TRAILBLAZERS
PUSD Writing Project - Volume 1 Issue 15 - December 7, 2015
Writing Workshop November Goals
- To implement daily writing conferences using the Research-Decide-Teach format.
- To create a system to keep track of daily writing conferences.
- To take time once a week during independent writing to write (collect, plan, draft, revise, edit...and not necessarily in that order) alongside your students.
Shout Outs
NCES Teachers Learn from AMLA Teachers
A Transformative Meeting Area
Using Our Own Writing As Mentors
It's That Time of Year! The Best Of Book Lists Keep Coming!
NSTA's Outstanding Science Trade Books 2016 (Books Published in 2015)
http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/ostb2016.aspx
NY Times Best Illustrated Books of 2015
NY Times Notable Children's Books of 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/notable-childrens-books-of-2015.html?_r=0
Publishers Weekly Best of List (along the top you will find links for Comics, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and more)
http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2015/picture-books
School Library Journal's Best of 2015
http://www.slj.com/best-books-2015/
Horn Book's Fanfare 2015
http://www.hbook.com/2015/11/blogs/read-roger/fanfare-2015/#_
Kirkus Review - Best of 2015 for Children and Young Adult Literature
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2015/finalists/young-readers/
YALSA's 2016 Finalist for Nonfiction for Young Adults
http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2015/12/2016-nonfiction-award-finalists-announced
Minnesota Public Radio Best Books for Children 2015
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/11/30/books-best-childrens-middle-grade
Best Multicultural Books of 2015
https://www.pinterest.com/csmcl/best-multicultural-books-of-2015/
NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Winners
http://www.ncte.org/awards/orbispictus
NCTE Charlotte Huck Winners
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Just before Thanksgiving, I once again attended NCTE and enjoyed attending many fantastic sessions and interacting with teachers and literacy leaders from all over the country. You have heard Jamie and I speak about Penny Kittle, Nancie Atwell, Lucy Calkins, Lester Laminack, Kylene Beers, Donalyn Miller and more. All of these amazing Literacy Leaders and more present regularly at NCTE.
If you have not checked out the NCTE website or resources or membership, please place this resource on your learning radar. The 2016 NCTE Annual Conference will be in Atlanta.
National Inclusive Schools Week: December 7-11, 2015
Websites & Blogs Worth Following
- Two Writing Teachers - https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/
- Nerdy Book Club - https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/
- Read Write Think (NCTE) - http://www.readwritethink.org/
- Chart Chums - https://chartchums.wordpress.com/
- Choice Literacy (some free and some paid here) - https://www.choiceliteracy.com/
- There's a Book for That - http://thereisabookforthat.com/
- Teachers Write - http://www.katemessner.com/teachers-write/
- Read Write Reflect - http://readwriteandreflect.blogspot.com/
- Watch. Connect. Read. - http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/
- A Teaching Life - https://ateachinglifedotcom.wordpress.com/
- The Goddess of YA Literature - http://professornana.livejournal.com/
- Kid Lit Frenzy - http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com/
- TC Reading & Writing Project - http://readingandwritingproject.org/resources
- Growing Educators - http://growingeducators.com/events/
- Heinemann - http://www.heinemann.com/blog/
- Stenhouse - http://blog.stenhouse.com/
- Scholastic - http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas
Columbia University's Teachers College Reading & Writing Project has a collection of classroom videos on Vimeo that take you inside reading and writing workshops at various grade levels. Check them out here: https://vimeo.com/tcrwp/albums
Books You Won't Want to Miss
The Only Child
Like Shaun Tan's The Arrival and Raymond Briggs's The Snowman, this gorgeous and imaginative 100-page graphic picture book is utterly transporting and original.
A little girl—lost and alone—follows a mysterious stag deep into the woods, and, like Alice down the rabbit hole, she finds herself in a strange and wondrous world. But... home and family are very far away. How will she get back there?
In this magnificently illustrated—and wordless—masterpiece, debut artist Guojing brilliantly captures the rich and deeply-felt emotional life of a child, filled with loneliness and longing as well as love and joy.
Stella by Starlight
When the Ku Klux Klan's unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella's segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era tour de force from Sharon Draper, the New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind.
Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can't. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn't bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they're never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella's community - her world - is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don't necessarily signify an end
All American Boys
In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.
A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galuzzi, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?
Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth
Important Dates - Mark Your Calendars!!!
Join us for our 2015-2016 Trailblazer Writing Labs! You won't want to miss these ongoing opportunities to come together as a community of writers and teachers of writing to dive deeper into various aspects of writing instruction.
These labs will be held on the B Mondays listed below from 2:00 to 3:30 P.M. Attendance is voluntary. Goodies will be given away at each lab to those who participate. Let's keep the energy alive!
#3 January 25, 2016 ~ Mentor Texts (Location: NCES 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.)
#4 February 29, 2016 ~ Small Group Work
#5 April 18, 2016 ~ Student Work & Resource Share
WRITING UNIT PLANNING RELEASE TIME (see calendar invite for details)
December 8, 2015 ~ McKinley Grades 2, 3, 5
December 9, 2015 ~ Norma Coombs Grades 1, 2
December 10, 2015 ~ Madison Grades K to 2
February 16, 2015 ~ McKinley Grades 2 to 5
February 17, 2015 ~ Norma Coombs Grades 1, 2, 4, 5
February 18, 2015 ~ Madison Grades K to 2
Note: If you don't see your school or grade level listed, we're likely still working out the details.
SCHOOL VISIT PD DAY:
We have finally secured subs to provide each of you with a day to visit a school that is deep in writing workshop implementation. You will see writing workshop in action in the classroom, walk-through a handful of classrooms to get learning environment/room arrangement ideas, and participate in a writing PD with us. It will be a great day of learning together! More information to come in the calendar invite.
December 3, 2015 ~ McKinley & Wilson Middle School Trailblazers (To Be Rescheduled)
December 15, 2015 ~ McKinley Gr. 2-5 Trailblazers + Madison Gr. 1-2 Trailblazers
Writing Lab #3
- To energize a community of teachers to explore the teaching of writing
- To develop a deeper understanding of what mentor texts are and how to use them
Monday, Jan 25, 2016, 02:00 PM
Norma Coombs Elementary School, Paloma Street, Pasadena, CA, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Alyson Beecher
Email: beecher.alyson@pusd.us
Website: http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com
Location: Pasadena Unified School District, South Hudson Avenue, Pasadena, CA, United States
Phone: 626-644-1642
Twitter: @alybee930