Category Archives: Writers

The Unexpected Trio

Erika Bogdany, Strategies to Add Some Zip, Writers Workshop November 9, 2013 1 Comment

Our Compass Shifts 2-1“Miss Bogdany, isn’t writing a narrative the same thing as writing a story?”

“Yes, it is.  However, we’re going to spend time exploring writer’s craft by infusing a few strategies.  We’re going to be in tune with our five senses; explore the power of short sentences; and work through personification all while sharing an important moment in our lives.  Ready to play?”

Over the course of the next two weeks, the playing had begun. My students were charged with the task of choosing a moment in their lives that has, and continues to, shape them as individuals.  As students took to their Writer’s Notebooks and scribbled words and ideas as they began to chronicle the very moment that guided their paths – struggle, strength, and empowerment; you could feel the intensity.

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Since my time at UNHLIT13 this summer, I have been experimenting with ways in which to inspire my students’ writing.  While asking students to ‘play with’ their five senses, short sentences, and personification may seem like a tall order, or at the very least, completely random; I realized they were willing to try.  (I’m still not exactly sure why I grouped these three concepts together.  I’ll chalk it up to trusting a whim!) As each skill was introduced, it was partnered with Mentor Activities and/or Mentor Texts so students could see how other authors used these strategies.  Take a peek – Craft- Mentor Texts, Activities and Skills

I know giving students the time to think through what they’re thinking (I love this concept!) is vital to building their self trust, worth, and importance as writers.  So, I made sure to do just that.  I took each concept and taught it as a separate entity so students could narrow their focus to just one concept at a time.  We started with the five senses.

And yes, while the five senses have been part of their writing journeys for the last ten years, I was asking them to do it in a way that was elevated – full with adjectives and adverbs – so we could start with the fundamentals and work our way through.  A mentor activity involved pairing students together so they could collectively guide their readers on a vibrant, sensory tour of a destination.  Giving students access to this foundational, yet imperative, practice empowered them.  They made the leap from understanding the descriptive power of touring a destination to the descriptive power in bringing their own moments to life.  Here is an excerpt from one young woman’s journey:

I remember picking her up off them white sheets on the hospital bed and laid her on my white spaghetti strapped dress that was then covered in the blood that fell from baby N’s mouth.  I rocked her and rocked her until she got cold and stiff.  I held her hands.  Her little fingers got hard around my finger and I couldn’t even get my finger out of hers. 

I breathe deeply.  Saniyyah’s use of setting and color infuses wonderfully into the stark reality of what is happening.  You can’t help but to be invested, and then saddened, through this experience.

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This summer, I also had the luxury of moving through Dave Cullen’s work (Columbine) with my ever- wonderful book group consisting of Amy, Emily and Lauren; and it could not have been a more exhilarating experience.  For the first time I was combing through a text, peering in with the scope of a writer not a reader.  This was formative in elevating my own view on literature and imperative for my students.

So, when we started studying Mastering the Short Sentence, I brought Columbine into our community and shared how beautifully (and masterfully) Cullen utilizes this technique.  (How could I not?!  It was where my own literacy scope shifted profoundly.)  The short sentences were highlighted prior so when students received their copies the ‘skill’ jumped out at them immediately upon first glance.  We took our time in debunking their individual power.

I also showcased some of my own writing with Day One Disaster? to show students where and how I played with this technique.  When I have writer’s craft questions, I secretly wish I had the opportunity to converse directly with the author who made the decisions, yet in most cases I’m left to my own analysis.  So sharing my efforts (albeit scary at times); affords students the opportunity to engage in dialogue around specific techniques, writing, and literacy as a whole.  Here’s an excerpt from a writer who is willing to take risks:

“I have a confession… I like you more than a friend and I think we will make a great couple”, he began to say. He stutters and chokes on his words. It was so cute to see him choke on those words.

My body starts to fill up with all sorts of amazing emotions. It’s unexplainable. I can’t think straight. He asks me what I think about him. My plan was to say I feel the same way.

Or, so I thought.

The next thing that comes out my mouth changed my whole life completely.

My heart and soul is working against each other like the U.S. vs. Vietnam. Blood and Crips.  A war against Heaven or Hell.

“I think I love you Sherwin”

Everything stopped. Everything except my heart.  Beating ever so loud at that. Boom, boom. Boom, boom.

The court case: Ife’s heart vs. Ife’s mind is finally over. My heart wins.

I’m Free.

Do we not all remember specific encounters with love?  Ife uses the power of short sentences to bring us into her piece; shares her inner-most thoughts with us, and affords us the opportunity to watch her play with mastering the use of short sentences.

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If you haven’t had the chance to read I AM MALALA by Malala Yousafzai, make it a priority.  This piece is so beautifully written that I found myself rereading excerpts just to hear the words (and arrangement) over and over.  Beyond the craft, you can’t help but to take this young woman (and her journey) home with you, on your morning commute, to a coffee house on a rainy afternoon…or into your classroom to book talk and indulge in during independent reading.

I burst into class the day we started studying personification with MALALA and projected, “M’s, p’s and k’s were all enemies lying in wait.”, a line so eloquently phrased I read it three times over and each time students were awed that Malala chose to chronicle her father’s speech impediment so carefully, precise, and through the use of personification.  They couldn’t wait to try it out in their writing:

Cue me, seven or so years old standing on the flat of the plateau that was my grandfather’s land. A red hillside dirt road leads to a house, body made of wood and a roof of zinc. Being in front of it after all those decades of it being desolate, you almost felt as though the termites couldn’t eat away at it faster than the unfilled silence of children turned adults.

Kurt explores the use of personification while journeying his readers through this historic moment in his life.  “The body made of wood”…wow.

 

I am in awe (you can see why).  I am awed by students’ bravery, courage, and commitment to developing their moments and their crafts.  Who would have thought that the five senses, mastering short sentences, and personification would prove to be a beneficial trio?  While I was riding the wave of a whim, students were firmly grounded in their trust – trusting me to guide them and trusting themselves in taking risks.

What skills and techniques have you (accidentally!) combined to challenge and motivate students to push beyond their limits in writing?    

Reel Readers for Real Reading: Sarah’s Key

Amy Rasmussen, Book Trailers, Readers Workshop November 7, 2013 Leave a comment

ReelReading2When my friend Tess got all her world literature novels, one of the hot student favorites proved to be Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Tess called my room to see if I had another copy. Sadly, I did not– then.

I remembered how much I loved the movie, and while I know that books and movies are often very different, I could see why students were clamoring for this book.

My copy of Sarah’s Key should be here by the time this post runs. I’m sure when I show the movie trailer I’ll have a waiting list of students eager to read it. I already have one young man and another young woman who are passionate about Holocaust literature. My collection of this genre grows year after year because I love it, too. So many tragic yet heartwarming stories that teach and remind us to love.

For the past several years I’ve taken students to the Holocaust Museum in Dallas. We’ve listened to survivors speak to us on several occasions. Sadly, they are all getting so old. In a very few years, these great warriors of a terrible time will be gone. It will only be through great literature that we keep their stories alive.

What is a Reader Anyway?

Guest Post, Readers Workshop November 6, 2013 1 Comment

Guest Post by Marla Robertson

As a teacher of undergraduates in a pre-service teacher course for future 4-8 teachers with various goals for future endorsements – Generalist, English/Language Arts, Math, Science, etc., part of my community building/getting to know you activities this semester included having each student fill in two surveys – one each about their Reading and Writing habits. I ask similar questions when I am presenting at teacher conferences to get a feel for where my audience is in their beliefs about reading and writing and about themselves as readers and writers.

I have noticed a pattern in the type of answers that I get to these questions in particular:

Are you a reader?

Are you a writer?

No matter what context I am in – at a conference with practicing teachers or in a classroom of pre-service teachers – the majority of participants say, no I am not a writer. This answer has been universal. I’ll address my thinking about writing beliefs at a later date, but….

Most participants usually acknowledge that they are a reader to some degree but often qualify that answer in some way. Like, “Yes, I am a reader but I don’t have time to read because I’m in school”, or “Yes, but I only read _____(insert type of reading here), or “No, I only read …..”

These responses about reading led me to wonder – just what is the definition of a reader?

