Writing Good Conclusions: And now you know all about dogs. I hope you liked my story.

Ok, when you saw that title, what happened? Did your eye start twitching? You started to stutter, "N-n-n-no-n-n-not-not-again." Your hands began to shake as Cynthia Rylant turned in her grave.  I know kids write some pretty terrible conclusions, but, in their defense, so do adults. I have always felt that writing a conclusion is the hardest part of writing. I feel like my conclusions are redundant and uninteresting. They add nothing to the writing while failing to encapsulate my central idea. If I feel like that about conclusions and I'm an adult who's been writing for years, why would we expect kids to get it without lesson after lesson of explicit instruction? To help our kids write interesting and purposeful conclusions, we planned a similar lesson structure to our introductions lesson. You can find the lesson sequence (brief) and the sample anchor chart here.  First, the teacher shares an example of the type of conclusion being used in authentic text. Great samples include Sports Illustrated, National Geographic for Kids, and (sometimes, depending on your city) the newspaper!  Then the teacher discusses with the students: What strategy did the writer use to write this conclusion? Why should we try this type of conclusion? and adds it to the anchor chart below.

After adding the type of conclusion to the chart, the teacher modeled writing a conclusion similar to the one on the chart. It's important to think aloud during this model! We need to show kids what happens inside our brains so they can start thinking like writers! Using the teacher's model and the text model, the students write a conclusion in the same style. The teacher repeats this process with the other types of conclusions, until students have three different conclusions about the same central idea. The teacher and students then choose the best conclusion to add to their pieces.  Pin It

Currently.... I am being lazy.

It's been a really long time, but I thought this month I should link up with Farley's Currently!

So I'm sitting on my couch and the family is around. There's my hunny, his godfather (basically like an uncle), our good fried, and his parents. And me. And me is the one who doesn't care about football. 

So I'm sitting here, stuffed full of potato chips and dip, and trying to not be so disinterested in everything around me. Because when I'm that disinterested, I become Chore Girl. Whatever someone else wants done that they don't want to do because they're too absorbed in the game, I have to do. This includes things like getting more chips, throwing things away, refilling sodas. 

And that's why traditional gender roles stink. I should be able to dislike and be totally bored by the Super Bowl, but sit on my butt in front of the giant TV just like everybody else.

Oh! Truths & Lies: 1. I HATE Harlequin Romances. I can't find any value to them. I know some people really enjoy them, but they are the least interesting and most poorly written literature ever! To be honest, there are really only two pages in each book worth reading.... and I bet you can guess which pages those are. 2. I don't like regular sodas- so true! I really like Diet Dr. Pepper... and that's it! 

3. I loooooove those little holiday slipper socks. I have, like, five pairs. Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day. I looked for Thanksgiving, but no luck. 
If you haven't checked out the Bright Ideas Blog Hop, you need to hop on over there! Here's my post and you can hop all around from there:

Hop over to Farley's and check out everyone else's Currently! Pin It

Bright Ideas Hop: Special Delivery Book Bags

I'm ridiculously excited to be participating in the Bright Ideas Blog Hop, created by Shelley Gray of Teaching in the Early Years! (This is my first hop, so I hope I can keep up!) Today I'm sharing a simple idea that can help create excitement about reading in your classroom. It's easy to use for kids of any age! Special Delivery Book Bags! Teaching kids how to read is important. But teaching kids to want to read is just as important! So we have to find ways to build in excitement about books into our day!

Charming!

Special Delivery Book Bags are an easy way to use simple materials to really engage kids in the joy of reading! Each teacher in my school was given a kraft gift bag and tubs full of fun crafting supplies! We went to town, glueing and cutting, sticking and glittering. 

Two Ways to Use the Bags

This teacher was especially excited about her BOOK-worm!

There are several ways to use the Special Delivery Book Bag to build excitement around reading and celebrate books.

1. The Book Fairy Delivers!
When you buy a new book, put it in your book bag on top of your desk, table, or another conspicuous place. When the kids come in, tell them that you found it there when you arrived at school! It's a special delivery! Later today, we'll open it up and find out what's inside! And what's inside? A NEW BOOK! TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH! You read it aloud and model the joy of reading.

A little sparkle never hurt anyone!

