OK, I Lied by Wilson

One night when Miller had a sleepover at my house, we ordered a pizza. My mother was doing the laundry. My father called, "Jac, Wilson, and Milller - get in here and eat." When we came in, we all sat down. I said the blessing. Miller said, "Let's eat!" "OK," I said. Jac said, "Wait." Jac's my little brother. "Maybe we need to let it cool down." Miller said, "It's not hot." I said, "Maybe you should listen to Jac, Miller." He lifted the pizza box. I saw smoke come off it. Miller picked a piece up and took a bite. He swiftly threw it back down in the pizza box. He said, "OK, I lied!" We laughed for a long time. We still talk about that.

What a great small moment story! Click on the Comments link below this post to share your thinking with Wilson.

My Home Run by Dolan

I step up to the plate. I tap on it three times. I hold the bat up. I squeeze the bat tight. I say to myself, "This is it. End of the game. Sixth inning. We are losing by one. There are two outs." "Come on, Dolan! Home run!" screams my coach. The pitcher winds up. The ball comes slowly out of his hand . "Whoosh" goes the ball. Then suddenly - dinnnng! The ball echoes through the air. "Run, Dolan, run!" I run as fast as I can to first...to second...to third...to home!! I had done it! A home run! The A's win!!

Let Dolan know what you think about his small moment piece. Click on the "Comments" link below this post to share your thinking.

Great Scots!

I just found out that Alaina has been chosen as a winner of the Great Scot Young Writer's Contest. Alaina is a gifted writer and extremely deserving of this award. From the information on the website, she will be presenting her writing at the Scottish Games on the weekend of June 5-6. Congratulations, Alaina!

Nakia's Persuasive Letter

A little while ago, we completed a unit of study focused on persuasive letters. Each child chose someone to write to - someone they wanted to persuade. We learned how to write clear introductions, support our reasons with compelling details, and write effective conclusions. Nakia wanted elementary schools to have more time for P.E., so she decided to write her state representative. Nakia received a letter back a few days ago! Her representative agreed with Nakia's ideas and pledged to pursue legislation that would help South Carolina kids live a healthy lifestyle. Nakia's letter has made a difference! Way to go, Nakia!

Brownbuck's Bistro

We had an incredible time at our poetry celebration today. Our classroom was transformed into a coffeehouse (a big thanks goes out to Mrs. Baumgardner and Mrs. Dowdy), and we had a wonderful gathering of parents, grandparents, friends, and school staff. Candles, lamps, jazz, and the warm aroma of coffee filled our classroom. Each student selected three of his or her best poems to share. As the students shared, the poems were projected onto our Promethean board. This enabled the audience to understand the line breaks, see the illustrations, and gather the full meaning of the poet's message. We laughed, cried, and thought a little more about life. I was truly amazed at the depth of our students' perspectives and their willingness to share from their heart. Everyone in the audience was moved. Below are some photographs from this special day.

Poetrycelebration

View more presentations from ghbrown.

The Relatives Came

We just finished up a unit of study focused on "Reading like Writers." We began the study by immersing ourselves in Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came. We identified striking places in the text - places that made us smile, think, feel, or places that we just liked the way the words sounded together. Small groups of students got together and created poems using the striking places they found in the text (that video is below). After this immersion, we started to identify the writing techniques and tools Cynthia Rylant used. We hypothesized why she used these tools, gave these techniques named, and then envisioned ourselves using them in our own writing. I was so impressed with all the tools and strategies our kids were able to identify. They really developed their ability to "read like writers."

Click To Play

Poetry Author's Circles

As we finished up our writing unit on poetry, we got together in Author's Circles to give each other feedback on our writing. We asked ourselves the following questions as we shared our poetry with each other:

• What do I like about this poem?
• What do I think this poem is saying?
• Are there any parts that confused me?
• Are there any poetry tools that could make the message clearer?

I was so impressed with our kids as they gave each other important and critical feedback. They took their role as revisers very seriously. I caught some of their conversations on tape - click on the videos below to see the incredible dialogue our students were engaged in.

Click To Play

Procedure Writing

We started this week with a new writing unit - procedure writing. We began the unit of study by writing a classroom procedure together as a class (how to work with your math partner). We then decided that each student would select a different classroom procedure to write about, and we would put them together to make a class procedure book. This would be extremely helpful for new students, subs, and for those of use who need reminders. Before we began developing and drafting, we stepped back and studied the example we wrote together. We thought back to how we went about composing this writing piece, and we came up with a class chart entitled, "What Good Writers Do." We noticed that good writers...

