Wonderings

What should schools that are preparing students for the future look like?

If we really valued creativity and creation - what would our assessments look like?

What if all teachers taught writing?

One of the entries for a Writer's Notebook is to capture "wonders."  I say capture, but I really should say "encourage."  We don't often find examples where we encourage students to ponder and question lately.  The wonderings at the top of the page are mine - and have been in my own writer's notebook for just about a year.  I've probably thought about them for a bit longer than that - but a year ago, I put them in a notebook.  They now get transferred to each new notebook as they are wonderings that I continually refine and have lots and lots to write about.

To teach wonderings this week - I started with this fantastic poem from Georgia Heard:

Straight Line

by Georgia Heard

All the kindergarteners
walk to recess and back
in a perfectly straight line
no words between them.
They must stifle their small voices,
their laughter, they must
stop the little skip in their walk,
they must not dance or hop
or run or exclaim.
They must line up
at the water fountain
straight, and in perfect form,
like the brick wall behind them.
One of their own given the job
of informer – guard of quiet,
soldier of stillness.
If they talk
or make a sound
they will lose their stars. (read the rest of the poem here)


I then showed the teachers this TED Talk video by Sir Ken Robinson:




Finally, we wrote our wonderings about the future of education and the future of our students.

I invite you to follow our path and share your wonderings in the comments below.

Qualities of a Writer

Today is the day that I will be working with teachers on developing Writer's Notebooks and I am very excited!!  Of course, we will be looking at some mentor texts and I thought I would share one of my new favorites:

Library Mouse is really named Sam and at night he sneaks out of his home behind the reference materials to read, read, read.  Inspired - he decides to become an author and writes and illustrates his first book: Squeak! A Mouse's Life.  His books are discovered by the library patrons who eat them up (sorry - couldn't resist!) and the librarian soon invites him to "Meet the Author Day."  I won't tell  you the rest - but will tell you that it warms my little writing teacher heart.

So you want to write?

I am very lucky to have a person in my life who I am going to call my Zen Fairy.  Beginning on my birthday last year - a milestone birthday that I was having some diifculty accepting - she and another friend gave me a wonderful gift:

Wreck This Journal is a fantastic journey in not just writing but having a little bit of fun.  Let me tell you - you will never look at fruit stickers the same again!!

This year for my birthday - the Zen Fairy gave me another gift:

I can't explain how amazing the Awe-Manac has been not only for my writing but for my sense of me.  If you are my friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you will sometimes get gems from me that come right from this book.  My only regret is that it is so heavy I can't take it with me when I travel!!

Since my birthday is in January, I couldn't wait for the Zen Fairy to acquire this book that she shared with me and I bought it yesterday:

Life is a Verb has been keeping me company while I travel and added to my list of resources to share with teachers this week as we explore  Writer's Notebooks.

I hope you all have a Zen Fairy in your life - but if you don't, start with one of these to jump start your writing and your zen.

Tag This! Random Word Generator

I am working with teachers on using Writer's Notebooks this week so many of the posts for the week will feature elements of Writer's Notebooks.

Aimee Buckner shares a writing fluency strategy in "Notebook Know-How" called Writing from a Word.  In this strategy - students are given a noun (or adjective, verbs, adverbs, etc) and asked to write for 20 minutes or so thinking about the word and then just writing, writing, writing.   The goal is to write for the entire time period - even if the writing veers off topic. 

I like using this Random Word Generator to come up with the word that can be written about.  One small problem that I am having with the site is that the word that comes up does not always match the part of speech that I put in.  So - if you are focusing on parts of speech in addition to building up writing stamina and generating ideas, this might not be ideal.

But still - Tag This!

Tag This! Guess the Wordle

I have posted about using Wordle and other word cloud generators here in the past.  While there are lots of ways to use word clouds with students, I was excited to find this resource via my PLN:

Guess the Wordle

This site provides a wordle for classroom teachers to use with their students that follow the following format:

Monday & Wednesday Wordles

Monday's Wordle will be easy. All the words will have ONE thing in common.
Wednesday's Wordle will be a bit more complex. All the words will have TWO things in common.
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday Wordles
Tuesday's Wordle will be the date of a famous event in world history.
Thursday's Wordle will be the title of a book, poem, song, fable, etc.
Friday's Wordle will be a famous location.

If you like using visuals and word clouds in your classroom, Tag This!!


My thanks again to Melissa at Technology for the link to the resource!

Tag This! Writing Across the Curriculum

Stumbled across this wiki on Writing Across the Curriculum via my PLN recently and thought I would share some great resources from it:

• Image Journaling: The wiki has some great visual prompts and the author has created a set of image journaling questions that scaffold up Bloom's Taxonomy.  I will likely be modifying it to make a cubing activity to use soon!
• Writing Prompts: The wiki provides lots of sites for writing prompts but the one that made me laugh out loud was this one!! Go ahead - pick one a write - I dare you!!
• Bubbl.us - an online brainstorming tool!

Tag it!


Thanks to Melissa over at Technology for posting the initial link.

Literacy Defined

By now - you must have heard about/seen/read/reviewed the draft of the common core standards that have been developed and are now available for public comment. (If you haven't - please be sure to review them and register your feedback before April 2nd!!)

One of the interesting components of the new English Language Arts standards that have been proposed is the section on Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science.  This is something I have been pretty passionate about for quite a while - long believing that the literacy required of students in my social studies course was quite different from the traditional concepts of reading and writing that have been taught in ELA. 

This has been a hard concept for folks to embrace - because understanding literacy and specifically content literacy can be a tricky thing.  To understand a little of what this looks like, take some time to consider this podcast by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium, as he talks about scientific literacy.

While he focuses on scientific literacy, Tyson makes some important points regarding teaching, learning, teachers and literacy that are applicable to us all:

• Science literacy is not the know-it-all who’s fluent in science jargon; science literacy is the person who knows how to question the world around them, and en route to an answer that’s deeper than you would otherwise get.
• Passion is an important cog but is not specific to science literacy – it is the ability to ignite science interest from teacher to student. Most teachers don’t have this – if they did, we would have more than 3-4 teachers who we remember as impacting our lives
• Educational system needs to reflect upon what it takes to succeed in life and have that be reflected in the classroom
• We need to take our essential content and figure out a way to make a lesson plan that is a living expression of that content - so that students experience it, are curious about it and want to learn more
• You have cast a learner into the world – the most powerful thing you can do as a teacher

These are my quick notes from the almost 30 minute podcast - I encourage you to listen to the entire thing in order to truly understand the context in which he speaks about literacy. 

I am sensing the beginning of a shift in how we think about (and teach) literacy.  What do you think?


Thanks to Presentation Zen for the link to the podcast and a fantastic post on learning from storiesand experiences.

Beware the Ides of March!

Not really - just hoping to grab your attention with a title!!  Since this is the month of the Roman god, Mars and the day was generally marked with a military parade in his honor, I thought instead that a parade of resources for the literacy soldiers amongst us was appropriate.

The spring issue of The Big Fresh - one of my "go to" resources for literacy has been published with 30 links to amazing resources!! I have just started to go through them all - so don't be surprised to see posts later this week that highlight one or two.

This year, the links are organized by categories such as Multimedia Sites, Conflicts with Colleagues, and Offbeat and Fun (I am starting there!!)

Thank you to Choice Literacy and enjoy the links!!  If you find one you really enjoy - share it in the comments below!

Using WallWisher

I was intrigued by all the members of my PLN who were using WallWisher and similar sites so I decided to try in with a regional Social Studies forum that I host.  Our WallWisher is here:



While I didn't get as many folks posting resources during the session as I had hoped (we had about 20 teachers in the room) - I really like it as a workshop tool and as a tool for teachers.  So it was fantastic to find 17 Interesting Ways to Use WallWisher in Your Classroom.

How have you been using WallWisher?

Tag This! Fotobabble

As stated in the last post, I am a fan of assessing what students understand in quick summary statements.  Fotobabble allows students to upload a photo, record a 60 second message and then share using an email link or embed code.

This Fotobabble from Mole555 on educational applications sums it up:



Tag this!

One Minute Literature

The process of condensing information down to "sound bites" can be a critical thinking skill as you have to diffuse the language without losing any of the meaning.  So I found 60Second Recap an interesting way to not only think about introducing new books to students, but also as an alternative to the "book report."

The pick of the week also highlights some current books - and I have already added a few to my wish list!!

Thanks to Dangerously Irrelevent for the tip!

Tag This! PaperRater

Many folks in my PLN have been abuzz about PaperRater - an online source that "pre-grades" papers by checking grammar, offering writing suggestions and determining if the paper contains plagiarized text.  The site is developed by linguistics professors and graduate students and looks to be a powerful tool for students to proofread their papers before turning them in.

Digging around the site, I also found it has a "Vocabulary Builder" which provides a random word, the definition and appropriate usage in a sentence.

Tag This!

KidsBuzz

Do you have a book club with your students? Thinking about starting one? 

KidsBuzz is an amazing resource featuring book giveaways and author stories.  In the March 1st edition you will find:

• The story behind Hidden Voices by Pat Lowery Collins which looks to be an interesting historical fiction piece!! Read an excerpt here.
• Information on By the Time You  Read This, I'll Be Dead - a story about bullycide, suicide becauae of bullying.
• News on the Riot Brothers new book!

Many of these authors are on Facebook or Twitter and are willing to call or Skype into your classroom!!

Tag This! Exploratree

Via FreeTech4Teachers  I found Exploratree - an online library of "thinking guides" from the UK.   These guides can be printed, edited online and stored or you can create your own.

These guides are also great for use in planning or visioning activities with students or faculty.

Tag this!

Random Acts of Kindness

Does writing get any  more authentic than this?

"Rules" for Writing

I am not a big fan of following rules - I tend to stretch and bend them a bit.  I wouldn't call myself a "rule breaker" per se - I just think that there are something things (like writing) that cannot be contained by rules!!

But I really enjoyed reading the list of rules that The Guardian (UK) compiled from authors about writing fiction.  Check out the lists to find your own gems. Some of my favorites include:

• Read it aloud to yourself because that's the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out – they can be got right only by ear). Diana Athill
• Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don't follow it. Geoff Dyer
• Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it. PD James

Borrow from this list - create your own or even better - have your students create their lists!

Goal Setting

Apparently - many of us miss an amazing opportunity for learning at the Dublin Literacy Conference!!
Thanks to  A Year of Reading,   I have been able to explore what others have been learning there and I fell in love with the idea of student self-assessment and goal setting as described here.

The templates (shared in Google Doc format) as well as a list of picture books related to goal setting are a treasure!!

How do you help your students set goals?

Tag This! In Search of the Novel

"Discover creative strategies for bringing novels to life for middle and high school students with this workshop, featuring the words and works of 10 novelists, including Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, J. K. Rowling, and Toni Morrison. Within the framework of real classroom practice, the workshop offers interviews with contemporary authors, literary critics, teachers, and students, as well as film clips from adaptations of the novels featured. In Search of the Novel poses basic questions that can help you examine the genre from multiple perspectives and bring it to life for your students."

In Search of the Novel is a free professional development resource for middle and high school teachers from Annenberg Media.  In addition to 8 workshops on topics such as "Who owns the novel?" and "What's In it For Me?" - there is an email discussion forum to participate in.

Tag This!

Revision Fun!

That's right - I said fun.  I truly think that revision can be an opportunity for writers to have some fun with their work, to take it in a new direction.  In fact, I love this definition found through a quick Google search:

revise/revision – the process of reworking or reseeing writing, which includes: considering changes in audience, purpose, focus, organization, style; elaborating, emphasizing, clarifying, or simplifying text (adding, deleting, reordering, or substituting) [Source here]

Roy Peter Clark shares some fabulous resources for seeing author's revisions - a great model for students.  From Shelley to Elvis -these resources are a great visual for revision.

Or you could try your own hand at creating something similar with Crocodoc, a fun web-based tool to share and revise documents! You can share and revise PDF and Word documents (see a fun demo here) as well as power point slides!!  A great tool for peer review!!

Musings on March

Hard to believe that it is March already! Here in Western New York we spent the weekend blanketed in heavy, wet snow - a reminder that Spring is still a bit away!!

March was originally the first month on the Roman calendar - one that was named after Mars, the Roman God of War.  So it is understandable that after being bumped to the third month it is a little cranky and shows it in the weather!!

March has much to celebrate! It is Music in Schools month - something we should all celebrate and keep in mind in this age of budget cuts! It is also International Ideas Month!!

And so - for March, think of writing activities that celebrate ideas.  Use new "brainstorming" activities in class, celebrate the funniest or most original idea of the day.  And of course, have music playing in the background!

Happy March!!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

What we can learn about writing from Shaun White

The Olympics are winding down and no matter where they are hosted or who actually wins, there are always incredible global stories while watching.  In honor of these past two weeks, I am adapting this from a post over on The Talent Code blog.

First - head over there to watch the video and read the original post.  Go ahead - I'll wait.

Fun right? So here is my take as it relates to writing:

Lesson One: Start out with the big picture first.  Who is your audience? What do you want to communicate? What is the best voice for you to use?  Brainstorm - sketch - get out the big picture first.

Lesson Two: Isolate and compress the key elements.  Draft writing is critical here - revision is key.  Play with the words, switch your intro and your conclusion, cross out entire paragraphs, start in the middle. Play in the "foam pit" (or what I call the sandbox) and don't be afraid to perfect just one element a day.

Lesson Three: Work in a stepwise manner. Read your writing aloud, share it with someone else. Does it flow? Is it logical? Are there more revisions that you could do?

Lesson Four: Put a year's worth of writing into one day. Well - not literally, but write every day.

Shakespeare Comes to Facebook

I post often here on authentic writing.  I don't think in this day and age it gets too much more authentic than this.

Bill Shakespeare Comes to Facebook (via The Clever Sheep)

Reading and Writing Online

Teacher Tech does a great job here reflecting on an article about how hypertext influences learning.

According to the article, research shows that the navigational structure of a site matters when it comes to best understanding content. Sites generally follow one of two basic patterns. They offer information in a linear fashion, requiring students to read through the information in a predetermined order. This is similar to how they would read printed text. These sites offer links that go directly from one page to the next with no other options.

Other sites are more informal and allow the reader to move freely through the text by determining their own path. These are sites that may also have links within the text that the reader can use to get more information as needed.

There is no doubt that information literacy has become something that we absolutely must teach our students.  In addition to determining whether the information our students are reading online is reliable, we must teach them how to read online.

Similarly, as we ask our students to do more work online, we need to think about teaching them to write online.  Are our students using blogs? Wikis? Nings? Are they publishing articles online?  Then we need to teach them how to write connectively - meaning, when do they add hyperlinks? Where do they add them? What are they linking to?

I know that since I began blogging years ago, my writing has changed.  It is difficult for me to write most anything without linking somewhere.  When I recently submitted an article for publication to an educational journal, it was difficult to NOT link (since it would be published in print form if accepted.)  But I have never really stopped to think about the process of when and why I insert a link - something that I will have to do in order to help teachers and students with this type of writing.

If you are reading and writing online - what do you notice about hyperlinks? How are you teaching students about them?

I can never pass up a comma image...

Thanks to Tech 221 for the picture!

Tag This! Awesome Highlighter

I have tried to move most of my Internet functions over to Firefox from Internet Explorer - but for various reasons have not been totally successful.  It's a little like metric to me - I know it is the right thing to do, but so much easier to use IE!

One of the reasons I really like Firefox are all the add-ons that are available - especially those that make reading online that much easier for students.

In case you are like me in my relationship with Firefox - try this site for a simple way to highlight online text.  When you try it - you get a cute little highlighter and can highlight away.  Click "done" at the top of the page and you get a link that takes others to the page you highlighted or you can email or copy to a clipboard.

Great way to have students use the Internet for research without printing every single page!

Tag it!

Digital Storytelling

I am constantly amazed at the tools that are available to help students with story-telling! While many teachers argue that they leave narrative writing out of the picture in favor of "test prep" with expository writing - I constantly push back about the importance of understanding story structure and elements in comprehension.  And what better way to understand them than to write?

Some recent resources I have found via my learning network on digital storytelling:

• Digital Storytelling Teacher Guide from Microsoft: An e-book that teachers can download and reference for using Windows MovieMaker or Photo Story.  Even better are the templates from teachers which also includes a sample rubric.
• Zimmer Twins: Drag and drop elements to create a story or to finish a "cliff hanger" - great for elementary students.
• VoiceThread wiki: I've blogged before about VoiceThread but this wiki is full of examples, best practices and tutorials.  It even includes a link to form a classroom partnership.

Writing is Power

Writing. Reflection. Self-Esteem.

Larry Ferlazzo helps explain "Why Write?"

Poetry Friday: Gooney Bird is So Absurd

Via A Year of Reading:  A new book about Gooney Bird!!!

"Gooney Bird and her classmates are learning to write poetry. They write very short three or four-word poems, haikus, couplets, limericks, and list poems. We get to watch Gooney Bird help Barry revise his list poem. At the end of the book, the class is just about to start writing poems for two voices when their teacher's mother dies. Together they write a poem for MANY voices for their teacher."

Why Write?

I use that question as the tag line to this blog.  It is a question that I often ask teachers when working with them.  While I love writing and know that there is incredible power in a series of well-written words, so often in school we ask students to write without any purpose.  And then we wonder why they don't love to write.

One of my biggest pet peeves is writing for punishment.  You know - writing that "I will not (insert transgression here)" 100 times.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, will kill the desire to write more than this.

On the opposite end - one of my favorite things to do with students (other than keeping writer's notebooks) is to develop RAFTS, particularly for writing in the content areas.  For those unfamiliar with the format, students are given a particular role, are asked to write for a specific audience using a certain format for writing on a given topic.  In my social studies class, it allowed students to explore various perspectives and showcase their understanding of the content.

So - I was intrigued by this recent post from Educational Origami which merges Bloom's Revised Taxonomy with an adaptation of Daggett's Application Model.  And I started to think about writing assignments that we give our students.  And ones that are used in reading series and on state assessments.  And I started to think about how writing instruction might be different and more relevant if we used this activity map to plan out and scaffold our instruction to lead students towards truly authentic writing.

Would this help answer the question?

Tag This: WordSift

Last week I stumbled upon WordItOut.  This week - it is WordSift.

It is another great text visualization tool - but as Cliotech shares, it has many more applications than either WordItOut or Wordle.

Don't you love how tech tools keep evolving?

Tag This: Proofreading!

I know, I know - for many teachers and students it is February break.  And in NYS, at this time last year the ELA assessments were far behind us.

But this year - they are right in front of us and I know, no matter how hard you try, there is a little piece of you that wants to do some "test prep."  Just a little, teeny, tiny bit.

Found this site via Langwitches to help with the editing passage: 

Interactive and fun! Tag it!

Challenge for Change

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."  Barack Obama


“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”  John Quincy Adams
 
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” FDR
 
Happy President's Day.
 
I know it is a bit unusual to post about President's Day on a writing blog but I have been thinking a great deal about leadership lately and what it takes to be a good leader.  I am sure that many will debate that many of our Presidents were/are not good leaders - others will argue that merely by virute of their position, they were/are.  I am not here to lead that debate - I am just here to have us think about our leadership in education.  Specifically - our leadership when it comes to technology
 
I don't think that technology is the silver bullet to change our educational system. Sure - it might lead to increased engagement of our students.  It might.  But if we still don't have concrete and rigor expectations of the content and skills our students need to know - whether they are engaged or not is not going to make one bit of difference.
 
But one power of technology that I have found is the power to push our thinking and therefore, push our learning.  I love to write.  I love to teach writing.  But I got to do so in a very small corner of the world.  With my participation in Twitter chats, through blogging and networking using a variety of other technology resources - I can share that passion with others, learn from them and make the work that I do in my small corner of the world that much better.
 
So on this President's Day - I am going to challenge you, dear readers, to push yourselves with the technology just a bit.  Reach outside your comfort zone to try something new - to learn something new - to connect with someone new.  Not sure how? Here are some suggestions:
 
1. Over on Two Writing Teachers, they will be beginning their Slice of Life Challenge soon.  Participate - expand your own writing in a public place.
 
2. Join Twitter, follow some educators and start a conversation.  Better yet - jump into a conversation via #edchat (Tuesdays at noon and 7pm EST) or #ecosys.
 
3. Check out some of the challenges over at Challenged Based Learning and use that model to determine how we can have students write using technology (or not!) in ways to increase collaboration and solve "real world" problems.

4. Start your own blog - on writing or on any other topic.  Start a classroom blog.  Either way - write, publish, ask for feedback.  If you create one - post the link in the comment section and I will follow you.

5. Read a book online! Whatever Happened to Language Arts? is available online from Stenhouse. "Noted educator and speaker David Booth draws on his 50 years in education to explore how literacy instruction has evolved and how innovative teachers are successfully integrating old and new in their classrooms. With contributions from a dozen classroom teachers, readers will find many new ideas to try, incorporating digital learning, graphic novels, literature circles, talking about writing, reader's theater, assessment, and more."
These are small suggestions - but for some they might be very big steps.  The focus is to push yourself, be a leader and learn from others.  Leadership is not just for Presidents or CEOs - it is for educators as well.
 
 
"Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of (Dr. Seuss's) 'Hop on Pop.'" -George W. Bush, in a speech about childhood education, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2002  (Sorry - couldn't resist!)

X-Ray Reading

Last week, I posted about "x-ray" reading and challenged readers to post on this blog about why the passage was so powerful.

This week, comments on the passage are posted and give great insight as to what readers see when an author writes. 

eReader Round-Up

Things I found this week on eReaders:

• Cool  Cat Teacher gives us 14 tips to get more from your Kindle.
• Kindlerama shares Calibre - an ebook library manager
• eReader in a World History Classroom
• Digitizng Education: A Primer on eBooks

Friday Inspiration

Imagine wanting to read all the Newberry Award Winners.

Now imagine that it is a goal set by a second grader. 

Now imagine that is in fourth grade and has almost accomplished that goal.

Don't imagine - meet Laura.

Add On: After the Deadline

I like to use Firefox for my online work as it offers all kinds of extensions to make work more efficient.  If you have students blogging, this add-on will be helpful for catching those pesky spelling/grammar errors and eliminate the need to create posts in a Word document first.



Via Lifehacker.

Tell Me What to Do

Seth Godin always makes me think.  And this time - he has me thinking about the feedback we give students on writing.  First - his words:

If you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.


People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."

When asked, resist.

Now - to my thinking.  How often have we taken a piece of student writing and circled misspelled words or incorrect punctuation? How many times have we commented to add more details or "tell me more?"

I know that we balance positive feedback with the "cool" but aren't we still telling the student what to do with their writing?  How do we teach them to more critically evaluate their writing - to find the places where consultation with a dictionary or the addition of details are needed?

