2014 July TCRWP July Reading Institute – Day 5

Book Clubs – Mary E.

Mary had us sit with our fiction book clubs right away and handed out an overview of Kylene Beers’ Notice and Notes book. She asked us to skim through our post-its made while reading our club book (I am reading Goldfinch) and decide if any are moments where a character in the book:

* Has an ah-ha moment

* Says a wise thing

* Acts in a contradictory manner

* Asks a tough question

* remembers something that interrupts the story moving forward

or  * notice if events, images, or words are repeated

Her opinion is that Kylene’s technique is a starting point for teaching students how to make annotated notes. She pointed out that a plus is it keeps the student in the text. However, it does not encourage them to respond to why the author had a character act this way, the craft. To help with craft, Mary gave us a handout of fiction techniques and goals that the technique lead. In our clubs, we continued to use these strategies to talk about our book club fiction novel. I do see these being strategies I could use definitely with UVW readers and maybe RST, too.

Mary finished our week together by suggesting 3 ways I could return to my school and share my learning.

* Study Group – teachers choose to join and come together to discuss a topic, return to classroom to try things related to a topic, and return to discuss some more. They may decide to read a text together.

* Workshop – I would ask teacher to come learn about a topic that  I am knowledgeable about and provide time to for me to teach and time for teachers to practice the task themselves.

* Think Tank – a group of teachers who come together wondering about how something will work. They agree to try things out, do research, and meet together to figure out more about the topic.

With all of these ways, Mary emphasized the importance of having the teachers try the work themselves. She used the sports analogy – if you are wanting to get better at running, you do not just sit around the table and talk about running – YOU RUN!

She also suggested a book – Quiet Leadership by David Roth

SS Centers – Kathleen Tolan

NF Read-Alouds –Kathleen showed us a vimeo video of her reading aloud Seymore Simon’s Gorilla. Each partnership had a word bank and a map of Africa to refer to during the read-aloud. What stood out was the engagement of the class as they used the materials during the turn and talk time of the read-aloud. She also guided them through her questioning and think aloud to the bigger question of adaptation. She pointed out that this is a very easy structure to use – 1 book and a ½ class set of materials.

I know for a fact that I haven’t spent much time doing NF Read-Alouds. I always for fiction read-alouds. I vow to change this habit!

Compare/Contract Primary Sources

Kathleen showed us the Paul Reeve’s engraving of the Boston Massacre. Then another image of this event and a third image. In small groups we discussed how they were different and why they were different. Our inquiry led to the idea of bias by the person making the image, the idea of propaganda. She also shared a Cobblestone article related to the Paul Reeve engraving. Then we had a whole class discussion using the images and article as evidence of our thinking.

Storytelling

Finally Kathleen shared the idea of Storytelling. She placed a page of 6 images on the screen and began to tell the story of Paul Reeve’s ride. She pointed out that after she did this, kids began to find more information to add to the storyboard to revise the story. A colleague shared www.tellagami.com as a possible online storyboard. She ended by sharing a 6^th grader’s documentary on the Depression. Very impressive work!

Closing Celebration

The theme was music! Piano playing greeted us as we entered the Cowin Center. Then Ryan’s group came on stage and sang 3 popular songs where they changed the words to celebrate reading.

The words to Roar by Katie Perry became:

Soar

I got the eye of the reader, a thinker, meeting with my partner

Cause I am a reader and you’re gonna see me soar.

Higher, higher than a mountain

Cause I am a reader and you’re gonna see me soar.

Oh, oh oh oh oh oh

Oh, oh oh oh oh oh

Oh, oh oh oh oh oh

You’re gonna see me soar

The words to Room by Magic became:

How you gonna read so smooth?

Don’t you know I’m fluent too?

How you gonna read so smooth?

I’m gonna reread it anyway

Scoop uo those words

Scoop em up, scoop em up

Scope up those words

Yeah, let em hear what you say

Reread those words

Reread them many ways

How you gonna read so

 Smooooooth

Finally they changed the words to Fancy:

I’m so fancy

I can let it show

I’m growing new thoughts

From page to post it note

I’m so fancy

Make ideas grows

Comp – re – hen – sion ‘bout to blooooow

Then 2 beautiful voices sang For Good from Wicked.

We paused to remember the passing of Walter Deam Myers as Audra read Harlem.

Finally Kathy Collin’s humor had us laughing and ready to head home, grateful for the week together.

Grateful to be a teacher of reading!

I am TRULY grateful to be part of the #TCRWP community!! She off-handley suggested that we return to our towns and stay connected. Maybe I'll reach out using #TCRPWDC3 or #TCRWPFCPS (my two favorite districts!)