What's a Word?

Powerful Pronouns:     

Me vs. Us*

 What is the impact on your students when you say…

“Show me.”                   vs.             “Show us.”                       

“Tell me.”                      vs.             “Tell us.”                        

                 

“Explain to me.”            vs.            “Explain to us.”                 

     

“Tell me why...”             vs.             “Tell us why...”                 

“Help me understand…” vs.            “Help us understand…”

     

                  “Describe for me…”        vs.             “Describe for us…”                                                                        

* Us = the class, our class, your classmates, our community.

Which pronoun do you find yourself saying most?

Who's invited in? Who's tuning in?

Who's tuning out?

Math From Me? Yep.

http://calgaryscienceschool.blogspot.com/2011/10/inquiry-in-math.html 
This site is one to check out!

Citing Support

When it comes to research it can often seem easier to actually read, record, and paraphrase than it is to cite the research we use! How many times do we try to help our students understand the correct ways to cite, only to be tangled up on our own words? Well, here is a link that may just be your (and your students') saving grace. It offers students an easy way to learn how to cite their sources. 

As you know, our students are very much aware of the importance of the practice.  (Ask just about any Buckner Bear and they'll be able to fill you in on how it's "stealing someone else's words to copy.") They really do understand why they need to do it, but actually understanding how to do it is another story altogether. These helpful tools http://www.easybib.com/ &  http://citationmachine.net/index2.php may just offer the modeling needed to make the format of citing sources manageable and--one day-- part of their schema.  

This is the citation that appears when you simply type in the Title or ISBN of the book!
Polacco, Patricia. Bully. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2012. Print.

Upping the Ante: Challenge Rewards Go Physical

The Internet is a wonderful, crazy, and scary thing. Apparently anything you search is "trackable" and people you've never met notice your online activity. With that said, I got a very wonderful, crazy, and scary (I thought maybe I'd done a little copyright infringement issues with some copying and pasting of images or info.-not that I've ever done that, of course) phone call yesterday from The Great Books Foundation (Junior Great Books) National Director of Sales. He noticed my "Two Challenges, Two Teachers- Fifty Winners" JGB Challenge wanted to offer our teachers something for their participation. So...in addition to the sheer joy you and your students will feel from engaging in JGB stories 5 times this year, AND the increase in reading proficiency and critical thinking abilities for you and your students, NOW you can also receive a Sampler kit worth $99 compliments of Mr. Thomas Kerschner and The Great Books Foundation. "We will send you a Sampler for each of your teachers who completes the challenge." Who can resist now? If you have not had the opportunity to read the finer details of the challenges, please check out www.theliteracyconnectionbes.blogspot.com Post Below and let me know when you're ready to start!

Have a great day! Who knows what wonderfully, crazy, scary things might happen to you!

Two Challenges- Two Teachers- Fifty Winners: Junior Great Books & Vocabulary Conscious Teaching

I've got a challenge for you. Actually, I've got TWO. Taking part in this adventure is a win-win no matter how you look at it and it's sure to result in increased student learning along the way.  

Is your interest piqued? Do you want to know more? Get a little info before you join in, try something, hop on board, give it a whirl?  Ok, here's the nitty gritty- remember these are TWO separate options for TWO different teachers- or ONE eager beaver who would like to try both. Wowza!

OPTION 1: Junior Great Books Stories  (within Literacy Workshops in grades K-5)

A significant body of research links the close reading of complex text—whether the student is a struggling reader or advanced—to significant gains in reading proficiency and finds close reading to be a key component of college and career readiness. (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 2011, p. 7)

A significant body of research links the close reading of complex text—whether the student is a struggling reader or advanced—to significant gains in reading proficiency and finds close reading to be a key component of college and career readiness. (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 2011, p. 7)

What: Intentionally teach using the Junior Great Books stories and methods that include multiple readings, vocabulary practice, directed notes, shared inquiry discussion, and a short written component. The stories selected would meet the ELA units' standards and coincide with the theme.  At no point would this be extra work. 

