2014 July TCRWP Reading Institute - Day 2

BOOK CLUBS with Mary E.
We got into our NF Book Clubs where my group is reading The Rainforest (so we named ourselves The Understory!) and Mary gave us a few tips:
1. always think before you start
2. gather your materials so you are prepared to share
3. may need to recall work done prior (previously...)
4. briefly set protocols (timekeeper?)
5. make adjustments as you go
6. keep track of ideas and questions shared
7. allow each to share favorite part

"Remember, we are not sharing our first thought. We are sharing our best thought."

As groups finish book and prepare to move to another book club book, they can decide what to leave behind with the text set for the next group to have. We decided as a group to add pictures of rainforest plants, video of the Amazon flooding, and Smithsonian articles about the reainforest.

SS CENTERS with Kathleen
My group grabbed the Cause and Effect Center. It was a green folder with 7 articles and a task sheet that said to talk and take notes about the Intolerable Acts. Kathleen pointed out that the Task Card is NOT an assignment. It is a jumping off point for the group. Our group of 6 each took one article and then admitted that we weren't sure what the Intolerable Act was. One in group said, "I can read my article - it defines it." As she read, she mentioned the date of the Act and then all began to chime in as to how their article fit. "The Boston Tea Party is explained in my article and it happened before in 1773." Kathleen gave our group just 15 minutes. During that time we realized:

• we were involved in rigorous reading, thinking and notetaking
• it was an inquiry approach; we did NOT know all about our topic so we had to talk it out.
• all were engaged and motivated
• we ended with questions we wanted to find the answer to when we return to our center tomorrow
• THEN we get to change to another center after 3-4 days!!

Then Kathleen showed how we can closely read a SS Video.

First, she shared a map of the 13 Colonies - what do you notice? 

http://mrnussbaum.com/13colonies/13profiles/

Then we watched a Video about the forming of the 13 Colonies for the first time and talked about how the colonies were formed using the map as a reference.

Then we watched the same video again, this time taking notes on either the people, the groups, the events or the pros/cons of the land. Afterwards, we shared our notes in our group of four.

Then we watched the video a third time, taking notes about a different topic, adding to notes shared by the group member.  

By watching closely (and having a different lens each time) I actively learned SO much. This is a brilliant way to learn SS content material!!

Kathleen said a final task could be to assign a section of the 13 Colonies (New England, Middle, Southern) to a group and they can use all that they know to make a chart to hang in the classroom.

CLOSING WORKSHOP on RW TOOLKIT with Brooke

Tips to use to get kids to talk well during a conference:

1. teach the student what their role is during a conference

2. encourage the use of charts while talking about their work

3. show kids one of the conference videos and ask them to notice what the student is doing and what the teacher is doing (she suggested using this one: http://vimeo.com/album/2777084/video/55957323

and then chart what is noticed

Tips when you, the teacher, are not sure what the conference strategy should be:

1. spy on yourself as a reader and then turn own reading struggles into strategies to teach students

2. get to know the bands of text difficulty (KLM, NOP, QRST, UVW) and teach into skills needed at this level or at next level

3. read a text from each band so you "see" the characteristics

TOOLKIT can have the text band info, cut and laminated and placed on a ring or added into an index flip book, or added to a larger sketchbook reading kit. Also add the text band sentence starters. (Both can be found in the materials we received at the institute!)

Think about WHAT reading levels you have in your class. READ one book from each level and get good at understanding the conceptual work the kids will be doing who read at this level. 

Tips when you are not sure who to confer with:

1. make a conference sign-up

2. Ask kids to place their best post-it on their desk. Quickly read and sort these based on skill level being shown through their writing and decide quickly who to confer with using this data.

KEYNOTE - MARY E. on Argument in Reading Workshop

By using the argument protocol in RW, students learn to support ideas with evidence, deepen logical thinking, learn technical language of arguments, are able to defend position with fluency and grace and learn to not argue to win but to find common ground.

We do this work in READ-ALOUD so all can access the reading level. Mary followed this protocal:

* teacher sets up the argument and partner positions

* a close reading is done and text evidence is gathered by students

* one minute only is given to defend position

* calibrated feedback is given by the teacher

* the cycle is repeated

She read us Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting

1. In a partnership, we gathered evidence for The airport is a good place to live VS The airport is a bad place to live and each had 1 minute to state our claim, reasons, and evidence.

2. We repeated this time thinking about theme - When times are tough, all you need is love OR hope. Again we had 1 minute to state our claim, reasons, and evidence.

3. During the final time, we thought about how the author used craft to develop the setting. She did this best using pictures OR using words.

2014 July TCRWP Reading Institute - Day 1

Keynote:
Lucy greeted us  - 1,300 strong from 41 countries and 43 states on a Sunday so we can end on Thursday and be home for July 4th. She reminded us how teaching today is different. Information is accessible to kids today as easily as air. So now our job is not to give them info but to help them construct meaning to such questions as "What will we do about the death of honey bees, bats, and the middle class."

Lucy suggested:  Three Ways to Lift the Level of Teaching

1. Work on your reading (and your teaching of reading)
To get better, I must resolve to get better - 10,000 hours of deliberate practice so perfect practice will make for perfect reading.  Then we practiced with Lucy.
We read To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan.   http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/075.html
We thought about what kind of mother? What kind of daughter? What is the poem really about?
We reread it closely for vocabulary, structure and point of view.
Then we compared it to the song, Leaving on A Jet Plane
LYRICS: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/john+denver/leaving+on+a+jet+plane_20073310.html
SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ToC8pQrCY

This work she had me do is the work I want - need - to teach my students to do. I need to decide how to make this shift to lead my students to read closely and deeply!!

2. Own Your Content
I need to feel at home with MY reading skills. I need to live differently as a reader because I am envisioning, predicting, synthesizing, etc. Lucy shared how buying her mother a present for her birthday involved predicting. Listening to JK Rowling speak at her niece's graduation from Harvard was listening to how that author lives using her imagination and her reading skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c
I plan to watch and listen as Lucy did that day!

Then Lucy recalled a story of when she forgot she was to attend a potluck so quickly brought napkins to the party, not a casserole. She reminded us that coming to book club is like coming to a pot luck. We need to come prepared and not be the one embarrassed only showing up with napkins.

3. Teach in a Community of Practice
Our student can't just have one good year with one good teacher teacing RW. They need many years! We must get together and figure out as a community what to say YES to and what to say NO to. What will be the practices we take up? and what will we not? We must have priorities, name them and name what we will NOT do. We can make this work when we pull together and teach in a shared community!

She ended by reminded the large crowd that this INSTITUTE is a BIG potluck!!

SMALL GROUP with MARY EHRENSWORTH  - Book Clubs
Day 1
Mary gave such great classroom management tips! She modeled getting us organized by using phrases like "I admire you for getting into clubs of 4 each and helping each other. She reminded me of how kids need to know what they are to do and receive clear feedback. Instead of saying "Good Job" , "It was about a 6. Next time...."

I am in a nonfiction book club reading about Rainforests.
And an adult book club read Goldfinch.

SMALL GROUP with KATHLEEN TOLAN - Social Studies Centers
Day 1
Kathleen shared WHY using centers in SS works - lots of talk helps kids hold onto the content.
She shared this video clip of kids in centers:
http://vimeo.com/55951745
I am blown away by the WAY the kids talk. When asked how to get kids to do that, she simply stated, LET THEM TALK!!

She suggested a way to start a unit in SS is with a drumroll activity - it could be a song, a dance, a piece of art work from the time period. Then we did a WRITE AROUND.
Without talkingm she placed an image in front of 3 of us and we were to write around that image what we thougtht and saw. Then we rotated and rotated again. Then we got back with a group to revisit what we were all thinking and TALK about it. BRILLIANT STRATEGY!!!

CLOSING: 10 Books that Spark Great Grand Conversations
1. Each Kindness by J. Woodson
2. The Man Who Walked between the Towers
3. The One and Only Ivan and Home of the Brave by same author
4. Wonder
5. Flora and Ulysses
6. The Split History NF series
7. What Was the Gold Rush - a NF series
8. You Wouldn't Want to____ NF series
9. Vera William's Amber Was Brave, Essie was Smart poetry book
10. My Man Blue by Nikki Grimes poetry book
11. Every Living Thing
12. Fly Away Home
13. Angry Aztecs - Incredible Histories (also on YouTube)
14. Poems to Love by Heart collected by Caroline Kennedy
15. Dead End by Gantos

She also recommended Pixar short movies found on You Tube, songs, and video game trailers like Epic Mickey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-MnhFSHTxU

Watch this TED Talk - The Danger of the Single Story

As a teacher of Writing Workshop, I was very moved by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TEDtalk. I plan to show it to my students as a reminder of HOW IMPORTANT it is for them to always tell THEIR stories. They have stories that only they can tell. They MUST write their story to ensure that others understand exactly WHO they are. They MUST write their story to avoid sterotypes and as a celebration of diversity.

TED Talk Introduction: Our lives, our culture, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice - and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

CLICK HERE: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Quotes from the TEDTalk:

"At about the age of seven...I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All the characters were white and blue-eyes, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather: how lovely it was that the sun had come out. This despite the fact that I lived in NIgeria; we didn't have snow, we ate mangos, and we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to."

As a teacher, this makes me even more want to ensure that the students in my room are reading books where they can see themselves in the books and are writing the stories that only THEY can write - small moment personal narratives, the absolutely true stories of their lives!

"My college roommate asked if she could listen to what she called my 'tribal music' and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey"

Again, as a teacher I need to ensure that I expose my students to all kinds of people and places and situations. They shouldn’t have to wait until college to be exposed to a bigger world.

"The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

Finally, as a teacher, I must ensure that ALL sides of an issue are presented and discussed. All viewpoints needs to be the norm and not the exception.

 

 

 

 

My TCRWP March 22, 2014 Saturday Reunion Notes

Three Books - a Gazillion Mini-lessons by Shana Schwartz
Shana read to the audience 3 books and shared MANY ways they could be used while teaching RW and WW in a Kindergarten or first grade classroom.

1. That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems
* a way to build traditional literature background which will lay a foundation for the reader's intellectual future.
* fun book to act out
* fun as a shared reading for fluency work or can cover words and decide what makes sense
* demonstrate how to look at punctuation as clues on how to read the text
* do a character study on a 2nd read of the book. It has a surprising ending but are there character clues shown earlier to help us anticipate the ending?
* Writing - we try to include the 3Ts - talking, thinking, riny action; What can Mo teach us in this book about the 3Ts? LOTS!
* Mo is the author and illustrator, just like the kids in WW are. Point this out to them. Mo is also the KING of "action lines" in his illustrations. Point this out to kids and encourage them to do what Mo does when they draw so their illustrations have action in them, too.

2. If You Hold a Seed by Elly MacKay
* K/1 students appreciate loveliness as well as silliness. They will appreciate this half poetry / half informational book.
* It has LOTS of strong vocabulary which is what we need to help build with our struggling students. Includef lots of domain specific words
* can model ways to figure out what a word means by using the pictures as clues
* use during a Tree Study to review the life cycle
* use during an art study as the pictures combine watercolor, pastel and tissue beautifully
* In WW, talk about including specifc words and how to set up the book, just as this author had to decide

3. Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin and Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri (who growing up was taught using the WW model and gives credit to that helping him become an illustrator!)
* This book is part of a series so you can read other books in the series and discuss how the character stayed the same and how he changed
* a great mentor text to show how to write with details

Shana also said that the book So Much by Trish Cook stays in her mind as a great book because she read it almost ever day of her first year as a kindergarten teacher . It was a book that as a class, connected them together. That is what reading aloud books does - connects us!

Teaching Interpretation and Craft through Poetry and Song by Audra Robb
Suggested reading: Teaching with Fire: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach. Edited by Intrator and Scriber. The format of this anthology is a collection of poems picked by a teacher as a favorite and then a reflection on that poem by the teacher. Idea: As a staff, a school could recreate their own version of this book - pick and post a poem and your reflection about that poem.

