A Book Binding Machine?

I shared a couple of days ago about the class books we make that go along with our Read Aloud Timeline. Well, today it was time to put together the books from our last 2 read alouds and so we took a little field trip to learn about this machine:

Have you ever seen one of those? It’s funny how excited they were to learn about how it works. This was partly (I’m sure) because it is housed in a teacher workroom where kids aren’t allowed to go (but that we sneaked into for a few minutes!) but also because it’s just pretty cool. And old. I’m pretty sure it’s the same machine that’s been in that workroom for the last 20 years. And I made books on it the last time I taught 1st grade 10 years ago. But hey–even in this age of technology and digital learning–sometimes you just need to do things the “old school” way. That totally works in this case. 🙂

100th Day Questions

I have returned to 1st grade this year after about 10 years with 4th-5th graders. Many things have been the same since my return, and of course there are some things I’ve had to readjust to, or that are entirely new, as is the nature of education. One thing, though, that was definitely not a “thing” the last time I was in primary is the 100th Day of School. No, I said that wrong–we definitely HAD the 100th day of school, we just didn’t officially celebrate the 100th day as a holiday. This is new to me, and as I am coming up on that day (it’s next Wednesday, the 28th), I’ve been thinking A LOT about what I will do with that day in my classroom. (Before I go on, I feel like should ask that you presume positive intent in my questions here–my focus is on really understanding the why, not judging what others may choose (or not choose) to do in their own classrooms on any given day. I want to learn here!) 🙂

It seems that other people are also thinking about it, and having similar questions to me. I found a blog post by Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca) the other day, after she posted this tweet:

Getting Uncomfortable … Again as I start to reconsider the 100th day of school. Thoughts? http://t.co/aSMi5Ymbzj #1stchat #kinderchat — Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca) January 23, 2015

I found myself nodding as I read her post, as she was asking the same thing I have been struggling with: Why do we “celebrate” the 100th day of school? What is the purpose and how can we use this day to continue to help our kiddos think and grow and problem solve? Why is this day any different than every other day? I’ve read many opinions about how it’s a rite of passage and a fun day to celebrate the milestone of getting so far into the year together, and I’ve heard others say it’s about helping students understand the “bigness” and importance of the number 100. Believe me, I’m all for having a great day, and I LOVE the idea of kids understanding numbers and being flexible in their use of them. So the part I’m grappling with is how I can “do” the 100th day in a way that is still high quality and rigorous, while fun and enjoyable–and not just full of things that are “cute” or that we’re doing “just because” they have to do with the number 100 (and let’s be honest–this is really our goal for every day, isn’t it?).

After thinking about this for a couple of weeks, as well as reading about what others are doing, I think I’ve settled on a few things. Most of them are incorporated into our normal routine, but are focused on the idea (that Aviva mentioned in her post) of the learning we’ve done in the last 100 days. I plan on there being a focus on how long those 100 days have been and how much learning we’ve already done! I hope to highlight the “grittiness” we’ve displayed and the fun we’ve had together and how much more fun we’ll have in the rest of the school year. Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. 100 Book Reading Challenge–with my “big” kids, we have done a 40 Book Challenge the last few years, after reading about it in The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I would love to give my firsties a similar, one-day challenge for our class together to read 100 books. It averages out to 5 books a piece or so, which is TOTALLY doable, and would be a great motivation to reach a goal and work on being better readers. That’s how it happens, right? By reading! I figure we’ll make a chart or list somewhere in the room so we can record the titles as we go.

2. 100 Word writing challenge–I’m not entirely sure how to frame this one, maybe around writing word wall words correctly or creating words from them (like word families), or if we’ll write stories that include 100 words or what…..somehow we’ll write. Like we do everyday. 🙂

3. What Have We Learned in the Last 100 Days?–Taking inspiration from Aviva’s post, I thought it would be great to document all of the things we’ve learned and done in the last 100 days (which I am sure is WAY more than just a 100) with pictures and words. Since I’m a regular blogger, I am also a regular picture-taker. That means I probably have at least one picture from each of our 100 days together. I’m thinking about having kiddos reflect on each day (probably in pairs) and writing something to go along with each picture. These could be put into a book (either paper or digital) and we could add to it as we finish up the year. Again, what a great way to visually see all of the many things they know now that they didn’t know on our 1st Day together!

4. Legos? Blocks? Maker Space?–We are definitely builders in Rm. 202, and incorporate this kind of representation into many things we do on a regular basis. I have seen ideas for “what would you do with 100 Legos?” which could be interesting, as they could answer the question about what they’ve learned or what they are most proud of. We did something similar when we returned from Winter Break where they created and then wrote about their favorite thing/event/present from Christmas. I’d love to give them the same question and have them build something with big blocks or just “stuff” and then have them video their thinking as they explain what they made and why. The video part would be pretty basic, as we’re just getting into documenting our learning digitally. Those videos would be great to share on our blogs–which we’re going live with this week, too!

5. 100s game in Math–this will be an easy extension of what we’re already doing! The unit we’re currently working on is about kids become flexible and efficient with adding numbers within 100. We’re already playing games, solving problems and having great conversations about place value with bigger numbers.

6. Read Aloud–I know that Read Aloud has been a focus around here lately, so maybe we’ll read 100 pages in our book on Wednesday, too, as a way to celebrate a great story together!

I guess we’ll see what I end up going with (as it will happen in just 3 days from now!). I’d love to hear your thoughts on how YOU will be spending the 100th Day of School. What questions did you consider in your planning? Please come back later this week to see the update on what actually happened in Rm. 202, and/or follow us @jbeardensclass to enjoy the day along with us!

Have a great week! 🙂

New and Improved in 2015: Journals!

My Writers Notebooks! The first one dates back to August, 2005! If I counted right, I think I’m working on #13 or #14 right now….:)

One of my VERY favorite thing to do with 5th graders (ok, anyone!) is teach them how to write. It starts from the very first time I show them my own notebooks and talk about my writing journey, and continues through when they get their own (which is a very special occasion, indeed!), and then on through everything else they do (which for the last 4 classes has included blogging, too!). I have a passion for the written word (well, and the spoken one, too; I talk WAY too much!), and want my students to see the power they have to change the world with their words!

So…as you probably know, I’ve done many of the same kinds of things with my first graders that I did with my 5th graders (the list-group-label, for instance, that I wrote about last week), and in writing, this continues to be true. So…since one of the biggest things I miss with younger writers is the whole Writers’ Notebook thing, I had to figure out a way to do something similar (both for them and for me!).

When we came back after Winter Break, it was time to start some new things. This is my FAVORITE time of year because of the fresh feeling there is all around–it’s cold outside, the year has just started, your kiddos are more than half-way to the next grade (so they’ve grown up a ton since Day 1!), and there’s a renewed energy because of the well-deserved rest you’ve just had. One of the first “new and improved” things for 2015 for my kiddos was journals.

Ok, now the idea of a journal wasn’t new–they had them in kindergarten. But they hadn’t yet had a journal with ME and learned MY definition of how to use them (which I was hoping would take on some first-grade version of the Writers’ Notebooks I love!). I let them get really excited on our first day by reminding them of that big ‘ole zebra-print box of my notebooks. We looked at them and read through some entries, and admired all the pictures that tell about my life over the years. And just as I heard them say how much they wanted to have a notebook like that–VOILA!–I gave them their very own 1st grade version! Now they knew (because I explained) that they’d be using these in a little bit different way then when they were in WNBs in future years, but they were excited nonetheless. It was theirs, it was new and it was…ready to be decorated! Check out what our journals look like now, all spiffied up!

