The Coach's Corner
January's reading and writing thoughts, tips, and take-aways
I Hereby Resolve by Gail Boushey
As part of a longstanding New Year's tradition, we reflect on the past year and set our intentions for self-improvement, resolving to live up to these thoughts and actions throughout the year....Even with support, I have never been completely successful in keeping my New Year's resolutions. Apparently, I am not alone."
excerpt from "I Hereby Resolve" Issue #389, www.dailycafe.com
Make the change
Each day, I choose...
- to bring my best self to work each day.
- to see the best in people.
- to be an "encourager".
- to serve in any way that I can.
- to be thankful.
And most of all, and all-encompassing...
- I choose to love.
I know that some of these are challenges for me, the realist, but I choose to turn-around any thinking that combats these beliefs and strive to make these automatic in my daily life. Like Gail Boushey says, "I believe in them, I want to live by them, and I want people to count on me to stand for them." These are my story for the New year.
What can you be counted on for the New Year?
Reading, Writing, and Reminders
Revisiting Daily 5
One idea I found on the Daily Cafe website is to hold a Daily 5 Boot Camp. The author, Allison Behne, reviewed and practiced one of the Daily 5 tasks each day of her boot camp. She even encouraged her kids to wear any type of camo during that week. Behne also offered suggestions for each task. If you would like more information on them, just let me know and we can chat.
Writing about Reading
As I learned more about balanced literacy, and moved away from whole-class novel studies, I had my kids write weekly literary letters to me in their readers' notebooks. I read each letter and responded to each. While this was a valuable formative assessment, it was quite laborious. I realized over time that even though these letters were valuable, some of my kids were spending more time trying to write the letters instead of reading. Similar to the author of the article, I asked myself if the letter was becoming a chore. I know it was for me!
So what was the answer? How could I get authentic reading responses from my students? If the ultimate goal is to keep kids reading, but I need some documentation and they need some accountability, what are my options? In the article, Smith reiterated the need for student choice, and that is where my reflections finally led as well. Several options were presented in the article that really emphasized student creativity, and fostered in-depth critical thinking. Here are some of the examples:
- emotional time-lines of main characters
- setting/plot maps
- illustrations for a powerful scene
- title illustrations or cover designs depicting the theme or other literary device
- thought bubbles for characters
- letters between main characters
- letters of advice
- character or novel scrapbook pages
- heart maps for characters
- pulling out key phrases and writing about their importance
- author craft illustrations, maps, or charts
- turn the book or chapter into a comic strip
Now, I didn't use these exact choices, but I did give my students several options each week and then at some point, they would use their responses to write a letter to me about their reading. I found their letters to be more meaningful to them because they were sharing with me things that came from their own thinking and choices.
Looking back now, and applying our school John Collins' initiative, I can see using these student choice responses as a Type 1 or Type 2 writing, and then maybe twice a month have them still write a Type 3 letter or essay and combine their thoughts from several of their choice responses.
I think beginning by giving students choices in how they respond to their reading is a crucial first step in fostering depth and critical thinking necessary for writing reading responses.
Reminders
- Kindergarten: DRA2 for all students Jan. 20-Feb. 12.
- 1st thru 5th grade:
- Benchmark Assessment or Journey's Running Record for any student scoring below the 50th percentile on MAP due by Jan. 29