#SOL19: Celebrate Learning
Summertime . . .
Summertime . . .
Summertime . . .
Where and how will you be learning?
In person? Face to Face?
The lineup includes: Jeff Anderson, Mary Howard, Maria Walther . . . Rockstars All!
Online Book Study?
Summer Book Love – Elementary and Secondary (FB Live with Cornelius Minor today from Boothbay!) Supporting Teachers and Classroom Libraries! Register at Summerbookclub.org
This is the lineup of authors already scheduled by Clare Landrigan for FB live sessions! (plus some surprises as well)
Literacy Essentials – Stenhouse Publishers on Facebook now
Regie Routman: Engagement, Excellence and Equity!
These 6 Things – Twitter Slow chat – check out the #These6Things hashtag
Dave Stuart’s book is a must read for simplifying your teaching life!
Welcome to Writing Workshop – #cyberPD
What a great way to revisit the basic components of Writing Workshop with Stacey and Lynne!
Reading to Make a Difference – July book study on Facebook
Lester Laminack and Katie Kelly . . .
Professional books abound. These are some of my re-reads!
And currently reading . . .
What will you be reading? What will you be learning?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: #OLW18 Finale
#OneLittleWord (AKA #OLW)
This post has more about the origin of #OLW and links to other past posts about the purpose and process. Today’s post is a reflection on my 2018 OLW. It was evident on my blog as it literally was a part of the wallpaper: Curious!
How did “curious” impact my life?
Seeing it at least weekly on my blog kept curious in my brain but even without the constant reminder, curious is in my bloodstream. Considering life and life actions through the eyes of others has always been a part of my repertoire so “curious” was the perfect word for #OLW18.
Where did “curious” take me?
My learning journey included:
3rd Anniversary #G2Great Chat
CCIRA in Denver – February
TCRWP Writing Institute
#BookLove Summer Book Study
Iowa Reading Conference
ILA
Everyday Practices that Engage and Empower Readers and Writers – Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle – DSM
Nell Duke – JCCL – Cedar Falls
NCTE
Read, Write, Teach – Ignite Curiosity and Instill Confidence in Freeport, Maine with Linda Rief and Penny Kittle
Reading, reading, reading . . . professional texts
Researching
Writing about my reading
Twitter chats: #ILA, NCTE, #bookaccessforall, #TCRWP, and #G2Great
What other words have chosen me?
- 2014 Transfer
- 2015 Focus
- 2016 Joyful
- 2017 Brave
- 2018 Curious
I’ve narrowed my 2019 word choice down to three . . . A Decision and More in the next post!
How did you put your #OLW into action in 2018?
What did you learn that will guide you in 2019?
What will be your evidence of learning / use of your #OLW?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: Time
The lyrics from the Byrds have been going through my brain lately as I’ve lost track of day and night, days, and now even weeks, and WOW, how did it get to be August?
“To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven . . .” Video, 1965.
What does it take to be an award winner?
This song won a Grammy back in the 1960’s. Ah, yes, before many of you were born. So what is a classic? What is real? What needs to be repeated? What needs to be retired?
Cherish . . . and another tune instantly comes to mind.
Do I have songs on my brain?
Everything’s coming up roses and in verse!
There’s something about the JOYFULNESS of song!
I’m hopeful that the joyfulness in my life spills over to ensure that joyfulness is a part of every classroom this fall. Enthusiastic teachers. Refreshed. Relaxed. Rejuvenated.
Ready for challenges.
Ready to toil anew.
Ready to advocate for EVERY student.
Ready to lose your heart to that next room full of students!
And yet, every day the clock will continue! Can you find precious minutes for MORE reading and writing? Can you redistribute the time you have?
The students . . .
Excited students. Excited and eager for routines. Eager for learning. Eager to make a difference. Eager and enthusiastic to be back at school.
A time to be curious and focus on their brilliant minds and all the great things they do know. A time to think about next steps and small nudges of growth that will start spinning the success wheel.
Time shows what we value.
I love this quote from Ralph Fletcher.
“Time is a new kind of poverty. A schedule
that features daily writing communicates to
students: ‘Writing is one of my non-negotiables.
It’s too important for me to squeeze in
once in a blue moon’” (p. 45).
