let go of judgment, let go of expectation

I was in yoga yesterday for the first time in ages. Funny story - when I walked up to check in, it was taking a long time. I said something like, "Oh, I haven't been here in so long! Is that why?" The girl behind the counter was all, "No, it's slow, it's not judging you." I laughed and said, "Okay, well, I am!"

Then judgment came up again during class. It usually does. It's hard to hold the postures they want you to for as long as they want you to, especially when you've been out of practice for so long. We were doing my favorite - a static set of standing bow:

note: my foot doesn't go that high!

I did really good on my right side but not so good on my left. Was really wobbly and ended up falling out of it actaully. After that pose, she had the whole class bring their hands to heart center and do some breathing while she reminded us, "Let go of judgment, let go of expectation. You're here on your mat today, so thank yourself for that."

Which got me thinking about balanced literacy (I always find yoga paralleling work when I'm in class...I get lots of good ideas for writing there!)

Anyways, since I just presented this week three times, balanced literacy came up during each presentation and so that's how I made the connection.

Let's start with the Gradual Release:

If you're going to teach in a Balanced Literacy classroom, you're going to teach with the gradual release. Actually, if you're going to teach anything well, you're going to do this! You can't expect kids to know how to do something if you don't first model it to them and then slowly bring them into the activity. I heard Dr. Mary Howard speak once last year (she's a literacy consultant, I think) but she said, "Sometimes it's not just I do, we do, you do, but it's instead: I do, wedowedowedo, you do, OH! I do (again) I do, I do, we do, okay...now you do." You have to always look to your kids and give them what they need, and lots of demonstration and feedback  is a must!

So then a balanced Literacy classroom has the Gradual Release naturally flowing though it: You start with modeled reading (teacher does a demo) then move to shared (shared with the whole class). You give students guided reading in their small groups with leveled readers and kids are always doing the work independently. The same goes with writing. Then read aloud and word study are always flowing through each side of reading and writing.

Did you see that quote below? If you teach balanced literacy, you teach the reader. If you teach with the basal, you teach the program. So so true. Balanced Literacy isn't about opening a teacher's edition. It's about making decisions about your kids every day using all the information you have: Their test scores, their assessment data from a running record and comprehension conversation, you informal observations from class, your looking at the standards and then looking to your kids to find the balance, what you notice in their notebooks, in 1:1 conversations, the things they say in guided reading.

Balanced literacy might be using a short story from the basal, but building your lesson from your own head. You want to teach questioning to your kiddos? Great. Use the story in the textbook, but read it ahead of time and plan out where you're going to stop and model questioning. Figure the place in the text where you're going to stop to prompt kids to question together. Where will you stop and let them take a try on their own? What will you say to them? What writing will they do afterwards?

This is the thing with Balanced Literacy. It *is* messy, because there's no one from Pearson in a textbook there to tell you what to do. You'll make decisions daily about what your kids need. Sometimes you'll do the right thing and sometimes you'll have to go back and reteach. But that's what it's all about. Try it out and then revise.

And when you make the jump to this kind of teaching (especially after leaving the Teacher's Edition and all of *Pearson's Knowledge* behind) (that's what it is...the knowledge of someone else put down in a script for thousands of teachers and students!), don't judge yourself when things go wrong. Don't be so hard on yourself. Know that you're trying out a new way of teaching that is good for kids, and thank yourself for that.

Namaste :-)

An InLinkz Link-up

book obsession

ICYMI, we made a collaborative blog for the community at my elementary school. So far we have a few posts from a few different teachers, including one that was a Wordle of all the places you could read over the summer. One of our fifth grade classes came up with that, and it was a cool idea! I tagged it as "reading habits" and then I got to thinking about reading habits and reading rituals and that got me thinking about all of my bookshelves!

I love my bookshelves, especially when they are super organized. (I just fixed up my home book shelf before I did it's photo shoot!) Here it is:

This is from IKEA and it's survived move after move. I don't think it's going to make one more though, but I love it so much I'd buy it again.

Anyways, across the top I Have some of my favorite books - I was obsessed with Nicholas Sparks and used to read everything he would release. By the 10th book, it was the same story over and over again - set in the charm of the South by water with a love story that has some kind of terrible problem. But, loved them when I was into them! 

Then of course you see the Twilight books. Don't judge! Twilight was the first book I reread - I went through that series when I was doing my reading specialist certificate. Loved them...and I will always have a special place in my heart for those books!

Across the middle row I have lots of books about teaching and professional topics. I brought a few home from work that I need to revisit this summer. Then I have another favorite author, Jodi Picoult:

She's in the middle of that one - I had more of her stuff but took them to school when my eighth graders were nearing the end of our time together....The way she unexpectedly twists her stories will leave you like....whoa! Highly recommend her stuff- some of it is darker than others, but great stories.

Some of the other books in that stack I tried but didn't finish - like Anna Karenina and Wuthering Heights - I think I need to try again. The Promise of Stardust - don't remember the plot of that one but I remember it was super good. So how is that for a recommendation? :-)

Finally, most of my collection of my critical literacy books:

When I taught eighth grade, we always had our year-long theme be "You can change the world," which came from ideas from these titles. I'm hoping this summer to work on my units for the Social Justice Projects and publish them to TpT!

Well that's what is at home, along with assorted books laying all over the house:

At work, I have two more shelves - This one (also from IKEA) houses all my professional reads:

and this one holds all the picture books that Christine and I have:

This is some $20 book case that is on it's last leg, but it holds fiction on the top and NF on the bottom. When I was in grad school that's when the major book purchasing began happening. Here are a few of my favorites to teach with:

This one is about a rat who has a lisp and gets bullied. Then one day, his lisp comes to his aid as he (unintentionally) makes his school community better. This book is adorable and great for building community in your classroom!

Chato's Kitchen is a book about a low-riding gangster cat. I love this book because I totally do voices for the cat and the mice. Pretty sure there are some other books that feature Chato, too. 

I love Chewy Louie - it's a great text for an easily identified plot line. The dog chews up everything and the family goes through all these steps to help the dog stop chewing, including a singing therapist lady. Great book!

I've used Freedom Summer as part of my middle school Social Justice unit. Anyways this story is set in Mississippi in 1964 and is about two boys - one of which cannot do the same things as the other because of his race. It's a great way to open conversations about racism - in the past and current day!

So there you have it, all of my book cases! Do you feel any particular affection for yours? I'm sure you do, if you love books as much as I do!

Quick announcement: This summer on July 1st, I will be doing a PD for our district so teachers can get their own blogs going. I am going to hold a BigTime Blogging Challenge, too, with prompts for each of the days in July! I'm going to add this topic to the list, so get your ideas ready for July so you can link up with me! Of course, the purpose of blogging is to come up with your own ideas, so at any point throughout the challenge, you can always write about a different topic rather than the prompt, but just know I'll have a link-up every day of July. I hope you can join!

Have a great weekend! Only three days left of school for me (plus two of curriculum the week after!)

The Gift of Reading Stop #12: Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then

Welcome to BigTime Literacy! You have arrived at  

 

At each blog stop, you will be gathering Reading gifts and freebies.  In each post you will find a picture of a snowman with a letter on it. Collect all of the letters to solve the mystery quote to enter the giveaway. Record all of the letters on your recording sheet and follow each blog along the way so that you can enter the amazing giveaway at the end!

The hop is set up as a loop, so you may start anywhere along the hop, but if you would like to start at the beginning you may go to A Day In The Life of A Title I Teacher's blog.  This is also where you will go after you finish the hop to enter the giveaway!!

For this Gift of Reading, you will find a great read aloud to use around the holidays and a reading strategy for summarizing narrative text. Let's get to it!

Read Aloud

Going home is a great story to read close to the holidays. In this story, a migrant farm working family makes their way home to Mexico for Christmas. The children in the family don't understand why they have to go each year or why their parents love their little Mexican town of La Perla at first, but then they see that it is home to their parents. The children come to understand that their parents went to the United States for opportunities - opportunities for the children and for themselves.

Reading Strategy

Somebody - Wanted - But - So - Then is a great reading strategy to use to summarize narrative text in a quick way.

In the example of our mentor text, the strategy might come out like this:

"Mama and Papa wanted their children to have opportunities for their future, but in Mexico, there weren't many. So, the family moved to the United States. Then they visit "home" for the holidays and the children see how much their parents sacrificed to give them opportunities in their future."

Freebie!

Now that you've learned about my strategies, head over to my TpT store to download my freebie! In the document, you'll find a review of the story, a poster for Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then, and exit slip, and a running record you can do to assess your students' reading.

And now the big reveal....my secret letter is:

Enjoy the coming holiday season with your students, family, and friends! I hope that you have found a great read-aloud and a new strategy that will help with your instruction! Make sure to follow BigTime Literacy so you can learn all about what is happening in my corner of the world. Next up on this blog: Academic Parent Teacher Teams!

Don't stop now! Hop on over to Read With Me ABC to pick up another amazing reading gift! Happy Holidays! 

If you get lost along the way download the Hop Map here to easily pick back up where you left off! 

Happy Friday!

Rituals

The first day of school can often be very hectic with collecting supplies and going over forms and just getting to know the kids' names. In the time you do get with your class, what do you plan to do with them? Do you have any special rituals that you always make sure to save time for? For the past four years, the following are just a few of the things that were at the top of my to do list on day one....

First Day Read Aloud
My first day of teaching, ever, I remember reading a picture book to my sixth graders. Ten years later I see the importance of it - showing your students exactly how important reading is to them - but at the time, that was not my intention.

The past four years I would gather my seventh or eighth graders on the carpet in the center of my classroom and I would read to them. Yes, I make them come sit on the floor with me even though they were a little uneasy about it. Perhaps you're thinking it's not very age appropriate, but that was the ritual I wanted to begin, starting on day one. I knew that as we moved forward with reading workshop they would be relaxing on the floor or in the chairs reading great books, so I wanted them to get in the habit right away.

Shortly after the first day....shared text altogether in our meeting space.

Eventually they tell me, "It was so weird in the beginning....but we love our classroom!"

My favorite first day read aloud is First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. It's about someone who is so nervous about going to school the first day, and then when you get to the end, you see it's the teacher, on her first day of school. The kids never really expect the ending, and that's what I love about it!

I highly recommend finding a great book or short story to share with your kiddos on day one!


Learning their names & first photos
On the first day, I try my best to take a picture of all the kids in my homeroom. I had a great teacher in graduate school who said she would learn all of our names the first day, and she accomplished this with pictures. I think this sends an important message to kids that you care about them: finding out their name, if they have a nickname they preferred to be called, and even learning how to say it just right.

Later on, these pictures go up on my "Proud Wall" where each student has a space to showcase work of their choice. The kids love to see how much they've changed with these pictures - especially when you loop with them. The growing up that happens in seventh and eight grade is awesome!

First Homework Assignment
Another ritual I get students acquainted with right away is letter writing. On the first day, I have a letter prepared for students that I wrote to them - everyone get the same letter for this one - but it just tells them about myself and then at the end it asks them to write a letter back to me. I get a bunch of stationary from the dollar store and let them pick one for this assignment. Not only does it give them an opportunity to introduce themselves to me personally, it's also a great way to see what kind of writers you have on your hands.

Letter writing continues throughout the school year when we write letters about the books we read and then at the end of the year, I always write students an individual letter and they have to then write one last one back to me for their final assignment. I LOVE getting these "love letters" back from them - I bind them each year into a book that I keep on my shelf. When I'm having a bad day, it's a great place to look for a little sunshine!

Circle Time
At the end of each week, my homeroom meets for the last 10 minutes of school on Friday in a circle on the carpet. We do appreciations and high-low. Obviously appreciations are just who and what they appreciate. High - low is from my good friend, Katie, and kids just share the high of their week and their low. Again, you might be thinking that it's crazy for seventh and eight graders do this, sitting on the floor in a circle and all, but after they get used to the idea, they ask for it. 

If you're going to do this, I recommend having a stuffed animal or ball of some sort that they can pass around so they know whose turn it is to talk. After two years, we really had become a family and they always talked over one another - in a playful way, but they need to know how to listen as well as share.

Some kids will always just listen, and that's okay. Some kids will want to share 5 times. If there are a lot of kids who want to share, I will tell the kids who want to talk the most they only get to share two or three times so everyone has a chance.

I believe that this circle time was what really brought my homeroom together. Towards the end of our two years, I had kids resolve problems and apologize to one another during this time. And celebrating what is working for them throughout the week is the best way to wrap up another week together!

Our little family <3

What rituals will you put in place in the upcoming school year? Please share your ideas with me!


Until next time.....