It's been awhile....

My hectic and busy teacher-mom schedule has been on overload. Time flies and we are now in December. I can't believe half the school year is over! This week, I reviewed some of my student data, I peruse through what seems to be a mile-high of paperwork and carefully analyze they're growth. To be honest, I don't know how accurate this program that measures reading growth is, but this is all I have for now. Aside from anecdotals that I refer to when conferencing (which is very important data, too). So I can see that most of my students have grown in the area of reading comprehension, some more than others, and I always have a few that demonstrate very little growth. Regardless, I am worried about whether or not each one of those students has a good book to read over the break.  Most have access to public libraries, however, some of my most reluctant readers seem to coincidentally not have a way to the public library. Coincidence or not, I tried hard this week while conferencing with "My Most Reluctants" to choose a book that they would love to read during our Christmas break, if they didn't already have one that they were reading. And they created a reading goal for themselves.  We shall see how much progress they make in reading their books when we return to school.  Either way, my teacher conscience is clean. I feel like I did my reading teacher deed by getting a book that they enjoy into their hands. And as I write, I'm thinking about the stack of books next to my bed, wondering about what book I will finish reading, or reread or begin.

Celebrating More Books

As another part of our book celebration I had students reflect on a book that made them the reader they are today. I showed them this video:

Scholastic Reader I am Today


I then had students think about a book that made them the reader they are today and we decorated our "banquet table" with their books.

After this I announced the books that were voted as the TOP books for our 4th graders during the 2012-2013 school year. Several students in my homeroom class designed book award stickers for the winners and we all voted on our favorite. The winning student enjoyed designing the stickers for the winners and they will be marked with these stickers in my classroom library next school year.

The winners were...

Picture Book: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

Poetry Book: Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

Nonfiction Book: Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan

Chapter Book: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Graphic Novel: Sidekicks by Dan Santat

A few reflections...

A few of the winners were books I read out loud through out the year. These books won by a LANDSLIDE! Throughout this school year I made it a point to read aloud daily to each class. I knew it was important and I wanted to make it a priority. The more I read aloud, the more I continued to learn how truly important this is. It creates a community of readers, gives us shared texts to use in all sorts of lessons (and social situations), builds excitement for reading, improves vocabulary, and SO much more. The landslide votes proved once again that this time reading aloud was well spent.

To further confirm my love of reading aloud, I also received this note as the year closed up...

You can't argue with that.

Closing Out the School Year and Reflecting On it All

I don't know about you, but this school year did NOT slow down. In fact, it seemed that at the time it is usually allowing us to take a deep breath and do some REAL teaching things just became hectic and someone put the pedal to the metal! However, the last week or so with my students was a sweet time in our reading community! The next several posts are a collection of things that we did together as readers during the last week of school and the thoughts I came away with as a reading teacher...

1) Book Award Banquet!!!

In an earlier post I explained a bit about how we set up our book award nominations. Well it ended up being a close race in several of the categories. We even had to have a run off in a few instances! On the day of our book banquet I used Booksource's classroom organizer (which I used all year to have students check out books, but more on that later) and found which books were checked out the MOST all year long. I created a powerpoint and revealed the TOP TEN to each class! They loved cheering for each book (because these were their favorites after all...) and I loved watching their faces as each book was revealed! Here were a few of our MOST checked out books:

#5

#4

#3/2 It was a TIE!!!

Amulet 1 - This was by FAR the most read book in my classroom this year. However, I believe it didn't reach #1 status because it was passed hand to hand so often.

Darth Paper Strikes Back

#1 Origami Yoda - A true favorite!

After looking at my top 10 most checked out books I realized a few things... Last year I barely had any graphic novels in my classroom. These were obviously the MOST popular books by far this year! What did my students read last year? I noticed throughout the year that many of my students found it difficult to stick with chapter books. They are lacking in stamina and book experiences - BIG TIME! However, the graphic novels provided stepping stones for many of them to be successful in longer chapter books. Some of the graphic novels look long like a chapter book, so kids figure - well if I can read a long book like Amulet, then I can read a long book like Superfudge. Books like the Magic Pickle series and Captain Underpants are great bridges from graphic novels to chapter books. Also, kids tend to comprehend deeply when reading the graphic novels. They are fully engaged. There is nothing better as a reading teacher than having a kid fully engaged in a text. They were clamoring for these books all year. Hoarding them in some cases. I need to come up with a new way to keep them circulating quickly through my 4 classes for next year. I can imagine there are teachers and parents out there who think that this is not real reading. I can assure you that it is... My teaching will forever be changed after seeing the effects of graphic novels on my readers this year!

Book Gifts for our Students

One of my teacher friends and co-worker, Andrea Lucas, discovered a website where a variety of books are practically free.  (http://www.firstbook.org). From picture books to graphic novels to juvenile fiction - this was great! This was unbelievable! So before we knew it, there were about six hundred books being delivered to our school. The boxes arrived and students were caught peering with curiosity to see what were in those boxes. Although, it was kept a surprise until the last days of school, it was amazing to see the looks on their faces as if they were opening Christmas presents, when they were able to choose their books. Books that THEY could CHOOSE from. These books were provided to all of our third and fourth graders in an attempt to prevent the summer reading slide. Students were unbelievably excited about receiving books to read for the summer!  Thank you, Andrea Lucas, for taking the time and effort to make this huge book request that ultimately, the students were very grateful for!

5th Annual Bookaday Challenge

I'm super excited about the 5th Annual Bookaday Challenge for readers! Let's do this! Here's the link!

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/the-fifth-annual-bookaday-challenge/

Building Up Your Book Muscle

Building Up Your Book Muscle

What are you going to read this summer? Where's your book list? I'm sitting here thinking about what my students are going to read, but I guess I also need to add some more books to my list too!  Here are some ideas for building up your book muscle! Click on the link above.

Launching Summer Reading

Launching Summer Reading

We need to get rid of the summer reading slump and find ways to get our students to read.  Click on the link above and Donalyn Miller provides some wonderful ideas to get students to read over the summer by having students make book recommendations, creating a reading list, and holding a book swap. Our school is planning on holding a book swap or two this summer. I'm really excited about that!

I'm also planning to provide students with a summer reading list created by students (book recommendations) and showing students book trailers to get them hyped up about books.  See the following link for book trailers provided by Scholastic Kids on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1B08FBB22B50642. I will also use Edmodo to promote summer reading as much as I can. http://www.edmodo.com

"Going to the Mattresses"

I've always liked the part in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks quotes the Godfather to Meg Ryan about "going to the mattresses". Meg Ryan decides that she needs to fight for her little independent bookshop. She sits on her bed and puts up her dukes as she tries out the phrase, "going to the mattresses".

I was curious about what this phrase actually meant and so I did a little digging on reliable sources such as wikipedia and Urban Dictionary. ;) Basically "going to the matresses" is when a mafia family is going to war. They might rent an apartment to keep their family safe and there may only be matresses for them to sleep on. Members of the mafia may sleep there until they are called upon. It is a way for family members to stay safe and to protect one another, but it is also a way of organizing for a fight.

Now, in You've Got Mail it doesn't perfectly fit the Urban Dictionary meaning. But nonetheless Meg Ryan has decided to fight for her cause.

I am constantly amazed by how often my coworkers and I "go to the mattresses". On a daily basis we are fighting for our cause, our students. We are fighting to protect them and to give them the best education possible in a system that often seems to work against what is best for them. It is at times exhausting and in most cases frustrating. However, I feel that advocating for our students is one of the most important parts of being an educator in 2013.

So I'd like to encourage all teachers to "go to the mattresses". Our students need us and we can't shirk the responsibility of advocating for them. If we don't, who will?

Go to the mattresses to get that child the dyslexia or special education testing they need.

Go to the mattresses for the resources you need in the classroom for them to be successful.

Go to the mattresses so that they have books to read over the summer.

Go to the mattresses to make sure each child receives the accomodations assigned to them.

Go to the mattresses to ensure that other teachers and colleagues are educated in true research based instruction.

Go to the mattresses to meet the physical and emotional needs of each student.

Go to the mattresses so that each child feels safe and welcome in your school environment.

These are all things worth fighting for. So put up your dukes (and with grace and professionalism) fight for your students.

Celebrating Our Favorite Books (Part 1)

As the end of the year draws near, students are tired and teachers are tired. We are energizing our reading workshop by celebrating our favorite books! Here is a how we are working towards awarding our favorites in my classroom...

Several weeks ago I had students nominate their favorite books of the year in several categories:

1) Picture Books

2) Chapter Books

3) Nonfiction Books

4) Graphic Novels

5) Poetry

We then created top 10 lists from each category. I revealed the nominated book lists one day at a time and started with picture books and poetry (because I knew the kids were highly anticipating the top ten lists for graphic novels and chapter books). Each day we created a drumroll and then revealed the list from behind the projector screen. It was hilarious and encouraging to watch them cheer, jump up and down, and scream out their favorite titles that made the lists.

Almost all 80 of my students have read quite a few of the books on these lists. If I had required them to read them, they probably wouldn't have, but they pass the most popular titles from hand-to-hand. Some of them are looking a little shabby (more recently a few titles have even gone missing), but I can't complain if they are being read and loved by so many...

The next step was to get the kids reading these books. We decided as a group that it would only be fair if students who voted for the books had read a majority of the books. So for each category we set a goal that needed to be reached in order to vote. I pulled those books out of my library and set them in bins on my back table, one bin for each category. I even had to make a trip to Half Price Books to see if I could find more copies of some of the nominated titles. Students have been reading, reading, reading...

We created this chart to paste in their journals so they can track the books they've read.

Last Friday I told each class period they have 1 more week to read as many of the nominated books as possible. This Friday we will vote! The following week we will celebrate all we have read during the year AND the books that recieve our 4th grade book awards. I will be asking the kids to name the awards and placing a special sticker on the winners for next year's students to enjoy. I will post more information soon from our celebration!

Effective Collaboration Makes a Difference

Experienced teachers know the importance of collaboration and understand its impact. I recently attended the San Antonio Area Association Bilingual Education conference and a few weeks prior attended the International Reading Association conference. I will admit, I am a bit of an introvert and being around all these people caused nervousness in me. Nevertheless, I learned something about myself and about teachers in general. I learned that one of the most important characteristics of a teacher is to be collaborative. Needless to say, by attending these conferences, I felt that I had many wonderful valuable conversations, discussed different instructional approaches and shared ideas.

Teacher collaboration is important because this allows teachers to share great ideas, resources, data, and discussions. It is also helpful to collaborate instructional approaches about what works and what doesn't. You have to keep in mind that what works in one classroom, may not work in your own and vice versa. Discussing your own practices with other teachers and reflecting is beneficial for both the teacher and the student. What teacher doesn't want to see academic success in the classroom?

On my team, collaboration is one of our strengths. We all have the same set of beliefs and share the same goals: striving for student academic achievement and growing professionally. Teachers on my team provide a sense of strong professional culture that goes unnoticed. They are experts. Nonetheless, they are dedicated individuals who will advocate for their most struggling students or most vulnerable teachers. These teachers are comfortable with sharing and building off individual ideas, analyzing data and sharing resources with each other for the purpose of overall improvement of our campus. We participate in book clubs, create professional developments for teachers at our campus to attend and cross-collaborate with other grade levels.

Recent research from the National Center for Literacy Association demonstrates that educators really are eager to collaborate and learn to deepen literacy learning. Their results were that 77% of educators, principals, and librarians across all fields were committed to improving teaching practices. However, respondents on that study reported the following:

· Only 32% have a chance to frequently co-create or reflect with colleagues about how a lesson has worked.
· Only 21% are given time to frequently examine student work with colleagues.
· Only 14% frequently receive feedback from colleagues.
· And only 10% frequently have the opportunity to observe the teaching practice of a colleague.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/11/what-teachers-need-and-reformers-ignore-time-to-collaborate/

The truth is that true collaboration is difficult, but not impossible. Teachers, you must make an effort to attend trainings, workshops or conferences to become equipped with the tools that you need to grow professionally. A professional learning community gives opportunities to learn and think together about how to improve our practices. It is understandable that not everyone can make it to all those available conferences that are offered.  My advice is to collaborate with a knowledgeable colleague at your campus. Create a campus-wide book study on a research-based authored book.  Make frequent attempts to meet with your grade level team or other colleagues on your campus to collaborate, reflect, receive feedback and if possible, observe each other.

Effective collaboration is focused on improved student learning, data to analyze areas of concern and provide evidence of academic achievement. You will find that through collaboration, you will build professional respect and trust among colleagues. A combination of all of this is a perfect recipe for teacher success and student achievement. Whether you collaborate with your grade-level team, other teachers on your campus or meet new people to collaborate with at a conference, the power of collaboration will be the most useful tool a teacher can experience.

Hope in the Hopeless

I have been thinking a lot lately about hope. Lucy Calkins told a story about hope at IRA. She is a genius in my book, and so maybe that started all of this hope thinking. She spoke of a commencement address given by the mayor of Newark. Having been to Newark in March, I had some schema to go with the story. Here is a piece of Cory Booker's Stanford graduation speech:

When I first arrived in Newark, I decided to answer that call from that great American philosopher, Chris Rock, who said "Why is the most violent street in every city is named for the man that stood for non-violence?"

Newark had so many strong neighborhoods but I sought out one that was in struggle and found it on Martin Luther King Boulevard. It looked spectacularly troublesome to me. My eyes saw abandoned homes being used for drugs. My eyes saw violence. My eyes saw graffiti. But the first person I met, the tenant leader in high-rise projects that I would eventually move into, Miss Jones, she said to me, "Tell me again what you see. Describe what you see around you." And I described what I saw.

And she looked at me and she said, "Boy, if that's all you see, you can never help me." And I go, "What do you mean?" And she goes, "You need to understand something, that the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you. And, if you see only problems and darkness and despair, that's all there's ever gonna be. But, if you're one of those stubborn people who every time you open your eyes, you see hope, opportunity, possibility, love – even the face of God – then you can help me make a change." And I remember, after she said that, looking at her, scratching my head, and thinking to myself – OK, grasshopper, thus endeth the lesson.

I find the words of the tenant leader to be a fitting analogy used by Lucy Calkins to describe what we must do today in education...

Then, last Sunday, I finished the book The Book Thief. If you haven't read it, you should. It is a historical fiction story set during World War 2, and you can't help but fall in love with the characters. Without including any spoilers you should know the book is depressing at points. (It is a World War 2 story after all.) Horrible things happened. It is fiction, yes, but horrible things really did happen. I found myself asking, "Where is the light in this story? Where is the hope?"

After some pondering, I found my answer. The hope is in the characters. People who were good, truly good, despite their quirks and their humanness. Yes, they are made up characters, but the book made them very real to me. Mama sticks with her convictions. Ruby sees good in a world that is dark. Papa reacts with kindness-as an impulse. The neighbors love one another and stick together. They form friendships and they support one another, meeting others needs when they cannot meet their own. The hope in the story is the people.

The other place Leisel (the main character) finds hope is in the books she reads. She also shares the stories, her love of reading, and hope with those around her. How can a teacher not like that? I see children find hope in their reading all the time.

I then think of our school, which is like so many schools around the country. There are times when it is tough to see hope in the circumstances. Now a disclaimer, I will not venture to say that events at schools are as horrific as events in the book. It is not a perfect analogy. However, sometimes being a teacher does feel like an uphill battle. There are so many circumstances working against the things you know to be good and true. When it all seems a bit too much, I do find hope. The hope I see in my school can be found in the people. People who work tirelessly to improve student's lives. People who love and support one another when the chips are down. We have teachers who are committed to learning more, and who are eager to learn more. Teachers who, just like Papa in The Book Thief, commit acts of kindness as if it were a reflex. They put in more time then their students will ever know. The people are my source of hope. If anyone can change our school or education for the better -it is the people.

