Falling In Love With Teaching Writing

I am so excited to be part of this Blog Hop!

This is my first and I am excited for so many reasons!

I can't wait to see all the wonderful things we all love about teaching.

Anyone who knows me loves I love reading.

I love teaching reading.

I love reading for fun.

I love talking about reading.

So, I really thought my blog post would be about reading.

However, this year I have grown to love writing as well.

I decided to talk about writing because I think many of us are afraid of how to teach it 

because we were not taught how to teach writing.

If you were taught how, PLEASE leave me a comment so I can get in touch with you!

I have always enjoyed reading the wonderful stories my students wrote for creative writing.

I even enjoyed reading the facts and seeing the excitement in their faces as they learned new things about interests they had.

My view of writing has changed completely over the last few years as our testing has changed;

therefore, changing the way I have had to look at how I teach writing.

HOW TESTING HAS CHANGED

1.  Our testing will be on the computer.  On the reading test the students could have up to 2 texts and then respond to a prompt about what they have read.  On the social studies test, we could have any primary source, map, diagram or text, that the students will have to analyze and then respond to a prompt.  On top of that, the students will have to type their responses while scrolling up and down to the text.

2. We have been told to be prepared for mainly opinion writing on both of these tests.

3.  Our social studies standards for third grade in Tennessee include THE. ENTIRE. WORLD. - geography, culture, history, government, economics, etc.  of each continent.

So, my amazing third grade team and I had to sit down and rethink how we were teaching.

HOW MY TEACHING HAS CHANGED

1.  My kids are on this blog almost every day.  I give them crazy photo prompts.  I give them social studies prompts that apply to what we are studying in social studies as well as reading. I have found the key to making this work is my responding that day to what they have written.  This usually takes me no more than 30 minutes at night (or early in the morning).  The next day, the students know they have to find their comment, read my reply and, then, reply back showing their corrections.

Here is one of our fun "Picture of the Week" posts.

When we read about Marco Polo (who is part of our social studies), the kids looked and responded to this post.

The kids fell in love with Ellis Island when we did this study.

I have seen such a huge growth already in our writing due to these additions to our day.

As a teacher I LOVE them.

I love them because they are fun to write.

I love them because they are fun to read.

I love them because I am seeing ALL my students grow in various ways.

Some of them are typing a sentence and that is a celebration.

Some of them are leaving peer feedback which is amazing!

2.  We still do the paper and pencil writing because that is critical as well.  We have had to do this for years, and I have loved them all.  (Some are up for a MAJOR facelift, but that will come. Please excuse those that aren't "cute.")  Our "saying" for our writing time has come from my 

fabulous friend/teaching neighbor, Belinda, from Third Grade to the Edge.

To Seek...

To Know...

And Thereby Grow...

We seek information through observing primary sources, websites, books, magazines, etc.

We take the information we gained and see what we know about that subject now.

We grow when we can put what we know into writing and share it with others.

We have done this with Mt. Everest, presidents, colonial times, The Star Spangled Banner,

American symbols, etc.

                         

3.  In our reading, we have implemented the reading response journals with the Power Reading Workshop plan.  Every week the students are writing in their journals about the book they have read.  Many times what they are writing is an opinion that has to be supported with evidence from the text. I saw so much growth with this last year, and can't wait to see how it helps my kiddos this year.

I could go on and on, but this has already wound up being longer than I had planned.

I want to hear from you!

Do you have any questions or ideas?

Please leave a comment for me!

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Keep going until you come back to me!

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Remember you DO have until September 30 to take advantage of everything!

Thanks for visiting!

Book Challenge #1

Dear Students,

     This past week I FINALLY finished Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo.  I have heard wonderful things about Ms. DiCamillo as an author, but have never read anything of hers.  That is one reason I am excited to be doing the 40 Book Challenge with you.  I really thought this book would be realistic fiction. However, I quickly found out I was mistaken.  It is for sure a fantasy book. (YAY for getting one of those crossed off my list!)  It is a fantasy because in the book the squirrel communicates with the humans around him and he writes poetry to express how he is feeling at the time.  I knew when he picked up the vacuum cleaner that this was not going to be realistic fiction at all!
     This is a different kind of book in that it mixes normal chapters with types of comic book features.  This is because Flora, the girl in the book who loves Ulysses the squirrel, reads a ton of comic books.  She relates everything that happens to Ulysses to the things that happen in her comic book world.  This makes it easy to read.  The chapters are pretty short, so if you can read a lot at one time or can just read a little bit.
     I think many of you would enjoy this book because it has a super hero and a villian (Flora's mother).  It would be a good transition for some of you from the graphic novels you are reading to a novel.  I hope many of you will choose to read this book at some point this year.

                                                         Love,
                                                            Your teacher who doesn't like to read fantasy books,
                                                                           
                                                                       Mrs. Becky
 

Mrs. Becky and Ms. Melodie with our first books in the 40 Book Challenge!                    

Summer Book Club: Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

I really am working on doing better about my blogging on here and one way I am doing that is by joining The Brown Bag Teacher as she and others host a summer book club.  We are reading Donalyn Miller's book Reading in the Wild.  I read her book The Book Whisperer this spring and have GRAND plans of implementing it into my classroom this fall, so when I saw this opportunity pop up, I had to go with it.

The point of the book is growing wild readers.  I will admit it - I AM A WILD READER!  I can't help it!  I read whenever I get the chance.  I will read to myself.  I will read to my two children at home.  I am the teacher that will read aloud to my children in my classroom for 2 hours when they are suckered into a book as well!  Guilty!  I want my children - all of my children - to leave my room with a love of books and reading.  I had never had the thought though of what I am doing in my classroom is developing them into lifelong readers and that hit home.

So, I have been wondering.... what can I do to instill that in my classroom this year?  I love the idea of teaching them to take moments to read.  It can be 5 minutes here or there.  It doesn't have to be for a solid 20-30 minutes.  Third Grade Bookworm has a great mini-lesson that I will be using for sure showing kids the times they can take to read.  I want this for my room.  I want to see kids pulling books out when they have just a second or two to sneak in a few pages or even paragraphs.  What has been the best way to monitor what your kids are reading (and to make sure they are actually reading)?

My question is how... We have DEAR time in our school.  The first 15 minutes of the day is set aside for everyone to read.  I have 2 90 minute reading blocks.  Each 90 minute block is divided into 3 30 minute sessions where the kids rotate from me to independent work to a third block of time.  During that time close to 35 kids will come in and out of my room.  I teach a structured reading series that is practically scripted for me.  However, my principal trusts me and is allowing me to use one of those 30 minutes blocks as a chance to sneak in some more independent reading time.  However, is that enough?  Will it work?

Help me... What has worked in your room?  I am eager to learn.  I am eager to try.  I am eager to develop wild readers in my room this coming year and every year.

I am just trying to cook up some success...