April/May, 2013

Greetings!
 
My husband and I recently started using the My Fitness Pal app. With swimsuit weather just around the corner, we both have a few extra winter pounds to shed.

It's a simple app to use. You type in your current weight and your goal weight and how fast you want to achieve it. The app calculates a daily calorie limit to help you achieve your goal. (NOTE: It also tracks any exercise you do that day--including dog walking, coaching, house cleaning--and increases your calorie allotment accordingly.)

 

Before each meal, we type in what we think we will eat. We always type in our meal before we serve it because we're often dishing up more than our calorie allotment. It's amazing what we're learning! By adjusting the serving size, omitting the breads, and substituting the condiments, we can significantly lower the calorie count for that meal and stay within our goal. 

 

And it's working, but I won't kid you--it's been a challenge. It's not simply a matter of punching in a bunch of numbers and voil�--goal achieved! We've had to make some accommodations. 

 

We'll see where we are in the middle of June. That's when we're on track to reach our goal weights... according to the app. But I've been seeing some minor success already. And because of it, I'm again reminded that in everything we do--data drives our choices. 

 

So whether you're counting calories or teaching & assessing your readers and writers, it's all about using data to achieve our goals.

 

Happy goal setting! 

 

 
 

 
  

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Look for this symbol throughout the newsletter for connections to the Common Core State Standards.

 

Main Idea!

Redefine fiction and nonfiction 

No longer can we simply refer to something as fiction and nonfiction. The CCSS requires us to distinguish between literature, informational text, and literary nonfiction--and engage our students with all three.
  • LITERATURE is what we grew up calling fiction. It includes made-up characters who overcome problems and resolve conflicts. It encompasses picture books, short stories, fables, fairy tales, legends, folk tales, chapter books, historical fiction, realistic fiction, sci-fi, novels, poetry, and plays/dramas.
  • The term nonfiction now includes two types--INFORMATIONAL TEXT and literary nonfiction. You read informational text for the purpose of gaining knowledge. By its nature, this text is of a higher text complexity with specialized vocabulary specific to the topic, heavy doses of facts, and numerous text features. These texts include textbooks, primary source documents, newspaper articles, etc.
  • The big difference between LITERARY NONFICTION and informational text is how the facts are revealed. These texts read more like literature, but all the information is factual. Think of it like a hybrid. Authors of literary nonfiction engage readers with their lively narrative voice, weaving facts with details that appeal to the reader's emotions and make the subject come alive. This type of nonfiction is also known as "narrative nonfiction." These include biographies, memoirs, documentaries, and some nonfiction picture books. Essays and speeches are also types of literary nonfiction.
Use this quick-reference T-Chart to compare the purposes, formats, and characteristics of each type, looking at them side by side.

 

TEACHING THE DIFFERENCES

Reveal three texts to students--one per type--but all on the same topic. Compare how the same topic is treated in each text. This will help students distinguish the differences more readily. For example, Sleepy Time Crime (literature), Sea Turtle (informational text), and Into the Sea (literary nonfiction) are all about turtles.

 

A big difference between them is the use of text features. Literature and literary nonfiction only include features such as a title, chapter titles/numbers, and maybe corresponding illustrations. However, within informational text, it's common to find subheadings, photos, captions, diagrams, charts, maps, fact boxes, timelines, and many more visual literacy elements. Spend time identifying these text features and how they convey information via visual elements. Consider what the author does to help the reader understand the concepts (e.g., puts important terms in bold print and then defines them, uses charts and diagrams to explain ideas, plots events described in multiple paragraphs on a simple timeline, etc.).  

 

Common Core State Standards #5 and #7 within the Reading Informational Text strand tell us to teach the unique purpose and function of each text feature. Teach students what they are and how they work. (Check out this entertaining 6-minute video that may be helpful in defining the purpose of text features within informational text to elementary students.)

 

In addition to text features, informational text also has a varied use of text structures. The organization of expository information can come in one of seven types of text structure. However, literature is always organized in one manner--chronological. The predictable organization of literature typically makes it less complex than informational text. In order for the reader to really grasp all the facts within informational text, he has to first read for more than just details; he has to see how all those ideas are related and organized.

 

As we are teaching the Common Core standards, we need to do more than just read the different types of text. We need to teach their similarities and unique differences side by side. 



CCR.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Upcoming Workshops!
Plan ahead for summer workshops
 
Summer will be here before we know it. So now is the time to submit conference requests to ensure timely approval. And this year, you'll want to check your calendar to see if you can fit in a multi-day opportunity. For the first time, Smekens Education is offering a 4-day Back-to-School Literacy Conference. Attend one, two, three, or all four days of reading and writing instructional strategies to start your school year. We'll be in five locations. I hope you can join us!
90-Minute Reading Block Idea! 
Provide engaging text for partners to read in Fluency Stations  
 

The key to an effective Fluency Station is engaging text. First, expose students to the anchor text within your whole-class mini-lessons. Demonstrate the fluency skill and provide explicit instruction as to its purpose and function. Then, push the same text out to the Fluency Station for students to have repeated practice of the same skill. If the text you used is fun and engaging, students will be eager to get their hands on it. Then add to the "Fluency Basket" similar texts that include the same skill and allows partners to continue practicing.

  

Here's a list of recommended resources to target three big components of the Fluency Station.

  1. Practice phrase-reading using poetry. Poems tend to be short passages that are formatted into short lines of text that are perfect for phrase-reading practice. Photocopy individual poems onto card stock paper and place them in the Fluency Baskets. Leave some old favorites and rotate in new ones from your lessons to give students several choices of what to read. For more poetry resources, check out these links.
  2. Practice reading the punctuation. A reader's voice should change when it "reads" punctuation. Stopping, pausing, and adjusting volume all impact the overall comprehension and meaning of the sentence. Explain this early in the year with a "punctuation study." Then give students multiple opportunities to practice reading punctuation with a partner. NOTE: Students need text that is at an appropriate level and includes a variety of punctuation.
  3. Bring it all together with books written for two voices. Find text that lends itself to partners taking turns reading back and forth. (The recommended resource list includes books with expressive and natural-sounding dialogue between two characters, like The Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.) This allows students to practice reading with appropriate phrasing, punctuation, expression, and pace. When engaged in this type of reading with a partner, they'll never say I'm Bored!
 
RF.K.2 Recognize and produce rhyming words.
RF.K.3 Read common high-frequency words by sight.
RF.1.3f Read words with inflectional endings.
RF.2.4b Read on-level text with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
RF.3-5.4b Read on-level...poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
 
FAQ!
My students are struggling to comprehend cause v. effect. What are some instructional strategies that might help them?  
 

1. Define the characteristics of cause and effect.

  • The cause is why or the reason something happened. It answers the question Why or How. Authors often identify the cause using signal words: Because... Since... Cause... Reason... So that... Unless... The main reason... Due to... For the simple reason that...
  • The effect is the result of what happened. It answers the questions: What happened? What was the result? Authors typically indicate the effect using these signal words: As a result of... If... Consequently... Effect... Therefore... Thus... So... Because of this... So that... For this reason...
2. Help students envision the cause-effect relationship with 2-step, before-and-after photo boxes. Reveal a photograph in the left box (e.g., someone crossing their snow skis, an egg being tossed, a soccer player diving for a ball, etc.). Ask students to predict What will happen? (e.g., the skier will fall, the egg will break, the soccer player will get injured, etc.). Identify their answers as the effect, the after, the end of the process. Reveal the effect photos in the right-side boxes to determine if their predictions were correct.

 

3. Repeat this same concept, but start with the effect and ask students to predict the cause. Reveal a photograph in the right box. Ask students Why or how did it happen? The answer shows the cause of the event, the before, or the beginning of the 2-step process.

 

4. Have students create captions for each photo combination, explaining their cause-effect relationship.

 

5. Explain to students that nothing happens without a reason or without some kind of consequence. Effects always have causes and causes always lead to effects; we rarely see one without the other. After reading a text in its entirety, reread paragraphs closely to identify stated cause-effect sentences. Encourage students to look for any signal words stated within the excerpt. If there are no signal words, readers have to visualize what's happening to determine what came first (before/cause) and what came second (after/effect).

 

6. For more resources, check out The Literacy Store and search "cause effect."
 
CCR.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole.
Primary Idea!
Teach main idea with titles

With the rigorous expectations outlined in the CCSS, primary students have to do more than just orally retell a text. We have to push them to summarize the most important parts of the text and eventually determine the main idea.

Although advanced, these skills are attainable by our youngest readers with diligence and repetition. Bailly Elementary (Chesterton, IN) kindergarten teacher Maria Bachuchin started the year emphasizing the terms "characters, setting" and even the concepts of "plot." She used these words relentlessly while reading aloud and teaching her students to retell texts orally.

Later in the year, Maria pushed her kinders to summarize the text. They learned to visualize an important event from the beginning, middle, and end of the text. Those visualizations became physical drawings within a traditional beginning-middle-end graphic organizer. (Check out these student-created examples written in response to Lauren Thompson's book Mouse's First Valentine.)

Maria didn't stop there. She continued to nudge her readers, now to consider the main idea. She developed another graphic organizer that only allows one big picture. Instead of three pictures to retell details of the story, students are asked to draw one significant picture to sum up the whole story. What's the story all about? See Claire's picture to the right, showing two mice and a Valentine to see how the students understood the idea of an overall topic/main idea. This second graphic organizer includes a place for students to also write a single-sentence summary at the bottom and a topic (main idea) at the top. Claire nailed both!

Some of Maria's students even went beyond main idea and arrived at theme! There is still a main-idea picture and summary sentence at the bottom. But check out the top: Caring about others. More than literal main idea, Natalie and Taylor considered what the author wanted them to learn from the text. WOW!

Through Maria's diligent instruction and the regular application of close reading and classroom discussion, here's what her kindergartners have learned:
  1. First, read a text to gather the specific details and offer an oral retelling. 
  2. Then, review the text, highlighting the significant events within a simple summary. 
  3. With a true understanding of what the text says, then consider the author's main idea and what he wanted to teach the reader. 
Although Maria's goal was simply to expose her students to story-element terms and the general notion of main idea, you can see that her kindergarteners have advanced beyond that. They're applying the concepts accurately and independently. Outstanding!
RL.K.2 Retell familiar stories, including key details.
RI.K-1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text...
RL.2.2 Recount stories...and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
Genre Idea! 
Celebrate National Poetry Month all year long 

Although this is the official month for celebrating poetry, consider the power of incorporating a daily dose of poetry into your classroom. Flint Springs Elementary (Huntington, IN) teacher, John Stoffel recently shared with me his personal purple poetry portfolio that is two years in the making--and still a work in progress.

 

John's intent is to teach his students that language is fun and they can learn from it, too. Whether that's learning to write better, read better, or deepen their understanding of content-area concepts, he weaves a poetry read aloud into every day of the school year.

 

But it's more than just finding a poem to read. John has belabored over his collection--including its organization. Many of the poems are housed within the first section--a timeline of topics, holidays, months, and seasons. For example, he has a first-day-of-school poem about worry and anxiety, September 11 poems, an Election-Day poem, a first-day-of-spring poem, a last-day-of-school poem, etc. Each of these tap the emotions, thoughts, feelings, and events in his students' lives as they are living and experiencing them all year long.

 

However, beyond these seasonal and timely poems, John has incorporated other categories that target additional instructional purposes as well.

  • There is a poems to mimic section, that includes examples he reads and then dissects with the students. After noticing the author's craft and the poem's unique structure, John challenges his students to write parallel versions of their own.
  • The writer's workshop language section includes poems that lend themselves to conventions/grammar lessons (e.g., subject/verb agreement, varied punctuation, etc.). In addition, there are poems that have noteworthy details for the traits of word choice, ideas, and voice lessons, too.
  • Within the life skills section are poems that target different lifelong guidelines (e.g., patience, caring, trustworthiness, humor, common sense, etc.). He has found these poems are a great way to begin instruction on theme and later determining the author's message in reading.
  • When targeting content-area units, he flips to the section with the poems about African Americans, math fractions, life science, and other concepts he teaches. An early-in-the-day poetry read-aloud connects to a later-in-the-day content-area lesson. 
  • There is a small section of author's quotes that includes writers reflecting on the art of writing. These thoughts and insights provide great conversation and inspiration.
  • Not knowing where to put all the other fun favorites he'd collected over the years, John started a just for fun section of well-loved poems that didn't fit any other category. 

Sometimes John photocopies a class set of the poem so each of his students can read along. This is imperative for the poems to mimic or those he wants to choral read for fluency. They also need a copy when John wants to read a poem closely and multiple times, each time rereading it for a different reading purpose.

 

Most poems, however, are simply presented as a read-aloud. And because of this, John hasn't spent hours retyping poems and making them "look pretty." This purple 3-ring binder is truly a working portfolio that includes the best of the best that John has compiled over time. His collection is constantly changing as he adds, replaces, and rearranges poems into different sections. He prints things from the Internet, copies pages from books, and saves scraps he's torn from newspapers and magazines. He has scribbled personal notes and questions to pose to his students. He has jotted reminders to himself and circled relevant phrases. He loves each poem he has added to his collection and conveys that love during each day's read-aloud.

 

As writing experts Lester Laminack and Reba Wadsworth reiterate:  

We must put the music of written language in the air if our students' ears are to arrest its rhythm. And their ears must arrest the rhythm of language if their voices are ever to echo it. And their voices must echo that rhythm and music if their pencils are ever to capture it. (Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature: Making the Most of Read-Alouds Across the Day, Lester Laminack and Reba M. Wadsworth, p 85)

 

RL.K.5 Recognize...poems. 
RL.1-2.10 Read...poetry...
RL3.5 Refer to parts of...poems...using terms such as...stanza... 
RL.4-12.10 Read and comprehend...poetry... 
Picture This! 
Make "synonym rolls" to encourage good word choice
   
First-grade teacher Kim Kesler is whipping up some "Synonym Rolls" with her students at Ouabache Elementary (Terre Haute, IN).

Young writers then cook up some good decadent word choice. Kim is creating Synonym Roll Chefs!

Love yummy word
choice!
 

 

CCR.L.5 Explore/Distinguish understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning. 

 

Technology Idea! 
Use tech tools for classroom management

 

Teachers are always on the lookout for innovative ways to maximize instructional minutes. From behavior tools to brain breaks, below are coordinating websites and apps to utilize for an efficient 21st Century classroom.

Behavior: Teachers that use a point system to track behaviors in class will be eager to check out the following tools.
  

  • ClassDojo is a free web-based tool designed to help teachers improve student conduct.  Instantly reinforcing good behavior, ClassDojo allows teachers to easily award feedback points for targeted behaviors with the click of a smartphone, interactive whiteboard, or computer. Reports monitoring a student's behavior can be shared privately with parents and administrators. Learn more watching this Class DoJo introductory video
  • Similar to ClassDojo, The Great Behavior Game follows several of the same principles with one exception. Students are managed in teams and compete for points. Students enjoy the aspect of combining game play with behavior management.
  • ClassBadges is a free, online tool where teachers can award customized badges for student accomplishments. Student of the month, Book Clubs, and Perfect Attendance are just a few of the applications for ClassBadges. 

Noise-Level Monitors: Check out these visual tools to manage the noise-level during literacy stations, transitions, small-group discussions, etc.

 
  • Challenge your class to see if they can keep the noise-induced Bouncy Balls from bouncing. 
  • The traffic light resource allows the teacher to click on the section of the stop light to indicate appropriate noise level within the classroom.  
  • Calmness Counter allows students to visually see the rate of activity in the room.  
  • App-related noise monitors, such as Too Noisy or Too Loud Pro are ideal for small-group settings

Brain Breaks: Two different research studies reveal the connection between fitness levels and academic achievement, student attendance, and discipline actions. There is a powerful need for students to have brain breaks throughout the day, and Mentor Mob offers an excellent set of options. 

 

 

 

Just as media and technology are integrated in school and life in the twenty-first century, skills related to media are integrated throughout the standards.

 

Where's Kristina?    

Workshops to consider  


Summer Literacy Retreat
June 11 & 12, 2013 -- French Lick, IN--SESSION FULL
June 19 & 20, 2013 -- Middlebury, IN--SESSION FULL

Back-to-School Literacy Conference
July 9-12, 2013 -- Indianapolis, IN

July 16-19, 2013 -- Huntingburg, IN
July 22-25, 2013 -- South Bend, IN
July 29-Aug. 1, 2013 -- Hobart, IN
August 5-8, 2013 -- Chicago, IL