Google says that a reader is a person who reads or who is fond of reading. That’s it! That’s the

My daughter took this photo after a library visit. If the books were turned around so the titles were visible, her sophomore Pre-AP English teacher would have been appalled at the types of books Courtney was reading because they weren't considered good literature in her eyes. That teacher never cared that Courtney was an avid reader outside of school, only that she didn't like to fill out the worksheets and read the assigned readings for class the way her teacher wanted her to. Luckily Courtney never cared what that teacher thought and continues to devour YA fiction anyway.

My daughter took this photo after a library visit. If the books were turned around so the titles were visible, her sophomore Pre-AP English teacher would have been appalled at the types of books Courtney was reading because they weren’t considered good literature in her eyes. That teacher never cared that Courtney was an avid reader outside of school, only that she didn’t like to fill out the worksheets and read the assigned readings for class the way her teacher wanted her to. Luckily Courtney never cared what that teacher thought and continues to devour YA fiction anyway.

dictionary definition – no qualifications, no buts or exclusions. But when asked that question, what do people really think? Do people narrow that definition to exclude the types of reading that we do as a part of our everyday life, like reading the newspaper, surfing the web, reading our favorite magazine, etc.?

What about the reading that people do for their job? Does that type of reading qualify them as a reader? A friend of mine told me once that her husband doesn’t think of himself as a reader because he only reads non-fiction. If we as adults qualify ourselves as readers by the type of reading that we do, then it’s not surprising that our students may do this as well.

So, is a student who reads comic books/graphic novels a reader? How would they answer this question?

Does a student who reads about hunting (insert personal interest here) by perusing articles in the latest hunting magazines qualify as a reader?

Is a student who gets online and searches out all the information they can find about their favorite boy band, One Direction (or any other topic of personal interest), a reader?

Is the person who scans Facebook posts, reads Twitter feeds, loves roaming around Pinterest (or any other app) – are they a reader?

Can a reader be someone who is in school and is constantly reading textbooks, articles, or other assignments related to their coursework,

… or do they have to be reading a novel to be a reader?

So what do you think? How would you answer this question….

Are you a reader?

Whether your answer is yes or no or qualified in some way, switch to wearing your teacher hat and think about your students – what is your definition of a reader….for them?

Is it the same or is it different?

I know for myself as a teacher, I have to be careful that I don’t narrow the definition of “reader” to mean a person who reads novels, which is probably my definition of being a reader when applied to myself.

What do you think? In our role as teachers do we need to consider our perspective of what it means to be a reader and how we apply it to our students?

How can we help our students come to believe that they too can be a “reader” if they do not consider themselves as one already?

Marla Robertson currently teaches undergraduate literacy courses at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas to budding teachers.  She is a Teacher Consultant for the North Star of Texas Writing Project and strives to keep current on the latest research and trends in reading and writing instruction.  She is passionate about advocating for authentic purposeful writing opportunities for students of all ages and believes that everyone has a story to tell. She can be reached at mkrobertson2009@gmail.com.

When a Student Tells You What to Teach: Sweet

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Books, Readers Workshop, Readers Writers Workshop, Writers Workshop November 4, 2013 1 Comment

I mentioned before that I gave a Pulitzer Prize winning novel to one of my AP English students recently. He gave it back to me three days later.

“Did you read it?” I asked.

“Well, I tried,” he said. “There’s just too much description. I couldn’t get into it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know exactly, but it’s the kind of book you should pull passages out of and teach with,” he said.

Okay, then.

I still haven’t read the novel Tinkers by Paul Harding, but I did take a look to see what Levi meant. (He’s a bright young man–taking both AP Lit and Lang his junior year.)

Just read the first page. You’ll see what I did.

Yes, I can teach some skills with this. It’s beautiful, and now I’m reading it– on the lookout for mentor slices that engage and inspire great reading and writing.

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Reflecting on Connections

Amy Rasmussen, Twitter October 26, 2013 1 Comment

ocsI’ve been thinking about connections. With Connected Educator Month coming to a close, many of you might be thinking about it, too. I’ve read chats and tweets about what it means to be connected, and I’ve thought a lot about what being connected has meant to me in learning how to be a better teacher.

