Yes! I made it through the first week of school! And boy, I am T.I.R.E.D. Friends were wondering if it may be because we used to start school on a Thursday. It kinda broke everyone in...and we practiced rules and procedures those days. Yet, this year we started on a Monday. It had to be the change-up! *Sigh*
Well, my group of students are great and I have no doubts that this will be a great year! We started on the first day of school in our Daily 5 routine. If you have never heard of Daily 5, you must! While still doing my teacher internship I came across the 'Two Sisters' and bought their books. I read and highlighted, and read some more. Once finished, I knew that Daily 5 would be something I wanted to do. But first year jitters had me doing more of what I thought the school expected and not what I wanted. I felt that getting my feet wet would be the best thing before doing something new (and basically unknown to many faculty members.)
Since last year, Daily 5 has taken a huge leap in our school and has been successfully launched in many classrooms. We started to have Professional Development, meetings, etc. on Daily 5. Several teachers took it upon themselves to do whatever possible to incorporate it and spread the news! One teacher has taken the reins and provided PD in Daily 5, as well as allowing others to come into her classroom to observe Daily 5 in action. She is awesome, by the way!
Back to the first day. Only four of my students have done Daily 5, and only one most of the year. So I started with our first lesson, introducing the students to Read to Self. The students thought it was cool that they could 'pick a spot' and read anywhere. We often refer to the procedures of Read to Self and roll on! By Friday, my class was at 15 minutes of Read to Self stamina. This is a process that is stressed, and stamina is important! By the end of next week, the class should be at 20 minutes...our ultimate goal.
We also started Work on Writing. I have developed a few 'Shared Journals' but haven't allowed students to use them, yet. Basically, since Writing becomes a groan factor for some, I turned the tables on the students. I wanted them to feel like their writing is about CHOICES. The discussion began with the purpose for writing. (Their answers: To be better writers, fill out applications, write essays in high school and college, etc.) We began by discussing favorite movies, tv shows, funny commercials (or commercials that stuck), songs, and of course---books. What many kids don't realize is that movies and such begin in the writing form. There has to be a script to follow, a story to be told! We discussed Spongebob, because I *heart* Spongebob, and almost every kid in America has seen Spongebob. I asked the students how they thought the show was made and throughout the discussion I realized that they didn't know there had to be a story first in order for the 'dialogue' to be written, the animation to be developed. It was an 'A-ha' moment for them.
I went to school with a guy (Jason Craig) who draws the graphics for the likes of Wolverine, Freddy vs. Ash comics and others. He likes to tell about the process. I didn't realize that he drew and then sent to an 'inker'. It makes sense, but I had never thought about it. But in order for Jason to create his art, he must have a story to follow. Without a story there is no action, no emotion, no features. This is something I talked about with my students. The Bone series by Jeff Smith is a perfect example for this discussion. They are graphic novels and all kids enjoy them, especially the boys! So it was with these thoughts in mind that I began to give a mental picture of what writing REALLY means. I think it worked because my students were sooooo excited and when school dismissed, they were talking in groups about what the storyline was on such-and-such tv show.
The next day we discussed topics. We talked about what topics are, what kind of topics we could write about, why we would write about certain topics. We also discussed if we should write about topics that we knew a lot about, or a little. Then I divided my class up into groups of three, asked them to choose the 'recorder,' and put 3 minutes on the clock. The group who had the most topics won a small prize. There was 100% engagement during this time! And WOW...they really took it seriously! Between the groups we came up with over 100 topics to write about!
That night, I took their papers home and grouped the topics in a document. (Animals-bunnies, rats, cats, dogs, horses, etc.) The next day I displayed five topics that had many choices. I set the timer for 6 minutes. I gave them one minute to choose what they were going to write about. Surprisingly, there were no groans...just expectant faces waiting for the 'Go'. And then they were off! I didn't see one student look around, their eyes on their writing the whole time. This is how I turned writing into a choice. THEY came up with the topics, THEY chose what to write about. Friday we were up to 9 minutes of writing the whole time.
People! This is the first week of school. They are excited! They want to read! They want to write! This is EXCITING!!! I just hope we don't burn out quickly. Hopefully, the blogs I follow and pins I pin will keep us from suffering from the middle-of-the-school-year slump---before the middle of the school year!
On the homefront, the Eldest is excited about Journalism. Not because she writes. But because she can take pics and interview football players :) The Younger is doing fine. She has a new favorite subject: English. All thanks to the new teacher this year. It's the little things that I look for to keep some semblence of normalcy in my household.
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