Tag Archives: writing

Tiny Notebooks: Notebook Day is HERE!

If you haven’t read the first part of this story, check it out here.

In order to know when the next step after Tiny Notebooks was coming, kids had to do some thinking.  After chewing on the question of “What’s the right way to do “real” notebooks with my kids?” I asked them a question.  It was one I knew they had an answer to, and one that I should have asked them sooner.  It was easy: How will we know when we’re ready?  And as I expected, they knew the answers:
Screenshot 2015-09-27 16.55.16And so after this conversation, I explained the way my friends had made my head hurt (in that good way!), and how I wasn’t sure what to do.  We agreed that it made TOTAL sense that kids would get their notebooks at all different times and they were TOTALLY good with it.  They knew that they were in charge of when they were ready and that they simply had to PROVE to me that they were ready.  Challenge accepted.

And so later that week, I came into Writer’s Workshop with this pile of goodies:

IMG_5335And these smiling faces were the first round of Rm. 202 friends who were ready for their REAL notebooks!  Yippee!

IMG_5336The excitement that then filled the room was contagious!

And so what I was worried about was that kiddos would walk away from this first Notebook Day discouraged, that they would be sad that they weren’t included and just give up.  Instead, most everyone else sat down and got right to work continuing to prove that they were ready for the next round:

IMG_5342Since that day, I’ve had many small group and 1:1 conferences specifically answering the question “Mrs. Bearden, when will I be ready?”  It’s been so great to be able to use the list we made as well as notebooks of kids that were ready as examples of what they had to do to get to that next step.  It’s just the way our standards-based rubrics work: this is what you have to demonstrate to me in order to show me you’re ready.  I LOVE THAT!  And again, rather than being discouraged, kids are ON FIRE with their writing, working towards the day when they will get that red, polka-dotted gift. 🙂

A few days later…

IMG_5344And just Friday…

Screenshot 2015-09-27 17.28.53So, thank you 2nd grade team for igniting a passion I didn’t even know needed to be ignited and for nudging me to rethink the way I’ve always done things.  Most times “the way you’ve always done it” isn’t a good reason to do it that way again. 🙂

Nudge, Nudge

I love it when thinking is nudged.  I love it when someone asks as question that makes you think in a COMPLETELY different way than you were headed, and you are COMPLETELY surprised when it happened.  Well, since my team is all working from the same writing plan this year (which is not really something I’ve ever done before!), there have naturally been some questions that have come up related to what we’re doing.  Of course they have been, “Hey, tell me more about this…” kind of questions, not “What in the world were you thinking?” questions, which is nice. 🙂

So…you know we’ve been doing work with tiny notebooks as a way to introduce Writer’s Workshop this year.  Well, eventually there comes a time when our 2nd grade writers will prove to to us that they are ready to graduate into their “real” Writer’s Notebooks.  As a matter of habit, I guess, I put that step into the plan right around Day 12, when I figured that everyone would be ready; I’ve always done it that way with everyone on the same day (like here, and here).

Screenshot 2015-09-27 16.22.35I proceeded normally, working a few days ahead of my team, which was nice so I could work out the kinks of the plan (I’d used this idea with older kids, but never with 2nd graders, so I wasn’t quite sure how it would work! LOL).  Then one day, at a working lunch, the subject of notebooks came up again.  Everyone wanted to know how I had decided to actually handle it, and what procedure I was going through to get them to my kiddos.  I mentioned that I was going to plan Notebook Day for the following week, with everyone celebrating on the same day (which is again, the way I’ve always done it).  The next thing that happened was really interesting.  Most of my friends around the table just said, “Hmm….” and I could tell they were trying to work it out.  They asked me about the purpose of teh tiny notebooks and how it didn’t make sense to do everyone’s Notebook Day on the same day if everyone was ready at different times.  They were, after all, supposed to PROVE to me that they “got it.”  I explained that the real thing behind the tiny notebooks was, in addition to teaching them how to use their “real” notebook, the expectation and anticipation of getting their new notebooks.  I rationalized that I’d always gotten everyone on board in a really positive way and that maybe it didn’t really matter if they were ready; Notebook Day was more about the ceremony and excitement around being a writer.  We agreed that probably everyone else was going to give individual kids their notebooks when they were ready, rather than all at once, and that I was probably going to go ahead with an all-class celebration.  Most importantly, though, we agreed that there was no RIGHT way to do it.  Personal choice and professional judgment was paramount here.