• Make lists of ideas before writing
• Organize their ideas in a way that makes sense
• Use leads that capture their readers' attention AND introduce the writing piece
• Re-read their writing a lot
• Make changes as they write
• Try to make their writing "sound good"
• Explain their ideas clearly
• Cross out, add in, move words around
• Use transition words
• Think about their audience when they write
• Write endings that summarize their main idea 0r "circle back" to their lead

Students then got together with a partner to "talk out" their procedure, taking notes and organizing them in a way that makes sense. By the end of the week, most students had almost finished their draft. Here are a few pictures of the kids at work...

Room 241 Tells Our Tales

This morning we held our writing celebration for our personal narratives. The kids were ecstatic to have an audience to share their writing with (not to mention the muffins, fruit, and juice that were provided). Parents and kids had the opportunity to walk around and read everyone's writing project. As they read, parents left comments on post-it notes - which the kids were thrilled to read. You'll probably notice some yellow post-its sticking out of the kids' writing when you see the video below. Several kids were also able to share their writing aloud with the whole group. A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Baumgarnder and Mrs. Dowdy for making it all happen. We hope you enjoy the pictures from our celebration.

Click To Play

Tymeir Revises

Today we learned how to have authors' circles in order to get feedback for our narrative writing pieces. I was so proud of how our students listened to each other and gave each other important feedback. At the beginning of writer's workshop, Tymeir looked at his piece and realized he needed to revise. I sat down with him and prompted him to use storytelling as a way to prepare himself to write. After telling his story a few times, Tymeir wrote a 2nd draft. Here's his first draft:

This is how the games goes. Well, someone throws the football up in the air and whoever catches the ball, they got to try to get a touchdown. And if you get tackled, you have to throw the ball up in the air. But if you make a touchdown, you're good to keep going on.

Here's his second draft:

The quarterback hikes the ball hard on my belly as I run looking at the defense. I am holding the ball tightly. I was running so fast the air was blowing hard on my face. I was gasping for air. Suddenly, I get hit hard in my legs. As... (this is as far as he got today)

You can see Tymeir explain his revisions in the video below. I love how he describes the process - breaking down the story into "little actions." Tymeir really zoomed in on a small moment and has begun to tell the story step-by-step. I love all the exact details he's included in his second draft - it's a great piece of writing. Leave Tymeir a comment by clicking on the "Comment" button below this post. I know he'd love to hear your thoughts.

Click To Play

Writing About Small Moments

Last week during Writer's Workshop, we learned how to take our small moment ideas and write them in a step-by-step way. We learned how to slow the moment down, see the "movie" in our mind, and tell true, exact details about what happened. We learned that good personal narrative writers tell lots of specific details - what they're thinking, what their hands are doing, what their face looks like, what they're feeling, what they see. Here are two examples from our Room 241 writers...

This is one of Ben's entries from last week. Boys love to write about sports, and I thought Ben did an excellent job of zooming in on the most important part of his story. I love all the exact details that he includes.

This is an example from Alaina's notebook. She did an incredible job of taking an ordinary, small moment and turning it into a beautiful piece of writing.

Students have now selected a small moment from their writer's notebook that they want to work into a published piece. We'll spend the next few weeks drafting, revising, and editing this one writing piece. This week we're learning how to use timelines, quotation marks, and effective leads as we begin drafting our stories. I can't wait to see what our students will write!

Writing with Rebekah's Mom

Two weeks ago, we were so fortunate to have Rebekah's Mom (Ms. Duckett) share her writing life with our class. I had taken so many wonderful pictures of Ms. Duckett sharing her journals and ideas with our kids, but the pictures were accidentally deleted from the digital camera. But I did take lots of notes, and I wanted to share some of the big ideas she shared with us:

• Choose a journal or notebook that you love. You are much more likely to write in a notebook that you connect with.
• The texture of a notebook is important. Ms. Duckett has found that smooth, slick notebooks tend to fall apart. Choose a quality notebook that will last.
• The size of your notebook is very important. Choose a notebook that's convenient to transport. You never know when you'll find an idea, and it's very useful to have your notebook handy.
• Learn to look for ideas all around you (Ms. Duckett told a very interesting story about a squirrel - she took the time to stop and notice life around her).
• Your notebook is a safe place to write - you're the main audience!
• "So the thinker of thoughts will become the writer of words" - what an incredible quote! It reminds me of a poem we sometimes say in our classroom: "What I think, I can say. What I say, I can write. What I write, I can read. What I read, I can share."
• It's fun to look back at notebooks and journals you've kept in the past and see how you've changed and grown.
• Your life is worth writing about!

At the end of her presentation, I asked Ms. Duckett to share some of her thoughts about writing - some parting wisdom for our class. I was lucky enough not to erase this from my video camera!

Click To Play

Preparing for PACT Writing

In order to prepare for the PACT writing portion, I decided to have the kids analyze and evaluate some student writing samples. I first created a kid-friendly PACT writing rubric, based on the official PACT rubric. I used our classroom language, words we use to describe and talk about the writing process. The four areas in which our kids' writing will be evaluated are content, organization, voice, and conventions. Students can score a 0-4 in each area (except for voice which has a high score of 3). We evaluated one writing sample together, then partners got together to evaluate one on their own. Partners then met up with another set of partners to discuss and defend their evaluations. I learned our students are very tough evaluators! They had extremely high standards for writing. Afterwards, we talked about how this activity would affect our own writing on the PACT test. Many students were able to clearly articulate their own goals for PACT writing. I was extremely pleased with how well our students were able to critique writing AND identify effective writing strategies they could use.

Naomi and Jordan are working as partners to evaluate the writing sample. You can see the writing rubric in front of Jordan.


Here is a group of four discussing their evaluations. Groups had to defend why they gave each sample its particular score.

Tall Tales, Folktales, and Fables

We're in the middle of a two week study of tall tales, folktales, and fables. This is the first year I've done a really intensive study of these genres with my class, and I've really enjoyed it (I think the kids have, too). I've learned a LOT. Did you know that tall tales have lots of exaggerations? Did you know that many tall tales are set in pioneer days and center around themes connected to frontier life? Did you know that many folktales use the number 3? Did you know the animals in fables usually represent one human characteristic - like greed or cleverness? After demonstrating to the class how I read a tall tale and identified its elements, groups of 3-4 students read their own tall tale and created a grid to show the characters, setting, problem, resolution, exaggerations, and other noticings. We created this huge grid on our carpet - here's what it looked like...

This enabled us to easily compare the various tall tales groups read. After creating this chart, we noticed that many tall tales are set in the pioneer days, and most of them deal with "taming" the west. We also noticed that lots of tall tale characters have super human strength and often times have a companion. We used the same strategy when we studied folktales, but we created an even bigger grid. Here it is...

After studying this chart, our students noticed that many folktales use trickery or magic. Most folktales have some sort of monster or evil character that has to be overcome. Justin and Adam noticed that many of the folktales are set outdoors, like the woods (we also noticed that many folktales do not use a specific setting, but start with "Once upon a time..."). Here is a close-up of some of our work...

Tour of the Planets

As the students in our class began studying the solar system, we wanted to create a project to showcase our new learning. Instead of presenting normal reports, our class decided to create a "Tour of the Planets." We would transform our classroom into a solar sytem touring spaceship, become tour guides (as well as visiting scientists and resident aliens), and give a first-rate tour of our solar system. Students formed teams and researched their planet, quickly becoming experts. Our students wrote very creative skits for their tour guides - many involving interviews with aliens from each planet. The final part of this project was creating powerpoints (How good can a tour be without incredible visuals?).

We handed out tickets (free, of course) and were extremely pleased with our turnout. Our spaceship was packed! The video below contains pictures from our tour. You may want to pay attention to some of the food served - Milky Ways, Moon pies, and Tang (most of our students didn't get that last joke). Some of our wonderful homeroom moms also carried on the tradition of a Mr. Brown facecake - this may be the best one yet. The Tour of the Planets is one of my favorite projects of the year. It involves research, science, writing, drama, reading, technology, and teamwork.

I was so pleased with the creativity of our kids. Their voices and humor shone through each part of their presentation. We hope you enjoy!

Click To Play

Poetry Friday - February 29

This is what it looked like in our classroom this morning. This large group of students were huddled around the board creating a shared poem together. It was really fun for me to see this large group of students collaborate, compromise, brainstorm, and write together. They filled up one chart paper, and wanted another! I started the poem with the line "I couldn't believe what I was seeing," and I didn't know where the students would take it. Here is where it went...

I couldn't believe what I was seeing
a dark scary shadow seemed to float across the room
AHHH!
It's coming closer, closer, closer
Until I feel it rub against my skin!
I don't dare to open my eyes
but, I did!
I see
Nothing
Just nothing
The dark shadow seems
to creep behind me, but I can't see it
but I can hear it
I turn around swiftly
I crawl on all fours
charging towards the door
I stand
I run
I trip!
The silence of nothing
Just me breathing
The door slams
behind me
I'm locked in!
I see the window
opened and the curtains blowing
and I hear...
the screeching of the door
I hear the wooden floor beneath my feet
The scratching of the wooden door
louder, louder, louder
the yellow and red eyes
looking at
ME!
They disappeared
I can't move
frozen
hoping it's something else!
a switch turning
sounds like the bedroom doorknob!
I turn around
The door is opened
I stop
stare
and look!
I see it!

Isn't that scary?! Even though it is a scary poem (not my favorite genre), the kids did a terrific job using imagery and telling the events in a step-by-step fashion. While this group huddled around the board, other students were posting poetry to think.com, reading poetry with a friend, or writing poetry with a friend. Poetry Fridays are quickly becoming a favorite activity for our class. I love it when the students walk in and say (in a sing-song way), "Yeah! It's Poetry Friday!"

Virginia's Poetry

There were so many wonderful poems that weren't shared at Brownbuck's Bistro - there just wasn't enough time. As I was reading through the rough drafts of our students' poetry this evening, I found two by Virginia that I thought were wonderful. These are two she didn't include in her final project. I thought our blog would be a great place to share these. Click on the "Comments" link at the end of this post to share your thoughts about this poem. I know Virginia would be thrilled to hear what you think.

Book
The world spills out in words
They settle into open minds
When the book closes, silence returns
to the mind
Just reopen the pages


Window
Clear as an untouched pool
Another eye to look out into the world
Out side me.
It brings light and peace
Invisible
Invisible
Invisible
A shortcut to anothe world -
Outside mine.

Brownbucks Bistro

For those of you who weren't able to visit Brownbucks Bistro last week, you missed an incredible event. Twenty-five poets from the area came and shared their writing with a captive crowd of friends and parents. We laughed, cried, and wondered as these poets let their words impact our thoughts. We were moved. Please enjoy the pictures below!

Click To Play

The Relatives Came

We've been learning to "read like a writer." To do this, we first immersed ourselves in Cynthia Rylant's picture book, The Relatives Came. We read it several times together as a class, then read it individually as well. We read it while viewing the illustrations, and we read it with just the text, as well. We then set out to find "striking places" within the text. These are places in the text that make us feel something, make us laugh, create connections to our lives, present a vivid picture, use interesting language, or make our mouths feel good when we say them aloud.

Each student found his or her favorite striking place in the text and narrowed it down to 15 words or less. We read our striking places in our class circle - like a poem. We were amazed by the beautiful language and the interesting position of lines. It was also interesting to see which students picked similar lines. We switched ourselves around and read it again - it was very cool.

After this activity, students got in groups of 4 and created presentations for their striking place "poem." Students were only limited by their creativity. They had to design the order of their poem, as well as the motions and movements. We hope you enjoy our presentations of striking places from The Relatives Came.

Click to play

Authors' Circles

I am so impressed with our writers. Today in writer's workshop, we focused on revision. An important part of revision is getting positive and constructive feedback from other writers. We need more than "That was good" or "I liked it." Writers need specific feedback that can help an author improve his or her piece. An important tool we use to accomplish this is an author's circle. In an author's circle, three writers get together and listen to one piece of writing. They usually listen to it several times before giving feedback. When discussing the piece, they usually focus on some questions like these:

What did I like about the writing? (being specific!)

What message or meaning did I take away from the poem?

Were there any parts that confused me?

What tools or techniques could improve the writing?

After demonstrating an author's circle with Atticus and Anna C., the students took off to have their on. Again, I was so impressed. The students were giving incredible feedback to each other. They were taking their work very seriously, and it showed through all of their conversations. Here's some pictures from today's workshop time:

Atticus and Jordan gave Garvin some feedback to one of his poems. I love how they're all reading the poem together, carefully listening to Garvin's words.

This group was incredible. Caroline and Charlie spent almost the entire class period giving Justin feedback on one of his poems. Justin took their suggestions very seriously, adding in new stanzas and lines to his poems. It was amazing to watch this group of writers at work. This is so much more than "I like your poem." This is the work of real writers!