OLW: October Gratitude

Yesterday was one of those special days.  It started at 8:00 AM, fifty minutes before students typically arrive at school. Bill (librarian), Margaret (kindergarten teacher) and I met with Newbery Club. This year we have 17 students who are all reading at least 2 books for each club meeting. Today the top winners included:  Counting by 7’s, Center of Everything, The Mouse with a Question Mark Tail.  The conversation began with how all of these stories were very confusing and several students struggled when they started these books. After listening, the three of us supported them by explaining that higher-level text can flow back and forth with setting, flashbacks for characters and the importance of tracking their reading. By the end of club, the conversation shifted and students were using stronger examples from the text.  You can’t begin to appreciate a group of boys and girls who love to read and more importantly enjoy having a conversation with their peers and teachers. Off we sent them with their new list for the next two weeks. Of course, I had already had a three of the books on the next list to book talk.

Excited to see so many ideas for exploring vocabulary. Love the illustrations

Later in the day, when I was tired and feeling frustrated, two students asked if they could talk to me.  I asked them to join me at the round table for a conversation and they arrived with a smile. When they sat down, they wanted to tell me how much they love their word notebook.  Both students have never collected vocabulary words, and they just wanted to thank me for having a basket of fun word notebooks to choose from and more importantly for encouraging them to start their own word notebook. By the way, these two special memories were not in my lesson plans for yesterday.

Set up to support Newbery Club and reading Navigating Early