My husband had me take the Six Human Needs test designed by Cloe Madanes a few years ago. According to Cloe’s research, we all have two needs that drive us and influence our decisions, behaviors, and actions. Of Significance, Certainty, Uncertainty, Contribution, Connection, Growth, my driving needs are growth and contribution. Learning this was not surprising, and it explains in part why I became an educator, and why I love to help other teachers grow in their practices.

While connection didn’t rise as one of my primary needs. It’s impossible to contribute and grow as a teacher with out connections. I have many.

photo @2003 Anselm Hook Flicker

photo @2003 Anselm Hook Flicker

I connect with my peers in the English department as we talk about the needs of our students, design lesson plans, and try to help students succeed. I connect with my colleagues in other content areas as we meet in faculty meetings, school activities, and crowded hallways.

Then I have my North Star of Texas Writing Project connections, the amazing educators that make up our Teacher Consultants. It’s because of them I am a confident presenter, researcher, writer, and workshop teacher.

Much of my confidence comes from the connections I’ve made on Twitter. Joining chats with my teacher heroes, receiving responses to questions, discussing issues with other professionals with similar challenges, all these connections help me improve the instruction in my room and the relationships with my students.

The relationships I made this past summer at the University of New Hampshire Literacy Institute changed my teacher soul forever. The connections made there gave me hope on more than one occasion. Emily, Erika, and Shana allow me to contribute and grow on a regular basis, and I am grateful for their insights and encouragement in my life. It can be difficult being the only teacher on my campus who believes in the power of a readers/writers workshop classroom. Support from these friends, even as far away as CA, WV, and Brooklyn, NY, comes at the most opportune and significant times. (Of course, the Words with Friends games help our camaraderie, too. What English teacher doesn’t want to beat another one at a word game? BK, join us!)

So today as I reflect on my week of blog posts, comments, and shared goals for students, I am thankful. Thankful for new connections, new friends, and even new challenges as I keep writing, keep sharing, keep trying to change the way I reach the students in my care.

Thanks to all of you, my connected educators.

Part II. In an AP Class, Shouldn’t It Be about the Reading?

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Books, Readers Workshop October 25, 2013 Comments: 2

Angels sang to me again today. This doesn’t really happen too often, but when it comes to awesome adventures with students and books, the choir starts belting out in fff.

Based on the feedback to my post on Wednesday, I know many of my peers feel the same way as I do about AP students and reading–or not reading–as the case may be. I appreciate the comments and the emails and the encouragement. (I gave a student the Pulitzer Prize Winner Tinkers today, and another one asked for a copy of The Great Gatsby with no prompting from me whatsoever. I know I am doing something right here.)

I’m pretty much the advocate for independent reading on my campus. I talk about it every chance I get: slip it into a conversation here, there, and everywhere. Sometimes the words work their way into another teacher’s thinking, and Hallelujah! the angels bust out in song.

Read this email I got from my friend, Tess Mueggenborg. She teaches our gifted and talented Globesophomores in a special humanities course, which combines AP World History and Honors English II, and AP Literature. She and I share a lot–some things curriculum related, other things not. When we first worked together six years ago, it was as a team teaching the G/T course: me English/her history. I can tell you this:  Tess loves classic literature–some of which I’d never heard of. Gilgamesh, Horus the Hawk. Sigh.

For the past few years Tess’s heart’s been changing (I say that tongue in cheek because her heart is shiny gold), and she’s allowed for much more student choice in all her English classes. This fall she asked for funds to create a World Literature library of contemporary and complex books for her advanced students. Our ELA coordinator granted the request, and. . .

Read this. You’ll hear the choir.

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Thought you might like to hear (and read) what’s going on with the new novels in World Experience … Last Friday, we had a day of “book speed dating.”  The students had about 60 seconds with each novel, and if the book interested them, they put a sticky note with their name on the back cover.  Then we divvied up the books, which proved to be arduous but entertaining.  Some of these kids were REALLY passionate about which book they ended up with! Today, they had their first assignment (other than “start reading!”) – a blog post.  Here are the questions I posed:

By now, you should be 1/4 to 1/3 through your novel (if not more!).  Based on what you’ve read thus far, answer the following questions on your blog.

1. How many pages are in your novel?  How many have you read?

2. Who is the protagonist (main character) of your novel?  What is the main conflict this person faces?  What are some possible outcomes that you foresee for this person?  (In other words: guess the ending.)

