sol17 #4: painless

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I was planning to teach a strategy for writing conclusions and had to read The Relatives Came to my class. I called them over to the rug, my seventh and eighth graders. And

It was painless.

It just was.

In the beginning of the school year, we sat there a lot. But it was awkward. It took a long time to get seated. They shifted around in spots they didn't want to be in. They were uncomfortable. But then two days ago

It was painless.

It just was.

I told them when they heard the timer on my phone ringing, to stop their blogging, save their work, and come to the rug for mini-lesson. The timer sang. Some kids were already sitting in front of me and another handful were on their way. Only two or three were still typing. Because this time

It was painless.

It just was.

I did a 10 second countdown and within that time all 18 kids were in front of me. No one was arguing over spaces. One kid who sat to the side of me, when he realized that I was going to read a picture book, quietly got up and moved to a better spot. Because now

It was painless.

It just was.

And so I read the book, and they enjoyed it, even clapping at the end. I used the anchor chart I had prepped to describe Circular Conclusions that touch back on the introduction. They listened as I reread the beginning and ending. They asked a few questions. No one argued. Everyone was learning. Because

It was painless.

It just was.

And then today, a whole 24 hours later, they completed my exit ticket for the week, and one student said the best part of their week was when we read that book together. Our classroom community is built. There is trust and love and so sitting together as a family on the rug is no big deal. Now reading together

Is painless.

It just is.

Need an idea? Check out the padlet. Want to leave a comment? Check out the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Still not quite ready to write? How about this idea...

The first day of ELA with Ms. Brezek...

Happy Slicing!

week 4 in review

Four weeks of school have flown by already, it's crazy how fast it goes! Here are some of the things I was thinking this week as time continued to keep movin' on by...

I'm so thankful for my new area rug for the kids to read. It takes a lot of feedback to get them to read without disturbing others, but how cool is this view from my conferring table at the present moment? :-)

Our school is putting forward 9 focus areas across the building. One of them is note-taking, so this was one of my demos of Cornell Notes. I had a video playing and was taking notes as students watched me. Then, I had them share out about what they noticed I did. Then they tried on their own. It's working so well! They are finally getting that copying notes from a teacher involves no thinking. They have to do their own notes!

We also worked on getting vulnerable in one of my classes. I asked students to share their notes to fill in things they may have missed, but they wouldn't even move close to one another. So then I said, "Slide your notebooks together, look at one another's work. Talk about it. Trust me, I know it's hard, especially when you're unsure that you even did it right in the first place. I know I'm asking you to do hard things, but just trust me, and go with it." And for the kiddos who still wouldn't move their notebooks together, I did it for them :-)

These girls at the basketball game, I love it. This was after a crazy rant by me to my ELA class a few hours earlier. I super love teaching, but when you are teaching kids what behaviors are okay and what are not, you usually come off to them like you're yelling all the time. I'm not actually yelling, just talking in a stern voice about what is and what is not acceptable. So, after that tough class, it was nice to unwind with these kiddos at the game...until the fire alarm got bumped!

I'm super strict about assignment notebooks with my 6th grade homeroom. I am training them to be organized and create to do lists to make sure they get their work done and stay out of the Working Lunch classroom. And it's working. All by stickers, and these puffy emoji stickers for a week of writing all their homework down! Who doesn't love stickers?!

My classroom is coming along much slower this year because I'm waiting on all the work of the kids to decorate it! I finally finished up the Nerdy Birdies - It's a great book that I read to my homeroom on the first day. Then I had a few kids do blackline masters of a few different birds, copied them, had the kids color them, put them up, labeled them, along with the quote driving my school year:

A bird is safe in it's nest but that is not what wings are made for.  

-Amit Ray

Here are a few close ups:

One more thing on this - A week ago I got some super cute buletin board birds in the mail, except I didn't remember ordering them. I was thinking that I was getting a little irresponsible with my online shopping, so I went looking for the online orders. Couldn't find it. So I posed on facebook and found out my bff sent them :-)

And last, ASU once again named most innovative, and I totally feel it's true in education, with the amazing instruction I got with Reading and Writing Workshop and a social constructivist philosophy with heavy influences from Paulo Freire. So thankful I'm the teacher I am today because of Arizona State. Now we just need to win some football!

How was your week?

balanced literacy classroom essentials

As the school year is wrapping up, I have been looking around at all the things I have in my classroom and was feeling so thankful that our district understands the importance of these items that truly make a Balanced Literacy Classroom flourish. This time of year, I'm sure you're like me in that you begin to think ahead, to envision your next year and everything you're going to do to make it better.

If you'd like to think about shopping, here's what I'd put in my cart for a perfect classroom:

The Library

I read a great quote once, about how the size of the library reflects the teacher's vision for literacy instruction. Totally agree. The bigger the better. Beg, borrow, steal. Ask your principal for money for books! Post ads on Craig's List, use Donor's Choose, ask in neighborhood facebook groups, just make it YUGE!

A Rug & Gathering Space

Again, ask your principal. You need a rug so you can sit together as a family and build community and talk about books. If asking doesn't get you anywhere, use Donor's Choose and get something gorgeous!

An Easel

You have to have one of these for teaching: having your anchor chart paper on one side, a magnetic whiteboard on the other. This one is awesome and has little buckets below, too, for storage. Just the other day I was making that chart with an intervention group and one of the firsties said, "I love this chart of words!" So, you can use this whole group or with a small group, but it's an essential!

Conferring Table

You have to have one of these kidney tables if you plan on conferring with kiddos over reading and writing. *Absolutely essential.

Benchmark Assessment System

You'll need this to figure out where kiddos are, what instruction to give them, and then to monitor their growth. There are many different tools like this, but Fountas and Pinnell is my favorite!

Magnetic Letters

Children, especially the youngest ones, need to manipulate items to learn best. You need these magnetic letters in your life so they can do just that. Also, pick up some little bowls by the tupperware at Target - you need to have everything prepped and ready before your lessons or you'll waste 5 minutes just taking the letters out!

Organizing Bins

Your life will be much easier if you have a little container for each child where they put their things. These have materials for our intervention group, but kiddos can also keep their Readers and/or Writer's Notebooks and Just Right books in them, too! Here's the ariel (sp?) view:

Literacy Idols

And of course, where would we be without our idols? I love having my people with me when I am stuck or maybe when someone else has a question or maybe just for inspiration! Calkins, Atwell, Fletcher, Richardson, Miller, and all the rest are at my side when I need them.

Don't forget some Sketcher Markers, notebooks, and good pens!

What am I missing? Leave a comment to share!

#hacklearning: the book nook

Problem: Kids aren't reading.
Hack: Flood your classroom and school with books via The Book Nook.

You've all heard the research - kids not reading or wanting to read is nothing new. We all know that studies show the lower the income level, the fewer books around - in student homes, and in many cases where school funding is based on property taxes, in schools too. How then, can we get kids reading if we don't have books?

The Hack: Create a Book Nook that gives free books to everyone.

Picture your favorite bookstore.... Comfy arm chairs, tables where you can work, and soft music playing in the background. And, the best part? You're surrounded by all the books you love - the picture books, the YA Lit, maybe some great books on ways to eat cleaner and some trashy gossip columns with our fave celebs on teh cover. There's a fireplace roaring in the corner, and they're serving up your favorite Peppermint Mocha.

This is a Book Nook, only in our school's version, the books are free to take... not to buy or to check out and return, but to take for as long as the students would like.

As a Literacy Coach who has experience in two different districts, and with two different philosophies, I can say that without a doubt, the schools that flood their campuses with books see students through to that Readerly Life that our Reading Worskhop idols describe to us. Perhaps your principals don't hand out $1500 in classroom books to every teacher on your campus (TY D100!), but that doesn't mean you can't get lots of books in the hands of all of the students in your class or school.

As they mentioned in the book, your first instinct might be to think that you don't have the space for A Book Nook. Don't go there just yet. Start in your classroom. Do you have bookshelves? Great! Let's work on getting more books on them.

All we have to do is curate a collection of books to put in use for students in your classroom or school. Have you tried these options?

• Reach out to your family and friends for donations to start.
• Utilize the power of facebook and search for groups in your city. For example, in my neighborhood of Chicago, there is a group called Bucktown Community News. Just two weeks ago I posted asking for donations for our Family Literacy Night, and got at least a dozen replies! For your Book Nook, post to your neighbors asking for donations of books. Barnes and Gonzales recommend that you don't get super specific - share grade level expectations, but then take everything. You can sort through and keep what you want, donate the rest! 
• Similar Idea: Post an ad on Craig's List.
• Check out yard sales, used book stores, and the public library.
• Write or call local businesses asking for donations - books that they have purchased for you or a check for teachers to purchase books they need. 
• Make it a homework assignment to your students: Find a book to donate to The Book Nook!

After you get a good collection of books to start, then begin to build your Book Nook. Barnes and Gonzales recommend creating a team, including students if you're in a middle or high school, to help manage this space and put in the work to keep things orderly and running smoothly. This team of students can reach out to the larger student body to help brand this Book Nook - maybe you want to call it your Little Lending Library or something else way more creative than that. Student input will build buy-in!

You'll need to find a space for this Book Nook, but think outside of the box! What school has an extra little nook around, unused? Not many, if I had to guess. So, think about large closets, or even a hallway that could be reimagined.