~ Ralph Fletcher
The Writing Teacher’s Companion
Scholastic, 2017.
What is on your daily schedule?
What are your non-negotiables?
How will we know?
And just to come to a full circle . . . “So what is a classic? What is real? What needs to be repeated? What needs to be retired?”
What is really necessary in your classroom?
What do students really need to learn?
How will you know?
Life is all about decisions. Time is in your favor. Many have just begun. Many begin soon. Others have about three weeks. How will you use every precious second in honor of worthwhile and necessary learning?
Before we can ask for MORE TIME, we must make sure that we use our existing time wisely!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
#SOL17: Retrospect
What a year!
There are so many ways to vies the data in WordPress that my head can spin . . . or I can just look like a bobblehead. After all, what’s in a number?
Looking back is something of a habit before the New Year begins. Here were my reflective posts from 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013. It was fun to see where the emphasis has changed over time.
My Top 5 Most Viewed Blog Posts of all time are:
5. How do we know students are making progress in writing? (2014)
4. #DigiLit Sunday: Critical Thinking (2017)
3. Generative Writing as a Formative Assessment (2015)
2. Lexile Level is NOT Text Complexity (2013)
1. #TCRWP and a Teacher’s Toolkit for Writinf (2014)
Data analysis is interesting. At first glance it appears that my OLD writing is more popular than my newer writing. Or does the popularity mean that these posts are STILL topics/issues that present day literacy teachers are struggling with?
My data is skewed and incomplete. Every other year I have reported the top 10 posts. Narrowing the parameters of my list causes the comparison to fluctuate from previous years. And even more disconcerting is changing the years . . . what is the difference between “all time” lists and just the “top ten” from this year? What is the difference between “from” and “for”?
My Top 5 Posts from 2017 are:
5. #DigiLitSunday: “Possible Sentences”
3. Reading Goals: What Do You Measure?
2. #DigiLitSunday: Summer Slide
1. #DigiLitSunday: Critical Thinking
Subtle differences require a discerning reader.
Today “I cherish the oddities”. (Call for slices by Melanie here.)
What kind of reader will you be in the future?
What data do you use for valid comparisons?
What data do you wonder about?
Is all data equal?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL17: Approximations
He kicks.
He moves his arms.
He kicks some more.
He sputters as he swallows some water.
Arms are present to lightly hold . . . a scaffold . . . for safety’s purpose!
He laughs.
He plays.
He talks.
He yells.
Not every swimming stroke is perfect.
He is two and a half years old.
Does he need floaties?
Will those make him more dependent or independent?
When it comes to the spoken word
Not every word is perfect.
He is two and a half years old.
I have to listen closely to decipher some words.
And yet other words are crystal clear . . .
“Missippi River” and “quesadilla”!
Five and six sentence words are the average.
He is two and a half years old.
Why do we encourage approximation in
play,
language, and
many physical actions
but reject them in reading and writing?
Let me offer two scenarios:
Scenario 1:
A student is reading and says “kitten” for cat.
The teacher stops the child by tapping on the table, the error cue, and the child is to have another go, correct the error and continue on. Kitten is more specific than “cat” so the child is positive that the utterance matches the picture of a small cat as a “kitten.” And the child repeats “kitten” and continues on.
If we were to focus on what the child can do, we might celebrate:
“He knows more than one name for cat.”
“He knows that a baby cat is a kitten.”
“He knows that he can check the picture for clues.”
“He has some knowledge of cats.”
“He is not changing his mind easily.”
“He is persistent.”
And most importantly, he REALLY is not saying this as a personal attack against the teacher who has been working on words like cat and dog for awhile.
The opportunity to find out what the child knows and why he is calling it a kitten instead of a cat exists. The child just told us what he knows. Now we need to explore his thinking instead of immediately moving to a “correcting” mentality. Responding with a simple, “How do you know?” puts the student in the driver’s seat to explain their thinking and let the adults in on the big secrets of life. (It’s not really about US!) It’s really about what the child is showing us they are using. Will someone really stand next to a reader correcting reading errors as they orally read? What does that teach a child? What is the role of self-correction?
Celebrate that the child was in the right animal family. Precision in word use is often celebrated in writing but berated in reading. Why is that so? Over correction on the part of the listener, may lead to a student who patiently waits for someone to TELL them that word. Is that the reader that we want?
Scenario 2:
A student is writing.
The teacher says, “Where are your sentences? Your capital letters? Your beginnings? Your end punctuation? This is all one sentence. Please use everything you know about sentences in your writing.”
If we were to focus on what the child can do, we might celebrate:
“The child wrote without prompting.”
“The child had something to say.”
“The child wrote a lot.”
“The child told a story,”
“The child had a great beginning and middle to her story.”
“The child used mostly lower case letters.”
“The child had spaces between all words.”
“The child had a lot of details.”
“The child wrote most of the story that she had orally recounted.”
Instead of a belief that the child is out to torture you by leaving out all punctuation marks, what happens when you ask her to read it to you? Does the child pause and or stop in the appropriate places? That is more information for the teacher that doesn’t require a teacher led inquisition in a totally exasperated voice. Less questioning and more listening seems to be one way for a teacher to “hack into” a child’s thinking. A lack of punctuation by the child doesn’t mean that she knows absolutely nothing about punctuation. On this day, it was probably less important to the author than it is to the teacher. Considering when this child has previously used punctuation and capital letters in writing may lead to some important discoveries. Is that a teacher process? A student process? Or should it be a shared process? Maybe the expectation of perfect punctuation stops some students from writing. What a sad unintended consequence that may be for children!
As we consider the quickly advancing winter break, do think about your own learning. What’s new? What’s still uncomfortable? What are all the things you can do? What are you still working on? How much practice do you need in order to be confident? What’s one area that you might study about your own learning? What wonders will you explore?
When do we celebrate the “can do” part of life at school?
When do we celebrate approximations?
When do we celebrate the habits of mind that keep a student working through struggles?
When do we celebrate the MANY, MANY daily successes?
What happens if the focus is truly on MANY “can do” moments and only one or two goals at a time?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL17: Brave
“Bravery is not always a roar; sometimes it’s the quiet strength that we possess when we need it most.” ~@OnStageKimberly
Are you brave?
It may depend on how you define brave.
I eagerly anticipated “Brave” in 2017 because my word had found me in mid-December. I tried it out quietly, drafted some ideas, rechecked my understanding, watched this video of Kimberly Davis and finally announced it here. I embraced, Brave, and changed the wallpaper on my blog.
I checked in often.
Here and
Here in this post today.
Little did I know how BRAVE was going to test me in 2017.
Test me personally. Test me professionally.
Test me mentally. Test me spiritually.
And it was a roller coaster because there were days that went by in a fog and days where time stood still . . . and minutes became months. And then there were the days that seemed to barely last one hour. What a strange construct time can be . . .
Pulled.Stretched.Elongated.
Shortened.Retracted.Truncated.
And as the calendar pages have turned, I’ve embraced:
“courageous,
valiant,
intrepid,
heroic,
bold,
fearless,
gallant,
daring,
plucky, and
audacious.”
(Courtesy of Dictionary.com here)
Amid gnashing of teeth, crying, whimpering, screaming, and yelling . . .
I did not always go quietly into the night.
But as each night faded into daylight,
I welcomed the chance to begin each day anew.
And NOW, I celebrate!
We don’t have to be perfect!
Watch for more wisdom from this source (Released January 16, 2018):
Available January 16, 2018
What will my 2018 #OLW be?
How are you preparing for your 2018 #OLW?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL17: Stuck or in a Rut?
Two eyes, glowing in the reflection of my headlights, joined by another pair, and then another pair as I see the dreaded white flicker . . .
White-tailed deer
Not to be confused with those other deer, reindeer, also visible during this season, and recognizable by my two and a half year old grandson.
My foot has already hit the brake, my thumb on the horn, sounding out a staccato beat that matches the prayer on my lips,
“Please don’t run across the road. Please don’t try to jump across my car. Please, NO!”
Great draft.
Great first words.
But what next?
I’m stuck.
Do I start something new?
Do I begin at a different point?
Is it time for a flashback?
What can I google?
Do any of those responses sound familiar?
(And yes, you can Google what to do when you get stuck and you will get these types of links: here, here and here for over 125 ways to get unstuck.)
What is the simple truth about getting unstuck?
You must keep writing.
Take a short break.
Observe something.
Walk around.
But return to your writing. Recopy your last word, line, paragraph or — to get your writing flow moving. Your writing does not need to be stellar. Your writing needs to be WRITING!
I’m purposefully writing this “stream of consciousness” because of the #TeachWriting chat where we talked about writing. (Storify here)
Ruth Ayres, author of this amazing book,
said this:
So now I am off on a tangent,
not stuck,
but I have abandoned my story line for this:
and I am so off track (excuse the pun)
but I feel productive because I continue to add words, lines and pictures to my blog post.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch,
What are those 3 sets of deer eyes doing?
Have they moved?
Where did my story go?
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever been lost, but found a totally different path? and then realized that path was so different it was unconnected, so now you had to go back to the original story?
With work, revision, and some sharp scissors, this might become a circle story . . .
MIGHT,
But not today!
CCSS. CCRA.W.5. “Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.”
I wish I had a plan. This was truly the randomness of my thinking. A variety of ideas floating through my head.
But I did not stop writing.
I looked for ideas
. . . and then I wrote
. . . and wrote
. . . and wrote.
It’s 321 words later and I’m still struggling to figure out where my story is going?
How stuck?
Ankle deep? Knee deep? Waist deep? Up to my chin?
How stuck?
Or in a rut?
And just like that the glowing eyes decided not to fight tonight. Not to risk life and limbs crossing the road. They merely paused . . . and stared . . .
And I blinked, slowed, and cautiously continued on my way.
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Current status of my draft:
Two eyes, glowing in the reflection of my headlights, joined by another pair, and then another pair as I see the dreaded white flicker . . .
White-tailed deer
Not to be confused with those other deer, reindeer, also visible during this season, and recognizable by my two and a half year old grandson.
My foot has already hit the brake, my thumb on the horn, sounding out a staccato beat that matches the prayer on my lips,
“Please don’t run across the road. Please don’t try to jump across my car. Please, NO!”
And just like that the glowing eyes decided not to fight tonight. Not to risk life and limbs crossing the road. They merely paused . . . and stared . . .
And I blinked, slowed, and cautiously continued on my way.
At this stage, what are you thinking?
. . . And why?
How do you get unstuck?
Do you have tested-tried-and-true ways that work to get you unstuck?
Or are you in a rut?
#SOL17: Revising Writing with Data
First Day
The bus turns the corner and I check once more to see that everything is in my car. One picture down although it’s kind of gloomy and there is no sunshine on this auspicious day.
The brakes squeak as the bus pulls to a stop in the road. I hear the stop sign pop as it is extended. “Smile, just one more picture!” He takes three steps, turns, and looks as I snap the photo and then he resumes his journey up the steps.
I’m sure it’s blurred, I think as tears stream down my cheeks. This would not be the day to take a lousy picture. I watch as he walks down the aisle and chooses a seat in the third row behind his friends.
He looks happy but he was so quiet this morning. Only the top of his head is visible from outside the window. The driver looks down, closes the door, and the bus lumbers down the road.
I hop in my car because it’s just five miles and I will be at school for my son’s second “First Day of School” picture. It’s 1995, The First Day of School, and there are no digital pictures.
Dear Reader,
If this story felt familiar, you are absolutely correct. This is a revised version of a “slice” posted on August 22nd here.
Which version do you like best – the revision above or the original posted in August? And why?
Continue to think about those two posts on the same topic as I explain . . .
I found this really cool tool, SAS Writing Reviser, that can be added to google documents to help writers revise and strengthen their written work. I wanted to put the tool to the test so I pulled up several documents and tested it out.
It was TOO much!
So then I had the brilliant idea of taking an “old slice” and checking out the data prior to a revision. I really wanted to “test out” the theories that were already rolling around in my brain!
Data
My data.
My numbers.
My information to review, consider the implications, revise . . . or not!
I control my use of it. I am headed straight to the statistics. (No starting at the beginning for me!)
What do I find interesting?
The 27 sentences with an average sentence length of 7 words and where 12 are listed as simple sentences was a big surprise. But I’m not yet sure what I am looking at. So more data is needed.
Sentence Length Bar Chart
Confused?
The pop up box allows a limited view of the work so two screenshots were necessary!
Three sentences have 0 words.
What does that mean?
More.Data.PLEASE!
Sentence List
|
The title and sourcing information of the document was included in sentence 1 making that count over 25 words so that’s helpful information for future analyses. The writing reviser is good. It checks all written work, even the words and sentences that I have added to my working google doc. Only two sentences were originally in the length range expected for essays.
And my mind is whirling with possible uses for this sentence list
for revision and editing purposes.
Hmmm . . . Is it a formatting issue?
I have one sentence consisting of just one word that really looks like at least a negative number on the chart (8). Two bars hit the “0” exactly and those seem to be the two sentences with two words ( 17, 25). So the visual representation in the Sentence Length Bar Chart seems to be off. Just seeing the sentences listed out verifies that I do have a lot of short sentences.
Draft Thinking
What if I were to change the length of sentences? Or even to put in a run on sentence or two, deliberately, for effect? Those are choices that I could make as a result of reviewing all three pieces of data under the support tools. (leaving four other choices totally off the grid at this time)
Revision Statistics
Check out the statistics for the Revision. The Writing Reviser provides a side by side comparison of the original and the revision, but that didn’t work when I kept it totally separate in my Google doc so that I could “keep” the versions separate.
| Statistics – Revision
Revision areas Preliminary Current
|
Sentence List
|
RESULTS:
Data confirmed that the visual bars are not correct as my shortest sentence is five words (5) and it looks to be about 4 words on the graph above. Now eight of the 14 sentences are within the expected range or above according to the graph.
Do the numbers tell the whole story? The average sentence length in this version (14) is almost in the bottom of the range expected for an essay (15 to 20). In order to have longer sentences, I combined several so the second version has 14 instead of 27 sentences where now only two (down from 12, YAY!) are listed as simple sentences.
What data do you find interesting?
What data would you give more credence to?
What data would you ignore?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
The rest of the story:
My vote is for my original slice because: a) the juxtaposition of the actions and my thinking as well as the varying sentence lengths, and b) the way it sounded when I read it out loud. The data and the Writing Reviser has great possibilities for students writing essays and informational texts. I think the utility for narratives needs further exploration.
#SOL17: Stories
Where do ideas for stories come from?
Some stories come from a picture that captures an idea.
Some stories come from an observation.
Some stories come from a conversation.
Some stories come from a thought or idea inside the brain.
Some stories come from a question.
I had the pleasure of hearing Kate Messner share with a panel on Friday where the idea for Over and Under the Snow came from . . .
tracks and then a hole in the snow
And then this book became a mentor text for additional texts.
About Over and Under link
Advice for writers from Kate Messner here
Where are your ideas coming from?
What are you paying attention to?
What are you wondering about?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Additional information:
Neil Gaiman on ideas here
Story Nuggets here
Wiki how here
Heart Maps by Georgia Heard here
#SOL17: Hero
It was time to check up on my #OLW, but then I saw a cousin’s post and I was off on a tangent. In search of history. In search of a different meaning of “BRAVE”. In search of a definition of HERO that I can uphold and believe in.
Can you name this iconic photo?
Where was it taken?
When?
What is the significance?
The photographer won the Pulitzer prize for this picture in 1945. It was later found on a three cent stamp and also used for war bond sales.
Iwo Jima
1945
Marines
Worthy of some recognition although it was “Before My Time”.
The statistics are alarming . . . the number of Americans killed. The number of Japanese who died. The miles and miles of tunnels. An island. The ferociousness of battle.
The flag, raised twice, was displayed at Mount Suribachi and seemed to herald an easy victory for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marines. But pictures and stories abound.
I’m not sure what a “tractor” was. Many different vehicles are present in pictures and in books.
The post that sent me on a history search for a day was my uncle’s picture here posted by his daughter. A tractor commander. Multiple battles. A corporal.
“. . . outstanding qualities of initiative and courage . . . under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire. . . . cool and calm under enemy fire, and his courageous conduct was at all times in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States naval service.”
My uncle
awarded a bronze star
a HERO!
And in our present day, any person who raises their right hand and says,
“I, _________, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; . . .
as they enter into the armed services
is a HERO!
Who are your heroes?
Who did you celebrate on Veteran’s Day?
What stories of bravery are you collecting?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
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