What Are You Reading?

Most of us understand how teacher modeling helps readers. A small step you can take in modeling how reading is a life-long process is by discussing books you have read for pleasure with your students. You will be surprised how casual book talk can influence what students are willing to pick up for independent reading.

The ladies in the curriculum and instruction PDC offices (Dr. Julie Pack, Dubraska Stines, Betsy Hammond, and Lori Eggleston) and I have started posting our current reads. If you would like a sign to post outside your classroom or office door, click here. Just click on "File" and "Make a Copy" to add it to add to your Google Drive; after that, you should be able to edit the document to customize to your liking. If you put it in a plastic sheet protector, you can write on top with a dry erase marker and reuse over and over.

Happy Reading!
~Chandra

ThinkCERCA

Last year I learned about and shared Newsela. It is AWESOME. If you have not heard about Newsela already, it is a website with current news articles that allows users to adjust Lexile levels. (Click here to read a past post on Newsela.) Now, I have discovered another source for informational texts...ThinkCERCA.

ThinkCERCA is an online, CCSS-aligned literacy program for students in grades 4-12 (with parent consent) with content and tools to help students read closely, think critically, and write sound arguments. It is free to join and access basic functions, but there are additional tools available through a paid subscription. CERCA (in the title) actually stands for Claim, Evidence, Reasoning, Counter-argument, and Audience. When students complete full lessons they are both reading and writing-- "Common Core style". There are some really cool features to explore:

• An audio feature reads each article aloud to students. 
• Teachers have the option to input constructed response questions.
• ThinkCERCA has an embedded dictionary within each article.

Take look through the website and see how you can use it to increase access for your students.

Explore ThinkCERCA from ThinkCERCA on Vimeo.

Barnes and Noble Fall Educator Reception

Take a look at an offer for educators from Barnes & Noble:

SMART Notebook Express

Here is a great resource, particularly useful to Asheboro High School teachers and students using Chromebooks!  Check it out...

Tina Webster, Instructional Technology Facilitator at the high school, shared with the SMART Notebook Express site with me last spring. This is a way for students to access Smart Notebook files on their Chromebooks. It basically allows all your interactive notebook files to be accessible to students, which most of us know is great for flipped learning or for students when they are absent. It is very responsive; even interactive games and activities still work...perfect for test review time.

Here is the link if you want to just copy and paste in the url: http://express.smarttech.com/# 

Here is a screenshot. It should look pretty familiar to you already:

~Chandra via Tina Webster

Publishing with Flipsnack

One part of the writing process that may get unintentionally overlooked is the publishing/sharing element. Holding writing celebrations is an excellent way to get students motivated and excited about writing.

Flipsnack is a digital tool that can take a PDF and turn it into an online digital flipbook...a perfect way to share student writing within and beyond the classroom walls! Documents can be downloaded, embedded, linked out, or shared. It is free and very simple to use. You don't even need to register to use the basic services. Please note that Jay Williams, NAMS Instructional Technology Facilitator, brought to my attention that the Terms of Service specify that users need to be at least 13 years old or have parental permission to use the service. Whether the PDF has images or is just text, Flipsnack will make the final copy look professional and thoughtful.

Here is a link to an Occasional Paper (OP), that I wrote and uploaded to Flipsnack this summer: http://www.flipsnack.com/965E578F8D6/op6-the-signs.html .

These make for really engaging informational texts like procedural manuals and brochures, which are authentic writing tasks in science, social studies, and technical subjects. Hopefully, once you look it over, you can think of many ways students can use it for your class.

~Chandra

Daybook Defense

The daybook defense is  way to assess student learning through selection and reflection of daybook assignments.  It is more than a simple notebook check where students and/or teachers are just looking for an item to be present or in the correct order. With a daybook defense, students are combing back through their work to find evidence of progress and learning. Here is a sample daybook defense assignment:

Take a few minutes to look through your daybook. Use sticky notes to find examples of the following points. Label each sticky note and adhere it to the page so you can reference it later.

Find an example of:

1. A relevant and strong connection you made to something you read
2. Where you were confused
3. When you showed understanding of an idea or concept
4. An "a-ha" moment
5. A favorite daybook passage
6. Something you wished you understood better

After you have marked and labeled these passages in your daybook, take a few minutes to reflect (through writing) why you picked the passages you did. One the next available page in your daybook, spend the next 10 minutes writing your daybook defense. This is when you can show your understanding of what you have been able to accomplish this year in this class. Use the daybook as "evidence" of your accomplishments. You can write in paragraph form or bullets, but try to address each of the six sections you marked in your daybook.

Here is an example of a daybook defense shared in a blog from a college student: http://understandmylingo.wordpress.com/daybook-defense/.

Happy writing and reflecting,

Chandra

Daybook and Interactive Notebook Tips

"Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences."

The words above are Writing Anchor Standard 10 from CCSS in Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Yep, that's right. Routine writing is an expectation for subjects beyond just English/Language Arts.

This summer, I used a daybook for everyday writing during our extensive writing professional development experience. I was sold. It helped me with reflection, revision, and a quickly referencing important terms, ideas, and notes. Although I love tech ed, it was really valuable to have this low-tech task. Not soon after my daybook experience, I read an Edutopia article, "The Lowdown on Longhand: How Writing by Hand Benefits the Brain," which provided even more support for using handwritten journaling and note-taking.  

The weekend before school started I was unable to find any traditional marble composition books in the back-to-school section! I hope that was indication that many of you are using them in class, too. Here are just a few tips to help in your implementation:

• I found a tip on Pinterest (yes, I'm obsessed with Pinterest, too) to link technology to your notebook: create and print QR codes for videos or sites that students can access with a smart phone or tablet for additional practice. (Photo Source: Teaching...the art of possibility Blogspot)

• To make sure that you and students value these notebooks, plan out the way you will use them in advance. Click here for a Google Doc link to an interactive notebook plan sheet.

• Encourage students NOT to tear out sheets. It is actually beneficial for students to see the progression of their thinking. Too often, students go with their first idea, when often times, third or fourth thoughts are far better (Gallagher, 2011). 

Happy writing,

Chandra