WHY POETRY? Reading it has us turn inward, reach out, and think about social change. Poems and songs are powerful. When has a poem or song affected you? What lines/images still stay with you? Why? (great questions to ask adults to turn and talk about!)                                                                         Audra’s favorite:    Artichoke by Joe Hutchison -   Oh heart weighed down by so many wings.

Demonstration: We listened to Let it Go from Frozen
1. Listen and think about the images, the theme, why is this song so popular?
2. We read Sisters and partner one was to read and think about what we know about the narrator and partner two, the sister. Reread and think about everything we know about tofu and ginger? How does this relate to the poem.
3. Read In Mother's Shadow thinking about the positive feelings of the narrator. Reread thinking of the negative feelings of the narrator.

 SISTERS  by JANET S. WONG

She calls me tofu
because I am so soft
easily falling apart.

I wish I were tough 
and full of fire, like ginger–
like her.

In Mother's Shadow By Janet Wong

I walk behind Mother
through the woods
careful
not to touch the poison oak
she points to with her stick.

She sees snakes before
they move.

She finds her way
by the smell of the trees.

She stops to rest
the very moment
my shoes grow
heavy
and gives me water,
gives me shade

in her steady
shadow.

Suggestion about Reading for Metaphor – it is a natural way of being as a human. We naturally make metaphor. Be sure NOT to do this:

Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
THEN HE USED
A metaphor

Instead ask: WHY did he pick this image of a brokened wing – turn and tell your partner…
Now take that idea and connect it to dreams…study the comparisons.
Now carry metaphors from poems into other reading and into their lives.
Who or what else in our world could we compare in similar ways.

 

Strengthing Partnerships in Reading Workshop
Mentor text used during Workshop - Five Dollars from Hey, World. Here I Am! by Jean Little (lvl S)

Ideas:
1. Who's at Bat Talking Board - a square in the middle to place your post-it note.
Partnership's Job - to sqeeze that post-it for all its worth! It is like a SNOWBALL that grows and grows and builds; Goal - to stay with ONE IDEA longer. (NOT popcorn where one reads a post-it and another reads a post-it. Yet no one makes a comment about anyone elses post-it.)

2. As you plan the RW Unit, plan the questions and the prompts that can stretch thinking.
Also provide the vocabulary that matches the unit of study. Encourage partnerships to TALK LIKE AN EXPERT! Phots are examples to use when teaching character, fantasy, and social issues.

3. Introduce vocabulary to life the level of conversation. Instead of saying the character is NICE or hte story is GOOD, push partnerships to use the PRECISE WORD off of the levels of meaning paint chip cards!!

 

4. Encourage partnerships to talk in the way that they speak in essays by having them orally practice using a type of Mad Lib fill in the blank template:

I think _______ is _________ (character name in blank)

I think _______ is _________ because in this part he/she ___________.

Then later in this part, he/she ___________.

This evidence shows that _______ is _________ because _______. 

5. Provide partnerships with a variety of options to do when in a partnership. An idea is to use a file folder filled with post-it note ideas and as one task is done by the partnership, move it to the otherside. This folder keeps partnerships busy when the teacher can't listen to each one during the RW share time.

6. Provide a partnership with a spinner. Spin and talk!

Falling in Love with Close Reading by Kate Roberts
This talk is her intro to the book she co-authored with Chris Lehman!

Close reading has been something humans have done since the beginning of time. NOW it is a focus due to the wording in the CCSS.

Her Definition: reread at least once - look at details made by the author - think BIG about the text (reflection) - done independently (so I CAN'T teach with an emphasis on dependence).

Suggested starting to demostrate the steps using a close read of a song, a video game, a movie clip to engage the students. Then move so doing the same steps with text.

STEPS:
1. Read with a lens
2. Look for patterns
3. Have an idea

She demonstrated using Let it Go from Frozen
1. We listened and responded "What is this song really about?
2. Listen again and jot down all the words or phrases that go with what it is about.
3. Look at jots and group details together and jot down WHY you grouped them together. Fun to circle using colored markers!
4. Now revise your thinking using this evidence - What is this song really about?

NOW move to TEXT - she demonstrated with Stray by Cynthia Rylant
1. What kind of place is this?  COLD
2. Reread and make a list of words and phrases
3. Group like-text together
4. Now revise your thinking using the text evidence.

"You close read what you love.
What you spend time closely reading, you come to love."

Final Keynote: What Matters Most by Kathy Collins
At the final Keynote by Kathy Collins at the March 2014 TCRWP Saturday Reunion, she suggested an alternative way to assess teachers. Presently, in many districts in our nation, end of year standardized tests are given and the reuslts are used to evaluate a teacher.

Her suggestion: Short Answer Essays using my class list
1. Circle the 17th name. Write everything you know for sure about this child's life outside of school. Include their loves, fears, quirks, etc. Write how this knowledge impacts your teaching of this child.
2. Underline the 8th name on the list. Share a classroom anecdote about this child and indicate what that anecdote can tell you about this child's humanity.
3. Put a star next to the 11th child's name. Describe the child's relationships to his/her peers and with other adults in the school. Provide an example of a collaborative classroom interactions involving that child.

It's been said that good teaching is a 3-legged a stool: engagement, content, and pedagogy.
* I can know the content so well but without understanding the children, I won't be able to teach them a thing.
* I can understand the children but the content may still not be delivered using the best method so it doesn't stick.
* I can have the best relationships with all the children and use the best methods but if I don't know the content, child will not learn the content that they are to learn.

As a teacher, I must focus on ALL aspects. I try to focus on ALL aspects. Kathy Collin's got me to focus on the importance of relationships during her keynote and reminded me of how important they are. Standardized test results show that children know content. I have come to believe that the workshop model and authenic, hands-on activities are the best method to use to teach content to the children in my classroom.

It is a balance...one I am still striving to juggle well.
It is a balance...one that I will always work hard to accomplish.

NBPTS Teaching and Learning Conference - March 15, 2014

My district paid for me to attend this conference today. As the alarm went off at 5:30am on a Saturday, I thought about not going. But then I rolled out of bed and now, after returning back home 12 hours later, I am glad I went. I always get so much energy from hanging out with really smart people. Here are some highlights of the day:

Tony Wagner - I've heard him speak at TC before but it helps to be reminded of his ideas.
Three Challenges in Education:
1. Knowledge is now a commodity; a teacher is no longer necessary for a person to learn so now we need to ask, What is the role of the teacher? the school?
2. Work is changing profoundly; graduates need to ask What can I do with what I know?
3. In 4th grade 8 in 10 students are engaged. By HS, 4 in 10 are engaged. HS students. How can we keep students engaged?

After interviewing LOTS of major companies, he says the seven major skills that companies value the most are:
1. critical thinking
2. collaboration - in person and virtually
3. agility / adaptability
4. initiative / entrepenurial spirit
5. can communicate strongly both orally and in writing
6. ability to access information
7. curiosity and imagination

There are contradictions between the culture of schools:
  * measures individual achievement
  * classroom is passive
  * kids are measured and failure is frowned upon
  * rewards are given to motivate students
and
the culture that creates innovation:
  * emphasis is on students producing and creating
  * teacher acts as a coach
  * innovation demands that you fail "Fail early and often" motto!
  * intrinsic motivation occurs
  * emphasis on play, passion, and purpose

Based on the above, he suggests that teachers:
1. Advocate for portfolio assessment (e-portfolio!)
2. Just as Google and 3M, eachers should provide students with free choice time to PLAY! Give them time to work on their passion.

Tony shared a 7 minute preview of a documentary he is making that shows strong 21st century teaching. Look for it soon at a neighborhood theater.
Here's the link to the trailer: www.learninginnovation.us
More info can be found at his webpage

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Entertaining storyteller! I could have listened to her all day long! Very enjoyable hour, ending with a standing ovation.

She grew up listening to the Brooklyn Dodges play baseball on the radio and would meticulously keep score, recording all the plays. Then when her dad got home from work, she would tell him the game, play by play. This experience was her first with telling history as a story. When asked if she was a Jackie Robinson fan, she shared this story. His line after a game to get an autograph was always very long. But one day she waited with her autograph book that most girls had at that time. Each page had a silly quote on it. When it was her time, he took time to look at her book and in the spirit of it, signed, along with his name, "Keep your smile a long, long while"!

