June 8th - Online Hours - 3

Okay - so I purchased the book Reading Reasons by Kelly Gallagher, and I have to say that I almost want to start teaching tomorrow! (Not REALLY......I enjoy my summer) BUT.........this book was inspiring!!!  I read it all in one sitting (naptime, again........beautiful thing!) It caused me to totally rethink my approach to teaching reading.  It is my job not only to teach kids how to read, but also to teach them WHY they need to read - what do they get out of it?  Every year, on our student surveys, we get hammered by kids because they say that what we teach isn't relevant to them.  Well, this book gave me a way to not just TELL kids that reading is important but to SHOW them why it is.  I loved this book!  Gallagher includes in his book 10 reading reasons to share with kids and 40 mini-lessons to do with kids to show them the value of reading in their lives.  I am totally going to implement these reading lessons into my class next year - one a week - to get kids to buy into the idea that reading is important to them now and in their futures.  My nook copy of the book is highlighted and noted up ready for me to take on this new challenge in August.  You've heard the quote, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"  Well, reading instruction is broken, and I am going to try to fix it in my classroom.  I am really glad that I invested the time in this valuable resource - I highly encourage all reading teachers specifically to read it.

*My day to implement new reading instruction......to fix what's been broken.

Online Hours - June 7th - 30 more minutes

This morning, I went through and read the blog entries from my classmates.  Diane Markley's blog was so insightful, and I love how she embraces teaching reading in the orchestra classroom.  She will make my job easier as she supports reading instruction with my kids next year (I believe the Legends are an orchestra team next year!).  I enjoyed reading her posts, and I know that if I were a kid, I would enjoy being in her class.  I also enjoyed Kristina Martin's posts.  She had some great links and videos posted.  I liked her video and metaphor assignment idea about bullying.  Thinking of incorporating this into a class meeting or life ed next year!  So glad that you had us post our class time on blogs for everyone to view.  I got some more great ideas just from other's online time!

*This represents teachers working together to improve reading instruction for our kiddos!

Online Hours - June 6th - 30 minutes

Today, fueled by coffee (today was a two cup day), I again started out purposefully on my online hours journey and again got a little off track.  I was looking up Kelly Gallagher's Reading Reasons to see if I could just find a list of mini-lessons (rather than having to buy the whole book.  No such luck.  I will be buying the book later on today and plan to read it for the rest of my time for this class.)  I did run across a few of his mini-lessons one of which I already use in my class - The Reading Minute.  I re-read how he implemented that in his classroom.  I plan to use this again this year, but I am going to stick more closely to his procedure of having kids summarize in one sentence (so it doesn't take up so much time) and by broadening the type of pieces I share.  Previously, I have stuck primarily to non-fiction news type articles, but I am going to vary that up a little with poetry, short pieces of fiction, facebook posts, etc.  I am also going to have kids sign up to share articles throughout the year which is something I have not done before.  I believe that this will be very powerful and will promote that choice piece that is so important.  I hope to create a positive, sharing culture in my classroom this year no matter what kids are reading.  I then went to Kelly Gallagher's website and read a couple more articles that he had posted.  One was about Facebook, Twitter, and kids - how these "damage" kids' brains.  This was interesting but not surprising to me.  I know kids process things differently in this digital age.  This article reinforced that by saying that kids these days can't sustain to any tasks for very long because of how much they consume information.  This makes my job as a teacher more challenging.  I have to find ways to teach them to attend for longer periods of time when everything else they do in their time away from school fights against that.  Yikes!  Definitely food for thought.

Online Hours June 5th - 3 hours

Nap time today was a beautiful thing - a time for me to get a big chunk of my online hours completed, and I thoroughly ENJOYED getting the work done.  I started off my time by thinking that I was going to read through some of the articles I bookmarked yesterday, but, as often happens when using technology, my attention was diverted and I took a different path.  I opened up the course reading list and saw the Kelly Gallagher list of "Articles of the Week."  What an amazing resource!  I found myself sucked into reading many of the articles listed on the first page to determine which ones I could use in my own classroom.  I then went through his archives to find even more articles.  Before I knew it, two hours had flown by and the kids were up.  No matter.  I could still work while they were playing, right?  I was on a roll! Fortunately, I have great kiddos.  Norah only messed with the keyboard 25 times (give or take a few) and Vivi and Norah only argued over toys once or twice (okay, really quite a bit more than that, but I am a mom - a professional multi-tasker!  I handled this with ease all while absorbing all of my new-found knowledge).  Anyway, back to Kelly Gallagher........I think I might try this approach next year - doing an article a week to deepen the background knowledge of my students.  That's a good transition to the next thing I did which was reading another article in the reading list about how important background knowledge is when teaching literacy to kids (the article was There's No Such Thing as a Reading Test).  Great article and reinforced what Kelly Gallagher's article of the week assignment is designed to do.  I then finally went back and read through the New York Times articles that I had bookmarked yesterday to see which ones I would like to use in my classroom.  There are so many great pieces of high-interest non-fiction out there for the kids.  My mind is racing.  I need now to develop lesson plans for some of these articles.  That will probably have to be done tomorrow as I should pay attention to my kids now.  I might actually be getting excited about this Common Core thing.  :)


*This represents me getting excited about technology, reading, and the Common Core

Deeper Reading Lesson Plan

Deeper Reading Lesson Plan

Content Learning Goal
	Presenting and Defending a Claim; Point of View; Literary Elements (Mood and tone)
Text(s)
	Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20070831friday.html Lesson Adapted from: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/the-down-low-talk-show/
Gallagher’s Deeper Reading Model
Framing the text Ex: anticipation guide, brainstorming, guided discussion, visual aids, pre-research, set a purpose for reading,  author consideration, KWL chart, etc.	Choose a clothing style or outfit worn by students in your school right now. Draw a picture, find a picture online, or use a picture of someone from instagram, facebook, etc. of someone wearing these clothes and accessories. Then, think about the answers to the following questions. Be prepared to share. - Do you think this clothing promotes or supports a stereotype? - Do you feel pressure to wear the latest styles? Why or why not? - Where do you get your ideas for what is cool to wear? - What kinds of clothing, if any, do you think should not be allowed in school? Explain your answer. - Would you consider this same clothing inappropriate anywhere else? Why or why not?” After a few minutes, allow time for students to share their drawings and answers to the questions. Do you find any of the clothing styles or outfits “offensive”? Why or why not? How do you think members of the school administration might feel? Why?
1st Draft Read: Reading Carefully Ex: annotate the text, look for specific information, read aloud, etc.	Copy and paste the article, Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail, into a Google doc.  Annotate the text in the Google doc.
2nd Draft Read: Return to the text Ex: create graphic organizers, concept mapping, note taking, summaries, questioning, personal reactions, etc.	Go back to the article with a partner.  Generate a list of 20 questions about the article. Post these on the google doc.
Collaboration Ex: debates, discussions, sharing products, exchanging feedback, etc.	Poll the class to find out why there is a strong connection between music and fashion. Allow time to discuss their answers. What type of music might accompany a talk show about the controversy over sagging jeans? Explain to students that they will participate in a simulated radio talk show; the topic is sagging jeans. Inform students that you will be acting as the show’s emcee, and they will play callers to the show who will offer arguments either supporting or denouncing the popular fashion style based on an assigned perspective. Arrange the class into pairs or small groups and assign each group a role from the list below. Provide them with the associated guiding questions and give them ample time to use their data to prepare comments for the radio talk show. Advise students to think creatively about how their assigned personality might think about the topic. To start the talk show, offer an overview of the issue, then invite “callers” to offer their opinions on the original topic or to respond to comments by the other “callers.” Advise students to seriously consider how they might respond to one another’s perspectives in a way that allows the discussion to progress. Caution against the use of divisive or abusive language. Write the roles, questions and talk show tips on the board or distribute them in a handout for easy reference. ROLES: - First Amendment expert. - free speech activist. - advocate of “proper” dress. - student who wears sagging jeans. - principal who wants students to wear school uniforms. - Louisiana lawmaker. - representative from the American Civil Liberties Union. - representative from the N.A.A.C.P. - the president of the National Basketball Association. - professor of sociology. - fashion expert. - hip-hop artist. - parents of children allowed to wear sagging jeans. - parents of children not allowed to wear sagging jeans. SOME SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR CALLERS: - How do you feel about this issue? Why do you feel this way? - How do you think sagging pants (or laws regulating them) can affect your local community or society at large? - How do you feel about the penalties faced by people who break laws regarding sagging pants? Are the consequences fair or too severe? - To what can rules or laws about sagging pants be compared? - What examples of current news stories or events help support your point of view? TALK SHOW TIPS: - Be clear: State your point of view clearly and succinctly. If making a response, be sure to state to whom you are responding. - Be brief: Be careful not to bore your audience. - Be respectful: Let others share their points of view.
Reflection Ex: discuss implications of a piece, look at the personal impact of a piece, summarize what was learned, look at global impacts, etc.	According to the article “Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail.,” sagging began in prison. What is your opinion of following a trend that started in such a place? Why do you think this trend is popular? Write a journal entry reflecting on this statement. Consider what you already know about hip-hop fashion and related trends.
Metaphorical Response Ex: create metaphors about the topic, create symbols to represent understanding, allow students to find images and discuss relevance, use colors that represent mood/tone/etc, look for songs that represent messages, write poems to demonstrate understanding, etc.	Create a wordle/tagxedo or 6 word memoir to illustrate your feelings/opinion of this article.
NETS
Creativity and Innovation
Communication & Collaboration
Research Information & Fluency
Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Digital Citizenship
Technology Operations & Concepts
Estimated Number of  Class Periods	2-3

6 Word Memoir: Read. Discuss. Apply knowledge of learning. Metaphor: Reading is the fundamental tool that kids need to build their futures.

Problem Solving and the Nets: I think that being a problem solver is one of the most important aspects of the NETS that the kids need. Our kids are used to information being given TO them and not having to figure things out on their own. In this era of digital information, our kids have unlimited resources. It is important for them to figure out how to use these resources to solve problems both in school now and when they enter the workplace.

I chose this picture because working with a rubix cube requires you to problem solve.  It can't be solved immediately, and you have to consistently evaluate and try new things to reach a solution.