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?

Slice of Life Story Challenge

I am making a personal goal to write each day in March as a participant of SOL Story Challenge. Daily, I will post a personal narratives at a new blog I just created for this challenge: My Writing Stories that Only I Can Tell. Starting in March, you can go and read my stories and see if I am posting one a day (I hope I can!). At this new blog, I will post my very own little SOL*  = "slice of life".

This is the idea of TWOWRITINGTEACHERS and this March will be their 7th year running this challenge.

Click here to learn ALL about the challenge: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/writewithusinmarch/

I really want to accomplish this goal! I know that writers only get better at writing by writing.I teach this to my students in Writing Workshop but my own life gets busy and I am not always writing myself. I also will be a good writing peer and take time to read and offer feedback to other SOL writers. I know this reading of others' writing, other mentor texts, will also improve my writing!

There is still time for YOU to consider joining in and participating in the SOL Story Challenge!! To learn more about this month-long writing challenge, go to: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/writewithusinmarch/

Even is you don't take up the challenge, I recommend you joining this blog. Daily I get their post and it always helps me with teaching writing better in my classroom!!

* ...a much better acronym for SOL - I teach in VA and our state test is called the SOL!

The Literacy Teacher's Playbook: Grades 3-6 by Jen Serravallo

I just got my copy of Jen's new book and LOVE it for so many reasons!!

Here are my 5 top reasons:
1. Her writing here, as in all her books and her assessment kits, is so clear and easy to follow.
2. She gets reading and assessing and using the data to drive instruction and she has a way of explaining these important teacher tasks for both the novice and the expert teacher.
3. She emphasizes how to best instruct students in literacy using a student's strengths to build on and then shows how to move a student so to deepen their literacy skills.
4. She knows this work is not easy so she includes in sidebars all the great books a teacher needs to read in order to do this important work.
5. The forward to the book is written by my favorite literacy leader, Ellin Keene!

I recommend this book for ALL teachers of literacy!!

Carl Anderson visits VA!!

Carl Anderson spoke at a nearby school in my district and my principal arranged for our staff to attend his two hour afternoon presentation. About 150 educators sat in the cafeteria and learned tips on conferring in Writing Workshop from Carl on our Early Release Monday.

Here are some of the highlights:
1. WHY do we confer? Carl reminded us that we can't teach writing through whole-class instruction only. When we teach using the Writing Workshop structure, a teacher CAN confer because he or she is freed up to confer while all the students are working on their writing. Conferring allows for differentiation. The teacher can meet each student's needs through a conference.

2. TEACH just ONE thing only during a conference.

3. Start the conference with an open-ended question to get them to talk. Then the teacher should SHUT UP and WAIT. Let there be silence and WAIT.
The teacher may need to teach students what the conference should sound like or use a video to show them.
* What do you want the reader to understand when they read your story?
*What part feels important to you? (uses this with younger kids)

4. Look at their writing, listen and then decide what to teach. To help decide, look at:
* what the student named that they are working on - find where they did that work to compliment
* what the mini-lesson was - they may have used the strategy
* look back at what was said at the last notes
* after experience, you will see PATTERNS - look for them

EX: Zane video - it is an ALL ABOUT story. After naming the important part, Carl guides Zane to be brave and write a 2nd draft to focus on just the important part.

EX: a story with LOTS of action; the student is over relying on including action. Carl guided the writer to at setting, dialogue, and inner feeling, too.

EX: a nonfiction story that over relies on action facts. Carl guides the writer to include description details and definition facts.

5. We need to give writers a sense of how a text goes so they can envision their piece. The teacher does this by showing a mentor text.

6. Once you teach a writer something, coach them. "Let's try it." Talk it out. Show using a mentor text. Act it out. Guide them orally so they can try it out with you.

7. Be kind to yourself as a writing teacher. Try ONE thing, just ONE and work on that. Then gradually work into getting better and better as a writing teacher who confers well.