After the cover was taken care of, we talked about what should go inside. Like with many new adventures, I asked them what they thought writers put in their journals. We talked about why people keep journals. We brainstormed a list of possibilities. I have to admit–I was impressed! They had many of the things I’d hoped they’d say, or that I was thinking of teaching them about, and heck–they mentioned many of the things 5th GRADERS put in their notebooks. Geniuses, I tell ya!

Our brainstorming list of ideas for how we could use our journals. This is a GREAT list already, and we’re just getting started!

Before they left to officially write on their first page, I modeled what an entry would like, with the date and their thinking. Then they were off!

My hope in sharing this particular story was that, even at 6-7YO, they’d see how “journal-worthy” things happen to them all the time. A story doesn’t have to be spectacular, or big, or even special to be remembered. Even a trip to Target can give you material for your writing!

They have had a chance to write in them many times over the last couple of weeks and I LOVE how enthusiastic they are about filling them up with their thoughts! There are times when we have official “journal writing” time, but often kiddos will get them out during a break or at choice time, which I love! The best part was when a friend asked me the other day if he could take it home to write in it there! He didn’t know how BIG of a deal it is to learn that writing takes place EVERYWHERE–not just at school–nor did he know how he’ll be the subject of a lesson soon when yes, indeed, they are allowed to take these babies home to work on their writing lives outside our classroom!

SO PROUD OF YOU, RM. 202 FRIENDS!

Why I Blog

As I was rereading my copy of Classroom Blogging by David Warlick today in preparation for work this week with my class, I came across a suggestion I could not resist trying: write about why you blog. I am have written many times (on this blog!) about why I write, as well as facts about me as a writer, and even what I write about in the summer, but I had never thought to share the reasons why I’ve spent so much time and energy (and I’d say a generous dash of love!) on keeping this blog for the last 3 1/2 years. I think it’s a great idea and I’m excited to share my thinking! Hope you enjoy reading it! 🙂

Reasons Why I Blog…

1) REFLECTION

Writing in general is a way to slow down, step back and reflect on how things are going. For me, my blog allows me a venue to do that with what is going on in my classroom, just like I might do in my Writer’s Notebook about something in my personal life. I find that as I am planning posts, and am thinking about how best to share my story, I figure out the parts that went right and the parts that could use some improvement. And honestly, it’s the “not-so-right” parts that I value–it’s in these that I learn the most and grow for the next time. Plus, as I share them in a public forum, I am hopefully sharing them so that someone else can learn from them, too!

2) INFORMATION

Originally I started my blog for myself, and maybe to share with a few others who could care (probably members of my family! LOL). Very quickly, though, I began to see it as a tool to highlight the things going on in the little slice of heaven called Robinson School. And since the families of my students don’t get to be there with us every day, the blog would (and did!) become a sneak peek into what we were learning–and also how we were learning it. See, more than just the what, I strive to include the thinking behind the why of what we do. I am hoping to share the methods to my madness and help parents (and other interested readers) understand why I make the educational choices I do. I have heard from MANY a parent that these tidbits I share with them are priceless and useful conversation starters with their students. Rather than just asking “What did you do at school today?”, the question can become, “Tell me about….” or “What did you learn when you were…?” For 5th graders who chose not to share, and for 1st graders who sometimes have already forgotten what to share by the time they get home, the benefits are clear.

3) COLLABORATION and CONVERSATION

Aside from desiring to share information with families, I use my blog as a platform to share information and reflection with other teachers. I strive to write in a way that is both interesting and inviting, and in a way that will spark a conversation. It doesn’t always happen, but my hope is that a thoughtful conversation can be started in response to something I write, and that knew knowledge or understanding can be gained by those involved. I am pretty active on Twitter, and have been throughout my blogging journey, as well. Honestly, some of the greatest lessons I have learned as a teacher in the last 3 1/2 years have come through collaboration and conversations that stemmed from a connection made either on Twitter or through comments on this blog. Reading others’ blogs inspires me to try new things or think about something in a new way, and I strive to be that same catalyst for change for others. I am energized by working with and learning from others, and I especially love when I can add something to a conversation that might result in a new or improved learning experience for both a teacher and their students.