3. In a well-developed paragraph (with text evidence), respond: so far, what do you like about your novel?  What do you not like about your novel?  Why? Explain.

4. Based on what you’ve read thus far, would you recommend this book to someone else?  Why?  Explain.

5. Pick ONE quote that has stood out to you from the novel.  Give the quote, then explain: what made this quote stand out to you?  How does this quote relate to the whole novel?

And here are the links to several of their blogs:

Chris is reading Transatlantic: http://keyboardandseafood.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/transatlantic-novels-assignment-part-1/

Neha is reading The Namesake: http://neha614.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/assignment-for-1024-the-namesake-part-1/

Nico is reading All the Names: http://nicolasrequena28.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/novels-response-1024/

Rafael is reading Enrique’s Journey: http://parrarafael872.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/enriques-journey-part-1/

Angelica is reading Girl in Translation:  http://perezangelica477.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/novels-part-1/

Aaliyah is reading The Secret Life of Bees: http://aaliyahgonzalez.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/novels-part-1/

Overall, I’m really pleased with the results I’m seeing thus far!  Many of the students aren’t as far into their books as I had hoped they would be, but they all seem genuinely interested to keep reading.  I’m definitely getting more traction with these novels than I have with the literature I’ve done in the past for this unit (“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” plus Islamic and Chinese poetry).  Next week, I’ll start having them tie the cultural content of their novel to the things they’ve learned about World History thus far.  I’m VERY curious to see how that goes!

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I ran down to Tess’ room the first chance I got. I was too excited to respond in an email. The books Tess filled her shelves with are rich and diverse. Here’s her list: World Literature Library

As I left her room, one comment made me smile:  “I’d still be using the classic lit, if the students would read them.”

And that’s my point: In an AP Class, Shouldn’t It Be about the Reading?

In an AP English Class, Shouldn’t It Be about the Reading?

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Books, Readers Workshop, Readers Writers Workshop October 23, 2013 Comments: 24

This is my fifth year to teach AP English Language and Composition. Every year I can pretty much predict during the first grading period which students will pass the AP exam with a qualifying score. See, my campus practices true open enrollment: any student that wants to challenge herself with PreAP or AP classes may. We have no prerequisites. Any student that demonstrates a strong work ethic, attends tutorials, and tries hard can pass my class, but she may not pass the AP exam in the spring– if she is not already a reader.

Photo by Seasonal Wanderer

It’s a lack of reading skills that gets students every time. The multiple choice portion of the test is a killer with four to five passages and usually 55 questions, which must be answered in 1 hour. I can teach test-taking skills that will help my students do better on this part of the exam, but if a teen is not already a reader when he comes to me, I can rarely help him learn the vocabulary and critical reading skills needed to score at least 50% of the questions correctly (the minimum goal for the mc portion of the test). I’m a pretty good teacher, but the AP exam is difficult, and my magic wand only has so much power.

Many of my students do not come from homes with reading role models. Their parents are hard working immigrants who do not have funds to invest in books. Quite simply, most do not identify themselves as readers. Of course, there’s the few. The students who had an older sibling or a teacher or a librarian (or sometimes a parent) push books into eager hands. These are the students I predict will find success on the AP test come May.

For four years I’ve tried to figure this out:  If it’s the readers who can pass the exam, how can I get more students to be readers? It should be simple.

I tried the classic route. It simple didn’t work. I used to assigned six novels, all the best-loved American literature; and just this summer in a brief Facebook exchange, a former student confirmed what I already knew. She said, “I loved the class, but I didn’t read one book.”

She was not the only one, and my feeble attempts year after year to get students to read, and their feeble attempts year after year to pass my assessments, proved that the classic route was not taking my students on the road they needed to go. They still weren’t readers.

I assert that most high school students do not read the assigned texts, especially classic novels that they can read about online–learning just enough to join a class discussion, write an essay, or pass a test. They might learn the gist of the novel, maybe even get the jokes alluded to in pop culture, but they are not reading.

And that is what I want:  I want to foster readers.

Yesterday I sent out a tweet:

I’m spending grant $. Please, what are the hottest reads in your HS English class library? Thanks for sharing titles. #engchat

Many people responded with several titles i didn’t know, and my shopping list got longer. But I also got this response:

XXXXXXXXXXXX 21 Oct (I deleted the name to protect the not so innocent.)

@AmyRass My Juniors are reading: Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Scarlet Letter, The Road, Gatsby, Things They Carried, Other Wes Moore, Catcher

I responded with this:

@xxxxxx Thanks for sharing. Great books. Are they reading those titles as free choice? If so—impressive.

And the answer was this:

@AmyRass They are chosen from a list we gave them. I also am fortunate to teach some very bright students.

Hmmm. I wish I could poll those students. I’d bet my farm, if I had one, that very few are actually reading those books. To roughly quote Don Graves: “Choice without [a kind selection] is no choice at all.”

I do things differently. I’ve abandoned the whole class novel like I allow my students to abandon books, (although I know there are some cases when reading the same text can lead to useful instruction. Don’t hate.) My students read during the first 10 minutes of every class. I talk about books as often as I can. I add new books to my shelves that I know students will read. (I bought three copies of Allegiant this afternoon because I know Ashley, Kathryn, Sierra, Adrian, and Diego are waiting. There will be a clamor in the morning.)

Is it hard to devote 10 minutes of a 50 minute class period to reading? Yeah, at first–when the traditionalists tried to drag me back to the dark side. Then I had my students blog about their reading lives over the last seven weeks. So many of them wrote about how they’ve read more books in seven weeks than they read the whole of their sophomore year. Three, four, five books. Already.

I am glad they are reading YA literature. I know it doesn’t have higher-level vocabulary. I know that it doesn’t have sophisticated syntax. I also know that my students like it; they are reading after all.

This quarter I will push students into harder texts. Just yesterday, I put a stack of memoir, historical fiction, non-fiction, and classics on every table, and I talked books. I challenged students to add to their What To Read Next list, and I gave descriptions of characters and hints at plots. I’d like students to read a sampling of different genres–try a graphic novel or a NY Times Bestseller–because so many teens don’t know what they like–yet.  If they don’t meet the challenge? It’ll be okay, as long as students keep reading.

Today Yulissa asked for Cut. Luis asked for Unwholly. Esmeralda read A Child Called ‘It’ in 24 hours and went straight to A Man Called Dave when she walked in the door. Anthony started reading The Lord of the Flies, and Stephany asked for an award winner, so I gave her a stack of six to sort through–all had Printz or National Award or Pulitzer emblems. Tomorrow will be similar. We’re nine weeks into the year, and reading’s become routine.

I may not be able to give all my students the skills they need to master the AP Lang exam, but I am giving them the time they need to plant the seeds of those skills. They’ll sprout and take root and begin to grow, and maybe, just maybe, my students will have the stamina they need to succeed in college, and, maybe that stamina will help them succeed in life.

That’s more important than an AP exam anyway.

I’d love to know the reading habits of the AP English students on your campus. Are they (fake) reading? or really reading?

The Practicalities of Reading Workshop

Amy Rasmussen, Books, Erika Bogdany, Readers Workshop, Readers Writers Workshop, Shana Karnes October 19, 2013 Leave a comment

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Incorporating reading workshop into your curriculum is easy once you have access to lots of great books for your students.  Some of you might be lucky enough to have a wonderful librarian at your school who cultivates a diverse collection of books (like I was last year), but others may be without that (like I am now).  After running into dead ends with our school and public libraries, I thought the best solution was to focus on building my own.

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Books donated from a Donors Choose project

Anyone who is a reading fiend like me knows that books are expensive.  Because I haven’t won the lottery yet, I had to seek alternative means for funding my future fabulous library.  Great suggestions from Amy and Erika led me to Donors Choose, an amazing charity website that funds classroom projects for teachers.  Writing grants on this website has netted me over $1,500 worth of books of my choice!  I also had great success with Half Price Books, who donated hundreds of young adult and teen novels to my classroom.  Lastly, I’ve tapped an unusual resource–local businesses.  Large companies like Target, Sam’s Club, and Kroger have a budget they can only use for donations, and anything they give is tax deductible.  I wrote letters to these businesses explaining my needs, and they have donated gift cards each month, netting me a total of $450 in books.  All of this grant/letter/request-writing has paid off, and I’ve been able to build a large, dynamic library.

