Exciting News Check Out Wonderopolis!

Today is exciting @wonderopolis because NCFL has launched some NEW changes on the site.  There are so many I don't know where to start....Let's start at the top:  not there is a Listen button so the wonder of the day can be read aloud while the text is tracked on the wonder to help to follow along.  Next there is a Wonder Gallery where you submit your own pictures that support the wonder. Perhaps one of my favorite parts is: Test your knowledge:  an on line quiz that you can take after you have explored the wonder.  Within the wonder, the vocabulary words are linked to past wonders to help with background knowledge and/or enrichment opportunities. 

With the change to Common Core, the new pull down menu from clicking on the Explore Wonders tab is perfect for specific searches.  You can choose your grade level and topic.  It will make using wonders connected to curriculum much easier to find and then you can make great connections with strong non-fiction text. Make sure you check out all the changes and tell your friends-it's a great time to be wondering with your students right before summer.  Have you considered summer wonder journals?  More on that soon :)

Wonder Wednesday: Free Choice Really?

At this point in the school year with 3 weeks to go until summer, I am trying to immerse my students in learning that pulls everything we discussed, learned, explored into one full circle.  I am a huge advocate for choice in my classroom, but I have shifted from total free choice to focus free choice.  

I think about "free choice" differently after several years of teaching.  I want my students to choose a topic that they are interested in to learn more; however, I am not sure learning about their favorite video game or researching the height of the Demon Drop at Cedar Point constitutes higher thinking. After all with the internet, most questions can be answered with a click of a finger or a google of a search. I have organized "free choice" differently the last few weeks of school.  
I asked my students what were some of the important "thinking" strategies we have focused on this year, we brainstormed a list.  At the top of the list: vocabulary, main idea/supporting details, compare & contrast, cause/effect, predictions and #1 was evidence for your thinking.

 As I read this wonder work, I was intrigued by the opening sentence " because when I go out to eat I usually get chicken fingers, and I learned 3 new facts."  I was pleased how they chose to create their own compare contrast chart with textual support. 

I was thrilled to see a math connection with"data" because that idea did not make our top list of strategies, yet this students wrote all about data and sloths? Who would have thought to compare humans to sloths-not me, but how creative.  So as you wind down your school year, think about "free choice" along with allowing your students to explore Wonderopolis. It is an excellent site for your students to be aware of before summer vacation rolls into the picture.

Random Literacy Thoughts on Saturday

I have virtually turned a new page in my teaching career this year with twitter. I have found twitter to be the best virtual PD for me because the people I follow have the same genuine interest as well as concerns about literacy.  I do however appreciate that 90% of twitter conversation is positive and rarely goes off the deep end.  The tweet above really hit me as I read it, and I started thinking about reading in my classroom this year.  

As an educator, I often think from year to year about the successes I had and how I will implement them into my classroom the next year.  What I find the most interesting about that is sometimes WONDERFUL plans from last year do not always work with this year's class.  I found this graphic today on face book posted by Edutopia.

Which brings me back to reading, my wonder colleague, Paul Hankin's posted several strong opinions on face book about the power of NOT rewarding students for reading a set # of books.  I followed the entire conversation as a parent of two adult children who still don't love to read, and I believe because they were made to read set # of books or a certain genre every month and as a teacher who does not require a set number of books or required minutes from my students.

Which brings me to the picture above -- my weekend HW. I will be reading my students Reader's NB and writing back to each student reflecting on their thoughts about their JR book, their reading life or just thoughts about reading. To me the power in literacy is about the conversations that happen inside and outside our classrooms including the time I spend reading books so I can book talk, the time I spend reading blogs about new books and ordering new books for our classroom.

Finally, I am thankful for all my "friends" I have never met on twitter or face book that support my literacy thoughts and encourage me to grow virtually. I am anxiously awaiting the summer so I can continue to grow and start to read my ever growing book pile waiting for me on my desk.




 

Wonder Wednesday: Vocabulary is Differentiated

Questions that I often am asked on Wednesday morning include: Which wonder did you choose?  Did you see this mornings Wonder?  I am so excited to watch the video together as a class. How many words are there for us to explore?

We celebrate wondering everyday but especially on Wednesday.  We take time to celebrate the idea of wondering and connecting a wonder to our core content. Today we will be exploring:  Totem Poles for our Native American Unit. 

Students working in the computer lab on wonder assignment.

We start with a class meeting with the wonder on the Smart Board and make several predictions including the WHY.  Next, we watch the video and discuss new facts they learned and how the video supports the 3 questions of the day.  We then look at the new vocabulary and with the changes that NCFL has made with the differentiation vocabulary lessons are much easier. This change was recently made so earlier wonders may not have this organized list of vocabulary.

After we discuss the words and brainstorm definitions, my students know that their next challenge is to read the wonder and answer the 3 questions along with choosing five words to write their own sentences showing meaning.  Finally, if the students have extra time, they explore other wonders and write about them in their wonder spiral which is pictured above below the computer.  Thanks for wondering about vocabulary with us on Wednesday!

Let's Be Honest

This is the month for state testing in Ohio. My fifth graders just completed 3 days of testing-math, reading, and science.  I live in a state in which 50% of my evaluation will be based on this year's reading and math scores.  My students this year will determine my evaluation for next school year 2013-2014. Does it make sense?  Can I explain it even to my husband, parents or neighbors not really.  When they ask me questions that I can't answer as an educator of 24 years it makes me extremely disheartened.  

But let's be honest.

I chose to integrate test taking strategies all year.  My school has implemented a K-5 procedure for helping students with their extended responses. We worked on our RACE strategies all year, and my students know how to break a question apart (TTQA) and answer with evidence and support.  But let's be honest.

When my door is closed, and we are having rich conversations about our read aloud this year. Sharing Wonder and How to Steal a Dog. Allowing students time to work on their weekly reading goals which for several students includes reading a poetry book or a non fiction book for the first time. That is true celebration!  These success stories will not be a part of my evaluation because there is not any way to "measure" the value of these experiences. I would argue there is a way-

I would argue the value is 100%- all of my students have read a new genre this year-one they never would have considered in the past and several are now hooked on that genre.

I would argue that the value is 90%-almost all of my students wrote and published their first poem ever. By publishing, they read it front of their peers on Poetry Friday.  

I would argue that the value is 85%-most of my students have a private vocabulary notebook that they carry around from school to home and collect their words on the weekend, watching ESPN, reading the paper, or at a soccer tournament. 

I would argue that the value of 100% is ALL my students are readers because they want to be-they do not record minutes, they don't have to read a genre every month assigned to them. They are all readers because they choose what they read, when they read and set their own goals.  My students are all READERS!

Let's be honest-isn't that what we want for all students from K-12?  Not individually assigned a color of red, yellow, and green?  Let's be honest.

May Day and OLW

The end of the month snuck up on me with my blogging.  I am immersed in state testing this week enough said about that subject, so I had not realized until this morning that today is May 1.  Every May Day my mother always reminded me of how she and her sister would make May Day baskets and hang them on their neighbor's door with flowers in them. They would ring the door bell and run. A much nicer version of "Ding Dong Ditch."

compliments of Google Images

As I changed my school calendar this morning, I paused for a moment as I prepared for our big day of Math OAA testing.  I often wonder what happens to those family traditions if someone does not continue to tell the stories of the past.  My mom used to have me make May Day baskets and since I am an only child she would help me. Our own children grew up with not having real neighbors unless cows and horses count. So I didn't continue the traditions with our own children. I wonder in our busy worlds and everyone being so connected through technology -- are we really connected?  Do we still share the important family traditions that connect our families from the past?  

My sunflowers next to our barn.

In my defense, our children know how much I love flowers, and we have several flower beds and every Mother's Day we plant flowers. They help me with the sunflower garden, the new perennials that will start a new garden. This year may be different with our daughter teaching in SC and she will not be home. Perhaps traditions change because we are further apart?  Perhaps we start new traditions because of distance. Something I am pondering as I am thankful for our memories.  Last year, I carried on the tradition from my father and planted a knock out rose garden. Much easier to take care of but still totally beautiful.  

So as I think about OLW: gratitude I am thankful for my family traditions, and most of all for the lessons learned from those older and wiser than me. 

Check out other OLW friends:  Tracy and Erin

Turning Research Inside Out

Research has turned upside down in my room this year! It was time to turn research on it's side and try something new.  For the past year, honestly, I have been thinking about how to change it so that it involved higher level thinking, allowed students better choices (not just their favorite baseball player or roller coaster) and most important integrate more reading into their project.

The picture above is the perfect introduction to this year's research project.  I gave my students choice to either write a business letter, take a "field trip" or an interview of a professional in their area. Three boys took their field trip to the zoo after school this past Thursday.   The four areas of research are listed below:

As you can see, I used the Ohio newly released Science standards and allowed students to choose their area and then they had to choose 3 indicators to focus their research on for 2 weeks.  Finally if they chose A, B, or C their final project is to present their research in a poetry book (poems they would write) or write a literary non-fiction story.  Six students chose "Thinking as a Scientist" and they are following our science book for procedures (#1-#5) and their final project will be 3 fold board and their lab report explaining their experiment. We are right in the middle of the project, and I will be grading their research this weekend. That was also important to me breaking the project into smaller parts, so I could check in with them more often.  Check back in two weeks to see their final projects. Turning research up side down is exciting for my students, but I think even more exciting for me.

See their note cards-ready to research at the zoo.