Well, the meeting ended and I went on with the rest of my day, but I COULD NOT get that conversation out of my head.  I had a headache in a really good way.  You know those kind?  The ones when you know that you’re chewing on something really important and you’re actually ok that it hurts? (You don’t have those?  I hope so, because it means that you’re surrounding yourself with really great people who challenge you to improve your practice and evaluate how you do things. 🙂 ).  I finished out the day, still unsure how I would proceed, and went home to have the same conversation with Mr. Bearden.  I was pretty sure that (while it wasn’t a right/wrong issue) he would side with me, agreeing that a whole-class Notebook Day was a great idea.  Well…he didn’t.  He was actually really great about asking many other questions about it, and making suggestions about how I could have better explained my thinking to my team.  He sided agreed that my team’s thinking that “when you’re ready” is the best time for new notebooks.

I chewed and chewed, trying to figure out why I’d always done it that way, and whether or not it would (or should!) work for this particular group of kiddos.  Why hadn’t I ever done it “when they were ready,” as I had always explained to my students it would be?  Why had I always done notebooks as a one-size-fits-all type situation?  Well, ok, honestly probably because it’s easier.  Especially with bigger kids, I probably didn’t want to manage keeping track of who had their notebook and who didn’t, as well as not wanting students to feel like they weren’t good enough or good writers.  The whole thing, after all, was based on helping kids see themselves as writers, learn to live like writers and WANT TO BE WRITERS.  In my mind, any negative (or something they could perceive as negative) was a no-go.

But maybe a one-size-fits-all what this group needed.  Maybe, since they’re younger writers and this is the very beginning of their lifelong journey as writers, this was the year that I changed my whole process and really did what I said I was about all along (novel idea, right?)? And really, now that I admit it, when does one-size-fits-all ever work for kids?

So I decided I’d jump in and change up the whole “real” notebook deal this time around.  There are pieces of it that I knew I wanted to keep the same, but the “when” of the process would be different for this new group of kiddos.  And you know what?  It’s been totally great and then some.  Better than I could have imagined, and the anticipation and excitement are actually increased since kiddos aren’t sure when their Notebook Day will come.

(But really they can be sure…read more here. 🙂 )

Tiny Notebooks: Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas? (Part 2)

Ok, so as I got to #3 on the list of places where writers get their ideas, I figured I should write the story in 2 parts.

Here’s the EQ and the list, for a reminder:

Let’s get back into it:

4.) Heart Maps: This strategy has to do with how writers can sketch pictures to give them ideas, as well as how thinking about what’s in your heart (things that are important to you!) can help give you ideas.  These hearts are added to kiddos’ “real” notebooks as they get them.  They can be added to and changed as kiddos change, but here they are for now.  Look at all of those ideas waiting to be written about!

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5. Books and Each Other: While this was not officially one I put on the list this time, it came up in our conversations and we couldn’t let it go.  Often you get ideas just from hearing what your friend is writing about!  We are learning how to have meaningful conversations with other writers.

6. Lists: This one is so easy!  I shared lists in my notebook that I have written of characters, ideas for settings (really it’s places I saw on signs while I drove to Nashville), smells I like, smells I hate, lists of lists, lists of ideas for things I can write about in the future.  The possibilities are ENDLESS here!

7. Senses: Sound: For the example of this one, I shared an entry I had written in my notebook one day while I was at the pool.  Back in 2005 before I had kids and could actually RELAX when I went there (LOL, love you Riley and Allie!), I used to read and write in my notebook.  One day I heard the sounds of two birds in a bush next to me and imagined their chirps and coos as a conversation.  When we tried this one, we were able to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the new and improved Robinson Naturescape as we listened for interesting sounds and described them with our words.

Our first time in the Robinson Naturescape for this year!

8. Senses: Sight: I had another one in my notebook that I entitled “Santa in St. Croix,” where I described a guy with who looked like I imagined Santa would look like if he was on vacation.  I wrote about his “bowl of jelly belly” and how he was wearing tiny red shorts and black flip-flops instead of a red suit and boots.  I also read an entry describing clouds on a sunny morning and shoes I was wearing.  We ventured outside again, hoping to find something beautiful and inspiring in our backyard woods.

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9. Fierce Wonderings:  This is perhaps the one that is most transferable to other areas of learning.  Once we get kids wondering (which is really pretty easy), and then recording their wonderings (which for us was a little trickier), we can start to DO something with those wonderings.  it could be starting a research project, helping a kiddo find just the right book based on their interests, getting kids to imagine and create possibilities based on the unknown, or even a genius hour project.  We have them in our notebooks and on our Wonder Wall.  We’re hoping to do great things with them, and continue to wonder about the world around us!

The best part of all of this thinking and writing is that it’s just the beginning!  I hope you’ll stay along for the continuing journey! 🙂

Tiny Notebooks: Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas? (Part 1)

I think that probably the most hated heard phrase from writers (kids and adults alike) is “I don’t have anything to write about!”

Yep, I have heard it countless times, and maybe I’ve even said it before.  But that was a long time ago.  It was at the very beginning of my writing journey when I thought that everything I wrote about had to be a big deal.  A monumental story that would blow everyone’s minds. Or that it had to be made up–a fabulous fiction story that would be a bestseller if I just finished it.

Then I actually learned about how a Writer’s Notebook works and how what real writers do is not try to collect the most amazing things ever, but that they learn to look at the world differently so that EVERYTHING is interesting.  They see the normal, ordinary things of life in a new way and begin to find things to write about in their everyday lives.

And so that is my goal as I interact and teach writers in Rm. 202–regardless of what grade they are in.  Writers are people who collect their ideas and thoughts for later, and often times mine those ideas for a diamond in the rough that the can polish into a shiny piece of writing to share with someone else.

Ok…in 2nd grade we talked about another essential question on which we will chew and return to over and over:

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 8.37.09 PM

I mean really, in many ways, this is the key to unlocking the writing mystery.  It’s the way that we get past the “I can’t” and see towards the “Maybe I can…”  So we’ve been working hard to learning about and then trying out many ways that writers get ideas for their writing.  And I’m super happy that many of my own entries have been the mentor texts we’ve been using for examples.

While there are TONS of answers to this question, I’ve narrowed it down (along with the help of some very smart teacher mentors like Ralph Fletcher who know way more than me) to a list of things that a) 2nd graders can do and b) can be used over and over.  Remember: these are strategies, not prompts.  I’m telling kiddos WHAT to say, but instead helping them think about HOW to say it or the STRUCTURE it could take.  The topic is whatever they wish.  Nice!

We’ve been working with this list (and again, please excuse the “ugliness” of the draft!):

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 8.51.09 PMI am not sure that I have pictures of everyone of these things, but I will try my best to show each of the ideas we’ve tried.  Here we go!

  1. Meaningful Objects: Writers get ideas from OBJECTS that are important to them, often which are also linked to a strong memory of a person, a place, an event, etc.

I shared this image with the class and then my thoughts about it:

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 8.57.23 PMEach kiddo then used their own meaningful objects (many of which we took pictures of so they could add them to their notebooks) to share a story!

Check out some of our writing:

2. Memories: The best part of memories is that anything that is from the past that you want to remember technically counts here!  A memory can be something from today, or something from years ago!  Recent or ancient, they are worth saving for the future.  This was one where I linked kiddos into the “What do you want to remember when you go off to college?” question.  It seemed to help them understand the importance of how they’d be using their notebooks to save things. 

3. Artifacts: Ok, so technically, meaningful objects, memories and artifacts are all related to each otehr, but I taught them as 3 separate ways to write because they can also be used individually of each other.  Often you’ll find that an artifact IS a meaningful object that reminds you of a memory.  Triple win!  And again, like with most of these ideas, there are multiple ways to interpret an “artifact:” a photo, a ticket stub, a card, a candy wrapper, a flower petal (yep, I have those in my notebook!), a hair bow (a 2nd grade friend put one of those in her tiny notebook!), ANYTHING that makes you think of something else. 🙂

Here are some examples of artifacts we’ve been saving:

This one was shared in a previous post, but Peyton wanted to save a photo of me so he’d remember me in college!
Ella Marie found some important photos at home and wrote about what they made her remember.
This one is a picture from a magazine that reminded a 2nd grade friend of a memory of cookies!
Another food memory sparked by a picture!
Birthday memories!
Jacob was inspired to write a creative post about his love for puppies when he saw a picture in a magazine!

To go right to part 2 of this story, click here. 🙂

Tiny Notebooks: Why Do We Write?

I shared the very beginning of our 2nd grade writing journey here.  Since that first day, we’ve done many amazing things as 2nd grade writers.  Let me share them with you. 🙂

For this first unit of writing in 2nd grade, we’ve been working to establish our writing community, helping every writer to see their part in it.  YES, you are a writer!  YES, you have important ideas to share with us (and the world)!  YES, I want you to like it (but it’s ok if you don’t yet)!

