Calkins Writing Conference

     I have said before, and I will say it again, I am a bit of a celebrity stalker.  I do not restrict myself to literacy celebrities.  This blog has made no attempt to hide my current love for Christopher Lehman. But, I have also tried to stalk media celebrities.  I have talked to Vince Vaughn (and kind of sorta danced with him).   I also have a long history of stalking Tim McGraw at concerts, and have spoken to him and held his hand of sorts.  SO.... It might look like I stalked Lucy Calkins to get the picture above.  In fact, Lucy Calkins came up to US.  But, if she stopped and talked to me, I might as well have Jane and Felicia take a picture of it, right?  I mean, knowing my history?  The staff pictures were requested by our Admins, so I don't take credit for those.  :)

     My celebrity stalking aside...

     We went to The New Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, presented by Lucy Calkins, on Friday.  The writing core leaders and literacy coaches from each building went so that we can better support our staff as we continue our transition to Writing Workshop across the district.  I will not include every note I took, but the ones I found significant about setting up Writing Workshop.  Check with your writing core leader and literacy coach, though, as this is more of a summary than a comprehensive list.

    She started off talking about how Warren Buffett has gotten so successful as an investor.  He said that he attributes his success to his ability to say "No."  He has said NO a lot, but one "Yes" can get you far.  What is one priority for your district to say yes to?  She thinks the "yes" should be to writing.

    On a side note, this is exactly the same message that Christopher Lehman and Dr. Mary Howard have also used to either finish or start their presentations.  There are so many changes in education that it is impossible to do them all well on our own.  They might all think the thing we say "Yes" to is different, but they agree that we have to choose what we want to do well in.  That doesn't mean that we can't make more than one change, but it requires us to work with each other and collaborate a lot more than teachers have in the past.  The time of the "Lone Ranger" teacher is gone.

Knowledge is like air.  It is everywhere.  Do something with it.

     That might be more of a paraphrase than a direct quote, but her sentiment here has also been stated by others.  The children of today can google anything.  They can get facts everywhere.  It is what you do with those facts that matters.  That is the main shift with the Common Core standards.  She feels, as many do, that writing is the answer.  Show what you know through writing, and share it with others.

     She also said that teaching writing is accountable teaching.  The progress is evident and visible at a glance.  It is easy to see progress, or lack of progress, without looking very hard.  Writing is taught.  Kids need instruction to write well.  Volume can develop over time, but good writing needs to be taught.

    Volume doesn't just happen.  It develops.  Typically, in 40 minutes:

• 3rd graders produce 1 page a day
• 4th graders produce 1.5 pages a day
• 5th graders produce 2 pages a day

     What happens if your fifth graders don't do that?  Well, they probably won't if they haven't had writing workshop before.  They also won't if your writing workshop is only 2 or 3 times a day for 20 minutes.  It takes time.  

"Writers grow like oak trees in the fullness of time."

     

     She said that there are some simple necessities that we need to do.

1. Get writing.  For an hour block of day, as least 4 days a week.
2. Instruction shows.  Kids don't just stumble on writing.
3. Teach skills and qualities of writing in a logical sequence.
4. Engagement is everything.
5. Writing needs to be for readers.  There is no writing if there is no reader.  When you write, someone hears you!

Writing is a school wide commitment, and our most precious resource is kids' time.

     She spent a good chunk of time talking about about how important schedules and routines are.  You can't do writing workshop in scraps of times.  It would be better to skip it for a whole month and merge it with social studies or science than to teach it in scraps of time.  Partner routines needs to be taught.  Mini lessons need routines.  Transitions need to be quick.  Time is very important, and those structures and norms are taught by you.

     She also suggested that small groups need to happen before conferring can happen. That might be a whole blog post at another time.  But, you want to be able to choose who you work with, so the kids need to be able to write alone before you can pull groups or confer.  They need to build independence first, so that you are the "coach."  Train them to work together and teach each other.  Once again, this is all about setting routines right from the start.  

"We can't act like it's business as usual when we teach something and no one does it."

     She said that it should be a crisis if the mini lesson yesterday was about paragraphing, and today no one is paragraphing.  If they can do it, but they are not, then make it a crisis.  If they can't do it because they CAN'T, then get them there.  But if they can, make a big deal about it.  Make the mini lessons matter.

     She talked specifically about the three types of writing, but I will cover that another time. 

     One other interesting analogy that she made was that of her bends to LEGO blocks.  She said that each unit has three bends, and those bends are like LEGO bricks.  They can be connected anywhere.  So, my suggestion to Hiawatha to skip Bend 2 of the informational reading unit and possibly add it to the complex text unit later in the year wasn't crazy!!!  If it doesn't fit with your students where it is, you can attach it to another unit and build it there.

(Completely off track here, but go see the LEGO Movie.  It was amazing.)

Q and A with Lucy Calkins

We already covered that I spoke to Lucy Calkins.  I did use my words wisely.  I went there with questions, and questions I asked!

Q:  Are your units a professional development program, intended for teachers to use them and create their own units at the same time?

A:  Yes, but in the first year of implementation, follow the units.  When teachers start adding things the first year, things get a bit messed up.

My thoughts:
I agree.  Our kids have never used workshop.  We have never used workshop.  We are new to the common core.  Creating our own lessons do require knowledge of many things that are new to us, and we should allow ourselves to use her professional development to grow.  But, what if the units are too hard?  See my next question...

Q:  If the children in our classrooms, as whole, are more than 50% not reading at grade level, should we use the previous grade's checklists, or the previous grade's units, to fill in the gaps?

A: I have no problem using the previous grade's units.  If they aren't there yet, then you can use the grade before.

My thoughts:
This does require reading both your grade level units, and the one before.  Be thoughtful about it, and look at the writing your kids are producing.  Perhaps you need to "Boot Camp" with a previous grade's bend, or use their entire unit.  Or, perhaps you can use a more guided writing model with the grade level version before releasing responsibility to your grade.  This is where collaboration with your coworkers is KEY.  Talk to your Literacy Coach and principal, too.  They are here to help.

Q: In 4th and 5th grade, it says that the writing units should be taught AFTER the social studies units are taught.  Do you have units available for social studies?

A:  We (the TCRWP) do have units for social studies, and the quality of the social studies units taught vary.  But, it is very important that some kind of unit is taught before they write about it in Writing Workshop.

My thoughts:
If the kids don't know anything about the topic, aligning the reading and writing units to the exact same timeline won't work.  They need to know something to write about it.  Front load the unit if you weren't able to teach the whole thing first, or use a more guided writing format to teach before the kids can choose their own topics about a subject they know nothing about.  This applies more to the intermediate grades, because their units tend to be completely new to the kids.  If the kids don't even know what the Revolutionary War is, they can't pick a piece of it to write about.  Habitat and Animal units usually come with some background knowledge, but history units do not.  Unit planning and essential questions are something to investigate, IMO.

Lucy knows that your kids are not where they need to be.

     She said that the units are written to the grade level above's standards, because they kids in middle school can not possibly do what they are supposed to if we do not accelerate their growth in the elementary schools.  She seemed very aware that this is new to our kids, and to us.  Just do your best, but give your best, too.  Things have changed, and we need to change as well in the interest of our kids.

     Collaboration is key.  Work with your team.  Reach out if you struggle.  We need to work together. She said that teachers are often like toddlers in a sandbox playing.  They are both talking, but not to each other.  Let's share the shovel, in the best interest of our kids (and our sanity).  :)

Mini Lessons

     We are implementing reading workshop, and one part of the model that I really like is the mini lesson.

      Why, do you ask?  Let me tell you!

1.  In 10 short minutes, the whole class is exposed to the same skill or strategy.  That gives common language to all your small guided groups, while also introducing them to grade level expectations as well.

2.  In aligns the universal.  If the whole grade level agrees on the mini lessons, they we are closer to making sure that all students in the grade receive the same core instruction.

3.  There is a gradual release model involved with the Calkins structure  ***IF the skill/strategy matches where the kids are at.

     Lucy Calkins defines the architecture of a mini lesson as follows:

• Connection/ Teaching Point: 1-2 minutes to connect the new learning to previous learning, and then give a specific teaching point.
• Teaching: 5-6 minutes restating the teaching point, but then modeling or demonstrating the teaching point for the students, usually using a mentor text.
• Active Engagement: 2-3 minutes where the children practice the new learning in a scaffolded way to have success, usually in a turn and talk or an individual response way (like writing something in the air, or personal think time).
• Link: 1-2 minutes giving the specific teaching point so that today, or any day, the kids will practice the skill/strategy independently.

 Back to my #3 above....

     The active engagement part of the mini lesson is supposed to scaffold them to succeeding.  If you look at the I Do, We Do, You Do model of gradual release, her model is almost more I Do, You Do, I Do.  If the skill/strategy is exactly what they needed, this might be ok.  But, as we have moved into non-fiction and the skills/strategies are harder for our kids, this approach might need to be modified.

     The next time you do an Active Engagement practice where the kids turn and talk, try to really listen to them talking in their pairs.  I know.... I taught 2nd grade for a long time... someone will try to talk to you as soon as you say to turn to your partner and talk.  Or, someone won't have a partner and you will spend those 2 minutes pairing kids off for the 500th time.  If the skill/strategy is something that is new to the kids, really try to listen to the partners though.  Because, as things have gotten more difficult, their responses have gotten filled with many misconceptions.  Listening to kids talk with partners about main idea during the first introductions of it have often been filled with a combination of topics, main ideas, summaries, key details, and even some character traits and complete silence.  And, that is to be expected.  They haven't seen non-fiction all year.  I would guess that switching the genre on them would be very confusing.  It actually confused me.  :)

     What should you do if they are filled with misconceptions and errors in their partner talk?

     Lucy Calkins then pulls them back, models what she would do, or sometimes names something a kids has said before giving the Link and sending them off.  If the students were getting it, this would be a very efficient way to end the lesson.  If they are not getting it, we have to make some decisions.  We have to use what we know about our students.

We could:

• Have them turn and talk one more time, perhaps with a very specific focus that will give them greater chance to succeed.  This might be giving them a choice between two possible main ideas heard, and having them try to find support for them.  (Thanks, 4BEBL, for the idea).  
• Decide that our midpoint or share needs to revisit this same skill/strategy again, perhaps with a choice structure like the one above.  
• Decide to reteach the mini lesson the next day, with more scaffolding or visuals, or a mentor text.
• Look at the ELA standard for the grade level below to see if they are ready for your grade's standard.
• Use your guided groups to practice the skill/strategy and determine who really struggles with the concept.
• Pull a strategy group with the kids who you know were unable to turn and talk.
• Flip the learning, and find a video on Brain Pop (or other sources) for them to watch either on eChalk or Blendspace, at home and try it again the next day.
• Keep going to the next Calkins lesson... and hope they get it... someday...

     What would you do?  I guess it depends on what the mini lesson was about.  Not all skills/strategies are treated equally, and some are of much greater importance.  But, I just wanted you to think about this a bit, because you know the answer.  Lucy Calkins doesn't.  You are their teacher.  You know your kids.  Calkins in our wise, expert guide in this journey, but you are the one teaching.  

     I found this checklist that might help you reflect on your mini lessons.  Research says that reading 60 minutes independently each day is the most significant thing we can do to help our kids read at grade level.  I happen to think that the mini lesson is a great way to get them to perform at grade level, if we base those lessons on the common core ELA standards and where are kids are at.  If, every time we teach a mini lesson, we use them to slowly give the kids what they need to get them to the next step, then we will have kids who not only read at grade level, but who also comprehend beyond the limited level.  Well, the mini lesson, conferring, and reading response will do that, but that is for another day.  :)

What's the Main Idea?

     I'll be honest.  When I was a kid, I was taught that the main idea was the first sentence of the paragraph.  And, most of the time, that actually seems to work out.  Sometimes, however, it doesn't.  When that is the case, what am I to do?!?!?

     Most of the classrooms in our building are currently working on non-fiction texts in reading, and a big part of that is determining the main idea of what they have read.  The Calkins units spend a few mini lessons on determining main idea and details, but it is becoming obvious that more modeling and gradual release is going to be necessary.  Children all over the building are struggling with this concept.  They are eager to point out the facts that are interesting to them, but they have a very difficult time coming up with what was most important.

     I found a lovely anchor chart on Pinterest.  What I love about it is that is shows the connection between main idea and details AND summarizing.  They both fall under the umbrella strategy of Determining Importance, and they are both skills that our students struggle with.  It is very hard for them to read non-fiction, especially with all the vocabulary, text structures, and features that they need to navigate through.  They also sometimes need the reminder that non-fiction readers read with a different purpose than fictional readers do.   All these things can make finding the main idea a struggle.  

     What can we do as teachers?  I can't stress enough the gradual release model.  

I Do!

We Do! 

You Do!

     The more we walk our students through the process, and help them see that the main idea needs to be supported with specific supporting details from the text, the more likely they are to start to do it independently.  That might begin by helping them determine the TOPIC of a piece of text, then the MAIN IDEA, and then the SUPPORTING DETAILS.   While it sounds simple to us, finding the single topic of a text is hard for many kids.

                                                   

       Another thing to consider is making an anchor chart that the students both help you create, and can refer back to when reading independently.  There are many things that you can include on an anchor chart, but some things that you might want to make it kid friendly might be a graphic of some sort, and simple steps to find the main idea and supporting details.  Here are some more ideas from Pinterest.

     I was in 4BEBL yesterday and today, and saw a few of their mini lessons on main idea that gave me some insight on some strategies that might work well.  Miss Betz had the kids bring their computers to the meeting area, and they all had a non-fiction article on their screen.  She had them focus on one single paragraph of the article, which happened to be about the meaning of the word "volcano."  She had them turn and talk to a partner about the main idea.  When they turned back and she had them share the main ideas they discussed, it seemed that most thought the main idea was how volcanoes are formed.  Perhaps they meant how the word was created, but the way they stated it seemed to imply that they were talking about the actual geologic formation of volcanoes.  She didn't just tell them the "real" main idea.  She then gave them the choice between 2 main ideas:

1.  Where volcanoes came from 

OR

2.  How "volcano" got its name

     Once again, she had them turn and talk, but this time they had to find the supporting details for either one of these claims.  Turns out, no one could find anything to support the first main idea possibility.  :)  While it was elsewhere in the article, it was not in the paragraph that was in front of them.  

     The thing that became glaringly obvious while I was sitting on the carpet as part of her lesson, working with my partners, was how much guidance they needed to use the text to support their answers.  They really need for us to give them think time, to make them go back and find the support, and to talk things out with a partner.  While main idea falls into Standard 2, it also requires Standard 1.  Using the Boxes and Bullets strategy that Calkins suggests on her dry erase board, Miss Betz was able to guide them to the main idea.  Perhaps next time, they will be able to find their way independently.  If not, she will guide them until they can.

     Using the text features to help determine (or defend) their main idea is a great way for our students to really use what the author gives us to learn.  Students often read headings, captions, fact boxes, labels, titles, etc. without much thought, or skip them all together.  If we teach them to use these features to either predict the main idea before reading, or perhaps support their claims after read, they will use the features more effectively.  Often times they will also pick up key domain specific words that are used in the features.  All the supporting details need to be found in the actual text, though, so make sure they don't just look at the non-fiction features alone.  :)

     What do Tim and Moby have to say about main idea?  Brain Pop shows a nice video where they use the topic to determine the main idea.  

http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/mainidea/

     Here is a short, interactive Main Idea tutorial that you could use in a mini lesson, with a strategy group, or perhaps posted to your eChalk page as review.

http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/rcmi1.htm

Bottom Line:Why do our kids need to find the main idea?

     Perhaps finding the main idea in a random article doesn't seem that important in the grand scheme of things.  However, determining what is important is.  With the Common Core Standards, we are expecting our children to really think deeply and find their own meaning in texts (and across multiple texts).  They can't do that without knowing what the text actually said in the first place.  How can you make your own meaning, formulate new questions, or create new understandings if you can't even come up with a single sentence about what the whole text was about?  It is the place to start with informational text before all other ideas can be found.  Well, that is my humble opinion anyway.   :)

     

Teaching Theme

Literature Anchor Standard 2:

Determine the central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; 

summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

     Standard 2 is a critical standard, in my opinion.  Not all common core standards are created equally. I feel that standards 1, 2 and 3 provide the foundation necessary for our students to be independent learners.  They learn the skills necessary for later standards in the first three (text support, main idea/theme, character).  Standards 4-6 focus on Craft and Structure, and Standards 7-9 on Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.  If students know standards 1-3 and use them to support standards 4-9, we really start to see deeper thinking.

     The literature half of standard 2 talks about central ideas and themes in a story.  I like to call them the Big Ideas, because then you start to cross the literature/ informational border.  Just like we did in character trait development, I think the first place to start theme is by helping our students create the vocabulary they need.  They won't have the terms for big ideas/ themes just waiting for us to ask.  They need to be modeled at first.  We need to help them build single word themes as a starting point.

     One way to introduce themes is through read aloud.  If you have read your book as usual, but start and end the lesson with a theme board visible, it starts to focus the kids on the new terms.  Start your theme board off with just one or two themes, and then each day, as you read, slowly build the list as the stories you read reveal them.  I often like to add themes in pairs, like love/hate, life/death, etc., because many books actually have both visible in the text.  The theme board below is one we used with our study of fables.  Fables are short, yet filled with big ideas and themes to explore.

     You can see that some of the themes are nouns, but some are almost lessons learned.  Theme is sometimes seen as single words, and sometimes seen as almost the lesson or moral learned.  I think a good starting place is to give the kids the vocabulary of the single word themes, because they can always be turned into a lesson/moral learned.  My 2nd graders were able, by the end of the year, to come up with the big ideas/ themes but still struggled with creating generalized lessons from them.  Your students will determine what they are ready for.  

     The anchor chart above hangs in 5DEAV.  Mrs. DeCaire and Mrs. Avila had the students create cards with the themes they found in their independent reading books to create the chart.  When they came back to the meeting place after the lesson, they discussed the themes as a class and grouped them near each other on the chart.  The categorization process can really help move the students along in their thinking and start to see patterns and relationships in their books.  

     There is a good video from the Teaching Channel that also shows a possible progression of theme instruction.  It is a middle school class, but it gives some good opportunities for students to discuss theme, write themes, and even act them out.  They used excerpts from their past read alouds, and then used fairy tales as well.  I think teaching the theme using real texts to model them is a great way for the learning to happen.  The scaffolding they do can be modified for younger grades just by changing the texts and the delivery of the material.  Their use of cooperative learning and discussion would be great for our students in D100.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-themes

     I found one teacher's (Angela Bunyi's) way of teaching the theme as "THE MEssage", where she has the students turn that single key word into a message that you can apply to your own life.  Many of my students struggled with this part of theme, because they tried to make the lesson very specific to the book.   If they can learn to be less book specific and more generalizable, our students will really start to be able to see themes across books and compare them.

     One other great piece from Angela Bunyi's post was her chart about how to connect their work with character traits to the theme.  Like I said earlier, the common core standards work TOGETHER.  When our students notice character traits and use them to determine central themes, we are moving closer to independent close reading.

Here is her article from Scholastic:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2011/02/helping-students-grasp-themes-in-literature

     Here is a list of possible themes to consider when making your theme board.  I struggled a bit last year determining what was a true theme, and what wasn't.  Honestly, my board above has things that I don't think I would actually classify as a theme.  However, my children created the board with me, and it validated their thinking.  It is a work in progress.  Hopefully this document will help you on your theme journey.
List of Possible Themes in Literary Works.doc - comp colts

Books that Matter

     The literacy coaches and I have had many conversations recently about close reading, and what it is, how to do it, our concerns about it, and the value of it.  I have also had very lengthy phone conversations over the break with Anne Kruder, the literacy coach from Piper and my co-presenter for the now postponed Institute Day session on close reading with 2nd and 3rd graders.  She has really helped me to pinpoint exactly what my hopes are for teaching students to close read.  With the help of Anne, and my guy Christopher Lehman, I have come to an epiphany.

     Ready?

I want students to find books that matter to them.  

     Sounds simple, right?  With the reading workshop push, kids are reading independently for 40-60 minutes a day.  They are building their stamina and becoming independent readers. Our F&P data shows that the kids are making progress and moving up levels.  They are doing it!

     My question is, after all those F&P tests, I have gotten quite concerned with the number of children who are progressing through the levels, but only have limited comprehension of what they read.  If their fluency is above 98%, many of our students only need limited comprehension to pass to the next book. I suppose that is fine, say, if they are reading a book about snakes that the teacher assigned to them with the task of finding facts about how snakes hunt.  They will be able to do that with limited comprehension, because they will hopefully use the book to find it.  But, will the kid with limited comprehension read Charlotte's Web on their own and cry when Charlotte dies?  Or when her spiderlings stay back with Wilbur?  That's the part that always gets me...  

I want kids to cry when they read Charlotte's Web.  
Is that so wrong?  

     In all seriousness, if kids feel something while reading a book, they are reading closely.  They are noticing the details.  They are seeing the significance of events.  They know a character's motivation.  They make a connection to the character's life, and it drives their comprehension of the story.  That does not happen independently unless the book matters to the students.  I want them to find books that will change their life in some way.  Just a small handful of life changing books will do for now...

     Here is my challenge:
     What are the books that changed your life?  When we talk about finding books that matter to students, what books mattered to you?  In your life, which books somehow shaped your thinking, for the worse or for the better?  In the spirit of 2014, here are fourteen books that changed my life, in no particular order.


1.  A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
2.  The Outsiders, by SE Hinton
3.  Native Son, by Richard Wright
4.  The Value Tales biography series, by Spencer Johnson
5.  Island of the Skog, by Steven Kellogg
6.  The Babysitter Club Books, by Ann M Martin
7.  Christopher Pike mystery novels
8.  Snowflakes Fall, by Patricia MacLachlin and Steven Kellogg
9.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
10.  Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
11.  Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
12. From Here to Eternity, by James Jones
13. Savage Inequalities, by Richard Kozol
14.  I'll Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch

     Some of you are probably thinking, "Really?  That book?"  Or perhaps, "What is that book?"  The truth of the matter is that books pick us.  If we read them at times in our life where, for some reason, we read closely and look for deeper meaning, they will stay with us.  The list above seems like a random mix of children's books and adult novels.  In the list are books that made me cry, rather hard and sometimes in public.  Books that introduced me the themes that I had not experienced in my own life.  Books that I related to wholeheartedly.  Books that made me see perspectives of others.  Books that I devoured and made me the reader (and person) that I am today.

     When we do finally talk about close reading, and what it is, remember what it is not.  It is not test prep.  It is making our students see that books can be thought about, and new ideas can be had from them.  Books can change your life.

     What books have changed yours?

Reasons I am Falling in Love with Christopher Lehman

     OK, to be honest, I already love him.  But, his newest book title is Falling in Love with Close Reading, so I thought that title was more appropriate.

     I am currently stalking Christopher Lehman's webinars.  I admit it.  I have registered for three in the past month or so.  I attended my first one and was hooked.  I didn't actually get to watch my 2nd one, due to technology issues with Mac, but I did just spend and hour and a half of quality time with him this evening while he presented at UW Madison.  It was rough, balancing preschoolers around dinner time while doing a webcast, but worth it nonetheless.

     Here are some reasons I love him, and you should too.

    He believes that the students need to be the ones doing the work.  They need to read more.  They need to work within the standards.  He thinks that you only get good at things you do.  That being said, he also thinks that we, as teachers, should try some of the tasks that we ask our students to do.  We need to feel what they feel.  We need to do what we ask of them.

     Try reading that passage, but every time you get to the XXXX, don't try to figure it out.  Just briefly pause and keep reading.  Then ask yourself what it was about.  Do it.

     If children are reading grade level texts, where they only can read about 80% of the words with accuracy, that is about what you are going to get from them.  You can plan the best, common core aligned lesson in the world, but it will not matter.  If they are just guessing, they are not reading.  That is what an excerpt of The Hunger Games looks like to someone who can only read 80% of it.  Look at what the students can actually do.  The best planned lesson in the world will fall short if the only one you can do the learning is the teacher.

     He suggests that before you start a lesson, ask the kids to show you what they know about that subject.  A pre-assessment of sorts...  He talked about a teacher who handed the kids a booklet for writing workshop, and said "Show me how you write a story with a booklet."  She then decided that although she could tell that the young child knew how to use a booklet, his pictures were so bad that he was unable to retell his own story.  Instead of just going into the mini lessons in the book, she taught him how to draw people. It was not a mini lesson for the first grade unit, but that would help him retell his own stories, and that mattered more than following the lesson that was supposed to come next.

     He says that he makes promises to the kids.  THEY are his curriculum.  They, not initiatives (like a program or the CCSS themselves) determine what he needs to teach.  He said in times of great change, schools should focus on a few strengths and build upon those strengths.  Focus on the kids, because they are our strength.  The standards are about doing, and the ones that should be doing are the kids.  

     

     He also talked a lot about building our professional capital.  We need more collaboration with each other.  Every time we talk to a colleague about a student work sample, or a curricular decision, or assessment data, we are learning new things that we can use to support our kids.  We are a community together, figuring out our kids.  He suggested that we use high quality curriculum materials that match the needs of our kids during this common core transition.  If we then look at one or 2 pieces of student work, and revise what comes next in those materials, we are building our curriculum around our kids.

     I have many, many more things to say about Christopher Lehman, and close reading in general, but that is all I have to say tonight.  :)

   

Character Traits

     Grades 1-5 are all in the midst of a character unit in Reading Workshop.  This week, I thought I might focus a bit on what a character trait is.  According to Yourdictionary.com,
character traits are "all the aspects of a person’s behavior and attitudes that make up that person’s personality. Everyone has character traits, both good and bad. Even characters in books have character traits. Character traits are often shown with descriptive adjectives, like patient, unfaithful, or jealous."
They have a nice post that analyzes them a bit.
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples/character-trait-examples.html 

     If you think about character traits and feelings like the weather in Chicago, it can be a helpful metaphor.  Around here, the day can start sunny, turn into a cloudy, rainy day, and then end with snow.   Those are all examples of a character's feelings.  They change like the wind (quite literally, in this metaphor).  Character traits are more like the climate.  The general type of weather we have in the winter last for a long time.  That is more like a character trait.  Traits don't change nearly as often as feelings, just like climate doesn't change as often as the weather.

    This teacher does a nice job explaining how she teaches character traits, with the common core in mind, in third grade. I especially like the scaffolding she does with her kids.  She has them start with just finding examples of a single trait in their reading.  Then, she moves on to finding support in the text to show the trait using her read alouds first, before releasing it to the kids independently.  They even think about their own traits in the process!  This is hard work.  Giving the kids scaffolded release will really help them become more independent.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/11/teaching-character-traits-readers-workshop

     Here is a pinterest board on both character traits and feelings.  Really, they are both lessons on inferring.  Inferring feelings AND character traits are important.  It is just helpful for the kids to know the difference.  There are some good ideas to help with this on the board.
http://www.pinterest.com/julia_burrows/character-traits-and-feelings/

     Have fun exploring character in your classroom!  It will really boost the level of the conversations you have with the kids when they take the time to really understand character traits.