Reading Graffiti

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Donalyn Miller speak at a conference here at the Lake of the Ozarks. I blogged briefly about it here. Thanks to her presentation, I've been inspired to try out a few tricks in my classroom. She also introduced her participants to several resources, one of them being The Nerdy Book Club blog. If you're not following, you should be! 

I loved Donalyn's idea for a Reading Graffiti board. Using a large piece of black paper and metallic sharpies - reading magic is made! Students can write one quote per book per student. This challenges them to find the perfect quote. Below, you see our first being written... 

As of yesterday, we had six quotes written on our board. Students are so excited to add quotes and find that PERFECT one. I've had a few tell me they've found quotes, but they aren't quite sure what to write on the board. I've also had one gentleman who has shown me a quote on each page of his current read. When students find a quote, I've asked them to come read me the quote first. This has given me another glimpse into what type of reader they are. It's interesting what quotes and lines from the story they pull from the pages. 

Do you have any type of reading graffiti board in your room? Share your tricks!

The Book Whisperer

After relaxing in my sweats cozied up to Netflix the past two days from snow, I had the honor and pleasure to listen to Donalyn Miller speak at the Write to Learn Conference here in Missouri! You may be familiar with her from her book The Book Whisperer, which I know have a signed copy! (insert dorky smile here).

Buy it on Amazon here. 

Throughout her presentation (all day!), I kept thinking that everything she was talking about was realistic and do-able. I have sat in workshops before and felt like there was no way I could manage it all  or do that in my classroom. Today was different. She spoke to us like educators and shared practical strategies and ideas. 

I'll share more of the ideas and thoughts pouring out my head soon.
Happy Friday!

Ten Commandments

Sometimes things show in my mailbox and I don't have a valid explanation for it.  I'm sure many of you can relate to junk mail, but I've had some magazines pop up in my mailbox that don't make any sense. Oh well, that's another blog post. One magazine that shows up frequently is my S&C: School and Community magazine. It's the magazine for Missouri educators (that's me!). I'm 98% sure it's in my hands right now because of my membership to MSTA. 

This issue had several articles that stuck out to me. First, an article about the Common Core State Standards. Has your state adopted them? According to the mag, 43 states have officially adopted the standards. The article started with a statistic from the Missouri Teachers Association Leadership Symposium this year: 41% of attendees felt that they were familiar with the basic idea of CCSS, but did not feel confident in the specifics of the standards. Eeek! I feel the same! I am barely getting used to the grade level expectations. Now, we're talking alignment!? Whew. I need to sit down and let me brain soak it all in. On an extremely positive note, I'm excited to be involved in this incredible process of creating career and college ready individuals. This quote sums it up, "Common Core streamlines your curriculum and allows you to move deeper with learning. [...] We will experience greater success with students when we simplify."  

Tell me your thoughts! Have you started preparing for the Common Core?

Another article that grabbed my attention was about stress. Sometimes I feel like a magnet that attracts stress wherever I go. I find myself worrying about situations out of my control and stressing to no end. My To Do list tends to grow as I check off another item and I can never squeeze it all in one day. Now as I sit here stressing about my high levels of stress, I can find comfort in these commandments:

Ten Commandments for Reducing Stress
The Joy Project

1. Thou shalt not be perfect nor even try to be. 

2. Thou shalt not try to be all things to all people and spread thyself too thin. 

3. Thou shalt leave things undone that ought to be done. 

4. Thou shalt not criticize thyself for decisions that were made without the benefit of hindsight. 

5. Thou shalt learn to say ‘No’. 

6. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself and thy supportive network. 

7. Thou shalt switch off and do nothing regularly. 

8. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant, and unattractive at times. 

9. Thou shalt not even feel guilty. 

10. Especially, thou shalt not be thine own worst enemy, but be thy best friend.

I think I will tackle one commandment at a time. I'll start with number eight. It seems to be the easiest and requires the least amount of change for the time being. 

Conference Recap #3 - Blogging & Critical Literacy

Who else started cracking up you saw this little gem? I lost it last night. Not only have I been called Mom but Grandma as been slipped in there a few times too. The best part is the kid's reaction after it happens. Usually "Mom..er I mean Ms. Furnell" is followed by flushed cheeks.

This week, I've been blogging about my awesome literacy conference that I attended in St. Louis last week. Catch up on the conference fun with these links:

Strong Female Characters

Nonfiction Biographies

Today, I'm going to share the information I gained from the Critical Literacy and Blogging session. The presentation was done by educators from Georgia State University. First, they outlined what critical literacy was and how it was relevant to their research. I snagged this quote from their powerpoint, "Critical literacy is the use of language in powerful ways to get things down in the world, enhance life in school, and to question privilege and injustice."

After an in-depth look at what critical literacy actually is, one teacher-presenter shared how she used blogging the classroom. She used it as a tool to respond to deep questions after books. I was hooked! What a great idea. The teacher posed a question on the blog and students would respond through comments to one another and the teacher.

To begin this process, she started basic with paper and pencil. Then, moved to the bloggy world with a simple question about the holidays. After the kids became familiar with how the blog worked... they were rollin' with communcation.

I plan to utilize this strategy in my room next week. My question is this:

How do YOU use blogging with your students? Do they post? Respond? Please share! I would love to hear how my fellow teachers are using technology.

Conference Recap #2: Nonfiction Biographies

As some of you may (or may not) know, I attended a literacy conference this past weekend. You can catch up on another session I attended here. 

As a graduate student, I was required to participate in an action research project. My research revolved solely around the importance of nonfiction in the classroom. My goal was to encourage students to pick nonfiction on their own. I attempted several research-based strategies and found some success, but it was tricky to get all of my second graders to enjoy nonfiction. For example, we had nonfiction read alouds every Monday and spent an entire month writing our very own nonfiction books based on Gail Gibbons. 

The best part of the project (I can say this now that it's over) was finding research to support what I was doing in my classroom. I found oodles and oodles of articles written about the importance of nonfiction and how dominant fiction is overwhelmingly in the classroom. For me, personally, I was always reading fiction stories aloud because those are the ones I enjoyed the most. I, too, had a perception of nonfiction that it was boring and girls just wouldn't care for it. I was very wrong! Through my research I found several nonfiction titles about math, science, social studies that made perfect read alouds that were engaging for all of my students. Plus, these stories opened up doors of communication with my class. Maybe someday, I'll devote a blog post to my research project. It was a year full of blood, sweat, and tears. Trust me. 

Now, you're obviously aware that I think nonfiction is the bomb.com. At the conference, I attended a session presented by an educator from Eastern Kentucky University.  She is on the NCTE's Orbis Pictus nominating committee and introduced me to several fascinating titles. Her session was specifically about strategies to use with biographies. 

Biographies, huh? One genre of nonfiction books that I have skated around. I have a few in my classroom, but I have never used them in read alouds or suggested them to students. Here are a few of my favorites that she presented:

Lincoln Through the Lens by Martin W. Sandler

Hangin' with the Lincolns. 

Side note: I'm a big fan of Abe Lincoln. My bf and I even went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, Illinois. After reading Bill O'Reilly's book, "Killing Lincoln", it was the perfect field trip. 

Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom by Chris Van Wyk

Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau 

Those were my favorites from the list. Then, I started searching for biographies on my own. Here's a few that I think sound pretty interesting!

The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life With Chimps

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade by Melissa Sweet

Harry Houdini: The Legend of the World's Greatest Escape Artist by Janice Weaver

Me...Jane. by Patrick McDonnell

One of the keynote speakers rattled off several authors that she was a fan of. I quickly jotted them down and here are the nonfiction authors she recommends.

Nic Bishop (several titles by him)

Sneed Collard III

Do you love nonfiction as much as I do? What nonfiction books do you use in your classroom?

Conference Recap #1: Strong Female Characters

Happy Sunday, friends! As I mentioned here, I attended a jam packed literacy conference this past week/weekend. It was hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English and held right here in the great state of Missouri. I was surrounded by educators from all over the country. Several traveled from Georgia, New York, Iowa and so on.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be sharing the AWESOME information and ideas I took away from the conference. I had to pick between 5 (give or take) sessions each time slot. Sometimes it was a tough choice. A real coin flipper!

First, I'll talk about the session titled "Strong Girls Read Strong Books: The Jennifer Project" This was presented by an excellent group of educators from the University of Iowa. In this session, the Iowa educators presented their research on females in stories. In their home districts, book clubs were created outside of school with females to promote a love of literacy. In addition to listening to their fascinating research, we were given a reference list of oodles of great books to read.

To begin the session, we were asked the question, "What is a strong girl?" Followed by, "What is a strong female character?" Is there a difference? What strong female characters can you think of? Immediately, we all thought of Katniss from The Hunger Games. Any Hunger Games fans can agree that Katniss is one strong and independent soul. I jotted down this note in my journal, "A strong character doesn't mean she is loud or assertive. She can be quiet but strong willed and determined." Sometimes, strong characters can even be those females who we can all relate to.

Don't we all wish that we had an infinite bank of money to purchase books with? My classroom library consists of many books because of garage sales, scholastic bonus points, and generous donors. I'm always searching for powerful books to include in my library and boy-oh-boy... I've got some great titles for you. Click on the title and I've linked it to Amazon for quick purchase. Now, I just need to win an Amazon giftcard for $1,000.

Amber was Brave, Essie was Smart by Vera B. Williams

Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic by Robert Burleigh

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Dyamonde Daniel series by Nikki Grimes (a speaker at the conference!)

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

My Mother's Voice by Joanne Ryder

Call me Hope by Gretchen Olsen

Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine

Do you have any titles that you would like to share? Please post them in a comment. I would love to hear about rich literature that you're using in your classroom.

Time For Professional Development!

Goiiiin' to the Hilton and we're...

Gonna get professionallydeveloped (say it quickly)

Goiiiin' to the Hilton and we're...

Gonna get professionallydeveloped

Geeeee.. I'm really lucky and I'm...

gonna get professionallydeveloped 

Sing that to the tune of "Going to the Chapel" and it makes perfect sense. I've been singing it all week. Good luck getting that little tune out of your head.

My song was accurate.. in a couple of hours I'm headed to the Ballpark Hilton by the St. Louis Arch to attend the WLU Summer Institute. The next three days are jam packed with literacy infused activities and professional development sessions. The conference is sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. I've jotted down which sessions I want to attend and I will get to see three of my professors from college!! I'm also excited about that. Let's face it, I'm just excited for everything. Although, this means I can't sleep in until 10:00 for the next couple of days.

What kind of professional development are your participating in this summer? this year? Do share!
Does Pinterest count? :)