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Once I had my books, I knew I wanted to organize them in a fun way that spoke to my teaching style.  My students and I came up with some inventive categories–“Top Shelf Lit” (classics, which are actually on the top shelf), “Bloodsuckers” (vampire novels), “LOLz” (humor), and “well that was intense” (books about death/powerful issues that will make you cry).  A wonderful problem I’ll need to tackle soon is where to find another bookshelf!

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I’ve already written about fangirling in such a way that gets students excited and informed about books.  Once a student knows what he or she wants to read, the only problem is tracking that book down.  I took an idea from Emily and started a “reading wait list” whiteboard, where students can leave a public request for something they’ve been clamoring for.  In terms of determining who’s got what, I have a binder that lies on the cabinet near the bookshelf where kids check books in and out.  Because I show them my grants and letters, and I rip open the boxes of freshly-delivered books in front of them, they can see the hard work being done to build the library.  I think that’s what makes them so conscientious about returning books, because they’ve been great about that so far.

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Once you’ve built your library, and once your students are reading the books they’ve been dying for, you have to somehow keep track of all that they’re doing.  I’ve modified Penny Kittle’s excellent reading log sheets just a bit to make tracking my students’ reading easier.  These logs get passed around every bell, and students write down what page they’re on of their independent reading book.  I’ve added a “Last Friday page #” column, in which they copy down their latest page number from the previous week.  This makes giving them credit for weekend reading much simpler.  At the end of the week, my student Teacher Assistants count up the pages read and write them in the column on the far right.  It’s a simple matter to compare this number to the students’ reading rates and give them a quick grade based on how much they’re reading (two hours per week is the requirement).

So, there you have it…all of my tips and tricks for building, organizing, keeping track of, and assessing the reading of books in a classroom library.  I’m still working hard to keep improving mine, and I’m sure things will continue to change.  However, it seems like my current system is doing its job, since I found this note on my desk yesterday after school…

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…and there’s no more rewarding way to end your week than that.

 

Authenticity: Making it Real with Student Blogs

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Readers Writers Workshop, Social Networking, Student Blogs, Technology, Writers Workshop October 18, 2013 Comments: 5

North Star of Texas Writing Project (NSTWP), in which I am a teacher consultant, asserts that authenticity is connecting student learning with significant audiences, tasks, and purposes.

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Blogging with my students is one way in which I make that connection happen. Writing posts and commenting on the work of our peers has become an integral part of my readers/writers workshop classroom.

photo: Petras Kudaras

During the second week of school, once schedule changes calm down a bit, I introduced the idea of blogging to my students. This year I wrote a post on my class blog and imbedded an article that made them see that blogging can have value to their futures. You can see that here.

I’ve had students use Edublogs as their blog platform in the past, and I know some teachers have their students use Kidblogs. I decided to go with WordPress this year. I thought using the “real world” blog platform would be a good idea. You know, just in case some students loved the idea and kept writing long after they leave my classroom. Finally, eight weeks into the school year, I am glad I went this route, but the set-up, especially with my 9th graders took a lot longer than I’ve had to spend in the past. (Most of my students are not as tech savvy as many technology advocates would like to believe. For more on that read this post:  Digital Novices vs Digital Natives.)

These are some ways I’m transforming my teaching by using student blogs this year (See this SAMR model for ideas on instructional transformation):

Timed Writing. I need students to be able to think quickly about a topic, organize their thoughts, and write effectively in a short period of time. Years ago I had students complete timed writings on paper with a pen, and I’d take the stack of essays home and laboriously grade them. By having students post to blogs, my classroom is getting close to being green. We do very little writing on paper anymore. I can read student posts with the swipe on my finger on my iPad, and I try to leave comments that inspire improvement in their writing. Sometimes I put the score from a rubric. Most times I say something I like about what students have written. They like that kind of feedback best, and it usually prompts some kind of improvement in their next post–something that rarely happened with the marks of my red pen.

