Raising Readers and Writers

Today was a great day!  I went to Cover to Cover Children’s Bookstore to purchase more non-fiction books for our non-fiction genre study.  Melissa, the doctoral student who will be doing research in my room, received a grant that enabled me to buy books for my classroom.  Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday?  It was way better than fighting the crowd at the grocery store, which is what I usually do on Saturday.

As I drove to the bookstore, I was thinking about the kinds of books I wanted to buy.  My wish list fell into several categories.  First and foremost, I wanted a wide variety of books that would be interesting to my students.  That meant books about cars, construction machines, sports, creepy crawly insects, how to make things, space, etc.  I also wanted books with beautiful photography, detailed illustrations, and ones that used a variety of non-fiction conventions (labeling, diagrams, bold print, index, table of contents, captions…).  Added to that I wanted books that had rich language that would support my students’ writing.  Next, I looked for books that we could use in our content studies.  I chose books at a variety of reading levels.  Some of them my students will be able to read by themselves, and some will be read alouds.  My emerging readers and writers will be able to glean information from the illustrations and photographs when they are not able to read the text.  Finally, I wanted books that gave information about a topic in interesting ways.  Steve Jenkins’ books always fit the bill for that category and I was able to find other great examples. 

I can’t wait to share these books with the kids on Monday.  I bought more book baskets for my room so we can sort through them and decide how we want to categorize the books.  We already have many nonfiction baskets, so the task won’t be too daunting.  Here are a few of the books I bought.  I’ll share more later along with why I chose the books.  I’ll also be sharing our genre study, especially how the kids grow as writers and researchers through the process.  I think life has settled down enough that I will have time to keep up with my blog!

One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley is a beautiful book recently published by National Geographic.  It depicts a day in the life of children all over the world from waking up and eating breakfast, to going to school, to doing chores and playing after school, to eating dinner, to settling in for the evening and finally going to bed.  The photographs’ rich details give the reader an insider’s look into life in different cultures.  The last pages contain the author’s notes and thumbnails that give more details about each of the pictures (specifically where the photograph was taken and more information about what is happening in the picture).  Some even show the photographer’s notes.  This book shows the reader that even though we live in different parts of the world, we all have many things in common.  The author writes at the end of the book, “…the more we can embrace our commonality, the more tolerant we can be of our differences.”  I knew I had to have this book for our “Children Around the World” basket.  My kids will be able to relate to the every day happenings in the photographs.  This book also shows one way to organize text…making a comparison.   I can also show them how they can add more information at the end of their writing  just like Barbara Kerley. 

Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise by Cathryn Fallwell is actually a fictional story about a family planting  a garden and waiting to see what grows from the mystery vine.  (If I had written the story, it would have been non-fiction because I was certain that the pumpkin plants that I put in the garden this spring had died.  Imagine my surprise  when I found pumpkins growing in August!  I probably wouldn’t be so surprised if I marked my plants and actually kept up with the weeding.)  Anyway, I digress.  Sally Oddi, the owner of Cover to Cover shared this book last week at a book talk she gave for the Columbus Area Writing Project.  (One Day, One World was also featured).  What drew me to the book was not only the story that is very engaging, but the fact pages in the back of the book.  The author gives recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin apple bread (you know how I love to bake…can’t wait to make it with the kids) in the “Pumpkin Recipes” section.  In the “Gardening Fun” section, she tells how to grow grass hair in an empty egg shell and how to start bean seeds in a glass jar so you can watch the seed sprout.  She also gives directions on how to plant seeds from the fruits and vegetables you get from the grocery store and how to start a sweet potato vine.  The final page tells how to make a book vine where the kids  write the title of each book they read on a cut out leaf and create a vine around the room.  I will be able to use this book to show kids how to write “how to” pieces. 

There are so many more books to share!  However, I have an article waiting to be read before I meet with Melissa next week.  I’ll post more tomorrow about my great finds.

What a great day it was yesterday…  everyone in the school getting together to share the power of writing!  Each teacher in our building used one of their new mentor texts in writing workshop.  My colleague down the hall told me he had used Someday by Eileen Spinelli the day before and how the kids loved it!  Since we’ve been reading and writing pattern books, I decided to give it a try.  The story was perfect for my writers!  For those who don’t know, the story goes back and forth between a little girl’s elaborate dreams about the future (Someday I’ll eat lunch with the president and wear white gloves…)and then returns to her reality (but for today, I have to eat lunch with my brother who burps…).   (Hmm…sounds like home).  Well, the kids couldn’t wait to try it themselves.  A is going to be a race car driver who wins a trophy and listens to everyone cheer for him when he wins the race.  But for today, he will play with his car that only works sometimes.  R is going to be a famous basketball player who scores all the points in the game and can jump higher than anyone.    But for today, he will play basketball in his driveway with his dad.

The best part came later in the day when we met with our “writing share” group.  Earlier we divided the classrooms up into 4 cross-grade level groups.  That way, we could share our work in smaller groups, yet still give the kids the experience of hearing from other students who were either older or younger.  This sharing was so powerful!  We were truly a community of writers yesterday afternoon.  Several teachers told me how the afternoon touched them.  We don’t often get the chance to see how our students grow or know where they started as young learners.

Our principal made a beautiful display in the showcase and front bulletin board with the students’ writing.  Students and teachers alike can be seen stopping by to read all of the writing that was shared yesterday.  I hope this tradition continues for a long time!

It’s finally done and ready to be presented to our staff!  I’ve fretted, gone back over notes,  researched, looked for other writing vision statements (because that’s what Katie Wood Ray would do), and then just sat myself down and started to type.  What has caused all of this angst?  Our school’s writing vision statment.  Our small teacher writing group worked on defining our beliefs last year, got input from the staff, and ended the school year with this project still looming.  It nagged at me all summer, but never loud enough for me to do something about it.  Of course, I waited until I was in full swing of the new school year before I decided to pull all of our information together into an official vision statement (when will I learn to balance things a little better?).  I’ve given it to other members of our committee for suggestions on revisions and it is finally ready to be given to my principal and the rest of the staff.  It feels so good to have that done.  In fact, I had such a feeling of elation, that I finally (I’m using that word a lot tonight!) got the information ready to send out to fourth and fifth grade students for our after school writing club.  I can’t wait to get started with them, but more about that later! So, below you will find our Model Writing School Vision Statement.  We want everyone to know that if you come to our school, you will be a writer.  What do you think?

Writing Vision Statement for Avery Elementary School

Our school vision has three dimensions, learning to write, learning about writing, and writing to learn. We believe that Avery is a community of writers that includes both teachers and students. We have a trusting environment where students and teachers feel safe to take risks. Writing is meaningful and important in all areas of the curriculum. Our teachers are a community of writers themselves, which helps them better understand the process our student writers go through.

Our school fosters an environment where writing is encouraged and honored. Students have access to a variety of writing supplies, charts with student thinking hang in our rooms and hallways, and students are encouraged to publish their writing in a variety of ways including the use of technology. Halls and classrooms are filled with authentic writing in a variety of genres that includes a many types of informational writing.

The teachers at Avery recognize that in order for students to become better writers, they themselves need to write a lot. As a result, our teachers are committed to providing many opportunities for students to write not only in school, but also outside of school. It is here that our students develop the habits of life long writers. They learn to write by using writer’s notebooks, observation journals, and completing inquiry projects where they research, analyze, and interpret information. Students use writing to explore new ideas. They learn about writing by being immersed in quality literature where they read like writers and have conversations with other writers. Our students collaborate throughout the pre-writing, drafting, revision, and editing stages to make decisions about their writing, get a sense of audience, and develop voice.

Our students are given the unique opportunities to write in an after school writing club, publish books in our parent-run publishing shop, and celebrate writing on a regular basis with other classes, parents and community members. Avery teachers collaborate across grade levels to push for excellence for all of our students. As a result, students at Avery Elementary enjoy writing, see it as purposeful, and gain confidence in themselves as writers.

Our school is going to participate in the National Day of Writing on October 20th!  In the past, we’ve done things as a building that revolved around reading, but this is the first time we will focusing on writing.  Our district recently purchased new mentor texts for us to use in the classrooms, so we wanted to put them to good use.  Our theme is, “Writers learn from other writers.”  Each class is going to use one of their mentor texts during their writing workshop that day.  Then throughout the day, one class from each grade level will gather in a common area to share their writing with an open mike.  I love the idea that we will have kindergarteners through fifth graders sitting in the same room for the same purpose…to celebrate writing.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted!