Wordless Books for Halloween!

My students made wordless books this week. I thought the opportunity to write stories about our trick-o-treating experiences was too good to pass up. Everyone naturally has a beginning, middle and end to their story. They all have fresh experiences in their bank of ideas and they love drawing themselves in costume! Not to mention they can't help but talk about it for days anyway, so why not make it a learning opportunity. It took about three days to complete. It was a fun writing project and a great chance to continue to work on storytelling.

A Drawing Moment With My Daughter

Both of my children love to draw. My son, who is six, is quite good and loves to practice all the time. This tends to annoy my 4 year old daughter, who really doesn't understand the difference between a six and four year old--except he seems to be able to do everything she can't do. :(
So frustrating for a smart little sweety.
She also tends to be on the independent side and resists help for almost anything, unless of course it is something she can truly do on her own...aren't kids funny that way?
We sat at the table tonight and she said, "Mommy, I really want to make a book and draw in it."
I got excited obviously, took out paper, stapled, got the crayons, who cares if it was 7:30 and bedtime, I was taking advantage of this moment. She probably was too.
"What do you want to draw?"
"I want a princess book."
Of course she does, that's what she thinks about right now whether I like it or not. Maybe a princess book is a good thing. So, I take her through the drawing using my finger only, outlining the shapes she needs. Then she tries it with her finger and draws the shapes. She picks up a purple crayon and the magic begins. I should have video taped her reaction. She was so thrilled by her drawing. As she demonstrated more skill and control, she slowed down even more and showed more skill and control. She is typically easily frustrated, goes too fast, and will just give in to the scribble. Not this time. She saw that she could do it and just had to take time to think it through. She kept busy coloring the hair and dress and I walked away for a few minutes. When I came back, she had drawn another "princess" on the cover, almost exactly the same. Even more pride for her this time because she did it all on her own! I was so happy for her.

Don't you just love little hands, so precious.

My New Planning Process in Stages!

It's time for kindergarten writer's workshop and the students are going to try a new way of planning. I have been modeling my own stories for several days using a blank book, (they also tried this with their third grade buddies last week). I point to where my story would be, what it might say, and then with my finger draw and point to what illustrations would be included. Today is the day for students to use their own blank planning book with their knee to knee kindergarten planning pal. The planning pals have been going for a while, and we have worked out expectations and behaviors that are acceptable, but anytime you add something, like a new material to the mix, there is an opening for it to possibly fall apart for some students. Let's follow this student through his planning process. You will be able to see what worked and what did not work for him. You will notice how he recovers with re-direction and what kind of positive outcomes he accomplishes.

 Here are two students planning together. We will be following the boy in the blue shirt. Here he is talking through his story and his pal is listening. He is doing really well and is remaining on task. Then there is the transition from the pal to the drawing notebook. Below are his results.

When I first get back to him, he has drawn the picture on the left. I ask him  to tell me his story. "This is me on the monkey bars." Okay, so he has hung onto his verbal story and seems ready to try again, so I give him a new paper and he tries again. That is where the picture on the right comes in, yikes! I of course try not to disclose my disappointment, but I am frustrated by this at first. I had just talked to him, he was ready, why is it not transitioning to the page? Then I realize my mistake in the re-direction. He had held on to the verbal, but he had not held onto his visual plan. When he transitioned from the carpet to his book, he lost some of his planning on the way. This is to be expected, some kids can "hold" onto more than others. It goes back to what I have said before--I can't change someone's pace, all I can do is try to help him accomplish what he's capable of each day. 

 

Third try, neither of us are giving up, so we go back to the drawing board, or at least the invisible drawing board! I tell him to use my blank paper to show me his story. "Point to the paper and tell me all that I will see when I come back to check in with you." He starts to draw the monkey bars and I am again renewed with confidence that he can do this! I walk away again. (It is so hard to walk away, but it is one of the things I have learned over the years has to happen if you truly believe a child is capable of the task you are asking. It builds their independence. If they are not capable of the task, don't ask them to do it alone).

Then he goes and not only draws the monkey bars, he separates his words from his picture, organizing his page, and gets down words and letters that he knows! Wow, I was almost blown over with excitement!!

I learned a lot about this planning process. They are all benefiting from the verbal rehearsal with the blank booklet, some of them also need to visualize their plan in their drawing and writing notebook too before beginning. So, my next plan of action is to continue the blank booklet, for the talking through rehearsal. Then, as we transition to the drawing and writing notebooks, I will ask students to stop and visualize their story, what will I see when I walk over to check in?

I will keep you posted on the progress!

Third Grade Buddies Help Reinforce the Visual Plan

Here are some photos of my students with their third grade buddies. They are taking them through the steps of the visual plan. It was so great to see each student with an engaged partner asking them "who" and "what" questions. As much as I wish kindergarteners were as effective planning pals with each other, it is a tough process to get everyone listening, sharing and on task. It is nice to have some third graders to help model proper behavior and questioning as we keep trying this with each other during writer's workshop. Also included in the photos are the collaborative artwork and writing of the students following the plan. It was really fun, and you will definitely enjoy the stories and illustrations.

                                 Talking through our stories.

                       Getting one part of the story on paper together.




                  (I am building a fort with my dad).

                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                              (I am in the pet store looking for a cat).

Visualizing the Possibilities

One of the suggestions in the book I currently can't take out of my hands (Talking, Drawing, Writing by Giacobbe and Horn) was to take the idea of verbal storytelling to visualization. When students in kindergarten tell a story it doesn't always sound like a story, but rather a list. What I have been trying to demonstrate to students is that their stories are really stories, to be heard and told. To make this more clear I am holding up a blank book and talking through their story as a model. For instance, as I have a student talk through her list for the class, I re-phrase it in story language while pointing to a blank page in a book--as if the words are there. Then we talk about what the illustrations might look like and where they might go. We even go as far as titling the story and giving it a title page, but nothing is actually written down, just visualized. I love this idea as a tool for planning and processing through a story.

One Thing at a Time!

Do you ever try to shove a bunch of concepts into a little persons brain and then feel surprised when it doesn't really go well? I am continually telling myself to work on one thing at a time with students. Remain focused! I find this can be hard when I start to feel the pressure of getting through material and moving kids to the next level. However, trying to get kids to go faster really doesn't seem to work. They are going to go the pace they can go, there isn't much we can do about this except motivate them to reach that potential each day!
I continue to move through the lessons and amazing ideas of Horn and Giacobbe as I read Talking, Drawing, Writing. If you have read anything on my blog here recently and are getting tired of me talking about this book, let it be an indicator as to how good this book really is for the early elementary teacher.
It has really helped me focus and slow down. I feel so much joy during writer's workshop and the pace is their own; I love it!
Below is another example of a student's work both before and after talking through his writing. He is clearly a student who strings letters together because he knows that print carries a message, but he is forgetting to include some additional things that he knows.

Here M. reads his story, "I am going to the party."

 After conferencing with him, we talked about how nicely detailed his picture was. You can clearly see him and his mom in the car, on their way to the house down the road. I loved how he added depth to his picture with the driveway and the circle making it look farther away. I asked him, "where did you write the word the?" He then grabbed his pencil, because he and I both know he can spell this word, and he eagerly added "the." My next question was, "what do you know about the word, party?" to which he produced the /p/ sound and wrote "p." In a past life I would have likely done this as well as gone back and done an initial sound for each word, possibly revising parts of his picture as well. That would have been too much. I am still suppressing the urge to fix everything with a student, but I do really enjoy little bursts of instruction as opposed to getting stuck with one student for too long. He has so many good things going on, I should be more focused on what is going well, and less focused on what needs to be fixed. Hurray for M!

 

Who Says You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

Interactive Writing...yeah, well...I wasn't a believer. I will admit this openly, I have kind of fought against it and did not see it working in my classroom. Until today. Isn't the reprogramming of ourselves amazing? I can't believe how open I am now that I have untied myself from the reigns of conformity.
Now, the interactive writing thing, that was something I gave up on even before the last whirl-wind of teaching writing I was swept into. I thought it was inappropriate and not engaging enough. Too long of a process and just plain not a good means of modeling writing for students. I was wrong.
I realized this as I read a different spin, or rather a simple twist on the idea in the book, Talking Drawing, and Writing by Giacobbe and Horn. Yes, the book I have been keeping at my bedside, hip side, and desk side at all times lately, yep that one! Since it is a good idea to have kids label pictures in their drawings as a means of beginning to show print carries a message, one of their suggestions was to use interactive writing to label your classroom, write rules, or other information for the classroom. I loved the label the classroom idea and tried it today with the word "cabinet." What a perfect word, one of my students picked it, and it could not have gone better. We are going to label one item in the room each day while I demonstrate how this reinforces our understanding of labeling our pictures in our drawing and writing notebook! Yahoo, the plan continues to fall into place, not sure where I will be next, but I am liking the journey. Here are photos of the latest work from their notebooks. So fun!

 

J. is working on a drawing of himself. He drew his legs to show movement. In his picture he is walking.

 Can you see the swing set?

 D. drew himself and his dad on their dirt bikes. I love the wheels! A week ago he would have said, "I don't know how to draw a dirt bike." But he doesn't say that now!