The next time you want to add these kinds of comments to a paper - resist.

Tag This: WordItOut

Many teachers have already discovered Wordle, which allows you to convert text into a word cloud to focus on the most often used words.  It has proven to be a great revision tool for students when copying their own text - to see which words are used most often, what the general theme of a piece and many other applications.  You can find other uses for wordle on this post.

A new word cloud generator has arrived: WordItOut.  The word cloud I created of this blog address can be found here.

What's nice about WordItOut is that it allows you to customize the words that are not read in creating the word cloud, as well as customizing the font and the size.  I may start using this site more often as I explore the use of visualizing text to enhance writing.

What are your thoughts?

Tag This! Kate DiCamillo

Via squeetus, I found Kate DiCamillo's blog.

A fantastic, once a month published journal piece. 

I got chills reading it and the possibilities for using this blog are endless.

Go on - I betcha can't read just one entry.

Reading as a Writer

Like many writing teachers, I use mentor texts in my work as "models" of writing.  So often, we remember a great book or a great beginning or a great ending.  And we encourage writer's to emulate that in their own writing.

But emulate what? Sometimes I don't think we spend enough time dissecting why something worked (or why it didn't!)

I like the notion in this blog post of developing "x-ray reading skills" to improve writing:

"I've come to believe that writers see things in texts that are invisible to others. Moreover, I have a theory that the best writers are the best readers, possessed with a kind of X-ray vision that allows them to peer through the surface of a text, to see the machinery whirring underneath."

He goes on to share the opening two paragraphs from a novel and prompt us to answer the questions: "Why and how does this passage work?"

A great model for working with  mentor texts.  A great model for using blogging with our students.

Tag This: Kerpoof!

Always looking for ways to integrate visualization and publishing into the classroom.  KerPoof allows students to draw and create card, movies and books.  New to the site is that creations can be saved locally (on your own computer) and there are education accounts available.

Kerpoof!

Via iLearn Technology - some tips on use and integration into the classroom.
Scholastic also has some lesson ideas - including a great social studies one!

Funny Friday Poetry Challenge

For Poetry Friday, I thought I would share this blog post and the tricky poem it writes about to challenge your ability to speak (and understand) the English language!!

Enjoy!

Get to Know Your Semi-Colon

Those who have been reading this blog for a while know my abuse of commas and utter fascination with them at the same time.  It has, over time, expanded into the appropriate use of other punctuation marks.

So - with great humor, I give you the links to better know your semi-colon!

And in case that wasn't enough - would you believe that France has tried in the past to ban the semicolon??

Writer's Notebook Idea: Ogori

Via Seth Godin's blog, the idea of Ogori or generousity.

A cafe in Japan has some interesting rules:

In a nutshell, you get what the person before you ordered, and the next person gets what you ordered. Thus, if you’re in on the game, you can choose to be either a generous benefactor, and treat those that come after you – or try your luck at being cheap. Either way, it’s an interesting experiment that explores surprise, kindness and encourages interactions.


Read about the experience here.  Then ask your students what they would order or to try their hand at writing the story from the perspective of one of the other cafe customers mentioned in the blog post.

Writing Process: Phyllis Root

One aspect of writing that I think is important to share with students and developing writers is the importance of process.  It often works best when you can connect the stories to published authors, particularly those that they read in the classroom, as inspiration.

Via Wordswimmer, an interview with Phyllis Root, author of one of my favorite children's books "The Name Quilt" shares here process and thoughts on writing.

Some highlights:

• Root isn’t shy about admitting that her writing process is very messy. She’ll write pages and pages of the worst writing, she explains, because “all writing is practice,” and practice makes her a better writer ... and a better person. “I’m much nicer when I’ve been writing,” she says, “than when I’ve been avoiding it.”

•  On the best part of writing: "The excitement of a new idea, of trying to make it take shape on the page, of trying this and that to see what happens, to see what the idea might become, how it will change as I work on it, how the writing might change me (a sea change) as well."

Ideas and Writing

I found this via the Digital Media and Education blog and immediately my mind went to writing (although the topic is scholarship).

Friday Funny: I before E, ESPECIALLY after C

There are times when reading online that I just laugh out loud. (LOL for those texting fans!)  This post on the complexity of the English language rules and the integration of data just captured it for me.

Go on - I dare you not to laugh!

Tag This: YouPublisher

Publishing student writing is the ultimate goal - and I am really liking this site!!

YouPublisher: Makes PDF documents flippable and quickly loading!!

Imagine your anthology on your school webpage!!!

Opinion Time: Spelling and Texting

"u wld thnk txting might encourage poor spelling.

according to a study in the uk u wld b wrong."

Texting has been blamed for many things and I am always interested to see what "research" has to say on the topic.  Over at the Core Knowledge blog (quoted above) they link to a BBC report that indicates texting requires the same "phonological awareness" as spelling. 

I encourage you to read the full article and post your thoughts over on Core Knowledge or here.  Participate in the conversation!

Wish List Book: How to Clean Your Room

Helping students understand the need to include details in their writing can be tricky.  I have always found it easiest to do with "How To" writing.  C'mon - you all know you have done the peanut butter sandwich lesson at least once - much to the delight of students!!

In teaching writing, I have some favorite "How To" books - How to Lose All Your Friends among them.  But I am dying to get my hands on this one:

How to Clean Your Room by Eileen Spinelli

Not only will it bring back fond memories of cleaning your room as a child (each thing you picked up had a memory and it was so easy to get lost in the task and never quite finish!) but this book includes pop ups and spinners and fun things to engage the reader!!


Thanks to A Year of Reading for the link!

eReading

I received a Kindle for Christmas, after coveting my mom's for a very long time.  It seems I was not alone!!

Lately - we have been discussing the role that eReaders might play in classrooms.  After a recently technology committee meeting, I have been searching for more information on how folks are using them in classrooms and what benefit there is.  (We will put aside the other debate of which eReader for the moment.)

• Princeton ran an eReader pilot this fall. Their criteria for which courses they selected as well as the device they have chosen are interesting.  I've tagged this in my reader to find out the results of the pilot. (It is important to note though that several university pilots have been de-railed the settlement of a discrimination lawsuit against Arizona State University.)
• You can learn more about what middle level students think about using the Kindle in the classroom here.
• See how third graders are excited about reading in this article.

Aside from these sites, I found a lot of questions about how to integrate the use of eReaders.  For me - it still comes down to what do you want to do with them?  I can absolutely see engaging the students in what they are reading by having them annotate text (of course, Post-It note stock might go down!)  I can also see the use of both the dictionary and the audio reading functions for all students.  And of course - the technology itself will, at least initially, engage the students.

But there are many other issues I hear teachers and school districts raising; What happens when one is lost/damaged? How do we pay for the books? etc.  And - with many of the ebooks available via laptops - what is difference between equipping students with a laptop versus an eReader?

I am not sure what to think - but am interested in what you are thinking!! Leave a though or two!

More on eReaders:
If you are thinking about using e-books, this site will tell you how to get free ones for your classroom.  And if you are thinking about purchasing a Kindle and you like audio-books, check out this deal to get $100 off!!

One thing I do know is that I will not be taking my Kindle into the tub or swimming pool anytime soon so this gadget won't appear on my wishlist!!

Connecting Classrooms

Last week, a colleague and I hosted an afterschool session on Read Around the Planet and other collaborative opportunities.  We were joined by teachers from two districts, specifically literacy coaches, ELA teachers and a librarian.  What a powerful group of minds - as a result, we are going to attempt a regional collaboration of classrooms for the Spring. 

In the meantime, I thought I would share these resources that we have been using to connect classrooms via video-conferencing.

• Skype in Schools: I have been using Skype for a while now and I know that many districts are concerned with access but it has been a powerful connector.  In addition to this site, which gives ideas on integrating Skype, be sure to check out this resource to have authors Skype into the classroom.

• TWICE: A Michigan based site for video-conferencing, it offers many opportunities for educators to connect and use video-conferencing technology to connect and collaborate.  Most of these connections require use of a polycom (which for the readers in my WNY region usually also means participating in Distance Learning through BOCES)  Consider signing up and searching for collaboration ideas.

• Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC): A personal favorite because of the wealth of resources and variety of connection options (including Skype) - create an account and have topics for collaboration come to you or post your own.

Happy connecting!

Tag This: Games as Poetry

I think a lot about the use of games in education.  Our students now (our teacher as well!) are visual - are bombarded with visuals.

I found this post - and the links within - very interesting as they relate to poetry.

Happy Poetry Friday!

Top Writing Blogs

Since it is the awards season and many others are posting their favorite blogs, I thought I would share some of mine as related to reading and writing:

A Year of Reading: "Two teachers who read. A lot." 'Nuff said!

6 Traits Resources: Published sporadically but when they do - great resources!

The Picnic Basket: A great place to learn about, and maybe receive, new books sometimes before they are published!!

Two Writing Teachers: Writing models, notebook ideas AND they love Scaredy Squirrel as much as I do!!

WNY Education Associates:  As a disclaimer, I should note that Angela is both friend and colleague.  However, even if I didn't know her personally, I would be reading her blog which gives amazing tips and reflects her work as a literacy coach.

Writing Tools: Great tips on professional writing!

These are just some of my favorites - and I am always looking for more!! Leave me a few in the comments!

Stop Teaching Our Students How to Write: Your Thoughts?

I've been thinking a great deal about this particular blog post.  Even more compelling are the comments - which seem to keep coming and coming. 

While there are some elements I agree with, there are some I am still wrestling with.  In fact, I had some similar musings about cursive two years ago, almost to the day.

So - in the interest of fairness, I am wondering what others think.

Go ahead - post your comments on this blog or on that one.  Either way - weigh in.

Tag This: Free Audio Books

Many, many people I know received either an iPod Touch or a Kindle this holiday season.  I also know many districts who are purchasing or have available to them mp3 players of all kinds.  This resource is for free audio books that can be used with all of the above.

AudioOwl


Photo credit: Dysartian via Flickr

What is your sentence?

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr - I ask everyone to think about their legacy.

One of my favorite picture books is Martin's Big Words - inspirational and compelling it ends with his now famous speech in which he shares his vision for the world and which became his legacy.

Daniel Pink's new book Drive (which I have not read yet but it awaits me on my Kindle) poses two questions that could change our lives.  Watch the video - think about your answers - and if you are willing, post them in the comments section.


Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Saturday Round-Up

• Seth Godin on the future of libraries made me think - how could we innovate a new use for libraries in a digital world?
• Story Sleuths - a new blog I have added to my feed.  The authors blog about what they are reading from the perspective of a writer.  Great stuff!
• A Year of Reading blog tries their hand at predicting the Newbury and Caldecott award winners - sadly, I have read none of the books they mention.
• An oldy but a goody - reading Will Richardson't thoughts on Aggregator as Textbook and thinking (again) about 21st century literacy.

Poetry Friday

Many blogs host "Poetry Friday" where the authors share a favorite poem or poetry resource. (Just Google "poetry Friday" and I am sure you find some great links!!)  I am not very good at that kind of regular posting so I have not (yet) disciplined myself to do a similar thing.  However, via A Year of Reading blog I did find this great resource that I just had to share.  The Tree That Time Built is a collection of poetery with a science focus - a great resource to integrate multiple curricula.

I Need My Teachers to Learn

You may have already seen this video but I think it speaks volumes to what we hope for all educators - whether it is embracing technology, learning about the newest research on reading/writing or simply trying new things to engage the students in their classroom all teachers are learners.  Or are they?

Tag This: ReFrame It

I teach online courses and my team has also been developing workshops for teachers and librarians on using web-based resources for research.  I like the description of ReFrame It here (thanks to Free Technology for Teachers blog!) and especially like the social networking aspect of the site.

Another video on using ReFrame It can be found here.

They say it's your birthday....

Anyone who has attended one of my writing workshops has probably read the short-story "Eleven" with me.  Sandra Cisneros is an amazingly vivid writer and this story from Woman Hollering Creek is one of my favorites.

As a result, I often see companion writing that could be used with this story - whether similar in style or topic.  And, thanks to my ever growing RSS feed, I found this one: 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.  It looks like a great storyline (and also reminds me of one of my favorite movies: Groundhog Day!!)

Who doesn't love a good metaphor?

I was going to make a great metaphor joke here - but honestly, being Monday, I couldn't really think of one!!

So instead - check out this link to Stenhouse, read about the contest, and think about picking up Rick's new book (it's on my wishlist!) or browse it online.

Tag This: 20 Most Common Errors in Writing

As a follow up to yesterday's Tag This! post on misspelling!

Easy Writer: 20 Most Common Errors in Writing: Interactive and visual tutorial on the most common mistakes in writing.

Tag This: 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

Love this! 'Nuff said!

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

What Does it Mean to be Literate in the 21st Century?

This question has been bubbling in my brain for almost a year now - and I am not sure that I have the definitive answer yet.  I do know that the definition of literacy has expanded as technology becomes a larger part of our lives.

I am hopeful as I anxiously await what my state (NY) will be doing with the revision of our ELA standards.  Hopeful that some of the "new literacies" will be embedded or at least referenced.  (It seems that we don't hold ourselves accountable for teaching things unless they are in a standards document or assessment lately!)

I am anxious to hear what others think as we participate in a book talk over on the English Companion Ning on William Kist's The Socially Networked Classroom. (There is a discount of 20% for EC Ning members!)  

And I hope to make these thoughts a bit more public in this space - with some feedback from readers of course! (I'll use literacy21 as the tag for those posts.)

This video gives the perspectives of some educators in the UK (seemingly ahead of the US in the work with literacy and technology) - give it a look and share what you think!!



NOTE: I found a new tool called SynchTube that allows people to watch videos and chat about them at the same time.  You can comment on the video and share inspiration and connections at the same time!  There is a current limit of four participants but this literacy vido seems like a great one to try it out with!! (And if you do - please let me know how it went!)

Tag This: Writing Paragraphs

Yesterday was about two word sentences - today about the power of paragraphs!

Use the Paragraph to Mortar Sentences into a Building Block:  "I've come to praise the paragraph, not to bury it. Such appreciation was not always my thing. The early instruction I received made construction of a paragraph seem so mechanical, so formulaic, so detached from my writerly instincts that I rebelled."

The author goes on to share several examples of paragraphs and the role that length and variety can play in writing.  Also included are some great Writer's Notebook tips!

Tag This: Two Word Sentence Smack Down!

Love this idea for writer's notebooks and for truly understanding sentences!!

Two Word Sentence Smack Down: In this week’s Quick Tip, Jeff Anderson demonstrates how his two-word sentence smack down activity helps students identify what is a sentence and what isn’t. This tip comes from Jeff’s book Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop.

Risk Taking

My eldest niece Amelia is trying out for her school play this afternoon.  This is a big step for her - she is extrememly talented but at the same time extremely shy.  She wrote her own musical this summer (aptly named "Amelia: The Musical") but will only sing it for family members.  She giggles and tells jokes with the best of them - but strangers often wonder if she is capable of speech when they meet her.  You get the picture.

Taking risks can be scary - particularly when we are writing.  I have found this to be especially true with adults and teachers of writing.  When I ask teachers the last time they wrote something with and in front of their students to model for them - they often look at me as if I had four heads.  But the safest place to take risks, in my opinion, is in our writing.  We can write and revise and re-write and edit - we can experiment with voice and word choice - we can tear it up and start all over again from one line if we want.  The beauty of writing lies not so much in the finished product as in the process.

To honor that - I found this video snippet interesting:

Tag This! Writing Point of View

I love this site on using the 6 Traits - there aren't regular posts but the ones that do appear make keeping them in your RSS feed worth while.

The most recent post on writing for point of view really caught my eye - point of view can be something difficult to teach/understand but this lesson really nails it!

In honor of the post and going back to school after the holiday break - try one of the two prompts for this photo (taken by my friend Mike).

Prompt #1: You are a student/teacher on the Sunday before returning to school from winter break.  Explain how you feel about the picture below.

Prompt #2: You are the Superintendent of a school district that will be returning tomorrow after a holiday break.  Explain how you feel about the picture below.

Original photo posted here.

Tag It! Metaphors

I thought I would try a new way to blog on this site - since I have been so lax in the traditional way!! Twitter and RSS feeds and other avenues feed my information stream and until a giant writing thought comes out - I often leave the blog alone. But I realize that the entire point of blogging is to share what we learn in more than 140 characters but not too much more.

So - on ocasion, I will post a "Tag It" feature - something that I saw that I "tagged" on my delicious account that I want to reference later for use in writing. If I tag it for me - you might want it too!

Here we go!

Wonderful Teacher Leaders

I am sure that you all have them in your districts. Those teachers who rise above the others in their understanding of what works, how to reach and teach kids, how to make connections and who have a passion for teaching and learning. I am listening to five of them at a regional meeting as they share their work as literacy coaches. Three others are sitting with me in the audience, nodding their heads as they talk and picking up tips to take back to their districts. (Thank you Melodee, Karen, Jennifer, Darlene and Jill for sharing today!)


They are raising some very important points about the work but a pretty common thread is the support of administration. Good coaching takes time - time to build credibility and trust with the teachers, time to find out what works in the district and how to use that to work on the things that don't. Yet - in this time of financial crisis - these folks are often first on the line to have the positions eliminated. Don't worry about them - they will go back to their classrooms. But they will only impact 30 kids - not hundreds.

As districts prioritize budgets, I hope they continue to support these leaders!

Join us

I was pleasantly surprised as I checked the submissions for the local Gallery of Writing that I created. The authors of all the entries to date? Teachers. Principals.

I am still in awe of the pieces I reviewed yesterday. Poignant. Colorful. Amazing.

It makes me think about the conversations I have been having in and around schools lately about the teaching of writing. About folks reflecting that they are not good writers. About teachers being afraid to write with students because they may not be any good. About teachers being afraid without even knowing they are afraid.

Writing isn't always about a final product. It is about the process - the emptying out of our heads and our hearts onto paper or a computer screen or a napkin. It is about the magical interplay of words, the painting of a picture, the emotion that stays with you for days.

It is about false starts and scratch outs and sometimes silence. It is about sharing and polishing and tweaking. And even when it isn't perfect - it is about publishing. Putting our writing - and ourselves - out there.

Join us. Pick up your pen. Turn on the computer. Write.

Writing Round-Up

* Been procrastinating (like me attending to this blog)? This site will give you some tips - it really hit home for me on an article I need to submit!

* Local writer/teacher/coach shares updates from her Writer's Studio and this post on building a future generation of writing teachers is nothing short of inspiring!

* Great post on following your instinct with writing - and a list of writers who talk about their process at the bottom.

From the "So What Are We Going to Do About It" Department

As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, two studies on writing have reached a similar conclusion: students are writing much more outside of class and are much more vested in what they're writing outside of class than they are in their academic writing.

I don't think there is a single teacher out there who participates or observes the power of technology that doesn't already inherently know this. I also don't think there is a teacher out there who has seen students pass notes, keep journals or heard an amazing (unassigned) poem who doesn't know this. My question is what are we going to DO about it?

The Stanford Study of Writing is very interesting - both for the content as well as how it has been made available on the web. Unlike traditional academic writing that comes to us in reams of paper (my own bias - sorry!) this site is chunked accordingly and full of hyperlinks and graphics. Very compelling graphics! Very, very compelling graphics!

I wonder what a similar study of American high schools might yield? Of middle schools? Of elementary schools?

The NCTE paper on Writing in the 21st Century recognizes the challenges and opportunities we face as "people write as never before:"

1. developing new models of writing
2. designing a new curriculum supporting those models
3. creating models for teaching that curriculum

I am the first to admit that I don't know where to begin with this - except to think about how my own writing has changed over the past few years, reflect on my success and my struggles and to begin to integrate that into my work with teachers. But that is me - outside of the classroom. I am wondering how teachers are beginning, how administrators are beginning, how students are beginning.

So - what are we going to do about it?

Brainstormer

“Obtaining a small town surf shop had always been a dream of Callies and now that her mother was gone there were no excuses.”

Hardly going to be the next American novel but it is the first thing that popped into my head after playing with the Brainstormer – a random word generator that gives you three words/phrases to jump over writer’s block or stretch your creative muscles.

You can click the random button in the middle (which is waaay too much fun!) or spin each dial separately.




Not quite as fun – but definitely interesting is the back story to how this delightful idea generator was created.

Write on!

Wordnik

Combine a love of words with a love of social networking and what do you get? My favorite new obsession on the Internet: Wordnik!

Created by Erin McKean (editor in chief of the Oxford American Dictionary!), Wordnik is a dictionary that evolves as language does. Users can add new words and meanings, tag words with related expressions, see real-time search word results from both Twitter and Flickr AND discover how many Scrabble points a particular word is worth!! I haven't been able to stop going back to it each time I think of a new word to enter!

I started with searching the word "network" since I have been spending a great deal of time thinking and writing about social networks and technology. In addition to definitions, I got amazing (and somewhat wordy) examples from literature, I learned that at this moment the word had been looked up 16 other times so far, I saw it's use being updated in real time from Twitter, saw images with this tag in Flickr and what I loved most of all was this:



A chart of how often the word was used in a year!!! (Love the implications of the use of network gathered around the 21st century!!)

There is a great interview with Erin over on the TED Blog as it seems the idea for Wordnik came from her TED talk and came to life after that! When asked about linking to Twitter and Flickr as it didn't seem "immediately intuitive" she responded:

It’s funny because it’s completely intuitive to dictionary editors. How can we show how a word is really used? The other day I tried to find out if “pants” was being used as a suffix and I found a tweet for “awesomepants.” Twitter is like overhearing people’s conversations, which is exactly what dictionary editors have been wishing we could do for years.

Flickr -- well, if you’ve looked at dictionary illustrations you know that they tend to be uninteresting, and so small. With Flickr, you get a lot of abstractions too. What dictionary would have pictures of “honor”? When you look “honor” up on Wordnik, you get pictures of women named Honor, which tells you that it’s also used as a proper noun. You also get images of flags and different symbols of the military. Now you can see what feelings words evoke.

Go play - and tell us what you found interesting about the word you put in!!

What Student Writing Teaches Us

A book after my own heart!

From the Stenhouse Blog: "Read Mark Overmeyer’s new book online before it is published in mid-July and then join Mark and your fellow teachers in discussing this new, exciting title during a four-stop blog tour. Participate in our writing contest and win a free, signed copy of the book."

Visit the Stenhouse blog to see the blog "tour stops" where you can leave questions and engage in coversation, as well as to see details on the very interesting contest!

Summer Reading Fun

Quick reminder if you are looking for ways to encourage kids to read this summer! Both Barnes & Noble and Borders are offering incentives for reading just eight books!!

Uh-Oh Commas Again!

After reading this, perhaps I better rethink my position on commas!