Gettin' Fluent

My AE kiddos are working on their reading fluency.  I initially had them participating in repeated partner readings with short, teacher selected texts.  A few of the students began creating beats on their desks as they read and they said it helped them read it faster and smoother.  More kids began to try it and they asked if they could read something different.  I rode with their enthusiasm and gave them a few guidelines they had to follow. 

Students piled through poetry anthologies and other books with poetic rhythm, looking for that magical piece.  Once they found a poem they loved, they read it alone, in pairs and/or with Mrs. Benson so they could get the feedback they needed in order to read the poem fluently and with emphasis in the right places.  Students learned how to read the pauses and listen to the beat or rhythm of the poems.

Once they had it, they went to the website, Incredibox.fr and built their own beat to go with their poem.  Once they were confident they had practiced enough, students performed these "Poetry Raps" in front of the class.  This has been an amazing experience for all of us.  We have really bonded and laughed and grown as readers.  I have one example here and there will be more to come. 

Please leave Mel'Vontae some feedback and/or congratulations (as he volunteered to go first and be videoed) here on the blog. 

We Are Public

Many of you may have noticed the increase in student blogs to the right.  Over the past few days we have been creating and posting our sites for the world to see.  Please take some time to read and enjoy the writing of our class.

We would like feedback and comments as we are growing as public writers.  If there is anything you want more of, please let the authors know.  As their teacher, I ask that you be kind and praise the courage it takes to create for a public forum, but also offer guidance when you see places that require growth.  There have been a few guidelines given to the students.

Students need to remember that their blogs are attached to my site which is attached to the school website.  This means that their work directly represents our school, our values and our academic performance.  This is a huge responsibility that should be handled with maturity.
1)  There should be NO text talk unless the piece they are writing is about texting.  If you see it, please point it out.  This has become such a dominant part of how they write, they may not even notice they are doing it.

2)  The blogs are for respectful dialogues and we must follow the old adage of, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  Feedback should be constructive, allowing the writer to learn and grow.  Mean comments will not be helpful or tolerated.

3)  Spelling, homophones and capitalization need to be checked closely.  So many students are slacking with these rules that we need to focus on them, so keep your eyes out for these mistakes.

4) Any use of material that does not belong to the student must be cited. You may not put the work of someone else on your blog without giving them credit for that work. A citation should include the author's name and the source/location of where the work came from.


Mistakes will happen and we hope to support one another as we learn to watch for these.  If you see any problems or concerns with the blogs, please let me know.  We hope you enjoy reading what we all have to say about the world and that you help us with our journey to become budding writers.

Scratch | Project | Bad Music

I am learning how to use Scratch, a basic programming site from MIT. This is a free site where students can learn to program and animate. They can make their own stories and animations. It is very cool, but I am very much a novice. Check out my first project titled, Bad Music.

Scratch Project Bad Music

What if the book was invented after video games?

The readability of this chapter was challenging, however, the concepts brought forth by Donna Alvermann can begin to change the way you think about scientific reading instruction. I was following her rationale without great contemplation until she added the section from Steven Johnson's, Everything Bad is Good for You where he challenges you to imagine how we would respond to books if they came along AFTER children had been playing video games for centuries. His scenario was so susinct, placing us in an alternate society that you could not refute. This is the kind of information and line of thinking that will stick with me and creep up on me when I find myself struggling with a student. The relevance of technology in the classroom can no longer be denied. I feel like I want to write a grant to bring my classroom current. The overhead seems insulting to the learning processes of my students after reading this book.

What I wish I would have known in August

I have to quote Sara Kajder, "We're past the point where we can keep doing old things with old tools, or old things with new tools. Students simply won't allow it." I have to say that I could have used this information at the beginning of this year. The kids I have this year are extremely technologically motivated, however I did not recognize the extent of this motivation and learning opportunity until the last month of the school year. As we learned propaganda, I gave my students the chance to develop their ad campaign on Windows Movie Maker or Power Point or whatever other new form of technology they wanted to explore. I told them that I would not teach them how to use the technology, but that they were allowed to use whatever they could figure out. The kids produced some fabulous ad campaigns for their fictional products and proved to me that they understood how to use the various techniques to reach the intended audiences. I had no behavior problems during this time. Students were motivated and focused. If something disrupted our learning, the kids were asking when they could finish their projects. Not only did the technology make it easier for me to teach, the students learned much more than in previous years. They were truly proud of what they did.

Had I known information from this chapter back in August, things might have been different this year. I might have had an easier time. This was one of my toughest years of teaching--engaging the students was a great challenge. This was a social group with a collected disenfranchised mindset. Had I known how to use the technology to engage them, more learning could have occurred.

I intend to utilize more of the technology with my students in a way that engages them and takes their learning to a whole new level. No longer will technology be used primarily as a reward for reading or improving scores. It will be used to support reading and improving scores. How can you use technology in your classroom?

Alan November - 3 Skills Students Need to Succeed

SchoolTube - A Vision for k-12 Learners Today

SchoolTube - A Vision for k-12 Learners Today

How do I make what I envision a reality?

As I began to read chapter 20, The Role of Handover in Teaching for Democratic Participation, I was annoyed. The idea of making my classroom a political forum agitated me. What if the kids don't share points of view on an issue? What if parents don't understand the process? Then I kept reading. I came to realize that the whole class scenario initially described was that of a beginning, but not one that promotes transfer. Randy Bomer goes on to describe how to develop a writer's workshop environment that promotes social action in which each student has a voice about what they are passionate about.

Just as I was making the connection between his ideas and the multi-genre writing of Tom Romano and reading, Bomer began to list the variety of genres that would be required to develop a social action project. I found myself trying to rework what/how I would work things in my classroom. Could I find a "buddy room" to blog with? Could I find a teacher that is already working this out or is willing to go the distance with me and make this work? The ideas are buzzing in my head right now. Combining a book with a research, multi-genre social action project. I don't even know how many GLE's that would be?! I am super-stoked to make this work.

This book offers more links and ideas than I know what to do with. Each chapter is like going to a great conference and leaving recharged for the year. However, I have to be careful that it doesn't push me in so many directions that I can't make learning make sense for my students. When I get excited about what I am learning and I begin to visualize the equivalent of a movie classroom in my head, I tend to lose the cohesiveness and consistency needed for middle school.

I think this is where I need to remember my last post--I need to synthesize and maybe find an explainer. How do you bring social action into your writing classroom?

Well, here goes nothing...

In my class last night we discussed literacy for the 21st Century and it got me thinking...am I preparing my students for literacy in a global community? I would have to say...NOT EVEN CLOSE!

This really disturbs me. There is so much that students of today need to learn in order to compete for jobs. Who knows what technological changes will come by the time they enter the work force? So, I have decided to start this blog for my classroom. At this moment, I am not sure how to make it work, but I have many people who will support me (including students), so I know I will figure it all out eventually.

Anyone have experience with this? I found an excellent article about getting started and it even discussed potential problems. If I can figure out links, I will link the article on here.

What are you doing to prepare your student or child for literacy in the 21st Century?

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/blog-basics

Here is the NCTE position on 21st Century Literacy:

http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition