Cherokee multigenre invitation- I used my invitation for my both I poetry project and my multigenre project.

Cherokee I poetry Rubric

Cherokee Pre test

I am the Trail of Tears

I loved the idea of letting the students explore and bring back their finding and put them in a basket. The student discussions, debates, and defense of why they think something is/is not a memoir would be a wonderful thing to document using a video camera or audio recorder. You could then post snippets of either to your blog as an example of student progress.

I enjoyed all of the examples of memoirs that we read, but I think my favorite was My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, by Patricia Polacco.I loved the relationship between her and her brother. I am the oldest; I have a younger sister and younger brother. There were often times I felt like I was “not as good as” at times. But as I’ve grown, I’ve come to realize that we three are all so different so it is only natural that one would have a strength another may not. For me, being the oldest, it was hard not being the best sometimes. It at times left like my obligation to do things right,and the best the firs time so the younger ones would learn from me.

 I like the idea of the “moment in time” memory, where one idea stands out. I have been thinking about my childhood over the past couple of weeks and have been jotting down ideas into my writer’s notebook. unfortunately, most of the thought that I come up with have been regrets. I will continue to unearth memories until I can pinpoint the most significant ones. Just like any other writing, it’s a journey..so I’ll just have to take it one day at a time.

Photo courtesy: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/987.jpg

Johnny Appleseed
By: Britney Miller

I am the bare-footed man who “lived for others”.

I wonder how many lives I have touched with the seeds I’ve planted.

I smell the sweet and delicious apple nectar as every last drop is squeezed at the cider mill where I collect my seeds.

I hear the babbling brooks gurgle and giggle like children saying their hellos as I make my way past.

I feel the warm Mother Earth beneath my feet as I journey from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky.

I believe I am just another one of God’s creations so I have no reason to fear any animal in nature.

I want to see the seeds I’ve planted blossom into snowy white orchards for everyone to enjoy.

I understand my fellow pioneers have very little to pay me, so I accept clothing and food for trade.

I give all I can to assist those in need. I am content to keep what remains, which at times is very little.

I want to share my life, my experiences, my religion, and my stories with anyone who will listen.

I am the bare-footed man who “lived for others”.

I pretend my cooking pot is a hat and I can melt snow with my feet.

I try to act as an ally for both the pioneers and the Native Americans when they don’t see eye-to-eye.

I hope our nation flourishes like an apple tree: beautiful, tall, strong, and fruitful.

I am the bare-footed man who “lived for others”.

I am John Chapman.

Sources:

Ottolenghi, Carol.  Johnny Appleseed. Brighter Child, c2004.

Ditchfield, Christin. Johnny Appleseed. Children’s Press, c2003.Ed Helper hand out

 I agree with Kucan when she said, “Invitations to write about the people and places encountered in stories are invitations to continue thinking about and imagining them.” I think students see characters with more dimension when they put themselves into the characters shoes. I have seen this first hand this past week with my fourth grade students.

To introduce I poems I printed off some of the poems that Dr. Frye had posted on her blog that were written by graduate students. I read them the poems and has them tell me what they had in common. we talked about the voice, point of view, and the use of I. This was all discovery, I didn’t have to say an I poem is: blah, blah, blah. So from there I read them what I had written in my writer’s notebook for my Johnny Appleseed I poem. To get our ideas I basically interview them, I called them all Johnny and asked them questions. Johnny what are you afraid of? What do you wish? What do you hear? It was interesting to hear their responses. I’ll have to post what we have so far for our group I poem. They get to write their own individual Johnny Appleseed poem, then they get to choose their own topic for an I poem afterward.

I am in the process of getting a blog set up for my ELL students. When we publish their I poems I hope to have them create podcasts to go along with their posts. Parents could listen to their children read their own writing.

Atlantic

 I loved this book! The personification was incredible. The ocean can rub elbows with continents and it’s fingers can stretch inland. Teaching literary devices can be difficult but these images are so simple and real students wouldn’t struggle with them as they would with other poems.

I also love the vocabulary: cerulean, ultramarine, conquered, probed, charted. Not only do these words cross content areas but they give meat to the story. I feel that students get painted into a corner when they write because their vocabulary is not amble enough to let them express with words what their body experiences and their heart feels. What better way to learn vocabulary than to see it used in a story and think “man cerulean, that’s a cool sounding word”. Hopefully one day they will choose to use it themselves.

I am the Mummy Heb-Nefert

 I have always been fascinated by the Egyptian society. I think Bunting did a wonderful job taking the reader through the life journey of Heb-Nefert. Students do not hear this style of language, I think it accurately portrays the different time in which she lived. Greater still, I loved the them: life is ever changing. There are so many different avenues you can travel with your children after reading this story. Death is a subject children see and think often about. But for some reason I think we as adults avoid this subject to protect our own vulnerability rather than protect the child from a ‘” sensitive topic”.

Dirty Laundry Piles

 This set of poetry had various subjects and poets but they had not common thread: they were all written in the first person. The only exposure I have had to I poetry is what I’ve seen so far in class. Accord to Kucan’s article there is not formula or set way of writing an I poem. So since all of these are written in first poem, I guess they could be considered I poems too. This would be a good collection to use with students to demonstrate the many dimensions an I poem can take. It can be deep and informative with vibrant vivid language like Atlanticor it can be light and fluffy like “laundry pile”. That poem reminded me of my house prior to this weekend, a disaster. I’m still not pleased with its condition but it’s a vast improvement.

This book showed me the flexibility of acrostic poetry. I have used acrostic before with content information, but they all end up being single word entries. I love how the lines of these poems flow together in more succinct thoughts.

If I had to pick a favorite poem from this book, it would be “Leaf”. Not only is fall my favorite season, but I enjoyed the imagery of parachutes gliding to the earth from the heavens. But to me, fall is an array of warm colors: rust, gold, pumpkin. I would use those to describe my “parachutes” instead of just brown.

African Acrostics

This would be a wonderful example of integrating acrostic poetry into science. Fourth grade science studies living organisms, so they could read African Acrostics and use it as an inspiration to create their own acrostic about an animal they had studied in class.

Technically It’s not my Fault

I loved this book! I have absolutely no experience writing concrete poems, but I would love to learn. I think students would really connect with the artistic nature of the poetry. I think sixth graders would love this book, especially the poem “sick day”. Sick days are something the students can relate to, especially now. We’ve had several out with H1N1 and the regular flu. concrete poems would also help students see that not all poems have to rhyme or follow a set of rules.                                                         

Acrostic Poetry and Content Learning 

 I loved the suggestion of using spelling dictionaries, and vocabulary lists of descriptive words. My upper grade teachers give out lists like these for students to put in their “writing folders” but they have been mainly used for personal narrative. These lists would be especially helpful for English Language Learners as they try access quickly vocabulary that would apply to their poem. An extension vocabulary is what all ELL students work toward the more access and exposure they have to new words the greater chance they have to take it into their own vernacular.

This article has also helped me prepare for my I poem activity have planned for my fourth grade students. They have been reading stories about Johnny Appleseed in both the classrooms and with me. So I thought we would gather the various information from the stories and make an I poem.   After reading this I not only plan to provide the students with many I poems, written by teachers and students, but also write an example with them before setting them out on their own. I am very excited about using the resource list  on our class blog with the ideas and links for creating I poems. 

On Writing ( pages 63-93) 

The section that stood out the most to me in was how King’s feelings changed about Carrie . I love how he described the how the concept of the story rolled around in between the conscious and subconscious parts of his mind. I had never really considered writers to develop an idea, but put off pursuing it further. I loved how he described writing and being sexy skin on skin and how Carrie  made him feel like he was in a rubber suit. His style of imagery is so real and to the point. I could see why he, being a man, would have difficulty developing a strong relationship with Carrie and her female classmates. 

I also loved the part he wrote about Tabby and her support. I have often read the dedication pages of books before reading them, but now I think I will look at those sentiments a little differently.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

I think this book realistically shows students confusions about poetry and prose. Jack, the main character, started out hating poetry and refused to do it because it was a “girl thing”. I love how both his writing ability and his opinion about poetry progressed. 

Once Jack began writing he started trying on the different styles of poetry he was given in class as if they were hats. Children don’t know how they write, they need to be given good models to try on and figure out which one suits them best.

