Poetry with the Tammys!

Have you visited Tammy at First Grade at Klinger Cafe?  Besides her wonderful name, she's got a wonderful blog.  I sincerely enjoy leaving her comments about her great posts.  I know she'd love for you to drop by and stay awhile.  In fact, so would I.  I'm guest blogging for her right now.  If you don't mind, take a few minutes to check out what I've got to say about writing poetry with little ones.  I've included a plethora of pictures and some poems straight from the young poets themselves.  See you there?

I Can't Think of Any

Seriously is there any concept that couldn't be turned into a classroom book?  I can't think of any.  How about compound words?  Uh huh...

I put the kids in partnerships, gave them a compound word that would be easy to draw, and put them to work.  They drew the compound word, added a + sign, and then wrote the compound word on the back so that readers could guess what the word was before turning the page to see if they were right.  Can you guess correctly?

What a meaningful way to collect, display, and enjoy our learning, not for just a day or two but for the rest of the year.

Pitchy? Who cares!

My kids, whether they like it or not, have a teacher who sings, so we sing about most anything.  Music is great in the classroom on so many levels.  How about memory?  When I was little, we sang numerous choruses at church that came straight out of the Bible word for word.  For sure I remember those verses better than verses we didn't sing.  They're stuck in my heart like glue.  There sure are lot of things I'd like stuck in the hearts of my kids too, so we sing...a lot.


Every Monday we sing to the word wall.  I wish I had made this up, because it's a great little ditty.  I believe I saw it years ago on a word wall video.  Anyway, you might try it, and the kids won't know or care if you don't get the tune just right.  They won't even care if you're pitchy.  They might just remember how to spell some words though.  (Sorry I can't show you where the voices are coming from.)

Here's a copy of the words if you were hoping for them.  I inserted the word "the" as an example.  Happy singing!

Saturday Sayings Times Four!

(click on the above graphic to see previous Saturday Sayings)

Seven weeks ago some of you might have noticed that I started a new tradition called Saturday Sayings.  Every Saturday I post about a favorite teacher quote and add my two cents.  For the month of April, three other fabulous teacher bloggers are going to join me each week with their own Saturday Sayings. (Thanks to Lori for suggesting such a great idea!)  We would love for you to visit each of our blogs today and every Saturday during April.  We're making it easy for you and providing links below.  Their blogs are just a click away.  I know I'm thoroughly looking forward to their weekly reflective posts.  What are the gurus of education saying, and how will their thoughts make me a better teacher today?  That's what I hope Saturday Sayings is all about.  We'd love for you to join us.

Lori from Conversations in Literacy

Julie from Lighting a Fire in Third Grade

Sandi from Literacy Minute

Now for my thoughts.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  Now for  Donald Graves' thoughts, which are significantly better than mine.

I love that quote.  It's brimming with absolute honesty and truth.  I appreciate that he's aware of how inconsistent writing affects not only the student but also the teacher.  He's right, isn't he?  Our students need to believe they can write as much as we teachers need to believe we can teach.  What's the answer then?  I'll leave you with a thought from Donald quoted in Writing Essentials.

"If we don't teach writing at least four days a week for at least forty-five minutes, we shouldn't bother to teach it at all"  (qtd. in Routman 175).

Wow, he doesn't pull any punches does he?  How can we find time each day to ensure that our kids believe they can write and we believe we can teach?  We all deserve just that. Thanks Donald for pressing us.  

On that note, I'm off to read some other Saturday Sayings.  Would you like to join me?

In the Right Direction

I've mentioned how Idaho math teachers are moving in the right direction thanks to a math initiative from our state.  From my viewpoint, we're learning about giving kids better tasks that press their conceptual thinking - tasks that can be solved in various student-centered ways. 

Recently I attended a composing and decomposing workshop and took away a great task.  It presses their thinking and allows for various modes of solving the problem.   

I fancied it up and liked it enough that I made a few more.

You're welcome to them if you'd like.  Simply click on the pictures to get your own copies.

My Guest Blogging Gig and An Elephant Sat on Me

(Forgive me.  This will be my second post today.  Technically it was supposed to show up on Saturday, but there's a bit of a time difference in Japan.  No worries right?)

Even though my spring break is slipping through my little fingers, I'm thrilled about this day.  For the first time ever, I'm a guest blogger!  (And there was much rejoicing.)  Natalie from Teacher Tidbits is traipsing through Japan and was sweet enough to let me say a few words on her blog while she's gone.  I would absolutely love for you to read those thoughts.  Click on the picture below to visit, and then please do come back to find out what this elephant business is all about.

I love to use music as a management tool.  There's this little song, which I did not invent, that we sing.  It's perfect for just that purpose.  (It's also perfect for phonemic awareness reasons.)  It goes like this...

It helps with management because I like to change the words to the song and sing about the kids who are doing what I've asked of them.  It's a great motivator, because I don't particularly enjoy singing about kids who are off-task.  The song might then go something like this:  "Willoughby Walloughby Wailey. An elephant sat on Hailey."  You get the idea, and kids do eat it up when their name ends up in the song. 

We have also turned it into a book, which is a rather typical move for us.

Here's a copy of the paper we use in case you were hoping I'd share.

Whether you're new to my blog or are a faithful reader, thanks for dropping by.  I relish every visit.

Saturday Sayings: The Writer, Not the Writing

I know.  I know.  It's not Saturday.  I'm sneaking this in today, because tomorrow is a special blogging day for me.  I'd love for you to come back and see why.

I wonder if anyone else out there will agree that conferring is the hardest part of writer's workshop.  I've decided it's an art form, that for some of us, simply takes a lot of practice.  Good thing we write every day in first grade.  I've got a plethora of opportunities to get better at this.

I'll admit that when I first read Regie's words I wasn't exactly sure what she meant.  It wasn't until I coupled it with Lucy Calkins' ideas from The Art of Teaching Writing that the lightbulb came on.

We are teaching the writer and not the writing.  Our decisions must be guided by "what might help this writer" rather than "what might help this writing."  If the piece of writing gets better but the writer has learned nothing that will help him or her another day on another piece, then the conference was a waste of everyone's time. (228)

So if I say, "I love the way you used sound effects in your writing" I have pretty much helped the writing, since not every piece the child writes will benefit from sound effects.  On the other hand, if I say, "I love the way you used sound effects to create details that will help your reader better picture what's going on in your story" I have helped the writer.  The trick when conferring is making the teaching point transferrable to the writer's life no matter the day or the piece they're working on.  Let me just say...easier said than done, but it's a goal worthy of my time.

Before you leave, Saturday Sayings is going to be extra special starting next week (the 7th).  I'm thoroughly excited about something I've got up my sleeve, and better yet, I'm excited that I get to share it with you.  I can't give you any hints, so you'll just have to come check it out.  Yes?