Barnes and Gonzales go on to describe full implementation in the chapter, and also how to overcome obstacles. Pick up a copy of their book if you love this idea as much as I do, and plus, you're going to learn about the other 9 hacks as well. Until then, get a preview of them by way of the #D100bloggerPD posts:

Introduction: Kristen

Hack 1: Meet Me in the Cloud - Marilyn

Hack 2: Pineapple Charts - Leah

Hack 3: Teacher Quiet Zones - Ginny

Hack 4: Track Records - Annie

Hack 5: Student Tech Gurus - Angela

Hack 6: Marigold Committees - Colleen

Hack 7: The In-Class Flip - Theresa

Hack 8: The Book Nook - Here and Now! :-)

Hack 9: The Glass Classroom - Kayla
Hack 10: The 360 Spreadsheet - Coming Soon!

Be sure to follow our blogging group on twitter, by searching our hashtag #D100BloggerPD. If you like what you've read here, follow my blog via facebook, Instagram, or Bloglovin!

And... check back next Monday for Kayla's post about Hack 9: The Glass Classroom.

Later, Hackers!

through another's eyes

Happy Wednesday! Today I had such a great day! One of my friends from Illinois Writing Project, Liz, visited me at Emerson. She is a first year Literacy Coach at a private school in Illinois and, much like I had wished my first year, wanted to come and see how Literacy Coaching looked from another coach's perspective. What better way to find out than to visit a friend in action?

She arrived before nine and we were able to talk a little bit about my schedule and organizational systems. Next, we visited classrooms for an hour and then attended a common plan that was on my agenda for today. After, we talked a little bit more before she had to go.

As we visited classrooms, some Reading Workshops, Some Writing, I was so struck about the amazing work we do at our school every day. Each day, students at Emerson sit in mini-lessons while their teachers demo strategies using beautiful mentor texts. Students listen carefully to read-alouds and, just like their teacher modeled, then they try a new reading strategy. Children engage in reading and writing activities for extended periods of time - independently - while their teachers give guided reading lessons and confer with peers. Students are asked in Writing Workshop, "Try and write your draft in a different way - try and bring out a new meaning or start it earlier or later in the sequence of events." And they do! All throughout workshop, teachers address students as Authors, Readers, and Writers. All of this takes place in classrooms where student thinking is apparent on the anchor charts around the room, where bountiful classroom libraries with books of many genres flow from shelves, and while sitting on beautiful rugs in the gathering area.

This doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen without a vision and commitment to, what I believe, is the best, richest curriculum we can give children. A curriculum where they are taught to be agents in their world, using their literacy as a means to make their places here on this Earth just a little bit better, whether that is via the lived-through experiences they have when reading books, or in their advocacy units in Writing Workshop.

Walking classrooms with a friend, hearing her gush over each new space and each new lesson we observed, is such a beautiful experience to look back on as I reflect on my day. Emerson teachers, not sure if you landed on this page, but believe me when I tell you it's my honor to work alongside you each day!

Liz, thank you for visiting our school! I look forward to seeing you in October and future collaboration we may continue to do!

Anyone want to see what we saw today? Head over to Twitter and look up our school's hashtag, #tigerslearn :-)

Classroom Reveal

Friends! Finally....our room is ready enough to show you!

It mostly was taking a long time because our rug was on order for weeks. It's beautiful, though, right?

Let's start with the amazing colleagues/friends I share a space with --

Christine, on the left, is our Reading Specialist. She sees small groups for our Tier 2, and then some kids 1:1 for Tier 3. Alexa, on the right, is our Bilingual Interventionist. She coteaches in third and fifth grade writing classes and then gives a few Tier 2s and a Tier 3 - in Spanish! Then there's me, in the middle. As the Literacy Coach, I work with classroom teachers on the Universal Curriculum.

The doors leading to our room are double, with bulletin boards to each side. We've got this one going for the year, with little pictures of the books we're reading. When we finish them, we move them over to the yellow bulletin board on the right. And, the cute bunting welcome sign above, Christine made that one!

Just inside the door, this is your view:

The main part of our room is a 12 x 18 rug where kiddos read. As you look back, Alexa works by the window, Christine on the right hand side. My space is in the corner next to the book cases....here's the other side:

Tall bookshelf has all of our fiction, picture books to the bottom two shelves with baskets of poetry and biographies (now just realizing I should probably move those to the little shelf!) Middle shelf has some books in Spanish and easy chapter books, and then top two shelves have chapter books. We have a little stool over there so our little kiddos can reach! The other book case to the right has all the Nonfiction.

Just to the right of the bookshelves is my space:

I've got my desk and then a little table. I see one kiddo for a Tier 3, but then sometimes teachers come visit or we have meetings, so we've got a table to use. Then, just shot some pics of the things that make my space feel like home!

One day last week, I was sitting at my table with my little kiddo, and I saw...

Christine with one of her groups....

and Alexa with 1:1 with one of her kiddos. All of us were working with our separate kids in our cozy room and it just made me so happy.

Hope you're feeling at home in your classroom or office. Making it a nice place to be sure makes going to work so much easier!

Have a great week!