Proud New Member of NCTE

I just decided to join the National Council of Teachers of English. Earlier this spring I had been debating whether to renew my membership to the International Reading Association or to switch over to NCTE. I have been a member of IRA for the last three years, and have really enjoyed their publication, Reading Today. However, I had also been hearing a lot about NCTE. Eventually I would like to have a membership to both, but for this year with tight budgets I decided to choose between the two. Prior to IRA I was a member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. There are so many great professional organizations out there that it is hard to decide which to join.

Which organizations are you a member of?

Classroom Pictures

Here are some pictures of what my classroom looked like the morning that I was able to move into it. The last is a picture of what my room looked like on the first day of school. The boxes in the entry way were luckily my desks, so they were set up by the second day of school. I will have to post updated pictures once everything comes in and it is set up for the year. Now I am mainly just waiting for my projector to come in. Then I will put up my Smart Board, white board, and my writing menu. I love the way the layout of my room is working out. Here's the post where I mentioned my plans.

 

 

 

First Days of School - Week 1

Yesterday marked the end of my first full week back with students, and last night I geared up to switch over to Spanish next week. My goal this year is to not be at the school so much on the weekends and to eventually go home a little bit earlier during the week in order to spend more time with my family. With experience I am learning how to plan my curriculum and use my time wiser in order to make sure that I am providing the best instruction possible for my students while also setting up structures and routines that allow me to better utilize my preparation time. Reading The Daily Five last spring inspired me to think of ways that this can be possible.

During the first weeks of school I have not been able to leave any earlier than usual, and while I have been in on the weekends, it has been minimal. It seems like once I am a few more weeks into the school year my goals will be possible. For now I am happy with my progress knowing that I am getting closer to where I want to be ideally.

The first week was filled with celebrations and reflections on how to improve. This post might end up being a little bit long, so I am going to put bold heading to go with each section in case you want to just skim about a certain piece of my week. However, some areas overlap, so information in one may mention an additional category.

WORD STUDY
I have mentioned before that this year I will be organizing my word study a little bit differently. Instead of having all students on the same rotation, I will have groups on different check in days with me. Originally in order to implement this I was trying to think of something independent that I could have the rest of the students doing while pulling back each individual group on different days to familiarize them with the process. I realized that with the 6th graders who are new to my class and Words Their Way it would make more sense to start out with one class sort, and then cycle into the small group sorts on the next English week.

I was so glad that I made that decision. I chose a sort with silent initial letters that I thought would be a good sort for most of the students but also presented it as a practice to get used to the procedures and steps in the process. Doing it this way with the whole class helped cut out a lot of confusion and get all the students on the same page. Stepping back one week from starting small group instruction seems to have saved me a lot of stress sparked by confusion. It was also a good reminder/review for my 7th graders.

Next week I will do my first Spanish word study sort. Last year I never implemented word study consistently with Spanish as it was harder for me to think of ideas of how to group and find words for self-created sorts. My goal this year is to do a whole class word sort every week. Then next year I will focus on being able to do small groups as I do in English. I figured that whole class sorts would be better than holding off until I have developed enough sorts to differentiate from the start.

READ ALOUD
Recently I had posted about using House on Mango Street as my start of the year read aloud. I had not read the full book since college, but I always remembered talking about the book and hearing positive feedback about integrating it into language arts. I read ahead to make sure that I did not go against the concept of reading aloud a book I had not already read. Since it had been so long, it was as if I had not read certain sections at all.

As I moved farther along in the week and continued to read ahead, I realized that the book was not quite like I remembered. While I remembered the majority of the book being about her younger childhood, it jumped to older and more mature issues faster than I had remembered. I had completely forgotten about some of the most pivotal points of the book in her older years, that were not necessarily ideal for a 6th/7th grade read aloud.

I was stuck trying to decide what to do. In the end, I could not justify reading aloud some of the sections as a whole class read aloud. Instead, the next day my 6th graders and I were at the carpet ready for read aloud and I asked them, "Have you ever read a great book that you loved and later read it again, realizing that it was not quite as you remembered?" Students hands shot up and they shared some examples. I used that as a segue way to share with them that although as I continued reading House on Mango Street it was still a great book, it was not exactly as I had remembered and I though it would be better for them to later reading on their own or for book clubs. Then I introduced the novel that we will be reading as a read aloud. The students were fine with the switch.

I planned on doing the same with my 7th graders, but one of my super observant 7th graders beat me to the punch. As we moved to the carpet she saw a different book in my hand and instantly raised her hand to ask, "So we aren't going to read House on Mango Street?" I just gave them the rationale without the question to them.

As I was reading the book in more detail it also helped me to better understand where Stacey was coming from. It was easier to see how the vignettes weren't necessarily Slice of Life writing. I switched my angle to telling my students that I wanted them to see an example of how shorter pieces of writing can be powerful when introducing Slice of Life Stories.

READING WORKSHOP
When reading The Daily Five last year I reflected that I thought my students would be able to read for a longer period of time without building stamina starting at three minutes. Our students are used to having silent sustained reading for most of their school career where the room is supposed to be silent and that they need to stay in one place. My initial thought was that building up stamina with independent reading would not be an issue, but rather the challenge would be having students maintain those same behaviors while other activities are happening in the room. As I started out building stamina, my inclinations ended up being right on.

After creating an I-Chart with the students, based on ideas from The Daily Five, in order to set up expectations, they met the expectations with ease. There were a couple instances when we had to debrief as a group and correct a hand full of students' non-reading early on. Once I reminded them that even if they are absolutely quiet, they are not following the expectations if they are looking around the room rather than reading their book, the students started to all read. Toward the end of the week I was able to start some one on one conferences and assessments. The students handled this well. The biggest challenge will still be when I integrate the small group component which will generate a little bit more of a distraction to students.

Overall I am really pleased with different components that I had tried out based on resources that I have read recently.

WRITING WORKSHOP
I started out the year with the oral storytelling concept. First I read Jalapeño Bagels and prompted students to tell stories about times when they have seen two cultures blending. The second day I read aloud Carlos and The Squash Plant and we shared examples of not listening to something we are supposed to do and then suffering the consequences. This yielded more conversation than the day before. On the third day I was ready to get them writing, so I read the first chapter of Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head, and then had them share with people sitting close to them stories about their siblings (or close cousin, best friend for only children).

As expected, the students were bubbling with stories, so I introduced their writer's notebooks. It was a great feeling to see the pens flying across their pages as they listed out their stories and then did two quick writes from their lists. The room was calm and energized.

The area where I reflected that I need to improve for next week is that once we moved from directed listing and quick writes into independent writing time later in the week, working on Slice of Life Stories, my 6th graders were not writing without talking as I had told them and reminded them over and over again. It did not take long for me to realize that it was because I forgot the key component of creating an I chart of expectations as I had for independent reading. This was not an issue with the 7th graders because they were familiar with the expectations from last year. Nonetheless, next week I will create the chart with both classes. Then I will be typing them up and laminating both to post in the room.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week I did not do as much in social studies as I had originally planned. On Monday I was reminded of how each new routine can take a significantly longer amount of time to introduce and implement at first. The class time was easily filled with planned reading and writing activities. I decided to layer in components of the class. Toward the end of the week students were familiar with the different parts of the day and it was starting to look like a "normal" day.

Once I layered in social studies, I loved how all of the activities went. I started out with Sarah Cooper's idea of introducing a poem, "A Worker Reads History" in her book Making History Mine. I was able to adapt the steps that she does into an Interactive Notebook format, so it worked perfectly. While I was not sure how well my students would grasp the poem without scaffolding, they understood it more than I had expected. Upon finishing my first read aloud, one of my 6th graders said, "That is powerful." His comments later made it clear that he fully understood the essence of the poem from the start.

The other lesson I did last week was using World History For Us All's video World History in 7 Minutes. I created a lesson where I could also integrate in interactive notebooks focusing on state social studies standards that the video addresses, such as scale and long-lasting impact of early civilizations. We were able to bring in a projector on a cart and project it on one of my walls since it is a light cream color. I took advantage of having the cart in my room to also show the students Barack Obama's interview with student Damon Weaver.

BULLETIN BOARD
Students enjoyed the guess who bulletin board that I made with pictures I took of my 6th graders at the end of last year with one of their favorite books. Yesterday when I was taking the pictures down in order to get ready for our Spanish week, I wanted to use the pictures more. I got an idea to decorate the bookshelves in my classroom library with them. My practicum student found a way to make them fit, and it looks great.

GENERAL
I have still been checking in with and working closely with my partner teacher. My practicum student only has one week left with me. She has been a huge help, and I was lucky to have an extra set of hands to get my room organized and up and running. My assistant has been a great help too. Luckily, she will be with me all year for two days a week.

My Smart Board arrived, and I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I checked in with the tech to tell him it was in and said, "They finished up with the wiring last week, didn't they?" My excitement came to a screeching halt with his response of, "Is your projector in?" Right... In all my excitement, I forgot that while there is wiring, a Smart Board, and the ceiling mount supplies, the actual projector is not in. My oversight still makes me chuckle. My projector should be in anytime now.

Spanish Literacy Instruction in Mexico

The following is a Power Point presentation that I prepared while participating in a summer educator´s exchange in Michoacán. I have always been fascinated by native language literacy instruction, and I enjoyed my brief, limited research during the three week program. I would love to eventually research more about Mexican educational practices. Though the time frame did not allow for as in-depth studies as I would have liked, I still learned a lot.

Spanish Native Language Reading Instruction

The following Word document below are my notes that went along with the Power Point presentation. The notes may fill in some of the gaps from the presentation, but it was created for me. At the time I did not think about how I would be sharing the notes with others. Please let me know if you have questions, and I will do my best to answer them.
Choice Project Presentation Outline

If you are interested in native language literacy or practices in Mexico, I would love to hear your comments and to discuss more with you.

First Days of School - Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of school. My daughter was very excited for her first day of first grade. She was skipping along in the parking lot.

The day for the most part, went smoothly. Most of the day my teaching partner and I had all 51 of our students together doing teambuilders, discussing common expectations, and passing out supplies. Once the students had their supplies and we were organizing them, it got too loud with all of us together because our school has an open feel to it. I ended up taking half the students back to my room. It was nice to have the smaller group of students and start connecting with them. Then we switched classes and I had a chance to be with my students from last year. Overall the day went great, but I am looking forward to Monday where we will get started on a regular routine.

In other big news...
My desks arrived yesterday afternoon. All of us had conveniently forgotten that the desks had to be put together. As soon as we saw the orange caps on the bottoms of the legs, we remembered that leg extensions had to be added on. Luckily, our great custodian knew it was a priority and got right to work. Right before I left, they were set to go and we set them up in the classroom together. Now I feel even more ready for Monday.

Next week's goals:
*Reconnect with my returning students and get to know my new students.
*Focus on making sure that a couple of new students to the school feel welcome and are forming friendships.
*Implement routines/procedures.

Back to School Day 5 (Final Day)

Today was our last work day before students come back tomorrow morning. The rush was on to complete as much as possible in the time available. Today I had my practicum student and assistant there to help me, and they got so much of my to-do list finished. My literacy menus are almost set to hang up, but I decided to put them up at the end of the day tomorrow. I am going to have to get creative in deciding how to make them fit, but by the end of the day I was almost certain that I have a plan. They also completed setting up my bulletin board and various other tasks to prepare for the first day.

We received a delivery estimate for my desks of tomorrow afternoon. It will not be too bad though because my partner teacher and I planned to do some middle school activities as a whole team for the morning and then spend time with each class for a little over an hour in the afternoon. Since that time will fly by, it will be fairly easy to just have students grab a clipboard and sit on the floor, rather than desks. Then for the first full day in my classroom with students, the desks will be all set up.

I will do a post about our first day sometime this weekend.

Back to School Days 3-4

Today all staff was back, and the anticipation continues to build in expectation for the students. The fast approaching date is also bringing on anxiety about our disproportionate to-do lists versus the amount of time left to get ready. Although I never expect that feeling to go away, no matter how long I teach, each year I do feel a little bit more calm, embracing flexibility just a little bit more.

Last night we had a middle school team meeting that left me energized for a new school year. We are blessed with very supportive parents who are loyal and dedicated to the school. After the meeting it was fun to hear them reminise about the early days of the school starting and how it has been exciting for them to see their students experience all of the changes and improvements as the school has become more established. It was also fun to see my students, many of whom I had not seen all summer, and all the changes - new hair cuts, taller...

Aside from the parent meeting, the last two days I have continued to set up my classroom, frequently met with my partner teacher to further coordinate our first day and common procedures and been to meetings. My practicum student and I spent a lot of time getting my literacy menus ready. I was not 100% sure how to make it work, but so far it seems like the final product is going to turn out okay. We created the base posters, and tomorrow we need to finish up getting the individual strategy cards ready. I also need to find space on my walls for them because they ended up being very big. There is plenty of room, but I am hoping that I will be able to put them both at the front of the room so that the students will be able to see them easily and often. However, my projector and Smart Board have not arrived yet. We are waiting for them to arrive before putting up my white board since I want it to go right next to the Smart Board and then I can put the literacy menus on either side.

On the bright side, other components of my classroom have been rolling in. Today out custodian was able to hang up my bulletin board, and the techs came to bring my new computer and the student laptop cart. Still no desks, but hopefully they will come in tomorrow. Luckily, as I mentioned, with each year come more of an openness to the concept that the beginning of the year means flexibility. Whereas even last year I would have been ready to have a nervous breakdown if I did not have desks in my room for the first day, this year I am just thinking out plan B and realizing that it is by far not the worst thing that could happen. Besides, nothing, not even the lack of desks and technology can dampen my excitement for my new classroom and starting my second year at my dream job.

Back to School Day 2

Day 2

Today I continued unpacking and getting my classroom in order. Before I left for home I had sorted through all the boxes and found a spot for everything (even if it is temporary while I wait for more classroom materials to come in). Last night I bought some storage containers at Wal-Mart so that my shelves and some supplies are more organized. I also bought some bookends for the shelves where I have my book club sets. Aside from organizing additional components as they come in, my class layout is set. I will rearrange as needed as I go along.

This afternoon my partner teacher and I got together to finish up a PowerPoint for our parent meeting tomorrow to welcome our students and discuss expectations for the year. As a bonus, when I got back to my classroom from our meeting, my phone was hooked up.

The next three days until the students come I will be able to focus back on my curriculum and working with my partner teacher to set up for our first day where we are planning to have various activities as a middle school team.

I am exhausted, and I will need to make sure to be very productive so that I will hopefully not have to stay late on Wednesday and Thursday. Then I can get plenty of rest and be ready to go for students on Friday.

Back to School Day 1

Friday the school was buzzing with energy as everyone returned to start setting up for the new year. Even though teachers come and go during the summer, it is never the same as the official start when everyone comes back with excitement all at the same time. This year I have a practicum student coming in for three weeks in order to see what the start of a school year is like. That gave me an idea that maybe some readers would also be curious and would enjoy glimpses into this time of the year. While many of my readers may have a lot of experience, I always enjoy hearing about what other teachers do. I figured that it may be a fun conversation to start with both new and experienced teachers. I would love if you comment about what you are doing for the start of your year or about your own back to school activities.

DAY 1

The big day finally arrived. Yesterday morning, dressed ready to work in comfortable shoes, jeans, and my hair pulled back in a pony tail, I peeked into my new classroom upon arriving and was so excited. Everything looks great, and my teacher desk, file cabinet, chair, and an additional book case had arrived. A group of colleagues helped me move my boxes from my old classroom to the new classroom. When writing my to-do list over the summer I tried to think of how my practicum student and assistant (on certain days) could help.

This year I am going to try organizing my classroom library alphabetically by author's last name. I admit, I am not sure how long it will stay organized, but I was ready to give it a try after skimming my whole library to find one book that I knew would be perfect for a student. My partner teacher suggested that I should have my practicum student write each letter of the alphabet on a piece of card stock (or old file folders) to divide each section. She mentioned that even though the books might not stay perfectly alphabetized, at least they should be in the section of the right letter. I made a note to myself to not forget to do that.

While my practicum student was busy sorting books and putting them on the shelves, I was going through the rest of the boxes. I had a very long day yesterday because I wanted to get as much unloaded as possible. My classroom layout is starting to take shape. Even though my student desks have not arrived my partner teacher and I moved the extra desks out of her room into mine to get a better feel of how much space they will take up. My partner teacher and I discussed different ideas of where to put the remaining items that will still come in. Throughout the day we were also talking in my old room (her new room) about how she could rearrange the space, and it is looking great as well. It was so nice to be a part of a middle school team this year in order to brainstorm ideas together.

I also brought in a big garbage can and sorted through different binders that I have packed from one room to the other but not referred to very often. I would have made Debbie Diller proud as I was tossing out a lot, only keeping what I knew I would use.

Most years of my teaching I have kept a binder with my daily lesson plans and handouts. I still had back to my first year of teaching, and most of those documents (including this previous year) went in the trash. I did keep days that had certain units I know I will want to reference later. I also decided on a new way to organize my plans. My old binders had every class that I taught all on the same document. Now, I am going to keep notes for separate content areas. For social studies I want to start a binder for the year, and place the binder in a bin along with any other materials that I need for the unit and a list of books that I pull from my classroom library to go along with the theme. This seems like it will be much more user-friendly than shifting through my eclectic binders of the past. (I know I read about a similar idea a while back and I will reference the book once I have a chance to skim my professional books at school to remember for sure which one it was.)

My long day was worth it. At the end of the night I left my classroom with a stack of broken down cardboard boxes in the center, a small stack of binders that I still need to go through and a to-do list with my priorities for Monday. I won't waist time trying to remember what I need to do, and I will be able to get right to work. Included on my list was areas where my practicum student will be able to help me out.

My room is still far from ready, but I have four days next week, and I am happy with the progress I have made so far. I look forward to all that the year will bring.

What to Expect on Snapshots Of Mrs. V

Summer vacation has come to an end. Yesterday I officially went back to work. I wanted to do a quick comment about what readers can expect during the school year. I just barely started this blog as the school year was coming to a close. During the summer I read and posted my thoughts about many professional resources. While I will continue to do the same during the school year, the focus of the blog will shift toward implementation and reflections on how the school year is going.

I often am not able to read as much during the school year as I am busy planning and trying to make my visions turn into reality in the classroom. It is more common for me to refer back to the resources that I have previously read than to pick up new resources. It has seemed to work as a good balance, rather than having too many ideas without taking the time to make sure that I am able to implement them well. I have always enjoyed vacations as my time to re-energize and look for fresh new ideas.

That said, I do still love the chance to read new materials during the year and make it a priority. I have already seen advertisements for new professional development books coming out that I can't wait to read. Also, reading other education blogs will be a main area that I will keep up with throughout the year and is a great tool to reflect on my own teaching.

Word Study

Stacey at Two Writing Teachers just wrote about differentiation in word study, and as I was commenting on her post it was getting way too long. I decided to write a complete post here instead. Please let me know if you have any questions about word study that I do not address here. I also recommend clicking the link above to see Stacey's post explaining her own experience and with a great link to free spelling resources.

When I reviewed Vocabulary Their Way, I discussed how I first heard about Words Their Way and that I implemented it for the first time last year. However, I did not give a lot of details on the process I went through.

Because I work in a dual immersion school I decided to get Words Their Way with English Learners: Word Study for Spelling, Phonics, and Vocabulary Instruction. The professor who introduced me to Words Their Way had told me that I probably did not need to get this book and the regular Words Their Way since they would both provide a foundation for the program and the spelling inventories. She also said that it was not really necessary to buy the additional books that have pre-made sorts since teachers can make their own.

The first time that I had a mainstream language arts class (last year), I integrated Words Their Way from the beginning of the year. At the start of the year I gave my students the spelling inventories in both English and Spanish. However, once I got started, I realized that I did want the additional books after all. Trying to build my own scope and sequence with the sample sorts in the back of the book as a guide was quickly becoming too time-consuming during my first year of teaching in a self-contained classroom. I did not want to put off word study until I would have the time though.

Organization
The pre-made sorts were very beneficial and made it possible to implement from the first year. I bought shoebox sized storage boxes (one for each developmental category that my students placed into). Then I started creating a class-sort copy of each of the sorts on sentence strips to use for small group instruction. At first I had to go week to week in creating the sorts I needed. After a while I would have my assistants and practicum students work on the project whenever they did not have anything else to do. They are almost completely finished. I clipped each of the sorts together with a binder clip. Each sort has heading card with sort number on the top of the stack so that I can easily identify the sort in case they get out of order and as I pull them and put them back each week. My next goal, something that I wanted to finish this summer but did not get to, is to write sort notes on the back of each heading card. Then I will not have to have the book with me when I am doing group sorts, and I won't have to worry about forgetting something important. (Today I am at home. Maybe later I will take some pictures at school and edit my post.)

Classroom Procedures with Word Study
I adapted a weekly word sort form based on a form in one of the books. Each Monday I called back each individual group to introduce the sort. With my 6th graders we typically did open sorts. After our group portion, I handed out the weekly form and a copy of their word sort (supplied in the individual sort books) that they cut up and put in a plastic bag where they always stored their latest word sort. Then every other day there was ten minutes allotted for their weekly word sort form, including a daily sort, copying down their completed sort, having someone dictate the words out of order while they recorded them trying to spell them correctly and put them under the correct sort category, and finding example words of their sort pattern/trend in their own reading. Then on Fridays they had a spelling test of ten of the words off their current word sort. They had a word sort section of their binder where they stored all of their weekly forms with their spelling test behind it in order.

Improvements for this year
I am happy with my implementation of WTW last year as a first attempt, but here are some areas where I want to improve/make changes this year:

*Make notes on the back of all heading cards (see the organization section above).

*Rather than having all students on a Monday through Friday rotation, I allocated ten minutes to each day dedicated to word study. Each group will be assigned to a day of the week for their small group instruction. On that day I will do the ten word spelling check, a pre-test, and then introduce their next sort. The other students will be working on their independent practice during that time. This will make it easier for me because I will be able to have a consistent amount of time each day instead of having to find a longer block on Mondays and Fridays. (The only glitch in this plan is that as I am writing this I remembered how we have one week of English and one week of Spanish, so students would have to wait more than a week to complete the week process. I will have to see how that goes and may need to adjust.)

*Since there is not a pre-made Spanish book, my Spanish word study was not consistent and I never got into a routine of doing it every week. This year I am going to dedicate time to create my own scope and sequence and make sure that I do include word study every week. However, I will probably have to have the whole class doing the same sort to begin with. That is my trade-off on deciding what is a feasible step for this year. Differentiation will be my next goal.

*Assessments: I am going to more closely monitor progress this year. Last year I looked from week to week, but this year I created a form where I will record their weekly data so that I can look at their trends over a longer period of time. I am also going to incorporate in pre- and post-tests rather than just a weekly post-test. I will also record their pre-test data on their tracking form to compare their pre/post data.

Last Days of Vacation

I made sure to take the last days of my official summer vacation off. Today the girls went to a craft camp, and I got my hair cut. Then we spent the rest of the day together. Tomorrow I also plan on spending the day with them.

Then Friday I will move in to my new classroom. Luckily a group of people have already blocked out time in their morning to help me move my boxes over. When I was in earlier this week they were adding on the final touches. There is now electrical access for student laptops and they put in all the ceiling tiles. It looked like my projector also arrived, and if so, it will probably be installed when I get there on Friday. Everything is so beautiful, and I am very excited for the students to see it. I will post pictures once I get settled in.

I am still waiting for some minor details, such as my teacher desk, computer, whiteboard, Smart Board, and student desks to arrive. Other than that (ha ha) I am all ready to get started on setting up my classroom. I remember this time last year everything started to come in on a regular basis, and even though I was getting anxious wondering whether or not it would arrive in time, the essentials were there for the first day. I am not going to worry about it this year. Even if everything is not here for the start of school, I will adjust. For example, if my Smart Board is not in, I will just wait to incorporate components such as the blog and I will use traditional chart paper instead of using my computer and the projector for writing and reading workshop.

My years of teaching experience have taught me to be flexible, go with the flow, and do the best I can with what I have. I am looking forward to a great year!

Slice of Life vs. Memoirs

One area that I am still trying to figure out in my mind is the difference between slice of life and memoirs. While I have done some memoir writing, slice of life is newer territory for me. My initial impression is that memoirs are more developed, while slice of life is a quicker snapshot. (I would appreciate any comments on distinguishing between the two.)

My plan is to start writing workshop with oral storytelling, which will lead into slice of life writing. Then later on in the fall we will have a memoir genre study. Author Mia King wrote an article about memoirs (linked from a blog post about the same topic) that I will probably share with my students during our memoir study. I love her definition of memoirs and tips to get started that are helpful for a wide span of ages. As I was mapping out my genre studies for the year, I thought that it seemed like slice of life stories can be springboards into memoirs. Reading King's suggestions appeared to go along with this idea as well.

When mapping out a tentative read aloud plan for the year I was trying to match up read-alouds that would go well with the type of writing genre that we will be studying. I also try to find books that are available both in English and Spanish so that we can continue reading the same book regardless of the language week. One of the books that would fit is House on Mango Street. I recently commented over at Two Writing Teachers to get feedback on reading it at the beginning of the year since I am not sure if there are any novels out there that would be characterized as slice of life. I thought the short vignettes woven together to form the novel could be considered slice of life writing when looked at as individual chapters.

Stacey's response gave me a lot to consider:

I only used The House on Mango Street during my memoir unit of study when I wanted to teach my kids how to dive really deep. I’m not sure how it’d work with SOLS. I’m inclined to say, especially since it’s the beginning of the school year, that you use your own writing as mentor texts.

My initial reaction was that I would just switch it over to my memoir genre study, but then I thought about how it may still work as a read aloud loosely related to the concept. I can still use my own writing as mentor texts during writer's workshop as Stacey suggests. That thought made perfect sense to me. Then I can also refer back to the book as a common text when we are in our genre study since it is a good model of digging deep, as Stacey commented.

There is still so much to consider, and a lot of my decisions during the school year will be trying out and reflecting on what works and what needs to be adjusted for the next time I teach the unit.

Book Giveaway

The focus of my other personal blog is all about balance. I constantly try to re-focus and prioritize to make sure that I am spending time necessary to do a good job in my classroom, while also making time for personal hobbies and time with my family. One of my favorite hobbies is to escape into a good book, whether it is YA/middle grades for my classroom library, teaching tips, or adult books.

I recently did a post on my other blog with author Mia King that also has a giveaway that will run from now until next Monday, August 10th. King writes about balance and living simply. If you are interested in a much needed escape with fun women's fiction, head over and comment on my giveaway post to be entered for a chance.

It's almost time...

...to move into my new classroom
...for my official first day back
...for students to arrive
...for so much to begin!

I can hardly believe the 09-10 school year is almost here. I have spent quite a bit of time this summer preparing, yet it never seems quite enough. There is always so much more that I want to do. Yesterday when I was looking at my to-do list and thinking about how there was only a little bit of time left before the official start date, I prioritized my to-do list. I also reminded myself that everything does not happen at once. I thought about all my vision of what I want my classroom to look and feel like next year and what is realistic to implement right now versus what I would love to do now but can wait until a little bit into the school year. I would not have to wait until a whole new year, but I can put it on my to-do list with a goal to start at different points of the year to layer in different pieces.

I front-loaded my planning with curriculum - mapping out my yearly plan and getting all the details ready for the first weeks. Soon my focus will turn to moving in to my beautiful new classroom. I love everything about it. I can hardly go to the school without at least peeking in the windows or walking in to see the latest progress in my room. Last night I was locking the building up and it looks like it is almost to a point where I will be able to move in. It seems like everything is ready (they just finished up the carpets), except they still need to put in more ceiling tiles and finish up the electricity access from the ceiling that students will use for their laptop computers. Then of course my actual classroom furniture needs to arrive. Regardless, it is getting super close and I am so excited for the students to see the new room.

Bella & Bean

My copy of Bella & Bean arrived today, and I am so glad that I ordered it after seeing Sarah's comments about it. I can't wait to share it with my middle schoolers when we do our poetry unit.

Social Studies Focus and World History for Us All

Over the summer I have spent quite a bit of time reading, reflecting, and planning. When I realized that the school year was coming right up, I broke down my to-do list and decided to split up the content areas I teach into days. This week when I go into the school for a couple days I will be focusing on social studies. I got a head start last Friday by spending an afternoon at the university I attended in the curriculum library skimming middle school social studies textbooks.

I already know that I will be using a lot of ideas from Making History Mine, and that I want to use Kelly Gallagher's idea of Article of the Week (from Readicide and his DVD Article of the Week). I will be skimming through more of the examples of the ones he assigned to his 10th and 12th graders this year as I prepare. Even though he does this during language arts time, I will include it in my social studies curriculum. However, since I will teach both subjects, the two content areas will blend together in some aspects such as this.


I have been using my state's curriculum maps to match resources and ideas to our content standards. Since I do not have a textbook, I was excited to find World History for Us All, an on-line resource with lesson plans and supporting texts, which is a project of San Diego State University in cooperation with the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA. I love the ideas behind the curriculum, as well as the three essential questions and seven key themes. It is perfect because our school is focusing on developing essential questions for each of our content areas. I am excited to use the video History of the World in Seven Minutes that is available on their home page. I still need to go through each individual lesson, but from what I have seen so far, I will use this resource a lot. The only drawback is that it is all in English, so I will not be able to use it as easily on Spanish weeks (although I can replicate the concepts in Spanish).

I am looking forward to a couple of productive days to map out my social studies curriculum more.