Oct 19 - TCRWP Saturday Reunion

This inspiring day started with Kate DiCamillo and ended with Tim Rasinski and in between I learned so much about Reading Logs, Notebooks, and Reading during SS time. Here is my attempt to highlight what was shared so graciously on this free day of learning at Teachers College!!

To a packed audience (estimated at 2000+) in the awesome Riverside Church nave:

Kate DiCamillo shared how the story of Flora & Ulysses came to be. As she spoke, I kept thinking that it really is SO important to gather our stories, only the stories we can tell, in our Writers Notebook. Her mother and her mother's vacuum cleaner and that almost dead squirrel found on her front stoop were then used to create this new story. We must, as writers, be like Kate, and keep gathering our stories.Who knows when we might use them!! After hearing the backstory of this newest book of hers, I plan to buy it and read it to my class! You can read about it on her website: http://www.katedicamillo.com/

Trent DeBerry, a 5th grade teacher in Scarsdale, shared how he is using a Google Doc form as a reading log. First he started kids with a paper log (that's where I am now) and then he told the kids to create their own form by adding a table. I loved that he empowered the students to create it themselves. Sometimes, as teachers, we do all the work. The kids created it and now at school and at home, they log. He also has them reflect monthly on their reading habits as shown on their log. And he uses a rubric to score the notebook.

My goal is to start student on-line logs in my room for 2nd quarter!! Thanks for the kick in the pants, Trent! As you said, this is an easy, efficient way of helping a student reflect on themselves as readers. I am ready for a valuable EASY tool!!

Jessica Stillman is a staff developer who returned to the classroom and is teaching 5th grade. She offered SO many practical ways to ensure that the Readers Notebook is a useful tool.
My major take-aways:
1. The teacher needs to have a Readers Notebook - duh! I have a Writing Notebook but why not a reading one?? NOW I will. She suggested for teaching purposes, to purchase an artist sketchbook. The bigger size will be good for showing during a mini-lesson.
2. Divide the notebook into 3 sections: Read-aloud, Independent Reading, and Goal Setting.
3. For Goal-setting, she suggested using the last 10 pages as a place to hold MONTHLY GOALS. They should state a BEHAVIOR GOAL and a COMPREHENSION goal. We are going to add this TOMORROW starting with Nov!!

Also, in the back, she suggested as a celebration at the end of a unit to ask the kids to MAKE a SKETCH of the one book that they read that changed them the most. "What book is sketched into your heart forever now?" Sketch it. They can also write about why this book is so important. "This book is important because...Reason 1, 2,3,."

4. The Independent Part of the Notebook is where they hold onto their thinking about the book they read. She suggested modeling that they should only hold onto their BEST THINKING! It is OK to "crumble up the crap"!

Kathleen Tolan - Bringing SS to Life with embedded Literacy Work

I am sold now on the power of using CENTER WORK during Social Studies!! I have had my students analyze one primary source. But Kathleen suggested adding 2 or 3 and get a group (much like a book club) to analyze each and then start to compare and contract! Hold the CENTER in a pocket file folder and add directions / questions / sentence stems / vocabulary word banks. The critical thinking will soar!! 

She also shared an idea of relating history to storytelling. She had 6 pictures related to Paul Revere's Ride and started telling us the story, pointing to each picture as she told her story. I can see modeling this for my students. Then, giving groups of students a topic and ask them to create a storyboard. Then we can take turned telling each other our stories!!

Mary Ehrenworth - Raising the Level of Reading Notebooks

We must remind students WHY we use a notebook. We can only hold onto something in our short-term memory when we listen, watch or read. However, we can transfer it to our long-term memory by writing, sketching, acting it out, or talking about it. By using a notebook, we can remember what we read and use what we put into our notebooks to deepen our relationships with books. (We do NOT use a RN to prove to the teacher we read something).

