Our grade school does a Family Reading Night once a semester. It's run by the grade school teachers who do an amazing job getting the parents in by also hosting the 7th grade wax museum and 8th grade science fair. We've also started getting my high school students involved through being guest readers and promoting our summer library program. It's a community event. We also host a book fair during this time when parents can buy books from the Scholastic program. They have a great program and good books, but the high school, and certainly adult selections, are lacking.
So I had an idea... We're trying to promote literacy for the entire community here, right? And I have not only older books I'm culling from my stacks but also books that have been donated that are much more interesting for an adult audience than my students, why not set up a table and make these books available to the parents for free? So that's what we did this year. My high school students and I set up a table where we displayed their literacy research for the parents and we placed the available books in with the displays. We had four large boxes of books and distributed an entire box that night. A week later, we had parent-teacher conferences. Again I set up a table of books and we distributed another entire box. I had parents commenting on what a nice idea it was and that they had books at home they could contribute. They were so excited to have these books. I loved seeing their eyes light up, the same way my students' do when they get a good book in their hands. Hmm... ok, so how can I keep this going?
My next plan is to host a community book swap. We'll collect as many books as we can from local thrift stores or community partners and invite the community in to swap books for all ages. Now to find the right time to do it.
Have any of you hosted school book swaps? Any suggestions or ideas for me?
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
The Flipped Classroom
We've all heard a lot about the flipped classroom these days. Students watch videos while at home and then we help them practice what they've "already learned" when they come to class. Recently I've flipped my classroom, but not in the usual way.
For the past two years, the basic format of my class has been
1. writing warm-up-- response to a thoughtful question, noticing sentences, maybe a poem to read together
2. discussion of the warm-up
3. mini-lesson
4. workshop (reading or writing, depending on the day or class)
However, after attending the IRC Conference last week, I decided to start putting my reading portion at the beginning of EVERY class-- whether it's a reading or writing day. Richard Allington says every kid should read an absolute minimum of 15 minutes a day at school every day. (Minimum-- remember!) So I chose to start my students' class with reading.
1. We update our daily progress book chart (a la Penny Kittle) and
2. then I set my timer for 15 minutes. (It really does help to set an auditory alarm because then no one is watching the clock-- including you!)
3. At the end of those 15 minutes, we then have a mini-lesson and
4. have reading or writing time afterwards with conferences.
How has it worked?
I love it so far! My students seem more focused on reading because it's a specific amount of time (they aren't waiting for the bell for class to be over) and they know they'll have time to discuss when we're done. When we get to the mini-lesson, my students' heads are already swimming with texts because they're fresh in their minds. It makes our discussions richer. Using Kittle's daily book chart has been nice, too. I have a few students who dislike it because it's "another thing to do," but remember, our best readers often hate tracking their reading. (I'm apparently one of the weird ones. I love watching that progress bar fill up on my GoodReads!) Mostly, my students find that they are reading more now. And they can really see the progress. For some of my readers who would consider themselves non-readers, they have a hard time seeing their progress grow in their thick books, but seeing those numbers grow makes it more real. They see that they are moving through the book. And so then it also helps motivate them.
Can you give it a try in your room? Let me know what you think!
For the past two years, the basic format of my class has been
1. writing warm-up-- response to a thoughtful question, noticing sentences, maybe a poem to read together
2. discussion of the warm-up
3. mini-lesson
4. workshop (reading or writing, depending on the day or class)
However, after attending the IRC Conference last week, I decided to start putting my reading portion at the beginning of EVERY class-- whether it's a reading or writing day. Richard Allington says every kid should read an absolute minimum of 15 minutes a day at school every day. (Minimum-- remember!) So I chose to start my students' class with reading.
1. We update our daily progress book chart (a la Penny Kittle) and
2. then I set my timer for 15 minutes. (It really does help to set an auditory alarm because then no one is watching the clock-- including you!)
3. At the end of those 15 minutes, we then have a mini-lesson and
4. have reading or writing time afterwards with conferences.
How has it worked?
I love it so far! My students seem more focused on reading because it's a specific amount of time (they aren't waiting for the bell for class to be over) and they know they'll have time to discuss when we're done. When we get to the mini-lesson, my students' heads are already swimming with texts because they're fresh in their minds. It makes our discussions richer. Using Kittle's daily book chart has been nice, too. I have a few students who dislike it because it's "another thing to do," but remember, our best readers often hate tracking their reading. (I'm apparently one of the weird ones. I love watching that progress bar fill up on my GoodReads!) Mostly, my students find that they are reading more now. And they can really see the progress. For some of my readers who would consider themselves non-readers, they have a hard time seeing their progress grow in their thick books, but seeing those numbers grow makes it more real. They see that they are moving through the book. And so then it also helps motivate them.
Can you give it a try in your room? Let me know what you think!
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Tracking Reading-- Leading by Example
Donalyn Miller says, "Without question, I am a better teacher because I read." I need my students to know that I am reading just as much as I'm asking them to read. I need them to see me as a resource for finding great books. I want them to see that sometimes I struggle through an uninteresting book and that I don't always read a book all the way through before I start another one. This comes through in conversations that we have, but it also needs to be visual and obvious. We can't always talk about it and I sometimes am so focused on what I'm teaching that I forget to use my own experiences to help guide what we're doing. So here's how I make sure my students see my progress, too.
On my board, next to the date, I have two columns: "Mrs. Folkman is reading" and "Mrs. Folkman is writing." This helps my students see that I'm right there with them. In previous years, I simply listed titles and page numbers for each day, but I've found that this visual works a lot better. I print a small picture of the cover and each day that I make reading progress in a book, I add the new page number under a new line. This helps students see the size of chunks that I read, that they are sometimes much larger and sometimes much smaller. That some days I focus on reading one book and not another. That the book we're reading for leadership team is read in small chunks throughout the semester and I'll read it in those chunks instead of reading ahead so that I can better discuss it. When I finish a book, the picture stays the remainder of that week and then moves over to my bulletin board where I keep my progress sheet for the year which is exactly like the sheet I require them to use. It's essentially the Atwell chart from In the Middle.
The visuals of the book covers help them see the books stack up. The list always gets longer and longer each year, but it's really easy to overlook a piece of paper. I also display the books I've finished on the board ledge for a while so that if students take an interest, the books are easy to find.
[edit: clarification made, photo added]
On my board, next to the date, I have two columns: "Mrs. Folkman is reading" and "Mrs. Folkman is writing." This helps my students see that I'm right there with them. In previous years, I simply listed titles and page numbers for each day, but I've found that this visual works a lot better. I print a small picture of the cover and each day that I make reading progress in a book, I add the new page number under a new line. This helps students see the size of chunks that I read, that they are sometimes much larger and sometimes much smaller. That some days I focus on reading one book and not another. That the book we're reading for leadership team is read in small chunks throughout the semester and I'll read it in those chunks instead of reading ahead so that I can better discuss it. When I finish a book, the picture stays the remainder of that week and then moves over to my bulletin board where I keep my progress sheet for the year which is exactly like the sheet I require them to use. It's essentially the Atwell chart from In the Middle.
The visuals of the book covers help them see the books stack up. The list always gets longer and longer each year, but it's really easy to overlook a piece of paper. I also display the books I've finished on the board ledge for a while so that if students take an interest, the books are easy to find.
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