TRAILBLAZERS
PUSD Writing Project - Volume 1 Issue 22 - February 16, 2016
Dear Trailblazers
As we listened to various teachers, administrators, parents, and students talk about how writing workshop has changed them, we discovered that editing a video is similar to editing a story. Our challenge was to discover the narrative of our story and ultimately the heart of the story. Sound familiar? Telling a visual story is very much like telling a story in words.
With the use of a very large white board, lots of sticky notes, and dry erase markers, we attempted to connect all of the pieces into a coherent narrative that looks at where we started and where we are yet to go. Susy was an excellent listener and coach as we teased out the nuggets within each interview.
The video will debut on Thursday, February 25, 2016 at the PUSD Board of Education meeting. Please come show your support on this day if you're available!
~ Alyson & Jamie
Writing Workshop February Goals
- To demonstrate your own writing and process as a writer -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- during your minilessons and conferences.
- To build students' stamina and volume as writers.
Shout Outs
A Student Teacher Trailblazer
Using Quotes with Supporting Evidence
Setting Up for Writing
Small-Group Instruction
Mini Celebrations
NCES Leveled Library Book Room
Trailblazer District Leaders for Workshop
Planning Teacher-Led District PD
Planning Units Across Schools
ONLINE FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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 Great Pet Escape
The class pets at Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School want OUT . . . and GW (short for George Washington), the deceptively cute hamster in the second-grade classroom, is just the guy to lead the way. But when he finally escapes and goes to find his former partners in crime, Barry and Biter, he finds that they actually LIKE being class pets. Impossible!
Just as GW gets Barry and Biter to agree to leave with him, a mouse named Harriet and her many mouse minions get in their way. What follows is class-pet chaos guaranteed to make readers giggle . . . and maybe look at their class pets a little differently in the future.
Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths
What happens when you hold up a mirror to poems about Greek myths? You get a brand-new perspective on the classics! And that is just what happens in Echo Echo, the newest collection of reverso poems from Marilyn Singer. Read one way, each poem tells the story of a familiar myth; but when read in reverse, the poems reveal a new point of view! Readers will delight in uncovering the dual points of view in well-known legends, including the stories of Pandora’s box, King Midas and his golden touch, Perseus and Medusa, Pygmalion, Icarus and Daedalus, Demeter and Persephone, and Echo and Narcissus.
These cunning verses combine with beautiful illustrations to create a collection of fourteen reverso poems to treasure.
Maybe a Fox
A tale about two sisters, a fox cub, and what happens when one of the sisters disappears forever.
Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better than best friends, they’d be identical twins if only they’d been born in the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn’t such a fast—faster than fast—runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river they’re not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no one sees what happens…and no one ever sees her again. Jules is devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe, that—like their mother—her sister is gone forever.
At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born—half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast—faster than fast—and she senses danger. She’s too young to know exactly what she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the river, the human and shadow worlds collide.
Writing in alternate voices—one Jules’s, the other the fox’s—Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee tell the tale of one small family’s moment of heartbreak.
Important Dates - Mark Your Calendars!!!
WRITING UNIT PLANNING RELEASE TIME (see calendar invite for details)
February 16, 2016 ~ McKinley Grade 3
February 17, 2016 ~ Norma Coombs Grades 1, 2, 4, 5
Note: If you don't see your school or grade level listed, we're likely still working out the details.
WRITING LAB
Join us for our FINAL 2015-2016 Trailblazer Writing Lab for the 2015-16 school year. More information to come soon regarding location and specific goals.
April 18, 2016 ~ Writing Lab #4: Teacher as Researcher
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