She took seven years to write this newest book. Its book jacket states:
"The gap between rich and poor has never been wider...legislative stalemate paralyzes the county...corporations resist federal regulations...spectacular mergers produce giant companies...the influence of money in ploitics deepens...bombs explode in crowded streets...small wars proliferate far from our shores...a dizzying array of inventions speeds the pace of daily life.

These unnervingly familiar headlines serve as the backdrop for Doris Kearns Goodwin's highly anticipated The Bully Pulpit - a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

I bought a signed copy of this 8oo+ page book. I tend to spend my reading time reading picture books and YA novels... but I'm inspired by Doris today to push myself to read her newest book. It is said we can go forward by looking back. Doris' book is about a time that matches much of what our nation is dealing with now. I'm motived to see how Teddy and Taft solved the problems of their time.
Click here to go to her website

I also attended two small workshops. One where two teachers shared how they are having their MS and HS students publish their stories. I enjoyed hearing their process. Another was all about Literacy Design Collaborative, a website that offers resources to help teachers teach reading in content areas to meet CCSS.

Vicki Kennedy also spoke about the creation of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. I definitely want to plan a trip to Boston soon to tour this Institute. Click to go to the website

National Geographic shared their launch of the Geo-Educator Community, a plan for teachers to meet and collaborate in our global world. Click here to go to the website

I spent the day at the Teaching and Learning Conference being inspired by things going on in education that are bigger that me. This gives me energy to keep working hard as a teacher!!

Interactive Read-alouds

This year, as I teach 4th grade, my Monday schedule is Library every other Monday. I decided I wanted to regularly help my students think and talk about books using the structure of Interactive Read-aloud and Grand Conversation that I learned at TCRWP Reading Coach Institute. So on the non-library days, I lead them in this reading structure.

During the Interactive Read-aloud, I picked picture books, read and paused and modeled strong think-alouds. I had the students turn and talk and/or stop and jot their thinking. Then at the end, a large circle was formed and the students had a Grand Conversation about the book. The rules during a Grand Conversation are: no hands (this is a conversation), one voice at a time, and all eyes on that one voice listening and thinking about how we might respond to that person's thinking about the book. I sat on the outside of the circle and listened. I listened for two things - was the speaker using conversational skills and was the speaker using conprehension skills. I used a checklist to note what I saw. Afterwards, I used this data to inform my delivery of my next Interactive Read-aloud and Grand Conversation. Once the conversation ended, I asked the students to return to their seats and reflect. What did you learn from discussing this book? What do you think the author was trying to tell you by writing this book? Why do you think that? Another plus to using this structure is that after talking about a book and listening to many ideas about a book, students could then write long and strong about their ideas about a book. Always a good skill to grow!!

As I was told at TCRWP, when you start kids using this structure in September, they will be ready to participate in a book clubs in Jan/Feb. They will know better how to have a conversation and how to share their comprehension of the book. This is exactly what I am noticing!! Friday, my students met in groups of 4 or 5 and all had read the first eight chapters of the same realistic fiction novel. I guess I should not have been surprised but it worked!! One voice started by sharing a jot. All others listened. Then I heard these phrases: "I agree with....I disagree because this page it says....". No hands, one voice at a time, all eyes on the speaker and great thinking about a novel was discussed!! I know it was the earlier interactive read-alouds that gave my students the specific practice in how to have a conversation and how to share your own thinking about a book! I will ALWAYS use this structure as a scaffold to strong book club discussions in the classroom!

Checklist I used during Grand Conversation:

Books I used during Interactive Read-alouds:






Still want to use:



Especially the short stories: Stray and Spaghetti from Every Living Thing.

Here are Anchor Charts I hung during the Interactive Read-Aloud. Notice the vocab words I listed. As the students turned-and-talked, I encouraged them to use precise vocabulary to describe the book character.On each chart I purposely add some words they might use. This was another idea I got from TCRWP...kids WILL use stronger vocabulary when encouraged to do so.

Let me know if YOU are using this structure. What book? What is your success story?