process with their children. 3.2 Moments with Strong Feelings I like the idea of focusing on different feelings and the stories they evoke. We often focus on fun, cheerful moments but the stories tend to be stale. Worried or scared might make for a more exciting story. 3.5 Mapping the Heart This is a strategy that my students enjoy. We create the Heart Maps and are constantly adding or going back to the hearts for more story ideas. Once students (and teachers) have multiple ways of discovering the stories inside of them...the words will begin to flow with ease. I really believe using some of these strategies will develop many more confident writers. Happy writing (and reading). 4/30/2017 Goal 2: Engagement: Independence, Increasing Volume, and Developing a Writing IdentityRead NowOur next guest host is Gretchen Vogle. She is a second grade teacher at Lawnton Elementary in the Central Dauphin School District.
Gretchen writes... I was immediately intrigued by this chapter because student engagement can be difficult across the board, but I find it is especially difficult when teaching writing. I really like the idea of an engagement inventory. I have used this concept with reading; why not in writing? Has anyone implemented this in their classroom? How so? While I love the idea, I also wonder how to incorporate this and confer with students. One strategy I thought would be easy to implement is 2.3 Listen. Praise. Instead of having students listen to edit, the students simply tell their classmates what they like. I sometimes struggle with how to have students work meaningfully together with writing. This is a nice simple way for students to share their writing and get feedback from their peers. Another strategy that stood out to me was 2.6 Writers Are Problem Solvers. I currently have an anchor chart in my classroom for 'What to do if I don't know how to spell a word.' This chart is a nice way to expand upon that. While my students will refer to the spelling chart, they often come to me for the other situations, such as it being too loud or being stuck. Having an anchor chart like this in the classroom would help the students be more independent. I even thought of adding other situations, like 'My pencil broke.' or 'I don't know what else to write.' What are some ideas you would add? These are just two of the strategies from this section that I can't wait to incorporate in my classroom. Which strategies stood out to you? Are there any other ways you foster engagement in your classroom? |