biographies

My 6th graders are writing biographies for their research papers.  It's been a long process.  I've read a picture book biography to them every day for weeeeeks.  Last week we looked specifically at different ways authors begin biographies.

Each student picked a biography from the basket and reread the beginning.  We gathered in our workshop space, I asked students to raise their hand if their lead contained a date, and we specifically looked at those titles.  We talked about all the different ways authors can start biographies by using dates and came up with these categories: birth linked to other historical event, birthday & what family wanted for them, building historical background knowledge, early life linked to what created fame, date of famous event.

After creating the list of categories I challenged students to settle into a writing space and write a lead for their biography subject using a type of lead from the list.  There was a lot of gathering research materials and settling down and in the middle of it all I remembered I was going to try a transition song to writing (from hearing Ruth Ayres speak at the Dublin Literacy Conference).  Once they finally got settled & writing they worked hard!  They wrote for 10 minutes and then met me back at the workshop space.  Many of them had written more than one type of lead.  It seemed to spark a renewed interest in their subject!

The next day we did basically the same thing, but looked at beginnings that relied on specific word choices (not centered around a date).  While looking at them we also noticed that those beginnings could be divided into two smaller categories- those that started when the subject was young and those that started when the subject was already famous.  This is what our list looked like: young - describe setting of hometown, describe family, description linked to future fame; already famous - a quote, description of piece of fame & linked to setting, build suspense from an important event.  Again, I challenged them to choose one and write.  I also remembered the transition song & the difference was amazing!

These discussions of specific crafts have renewed my students interest in their biography subjects. Even though we had already read all of the books we used, focusing on just the beginnings helped get my students focused on the home stretch of writing their research!

Our Dates chart.  I was digging around in some cabinets in my room and found a huge roll of paper that was like really wide register tape.  I wrote examples of each beginning on a piece and hung them on the wall beside the charts.  That is what is on the wall to the left of the chart.

A small sampling of the picture book biographies I've read to my students over the past several weeks.

Reader's Notebooks

We have had the pleasure of sharing how we use reader's notebooks in our classrooms at two recent conferences - the Dublin (Ohio) Literacy Conference and the East Tennessee Literacy Conference in Morristown, Tennessee.

Over the years we noticed that our middle schoolers needed help organizing their learning as readers. Reader's notebooks are a place to, not only record their daily reading, but a place to respond to what they're reading.

The first thing students do is number their pages in a spiral notebook (hopefully this will discourage them from tearing out pages to use for something else). Then as a group we create a table of contents by using different color sticker dots to note the four sections: response, strategies/workshop, workstations, and wonder (informational).

The first few pages are dedicated to their "Books I've Read" & "Books I Want to Read" lists. The inside cover includes a genre checklist & a monthly calendar to record their daily reading.

We labeled the first section "response." In this section, students are able to respond to what they read by writing a letter, completing a four-square, or summary/response. The next section is titled "strategies" or "workshop." This section becomes a visual reminder of the reading strategies & skills that we practice throughout the year. It is an anchor chart at their fingertips. Items in this section might include: t-charts, Venn diagrams, foldables, sample passages of text, graphs, etc. The "workstation" section is next. This is the section that students can document what they work on is literacy workstations. It keeps them accountable for the work they do while the teacher is working in small group. The last section we included is labeled "wonder." This space is reserved for informational & non-fiction reading strategies. Items in this section might include: informational poems, t-charts, examples of text features, foldables, and sample passages.

What do you see?

The Blue Between

Everyone watches clouds,
naming creatures they've seen.
I see sky differently,
I see the blue between-

The blue woman tugging
her stubborn cloud across the sky.
The blue giraffe stretching
to nibble a cloud floating by.
A pod of dancing dolphins,
cloud oceans, cargo ships,
a boy twirling his cloud
around a thin blue fingertip.

In those smooth wide places,
I see a different scene.
In those cloudless spaces,
I see the blue between.

