Two Views from the "TOP(ic) of the Week": CCSS/Infusing and Increasing Nonfiction in Literature Lessons

On Wednesdays, my posts will be focused on a "topic" for the week and how it looks from two views (the past week and the upcoming week).

A look back on the past week's lessons:
As part of the "challenge" put forth by my district, each teacher has been given the task to infuse existing lessons with nonfiction (or vice-versa if they are content-area teachers if their focus previously was primarily on expository text).

I teach 7th and 8th grade Literature so by following the distribution set out by the Core Standards, my goal is to instruct using 45% literary and 55% informational text. 

At the start of this week, my 8th grade students were reading "Raymond's Run", a short story by Toni Cade Bambara found in most junior high textbooks. (I use Holt McDougal Literature.)

The basic textual information that I planned to use are as follows:
           "Raymond's Run"          Short Story Literary Text
           "PBS Quiet Eye"  Video Nonfiction video segment
           "Hydrocephalus"               Article                   Nonfiction scientific article

On Monday, I introduced key vocabulary and previewed the story. Students then completed assignments related to vocabulary development and read the story independently.

On Tuesday, I opened discussion on the problems the main character, Squeaky, faces. In this story, she has both clear external and internal conflicts. On the surface of the story, Squeaky simply wants to win the upcoming race. As the reader quickly learns, she also struggles with the added responsibility of taking care of her brother, Raymond, who's disability is attributed to hydrocephalus. We focused on the training and goal of winning first. 

I showed the video clip and as a class we discussed how Squeaky would use the "quiet eye" in her training. 

Mid-week, I wanted to focus on the second conflict: Squeaky's struggle to find a balance with her brother, Raymond. The "Hydrocephalus" article from medicinenet.com elaborated on a few points that were not relevant to the story, so I simply had students cross these out once we printed the article. 

I used this article as another opportunity to review ANNOTATING skills. After I modeled the skill and led them through the beginning of the article with the purpose of understanding Raymond's disability, I allowed them to work in pairs to continue throughout the text.

A plan for the future:
Tomorrow (Thursday), the plan is to bring it all together. My students will be using their annotations, the notes taken while watching the video clip and their notes on character motivation to construct a written response explaining how Squeaky's motivation to win and her desire to provide the best care for her brother led to the outcomes in the story.

This is essentially how I've used this particular short story for the past eight years. 

HOWEVER... How has CCSS changed my instruction/lessons? 

First of all, I'm FOCUSING more on the nonfiction and skills such as annotating. I'm also DIRECTING my students to analyze using BOTH nonfiction resources (before, they cited evidence from only one), and I'm CHALLENGING my students to think beyond the story. I want them to be able to apply all three "text" into the context of their lives/learning. 

I'm still teaching story-plot, character, theme, etc. The difference now is that I'm SHIFTING my focus from those literary elements to the nonfiction connections.

The formula I used: 

Literary text + multimedia + informational text

      worked well for the "challenge" of meeting CCSS shifts. 

Now, my thoughts for the next few weeks include solving the problem of how will I apply this to the E.A. Poe texts that are part of my curriculum. Check back soon to find out what I decide!

Meanwhile, check this out! It's a short video/reminder about how to shift focus using Literary Nonfiction. Click to find the video here.

"Thor's Day" Reading: A Book Blog Tour & Give-Away! - One Smart Cookie by Kym Brunner

 One Smart Cookie by Kym Brunner 

Age/Genre: YA Contemporary

Published: July 15, 2014 by Omnific Publishing

Synopsis:
Sixteen year old Sophie Dumbrowski, is an adorably inept teen living above her family-owned Polish bakery with her man-hungry mother and her spirit-conjuring grandmother, who together, are determined to find Sophie the perfect boyfriend.

 

But when Sophie meets two hot guys on the same day, she wonders if this a blessing or a curse. And is Sophie's inability to choose part of the reason the bakery business is failing miserably? The three generations of women need to use their heads, along with their hearts, to figure things out...before it's too late.

 From the moment I read the beginning of this book, the opening scene drew me in. Now that's it's available for purchase, I'm so excited to share this book with potential readers! The author, Kym Brunner has cooked up a success and a wonderful YA read with this book!

The novel starts with Sophie (our MC) taking a relationship quiz in Cosmo magazine:

         "'What's Your Guy-Q?' Given that I've only gone on three dates in my sixteen years--one with a moron, one with a liar, and one with a perv--I'm pretty sure my knowledge of guys will rank somewhere between dumbass and totally clueless."

Sophie has a lot on her plate. Besides the Polish pastries that her family-owned bakery serves up, her daily intake includes a dash of meddling from her Mom (who's flirtatious attitude takes the cake), a pinch of protectiveness from her Busia (grandmother) with her fill of faith and reliance on spirits, and a sweet-but-sometimes-sour relationship with her best friend, Teegan. Add to this mix two unbelievably scrumptious boyfriends (Nick and Giovanni), sweet but Oh-so-unexpected! and now you have the mixture of characters that make this book a satisfying read!

 Sophie's serious struggle to find the sweet-spot between work and play mixes well with the high-flavor of her Polish background that the author has masterfully sprinkled throughout. Although I don't remember ever having the pleasure of eating in a Polish bakery, I found myself dreaming of paczki and kolaczki and all variations of sweets dusted with powdered sugar! That's just the sprinkles on the cupcake! The reader won't easily forget the most important ingredients: Nick and Giovanni! O Moj Boze! (Which means, "Oh My God!" in Polish but sure sounds like you're saying "Oh, the Boys," doesn't it?)

Like any good recipe, the combination of sweet and bitter ingredients, like sugar and salt, that aren't compatible on their own, work wonderfully in this story! One Smart Cookie is a delicious read!


By sure to check out the rest of stops on the tour! Click the ATOM icon for more info.

OH! And there's a giveaway too! http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f6237fd5449/

Want to know more?
 

• Find more about Kym Brunner and her books here: http://www.kymbrunner.com/
• She tweets! https://twitter.com/KymBrunner
• And she's on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/kymbrunnerauthor

 

What Worked and What Didn't-- Busy Halloween and NaNoWriMo

Part 1: Reflective Journal
Wow! That was a fast/busy week! With all the anticipated energy of Halloween and Trick-or-Treat nights and a few extra pep-assemblies thrown in for playoff season, it was BIZ-E! Then add in the beginning of NaNoWriMo and you have it! It's officially my favorite month of the year! Lovin' my job!

What DID work was taking a step back and realizing that some of the "heavier" tasks and topics I had planned for the week were simply not going to cut it. For example, in 8th grade we traded a week of in-depth work on foreshadowing for a day-by-day study of suspense filled Gothic poems. FUN!  "The Raven" by E.A. Poe, "The Bells" (also by Poe) and "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee" by Robert Service... helped make this holiday fun and educational for my students. 

What also worked was using time today (the day after Halloween) to finish bigger projects and use my established "WORD PLAY DAY" centers. We've only used them three times this year but the students really enjoy the time and play fairly.
The four "centers" I used each time (the students rotate through these every 10 minutes) are:

1. Computers or Nintendo DS Word Games
2. Blurt or Boggle (board games)
3. Slurp or Sentences (board games)
4. Dry Erase Pockets or Word Game magazines

What DIDN'T work was juggling too many "project-based" lessons in one week. The 8th grade literature students were working on Comic Strips, 8th grade Language Arts students were writing mysteries, 7th grade literature students were making puppets and performing scripts they created AND NaNoWriMo kicked-off!

Part 2: Teaching-wear (Week 6)
I didn't think it would happen so soon, but this week I actually had a "shoot...I'm getting tired of wearing skirts" moment. It passed. I still have a full closet's worth of skirts left to go!

<=Monday--I went full-out dress again. The day was oddly warm and the dress has cap sleeves. I definitely took the jacket off early!

My rating:  4  Comfortable and easy to move in, but NO pockets! 
:( 

<=Tuesday--This was one of the newer shirts I bought when I realized that I didn't have enough color or pattern to go with my drab colored skirts. I own this skirt in brown and a teal corduory. I think I wore it crooked all day! LOL!

My rating: 4 Versatile. 

<=Wednesday-- A Burberry skirt. Nope, not really, but the pattern is the same. I tend to stay away from straight patterns like this on skirts. Notice how wide it makes my hips look! (And they are wide...I just don't want to emphasize that!)
The top was a trick of mine to mix it up a bit. It has metal bits on it. (A preppy rocker look?)

My rating: 3 Although the skirt is comfortable and I like the style/cut, I don't like the way the pattern looks on me.

