Out of this World Literacy

Literacy Resources from Jen Bengel

Writing

Blogging from Boston…Day Two

I am back to my hotel after day two of training.  Today we spent a lot of time thinking about
genre studies in both reading and writing workshops. 
Here are my TOP 10 things I am thinking about tonight:
1. Questioning authenticity of nonfiction text.  Is the text really factual or is it from the
author’s perspective?
2. Grounding teaching decisions in assessments.
3. A hybrid text needs to include a fiction genre and a
nonfiction genre.  For example, it could
include elements of realistic fiction and biography. 
4. The difference between ‘doing’ guided reading and using
guided reading to bring students as far as possible in their reading abilities.
5. Writing territories (topics students often write about)…any topic can be a good one provided that it
is important to the writer and written well. 
6. Read-alouds are great because they take
away the need for decoding.  Students
should experience grade-appropriate text regardless of their reading level.
7. Ask questions during an interactive read aloud that draw
out thinking from students, rather than ask for one right answer.
8. When students read, they do not think about just one
skill (for example, making predictions). 
They are thinking about the entire reading process at once.  It’s a complicated process!
9. Students infer when they are reading all the time.  As teachers, we need to bring this skill that
they are already doing to their attention throughout our year together.  We can’t just teach inferencing for one week
and never talk about it again because our students our inferring every time
they read.
10. Reading orally is all about reading the way the writer
meant the text to be read.  We read
informational text differenty than we read poetry or a mystery. 
That’s my TOP 10 for today…Tomorrow I might have a TOP 100
since I will be spending the day listening to Irene Fountas share her thinking
around guided reading and genre studies!

Blogging From Boston…Day One

Day 1 I am coming to you from Cambridge, MA this week as I am spending the week at Lesley
University.  As a Literacy Collaborative
Coordinator, I head to Boston for a week of professional development in
literacy every year.

I’m planning a Top 10 blog post about my new thinking at the
end of each day.  We are talking about
literacy instruction this week, specifically on guided reading and genre
studies in writing.  There is also a lot
of talk about the Common Core State Standards as well.
Here are my TOP 10 things I am thinking about tonight:
1. This idea comes from Carl Anderson’s work in Assessing
Writers.  Let’s stop calling the time
before a rough draft ‘prewriting.’  Our
students are in fact writing.  Let’s call
it ‘rehearsing’ instead.
2. What do we, as teachers, understand about writing?  And what do we teach our students about
writing?
3. What does an effective writing process look like?
4. Let’s take some time to watch students writing and assess
what they do.  Are they rereading their
work?  Do they spend some time rehearsing
or do they jump right into a rough draft?
How is their writing stamina?
These are just a few of the questions we can answer about our students
as writers when we observe the process.
5. The most important thing we can teach our young learners
is to see themselves as writers…real writers who have something important to
say that matters to this world!
6. As teachers, we need to accept that writing can get
messy.  We have to be okay with lots of
marks, fixes, corrections, do-overs.
7. Just like students learn math differently, they all have
their own approach to the writing process.
We need to teach different ways writers write and give students the
options to try what works for them as writers.
8. To have an effective writing process, kids need
flexibility.  They need to be able to try
new approaches to their writing.
9. Our young writers MUST have a strong sense of audience
and purpose so that they can see their writing as not just another assignment,
but rather as something of great value not only for themselves but for their future
audience.
10. Teachers NEED to be writers in order to teach writing!
That’s my TOP 10 for today…let me know your thoughts.  Hopefully there is at least one idea in here
for you to think about.  Happy Monday!

Blog Hopping

I've linked up with some amazing bloggers for a blog hop. Read some great tips about nonfiction writing from Michele from coffeecupsandlessonplans!

Hello Friends!

My name is Michele and I'm from Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans!

I'm Jen's guest blogger today for the Blog Hop.

I've had Nonfiction on my mind a lot lately.  I teach sixth grade to some serious smarties, and with the changes in the Common Core Standards this year I've had to revamp a little of my Language Arts program.  I was reading a lot of novels before, and using Writer's Worksop.  As much as I <Puffy Heart LOVE> the novels I read like Hatchet, and Chasing Vermeer, I've found I need to spend more time on nonfiction text features and structures.

Nagivating Nonfiction was born from that.  I didn't want to do just one single unit on nonfiction.  So much of what is read today comes from this category, I felt I could find a way to infuse it into more of my ELA daily/weekly routines and units.

I introduced Nonfiction by teaching my students about Text Features and we practiced this using Time for Kids Magazine which my class subscribes to.  As the year went on, I began focusing on the structure of the text.  This was MUCH MUCH harder for them to do.  They got stuck on sequences and cause and effect.. even as sixth graders. I had to back up a few times and use easier text.

Finally with almost half the school year gone we are hitting our stride.  We are getting better at recognizing cause and effect and compare/contrast in text, and I have added narrative expository stories as examples.  We are consistant with the task rotation cards I've created for structures and features, and I'm adding more challenging text every week.

Next I'll begin pulling my Writer's Workshop back in with expository text, we've done a ton of summary writing and hopeully pull out that longer essay soon.  I am also hoping to get lucky and be able to use some of my smarties writing as examples next year!

Meanwhile, my next goal is to find meaningful nonfiction text that supports themes, ideas and issues from my novel units of study.  My expectation is that by the end of the school year, our last novel, (Chasing Vermeer) will incorporate not only critical reading skills for fiction, but also articles on art, biography and history.  Do you have a resource you can share with me?  I would LOVE to hear it!

Thanks to Jen for letting me take up a little space on her blog today!  If you are interested in having the nonfiction task cards, posters, writer's notebook bookmarks, etc at your finger tips for easy use, visit my TpT store here,  and stop by and visit me at Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans!

Thanks Michele for the great ideas! I agree that the Common Core has made us all rethink how much we are teaching nonfiction in our classrooms!!

Hop over to see my blog entry on teaching students how to begin writing poetry at http://drowninginpaperclips.blogspot.com/

My New Year’s Resolutions

I have all kinds of goals swirling around in my head for 2013 that I know will likely fade away unless I write them down.  And what better place to write them than on my blog!?  I'm hoping to achieve every last one of them so here goes:

Personal goals:
1. To spend more time with God each day.  I know when I begin my days with just a few minutes of prayer and reading that I have such a better outlook on life.  I want to start each day that way!

2. To grow a garden and learn how to pickle veggies.  My father-in-law is an excellent gardener and eager to teach my husband and me.

3. To spend more time with my own kids.  In 2013, Sophie will be 14, Malaya will be 12, and Greyson will be 10.  Sophie will be starting high school in the fall and I'm freaking out!  Only four more years and I will send her off to college.  I want to get in as much bonding time as possible!

Professional goals:
1. To continue developing my understanding of best practice in reading, writing, and language word study.  I am just finishing a two-year training as a Literacy Collaborative Coordinator at Lesley University in Boston.  I want to read lots of professional resources so that I don't slip behind the latest and greatest in literacy instruction!

2. To continue uploading resources for teachers on my blog.  I want to continue videotaping my class and post a blog at least once a week.

3. To develop more and more units of study for both the reading and writing workshops.  I have so many ideas and so little time.  I want to take the best ideas and develop them into amazing resources for teachers and students.

So that's it…for now:)  Best of luck to all my blogging friends in maintaining your own 2013 resolutions.  Happy New Year!!

Jen

I’ve already been bit by the love bug!

Love is in the air! Part of my New Year's resolution is to get a bunch of fun, literacy-based Valentine's Day resources posted for teachers.  I spent a lot of time purchasing some awesome clip art and gathering my ideas.  I am super excited about just posting my first resource…a Valentine contraction game!  This is a super cute way to teach students to identify, apply, and notice patterns within contractions.  I love it because it is simple, fun, yet effective.

I think I am going to be on a Valentine's Day roll so watch out!  If you have any special Valentine's Day themed literacy requests please let me know.  I have some great ideas for writing, reading, and language in the works!

Blessings to all!!  Jen

Check out my very first Valentine's Day Resource!

The Reading and Writing Connection

Hello Friends!

I wanted to update everyone that I just uploaded two new videos that show the connection between the reading and writing workshops.  The topic of both mini lessons in on using inner voice.  During the reading workshop, I ask students to identify areas in the books they are reading where the author used his/her inner voice.  I then asked them to make inferences based on the voice of the author.  In writing, students were asked to review their personal narrative piece and find places that they could add their inner voice. 

We worked on the same strategy (using inner voice) and applied it to both workshops.  Students identified during the reading workshop and applied during the writing workshop.  This transition is so smooth and easy for the students to understand.  Connecting the two workshop with a common teaching point is a great way to help students directly apply their new learning!!! 

Check out the videos on my ‘classroom happenings' page!

Happy Teaching! 

Jen 

Biography Unit Posted for Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6!

I am so super excited to have just finished a month-long biography unit!!  If you have never seen my units before they include:

* 20 Reading workshop mini lessons
* 20 Writing workshop mini lessons
* Suggested read aloud titles (these are all biography picture book titles)
* Common Core State Standards linked to EVERY lesson!
* A description of the reading workshops, writing workshops, and interactive read-alouds
* Detailed descriptions of all 40 lessons including what students should be doing during independent reading and writing each day and the share at the end of the workshop.
* Examples of class charts for all 40 lessons
* Teacher observation forms
* Students' printable forms
* Printable mini-lesson statement cards that can be glued into readers and writers notebooks

Units are broken into separate grade levels so that the appropriate grade level Common Core State Standards can be linked directly to each lesson.

I have month-long units available in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 for:

* Launching the Reading and Writing Workshop
* Informational
* Opinion
* Personal Narrative
* Poetry and Figurative  Language
* AND NOW…Biography 🙂

Classroom Happenings Page

Hi everyone!  Check out my classroom happenings page for newly uploaded videos of the writing workshop structure.  There is a video for the mini lesson, independent writing/conference time, and the share.  Enjoy and happy writing!!

Are Writing Prompts Right for Our Kids??

Teaching students to write is a passion of mine.  I am constantly reading about the art of teaching writing.  Some of my favorite authors in this area are Aimee Buckner, Carl Anderson, Lucy Calkins, and Ralph Fletcher.  These master educators have so many professional resources for helping us teachers continue to develop our understandings for what is best practice in the area of writing.

So the question I have today is: Are writing prompts right for our kids?  Before I can answer that question, I want to define what a prompt is.  There are three types of prompts: close-ended, cliffhangers, and open-ended.

In a close-ended prompt students have to generate a written piece about one specific topic.  They are not able to write about what is on their mind and must respond to a specific question  These types of prompts are often seen on standardized tests or in daily writing workbooks.  An example of a closed-ended prompt is: “What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods?  Tell about them.”

Close-ended prompts can be appropriate if teachers are looking to assess what their students can and cannot do as writers.  They are helpful to analyze student writing in order to determine what writing strategies need to be taught next.  They should NOT be used on a daily basis and certainly NOT as the only writing time students have.  If students spend all their writing time responding to closed-ended prompts, they will never have time to write about what they really care about.  And don't all writers write what they really care about!?

In a cliffhanger, students are given the beginning of a story with a problem, and they must finish the story by adding a middle and end.  An example of a cliffhanger is: “The Turkey woke up the day before Thanksgiving knowing it might be his last day alive.  He hatched a plan for him and his family to escape.  Just as he was about to put his plan into action he heard the barn door open and the farmer's footsteps nearing the coop…”

Cliffhangers are typically used with a whole class.  Everyone writes from the same prompt, but their stories might end differently.  Usually teachers use these as writing projects and attach cute illustrations.  Although this type of writing can be fun, I would argue that it limits students from writing about what they really want to say.  An author's life experiences and passions should be the focus of their writing; not writing as a group about the same topic.

Open-ended prompts are those types of prompts that suggest a topic, yet leave the structure and organization of writing up to the writer.  They often give a suggestion, but do not require a specific response.  An example is: “Make a list of all the things that come to your mind when  you think of Thanksgiving.  Then circle a few and write more about them.”

This type of prompt allows students to use their own experiences and think creatively.  Even though it is asking students to write about a topic (Thanksgiving), it is also giving them freedom to write about whatever comes to their mind about this topic.  Open-ended prompts can be great tools for struggling writers to begin thinking about their ideas and what they have to say.  They can help writers think critically about their own experiences and beliefs so that they can find their voice in writing.

Overall, prompts should NOT be the entirety of a teacher's writing curriculum.  They should be used with a combination of many different writing elements, some of which are; teaching writing strategies, doing genre studies, holding writing conferences, holding guided writing groups, and having freewrites.

If you are in need of some strong open-ended writing prompts, I have several available at my Teacherspayteachers store.  There is a set of Thanksgiving Writing Prompts that would be great resource for this time of year!

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts: Open-ended!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Printable-Writing-Prompts-in-Color-and-Black-White

My First Blog Post

Hello everyone! 

I am making my first official blog post!  I am super excited to have my own space to share my understandings of teaching reading, writing, and language to kids in grades 3-6!  I am a Literacy Collaborative Coordinator, and have trained at Lesley University.  I also have my master's degree in reading education grades K-12.  Before becoming a Literacy Coordinator, I taught grades 3-6 in both Wisconsin and Alabama.  I love helping teachers gain new understanding in what best practice is in literacy!  I can't wait to share through my new blog!

Please be patient with me as my blog will surely look ancient to most.  I am a total rookie and will probably need time just to wrap my brain around all there is to know:)

Here is a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I have several units of study for grades 3-6 that cover every writing Common Core State Standard.  The units are one month of reading and writing lessons for informational, opinion, personal narrative, poetry and figurative language, and launching the reading and writing workshops.  Aside from the units, I have lots of other resources and freebies:)

Thanks for reading!  Jen

My TpT Store

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