~Kristine O'Connell George
She says poetry is like, "being startled when you suddenly see the world differently." Stop and look carefully at your world...what do you see?

app share

Today's app:

• Faces iMake

My students flipped out when I showed them this app!  They love Hanoch Piven's books, so they were all about this app before they even got their hands on it.  I've always thought making Pivenesque mixed media representations of student writing would be fun.  This app proves that to be true! 

We've used the app in several ways...
We first modeled creations after Piven's My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks.  Students chose a family member, spent time looking through the app's objects, & wrote similes combining the two. 
Students really couldn't get enough of this app & wanted to also create self-portraits. 
We've used this for the past several days & it is already a class favorite.  I'm thinking it will also be fun to use the app to create favorite book characters.

app share

I feel extremely blessed to have an iPad for every student in my classroom.  Talk about motivation!!  I've been keeping a list of all that we've been doing & have decided to post about a different activity everyday this week instead of lumping them all into one huge post. 

 

Today's apps:

• Instant Poetry
• Pictureka HD (iPad version... which was on sale last week... score!)

I combined these 2 apps to make a word wall activity.  Instant Poetry has several features that immediately interested me.  Students are able to choose their own background, input their own word choices (in addition to default word groups), & change the color & size of the words. 

First, students opened the Pictureka app and took a screenshot of a game board.  Next, they chose that screenshot as the background in Instant Poetry.  Once the Pictureka background was set students searched the screen for an image that matched one of their 15 word wall words.  They added the word, then placed it on the corresponding image.  I gave them time to get started, then walked around & asked them to explain their reasoning.  They LOVED it!  I've used the mini travel versions of Pictureka in this same way, but the apps made it spectacular.

23rd Annual Southern Festival of Books

A celebration of the written word - Nashville, TN!

Mandy and Cheryl attended The Southern Festival of Books on a perfect fall weekend...blue skies, music, great food! We met some fabulous authors and talented illustrators. Our first session was with Matthew Reinhart, co-creator of the Encyclopedia Prehistorica and Encyclopedia Mythologica series. He considers himself a paper engineer and has collaborated with Robert Sabuda, Maurice Sendak, and Tomie dePaola. He says he was inspired by Eric Carle's work with paper and layered look.

In our next session, we met with graphic novel artists Eric Powell, creator of Chimichanga, and Eric Wight, creator of the Frankie Pickle series. Powell worked on titles such as, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Weird Tales, and MAD magazine. Prior to his newest graphic novel series, Wight was an animator for Walt Disney, Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network.

Laura Murray presented her debut picture book, Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. This fractured fairy tale is illustrated in comic strip like frames and is told in wonderful, repetitive rhyme. As a former elementary school teacher, she would begin each year by making a gingerbread man and having the students follow the crumbs throughout the school to find the lost man.

Matt Phelan is the author-illustrator of The Storm in the Barn, and illustrator of many books including: Always, I'll Be There, The Higher Power of Lucky, and Spilling Ink.

Author Laurel Snyder has written such titles as: Penny Dreadful, Any Which Wall, Inside the Slidy Diner, and Bigger Than a Breadbox.

Tom Angleburger had everyone's attention with his talk about "The Embarassing Stain" in The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. He enlisted audience participation, and everyone made the "emergency five-fold Yoda."

Other attending authors we met include: Andrea Davis Pinkney, Tracy Barrett, and Ruta Sepetys. Mandy & Cheryl are already making plans to attend next year's festival!

used book shop

Stashed in attics,
stuck in cellars,
forgotten books
once big best-sellers

now hopefully sit
where folks, like cows
in grassy meadows,
stand and browse.

In a yellowed old history
of Jesse James
two earlier owners
had scrawled their names.

I even found
a book my dad
when he was in high school
had once had,

and a book I found-
this is really odd-
was twice as much fun
as my new iPod.

I always get hooked
in this dusty shop.
Like eating popcorn,
it's hard to stop.

~X. J. Kennedy

There is nothing like finding that book that you've been looking for in an old book shop. When Mandy & I visit a new town, we always seek out the book stores in the area. It's always fun to see what we can find!