4) RELAXATION

Like I mentioned in the post about why I write (in general), writing is fun for me! When I started my writing journey as a teacher in 2005, it was to be able to have a resource with which to teach my student writers (i.e. using my Writer’s Notebook entries as mentor texts during mini-lessons and conferences), and to better understand exactly what the act of writing entails from a learner. What I found out along the way is that I really like it, and it is kind of my go-to stress reliever. Everyone has that one thing they do when they are worried, stressed or uneasy–for me it’s writing. And just like the words I put in my Writers’ Notebook, I enjoy writing the stories I tell here. For some, the idea of spending countless hours outside of school writing about what they did while they are at school seems crazy. I’ve had many teachers tell me they don’t even think they’d be able to find time to do it anyway. For me it’s a necessity, and actually makes the work I do while I’m in my classroom a little better. Well, and ok, I’ll admit that I’ve been called crazy before, so maybe there’s a little bit of that thrown in there, too. 🙂

Thanks to @dwarlick for the inspiration for this post, and for you for reading it! Now I ask you–why do you blog? And hey, if you don’t, why not? I’ve love to hear from you and start a conversation! 🙂

Robinson Nonfiction Hunt

Our class has been working with nonfiction text in a variety of meaningful ways. Last week we took a walk around Robinson to see how many examples of nonfiction writing we could find. We gathered a list of what we found, and talked about the purposes of these different texts. Besides being really great detectives, I was uber-impressed with how my Rm. 202 friends were able to go on a 20 MINUTE walk through the hallways without bothering anyone’s learning! That is definitely an example of following the Robinson Road Rule of Respecting Others, and only happened because everyone was being gritty. WAY TO GO, 1ST GRADE FRIENDS!

Check out our adventure with some pictures. 🙂

Landen works hard to add to his nonfiction text list on a post it after he finds something in the hallway.

Ella Marie led our super-silent first grade line down the 4th grade hall as we began our hunt.

We stopped at the end of each hallway so that friends could record what they saw.

The 5th grade hallway had a WEALTH of interesting nonfiction text.

Peyton stops to write a note about a diorama he saw in the 5th grade hall.

This nonfiction writing helped us celebrate Veteran’s Day and was found outside the gym. Besides the title, all of those flags have words to patriotic songs on them.

Kindergarten was using nonfiction in a really meaningful way! They lost something important and needed help in finding it. Update: Their flag was found and returned to them! I bet they’re glad they wrote that news flash!

Stay tuned for more ways that we’re working on understanding nonfiction texts as both readers and writers. What an important genre to read, write and dig into as first graders (and way beyond that!).

Small Moments

We have been moving and grooving in first grade–in more ways than one. We’ve been moving our bodies, but also moving our minds as we are learning about what good writers do.

In our district, and at our school, we use a wealth of knowledge and resources to teach our content. Right now we are utilizing a FABULOUS unit of study from Lucy Calkins, all about personal narratives–which she calls Small Moments.

So far, we’ve set the stage for our Writer’s Workshop, by learning the procedures, as well as important things like where we keep the paper and other supplies in our writing center. We are just a few days in and have already talked about:

how writers remember the story by telling it out loud first, thinking about the beginning, middle and end
how writers remember the story by touching and telling the story across the pages of their booklet, sketching the pictures first, then writing the words
how writers can go back and add in details they forgot the first time, using carats to add words, or just writing more to the end
how writers can tell the difference between a WATERMELON story or the SEEDS inside it (which are the small moments we are focusing on)
how writers stretch out words they don’t know how to spell, and use the words around the room and the word wall to help them
how writers need each other–writers worked with a partner to add details by answering questions their partners were wondering about (like who, when, where, why, etc..)

It’s been really amazing to see the progress both in writers’ ability and their willingness to try new things in just the short days we’ve been working together.

Evan, Millie and Ava are hard at work on their writing. Don’t forget your name and number on the top! We’re working on learning the date, too. 🙂

Charlie’s getting started by sketching his picture first, then adding the words to the beginning of his story.

Check out how Landen’s being a super-smart first grade writer and using the alphabet chart to figure out the sounds in his words!

C.J. uses the alphabet chart, too, as he adds words to his pictures. Jacob is hard at work getting his ideas down, too!

See Thomas using his rubber band to stretch out a word? Peyton checks out the chart, and Lauren is busy working on a story about a princess. 🙂

During our Writer’s Workshop, writers can work wherever they think they can do their best work. Ella Marie found a studio spot all by herself at the kitchen table.

Makayla and Briannia are working on their Small Moments at Table 3.

Millie shows off her word wall skills as she writes Joshua’s name. There are rings with the word wall words that hang under the regular words that kiddos can take to their tables.

We have an anchor chart to help us remember the steps to writing a story. We have been adding steps to it along the way.

Our writing folders help keep us organized: the green means it’s a story that we’re still working on and the red is for stories we’re finished with for now. The file folder in there will come later, but will be for the project kiddos are working on right now.

Becoming a Writer: It Starts Here!

It’s no secret that I LOVE writing. Besides just doing it, I read about it, talk about it and LOVE teaching it. I am sure you’ve read those posts here, and if you haven’t, why you take a minute and do so? It’ll be worth your while, I promise! (In addition to the posts I linked, you could check out the writing tab or category for more about what writing looks like in my classroom).

So it’s also no secret that I was a little sad about leaving what “big kid” writers do. When I first learned about my move back to primary, I lamented the lessons I wouldn’t teach about using the Writer’s Notebook, conversations I wouldn’t have and craft lessons that I wouldn’t be able to include in my Writer’s Workshop; first grade writing is more about becoming a writer than being a writer. In short, I felt like I was leaving a little bit of myself in 5th grade–a part of me that I would really miss.

And yet, the more days I spend with my little writers the more I’m remembering the joy of teaching beginning writers. The wonder and amazement that they come to my lessons with is priceless. The smiles on their faces as they share stories of learning to ride a bike, tackle a scary roller coaster or ride to school and wave to someone out the window of the bus. As we are learning strategies that real writers use in their work, I can see them file those in their toolboxes to pull out later in their writing. I am already seeing progress in the way friends are adding details to their pictures, adding sounds to their words and ideas to their writing.

The most exciting part of being on this end of a student’s writing journey is the influence I have in helping them learn to see themselves as writers–and maybe even like it! There were times that 5th grade writing was frustrating because there was such a hurdle to cross in getting them to believe they could do it. Unfortunately, back then my friends had 5 years of believing the WEREN’T writers or that they HATED writing to try to overcome in the short amount of time of time we had together. Now, I get to help these little friends start to see the power in their words and encourage them to do great things with them–for today and for years to come!

And so yeah…I’m kinda pumped about it. 🙂

Can We Persuade You?

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to attend a very special writing celebration. Our next-door-neighbors (Ms. Turken’s class) had been working on writing persuasive arguments and wanted to share them with us!

She had kiddos divided into small groups, and everyone went around the circle and read aloud their essays. Their writing was great! We heard about a variety of topics, from girls being able to play traditionally “boy” sports, wearing helmets while skateboarding and bike riding, wearing seat belts and many more. We were definitely treated to many great essays, and are thinking differently about these topics because of the evidence they shared with their opinions. It was also helpful because we were getting ready to start this unit in our own Writer’s Workshop next! It has been great to be able to use this day as a touchstone in our own persuasive work. Great job, Ms. Turken’s class!

Check out a few more pics from this super learning opportunity:

What do you know about persuasive writing? What topic would you choose to write about if you had an opportunity to write an opinion essay? We’d love to hear your ideas–we’re just about ready to choose the ones we’ll write about! 🙂

How Did I Not Tell You?

I just realized I’ve keeping something from you….so yep, I’ll spill the beans.

My kids are bloggers! I am not sure what I’ve been doing the last month or so, but I’ve neglected to tell you that my kiddos (and some of yours, too!) have begun a fabulous new blogging journey, and we’d love you to join us on it. 🙂

I started blogging with this group of kiddos the same way that I have the past two years, which I wrote about here. It has been a great thing for us as learners already, and I am so impressed with how so many kiddos have taken the ball and RUN!!

We’d love it if you could jump over to our blogs and have a look–and more importantly LEAVE A COMMENT or two to help continue the conversations we’ve started over there.

Check us out at w ww.kidblog.org/mrsbeardensclass2013 and join in on the fun! See you there! 🙂

On-Demand

Writing is a subject that is important to students–to everyone, really–and the teaching and assessing of it are ever-changing. I LOVE the topic of writing (wait–you knew that already didn’t you?): I love doing it, reading about it, teaching about it, everything. And above all, one of my favorite things about writing is helping kiddos get to love it, too.

So…this year our district is implementing a new writing curriculum, one that I have had the privilege of spending the last year rewriting to better match the Common Core State Standards and better help every student become college and career ready.

In some ways, writing in our school district was already aligned with CCSS, and we have always had really high standards for what students should be able to do. But there are also some things that have (and will) changed in response to the new standards:

Students will now be required to learn about and then demonstrate their knowledge of argumentive writing. This is much different than the opinion pieces we’ve done for years–the heart of the argument is staking a claim, anticipating counterarguments (and answering them) and using valid evidence to support the claim.
The ability to write in every content area, while included for years, is more highly expected now. Writing is expected to be thought of as something you do every day, in many ways and in many places. It is not just something you do at school for an hour a day. Students should be writing in reading, writing in math, writing in science and writing in social studies.
New listening and speaking standards have been introduced, and are emphasized in all areas of student learning, not just in writing.
Students are expected to be writing for a larger audience and making global connections via the internet. Thank you KidBlog for your help with this one! Luckily I started this one years ago. 🙂
Students are expected to be able to produce an entire piece of writing in one sitting. Yep, go all the way through the cycle in 45 minutes. 🙂

And so that’s why this post is called On-Demand (glad I finally got to that explanation, huh?). We did our second on-demand writing piece today. And boy is there a story to tell. 🙂

This year, as a part of our new curriculum, we have access to Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study. The newest version of them is aligned with CCSS expectations, and gives teachers many ideas of how to help kiddos achieve these more rigorous standards. Included in each unit is an on-demand writing assessment (well actually there are two–one as a pretest and one at the end of the unit).

We just finished up a narrative unit, and today was the day we sat to do our on-demand piece, in 45 minutes. Here were the directions I gave:

Now, we have done this before. Only once, though, at the beginning of the year before we started this unit. I wish I had pictures of their faces when I first told them what we were going to do and how long they had to do it. I don’t. Boo. 😦

But I do have pictures of what it looked like today.

Some friends sat with me at my table to work on their pieces.

Max needed to stretch out on the floor to get the juices flowing. Totally how it rolls in our room! Love how he looks like he’s really thinking!

There are definitely many friends with their heads in their hands for at least part of the session. Again–lots of deep thinking happening here!

I set a timer for friends who needed to monitor how much more time they had. Although, not surprisingly, this really stressed some people out more than it helped them. 😦

For as hard as it was, though, I was so glad that in a very short time, everyone was busy and writing. Everyone got a piece written and everyone turned something in! It was very cool to see what they are now able to accomplish in such a short amount of time! I think they’re amazed, too. And the best part is that the more we do this, the easier it will get!

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