Mary pointed out that innovation is valued in the work force. We need to work at giving kids the chance to play and innovate to prepare them for the future. She modeled this with her students by sharing several ways she was adding ideas to her RN and telling the kids that at the end of the week, they must have 2 pages added to their RN. Then at the end of the week, all opened to their 2 pages and off they went to take a MUSEUM WALK. On the walk, they got ideas from others. She xeroxed the 15 best and hung these up as ideas. This pushed all to be even more innovated the next week! She was creating a culture of innovation and collaboration. She was helping them to independently think about how to best represent their thinking about a book in their RN and not to just obediently do an assignment given by a teacher to the whole class.

Some of the ideas she shared to get the kids' RN going were:

1. Make an emotional timeline and plot the ups and downs of a character

2. Give a poem to a character

3. Make a list of all the characters and what you want to hold onto about each

4. Add a map and clip art to show where the book is taking place

Tim Rasinski - Whatever Happened to the ART of Reading? 

First, Tim was introduced in such a clever way!! To the tune of Hey, Jude, a Staff Developer sang "Hey, TIm" and gave the audience a summary of his background through song. How fun that the church nave filled with "Na-na- na, na-ah-na-na, Hey Tim!"  This was the perfect intro for a speaker who continued to teach us using song!

Singing is FUN. Lyrics are getting read but it doesn't feel like hard work at all. He shared how he is working with kids to perform on Veteran's Day. They have been practicing the theme songs of each of the Armed Forces. (Lots of reading of lyrics!!) So Tim had us try this. We sang and honored each branch of our military, those standing when they had a personal or family connection. Along with being fun, it was so moving AND required loads of reading!!

He is also working with kids to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. Kids are preparing to perform read-alouds of his inaugural speeches and the Gettysburg Address. He found a song called Our Abe Lincoln. He found a Civil War letter and a poem. All these the students are reading and rereading which will improve their fluency as readers. And it's FUN!!

Thank, Tim for reminding me to add FUN songs, poems, readers theaters, etc to my classroom. Reading CAN be an art form, as well as the science related to reading score data.

Oct 18 - visit to PS59 - Kristi Marz's K class!!

I BIG thank you to my friend Grace who is interning with Kristi Marz in her K class at PS59! (Kristi is co-author of Better Charts and the chartchum blog: http://chartchums.wordpress.com/). Grace arranged for me to tag along with her on Friday morning. In the one hour, I learned SO much about the importance of guiding the students to think about how they are going to act during workshop, as well as what they would do during workshop. It was Writing Workshop time and Kristi had each student already decide how they would act during this time and all day long on a Learning Plan. Here is one student's Learning Plan and her chart showing what each symbol represents:

Then in small groups, the students made a writing goal to follow during their Sign-Making Writing Unit of Study. They chose to either: to make clear letters, to make symbols or "no" symbols, to put spaces between words, or to add pictures with actions.

Grace guided a small group to circle their goal and tape it to their goal sheet in their writing tray. Then off they went to work on writing. I observed one friend make many "No Ghost" signs. He told me he needed lots because his house was big. Another friend was busy making a "No Spills" sign to hang in the cafeteria. 

As workshop was ending, I got to see the power of the habits of mind. One friend didn't want to stop. Kristi patiently reminded him to be flexible. Now he had to stop and put away his writing tray and then at Choice Time, he could return to his writing. Another friend wrote many signs during workshop and Kristi got him a "Persistence Hat" to wear! As Grace was fitting him for the hat, he told me the story of the worm on his hat. "The cat knocked the worm's blocks over. But he persisted and built it again. Then the rat knocked it down but he persisted..." I loved how the hat gave him a chance to retell a story, as well as place the spotlight on him for acting strong during writing workshop.  

Once all Writing Workshop materials were put away, the kindergarteners gathered back on the rug. Kristi told them that she was trying to work on being persistent in helping students. On her work plan she gave herself a check and then sketch herself helping a student. I watched a friend, who wanted to be safe, write that he was "being safe by not hitting."

I left PS 59 thinking if these Kindergarten students can be guided to think about their behavior, as well as, learning content, then so can my 4th graders!! I can't wait to introduce them to the habits of mind. They probably won't get excited to wear a hat so instead, I'll give out stickers!

Thank you Grace and Kristi for teaching me so much in an hour of Writing Workshop!!

1st Reading Notebook Check

I've been telling my 4th graders that the skill of reading is INVISIBLE. However, if we LOG, STOP&JOT, and IDENTIFY CHARACTER TRAITS, then they can make their reading VISIBLE to me. While reading-aloud My Name is Maria Isabel, I modeled how to log, jot, and name character traits that match Maria Isabel and her mom, dad, teacher, and brother. SO last weekend, I collected all 27 students' Reading Notebooks so I could look closely at the work they have done so far.

The rubric I used looked like this:

This is what one logged looked like:

This is what stop and jots looked like:

This is what Character Trait Work looked like (using these free paint samples from Home Depot, it seems to motivate the reader to push to name at least 4 character traits!)

Overall, 12 students received a 12/12 on this rubric!! This shows me they are reading independently, logging, and jotting about what they read! 12 received scored between 5-11, showing that something was missing but the score on the rubric also helped to make it more visible for them what the Reading Workshop expectation is. Only 3 scored under a 4 and these 3 I am working with closely as they aren't able, due to different factors, to work independently yet. 

I think we are off to a good start!!

1st Publishing Party in 4th grade

I stopped being a Reading Specialist this year and am a 4th grade teacher!! With one month down, I am loving it. However, I will admit that being a classroom teacher is HARD. All September, I have felt like I'm on a rollercoaster while juggling balls at the same time!!

On the last Friday of September, we had our first Writing Workshop Publishing Party. We are now authors of Personal Narratives!! Here's a few pictures:

First, I had all their writing folders so I called them over to specific places to sit. This strategic placement helped to keep all focused during our celebration. (I have a very chatty group of 4th graders - 27 kids, 15 boys and 12 girls.)

Our celebration started with a Cicle Greeting (Responsive Classroom move) where after shaking hands, we said: "I am an author who wrote a story about ___." It does take time for 28 in a circle to greet. But this calmed us, got us focused on our writing, and helped us to stop and listen.

Then I asked each to take out their published piece and find one or two lines that they are proudest of writing. "We are not going to share the whole story aloud, just one or two lines we like the most. When you have the line, point to it and I'll know you are ready." Then I walked around, pushing all to get ready.

Next I explained we would being doing a Symphony Share. "Just like in a Symphony, the instruments play when they are ready, we are going to SHARE when we are ready. When you feel like sharing your one line, please do in your loud, presenting voice. Just like during our Grand Conversations, if two voices start at the same time, one wait and then go next."

"Finally, let me teach you a cheer (that I learned from Kagan training). After a student shares, this is the cheer we will give them. With your finger, pretend to be pumping the spray nossle of the Fantastic Cleaner three times and say "ch-ch-ch" and then move your hand to look like it is wiping off the cleaner and say "FAN- TAST-IC". This will be the cheer we give each classmate after they read aloud their favorite line from their published piece."

And we began...AND IT WORKED!!! All happily shared a line or two. All listened respectfully. A few shy friends needed encouragement to share and 4 really shy friends allowed me or a visiting teacher to share their line for them. (This reminded me that sharing our writing is scary). Then I gave them free time to draw, read, or use their computer and I started hanging up their writing in the hallway to make it public.

Already in the hallway are paper-people we made to hold an I AM poem for Back to School Night. One student, Lotta, suggested that now the paper-person could hold our story! Great idea...so the personal narrative is on the paper-person, an illustration drawn by our talk buddy is hanging next to it (since our writing is so descriptive, it made a movie in our talk buddy's mind and THEY could draw the illustration!) and a reflection - I worked on _____ when writing this first personal narrative in 4th grade.

As I reflected on the way home, I realized that these kids are only 9 going on 10. The school they are in has not been running Writing Workshop with them since Kindergarten. As 4th graders, this may have been their FIRST publishing party. Happlily I celebrate!!

I can't wait to do an on-demand on Tuesday and start teaching Personal Narrative one more time in October. I know we can write even better. I know they are proud now of their work and ALL will be amazed at how much better they can write with more practice and guidance in October.