Painting Pictures with Words

When students understand why they are writing (purpose) and whom they are writing for (audience) they become more thoughtful in their practice. Painting pictures with words begins with painting a clear purpose of the project we ask kids to embark upon. When they freely choose a topic of their own design they become vested in the lesson, and intrinsically motivated.

I wish you could have seen the students’ faces when I introduced a recent poetry lesson. They were a combination of comical entertainment, curiosity, bewilderment and confusion. I could see their wheels turning, balancing on the brink of the unknown. "Hold up your pencils, look at them what do you see?
I see ... a little brother and sister in a block of wood trying to get out. I smell ... a turkey in the oven and hot apple pie. I see a paint brush. I see a roomful of poets, who will paint pictures with their words. And that's what we're going to do right now."

Encouraging kids to write stories about their personal lives can be the hook to jump into the drafting process. I shared many stories with a fifth grade class this day and we created new ones together. I enjoyed watching kids write feverishly with their first chance. Stories are how human beings relate to one another in the greater world. I am happy I had this opportunity to share mine with them. I love how Lamott, A., (1994). Bird by Bird, sums up the early drafting stage of the writing process, “You need to trust yourself, especially on a first draft, where amid the anxiety and self-doubt, there should be a real sense of your imagination and your memories walking and woolgathering, tramping the hills, romping all over the place. Trust them. Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”  While time is always pressing, I was able to squeeze in a ten-minute demonstration.

Guided writing is one way for teachers to model expectations and to include students in the ebb and flow of our follies. They see our human struggle to get our ideas down on the page, to make decisions on the fly that impact, word choice, voice, how a poem looks, how it sounds and how it feels. Does that make sense? What should I say next? I need to be more specific, adding detail will help. According to Routman, R. (2005) asking questions along the way may prove valuable. “Let’s reread and see if we want to change anything? Is it clear and interesting for the reader? Do we need to move anything around to make it easier to follow?”  Including kids in guided writing scaffolds learning and engages them in the process. A the end of a lesson, I celebrate student success and I validate students in the language which I choose to use “Poets, Writers, Scientists, Mathematicians.” Students grow to see themselves as competent and capable writers. Read-a-louds empower kids to believe in themselves, full to the brim with self-confidence.

Make Momma Happy

This week, I add another special river stone into my bag of teaching gems. When teaching two and three digit traditional multiplication, I am learning to “clean house and then to “make Momma happy.” The cleaning house refers to erasing the carry-overs from the 1s column to make way for the 10s carry overs in multiplicative factors. With a smiley face filling Momma’s “0” in the ten’s place value, I imagine a happy household as students add their sums. Yet, not everyone is getting along, as one student I work with, keeps repeating the same mistakes. She was forgetting to add what was carried over into the clean house. Perhaps I could remind her, “Did you eat your cookies?” A choral response engages the whole class, “What am I dropping? What am I carrying?” What I enjoy about this vignette is that it makes the math fun. Much like playing a game, a puzzle or a manipulative, it breaks up the routine.

A second realization I am making, is that students may learn more from each other than they will ever learn from their teachers. Effective teaching strategies employ kids learning from kids. Just because a teacher can elaborate to explain the answer to a student’s question in many different ways, doesn’t mean that they should. As teachers, we ask “Who can explain it to Zoë in another way?” Inevitably, a classmate's response is profound, deep, and understood. We engage dialogue between students, we support understanding in their own words, and we validate individual voice as we open opportunity for each student to shine. Leadership is learned. I am happy to be learning from my students just as much as they are learning from each other.

This week, I am also learning to set expectations that encourage participation.  “I am going to call on random students. Be prepared to teach the class.”  “Discuss it with your neighbor and be ready to share.” Not knowing who will be called upon encourages all students to do the work and to be ready with an answer. Another attention getting strategy to be used after small group sharing, is the warm and inviting phrase, “Come back to me 5th graders.” Not surprisingly, it is greeted with a desire to please. Is it any wonder these students love their master teacher? Once she has their attention, she keeps it by saying, “Put your finger on the problem so I know you are following along.” And more often than not, in a well-managed classroom, the kids do. When they pay attention, they discover more on their own. When they scaffold and share, they discover more from each other. And that, truly makes Momma happy.

Is it okay to fail?

Have you ever woken up with a smile on your face and said to yourself, “Today, I am going to fail?” Can we encourage kids to ask questions, take risks in their writing and embrace making mistakes as a route to learning? More subtly put, how can we praise accomplishment, and simultaneously offer critical critique? According to Routman (2005), all students rise to be capable writers when we hold our expectations and at a level that is “reasonable and rigorous.” How do we get there? We can listen. We can scaffold. We can guide students to talk ahead of time, to help get their ideas flowing. We can lead guided writing activities.

We can encourage kids to try with out fear of failure by structuring routine; vocally sharing student work and publicly displaying published writing. Spending time on the task of writing is good advice. To be a writer we must do what a writer does and write everyday. A short, three sentence exit strategy before heading out to recess. Writing about our feelings if I feel silver or gold today and why.  Opening the day by writing about what I noticed on the way in to school. Daily free-writes can build fluency and endurance. Accomplished writers share a unique voice, are legible, add interesting detail, and use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Good writers, listen, interpret, explain their thinking and share original stories. They write with purpose and audience in mind.

This week, while teaching a homophone lesson, a student shared through written language, “I too, want to find two gold and bronze bars.” We should hold a gold standard of expectations for all of our students.

Taking risks with language and being willing to fail, however, is not to be confused with giving students permission to fail. Show me your best effort and I will show you a better way. There is always room for improvement and a way to add spit and polish to the final published product. If we demand success, correct spelling, encourage rereading and editing, and add a healthy dose of praise along the way, we will help students to believe that they are writers. Failure is not an option if it is left unchecked. Making mistakes is okay. It is how we learn.

Elementary Ponderings: Techie-Trekkies

Elementary Ponderings: Techie-Trekkies: "Isn't it absolutely astounding how we, the young generation of tomorrow, are engulfed in the finite details of the modern technological age?..."

The above blog offers a lot to ponder, and while we do so, technology evolves. It doesn't wait for anyone. I am waiting for the moment when depth of understanding is empowered by technology tools, in a way that doesn't impatiently scurry thinking along from one invention to the next. One thing is certain, tomorrow will not look like today. We'll teach our kids something new one moment, and they'll teach us something new the next. My only litmus test in digitizing education is ... does it enrich the learning? Will it aid a more sensorial rich experience? Will it bring us closer to humanity? I am hopeful that it will. The alternative is too painful to imagine. Will it push us further away under the guise of our new found best friend, the "enter" key? You tell me. Are you more likely to meet a teacher colleague at a cafe to discuss the next lesson plan, or do you prefer to click away, miles away, within the "safekeeping" of your server.  IPod Touches in the classroom anyone? Thumbs up or thumbs down? How about a three-hand-clap for approval?

Writing with Purpose, Passion and Power!

How do we motivate students to write with purpose, passion and power?  We think aloud as we write. We cross out, edit and demonstrate in real-time so they can witness our struggle. In this way, students see teachers as writers, as they observe modeling that offers a clear understanding of expectations. Yet, where do we start? How do we address writers block? According to Lamott (1994), “Perfectionism is one way our muscles cramp” (p. 30). I say, get over it, get going and get personal. When we share stories, we share a part of our lives with those around us, and our message becomes more powerful. According to Routman (2005), stories are a good place to start. Some starter ideas include: a summer trip, a vacation, a special gift, a favorite family event, a new experience, an embarrassing moment, playing with a friend, random acts of kindness, or a comical experience that gets turned into a comic book.  It is easier for students to write when they can choose what to write about. These are the experiences and ideas that they already know. Furthermore, student choice can be married to real purpose.

A Valentines Day message to someone special, a book for the student of the week, or a civic action exercise to affect change in the community are just a few beginning ideas. The list, of course, is endless. The purpose is always plain. In addition, posting writing for public praise is critical for encouraging young writers. What we choose to celebrate can empower students to believe in themselves, to become stronger leaders, and to be full to the brim with self-confidence. Providing think time and partner talk time are two more helpful motivational strategies. Clearly, when teachers lead by example, they give students the opportunity to watch writing and drafting in real time, and to approach their own writing with freedom of choice and with purpose. By prepping the classroom environment in this way, we can encourage productivity and see achievement rise to meet high expectations.

New Nouns and Vivid Verbs !

Recognizing that all students are differentiated in their unique ability types, by the time they enter 5th grade, students should be actively reading in the last stage of word learning.  According to Ehri (2000) the stages of word learning are: 1-pre alphabetic, 2-partial alphabetic, 3-alphabetic, 4-consolidated, and 5-automatic. This final stage allows students to read accurately and quickly, which frees their energy to focus on comprehension.

It is important to scaffold word identification skills as students move from one learning stage into the next. Fifth graders can benefit from an explicit reading and writing strategy called new nouns and vivid verbs. This highly motivating process is effective and simple to execute. Step: 1) select an engaging piece of literature such as National Geographic's Wierd and Wonderful series, and have the kids independently read. Step: 2) Instruct students to make two lists, one for new nouns and a second for vivid verbs. Step: 3) Kids create several sentences using one from each column. Step: 4) Gather on the floor in circle, and have kids share out their favorite sentence.

By focusing on new nouns and memorable verbs this active strategy helps build vocabulary, forming good decoders, and more fluent readers. Reading their favorite sentence aloud builds self-concept and allows students to believe they can succeed. While the five stages of word learning clearly overlap, only after readers become fluent can they reach their ultimate goal of independent learning.

A Literacy Experience

One literacy experience that made an impact on my life is the concept of being vs. non-being by author Tich Nhat Hanh. The idea that an object is not an object, or a chair is not a chair, seems questionable at first. A chair is a label, a word, and a series of graceful symbolic letters that we have invented to give meaning to that which already exists. Consider for a moment that the chair is everything that doesn’t exist. It is the designer who came up with the idea of how to shape it. It is the craftsman who carved the detail. It is the manufacturer who supplied the glue. It is the sawmill operator who planed the surface of the wood. It is the tree itself which once grew in the forest. What began as a simple idea has shaped the way I look at the world. Literacy has allowed me to discover new meaning in the obvious, to relate to the unknown and the unfamiliar, and to freely associate ideas while seeing more sides of an issue. I openly welcome the perspective of others with tolerance. Thank you Tich Nhat Hanh. So what is a chair? It simply is.

Why Blog?

Most of us can agree that blogging forces reflection on many fronts. Professionally speaking, routine examination of our beliefs and best practices is a good thing. Blogging offers the structure that some of us need to learn. It opens the door to dialogue. It allows one to ask questions and filter responses while welcoming contrasting, supporting or neutral points of view. Through video, audio, and active discussion, it presents content in a sensorial rich environment.

Reflecting on the usefulness of blogging, my own critical writing and watching several videos, I was surprised by the comment of a primary student “my writing gets better every time I blog.” Clearly, writing and reflection is a key role of any blogger.
The process of learning includes many stages: direct teaching, knowledge acquisition and transfer, comparing, thinking, self-discovery and assessment. Yet, how does this process manifest itself in practice? Below are six areas of practice that encourage positive momentum in learning: group work, discussion, questioning, social atmosphere, cooperation and reflection. Whether learning takes place in the classroom, at home or on a blog, it is my duty to answer curiosity with curiosity, and to empower children to reach their full potential.

Blogging is like walking into the mist of a virtual “cloud”. It has the potential to add positive momentum to the process of learning.

A Vision of K-12 Students as Digital Learners

  What kind of education do you want your kids to have?

This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Students learn through doing and through active participation. Today's digital tools can put kids in control of their future. Watch the video.