How many stories/cycles? FIVE- You would be agreeing to offer JGB experiences FIVE times a year. 

Why: JGB offers direct connections to the CCSS/KCAS.

• A questioning stance that extends ans scaffolds critical thinking
• Text complexity 
• Multiple readings and close readings* of text
• Text-dependent, text-specific questions requiring responses with specific and relevant evidence
• Analytic and narrative writing with the use of textual evidence

*see article from Educational Leadership "Closing in on Reading" by Nancy Boyles http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx

Purpose: To do a little action research to document the benefit of intentional instruction with JGBs and the WHYs listed above. Caveat: We would to need to use assessment data from your class to see the impact of this practice on students within your classroom. 

*Check out this link of a Shared Inquiry Discussion video with great examples of how JGB supports and sets the rigor for finding textual evidence.
Text used The Stories Julian Tells
http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/junior/jgbseries/grade-2/

OPTION 2: Vocabulary Conscious Teaching (10-15 min. 4-5 days/week) 4th-5th grades

Studies and reviews of research over the past three decades have shown that the size and depth of elementary students' vocabulary is associated with proficiency in reading comprehension and that instruction increases reasders' vocabulary results in higher levels of reading comprehension (e.g., Baumann, Carr-Edwards, Font, Tereshinski, Kame'enui & Olejink, 2002; Beck, Perfetti, & McKowen, 1992; Kame'enui, Carine, & Freschi, 1982; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).

What: Intentionally teach and offer your students vocabulary instruction and practice with Greek and Latin affixes (prefixes/suffixes) and roots, thus supporting your readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, social scientists, and thinkers in general. The words selected would come from research-based sources, the ELA units, and/or connections to content in other areas. 

How often and what would we do?    10-15 min./day     The link below is a text co-authored by Tim Rasinski, vocabulary and fluency guru and recent OC speaker!). The authors offer a set of "engaging instructional ideas for the use of Greek and Latin derivations to teach vocabulary and provide classroom-based examples of how a morphological-based vocabulary" implementation can impact students and teachers.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/TRTR.01015/abstract

Other resources may include: Words Their Way, Word Nerds, Word Savvy and other texts you've used.

 
Why is it important to study Greek and Latin word parts?

• • Over 60% of the words students will encounter in school textbooks have recognizable word parts; and many of these Latin and Greek roots (Nagy, Anderson,Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989). I'd contend that even if you don't ever use a textbook, students would encounter the words in the articles and texts you provide for them.
  • Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes have predictable spelling patterns.(Rasinski & Padak, 2001; Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2000).
  • Content area vocabulary is largely Greek and Latin-based and research supports this instruction, especially for struggling readers (Harmon, Hedrick & Wood, 2005).
  • Many words from Greek and Latin word parts are included in “Tier Two” and “Tier Three” words that Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) have found to be essential to vocabulary word study.
  • Knowing Greek and Latin word parts helps students recognize and gain clues to understanding of other words that use known affixes and roots(Nagy & Scott, 2000).
  • “One Latin or Greek root or affix (word pattern) aids understanding (as well as decoding and encoding) of 20 or more English words.” 
  • “Since Spanish is also a Latin-based language, Latin (and Greek) can be used as a bridge to help Spanish speaking students use knowledge of their native language to learn English.” 
  • Learning Greek and Latin affixes and roots may help reduce the literacy gap.   
  • source:  http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/common-core-greek-and-latinates/

Purpose: To do a little action research to document the benefit of intentional instruction with vocabulary and the WHYs listed above. Caveat: We would to need to use assessment data from your class to see the impact of this practice on students within your classroom.

So, anyone on board? Anyone interested in collaborating in this effort to increase students' reading achievement? Offer readers opportunities to improve on a number of level?

If you are up for the challenge, please let me know and we'll get started. Remember, it's a journey that setting up the participants for success.