I used this novel in one of our sixth grade classes to demonstrate the difference between poetry and prose. They really enjoyed Jack’s perspective and how he took a poem he heard and made it his own.

 Brown Angels

Creech used   “Love that Boy” by Walter Dean Myers as inspiration for Love That Dog. But this poem among many also appears in Brown Angels. I love the common conversational language Myers uses and well as the line repetition. These two features could easily lend this poem into a blues song. As I read it, I could hear B.B. King in the background playing Lucille singing about how his “mama like to hold him, and feed him cherry pie”.

I think it would be beneficial to use music and lyrics when teaching poetry. If you could use songs they could relate to, they would be more able to pull out sentiments and not be so hung up on the rhyme. For many, they think poetry only exists in the world of rhyme.

On Writing (page 31-62)

As I read the second segment of King’s memoirs I began to realize that a memoir doesn’t have to be a complete history of someone’s life. Quite honestly, a memoir was a genre I never had the opportunity to study. From what I’ve noticed, King has picked out key points in his life that he feels have helped shape him into who he has become. This is more than just a recall of the “facts” but rather a reflection of self and a deep analysis and how one developed based on life decisions. I am very interesting in going through my own memory attic and visiting moments from my past to see how I arrived at being me. 

I am still delightfully surprised at how much I like King’s style (despite his affection for the f word). I just hope that when we venture into the latter parts of the book where he is more craft specific that I maintain my enthusiasm.

This is Just to Say

I thought this book was adorable. I had never thought of writing poetry as a form of apology. A child’s perspective of what they feel that need to apologize is so innocent. One of my favorites was when a little girl apologized her sister for stabbing her in the hand with a pencil. I was so amazing at her use of metaphor comparing the mean tendencies to a black dot, like the one on her sister’s hand. 

I also loved the honesty of these poems. I think students will be able to relate and will accept these poems because they were created by children and are written about subjects that are a part of their world as well. Another favorite of mine was “Dodge Ball Crazy” by Reuban. My favorite line was   “I’d like to say I wouldn’t do it again..but I’d be lying”. That’s so real! I can’t wait to share these with my kids!

All the Small Poems

 Out of all the poems I ran across the one that spoke the most to me was “Barefoot” p 101. It reminded me of my childhood. My mom always told us that no matter how warm it was, we could go barefoot outside until the Dogwoods bloomed. You talk about a life time of waiting, it was like the seconds creeped by like aeons. So I could totally relate to the choking toes. I am a tender foot, so gravel is not my thing, but nothing beats a soft patch of grass like spring colored carpet tickling your feet.

Another poem that stood out among the rest was “Fireworks” p 63. I loved the description of the fireworks as they rocket into the heavens and how they gracefully descend in an array of glittering colors. But if I were to write my version, or use it as an inspiration, I would write about a child’s first experience of watching fireworks. The expression on their faces as the sky changes rhythmically from indigo blue to bright orange and back again as if in a harmonic aerial symphony. One of my favorite childhood memories was going to watch the fireworks at Lake Norman Marina on the fourth of July. I remember one year in particular 96.1 (an oldies station then) broadcasted and had planned a music montage and timed it out perfectly with the fireworks grand finale. They had wonderful songs like Ray Charles’ singing “America the Beautiful”, God Bless America, and the last song was Lee Greewood “God Bless the USA”.

Cold Plums and the Old Men in the Water

In many different aspects I feel that article rang true with all teachers. We are all guilty of picking what we like and what we know and sticking with that. So when it comes to poetry, some teachers feel uncomfortable thereby passing that anxiety on to the students.  Certo was right about having a balanced palate of poetry. If we don’t show students that poems can come in many forms, shapes, and express ideas on many subjects we are setting them up for major misconceptions later on in life.  

Using Writer’s Notebooks ( Chapter 10 )

I loved the idea of researching poets and having students learn more about a poet they like. I had to do a project in high school and I spent a lot of time learning about Sylvia Plath. After reading about her like, I better understood her poetry because I had a sense of where she comes from. I think that having that background knowledge helps us to put ourselves in the place of the poet. As students are trying on their poet hats trying to find what fits, learning about the poet can help them make their decision.

I love the percentage poem. Can we say math integration? In the text the percentages were in a list form, but I could see it also transformed into a pie graph, it would also be a shape poem as well. I think students would enjoy seeing visually how much of what characteristic they possess. Bar graphs would work too,but I don’t they’d be as pretty. Also they really wouldn’t represent the “whole person”. But it would demonstrate to the students that writing can take place no matter where you are.

The act of writing is the most complicated and the last skill to develop when learning a langauge. So it is often the one area ELL students are the last to develop. It can be difficult for students to experience writing as an art when classroom teachers, especially fourth grade, are tied to certain genres like narrative. I went to a county workshop of couple of years ago that talked about writing across genres. It gave me a lot of great ideas but there wasn’t any follow through. Basically they said “do more than personal narrative” then expected us to go out and do. I don’t know about classroom teachers, but I would have felt more comfortable had we been given some examples and had more support throughout the year. So what does this have to do with anything? This class is providing me with that support I needed several years ago. I am able to experiment and learn in such a way that I can get help and feedback on what works best with teaching students.

I think that personal narrative has scared children and have forced them to hate writing. I think children need to understand that there is more to writing than that.

2. Blogging in my Classroom

Blogging in my classroom would be an unique experience. I would have to enlist the assistance of both the classroom teachers and  our computer lab assistant in provide more opportunities for my students to view and/ or post on my blog since I have them for such limited times. One thing I did consider was the possiblity allowing students access to the blog once they had completed their classwork prior to going back to class.

Now as a battle of the books coach, my blogging world will look a lot different. Our county has provided us with blog space where Battle of the Book team members and blog about the books they are writing and even share ideas with other team members around the county.

3. Stephen King On Writing

p 10- 12 the experience with the ear doctor

On Writing, p. 2-30

www.amazon.com

I have to admit, I have never really considered myself a “fan” of Stephen King. I guess if I tried to pin point what my hang up was with King would be: He’s so gifted it’s scary! Literally! I am not into the whole screaming and crying for fun. As as child I was never a fan of haunted houses. I can remember our family trip to Disney World. I was in 3rd grade, so I was about eight. I can remember being pulled by the arm by my parents into the Haunted Mansion. It looked like a haunted house to me, something I had always hated, so I was reluctant to go. Once I saw with my own eyes it was a funny kind of scary I was fine. But it took me seeing it for myself.

So what does all of this have to do with On Writing, well I wasn’t really sure what he would have to say, or where he would take me. What I found out was that not only do I enjoy the imagery King puts into every detail of his past, but that deep down he’s a funny guy. Despite some of the tragic or less than happy moments in his life, he was still able to find humor. I think the story that gripped me the most was his repeated trips to the doctor to have his ear drained. With every word I could feel the ruler length needle coming closer and closer to my own ear. I was lucky to have a very healthy childhood, so I never feared going to the doctor or the dentist. But seeing it through his eyes, I too could feel his pain. To me, that’s what good writing is. I want to be there with the main character every step of the way. My husband made fun of me while I was reading because I kept gasping and wincing. He thought I was having a mental episode or something actually he said, “you have issues”.

Children Can Write Authentically if We Help Them

This article talks about how children need to be guided on their quest to finds their writer’s voice. One of the statements I found most powerful was “However, I’ve come to understand that choice is meaningless unless we show our students how to connect choice with honest struggles and issues.”

One of the points I felt Graves really hit with this article is that as teachers, we must do more than teach children the “how to’s “. In many ways we are their “life coaches”. We help them discover who they are as people, what their talents are, and help them set goals for the future. So as I start my journey with writer’s notebooks, I think it is important to see upfront the full impact they can have on students. There are so many times I can look into a child’s eyes and see a story or an emotion, but most often times that’s where their stories stay. Just like anything else, children have to learn how to express themselves. Expressions of thought are not the same as conversation.

Using the writer’s Notebook in Grades 3-8 (Chapter 5-7)

 I have really enjoyed this book. Each chapter has given me new ideas and inspiration on how I can apply writer’s notebooks in my class, and I teach ESL. I especially loved chapter 5. I agree that the students have models to look toward when creating their own writings. I made a list of “have to have” books from this chapter that I could add to my personal library to share with students in hopes to inspire them in their own writing journey.

I can be a very organized person when it comes to school, so I really enjoyed the tips in Chapter 6 about setting up the writing process for students at different points. What I loved the most about this section (it’s the OCD in me) was the idea of using color coded paper to delineate the stage of writing that particular piece is. This would aid in monitoring student progress without having to individually ask “how far are you on this one?”

I have already recommended this book to one of my sixth grade colleagues. She is in the process of using writer’s notebooks in her language arts class.

HOT Blogging: A framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking

This article reminded me a lot of an article I read this summer while taking the Literacy and Technology class with Dr. Koppenhaver. We spent a week learning how to incorporate 21st century technology that would not only promote digital and non-digital texts.

Since I am in the process of trying to get my fourth graders started with writer’s notebooks, I thought about creating a blog space to allow them to not only publish their work for bulletin boards and hall displays but also to load them online so friends and family can share in their success. This would be an example of a showcase blog. Due to county restrictions however, I think our blogs would only be accessible to students and parents. So they their audience will not be quite as large.

I also liked the idea of the pod casting in conjunction with written text. This would be a way non English speaking parents can hear their child reading their own writings without needing to be literate in English themselves.  I experimented with podcasting this summer, so this is also something I would like to share with my students. The only problem I can foresee would be time restrictions. Students may have a better chance to use these activity ideas in the regular classroom than when they come to me for pull out. So what I hope to do with share all of the new goodies with my upper-grade teachers in hopes that their whole classroom can benefit.

RSS is defined by wikipedia  as really simple syndication or rich site summary. In essence it is a web feed. You can subscribe to a website like you do a newspaper. The feed can be stored in your web browser or you can place it on your homepage. As the new articles are posted on the site a copy is sent to you. For example, today I subscribed to an RSS feed of scholastic news on my homepage. After I subscribed, 5 articles appeared on my web page. I read about the discovery of a new species of money in South America.

 RSS feeds are not only good for teaching to keep up with current events and the release of new software, but they can also be great instructional tools. In a classroom you can subscribe to several different RSS feeds based on the students interest: science, sports, current events. Then as part of a literacy center, the students can have the opportunity to read an article recently posted by one of the feeds. This would be great self selected reading. If a student shows real interest in a particular article or feed, they could choose to write about it on a blog or threaded discussion. So what started out as a reading activity can turn into an extension writing activity. One of the important tools a teacher would need to give the students before they could be “set loose” using an RSS feed would be how to read digital texts.

Reading digital texts is not the same as reading traditional text. For one thing many struggling readers do not have much experience reading expository text. Beginning readers start out reading more narrative stories and often times only experience reading expository text when they read their science or social studies textbook. Expository text is not set up the same way as narrative. Expository text may have a common topic like human effects on the environment, but the text is broken into sections by subheading. There is not a main character or storyline, instead the text is informational. This can be a shock for kids who are accustomed to reading stories with a main character who has a problem in the beginning and by the end had found a solution.

The physical aspects of the texts can also throw the kids into literacy shock. As beginners, we begin reading by finger pointing to each word as we read so we can keep track of where we are. So what do kids do when they are reading on the internet? We need to show them how to use the curser as a tracker instead of touching the monitor.  Scrolling can also be a problem for students. When we are reading traditional text it is an automatic response for us to turn the page when we finish the one we’re on. But you can’t turn the screen. Students have to learn how to use the curser to scroll down to the bottom of the page. Some article even require clicking on page links to go to the next page of text. This would require some practice for some stuents. Then there is the difference in the appearence of the text. When reading a picture book you have pictures and the words in a story. When you’re reading a novel you have the story broken into chapters; but in both cases all text present is part of the story. Digital text is not formatted in that manner. Web pages have different panes and columns with information that you need and some you don’t. That is why one of the skills a student needs to be taught is how to “read” web text. Just because it’s on the page doesn’t mean we need to read it. For example, advertising makes many websites free to the public but those ads to not have anything to do with the article we want our children to read. It can be very distracting and confusing to our children. But just becuase it is formatted differently and may take a little more instruction on the teachers part, does not mean it should be avoid. Reading is a life long skill and students need the skills to be able to read under any context. That is why it is our responsibility to not only teach them how to sound words out, but to make sense of what they’re reading whether it be Charlotte’s Web  or an article from CNBC online about global warming.