For our first timed writing, students wrote about their reading lives. We spend 10 minutes at the beginning of each class period reading our self-selected books. I conference with each student, brief one-on-one chats. I learned more while reading student posts about their reading habits than I did in the prior eight weeks of school. I posted a reflection of my own reading life on my class blog with the actual assignment, and then students wrote on theirs. The response to our wide reading warmed my teacher heart. Read a few of these students’ posts, and you will see why: Helen–A Path Led by Wise Words; Gina–Lay Down the Bridges; Mian–A Passion for Books; Emilio–Reading Life

Our second timed writing, students wrote an argument in response to our in-class study of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar.” Some student posts were thoughtful and wise; most were ineffective and needed major revisions. All students wrote and showed what they’d learned from their reading and our class discussions.

Persuasive Practice. The AP Lang exam and the 10th grade STAAR test both require students to be effective persuasive writers. I like this blogger’s post:  Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay. As I teach my students how to use persuasive techniques, I also want them learning about their world. They have to know “stuff” to build their credibility after all. So every Monday my students write a post that they base upon something they read in the news. They scan headlines until they find a topic that interests them. Then they pull an idea from the article, and then they write an argument based on that idea. So far, we haven’t delved too deeply in the art of persuasion; we’ve talked mostly about form and structure and a few rhetorical devices, but some of my students have taken ownership of this weekly recurring assignment. Here’s a few to give you an idea:  Kathryn–Words Hurt; Ashley–Recycled Look or Recycled Lives; Jason–Smoking is Safer? Impossible; Adrian–Chemical Mistakes

Published Polished Pieces. As we move through different genres of writing, I need my students to fully immerse themselves in the process of creating effective and moving texts. We started the year with a focus on narrative. I know, it’s not on the AP exam or the STAAR test anymore. But story is so important. It’s what connects us as humans, and it’s story that has helped create a classroom community where students are not afraid to take risks and throw their hearts out on the page. While a few student narratives are not as polished as I would have liked prior to publication (grades being due always seems to interfere with authenticity), if you read just these three, you’ll see why story is important. I can be a better teacher to these PreAP students because of what I know from these posts. Esmeralda–Memories; Mercedes–What Do You Think About Moving? Bryanna–Why Batman?

I remember learning from Kelly Gallagher that students should write more than I can ever grade. Well, of all things in my teaching life, I’ve finally figured that one out the best. I cannot read every post my students write, but I can read a lot, and I can give a lot of feedback in a way that is meaningful so that students respond. We just started reading and leaving feedback for one another. I can already tell that this will be more valuable than just me giving feedback. After we spent two class days reading one another’s narrative posts, I had students tell me on their own narrative evaluations:  “I knew I could do better after I read other people’s.” For an example of our student feedback, read the comments on this one: Amy–Forever a Bye. The instruction I gave students was 1) Be polite but honest, 2) Bless something you think the writer did well, 3) Press a moment that needs more detail or description, 3) Address an issue of concern in regard to style, grammar, etc. For our first time, I’m proud of these students for the feedback they gave their friend.

Engaging student writers is often more than half the battle. So many times they have the attitutde “What’s in it for me?” By allowing students to choose their topics, and allowing them to express their true and authentic voices, I get better participation, and I get better writing, and I get to know the hearts and minds of my students.

That is all I ever really want.

photo: Dee Bamford

#NCTE13  Writing Teachers (Re)Inventing Literacy Instruction by Following the North Star

Reel Reading for Real Readers: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Book Trailers, Books, Readers Workshop October 17, 2013 Leave a comment

20130207-190708I’m starting an Award-Winning Books Only shelf. (Okay, maybe award winning authors, too.)

Since I am teaching only advanced classes, and since I am allowing students choice in pretty much anything of length they read, I want to be able to challenge students to take a step up the ladder to more complex texts than the YA literature they so readily pick up. Not than any student, advanced or otherwise, shouldn’t be challenged; not that YA is not great reading for all students. But, you know, I am supposed to provide the rigor for an AP class as required by the College Board.

I want Pulitzer Prize Winners and National Book Award Finalists and Man Book Prize Winners.

I want students to take on the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment of reading a Prize Winner.

My list of award winners is long, and it will take me even longer to purchase all the books I want. But I’ve started, and The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize Winning author, is the fifth on my shelf.

See the author talk about this Man Booker shortlisted title here: