I am participating in a month-long writing challenge called The Slice of Life Story Challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers. The purpose is to share little short "slices" of your everyday life in realistic terms. "Slicers" also read and comment on other bloggers' slices - and in the process we get to experience some fun topics and are exposed to many different writing styles. {There is an individual SOL challenge and a classroom SOL challenge, so perhaps next year I'll be brave enough to tackle this with my students!} IMWAYR?I love IMWAYR - mostly because I love books and reading! My classroom is so very full of books, from wordless picture books (a future post because I find such joy in these), to picture books, chapter books, ABC books, graphic novels, entire series, magazines and poetry - you name it, we've got it! And the daily read-aloud part of our day is inarguably the favorite part for me and my students. Our last book was The Hundred Dresses, which we finished in mid-February. Sadly, with state-mandated testing last week, we just have not made time for this over the past two weeks. We've all missed that special time set aside each day to, well, frankly - to get lost in a book. A classroom read-aloud is a unique time, a shared experience but also a personal and private one as students make their own connections to the story. No, we've certainly missed snuggling into a 12x16 space all tuckered out after lunch and recess, looking to refocus as we immerse ourselves in the words of a beloved author. But that all changed today! Today we happily returned to our regularly scheduled daily read-aloud time! {Insert whoops and hollers!!} We've just started the fun book pictured here; it's written from the point of view of a dog (insert much tail wagging and barking), and after only one chapter we are HOOKED! Fenway and Hattie, by Victoria J. Coe, published by Penguin Random House. It's a scream, filled with dog language and antics - please look for it if you have a middle-grades reader! If you are a teacher, what are your favorite books to share with students? What read-aloud traditions or routines do you have?
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I am participating in a month-long writing challenge called The Slice of Life Story Challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers. The purpose is to share little short "slices" of your everyday life in realistic terms. "Slicers" also read and comment on other bloggers' slices. There is an individual SOL challenge and a classroom SOL challenge. My slice today involves the four photos shown below. If you hover on a photo, the caption will appear. What do all of these pictures have in common? Not much, except that they are the last four pictures on my phone's camera roll, and they show a slice of my afternoon.. Why share? Well, each one makes me smile for some reason. They show something about my afternoon - a trip to the store, cleaning out a cabinet, and venturing outside on a sunny Sunday. Look at the last four photos on your camera roll. What slice of your life do they share? There once was a book-loving danger-avoiding mama named O'Kincer
Whose two children (unlike her) are brave and seek the thrill of adventure. The daughter treasures most her horseback days in a saddle. The son is happiest up the river with a paddle. And poor mama has to learn to ignore her built-in danger sensor. All week this SLICE has played around in my mind. It came upon a Tuesday night, and wrought havoc both near and far. It came with 90 mph winds and storms and tornado sirens. It came fast and furiously.
As tragic as all devastating storms are, no one lost a life in this one in our small community, thankfully. What struck me and stayed with me all week was not the devastation but the immediate outpouring of support and help. Help and support that came from neighbors who also had damage of their own to attend to. Help and support that came just as fast and furiously as the winds of the storms. Help and support that showed up midst another round of storms well before first light was even a twinkling glimmer on the horizon. All during my seven minute commute to school that morning I was privy to signs that help had arrived and gone while many of us tried to get a few hours of sleep. There were already piles of debris by the side of the road rather than in the road. There were tarps on roofs, people everywhere cleaning up - and when I ran home at lunch there were still volunteers offering help and support where needed. It so happened that on this day my students were writing letters to the editor for the upcoming Newspapers in Education Week advertising and student showcase insert. Many students had written about what they felt was lacking in our community. We need an Italian restaurant, a Sky Zone, a mall, a Starbucks or a Target, a travel football team, and lots more "needs." Without asking them to change their letter, I did challenge them to pause and look for signs of positives we have in our community. The next day I had a few students who mentioned the damage and how their mom, dad, grandpa, uncle, friend, neighbor had helped someone with an immediate need. They asked if they could write about that instead of getting a new pool or building an indoor shooting range. I just smiled and told them, "Of course!" Today we'll type and submit our letters. And I'm sure a few will bring tears to my eyes as I see my community through the eyes of a child - a child who recognizes that no matter how you slice it, we are very blessed to live in a small town where folks look out for each other. Slice: Today's slice comes straight from my classroom!
In preparation for state-mandated testing, today we pulled out all of our big pieces of writing and took time to reread each word in each of them! My 3rd graders were so involved in reading their own work that it was completely quiet except for a few giggles and gasps as if they were meeting up with an old friend. It was one of those magical moments! The quiet lasted for 10 delightful minutes, and was followed by an even more delightful period in which students were invited to share anything that we might consider strong writing. Here are a couple of the ideas they shared publicly from their Snowman Comes to Life (for only a specific time period, though) narrative writing. I'm also including why they felt it was strong - in the 3rd graders words:.
This was such a fun activity - it really helped (I hope!) them to see what strong writers they are, to celebrate them as writers, and it gave us a chance to talk about author's purpose and various genres in a truly authentic manner! Any moments that are magical are truly worthy of being the focal point of my SLICE! Connection: As adults many of us struggle with capturing ideas, often as elusive as a butterfly flitting in and out of our consciousness. For others, the issue is more one of storing ideas so you have a ready stash when you sit down to write. Do either of these describe you? For me personally, it's a storage issue - well, actually a "find it" issue. Which is why I loved that Lisa Keeler's post on the TWT (Two Writing Teachers) site shared several ideas for keeping track of ideas. The idea of having random photos that you find interesting isn't new to me, but having them organized into a SOLC17 file on my phone is! I am now the proud owner of such a photo-file! The idea of using a journal or notebook isn't novel either, I have a plethora of real notebooks and lovely journals, as well as electronic notebooks. What I've not established as habit yet is actually using them to write ideas and inspirations DAILY. Oh, I've used them - but sparingly rather than habitually. So here's my plan (and a little WHY behind it): I happen to be a self-proclaimed "sticky-note-queen" when reading, tagging favorite lines and sections of books. I'll keep a lovely little notebook or journal with the book and when I tag a line with a sticky note, I will know to write it in the book immediately. If not, I'll leave the sticky note in there (which may be better to give it time to percolate) and come back later to select the quotes or connections that were the most meaningful. {Sheesh, ok, there - it's public. That ups the ante a bit for accountability, doesn't it?} |
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