#WONDERSchools Blog Tour Part 2

So clearly I am a HUGE advocate for Wonder by R.J. Palacio...and here are two more reasons why:
(FYI: I got a little Natalie Merchant happy...but the song has a major tie-in to the book, so oh well!)

#1
David Etkin (@DavidAEtkin), Sherry Gick (@LibraryFanatic), and I all cooked up a little scheme to further spread the power of this amazing novel. We called it "1-2-3 Wonder." Basically, we asked our students to answer some questions about the book using only one, two, or three words. We met via a Google Doc (which was a completely new and fascinating experience for me) to brainstorm some possible questions. As a group, we also decided to put all of our students' answers together in one final video. The next day, we met with our kids and told them about the idea. My students were stoked, especially when I told them that R.J. Palacio herself might see it! I had them write their answers on dry erase boards, and I photographed them with their responses. It was really cool to see them tailor their words to be more precise so that they could fit their ideas into the limited space they were given. Here is my group's finished product:

Isn't that cool???

Please check out Sherry's finished product here. 

See David's video here. 

Here is the compilation of all of our classes together:

I really enjoyed collaborating with both David and Sherry. Good things always result from passionate teachers putting their heads together to come up with something fantastic for their students to do. 

#2
I love Wonder is because I believe it has the power to bring kids together and set aside their differences. As part of the #WONDERSchools blog tour, I read a post written by the mother of a little boy with a craniofacial condition. What really touched me was how many similarities he had to Auggie. One difference, though, was this little boy (Peter) had never been given a standing ovation. I knew once I shared Peter's story with my kids, they'd want to do something about that! Here was their response to Peter's mom's blog post:

As son as the school day ended, I hopped on Twitter and sent our video to Peter's mom so that she could share it with him. I heard back from her not long after I "tweeted" her the link to our video. She said that Peter was "speechless," and she had been moved to tears...all from one simple act of kindness inspired by Wonder. 

I implore you, share this book with as many children as you can. Just imagine: if every child in the world read this book and felt its impact, what kind of tomorrow they would work together to create? 

#WONDERschools Blog Tour

Have you heard of it? Better yet, have you read it? Do you know the wonder that is Wonder by R.J. Palacio?

Wonder is one of 2012's hottest novels by first-time author R.J. Palacio. Teachers, students, librarians, and kid's lit lovers alike are singing the praises of this WONDERful book. Don't believe me? Try following some of the many hashtags that have popped up all over Twitter (# WonderofWONDER, #WONDERschools, to name a few) and you will find hundreds of people chatting about this powerful book.

I first read Wonder as an Advanced Reader's Copy that I obtained form NetGalley. I was hooked. I read it in two days, barely able to pull myself away from the computer screen on which I was reading it. As soon as I read the last sentence on the last page, I knew that this book HAD to be shared with as many children as I could reach. It was the last novel I read to both of my reading and language arts classes last year. It was the perfect way to end the year before I sent them out into the world beyond elementary school. We made wonderful memories as we discussed the book using a mixture of the questions my students came up with, some of my own, and the ones provided on R.J. Palacio's website. We wrote about it. We cried over it. We loved it.

(**Spoiler Alert** Below is the "flipchart" I used with my students. Some of the questions reveal key events in the story and may spoil it for you if you haven't read it yet...which you need to!)

Wonder Questions


This year, I decided to read Wonder with my kids at the beginning of the year. My hope was that it would help build up our classroom community. I decided that by reading it at the beginning of the year, the impact would not only carry into their lives outside of school, but inside as well. Typically I allow my students to vote for their read aloud, but this year I decided this one was too important to potentially pass up.

Every day my students eagerly enter the classroom after specials, grab their response journals, and form a circle on the carpet. I decided to sit with my students on the floor, not above them on my "teacher chair," this year. I can see them, hear them, and look at what they are writing/sketching in their notebooks. We reserved the back half of the students' journals for notes. After previewing Wonder (using the front and back covers, inside flap, and first chapter), the kids thought about what they wanted to focus on as we read. Some chose how the song quotes connected to each character's part, others were interested in tracking how August (the main character) dealt with being in school for the first time. The students then designed their own note-taking sheets, which they use and refer to when writing letters to me about our read aloud. I have been so amazed at my students' honesty and empathy as I read their entries.

I love sharing this book with my students. It brings us together as a community and helps them understand the effect their actions, both good and bad, can have on others. They see connections between the characters we are reading about, and characters in their independent reading. Wonder is a great tool for teaching empathy, but it is also great literature. I use it to model skills and strategies I want my students to use in their own reading and writing. I am so grateful to R.j. Palacio for giving me such an invaluable resource to use in my classroom. I know Auggie will stay with all of us forever.

What a Year So Far!

Hi followers! It's been a long time! This school year is off to a great start so far...but it has been busy busy busy! I am currently in the throws of a full fledged reading and writing workshop. I have been doing a lot of reading and research to help guide me, but I am still trying to figure out so much. 

I am enjoying tailoring my teaching to my students' needs based on what I am seeing in their work, and I have found that this new model for teaching is giving me a lot more time for conferring with students. In the past four weeks, I have gotten to know my students' strengths and weaknesses and am already planning on how to better meet their needs through small groups and one-on-one teaching. 

The best part is that I have the full support of my principal, who is very excited about me trying out this new teaching style. I am the first person in my school to completely abandon the anthology. It's sort of scary to not have the assurance of a pre-planned curriculum, but I feel like I have found a lot of support via Twitter. 

Last school year, I implemented some pieces of the reading and writing workshop and saw so much growth in my students. I can only imagine what I will see by the end of this school year. For those of you who are interested in looking into the reading and writing workshop, here are some resources I have found the most helpful:

Guiding Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell has a ton of information about implementing the reading and writing workshop. The book includes mini-lessons to help guide beginners in launching the workshop, along with images of anchor charts that I have found very helpful.






Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop by Franki Sibberson helped ease many of my fears when deciding to venture into the world of reading and writing workshop. Franki explains how to use student work, class discussions, and conferences to drive instruction. Reading this book helped me see all the different methods I could use to assess my students and gather data. There are student work samples and forms to help get you started, too!



I also downloaded a digital book by Lucy Calkins called A Curricular Plan for the Reading Workshop from the Heinemann website. This is a great tool to help provide a scope and sequence for the year. One of the most intimidating factors for making the switch to reading workshop was not knowing what units to teach and how to teach them. Let's face it, that's what makes anthologies so convenient. They tell you what stories to teach, and what skills to teach with them. This book Gives you a month by month sequence you can use to plan instruction. Calkins also provides teaching points to cover within each unit of study. There are not any actual "lesson plans," but I like that. It is up to me to figure out what is best for my students, but I like having a resource that will help provide some structure. Heinemann also has the same type of resource for writing workshop, and both resources can be found for any grade level. 

Well, that's all for now. I am still fine tuning and researching. This is going to be quite a big year for me, but I am feeling very excited and energized about this new adventure. I can't wait to see my students grow and thrive in an environment that is catered to each of their individual needs. 

Who else is using this structure for teaching language arts? What are some of your favorite resources that you use? I can't wait to hear from you all!

2012-2013, Here We Come!

I am heading back to school this Monday for the teachers' week back. As I stated in my last post, I have not and do not plan on purchasing a lot of new materials for my room this year. I am going to make a few things (one of which includes a neat Boggle bulletin board) and change up my set up a bit, but other than that not much room decorating going on this year...at leas that's the plan for now! My real focus during the next week is going to be planning the first week back and making some changes to the way my classroom will be run.

I am tired of giving my students a bunch of busy work on the first day/during the first week. I know this time should be spent teaching routines and such, but I know there has to be a more enjoyable and productive way. I want to hook them in the first week! I have a found a few ideas, but I am looking for more and I am sure that other teachers out there are, too! So...let's share! 

Here are some things I found that I may want to try during the first week:

1. Team Challenges

This site is GREAT! There are tons of activities that you can use to help build team spirit in your classroom. What better way to start off the year than to challenge kids to work together and get to know one another in a positive way. I really like the idea of our classroom becoming a family, and I think activities like these are the ticket! 

2. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Last year, our school implemented a school-wide "respect project." I would not describe our school as one with a great deal of behavior challenges, but there is always room for improvement, right? We felt that by encouraging our kids to be more respectful, we were setting them up for life-long success. I think talking about respect and creating an anchor chart like this one will help set the tone for the year. Some of the ideas we covered as a school last year came from The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. These are basically behaviors that should be expected of all students. We did not do all 55, but selected 10 that we felt were the most important. I found a shortened version of these expectations here. 

3. Find out THEIR expectations

I like the ideas I found on Mrs. Robinson's Classroom Blog, specifically her activity that asked students to think about their ides to help their classroom run smoothly. I love the charts she created with her students in this team activity. 

That's all I have so far. Please let us all know what you are doing for the first week back by linking your blog below, or just leave a comment! The more ideas the better! 

Summer in a Nutshell

Wow! This has been a busy summer for yours truly. I am officially on my last week of freedom summer vacation. I cannot believe how fast it always goes. I am happy to say that I did make a dent in My Summer Bucket List, though. Here is one of the crocheted creations I made (for my husband):

It's a Narwhal!

My husband is quite the collector of random things.
Mr. Narwhal got a prime spot, though!

I didn't do as much reading as I wanted to, but I did read a few books. My students,on the other hand, did a great job with the online book club. Or course I did not get 100% participation, but the fact that a good handful frequently posted and kept me up-to-date on their reading is more than I could have asked for. Hopefully if I hype it up more at the end of this school year it will be even more successful! 

My husband and I took a fun trip to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. I simply LOVE that zoo. We had a blast! And...I found some friends to create a book display for one of my favorite books from last year, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (the author we skyped with!).

It's Ivan and Ruby!

I tried a lot of new recipes, but here are some favorites that will work their way into the school year, too:

Southwestern Stuffed Chicken

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

 Both were SUPER easy and pretty healthy. Bonus: My husband liked them! That is not an easy thing to accomplish!

I spent a lot of time with friends, and am actually having one last "hurrah" before going back to school. What are we doing, you ask? We're having a Pinterest dinner party! Each of us is bringing a dish we found on our beloved Pinterest. I encouraged the girls to bring things that they wanted to try, but knew hubbies might not like. Mine is Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary. I cannot wait!

Now that summer has come to an end, I promise you will see more of me. I had a hard time thinking of what to blog about when I didn't do anything teacher related. Speaking of which, what are some things you would like to see more posts about? Knowing what you like reading will help me make my blog more of a valuable resource to you, my readers.

By the way...I have officially been a blogger for one year! Woo-hoo!!! Bring on the 2012-2013 school year!

Stay tuned for a post about first week of school ideas!