After Testing Blues

So now what? Testing is over and I keep hearing over and over again that learning seems to be coming to a halt. Well, I beg to differ on that note. It appears to me that there are still TEKS that need to be taught. We as teachers are still required to teach. It's not over until its over. And even when they think its over, it's really not. At the end of the school year when students are planning on watching tons of television and playing unmonitored amounts of video games, I hope they remember or are reminded to pick up a great book. Wishful thinking. But, I am reminding them everyday of the importance of summer reading. The most important single thing I instilled in children this year, was the significance of reading a just right, appealing, high interest, and satisfying book. I hope they practice what they have learned in fourth grade and continue with the reading habits they have exercised this year. Their reading goals over the summer should include to read- A LOT. I'm planning on having some type of summer book club over the summer where students can, if they choose to, join the book club and participate in literary discussions on Edmodo to increase summer reading activity. I will allow students to check out books to take with them over the summer and also provide information to parents about the nearest public library. It makes me nervous to think that children may not read over the summer as much as I want them to. However, I strongly believe that if I make books available to them, they will have the tools to help reduce the summer reading achievement gap. I have the after testing blues because I cannot shove the notion out of my mind that when people think of the end of the school year or beginning of summer, that books become secondary for many or completely obsolete. Hopefully, my ideas will put books in the hands of children that do not have access to books over the summer and help in closing the existing reading achievement gap.

Check out these articles about the significance of summer reading:

http://www.reading.org/general/publications/blog/engage/engage-single-post/engage/2013/03/21/one-equally-effective-but-lower-cost-option-to-summer-school

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=dGVhY2hlcnNyZWFkLm5ldHx0ZWFjaGVyc3JlYWQtbmV0fGd4OmIwNDlhZTkxZDUzNzI1ZA

Facts about summer reading:

http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/files/sc2012_facts.pdf

Edmodo website:

http://www.edmodo.com/

Reflecting before Testing

This blog post has been bubbling inside of me for about a week. It is my first.

My colleague Esmeralda and I have been tossing around the idea of blogging for some time and now these thoughts have made their way to the surface… It all started about a week ago as I watched my 2nd period students eagerly move to their reading nooks for independent reading. I teach 4 classes of 4th grade readers. We are now days from the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test. (In case you were wondering it is RAATS spelled backwards…) Last week we started our testing unit. Kids tune out when a multiple choice test is put in front of them and they REALLY tune out when the teacher starts talking about it. The challenge is keeping them interested, but that is another blog post altogether. It is so easy to become frustrated when progress seems slow with struggling readers. We often blame ourselves as teachers when things don’t seem to sink in. We wonder what will happen if our test scores aren’t up to snuff. We’ve seen the cost of low scores before. It is a tough season…

Even though we are in the midst of practicing reading for a test, we still read independently almost daily. As I observed my students do this, I quickly realized that 2nd period was very tuned in when it came time to read books of their choice. I welled up with a feeling of pride and accomplishment as I watched them. Quite a few realizations hit me at the same time: They know how to choose books that keep them interested and engaged. I hear them pass books to each other, often knowing 3 students down the line who is “on deck”. They tell me which books are hot reads. They sneak read as I give instructions when they first come into the room. I see reluctant readers with their faces in books outside of class. I watch a student finish a book at recess and climb onto the jungle gym to pass it to the next reader. When reading time is over I have to give several reminders for them to stop. They know which series and authors are sure things for them. They don’t need my suggestions because they know what they want to read next. They have knowledge of a variety of genres and read widely. Wow! I couldn’t help but praise 2nd period at the end of class for the readers they have become!

What is even crazier… when my 3rd period students came in, I noticed the same thing.

My students did not start the year with these reading habits. There are still moments when I think, “They are such a mess!” It seems however we are moving in the right direction. They have not always been independent in our reading workshop. Didn’t I want them to become independent all along?

So during a time of year filled with frustration, anxiety, and fear- I choose pride. I choose to be proud of my students as readers and as individuals. I choose to be proud of all they have accomplished, and I choose to praise them for the readers they have become. This is something testing data cannot measure. I choose to take what they know now and think about how I can continue to build their reading lives for the next 6 weeks. Will they all pass the STAAR test? No. Do the reading habits they’ve acquired matter more? I believe so. I choose to delight in the readers they’ve become. Here are a few recent written reflections that prove there is much to be proud of: