Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers and the Slice of Life writing community for providing this opportunity to share our "slices." Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsy for creating a place for us to share our work. Check out the other slices and join in the fun!
A few weeks ago I blogged about independent reading and the recurring theme it kept having in my life. I continue to think long and hard about how much reading we actually ask students to do in school. And the results are bothersome.
We live in a culture of testing and as tough as it, we must fight back. My friend Leigh Ann recently wrote about her reactions to testing here. Although I reside in a different state, our stories are similar.
Just as she mentioned, we still love our jobs.
I feel inspired to:
Value the time we have with our students
Value authentic opportunities to read and write
Value workshop time where students are buzzing as readers and writers
Value our philosophies and teaching that we know is important...
...for children to see themselves as readers and writers.
All of this thinking was further examined during a recent Twitter chat I participated in discussing "book clubs" with my favorite #TCRWP friends. I wanted a place to gather my thoughts on this chat and all my other thinking, so here I am. I'm new to blogging and this is my favorite benefit to blogging...the ability to stop, think, reflect, and share! I'm hoping to begin working with our second grade teachers in a coaching opportunity for students to participate in book clubs
How I've organized my thoughts on book clubs (reminders, new ideas and ways to freshen them up!)
Reminders:
-Text selection involving student choice is imperative
-Accountable talk is a must to empower students to talk and learn from one another
-Group agreements and/or contract (idea from @jesslifteach)
-Thinking stems, sentence starters, prompts help prevent wandering conversations
New Ideas:
-Video a book talk group fish bowl style and learn together as you reflect on how it went
-Goal cards--> flip them when you do them.( idea from @hayhurst3)
-"Grow and Glow" time at the end idea from (idea from @rollinsteacher)
-Have students view #tcrwp videos on vimeo and they'll have an image of what is possible (idea from @rscalateach)
-Students can create book trailers (idea from @KristinZiemke) using Drawing Pad, iMovie, story boards (idea from @Teach4SpclNeeds)
Freshen Up Old Thinking:
-ditch traditional "roles" and consider a monitor for each group instead
-encourage those reluctant to share to maybe put tokens in a pot to represent your sharing and then celebrate! (idea from @jarhartz)
Quite the process and I'm far from done, but I'm happy to see my thoughts coming together. I'm still looking for suggestions, ideas, and tips so please share if you have any.
Welcome to blogging. You have captured so much of the inspiration from TwitterChat and so much of your own creative work around book talks here. I am very impressed with the "what's new" category. Having students watch vimeos of good book talks could really help. I have intervention students in LLI I am attempting to get engaged in discussion. Open ended prompts are tough for them...they are not used to being asked to share their thinking. I want to show them some kids doing book conversations. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. That is a great idea for your students in LLI. Just this week, one of our reading teachers brought in a reading suitcase and we "unpacked" it. Inside were pictures, letters, words, and thinking. The thinking part is what we are aiming for!! So, I like the idea of using those videos for that. Thanks!
DeleteMarcie, I like the way you gathered ideas from other bloggers and then categorized them for other readers. Do you have a video of a book talk group fish bowl style. That would be great to show other teachers? I can talk about it but a video is much more impressive. Great getting to know you.
ReplyDelete