Getting to Know You With a Purpose

let the countdown commence- Suzanne

I dare you to walk into a school today that doesn't ring with the sound of staplers, where you can't be immediately enveloped in the smell of the hot and ready laminator.  Ah, the sounds and smells of back to school!

My hope is that maybe, just maybe you've turned the corner in your room and have begun to think about curriculum what you're going to teach that first week.

I've got a confession to make.  The past couple of years I've rushed into the curriculum.  I like normalcy (well...as close as anyone can get in the classroom), so I jumped into grammar foldables and journal topics and short stories...oh my!  And you know what- I regret it!  My kids liked me and liked my class, but neither of us was truly invested in one another.  I've seen the power of relationships.  They are able to conquer more than foldables, prompts, and stories alone.  Please don't rush the academia.  You'll get there soon enough, and with strong relationships, you'll be able to achieve greater success.

Developing relationships doesn't have to be kumbaya or chaos.  It can still be purposeful.  Here is a great idea from our friend Katie Peterson who teaches 10th and 11th grade English in San Francisco.  (So cool! Katie, let us know if you ever want us to come visit!!)

Katie writes:

I developed the pitchforking idea into a First Day activity. We start school on a Friday--40 minute periods for each class, with basically just enough time for the name game and looking at the syllabus. Instead, here's what I did:

• Each student needs a piece of paper folded so that it shows 6 boxes. Number the boxes 1-12, using the front and back of the page
• Pair students; Provide each pair a question card (I had 12 total--one question for each numbered box; totally random questions: everything form "Best song of 2014 so far?" to "Agree or Disagree: Poetry is Everywhere")
• Students match up with other pairs, introduce themselves and exchange questions. 
• Students write the names of the people from which they received the question at the bottom of the corresponding number box, then answer the question with a pitchfork.
• By the end, hopefully they will have met just about everyone. And even better: We talked about how they've practiced each skill they'll need to be successful in English class: Follow directions, organize answers and arguments, collaborate, ask each other to explain why and how they arrived at answers, take risks by meeting new people and tackling questions you've never seen before, etc.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

your funny Valentine, Suzanne

First, let me start by saying...

We LOVE sharing our classrooms with you and cannot thank you enough for welcoming our resources and ideas into your own.  Each like, re-pin, and post read makes our HEART swell.

It's the end of our first week of...

Next week, we have five more strategies that will carry you through this homestretch.

Today lets look at a strategy that will have your kids rollin'- Cube It.  This idea was introduced by our instructional dean and can be adapted to work with any text or content area.  

What you need:

-dice

-student groups

-answer sheet

Here's how it works:

Provide students with an answer sheet numbered 1-6 or have them make their own by folding a colorful piece of paper into thirds and then in half.  Students will roll the die and circle the number they land on.  Note: there shouldn't be duplicates.  If a students rolls the same number, have them roll again.  Partners could roll three times to make sure all questions are taken; groups of three could roll twice.  For groups larger than three, have each student select their unique number, and remaining numbers can be answered together.  

They are responsible for answering the question that goes with the number they rolled.  They will report back to their group at the end of a designated period of time.  (Think Jigsaw.)  I type questions up on a Power Point slide, but you could make a copy for each group.  Here is the Cube It I did for an excerpt of Antigone:

It is SO easy to adapt for what you are working on!

Literature Circle Roles (Have them roll for a new role each period or week.)

1. Summarizer

2. Vocabulary Investigator

3. Travel Tracer

4. Character Chronicler

5. Illustrator

6. Key Questioner

Writing Review (used with a mentor text)

1.  Write (or record from reading) a complex sentence.

2. Write a rhetorical question that could be added to paragraph 2. 

3. Write a pitchforked sentence that could be used to start the essay.

4. Write (or record) a sentence that uses commas to set apart unnecessary information.

5. Rewrite sentences 15 and 16 as a compound sentence.

6. Rewrite sentence 4 so that it begins with a transition word. 

The possibilities are endless!  

How could you use this strategy in your classroom?

Allow Me to EXplain

your curly co-captain, Suzanne

...preferably with EXamples...

That's right, today is all about EXpository writing.  

Our expository essays follow this frame from Gretchen Bernabei:

Students draw and label this structure almost daily.  We deconstruct other author's writing to find these parts.  This shows up in the Article of the Week assignment.  We dream about these four boxes.  I mean, look at them, they are rather dreamy!  

Let's face it- we've got 26 lines and limited time.  When you look at effective STAAR released essays, they have this basic structure.  It comes down to being concise and logical.

To plan, students draw and label the expository structure.  They then kernel 4 sentences of their essay.  Four sentences, four boxes- you get where I'm going with this.  A brilliant colleague came up with these sentence stems to help guide students' thinking:

1.  I think...

2.  I think this because...

3.  I also think this because...

4.  That's why...

We work closely with these stems at the beginning of the year.  It helps guide thinking and gets words down on paper.  Slowly, we move away from them.  If you take off the stem, the sentence you are left with sounds much better yet.  Better yet, teach students more sophisticated transitions to use.  But hey, if one of my struggling writers feels comfortable with the sentence stems and is using them effectively, more power to them!

We also play around with the structure.  Our favorite is an anecdote or allusion.  Other structures we've tried:

"Here's how this affects me" (R1), "Here's how this affects other" (R2)

"I used to think" (R1), "Now I think" (R2)

Mini rant: I'm a stickler about the line in the Reason 1 and 2 box.  Here's why: this is the most likely time and place we'll catch pseudo reasons.  For example, True friends are honest (R1) and truthful (R2).  At first glance, it's semi-plausible.  But upon closer inspection, they're really saying the same thing.  That would be a tricky (and ineffective) essay to write.  Whew! I'm glad we caught that. (wipes brow)

Ummm...sometime people talk about things when their writing to people who like stuff.  Ugh.  We are on a crusade against people, stuff and things.  I force motivate students to join in the fight by having them censor the people, stuff and things out of there paper.  When they're finished, their little papers look like this...sad day!

A mini-lesson on renaming and pitchforks to add detail and this paper should be back in business.

For more expository resources, check out Gretchen's English I remediation packet.  It's chock full of goodies that are sequenced to lead you up to test time or that you can break apart and use in your classroom instruction as you see fit.  

I {Heart} Notebooks 2.0

your curly co-captain, Suzanne

We have been blown away by the number of people who have checked out I {Heart} Notebooks!  So in honor of over 1,000 page views, we bring to you the sequel- I {Heart} Notebooks 2.0.

Last year was our first year to use interactive notebooks.  Before school began, we found ourselves with the desire but no direction, so we made it up.  Overall, they were a success, but we did learn some tricks and additions that we've implemented this year. 

As you know, I'm a Lori-proclaimed data queen.  It's important for students to have their information early on, so that you can refer back to it for motivation and focus.  In the first couple of weeks of the new school year, I take about 10-15 minutes to distribute and explain student's data.  Especially for my acceleration students, I focus on positives- "look at how you've grown in this area", "you do this really well"...  Students fold and glue this data inside the front cover of their notebooks.  

Our first 10 pages are for Star Points.  You can read about them here.  They are a great way to address the editing questions on STAAR.  

Next comes the toolbox section (10 pages). Here we take brief notes for skills and strategies.  Pictured are notes over "be" verbs, dialogue rules, author's purpose, pitchforks, and Ba-Da-Bings.

We also included a copy of STAAR rubrics- highlighting important traits and writing in strategies that we have to help us get those points.  This was really empowering to me because it validated that my co-teacher and I had given students the skills that they need to be successful.  Hopefully students walked away with the understanding that they had the strategies needed to be successful; it was just up to them to use them.  

Our toolbox is also where we store our grammar foldable.

I've had an 'Ideas' section before this year, but this year I just saved a couple of pages in the toolbox for ideas.  This is my favorite idea list.  I give students 2-3 minutes to list five movies they know well.  We talk a little about having a variety of movies- not all of the Fast and Furious movies and calling it a day.  After students brainstorm their movies, we talk about hashtags and how they are used on Twitter- as a category or label.  I then give them about 5 minutes to go through and provide hashtags for their movies they came up with.  They need a little direction to come up with hashtags that relate to the message (theme) of the movie, not their reaction to it. 

This was out example in class: 

Madea's Witness Protection  #family  NOT  #hilarious

We repeat this process for 'Events I Know Well' and 'Celebrities I Know Well'.  Once they have a completed list, it is easy to refer back to for examples for expository and persuasive writing.

We started off our Close Reading section (10 pages) with our Short Answer Question graphic organizer.  I'm not great about using this section but hope to utilize it more.  You could have students cut and glue Shared Reading passages into this section to analyze.  The page where they answer the accompanying questions could be loose it's easy to turn in to you at the end of the four days.  Because they have the analyzed passage, it would be easy to turn back to for text evidence or connections to other reading.

Our My Writing section gets all the remaining pages of our notebooks. We spend time in this section daily kerneling essays or revising to include skills from the day's mini-lesson.  Here are pages that hold our literary writing.  Click here to read more about the mini-lessons that were taught with literary/narrative writing.

With expository writing, we focused on organizational structures.  The overall frame of our essay was- State the prompt as a fact (thesis)--Reason 1--Reason 2--Restate thesis in a zesty way.  Reason 1 and 2 could be an example from a book or movie.  One could explain how the topic relates to me while the other talks about it's affect on others.  These reasons could track our thinking- from what I used to think (before) to what I now think (after).  

We also learned strategies like renaming from Gretchen Bernabei's Fun Sized Academic Writing for Serious Learning.  This book is SO great, and you'll be hearing much more from me about it soon (hint, hint, wink, wink)!  On our last expository essay before the retest, I used these cute mini file folders.  I've had them in my cabinet for years, just waiting for the perfect opportunity. I made the class period have a Mission Impossible feel.  These folders contained their unique mission.  They had to utilize the strategy and organizational structure we'd covered in their final piece of writing.  They played along with the theme, and I choose to believe it caused them to stretch and solidify learning.  

We glued our Book Bingo cards to the back of our notebooks.  You can download this freebie from Hangin' with Hekken here.  I had every intention of channeling my inner Donalyn Miller and becoming the 10th grade Book Whisperer.  So, at the beginning of the school year, we glued our bingo card to the back of our notebooks.  I instructed that they were to create one bingo in any direction except straight down the middle- your choice, your choice, your choice- by the end of the semester.  Well...the semester is almost up and becoming Donalyn will have to be my New Year's resolution.  

Have you entered our second curly giveaway?  If not, what are you waiting for?!  There are many ways to enter, and you can tweet or share about the giveaway on Facebook daily to gain more entries.  Click here for your chance to win our English II Shared Readings.

Like Clockwork

your curly comrade, Suzanne

With the STAAR retest right around the corner, we have several finished essays laying around that need some reflection.  I don't know about you, but re-entry into writing needs lots of of teacher prompting.  Clocking was a good fit for us last week.  

Clocking is traditionally used for revision.  I designed mine more for inventory.  I wanted students to walk away knowing that Ba-Da-Bings, pitchforks, complex sentences, etc. weren't a "one and done" technique.  They are signs of good writing and should be used throughout an essay.  

The class period before, students completed a literary story.  I redistributed their writing, along with a clip board, highlighter, and clocking sheet.  Then we numbered off 1, 2, 1, 2...you get the picture. 


*If space allows, arrange desks in a circle (like a clock) with a smaller circle inside, facing the outer circle.  

**In my case, space did not allow.  So I sent my #1 students out in the hallway and told them to sit along the wall.  Then my #2 students were sent out and told to sit across from one of their classmates.  Digital clocking (ba dum cha)!

The Literary Clocking Sheet
Looking for: Where in the character standing?, What do they see?, What are they thinking?, Pitchforks, Dialogue

Students then exchanged their writing and clocking sheets.  They would add their name to the sheet and see what we were looking for first.  For literary writing, we looked for all details that described where the character was standing.  They were given three minutes to read through and mark the element they were looking for.  Lastly we totaled up and traded back.  Students were able to instantly see elements that were missing in their paper or parts of their paper that could use a little added pizzaz.  Then they would slide over to their next partner, and we would start again.

Clocking allows for timely feedback that students can quickly apply to their writing. (Do you have __ or not?  If not, add it!)  Students are engaged because they are only looking for one thing for a finite period of time.  I loved that it changed our scenery, kept students moving, and allowed them to share and respond to one another without using a ton of class time.  That, my friends, is a winner!

Download my literary and expository clocking sheets for F.R.E.E.E. here.

Who Cares?

half of our curly cohort, Suzanne

Literary writing...who cares?

In Texas high schools, this fictional story is dead to us.  On to bigger and better things, like expository and persuasive.  Well let me tall ya, in my Texas high school, literary writing is alive an well...at least until the second week of December.  We still have a staggering number of students who will fight to pass the STAAR retest in December.  The structure we are using would work very nicely with the personal narrative at the 4th and 7th grade level.  

Literary or narrative writing is, for most, the easier of the two writing tasks.  It is worth our time because it is a great place for students to pick up mucho pointage.  It will come as no surprise that we turned to our good buddy, Gretch, for help.  

We emphasize that the purpose of literary writing is to entertain.  They are excellent critics (and tough customers) of entertainment.  I can think of many a joke that has passed without a chuckle, deadpan stares after a hilarious YouTube video, and the denial of humor is a text (It was Dave Berry...come on people!!).  Yet they continue to turn in snooze-fest papers and call them entertainment.  To remedy this, students use her "Completely Made-up Story" structure to plan a story with an engaging character, conflict driven plot, and resolution. 

To plan, student draw and label the four boxes of the structure.  (See a picture? Ready go...character in the middle of doing something, a problem arises...)  Then they "kernel" the essay.  Under the structure, students write a 1, 2, 3, 4, leaving some room in between.  In the planning stage, they will draft four sentences of their essay.  This ensures (I use this word lightly) that their story will go somewhere.  In the drafting stage, writers "pop" open each kernel and fully describe.  

We recently finished working with the literary story in class.  Each day students would kernel an essay for a different prompt.  For our lesson, I would focus on one part of the structure and teach a different skill.  It went something like this:
1.  Character in the Middle of Doing Something- Ba-Da-Bings
2.  A Problem Arises- Showing vs. Telling: We made a list of "Be" verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been) in our Writer's Tools section.  I had students go through the essay they'd just kerneled and highlight any of the words listed.  We talked about how these words tell what happened.  Eliminating them helps us show the reader what happened.
3.  Unsuccessful Attempt to Solve- Dialogue: Using manipulatives (imagine that!), students put together movie quotes.  My fav:
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner," he said.  Did they know the movie reference?  Nope, but it sure did make me happy. 
Students copied their sentence into Writer's Tools, and we discussed what the noticed (a.k.a. were sneaky about taking notes of dialogue).  We also talked about how the same rules apply for internal dialogue and the positive impact it could have on our paper.
4.  Character Solves/Deals with the Problem-  Pitchforking

We would always revise our sentence to show this skill.  Students "published" there sentence on a poster, and I mounted the structure on top.

 

I don't know why, but I love this so much!  Students have a visual reminder of the structure, and they can see a sample sentence of the structure and skill in action.  This is probably me being overly mushy, but I love, love that it looks like a patchwork quilt.  All of us bring something different to the table to achieve a common purpose.  Told ya, sappy!

My Anchor Holds

your curly comrade,Suzanne

I haven't determined the rightness or wrongness of using part of a hymn for a blog post title, but I went for it. 

If you remember how this whole thing started, we are on a quest to make secondary instruction colorful and engaging because even big kids want and deserve to have a little fun.  With that being said, something that I stole from elementary education this year is anchor charts.  I wanted my walls to be a valuable, changing part of instruction.  So here is a little look around my walls and a brief description of the skill.

In the first few weeks of school, I had this overwhelming notion that what I was doing wasn't working.  (Gosh!  I hate when that happens!)  So, I pulled out college textbooks and other resources I've acquired and researched workshop classroom models.  My students are not responding to traditional instruction and need something different.  Now for some of them, I'm on my fourth batch of different.  Hello rock!  Hello hard place!  They needed accountability.  They needed instruction to be writing intensive.  

So, we switched.  Mondays are our reading day.  Tuesday through Friday is writing intensive.  We're on a block schedule, so that means that some weeks I lead with my 'A' day (ah, comfort) and some with the 'B'.  It hasn't driven me crazy...yet!  

For one of our first reading lessons, I focused on what is supposed to happen in your head before you read.  It's more than just staring at words on a paper.  Imagine that!  Students brainstormed what happened in their head as they read and shared with the class.  We talked about how writing down brief responses also helped us understand what we were reading.  Students practiced reading and responding.  I asked them to go back and and notice what their notes were mostly about.  They identified the strategy and explained how it helped them on a post-it note and placed it on the corresponding poster.  We talked about how a combination of these thinking strategies would best help us understand what we read.  

This lesson idea and a chart of the thinking strategies are found in Harvey "Smokey" Daniels's book, Texts and Lessons for Teaching Literature.  I also have his book of non-fiction texts, and both are excellent!  They provide brief texts and skill-based lessons for each.

The first six weeks was spent teaching the structure and guiding questions for the Short Answer Questions.  Some students had been taught and feel most comfortable with a different graphic organizer.  Fine by me, but I still wanted them to see how the questions work with both structures.  Find more about how we teach the SAQ here.

I kind love my Ba-Da-Bing anchor chart!  A Ba-Da-Bing is a descriptive strategy for the literary essay.  In theory, it could work for expository and persuasive writing, but I haven't quite figured out how.  We added the notes above to our Writer's Tools, and they practiced the still to start their story.  It could be used throughout the story because it's just that great! In fact, I presented it as English teacher chocolate- we crave it and sometimes have to have it!  I'm going to let the graphic speak for itself, but feel free to email me for more Ba-Da-Bing details.

Pitchforks are easy and effective.  They can be used in any type of writing to add detail.  Since I was taught this strategy in Gretchen's training (Pitchforks and Ba-Da-Bings are both hers), I use them more often in my own writing.  For students, it is a great way to force encourage them to vary their sentence structure.  Remember, that AAAWWWUUBBIS word means we can wear it two ways (reversible jacket).  

So there you have it!  Again, I want these to change out as our instruction changes.  New learning- on the wall.  Old learning- in your head (or saved as a picture in your phone- all about teaching the real world skills y'all).  I would love to see or hear about what's hanging on your wall!

So Much Fun, It's Scary

your curly contributor, Suzanne

I understand that Halloween gets mixed reviews, but I really like it.  Disclaimer: I like cute Halloween- smiling pumpkins, smiling black cats, smiling skeletons...you get the picture.  Hold all the blood, guts and gore.  

As a teacher, it is infinitely better to embrace each holiday rather than try to ignore it.  Besides, it is a quick and easy way to add some novelty to your class.  I went to a Rich Allen trainings years ago (if you ever get the opportunity- GO and take me with you!) where he said, "What you learn with pleasure, you remember forever."  This little mantra runs through my head quite often, and I feel that it is especially fitting as we think about how to add seasonal fun to classroom instruction.

One of my favorite stores of all times that I visit every week for teacher resources is Dollar Tree.  They never fail to have fun items that I didn't know I can't live without.  And for a dollar, you don't have to hold back.  Here are some of my recent finds that could be used in October lessons.

Data-based groups are fine and good but sometimes you want informal groups for an activity.  These rings are a fun way to sort students when you don't mind who they are grouped with.  Have them out on the table or in a bowl so that students can choose one as they walk in.  These groups could be used to share writing or complete a jigsaw activity.  It doesn't have to change your seating assignment for the day.  When you are ready for them to move to their new groups, tell them to find others who have the same color ring, and you're ready to start.

This will likely come as a great shock, but I love a good pun.  So these festive broomsticks with sayings like "Witchful Thinking" are right up my alley!  They could be used for any relay activity.  Students can "fly" to the board to write their best complex sentence or sketch out clues for a vocabulary word.  They pass off the broom to the next team member, and away we go.

These stickers are more therapeutic than anything.  Haven't you often wanted to write "Yikes!" and "Yuck!" at the top of a paper you're grading?  Now you can and it's cleverly disguised as being festive.  

I have seen these witch fingers presented for elementary students when they are learning to track words from left to right on the page.  As we've already stated, we're not about to let elementary have all the fun!  These fingers could enhance an editing activity.  I like editing routines that run similarly to speed dating.  Students pair up for a short period of time to read through each others papers and look for only one thing.  They could point to the thesis, end punctuation, metaphor...

*Side note: I am all about saving my ammunition.  Am I going to have a knock-down drag-out with a varsity football player because he won't wear his witch finger? No way!!  As long as he is participating in the activity, who cares?!  I think you'll find that most students want to participate because it is something different.*

If any "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore,'" will be happening in your room between now and the 31st, don't you think you need a slightly creepy, already moulting raven for your room?  You could pass the raven to indicate readers.  It keeps students awake and on their toes. You also could use it to encourage students to share writing based on "The Raven".  Take one brave volunteer to share.  That student then gets to hand over the raven and responsibility to share to another student of their choosing.

How cute is he?!  This bin could be filled with questions and/or quotes from Frankenstein.  Working in groups, one student draws a slip from the bin and takes it back to their group to discuss.  Students talk and formulate an answer that they will probably write on folded, lime green paper.  That slip goes back to the bin; they draw another.  They follow this routine until all the square on their foldable are filled up. Remember, the more complex the question, the longer this activity will take.

These are more fall-ish than Halloween-ey:

Either the silk leaves or foam stickers would be great to form informal student groups.  When using something like this, it is important to count out the number you allow your students to pick from to ensure that the group sizes will be somewhat even.

These doilies are beautiful! After a lesson on imagery or pitchforking, they would be the perfect place for students to write their own sentence(s) utilizing the skill.  Grab a strip of crumpled brown paper, staple it on the wall, surround it with these beauties, and you've got yourself a great (and simple) hallway display.

Happy fall, y'all!

For more seasonal ideas, check out our Christmas post.

ETBFFEs

This summer I was given the opportunity to go to a training with Gretchen Bernabei.  That sentence sounds really sweet but is not the whole story.  Actually, my teacher friends and I went to great lengths to attend a training with her.  We heard a rumor that Gretchen...I'm going to call her Gretch...was coming to our district, so I emailed the head of our district staff development.  She said that was a no-go.  So Lori emailed Gretch herself to see if she would be in the Dallas area anytime soon, and she wrote us back that she would.  Isn't she the best?!  Lori had to have an emergency appendectomy in the spring and wound up confirming our spots in the training from her hospital bed.  That's dedication, folks! 

Let me tell you, it was worth it.  We became GB fans this year while trying to help our students write organized, but not formulaic, essays.  *Enter her essay structures.*  In case you're unfamiliar with these structures, Gretch and her students have developed about 119 of them to help students write logically and have plenty to say.  They look like this:

Hello beautiful structure for the 9th grade literary story!

These are also lovingly referred to as Kernel essays.  To use this method, set the timer for 5ish minutes and have students write 4 sentences- one for each box of the structure.

If students respond only to what is in each box in a complete sentence, they have a rough outline of an essay that ACTUALLY SAYS SOMETHING!  Students can then expand the story and provide detail through Ba-Da-Bings and Pitchforking.  Those words are Bernabeinese for some excellent and user-friendly strategies.  Thankfully, Gretch is very generous in providing lots of online resources that are F-R-E-E-E.

Check out her site: http://www.trailofbreadcrumbs.net/

Everything you could possibly want plus things that are too good to even imagine are under the 'Teaching' tab.  Don't hesitate to comment here with questions about how I use the strategies in my own class.  I'd also love to know what you've used with success.

More great GB resources from her book, Crunchtime, can be found here.

Oh, I nearly forgot the best part!  Lori and I got to take a picture with Gretch because we're cool like that!

ETBFFE= English Teacher Best Friends Forever and Ever