2. Find a buddy!
Have a support teacher or a neighboring teacher arrive at your classroom door during classtime with the Special Delivery Book Bag. "Special Delivery!" they declare when you open the door. You are surprised and say, "This is a surprise! What's in the bag?" After the normal amount of teacher pantomime and general building-up-ed-ness, you open the bag, cry for joy as you discover a new book, and stop everything to read!

Extra bling-y!

However you use it, this easy tip can help get kids thinking about the joy and discovery that comes with reading a new book!

If you're  looking for more great ideas, visit the next blog on the blog hop, written by at Cindy Feeney at Love Those Kinders! She shares a great tip about motivating kids to use paper, glue, and crayons to encourage learning from creative hands! Or check out linky party below to choose a topic that's up your alley! Thanks for hopping with us!

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Good Expository Introductions... it's time to let "Hi, my name is..." go.

Hi, my name is... Today I'm going to tell you about... Did you know... BO-ring! All of those are pretty uninteresting. But sometimes, that's all that students know to do when they're writing an introduction. Expository writing can be especially difficult, as students tend to use the above beginnings when they write about a topic.   

  To help them develop a better sense of what makes a good introduction (we're specifically calling them introductions in expository, rather than 'beginnings', in the hopes of differentiating from a narrative), we planned the following lesson. We chose to initially focus on three different types of introductions. Asking a question, a surprising fact, and description. Each of these needs to relate and include the central idea of the essay. 

Instructional Sequence: 1. Share a model introduction. Good sources for this include Time for Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids, etc. A real introduction from a real text is especially meaningful.  2. Discuss as a class - What did the writer do in that introduction? and Why should you use this strategy in your own introduction? 3. The teacher models writing the type of introduction about her own central idea. 4. Students practice writing that type of introduction about their own central idea. After the teacher has shared, modeled, and students have written their own, they choose the best one for their piece. 
Why It's Valuable: Writers use strategies to create interesting and meaningful writing. For students to learn to do this, it's important for them to see real models of writers using these strategies effectively. Then they have to think as writers - why did the writer choose this strategy? How did they do it? Why is it effective? By requiring them to try each introduction before choosing their best one, we're diversifying their writing abilities. We want kids to be able to make choices in their writing to see which strategies best convey the message to their reader. If they're always stuck using the same types of writing strategies, they're limited in their options. We want to grow their awareness about writing choices and their ability to make them! What kinds of expository introductions do you teach your students? Pin It

Integrating Valentine's Day into your curriculum

Maybe I was mean when I was a classroom teacher. I can distinctly remember students asking at 8:00 on Valentine's Day, "When're we gonna pass out the sugar high-inducing stacks of sweets I brought?!" and I said, "Valentine's Day starts at 2:00. Don't ask about it again or it's not happening."
Youch! Harsh!
I mean, it worked, but really... lol 
This wasn't always the case. I usually tried to find a way to integrate something about the holiday into the current focus for reading or writing... or math... or something! To help you do the same, and avoid the cruelty that is the conversation above, I've put together several Valentine's Day themed products, available on TPT. 
Literacy Products Lovin' Literacy: Valentine's Day Research Mini-Project Differentiated tools to read and gather information on Valentine's Day symbols,  and represent it in a fun project!

My Heart Is Set... On Learning Idioms! Valentine's Day Idioms Book 2nd- 4th grade

Sweet Treat Word Work Pack Centers or Stations activities to practice rhyming words, syllables, and parts of speech. Designed for second and third grade.

Can't Buy Me Love Contractions Activities Heart-shaped contractions matching center or station and five handouts to practice contractions. Designed for third grade.

LoveBugs Synonyms and Antonyms Pack Center/station activities (great as file folder games) where students match synonyms and antonyms.
LoveBugs Plurals A cute center/station activity to help students practice how to make a singular word plural - when do you add "s" and when do you add "es"?  Designed for third and fourth grade.
Math Products
Sweet Stuff! Valentine's Day Math Centers or Stations Centers for fact families, adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers, multiplication facts, and odd/even. Designed for third grade.

Valentine's Day Graph Activities Bar Graphs & Pictographs with differentiated questioning! Designed for third grade.

Candy Hearts Math Use candy hearts to teach basic graphing, fractions and probability!  Designed for third grade.

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Join Our Book Study! Igniting a Passion for Reading, chapters one and two

As a Literacy Coach on my campus, one of my main roles is to develop teachers' (and my own) professional knowledge in the areas of reading and writing. I'm so excited this year about a new way I'm trying to do this: a professional book study!

Last year at a Book Fair, I saw this book and had to buy it.

It addresses exactly the issue we'd like to learn more about! How do we get our kids to become engaged readers who choose reading?
I read the first chapter and realized I had to share this great book with my teachers, too, so I set up an optional book study. I invited teachers to participate and my principal approved purchasing the books. After teachers told me that they were interested, we ordered the books and set our reading for the first session: Chapters One and Two. Last week, we met to discuss the first two chapters. 
As we settled down to discuss, one of the teachers told me, "I'm going to be honest." (Don't we like to say this when we think our listener won't like it?!) "Please do!" I said. 
"Over winter break, when I thought about reading this book, I looked at it and thought to myself, 'Why did I sign up for this? I don't have time for a book study!' And then I made myself read the first chapter and I thought, 'I love this book!'" 
She's not the only one I heard this from - several teachers stopped me in the hallway to tell me how much they enjoyed the book!
Yay! It's a challenge to find a book accessible to so many teachers who are so very busy. This book was a great choice.

Here's what we talked about during our book study!
Chapter One: The Missing Objective in the Teachers' Reading Lesson Plans
This chapter is basically an argument for us to realize the importance of aliteracy, or people who are able to read but don't. Layne explains that this is more of a danger and issue in America than illiteracy, as a higher percentage of people are aliterate than illiterate.  This is the quote I highlighted from that section: 52% of Americans ages 18 to 24 reported reading no books for pleasure in 2002, and that information evidence a 12% decline from the 1992 study.
What?! Over half of Americans read not one single book for pleasure in a year?! That's surprising to me. I guess a percentage of those people are unable to read, but a large percentage must be able but choose not to. And that it's declining is horrifying - what will that percentage look like this year? Does anyone read anymore? 
Sigh.

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So clearly, it's important to not only teach kids how to read, but to engage them in reading for enjoyment. 
There's one more great quote from this chapter I wanted to share:
If you believe, as I do, that reading is a choice and that it is not humanly possible to make anyone of any age reading anything, then perhaps some time spent looking at how we can impact students in such a way that they will be more likely to make the choice to read deserves our attention.
Yes. It does. Because we are constantly engaged in the mechanics and comprehension of reading, our students do not develop the love of reading. And because at home, they are constantly engaged in the mechanics and comprehension of video gaming, soccer practice, and all other hobbies/enterprises/activities, they aren't choosing to read. And what's more, we can't make them choose to read. 
So what now?
That's what Chapter Two is about.
Chapter Two: Coaches Who Know Their Players Win More Games
He's a smarty pants, isn't he? It's true. If you know your readers, you can better engage them in a book that will resonate with them. In this chapter, Layne shares a few strategies for doing this. 
Interest Inventories
Ok, so every year in August, I'd hand out a reading interest inventory to my kids and teach them how to fill it out. I'd collect the inventories and stick them in a folder with my other "documentation". And then I'd forget about them. I may have pulled out one or two with my more struggling readers, but I can't think of a time I successfully used one with my aliterate, or able but unwilling readers.  Layne explains that if we try to tackle everyone, it's impossible. And unnecessary! Why hunt for special books for Tony when Tony reads all the time? So he suggests that we target a few students and review their surveys. And then go book shopping.

Do we have to be told twice to go shop for more books? He goes book shopping for his disinterested readers and then hands them the book saying what he calls four magic words: "I thought of you."
Who doesn't want to be thought of? Often, this encourages kids to read the book you've shared with them, and that might be the book that helps them realize the beauty and joy of reading.
Goal Setting
Another strategy he writes about is setting goals. Not only does the student set goals for their reading; the teacher does as well. These goals could include how many minutes you'd like to spend reading per day or week, the genre of books you read, the number of books, or reading books by a specific author. 

Hats off to a New Year! Goal-setting product on TPT. 

Then he writes his goals on a large chart and records the students' goals on a handy sheet. This sheet is posted in the front of the room, at the back of the room, on a clipboard, on his desk, anywhere he may need it to confer with students about their progress toward goals.  As the year progresses, he follows up with individual readers about their progress toward goals in a simple, conversational way. He'll ask about how they're doing with reading more historical fiction and share a little about his progress toward reading more scientific texts. It's a pleasant way at moving readers toward more mature reading decisions. So that's our first book study session. I'm so excited to meet with my teachers again this week to discuss the strategies that he shares in chapters two and three! Check back again to read more about our conversations and learning!
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