The first big, essential question that we’ve been chewing on and answering (over and over again!) is:

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 6.14.00 PMSimple question, right?  I’d say not really.  It’s kind of easy to make a list of the kinds of writing we do, or to tie our reasons to things we want to do with our writing (i.e. make a shopping list), but to really dig down to the REASON for writing is a little harder to do initially.  So when Rm. 202 writers came up with these ideas on our first try, I was super impressed:

IMG_5296

Please apologize for the “ugliness” of this chart. It has not been beautified as an anchor chart for our wall yet, and so it a work in progress. We can up with so many great answers, and then tied them all to the idea that we write to communicate. The pink parts are sentence starters they could use with their partners when they discussed the question for the first time.

We had a great conversation about the communication idea, too, when I suggested that it is how I would answer the question.  Someone said, “So that’s the RIGHT answer?”  Someone else said, “No, there is no RIGHT answer!”  We talked a lot about how there is not ONE right answer, that there are MANY right answers, and that I DO NOT have all of those answers.  Love those kinds of chats. 🙂

So as a means of tackling this question, we began to look at how writers use their Writer’s Notebooks to collect stories.  As I mentioned in the first post, I connected their Tiny Notebooks to the idea of a scrapbook; they would begin filling it up with things they wanted to remember in 10 years (which just happens to be when they go to college!).  It was lucky that my first notebook is 10 years old, and so the time span only made sense. 🙂

For the next part of the Tiny Notebook story, check this out.

Tiny Notebooks: Sharing

That last post got a little long (and probably all my entries get a little too long!), so I figured I’d share the last part in another story.

On Day 3, after we had gotten back into our notebooks, I found a way to easily share our writing with a random partner.  When I made our tiny notebooks (by cutting regular spiral notebooks in half), I was looking at the halves and thinking about how they could be put back together…

So kiddos found their sharing partner by finding the writer who had the other half of their notebook.  So quick and so cool!

Screen Shot 2015-08-23 at 9.56.59 AMThey shared their entry with their halfsies partner and had some great conversations!

Next time they are supposed to find their other halfsies partner (because there are 2 notebooks of each color), and we could match up in a couple of other ways.  SO glad this happy accident happened.  So simple but very useful. 🙂

Getting Started with Writing: Tiny Notebooks

Ok…do I need to start by explaining my love for the teaching of writing?  Or just my love of writing itself?  Probably not.  You’ve read those stories before, right? 🙂

We got started with writing in 2nd grade on our second day.  I started by reading two books:

I chose them partly to be funny (The Incredible teacher one was because their notebooks used to be full-sized and are now only half-sized notebooks like I used here.  By the way, they didn’t think this was funny. LOL), and also to give us an idea for somewhere to get started (an entry about something they had done over the summer).  Before they left we had a quick reminder of how to label each entry, as well as a reteach of how to use the date stamp (yes, there is a lesson for this!).

Ignore that big blue scribble...it was from another conversation we were having about how authors sometimes sign their books....

Ignore that big blue scribble…it was from another conversation we were having about how authors sometimes sign their books….

After our lesson, most kiddos got to their spots and got started quickly.  Some took a little extra long with the date stamp, and some did a lot of thinking.  I’d say most of us got something on the paper, but I did hear some of those dreaded words: “I don’t have anything to write about!” Ugh.  But then I remembered they were second graders AND it was the second day of school, so they may have been a little rusty.  I worked with one friend to put an ideas list in the back of his notebook (like we had done last year but he had probably forgotten), and had multiple conversations with friends about how to find an idea (like talking to another friend about their writing, thinking about their day, showing them an example in my Writer’s Notebooks or using a book for inspiration).  We had a quick share at the end of our writing time and got ready to move on.   I LOVED it when the next question was, “Can I take this journal home and finish my writing for homework?”  Well, of course, dear friend, you can do that! 🙂  I LOVE this not because I wanted my little friends to have homework, but because it shows me that they are already getting the idea that writing can happen anywhere, and that their stories are important enough to them that they want to finish sharing them.  And yes, those notebooks came back the next day. 🙂

This whole “I don’t know what to write about” thing had me thinking about what to do the next day.  I needed to get them thinking again about how ANYTHING could be an idea for writing, not just great big events or monumental occurrences.  Ideas come from watching the world in a new way and expecting to see stories.  Those can happen on the way to school, while you’re eating breakfast or at recess.  And probably when you’re least expecting them.

This made me think about how to connect this idea to something they could understand.  I thought about we could explore the idea of a scrapbook and how your Writer’s Notebook is a place to collect things you don’t want to forget.  I pulled out my very first notebook (which I started in the summer of 2005, 10 years ago), and read a couple of entries (I wish now I’d brought that notebook home so I could show you those entries–boo. :().  I talked about how the moments I wrote about were not “BIG” deals, and I wouldn’t remember them now if I hadn’t written them down.  We connected this to how in Inside Out the memories turn gray in long-term memory and are sucked away forever (good thing I’m up on pop culture, huh? Never know where a connection will come from!).  We don’t want this to happen to our memories, and it doesn’t have to if we collect them!  For them, 10 years from now is when they go to college–how cool for them to be able to think about things they want to remember at that point in their lives.  Totally didn’t mean for that connection to happen, but was SUPER glad it did!

