Wisconsin PALS Parent Letters

Last year, we create PALS Parent Brochures that we shared with parents at conferences. The PALS Wisconsin Resource Center has recently developed more in-depth parent letters and information. Please visit: PALS Wisconsin Resource Center to access all parent letters and resources.

Notice and Note Close Reading Strategies

I have had the opportunity to work in a few classrooms and help introduce students and teachers to the Notice and Note Signposts.  Earlier this spring, I was able to participate in a book study on the book
Notice and Note Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst.  We had some great conversations on how to use these strategies with elementary students. We found a great Live Binder with links to videos from the authors.  

I have had a few coaching requests to work in classrooms to teach the students and teacher about the signposts. I created a Notice and Note Google Presentation with references to the mentor texts used to teach these signposts.  Please let me know if you are interested in learning more about these great literacy strategies.

In one classroom, after modeling and practicing the signposts together, we had the students try finding the signposts in their independent reading.  We were very pleased with the results and had some great group discussions!

Mentor Text Monday

Another text to focus on today can be used with the 5th grade Journey to Meaning Unit:  What's the Point?  Theme is Short Text, Poetry, and Song. The book is Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman. A fifth grade teacher felt it fit well with the unit and her students really embraced the poems about insects.  There is even a poem about Book Lice!

 Link to sample amazon with text preview.

Link to Writing Fix with more information about Joyful Noise: A Poem for Two Voices

Mentor Text Monday

Ok, so it is November and this is my first Mentor Text Monday post of the year!
I thought I would start with a book that is featured in the Core Ready 1st grade Journey to Meaning Unit.  The Unit, "Getting to Know You:  Discovering Characters in Narrative Stories."  features many great books for young students.  Pam Allyn chose Cynthia Rylant's Poppelton Forever as a Core Text for this unit.    I have always enjoyed reading the Poppleton books with my beginning readers.  It is so great for them to experience the characters, once they are able to read a text with a little bit more complexity.  Used at this time of the year, your students will be hearing texts that many of them will not be able to read independently until later in the year.  

This text works well, but any text with a major character and supporting characters will also work well for this unit, if you do not have access to this or any of the Poppleton books.

I found this YouTube link of a class reading the first story in Poppleton Forever- The Tree.



Here is the Goodreads review:

Poppleton Forever (Poppleton)

by Cynthia Rylant, Mark Teague

4.2 of 5 stars

In three charming new stories, Poppleton the pig gets help from his friends when his new tree begins to wilt; when he catches a cold; and later, when he decides to wallpaper his house. Learning is great for Poppleton, but it's much better when it's done with friends. Full color.

Reading Nonfiction- Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies- Book Review

I was very excited to open the mail this weekend to find my copy of the long-awaited Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Book by Beers and Probst.  I haven't had a chance to start reading yet, but found this great review.  I have included it below.
If you are interested in doing a book study let me know.

Another Nonfiction Winner from Beers and Probst

BY MIDDLEWEB · 10/22/2015

Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and StrategiesBy Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst
(Heinemann, 2015 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Linda Biondi

You are invited to a book party…

Get ready to be challenged, enlightened, and invigorated. Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies is hitting the bookstores this week. Teachers who were enamored with Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading will fall in love again. (Or should I say “again and again.”)

I would love to say that I have been teaching close reading all along, but as I’ve reflected more deeply in the past year, I’ve realized that teaching “close reading” is not enough. I need to teach students how to become immersed in the text so that they not only ask questions about their reading but question what they are reading.

One of the best resources I have seen to help us teach non-fiction reading strategies is this new book from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. The authors have taken what they know about reading and used it to introduce strategies called Signposts, a reading routine that provides students with a better understanding of “what to look for” as they are reading.

Signposts provide a signal to students to slow down their reading and think. This leads to a much deeper understanding of the text and assists students in creating evidence-based responses as they continue to read. (Link to keep reading)

Family Literacy Newsletters

Many of you are always on the lookout for some great literacy tips to share with families.  I came across the Wisconsin State Reading Association's Family Literacy Newsletter.
They have many great resources and tips to share with parents about the Literacy Standards and how to support students at home.
Here is the Link:  WSRA Family Literacy Newsletters

March Madness Book Championship

I know some of you  have done this in your classroom.  Here is another March Madness Book Winner from Two Reflective Teachers.

March Madness Book Edition 2015: Championship and Champion Announcement!

My class loved Fish in a Tree and One for the Murphys, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, as read alouds this year so it was no surprise that both titles were voted into our championship round! 

  

We are huge fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt and for the past 2 years, One for the Murphys has been in our championship round and won! So I couldn't wait to see how students would vote between two of their favorite read alouds from this year because it was going to be a tough decision.  

To read more head to Two Reflective Teachers Blog.

Mentor Text Monday

Here is a Blog from Line Upon Line Learning, with some great texts for comparing and Contrasting two texts.

Mentor Text Monday: Goal Setting Compare Contrast

January 19, 2015 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

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In my reading and writing co-op, my goal has been to help the kids learn to read a book beyond just reading it! I want them to recognize the story arc, and hopefully compare it to ones we have already read. I want them to read something and notice the evidences in the text that give it meaning.

In my co-op class, we read two similar stories and compared and contrasted them. Two of those we read fit in perfectly with this week’s Mentor Monday (Character Building with Goal Setting), for in both of them, kids work towards earning money for a goal.

(Note: for your convenience, the book covers are Amazon affiliate links.)

 

In Tia Isa Wants a Car by Meg Medina, the girl and her aunt save money. In A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, a girl and her mother save money to buy her mother a soft armchair, because the furniture they had in their home has burned in a fire. From that preliminary summary, the similarities are obvious!

I really like these two books for a few reasons. Both kids help their older guardian by working hard! The items they want are not necessities but are desired for a good reason. These books show kids how perseverance pays off in the end, and how desired items are not always a luxury. I love how they saw incremental growth and then joined their older guardian (aunt and mother) for the ultimate purchase. Besides that, both books portray cultures different from the white middle class so prevalent in picture books (and among the kids I work with in my co-op!).

For my co-op, I used these books with a Venn Diagram, a writing outline page, and then a finally “composition” writing page. I also gave the kids the option of comparing one of the books to themselves, although none of my kids took me up on the offer.

Do any of them work for something like the characters in these books? How can I teach my son, at least, to appreciate what he has and work hard? Questions to ponder as I parent.

This compare/contrast set of pages could also work well with a number of other books. Here are some others we read together that I encouraged the kids in my co-op class to work with:

• Enemy Pie by Derek Munson and My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother by Patricia Pollacco
• My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ad and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi andChrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Since I created these printable pages for this activity, here they are for your convenience!

What are your plans for the final quarter? Not just checking off the standards!

I came across this short blog post on reflecting on your students and setting attainable goals for the final quarter of the year.   I like how she has identified four main goals and this will provide a guide during one of the busiest and craziest times of the school year.   Find one poem that speaks to you Read one amazing book that you must pass on to someone else Write something that makes you proud And have a deep conversation with someone face to face  What are your plans? Going Beyond the Standards by Pernille Ripp

I sat in my empty classroom on Monday, spring break just started, and looked at what I have to cover in quarter four of 7th grade English.  Great things, and yet...We need to get back to the basics.  Somewhere in the mad rush of trying to cover everything within the 45 minutes that strangle our English class, we seem to have lost touch with what English is really all about; amazing books, deep conversations, and writing, so much of it so that we lose our fear of being bad writers and just start to embrace the process.

So as I looked around at the empty chairs, I knew exactly what to do.  Monday morning we will start with a circle, a to-do list of dreams facing the students.  I will ask them to discuss expectations and rules, I will ask them about their thoughts on what the standards say we need to get to and then I will ask them this is this quarter to please

Find one poem that speaks to you

Read one amazing book that you must pass on to someone else

Write something that makes you proud

And have a deep conversation with someone face to face

Those are the opportunities that I need to create, those are the things that matter.  Beyond the standards, beyond what we need to cover.  We need to have incredible experiences in English, not just survive the last quarter.  What are your plans for after the break?

Optimism, Self-Control & Perseverance- Grit Lessons for 5th grade Research

GRIT = Passion and perseverance for a very long-term goal 

Amy Lyons developed lessons for her fifth grade students on developing Grit. She focuses on these three areas:  Optimism, Self-Control, & Perseverance.
Link to Blog with Lessons and Link to Amy's website bit of GRIT

Spring Coaching Request Form

The year is just flying by!

I would love to get in to some more classrooms this year.  Please let me know if you are interested in working together on Reading, Writing, or Content Area Literacy.

• Spring Coaching Cycle Request Form

Author's Craft

  

I know it has been several months since I updated the Literacy and Learning Blog!  I have been collecting many great articles and resources to share with you along the way.  I hope to get back to blogging and share these great resources!
This month the writing PD focus is on teaching author's craft.  We will continue our focus on using mentor texts.

 I saw Katie Wood Ray at the WSRA Convention a few years ago.  She talked about her favorite mentor text to teach students about author's writing craft.  She said the Ranger Rick Magazine would be her favorite resource.

What is your favorite text 

to teach writing with?

Here are some links with great resources:
Author's Craft Presentation
WSRA Children's Literature Handouts
Mentor/Touchstone Text

Great Digital Book Site K-2

This is a great site with many beautiful free digital books. They only require you to log in with your location.  This helps track where the books are being read.
uniteforliteracy.com
Books are available in many languages.  Each week they post new titles.
Happy Reading!