The Power of Story

I am finishing up a Patricia McKissack author study with the 3rd grade.

Today, I put out a white piece of paper and explained to the students that they did not have to add anything to the paper unless they felt so moved, but that it was there for those students who wanted to share their reflections on Patricia McKissack and the themes in her writing.  

For a quick, fairly open assessment/reflection, I like what I am seeing so far!

I love her books!  There are many ways to approach them.  This year, I have focused on her idea of the power of story and how, through stories, readers learn: problem-solving strategies; societal values; and, about different perspectives. 

 For those of you who have read Flossie and the Fox, we talk about the importance of being clever and why Patricia McKissack gave the fox back his "foxhood." 

 In Mirandy and Brother Wind, we talk about the character trait of determination as well as being an ally and a friend. 

In The Honest to Goodness Truth, we talk about two things as well: being thoughtful and reflective and offering an apologizing.

Here's a wonderful interview from Reading Rockets. I can't say enough about this video interview.  There are so many great themes and discussion points.

Here are a biographical sketch from Scholastic and a biographical sketch from Random House Kids.

Off to read!

Part the Second: The Book Spine Poems

Here are my first graders' Book Spine Poems.

Please join our conversation! Share these Book Spine Poem Albums with your students and have them comment on them.

Part the First: The Process of Making a Book Spine Poem

Today was a great day in the library!

My first graders learned about Book Spine Poems from other first graders via Skype.  

It was a very successful experience.  See for yourself:

(Thank you 100 Scope Notes for introducing this other library teacher and me to this great form of poetry.) 

We did this for three consecutive classes.  Here's how my library was looking well into the first class:

Even better this is how my library look during the classes -- after they had created and photographed their Book Spine Poems -- my students settled in to read!

I love that the students started to read the books they had chosen for their poems, which then turned into a big book swap reading fest on the rugs.

Here's one of the coolest things that happened today. One student went over to the reference section and made a word and then another student joined in.  Check out these Book Spine Messages:

I love that this student came to me with a word he had discovered and then that they thought to turn the "w" upside down to make another word.  Cool stuff.

There was a sweet spirit and wonderful energy in this place today....

Next post: The Product: The Book Spine Poems Revealed.

Now Read: Tools as Vehicles for Expression

Wordles and Book Spine Poems 

Created by 4th graders during the lesson-less plan.

The lesson-less plan...

....or the plan-less lesson. 

I decided to try something new this week.  The lesson-less plan or plan-less lesson!

The students arrived for their thirty minute library class.  I left my white board blank.  No message. No schedule.

And then I wrote one word on the white board: Reading

I told them that they were free to use the following tools as vehicles* to express what they know or think about reading:

Laptop

Elmo

Digital Camera

Flip Camera

With these tools as vehicles they could:

Create a book spine poem:

Create a Wordle:

Write a book review or poem:

Interview each other about a book they had read or were reading:
This footage was sadly lost by my needing to clear disk space on my laptop and accidentally deleting my movies folder...we'll not mention this Friday night debacle again...

Create a VoiceThread:


Voila!  The lesson-less plan or the plan-less lesson!

Was it a success?

Time will tell.  

*Special thanks for my friend Susannah R. for this expression.

Love this Hate That Cat Conversation

Friday, March 16, 2012

The 5th Grade Sharon Creech Author Study continues.

Once again my library looked and sounded like awesome. (See blog post: What Does Awesome Sound Like?)

Here's the scene: the four groups are scattered around the library reading and discussing the books.

Hate That Cat

With about twenty minutes left in the period, the first Sharon Creech Readers' Group finished their book, Hate That Cat.

What to do?

I decided that I would have them begin reflecting on the book.  I grabbed my flip camera to capture the discussion, but the students now knew what I was doing and became self conscious.

I put the flip camera away and grabbed my laptop.  I logged into VoiceThread,  went to Sharon Creech's Website to grab an image of the book (mine all have the barcode label right through the title), and uploaded the image.  I brought this group into the "recording studio," an entry way off the library.

I reminded them how to use VoiceThread, handed them my laptop and went back out into the library to check in with the other reading groups.

The recording studio in action

The only thing I told the students is that they should comment on a connection they made with the story or the characters or talk about a part of the story that resonated with them.

I didn't have an opportunity to listen to the VoiceThread until this morning.

Cool beans.

Have a listen:

Coming up next...the groups reading Heartbeat get a chance to reflect!

What is World Read Aloud Day?

A few more World Read Aloud Day connections!

I received 150 reading logs back from students (a little better than a quarter of the population).  On  average, the students read aloud for 30 minutes, meaning that my students logged in about 4,500 minutes reading aloud at home! 

Here are some students talking about WRAD and the importance of reading.

And a Wordle of the Langston Hughes poem To You