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.

Making History Mine Wrap-Up

There is so much more that I could still say about Making History Mine, but I am going to wrap up my comments with a few more favorites. Lately, a lot of my resources have been for younger grades that I consider how to adapt or they are for a broad range such as k-12. I appreciated that this was for my specific grade range because then there were more ideas that I could use directly as they are. Cooper's understanding of middle schoolers is apparent throughout the book and reflected in the types of activities she suggests. I loved this quote, "Part of our job as middle school teachers is to know that our students are works in progress--to appreciate and challenge them for who they are right now, all the while keeping an eye out for who they might become tomorrow and next year and five years from now" (p. 93). This idea of both present, short term, and long term components was a clear goal. Cooper's curriculum is not only targeted to students being successful in their grade level curriculum but also as productive citizens. (This concept is also emphasized in Gallagher's Readicide with Article of the Week.)

I appreciated the framework explained in the text book, as well as all of the practical applications suggested for a wide range of social studies themes. I am planning on skimming back through the book later with my state's social studies curriculum maps and noting example activities as reference so that I will remember which pages to refer back to. Of course, it is set up as a resource to create similar activities with different content areas, but she not only explained the concepts, she also had examples of helpful resources that will help with the content in general that I do not want to forget about.

I expect Making History Mine to have a big impact on my social studies teaching. Now I will approach the year with the concept that my students are historians. I know I will refer back to the book often as I plan this summer and once the school year is underway.

Making History Mine Literacy Links

One component of Making History Mine that stood out close to the beginning of the book and came up over and over again was the integration of literacy into social studies content. This is pertinent in a time when teacher education programs such as the one I attended emphasize the importance that all secondary teachers are literacy teachers, not just the language arts teachers. When I chose my language arts power standards for next year I specifically grouped some standards that I would teach in social studies because they were a natural fit.

Cooper suggested integrating concepts I had already thought of (research and persuasion) but also seamlessly weaves in multiple other reading and writing activities starting at the beginning of the year when she introduces a poem that sends a valuable message that we can all make history (2). After explaining the way she presents and has students interact with the poem she gives her rationale, "This kind of activity--combining reading comprehension, literary awareness, historical context, and critical thinking--enables us to view the nuts-and-bolts details of history through a longer lens" (3). In much the same way, Cooper suggest opportunities to use reading and writing skills to help students be more competent historians.

The activities Cooper mentions will not only help students within the social studies context, but to be more well-rounded people with a lasting impact on their life. For example, the types of activities Cooper uses for students to gain a strong command of historical documents will transfer over into analyzing other reading genres. She blends primary documents with historical fiction to bring the content alive, realizing that both genres can have a great impact on students (9). She also talks about "unpacking language" in social studies documents (44). In additions, she has students do activities such as interring from a list of dates (70), yet another important literacy skill.

Later, Cooper mentions utilizing a text to help students recognize the way real historians "gather evidence to make an argument that often doesn't sound like an argument. They're almost fooling you" (33). This supports persuasive writing well, and I like the concept that she brings up time and time again the idea of "real" historians, making it a perfect fit for my literacy block where students will think about what real writers and readers do as well. Later in the book she has further ideas with opinion, persuasion, and reasoning and argument analysis as well (such as 40, 52-53). She also has a full chapter on research with sufficient scaffolding to help students successfully research and analyze a topic effectively (129-159).

Cooper's experience as a language arts teacher and strong understanding of literacy is apparent throughout the book. Her suggestions closely align with other mentors in the field that I value. For example, I often thought of the way her work complemented Nancie Atwell's by presenting one of Lincoln's speeches in a similar way to Atwell's poetry presentation (58-59) and Kelly Gallagher's resources including clearing up confusion (2). Making History Mine is a great addition to my teacher resource library. It easily fits with other resources, while bringing its own unique ideas.

Making History Mine Overview

I originally thought Making History Mine: Meaningful Connections for Grades 5-9 by Sarah Cooper focused on current events since I found out about it because of a conversation on the topic that also featured Kelly Gallagher's new Article of the Week video. When I received the book I was even more thrilled that it offered tips of integrating current events and so much more. Right now the full book is available to browse on-line on the Stenhouse website.

In my current position I will be teaching reading, writing, and social studies to middle schoolers. While I have a lot of experience and training with literacy and language learning, I have not had as much exposure to social studies education even though I always loved history. Earlier this year I started looking at my state's social studies curriculum maps for 6th-8th grade, and this summer I started more in depth planning to narrow down the standards to power standards and develop guiding questions and big ideas. Recent staff development helped me refine this process.

I still have a lot more work to do before school starts in the fall, so Cooper's book came at an opportune time and it is a perfect fit for the planning process that my school is already going through. Cooper explains, "The best answer I have found is to teach under the shelter of broad themes and global concepts, conveying ideas that connect content across topics and grade levels. With this approach, students are not focusing on the tiny details of history, although facts remain crucial to effective argumentation. Instead, adolescents see history through the eyes of individuals and then move outward to larger implications and patterns" (xi). By planning my 6-8 grade curriculum in such a manner I will have a scope and sequence that builds upon and supports the big ideas from one year to another. I will also be working with the 4/5th grade teachers to vertically align with them as well.

Making History Mine thoroughly explains seven components that Cooper thinks are conductive to creating students who think like historians and gain life-long lessons through the social studies content. I have too much excitement about this book to limit my reflections to just one post (it would get way too long), so watch back later in the week to see more thoughts on this great resource.