We are WRITERS!

Hello buddies-

We are Writers! That's right, we WRITE and WRITE and WRITE! This year my district fully adopted the new units of study by Lucy Calkins of Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. I am so lucky that a select few teachers in our school have been using it for three years now and the results are UNBELIEVABLE! 

I was lucky to have my looping class when we began diving in to Writing Workshop. I had two years of direct writing instruction on structure, content, and writing strategies.  As I read the units of study books in preparation to teach I often thought Queen Lucy was crazy (b/c all rulers are at least a little crazy) for asking my ten year olds to produce the writing she asked for, no demanded! My colleagues and I fretted, stressed, and pondered what was best for our kids. In the end, we followed the visionary (you don't question Walt Disney about theme parks, you don't question Lucy on Writing-LOL). 

The growth in student writing was unbelievable. I read informational texts that were built on structure. I read memoirs that made me cry. I read opinion pieces that made me want to change the world. And now, now I'm doing the same work with my third grade superheroes and finding that the growth in their writing over the past few months is quite unbelievable, yet again! 

Here's a look at Writing Workshop in my classroom:

It's messy, it's creative, it's student driven, it's hectic---and it yields results! 

What are your Writing Workshop experiences?
Happy Writing Buddies!
-Damien 

SUPER Summary Boot Camp

Hello Buddies-

So, my third grade superheroes are great. They really are! They work hard! They love reading! but they can't write a summary to save their lives. Seriously- they either rewrite the entire story or they sum up the whole story in two sentences. With DRA time around the corner it was time for a SUPER Teacher to take action. (Are you humming a heroic tune in your head when you read this, because I am while writing this?)

The other class my co-teacher works with was on a class trip meaning that I would have her ALL DAY! (Are you now hearing a choir singing- you should be! It's how I felt!) So we decided to take the day and work on summaries, so the SUPER Summary Boot Camp was born. 

My co-teacher and I wore matching Captain America cardigans and capes

We started the day by having the kids suit up! Superhero strength was going to be a necessity today! Then I read The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore a fantastic book to model summary writing. 

I used this chart to help my little heroes figure out what was needed when writing a summary and used our Story Elements post-its to jot the important events while I was reading. 

Then we wrote a summary together so my little heroes would have a model to work from. 

After coming back from special we had snack and took some time to watch the Academy Award short film that was adapted from he book. It was a great film and really conveyed the message and heart of the book. 

How cute are they with their superhero capes on?!?!?!?!?

Then It was time for my little heroes to use their powers for good. I gave them a leveled reader (I knew they had to be good for something) and had them read, jot story element post-its, and write their own summaries.  Definitely heroic work!

Before sending them off we added some tips to our Summary Anchor Chart. 

Reading and jotting

The end result was pretty good! I only had four or five little heroes that I had to work with in small groups to help them really understand what a summary required. Have we all accomplished summaries in one lesson---heck no! But, we are closer than we ever were before! 

See ya later!

-Damien 

Google Slides ABCs of Space Project

Hello buddies-

Technology never ceases to amaze me. That being said I am more amazed by how quickly my third grade superheroes suck up the technology and become pros at using it. 

We had just finished a unit on Space and I decided to have my little heroes create an ABCs of Space Google Slides presentation to present to our second grade Reading Buddies. That's right, 20 8 year olds on on Google Slides document---AT ONCE! After a few hiccups on the first day, it was pretty smooth sailing. Here's a few snapshots of what we created. 

Here we are presenting---one day I'll get parent permission to use their adorable faces on this little blog here. 

Here's a close-up of one of the slides. 

This was a great way to introduce the technology format, Google Slides, to my third graders and a nice way to end a unit of study. 

-Damien 

Superhero Training Day!

This year my class has a Superhero theme. It's a new theme, since I lived at Hogwarts with a Harry Potter theme for the last 7 years. Although there are times when I miss Harry, sometimes desperately, I am enjoying the Superhero theme.  Earlier this year we even had a Superhero Training Day. 

Superhero Training Day was a blast. When the kids came in they were treated by this morning message. 

 

Over the summer I made capes for each of my third grade heroes using t-shirts, scissors, and a guide found on Pinterest in September the kids designed emblems to put on their capes. Anytime we need a little extra super power we wear our capes. Here's one of my heroes in his cape ready for Superhero Training Day. (Yes- he is siting on an exercise ball. I have some alternative seating going on this year). 

After we "suited up" it was time to put our narrative writing skills to work. We used dialogue to create origin stories tell how we got our super powers. These were a lot of fun and really came out better than I had expected. 

                                 

Here are a few of the completed origin stories.

After our origin stories were complete I sounded an alarm not he SMARTboard (and gave some of my heroes a heart attack) letting them know that New York was under attack from Loki and needed our help. Points gathered by playing Kahoot would help give supplies to the Avengers battling in NYC. I used clips from the Avengers Movie to help to sell this idea. 

This was an early dismissal day so we didn't have much time left.  However we headed outside to a S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility for some training exercises. 

Bowling for bad guys- Each bowling pin had a
villains face on it. 

Leap Tall Buildings

Close up on the bad guys. 

We also practiced throwing Captain America's Shield (a frisbee with Captain America's shield taped to it) and threw some rockets (I borrowed nerf rockets from my Gym Teacher friend). 

All in all Superhero Training Day was a blast.  I have another Superhero Day mulling around in my head, which is why I made this a Training Day. It sure was a SUPER day! (That pun will never get old.)

-Damien 

Third Grade Metacognition

Hello Buddies-

If you have not read "Comprehension Connections" by Tanny McGregor then you are missing out! This book is filled with practical lessons to introduce comprehension strategies to kids. 

Kelly (again the more silent member of this blog) recommended this book to me and I a THRILLED she did. 

We started our third grade year work on Metacognition and thinking about our thinking while reading. We've also discussed and modeled REAL reading versus FAKE reading. The best parts of the lessons included in this book are that they do not immediately rely on text to convey and practice the concept. As an In-Class Resource room (an inclusion class with special education students) I LOVED that component.  Tanny's lessons allow my kids to practice complex comprehension strategies regardless of their reading levels-which is PERFECT!

This past week we made Reading Salad-combining text and our thinking to make real reading.  Modeling this lesson to my kids, showing how I was thinking while reading, and then including their thinking while I read the text really solidified their understanding of Metacognition. 

I took a picture of this chart with my phone and printed it out so that my kids could
put it in their Book Lover's Notebook as a reference point throughout the year.

I definitely recommend that you check out this book for your class! 

Have a SUPER day!

Damien 

Heroes Need Capes...

Hello Buddies-

I must say the beginning of the year in third grade is very much like the beginning of the year in fifth grade.  How you ask?

• Routines, routines, routines!
• No one has the stamina for anything- Me included!
• Assessments! Assessments! Assessments!
• Behavior reminders: walk quietly in hall, push in chair, don't talk while I'm talking-it's like they've never been in a classroom before. LOL
• Organizing supplies
• And MILLIONS of reminders!

Basically it's exactly the same, just with a smaller audience. 

However, one thing that is different is their "no holds back" enthusiasm. In continuing with our Superhero theme I read the class "Dex, The Heart of a Hero". It's an adorable story about a small dog who is ridiculed by others but works very hard to be a hero. In the end, he realizes he is a hero already but just needed a hero costume. 

I knew I wanted hero capes for my class so I went on over to Pinterest and found a great link on how to turn large adult t-shirts into superhero capes for kids. 

Earlier in the week we designed superhero logos and I attached them to the capes.  After reading Dex I gave the kids their capes and called them by their superhero identities.  The kids were OVER THE MOON and super appreciative of their capes. 

Don't they look super heroic?

After a quick photoshoot I knew we needed to MOVE, so we went on hero patrol to make sure the halls of our school were safe and topping our heroic behavior.  

Thankfully my good friend Kelly (and the quieter half of this blog) has her classroom as far away from mine as humanly possible and I knew she wouldn't mind us crashing her room with only a few minutes left to the day. 

This was a VERY cool day and now we have our capes to wear whenever we need a little extra courage. There were certainly quite a few "this was the best day ever" mumbles as I dismissed my kids that afternoon!

Have a SUPER day!

Damien 

Third Grade Superheroes

Hello Buddies-

I had a blast meeting my third graders and beginning our SUPER year together.  We started the day analyzing a scene from Disney's Incredibles asking ourselves, "What is the job of a hero?". 

Here we are watching the final battle scene from Disney's Incredibles

We put the qualities on a chart and they became our reference point for the month. I am constantly reminded my kids that I will need them to "be a hero", while pointing to the anchor chart. 

Not my prettiest chart, but I made it with the kids on the first day

After that we read "The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man", made our own Superheroes, and wrote about how we could be third grade heroes this year. 

After a few other first day, "getting to know you" activities we started our first Read Aloud of the year. I was super excited to find this series of books when they were recommended by my friends at Barnes and Nobles when I was searching for a Superhero themed book for third grade. 

Captain Awesome is a very funny book about a boy who loves Superheroes, particularly a comic book here called Super Dude, and creates his own hero identity called (you guessed it) Captain Awesome.  We will probably finish the book this upcoming week and the kids are loving it, particularly the way Captain Awesome sees everything around him like a superhero.  His arch enemy is his baby sister called Queen Stinkypants and he has visions that his new teacher is working for super villains determined to torture him Geography lessons. 

I could not imagine a third grader who wouldn't enjoy reading about
Eugene's, I mean Captain Awesome's, adventures. 

It has been a SUPER start of the year- the pun never gets old. 

Have a SUPER day!

-Damien