stay-cation snapshots

Orchids at the botanical gardens during our visit on Dollar Day

I've been reading and knitting, just like I planned. I didn't expect to give in to sleep by midnight and wake up by 8am. Oh well. I set one "reach" goal about not shopping that has been going well - shocking, I know! I think this is a restorative stay-cation to prepare me for the upcoming roller coaster storm of high-stakes standardized testing.

mid-winter break

Fast forward a month... I gave a "benchmark assessment" to all my students that lasted 3 weeks due to my 4-day schedule, scored the tests with 2 colleagues in one whole school day, and lost my drive for the aforementioned nonfiction book adventure. I did continue lessons on nonfiction reading comprehension and writing skills (identifying main idea, paraphrasing, nonfiction book features). My awesome school librarian let me borrow about 100 nonfiction books to use in my classroom, and students really enjoyed choosing books from which to read and write about nonfiction texts. Our mantra was: if you're a living, breathing human being, there are many nonfiction books in the universe for you to enjoy.

After this week's mid-winter break (and my lovely stay-cation), we'll be marching straight into preparations for this year's high-stakes standardized test in mid-April.

You can learn about my reading adventures from Goodreads.com (see widget updates in right column on this page). After falling head over heels in love with The Scorpio Races right before winter break, I started reading Inheritance, also known in my life as the Beginning of The End of the Eragon series. I have many, mixed feelings about this book so far and the series overall, but to say these books changed my life is not an exaggeration. In contrast, I've read 4 Sarah Dessen books the last few weeks and enjoyed them all, except the last quarter of each book really drags (for me).

Of course, I've been knitting! Ladies all around me are having baby boys, so I'm trying to knit several of these darlings. Meet Coco, my daughter's teddy bear and my baby hat model:

As always, happy reading to you all!

informational text - news articles

My students have been reading news articles online as part of our informational text unit, using two web sites - Tween Tribune and Time for Kids.

Using TweenTribune.com, which contains mostly news articles from Associated Press, students chose articles to read and summarize. Summarizing is a difficult task for most of my students, so I give them a "who/what/where/when/why/how" organizer to complete. Most students would ask, "What do I write for why or how?" Then we discuss the topic/subject of their article and what explanation or elaboration is necessary for a summary.

Using TimeforKids.com/news, students studied traditional news article features, such as subtitles, byline, caption. They chose the articles, identified the features, and stated the main idea after reading the article. Identifying the main idea is tricky for many students who focus on supporting details or prefer to summarize.

Coming up next - a "benchmark assessment" interlude in which students will take a practice standardized test. (Due to my class schedule, students only come to my class once in 4 school days and will take three weeks to finish this assessment.)

After the benchmark assessment, we continue with the informational text unit and ... WRITE BOOKS. Students will choose their own topics, then research informational texts (such as how-to articles, background history of their subjects) and persuasive writings to copy/paste into the books (with proper citations, of course). The books will include some original student writing, such as summaries, main idea statements, paraphrasing practice (another difficult task), personal narratives, glossary of terms, "about the author" page.

I will stay one step ahead of their book writing (to model and for fun) with my own book on the subject of ... KNITTING. To show off, I mean, demonstrate my knitting hobby, here's a photo of one recently completed project:

Illustrations and other visual details will be highly encouraged and supported in this book project.

In other words, this book adventure is the nonfiction version of NaNoWriMo. Stay tuned, folks :)

new year, new dreams

A snapshot of the jumbotron at the Tux & Pucks New Year's Eve Sabres (vs. Senators) game last night. Frustrating game, ie we lost in the shoot-out. Regardless!

Every new day is a win. Is that because I'm 42 years old and don't take any moment for granted? I have a great family, lovely friends, good health, and a dream job. 2011 was full of many fun adventures, and I hope we all enjoy the same in 2012!

peace

I thought about my students this morning when we sang carols in church. No matter what holiday they celebrate, how many gifts they receive, or what people surround them during winter vacation, I wish them peace in their hearts.

sock it to me

Yes, I finished knitting one sock! Started October 24, finished tonight. I waited several weeks to finish the last third of the sock because I just ran out of steam, thinking about these things: a-whole-nother sock to knit, not knowing how to start the gusset that my knitting class instructor actually did for me, and lovely socks I just BUY in any STORE. (I love that expression - "a-whole-nother". I really don't care it's not correct.) Last two days I just pushed ahead, resolved to finish ONE sock even if that's all the sock I ever knit.

Right now I won't even bother to make connections to writing or any other creative process because I'm just so happy I finished knitting this one lovely sock!

poetry carousel

Poetry review this week: a carousel activity that involved reading different poems and identifying examples of poetry elements: sound elements, imagery, figurative language, main idea. I listed those 4 categories in order of difficulty, based on student answers.

I noticed one major obstacle in the students' ability to identify the main idea: vocabulary. I'm probably hyper-sensitive about vocabulary words after attending a Common Core Learning Standards workshop Tuesday, in which my small group studied (as part of a "jigsaw" activity) "Shift #6" (out of 6) - Academic Vocabulary. The workshop document stated that we should focus on helping students acquire common vocabulary instead of "esoteric literary terms such as onomatopoeia". (Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I mean classroom, my substitute teacher led the poetry review of sound elements like onomatopoeia. Sizzle. Gurgle. Splat.) Raised hackles aside, I fully acknowledge the low level of COMMON vocabulary knowledge such as the following words perceived to be difficult in our poetry review this week:

dreary ("I'm Nobody", Emily Dickinson)

woe ("Sixth of January", David Budbill)

refugee ("Refugee in America", Langston Hughes)

Today a wonderful college student (whom I taught in seventh and eighth grade) now studying English Education was in my classroom to help fulfill her classroom observation requirement. When she saw my lesson materials, she said she learned to spell the word "onomatopoeia" in my class. She also reminded me that she had won the school spelling bee when she was in eighth grade.

pop culture reference

In our poetry study, we read Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody" yesterday. I offered this analogy: Kim Kardashian is the opposite of the "nobody" speaker. I asked the 6th grade class, "Do you sometimes wish people would just leave you alone and stop bugging you?" Everyone, including the boy who fervently wishes each and every class that I ignore him, nodded vigorously.

fall book review

Thank goodness Goodreads.com keeps track of my reading! I can't believe I haven't yet blogged about the books I read the last few months. The good news is - the fount of stellar literature for children and young adults won't run dry anytime soon!

The Maze Runner - I understand why my students would enjoy it, but I really didn't. Suspenseful thrillers  fill me with anxiety and dread. I do NOT enjoy that at all. I finished this book anyway and read about 40 pages of the second book in the series, The Scorch Trials, then I gave up. I'm glad to possess a copy to lend to students.

Scrawl by Mark Schulman - I LOVED this book! It's the opposite of action/adventure/thriller books like The Hunger Games. Very realistic, complex narrative, STRONG protagonist (teen bully/juvenile delinquent) voice, reminds me of John Conlan from The Pigman.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret - I know I'm late to this fan table, but I still want to rave because it's a children's story about loss and tragedy but not disturbing violence. I'm not sure I care to watch the new soon-to-be released movie. Generally, I've decided to not bother with movies based on books. I don't watch many movies anyway, so why watch someone try to remake a book story that I truly enjoyed?

Resistance by Carla Jablonski - graphic novel, historical fiction about French people during the German/Nazi occupation - need I say more? The story is simple, should be easy (for 7th and 8th graders) to read as well as meaningful food for thought and discussion.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Graphic Novel - I read the original novel a few years ago, loved it for my own reading, but didn't think my students could follow the narrative or vocabulary. (I've been told that it's standard 11th grade classroom text in my district.) I think this graphic novel makes the story much more approachable for some 8th graders (specifically, readers who like graphic novels and/or strong readers).

I won the Scholastic book fair teacher raffle at my school - $25 worth of books, so I chose the last two books listed above! I felt SUPER lucky!!!

Progress

Our "poetry for soldiers" project is almost complete. The poems and letters should be ready for mailing by Monday afternoon. A few students even brought in care package items - snacks and toiletries - enough for two or three care packages. I'll pick up the post office mailing boxes and customs forms Saturday. I'll take some pictures and post here soon :)

Next week I have the iPad cart again! Students will be using the comma/grammar app from Pearson Education and possibly a word association game/app.

Our whirlwindy Chicago Thanksgiving with cousin C was full of laughs, great food, sightseeing, walking, shopping, and many many other blessings. (The overnight train rides were half good, half bad.)