Then we read a book (as another way to help them visualize the possibilities) and made a chart of the small stories in there that we could write about:

This got many kids thinking and they shared new sparks they had: one friend said he could put in the necklace he wore this summer on the airplane when he flew by himself, and another friend wanted to bring pictures of his dogs–because they will probably be dead in 10 years and he doesn’t want to forget them.  Cute, right?  That same friend wanted a picture of me so he could remember me in college, too.  He wrote this entry with that picture:

Screen Shot 2015-08-23 at 9.36.11 AMWhile of course I love this entry because it’s about me (ha!), but also because it is the definition of how I want them to be thinking about their notebooks as a way to collect and curate their thoughts.  Plus I think it’s just cool how deep and wide 2nd graders can think when we give them an invitation and opportunity to do so. 🙂

Getting Started in Second Grade

Wahoo!  We’re finally getting started!  I spent some time getting ready, and it was fun to stop getting ready and finally get started!  And since we’re looping, it has definitely been fun doing just that.  I was looking back at the beginning of the year from last year to see what I had written about, and MAN–our kiddos were BABIES!!  You should take a look and see how much all those munchkins have grown since last fall.

As is usual fashion for me here on 20somethingkids, I have TONS of stories to tell you!  I am making a list of it all here, partly to help me make sure I get it all in, but also just in case you want a place to land to find it all.  Once I add the post, I’ll link to it on this page and you can easily find it again.  Ok, here we go!!

Over the last few weeks, we have done so many things!:

Marshmallow Challenge: Second Grade Style
Getting Started with Reading: Reading museum
Getting Started with Writing: Tiny Notebooks

Tiny Notebooks: Sharing

Self-Portraits
Appleletters
Reflection with plusses and deltas
2nd Day of 2nd Grade Selfies
Getting Started with Math: How Much is Your Name Worth?
Weak side/Strong side
Anchors of Learning
Math Warm-ups 8-18 to 8-2

…yet

I Hope You Make Mistakes

I know there were many things crammed into those first days together, but when I see it all in a list, I’m still amazed.  Let’s get into it!

Pictures of the Day: May 13, 2015

This one is in honor of our friend Diego. 🙂

  Check out the really difficult task we’ve been working on with completing our series of books.  This is BIG first grade work, but they’re definitely up to the task.  This was what our morning looked like today:

Almost can’t see the table because of all that amazing writing there!
More fun with series books!
I love how this group is lost in paper! LOTS of writing happening here!
Peyton was working on revising his story to get it “just right.” He took his book apart, added more pages and put it back together with great additions to his story about a boy named Cooper and his dog, Adam.
Emily thought of a really great sentence she had read in a book that she wanted to include in her story. Talk about resourceful!
Thomas was using Notability on his iPad to record his thoughts, then replay them so he could write the sentence word-by-word. LOVE how technology supports our work. 🙂

And this one’s just because I know you were wondering what my shoes looked like today. 🙂  Right? 🙂 #dontforgetthekookyteacher       

And the Winner Is…

When we came back from Spring Break, we were in the middle of our opinion letter writing unit (I know, I still have not finished the story, but here’s the beginning again if you missed it!).  One of our first writing assignments was an opportunity to both tell me about their Spring Break AND test out their newly learned skills.  Double win, right? 🙂

Here are the directions I gave them:

Kiddos then spent several days planning and writing a letter that showed me their mad letter writing and convincing skills, and that included the most fun parts of their time away.  Unfortunately it took me a little while to get around to choosing a winner, but yesterday we finally sat down to crown the winner.  And the winner is….

It was SUPER hard to decide on the winner (there were two that it came down to and they were SO close!), but in the end, Millie’s letter had all the things we had be learning about: greeting, a stated opinion, 3 or more reasons, transitional words (like one reason is, another reason is, finally, closing, correct spelling and punctuation).  When I read it out loud, it was great to see (and hear) the reaction of the class–they could tell just by listening that it had all those parts.

And since it was a writing challenge, the prize was something to help make her writing even more spectacular–mini gel pens!

IMG_4412  I don’t use competition all the time, but sometimes it works to raise the level of excitement, engagement or even production.  And in this case it just made sense.  Way to go Millie, and other friends of Rm. 202 who wrote some great Spring Break letters!