engaging young writers

is written by Matt Glover and a well written sequel to Already Ready which I previously read and blogged. Matt Glover listens to young children and by listening is able to nudge children's writing development through book making. Listening is so important when nurturing our younger students. Their written expression will be at various stages and by listening, adults (being teachers and parents) are able to see the thinking, the details, and the thought our children put on paper which might appear simplistic at times.

This book focuses on what Matt refers to as entry points. To quote Matt, "Entry points are simply the angles from which we engage children in writing early on in their writing lives." He then dedicates a chapter to each type of entry point where he defines, provides narrative examples, and student work for the reader. There are three essential entry points; meaning, choice, and purpose. Essential entry points are fostered with deep engagement, emotional connections, time, ownership, and caring. When I think about my own best work or the work I enjoy, I am involved with some essential entry points and I can enjoy what I am doing. He follows with these types of entry points; invitational, story entry, experience, and interest.

While this book includes vingettes from preschool classrooms I found many more examples and text ideas to use in kindergarten and first grade. One unit he suggests to help foster meaning with kindergarten students is a focus on drawing to convey meaning. It makes so much sense, drawing will probably be how messages are conveyed in the beginning. He suggests mini lessons to help the children communicate better through drawing, which in turn helps them think and plan their writing. I am going to explore this thinking more.

I heard about this book from Carl Anderson when he was visiting here in Columbus, Ohio through The Literacy Connection's work. He highly recommended this book for understanding and fostering early writing and I couldn't agree more. I am confident I will refer to this during the upcoming school year.

48 hour challenge begins soon...

I'm gearing up to start the 48 hour challenge.

I'm thinking I might just get started and B will come home from a tball game with her Dad. N, my oldest has 10 girlfriends over to celebrate her 13th birthday. After walking for pizza and humoring her mother with a jeopardy game of, How well do you know N?, they are watching a movie with snacks. A, the middle one stayed back from the tball game and has a cozy spot on the couch with the big girls watching the movie and hoping N doesn't realize.

I'm wondering if I will continue reading my professional book of the moment or read the third in a series, with the first one being my favorite and the second one being okay.

Already Ready

Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover. I wanted to read this book next in my professional journey to kindergarten, it's essentially a sequel to About the Authors. This book is the outcome of Matt Glover trying ideas from About the Authors and sharing his thinking with Katie Wood Ray. I wanted to read this book because it included thoughts about kindergarten but I also believe it's important to understand where the children are coming from in their learning, this made it important to read about preschool writers, too. As we all know, children enter our room at different stages and knowing a little bit about before kindergarten and a little bit about first grade will help facilitate my instruction and understandings.

This book is based on the students writing picture books. They have the most experience with picture books and can refer to mentor text to help guide their work. These are the reasons Katie and Matt use picture books to guide the writing of their students.

-Picture books are familiar and lead themselves to meaning making
-Making picture books, having multiple sheets of paper ecourages more writing
-Making picture books, help children read like writers
-Making picture books, builds stamina for writers
-Children like it.

We can't forget, children like it. This book also talks about the importance of share time, conferencing and teaching with the children - side by side, nudging vs. pushing, and it's also important to use read aloud as a vehicle for instruction.

The biggest thinking I had while reading this book was the notion of NOT "under" writing on the students work. I kept thinking, How can I remember everything they are writing with two classes? The authors encourage the reader to honor students words by listening, saying them back to the students, remembering them and sharing them. I'm thinking I will need to record oral language on a conference sheet for a record of their thinking. Sometimes teachers record a students language to accompany their sketches to help reduce fatigue. Fatigue shouldn't happen if the teacher lets the students initiate writing and accepts them as the writer they are. Dictation isn't necessary if teachers send the message for students to know they are writing like a 4 or 5 year old. Some feel dictation helps others read the writing but Wood and Glover suggest if the student is present to share the book, using their oral language, then the text is read as it was intended to be read. These are just a few thoughts about NOT "under" writing with students that has given me new thinking and understandings. This text is filled with many more ideas teachers of younger students will want to explore.

End of the Year

My school year ended with students on Tuesday of this week. My third graders didn't really seem to want to go home for the summer. You know you've done your job when a community of learners come together and want to stay together. The end of the year is so busy and I feel like it just sneaks right up on all of us before we know it. Again this year, I woke up on the last day reflecting about our year and it was inevitable I was teary eyed before I walked out the door. I seem to forget how attached I get to each one of my students.

The last day is often filled with such kind words and thoughts from many people. As you might imagine the tears can continue to surface. This year my students worked with a parent in my room to video goodbye thoughts to me. These things were mentioned a lot. They liked not having assigned seats, bluebird monitoring, studying mealworms, and all the books in our classroom. In thinking about working with kindergarteners next year, I will continue not having assigned seats, study things very hands on, and make a great classroom library.

I was lucky to work with our new gifted teacher this year and we worked with the students together in my classroom, daily. I was blessed to have this colleague become my friend. She wrote me a note to end our year working together with a gift of a small notebook. I thought her words were very insightful but a wonderful reflection for all educators to think of.

"I decided on a small notebook that you can carry everywhere to record ideas for your blog, your lessons, your life. It is also a bit symbolic. You see each child as a fresh, new notebook, ready for filling with memories and lessons on life and love."

May we all strive for this, after we rejuvenate this summer.

Poetry Friday

I'd like to thank my daughter's third grade teacher for doing a poetry writing cycle with A! A is more successful with poetry because the pieces are shorter and mechanics break all rules. She enjoys playing with words in a simplier format. She is also more successful with poetry because she can write about her memories and emotions as she did here. This event happened four and a half years ago when she was five, what a memory!

Golf Cart


Falling out!

Not a pretty sight.

Falling out!

Not a pretty sight.

Ouch!

Cars stopped.

Ouch!

Cars stopped.

My dad ran out of the cart.

I felt scared and sad.

My dad ran out of the cart.

I felt scared and sad.

I got the blues. Wouldn't you?

I got the blues. Wouldn't you?

nctm.org website

I had the pleasure to attend my friend and mentor's retirement party last week. We taught together for the first seven years of my career and I tried to observe and learn everything I could. We have stayed in touch on and off through the years and even at his retirement party there I was motivated and pushed to reflect and think about best practices for myself and my students. After his current staff sang, carried out skits about his career, and spoke about him...he blessed us with his own thoughts. The room was filled with laughter and tears.

Part of his message led me to this post. In reflecting about his career, he urged his peers and shared some of his experiences with professional organizations and opportunities he's had being involved at levels outside the immediate classroom. There are opportunities for learning, sharing, and growing and I believe this is very important to keep fresh and a passion for what we do daily.

I had let my membership expire to nctm.org this year, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. When I began to think about this over the weekend, I realized I needed to belong again. One reason, was the need to check out their professional resources that are just fabulous and purchase those related to kdg. Another was for the current information related to mathematics teaching and their publication Teaching Children Mathematics. You might look for this in your school library in the professional journal session, if you have one. Through their Members Only area, one is able to find more lessons and resources to use, and you can search standards and principals in mathematics. Illuminations is a free resource with lessons, activities, web links that have been reviewed to help educators teach mathematics. Figure This! is a great free resource to help middle school families with rich engaging math challenges and advice for communicating with your child's school about homework and their math instruction. I have found things here to extend my higher students with problem solving. Children grow when they have to think a bit harder and are feeling challenged. You can also find some helpful things without being a member. Definitely a site to explore.

I have a bachelor's degree in elementary education with a multidisciplinary focus. It wasn't until a few years ago, I realized why I chose this focus beyond the reason that most of my hours would fit into it when I transferred schools. I love the integration of learning and all areas of our school day. I think this blog might include this, too.

About the Authors

by Katie Wood Ray with Lisa B. Cleveland. I heard about this book when it was published in 2004 while seeing Katie Wood Ray speak at a conference. I wanted to read it then but it didn't apply to my current teaching position. I am so glad I started my kdg. professional reading journey with this title! Section One supports teachers thinking about setting up and organizing a writing workshop. I felt as I was reading this, I was returning to the work I did earlier in my career and thinking based on the early work of Donald Graves. To quote the authors from the first chapter...

"Over time and with experience, we have to come to believe that it is the energy of making stuff in a daily writing workshop that drives all our teaching with our youngest writers. From the very first day of workshop we fold up the paper, staple it together so it looks like a book, and then say to the five and six year olds in front of us, "Come on everybody, let's make books!" It's this making of something that matters so much to them and drives their work across the year."

We know when the work is meaningful and purposeful there will be more engagement and more engagement leads to greater learning. Section Two guides teachers in thinking about minilessons, instruction with units of study, assessment, and writing conferences. All of the components that outline a workshop model for teaching. In this section, I found lots of valuable information but the following were things I underlined and may have stretched my thinking a bit more.

- "...assessment is important because it helps us maintain a celebratory attitude about our teaching.

-...we're supposed to teach the writer, not the writing.

-Our goal is that our conferences will leave children with energy for the work they're doing and that the teaching will also be leading children toward independence."

I highly suggest reading Sections One and Two to help your understanding and how to use Section Three with greater success. Section Three is a valuable resource to the teacher of writing. It's a collection of suggested units of study for our youngest writers. Studies that make sense to children. For example, the kinds of things writers make and how we'll make them in this room, how to read like writers, and how to make illustrations work better with written text are a few you will find.