Reading is...

Last spring, during our poetry unit, inspired by Baseball Is... by Louise Borden, I asked my 7th graders to write a "Something Is..." poem.

After everyone shared in class, I was extremely glad I had done this poem with my students because I was impressed with what they came up with. An idea that allows them choice in topic so they can write about something they know + a strong mentor text = powerful results.

Of course, since they were doing it, I needed to also, so I wrote a "Something Is..." poem, too. When brainstorming my list of things to write about, the one that stuck with me the most was reading, so that's what I went with and let my thoughts and words take me where they would.

Reading is…

getting lost

in stories

finding an escape

from the everyday

Reading is…

having a fresh start

every time

I crack the spine

and turn to

the first page

with a held breath

of anticipation

Reading is…

finding myself

in the pages

of a book

discovering

who I am

who I want to be

Reading is…

getting my acceptance letter

to Hogwarts

jumping on the train

at Platform 9 ¾

finding friends

family

my truth

and bravery

in a world I didn’t know

I could dream up

that J.K. Rowling showed me

I can

Reading is…

gasping

laughing

crying

cheering

swooning

yelling at

rooting for

learning with

and from

the characters

I grow to love

Reading is…

fairy tale castles

summer at the beach

outer space

deep in the ocean

around the corner

far from home

on the other side of the world

mythical lands

adventures

I visit

through the worlds

found in

the pages of a book

and my imagination

Reading is…

writers who become

authors

with agents to push for them

editors to guide them

copyeditors to correct them

designers who create covers

publicists who tell everyone

marketing, printers, publishers

booksellers, librarians, teachers

friends all supporting

that book

and recommending others read it

Reading is…

going to a mall

The Exit 8 Big Top Mall & Video Arcade

open 365 days a year

meeting Ivan

and Stella

and Ruby

and Bob

and Julia

and George

hoping for the best

while fearing the worst

and holding back tears

of sorrow

and joy

having Katherine Applegate’s

words

touch my soul

and teach me more

about humanity

and kindness

and people

than I thought

a book could

Reading is…

the way I experience lives

hundreds

thousands of lives

beyond

the one I live

that I carry

with me

always

Reading is…

what I turn to

when I need

to be alone

to find hope

to get answers

to learn things

to take a break

to discover inspiration

to know

I am

not

alone

in this world

Reading is…

letters swarming

words swaggering

sentences slithering

paragraphs sailing

steadily across

the pages

Reading is…

late nights

when I

just

can’t

stop

turning the pages

until I can’t

keep my eyes open

any longer

struggling to

so I can know

what happens

next

Reading is…

covers and

jackets and

spines and

pages and

acknowledgements and

dedications and

titles and

blurbs and

stories

Reading is…

getting lost

being found

finding escape

discovering hope

opening eyes

seeing myself

experiencing others

knowing more

figuring out

Reading is…

what you make of it

when you embrace it

What would the topic of your "Something Is..." poem be?

From Dread to Hope (a Confessional on Teaching Research)

Confession Time: I dread teaching research. Ugh...the research paper. I hated it in 8th grade when I had to do it, I was dismayed by it when I had to do it in graduate school, and I've yearly lamented on having to teach it. There's just something about the entity that is the formal research paper that has always seemed overwhelming to me as a student and now as a teacher.

All 7th and 8th graders in my school participate in the annual science fair, and a formal, traditional research paper on a topic related to their experiment is a required part of entering the science fair. This is my least favorite unit because of the beast that is a formal research paper.

After going through teaching research on this particular topic for the the first time last year, I knew I needed a better way. A better way to approach it, to teach it, to engage my students in the process, and definitely a better way to get a more interesting end result. There's not much that can be done when the traditional, formal research paper essay is required, but thanks to Chris Lehman and his professional book, Energize Research Reading and Writing (Heinemann, 2012), which is 160 pages of logic and smartness, I have found so much more I can do to remedy the rest of the process of teaching research.

If you teach research in any way, you're going to want to get this book.

Having the notes from when I attended a workshop on this topic led by Chris over the summer, and opening his book as I sat down to begin planning out our big research unit, I began to feel hope. Hope that I could make it more interesting. Hope that I could make it more meaningful. Hope that I could make it more engaging. Hope that I could make it something that would be lasting and students would use again. Hope that I could make it something I would be interested in teaching. Hope that I could make it something my kids would be interested in learning. And hope that it would lead to final products I would actually be interested reading.

My unit planning session in progress - notice I'm opened to the page where Chris has kindly given us a unit design overview (including page numbers for mini-lessons that you could include!)
Side-note: I've learned to use post-it notes for lesson topic in planning - it makes it much easier to readjust things as/when needed!

Chris' book is laid out in such a teacher-friendly way. It's utterly useful and easy to follow and includes reasoning, chart examples, transcripts of teacher language to use in mini-lessons, unit planning, and so much more! It's the kind of book you can pick up, read, and try out in the classroom the very next day.

So, thanks to this book, for the very first time in my nine years of teaching, I haven't hated or dreaded teaching research, but I've actually been looking forward to each new lesson to see how it would be received by my students through this new lens.

A lens of thinking about research as Reading to Learn & Writing to Teach. 

A lens of realizing that it doesn't all have to be one set way, there's room for choice and inquiry in teaching research. 

That mantra and focus has gotten me into it this year and we've had several successful lessons so far, and I'm looking forward to reading what my students will come up with as they teach through their writing.

I no longer dictate what type of notes to take, the information and purpose does.

Our messy list of ways non-fiction authors teach through writing after looking at mentor texts, which naturally led into the ways non-fiction text can be organized/structured. This will eventually become a neater reference chart posted in the room as students start writing.

So, if you teach research in any way (hello, CCSS!), I highly recommend you get Chris Lehman's book, read it, and use it to guide your teaching. It's been a game-changer book for me and my teaching.

Sometimes It's Best to Go With the Distraction

It was a dreary day in Southeastern Wisconsin today. I had lessons planned. After our Independent Daily Reading and choice quick write, we were moving on to looking at non-fiction books together to identify what types of things authors do to teach through their writing. You see, we're doing our big research unit right now, and I'm trying a new focus this year. But in my last (4th) class of the day doing this, after our quick write time, a student looked out our classroom windows and exclaimed about this.

How could I ignore that distraction? It was an eerie view outside those windows. My kids were totally distracted. So I made an on-the-spot decision to go a different direction and follow the distraction. Sometimes a teacher just has to do that. You see, I wasn't going to get them back and focused on the lesson at hand at that point. So we didn't even try.

Instead? I told them maybe we should work with the distraction and go with the nature at hand - let's write stories about it! We'd spend the last twenty minutes of class writing stories - the only stipulation was that the setting had to be what we were seeing outside those windows. We did a quick review of narrative structure and what elements should be included in a fiction short story, then we looked out the windows at our setting inspiration, and we started writing our stories. And, yes, I do mean we. I sat down to write a story of my own as my 8th graders were writing theirs. There were smiles, and engagement, and glances out the window, and giggling, and sharing of ideas, and the sound of pens scratching across paper...and every one of my students was writing for that whole 20 minutes. Sometimes it is best to go with the distraction. That other lesson? It can wait until tomorrow.

My last line at minute nineteen: As she tried to look beyond the edges of the white fog blanketing the woods, she heard the screaming start.

Being Encouraging

I'm sitting here staring at a blank screen trying to figure out what to write and getting stuck because I'm not sure what to write, and all I can think about is that my students must feel the same way sometimes as they're sitting in class having to start writing.  Today alone, I heard several times, "I don't know what to write." No matter how much modeling, instructing, and scaffolding I do, sometimes there will be kids who are still just stuck (like I am right now).

But then something encouraging happened in my classroom today. As I walked around and checked in with students on their first drafts, many of them commented that what they had wasn't good. Even as I reminded them that our first drafts don't have to be great because we get to revise them to make them better, they didn't seem convinced. That was the discouraging part. But then I had some conversations. I made sure those short conversations were focused on encouraging the student that his/her ideas were a good starting point to revise into even better or that the ideas they had were already good. And I saw faces change; I saw attitudes become more positive; I saw students more willing to work; I witnessed students being more confident in their own writing. All from just a few encouraging words.

And, gee, isn't it the same for me? A little encouragement goes a long way. Something to remember...especially when it comes to something as personal as one's own writing. I'm going to convince my inner critic to be more encouraging, I'm going remember to focus on keeping my talk about students' writing encouraging, and I'm going to look for those encouraging reminders for myself.

Making Something Out of Nothing

I'm skipping writing a blog post tonight. For numerous reasons: I'm exhausted, there are some things going on I can't talk about, I'm feeling a bit negative/worried tonight and don't want to put that out there, but first and foremost...I'm just not feeling it. I have a few ideas swirling in my head, but I can't quite get a solid grasp on any of them enough to make it into a whole post. (by the by, that's such a frustrating feeling) However, after yesterday's reflection on routines, I am forcing myself to type something...in essence, to make something out of nothing. Why? Because if I at least type something I'm keeping that routine...even if I don't really have anything to really say.

So, I'll leave you with this final thought that brought joy to my day: 

THE REAL BOY by Anne Ursu released today. It's a book I loved and I hope you will too. 

Thinking About Routines

I feel guilty.
I didn't write a post on this blog last Thursday.
I had gotten myself into a writing habit up until then.
I wrote a blog post every weekday when I got home from work.
I broke that pattern/streak/habit/routine on Thursday for good reasons.
I couldn't stop thinking about not having written a post.
I felt weird that I didn't sit down and write.
I never found the time.
I felt guilty.

I worked late and, when I got home, had to prepare for a weekend getaway to experience this:

I had a wonderful, much-needed, enjoyable weekend away.

But I still felt guilty. For not writing.

And here's the thing...I haven't been able to figure out if I should or shouldn't feel guilty about it. I haven't been able to figure out if I ruined my momentum by skipping that day. I haven't figured out if this is a necessary thing, or a detrimental thing. But I do know that even though I didn't write that day, I kept thinking about topics I could write about. Thoughts are percolating in my mind. That's a good thing.

But what I really came to realize is that routines are important. Even those days I didn't want to write, I did it. And it helped me see myself as a writer. It helped me feel what my students go through when they come to class and have to sit down and write. It kept my momentum going. So I'm pondering writing routines in the classroom...because if just a short time helped me get the ball rolling, it might help my students, too.

But I'm going to stop feeling guilty. And I'm going to make sure my students have time to write. And I'm going to make sure I try my best to stick to a writing routine, but if life gets in the way, that's ok. It happens. It's important. It gives me things to write about.

I Wasn't Going to Blog Today, But...

It was a long second day of school. My students were doing their reading MAP test all day, so as I monitored, I also worked on checking in beginning of the year paperwork, and read some picture books I'm considering using in class later this year so I could assess how they might fit in, and I got to know my students better by reading their responses to the first day of school questionnaire I gave them (thank you so much for sharing, Katherine!), and I started inputting data on my overview sheet so I could get a quick glance of summer growth or slide. That was pretty much my day. And then I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home to get a few items to get us through the rest of this week (this is what happens when I don't go on the weekend). Sidenote: It's really time for me to get back into the school year routine.

Anyhow...by the time I sat down and could look at my computer, I was exhausted. And I'd had a headache since I woke up. And I'm hungry. And I figured I'd just skip blogging today. I mean, it's not like I made a committed declaration to blog every day. It's not like I have to blog. It's not like anything major happened to write about. . . . . .and there's the crux of it. See, now that I started this teaching/writing blog thing, I realize throughout my day there are moments when I think I could blog about that tonight. There are times during the day when I think Hmmm, maybe I could figure out my thinking about this by "talking" it through in writing. And the fact that I didn't want to write? It probably meant that I should. Why? Because how many times will I have a student in my classroom who doesn't want to write? Spoiler alert: Every. Single. Day. So many times my students probably feel like I do tonight. They're tired. They don't want to write. They have other things on their mind. They don't feel great. They don't have any idea what to write about because nothing happened. And there it is again. That crux thing. If I can't figure out what to write about when I don't have anything to write about, how will I ever be able to help my students through the same thing?

And then I remembered that lesson on small moments and how easily they can be made into something to write about. So I opened up my blogger window and started to write. Because I know I need to model for my students. And I bet I'll come back to this post sometime as an example of what happens when you just start writing even if you think you have nothing to write about. And you know what? This post kind of wrote itself as I worked through my thinking. I was going to talk about how much better I got to know my students through the questionnaire (what a great use of testing time for me!) and that I have a book recommendation for each of my new students jotted down and ready to go. I was also thinking I could share with you the most joyful moment of my day - it was when...oh, wait, maybe I'll save that seed to write about another day when I feel like I have no idea what to write about because, you know what? Somehow in writing about why I didn't want to write today, I have a blog post written.

Lesson of the day: