Writing Workshop Goes this Way, Each and Every Day!

Thanks to my fantastic co-worker, Chana Karlin-Neumann,  I have truly enjoyed launching Writer's Workshop in true Lucy Calkins-fashion.  Chana attended the Writing Institute this summer, and brought back some tremendous resources.  Here is our writing wall after a couple of weeks of Writer's Workshop.

After just two weeks, our writers truly know and anticipate the rhythms of Writer's Workshop. I can't wait to see how they'll grow this year as writers!

The students' writing folders are full to the brim, and we will be working on choosing partially-written pieces to elaborate on this week.

SCHEMA!...what I already know!

Reading came to life this week when our kiddos learn all about Schema (SCHEMA...what I ALREADY know!) they shout ANYTIME I say "Schema". :)  We used Schema as a framework to learn some important lessons as readers: Reading is Thinking, Our Schema Changes, Our Schema Grows.

Inspired by a lesson from "Comprehension Connections," my coworker Preethi brough in, I used a lint roller to illustrate what our brain does when it comes in contact with anything--it picks things up--and things stick!  We talked about how "schema" is what we already have in our brain, and it's what makes us each unique and wonderful. All of our schema is different--and that's GREAT!  We then explored how our schema helps us as we read.

In subsequent lessons, we learned about how some things we have a lot of schema about, and other things we just don't have much schema about.  I asked students to shout out what schema they have about "penguins."  They had a BALL shouting out  so quickly I could barely chart it all!  "WOW! I can't believe how much schema you have about penguins! Now let's try with a new word..." I uncovered the word "Glaciers" & the students sat wide-eyed--"We don't have schema about that word!!!" they exclaimed.  "That is fantastic," I explained, "because Schema is something we can grow. One way we grow our schema is by reading."  We then read a story called Icebergs, Ice Caps and Glaciers to grow our schema and learn more about glaciers.  Students couldn't believe how much schema they had to add to our chart after the story!

I have to say, these lessons were by far my favorite reading lessons I've ever done!!!

Piecing it Together

The Stanford Trees worked on their flexible thinking as they persevered through some tricky puzzles their very own classmates had worked on.  

We discussed how perseverance means never giving up, and felt how great it feels to work through the tough stuff and complete a puzzle we thought we couldn't do!!! 

This was a particularly fun activity because the puzzles were created by students, given to a friend to piece back together, and art was created!

"This is the COOLEST!" exclaimed Doriahn, as he added his last piece.

"I am SO proud of myself. I didn't think I could do it, but I DID!" said Fernando.

Teamwork in Action!

The first CARES trait we studied was Cooperation, and we focused on Teamwork in table groups through Math Exploration.  

The Macaroni Penguin table set a fantastic example for the rest of the class on how to work together!:

We had so much fun exploring manipulatives, and creating phenomenal pieces of work in teams! The Stanford Trees certainly impressed me!! They also learned an invaluable lesson--you can get much further (AND have more fun) when you work as a team!

Summer of Inspiration

I was incredibly inspired this summer to grow deeper in my passions for Reading, Writer's Workshop, and Number Talks. I found myself completely engrossed in the following books. I HIGHLY recommend them! I am already seeing the fruits of the lessons these amazing books inspire (pictures to follow).

Please let me know if you want to know more about these books!

Welcome to 2012-2013

I went on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but am back in action! 

I am THRILLED to be starting my 4th year at EPACS, with an extraordinary group of 1st graders!!!

Already, the class of 2024 is proving to be extremely inquisitive, hard-working, and FUN!

Here is the classroom before the students arrived on July 30:

One of the first things we did was grow our make classroom agreements, and begin to nurture our tree by showing CARES (Cooperation Assertiveness Responsibility Empathy and Self Control).  Look how our tree grew after a couple of days!

We are Readers!

The Stanford Trees have been falling in love with reading! We are growing so much as readers, as we have been exploring and reflecting on what great readers do, and learning more about how to use our classroom library.

We have learned:

Some of our special places to read are...

What's YOUR special place to read???