<=Thursday--HALLOWEEN! and "Hello-Kitty Thursday"! Image that! It was a two-for-one kind of day. The skirt is actually a plum (which helped the purple streaks in my hair show up!) I was incredibly comfortable in this skirt. I do wish it had pocket though. :( 

My rating:  4 I'll wear this one again for sure. It's light-weight yet warm. 

Thor's Day!--Deconstructing Common Core Prompts to Construct Reading Responses

It's Thor's Day! Time to take a peek at the Reading Lessons in my classrooms...

Many things frustrate teachers and parents when it comes to standardized testing. In the state of Illinois, the adoption of the Common Core Standards isn't something that truly upsets me (The Language Arts standards are clear and concise.) However, our state assessments are not as clearly defined.

Last year, teachers were prepared only with the "warning" that the ISAT would have a percentage of questions that were clearly Common Core. This year, we should be ready for a full-fledged testing based on these standards. Yet, if you visit the Illinois Board of Education site, you would find that the resources are lacking. The standards are there. In fact they are repeated in about five different "forms", but there are no clear references to scoring or practice questions. By gosh, Illinois! It is almost NOVEMBER!

Rant over...time to work it out.

Knowing that my students have been working hard, responding to tiered questions that I've modeled for them in class for weeks, I knew that it was time to step it up!

It was time to take the prompt apart and build it again from the pieces. Like learning to put together a model airplane, the students already had a good idea what a question and reading response should look like, but what I wanted them to do, was have the independent skill of taking all the pieces and reconstructing the knowledge for themselves.

First, we read and discussed three "wishes" stories. In our notes, students completed a chart comparing the wishes and general plot of all three.

I used "Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, "The Third Wish" by Joan Aiken  and "Those Three Wishes" by Judith Gorog.

Today, I introduced Bloom's Taxonomy.

There are many varieties of the Bloom's Chart online. I chose this one so that we could identify (highlight) the group of Lower-Level thinking stems and Higher-Level thinking stems.

After a brief introduction and discussion of how each of these terms can be used in other subjects, we reviewed the basic construction of our previous reading response prompts and answers.

Here's what we decided that they all had in common:
     1. The Reading Responses opened with a QUESTION or COMMAND using a lower level verb. (Asking the reader to think about what they read or recall something.)
     2. The Reading Responses then asked a QUESTION or COMMANDED the reader to respond to what they read at a higher level. Often the reader needed to look at two of the text to answer.
     3. Required that the reader use evidence from the stories being referenced.

After I checked that everyone was clear about where these questioning strategies were coming from on the Bloom's chart, I set them to work. In small groups (no more than 4), they developed Reading Responses for the "wishes" stories that the other class would be answering.

As a teacher, I find it fulfilling to know that the students are excited for next week so that they can answer the questions that the other class has left for them!

Two Views on the "Top(ic) of the Week": The Core Curriculum and Reading Responses

On Wednesdays, my posts will be focused on a "topic" for the week and how it looks from two views (the past week and the upcoming week).

A look back on the past week's lessons:
My 8th grade Literature students THIS year are already benefiting from changes that I made with my 7th and 8th grade students LAST year. And it's all because of the Core Curriculum!

I know many teachers and parents are struggling with the Core Standards, but I've accepted the fact that these are the standards we will be teaching for the next decade or so. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't remind the students that every change, every "boost" of knowledge that I push, is backed by the state of Illinois's adoption of the Core Curriculum Standards.

Luckily, last year, my district agreed to purchased new Literature text sets for the 7th and 8th grades. I guaranteed my administrators that this series had the "Core at the center" and after using this series for a little over a year , I am very happy with it. (Holt McDougal Literature)

One "success" of this series is the follow-through on skills/questions/text throughout a story or unit. (The "blue" skill relates to the "blue" text questions and at the end, all ties to the extended responses and "blue" questions".) It's almost EASY to prepare the students when you have the proper tools!

A plan for the future:
I can foresee more work in store for my 7th grade students. During the first quarter, I've really hit this standard hard:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Here is an example of one of our prompts from last week: Reading Response Prompt for "Zebra" by Chaim Potok

However, my 7th graders still struggle paraphrasing and have a hard time explaining the text they choose to use as evidence. Again, the literature series helps me to prepare them well, but they are not using the writing stems to help them connect the text to the question and struggle using higher level thinking skills and INFERENCES!

As I plan for the upcoming weeks, I need to rethink how I check and develop these skills throughout our readings. If any readers have suggestions, please share! I'll post any insights that I find that work!