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Murmuration Mysteries

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged starling murmurations, student poetry, zeno poems on October 17, 2014| 11 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Today’s Little Ditty with Michelle H Barnes.

Migrating starlings, over the southern Israeli village of Tidhar, on February 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

My students were mesmerized this week by the Wonder of the Week, Starling Murmurations. As I often do with these Wonder lessons, I asked them to choose 4 of the Wonder Words. Then we watched the video, looked at The Atlantic site, and selected a picture to write to. The above image was selected by Erin. Erin is a third grader. She has a confidence about her that I wish I had. She sat writing her poem and told me, “I am writing a staircase poem.”

“What is a staircase poem?”

“Look at the lines. They look like the steps on a staircase.”

I think Erin just created her own form.

Ready, set, fly,
One bird takes flight,
another one and another one
until there’s a million in the sky
making an illusion of love as one goes by
washing over me.
Come along and see.
To believe is the key.
The key is to believe.
So graceful and startling,
a routine with meaning. Just
believe and you will see that anything
can be beautiful if you just put love into it.

–Erin, 3rd grade

I showed my students my poem movie from Spiritual Thursday. (You can see the post here.) I made the suggestion that they make a poem movie with their starling zenos. Some of my students are loving J. Patrick Lewis’s new form. A zeno is a great form for writing nonfiction poems. Enjoy these poem movies made using Animoto.

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Zeno-mania

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, J. Patrick Lewis, zeno poems on October 10, 2014| 16 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Miss Rumphius Effect.

As one of my students called out,”You love to connect us with authors.” They know me well, and they know that when I tell them we are going to learn a new poetry form, writing will happen, they will be supported, and it will be challenging. Last Friday, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes featured J. Patrick Lewis on her site. Pat put forth a challenge with a new form that he created called a zeno. The zeno is based on the hailstone sequence. This is the kind of math I enjoy. Math poetry: repeated syllable counts. My students were fascinated. They couldn’t wait to share with their math teachers. Matthew said, “I think I can use this in a magic trick.”

I have been playing with Emaze for presentations. I was so taken with the poems my students created in the morning group that I made an Emaze to teach my afternoon group. Later, I added some of their poems to the presentation. I encourage you to try this with your students. If you want to use the Emaze presentation, let me know.

Click the link below to go directly to the presentation.

http://app.emaze.com/882076/zeno-poetry

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Writing is Hard

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life on October 7, 2014| 13 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

As students become writers, they learn that it can be hard work. In my classes, we have been discussing what makes a good blog post. What are the qualities of good writing? During one of these discussions, Matthew was playing with paperclips, making a paperclip chain. He then started talking about how the chain related to staying on topic in a Slice of Life story. I stopped him and said, “Could I video you saying that?” Here he is:

Kylon has been posting chapters each week of his story, “Something in the Mist.” He posted it over the summer, but since few students were reading, I encouraged him to post once school started. He told me that when he posts new chapters, he revises. He also told me that he printed the whole story out and found that it needed a lot of editing. My response was a laugh because, if you write at all, you know this. I did not prompt Kylon to write about writing, but I am so glad he did. His advice is wise and comes from hard work.

Let me start by saying, “It was pretty hard to write Something in the Mist.” I started writing in March, and finished on one of the last days of school. One of the hardest things about writing it was writing the dates and times. I had to go to the last chapter, calculate about how much time since the beginning of the last chapter, and put it down at the beginning of the new chapter. I also have to think about what would be going on at that time. I wouldn’t be eating lunch at 3:45 PM. I wouldn’t be at home at noon on a weekday. I tried to make the setting as realistic as possible. (SPOILER: When the settings are constantly changing towards the end of the story, it’s really hard to write.)

Another hard thing about writing: making sense. Your character can’t be getting out of bed, and 20 seconds later, he’s running from the police with a weapon and a thousand dollars in his pocket. I know it’s a bit of exaggeration, but it’s true. When I started recording the explosions earlier in the story, my iPod had to be in the car, still recording, after the action.

Next, you don’t want your reader to be falling asleep. You need to keep the action, but not too much action. Example: don’t blow up a building, get hit by a car, run from the police, and steal a car in one chapter. That’s TOO much action.

Also, add extra detail. Don’t say, ‘The car blew up and I covered my head.’ Instead, say, ‘I dived for cover just as the car erupted into a violent fireball. Glass and metal rained down, and I put my hands over my head.’ That’s cool.

One more thing: Writing a long story. Something in the Mist has 6,713 words. That’s a long story!

–Kylon (aka Twinfish)
To read Something in the Mist, click here.

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Digital Choices

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Writing, tagged Animoto, book talks, Emaze, Prezi on October 5, 2014| 4 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

This week we are nearing the end of the nine weeks grading period. My students are working on their book talks. I require one each quarter. I also require some form of technology. I am pleased that I have discovered new presentation apps to give them multiple choices in technology. The choices range from Powerpoint, Emaze, Prezi, and Animoto. I am excited about the variety of presentations that will be done. These will not only inspire my students to read different books, but they will also want to try different digital platforms.

Today I am posting an example of Prezi, Animoto, and Emaze.

This is Reed’s Emaze on Troublemaker by Andrew Clements.
http://app.emaze.com/849503/trouble-maker

Nigel did a Prezi about The Whipping Boy.
http://prezi.com/bygmaqkv9vqw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Erin used Animoto to present The Red Pyramid.

Having choices creates a richer experience in my classroom and allows each student to explore and be themselves. As with most digital media, I simply allow the students to access them. They learn how to use them very quickly with little help from me. The only trouble we had this week was with slow computers. Not all of our computers are new. What other presentation media have you used?

Please link up your digital literacy posts with Mr. Linky.

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Cloud Watching

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged acrostic poetry, cloud poems, Poetry Friday Anthologies on October 3, 2014| 16 Comments »

Join Jama for Poetry Friday at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

This week my students and I were wondering about Aerodynamics. I love framing my weeks with so many wonders at Wonderopolis. We learned about jet streams and lift. We watched some cool time-lapsed videos.

Since we were wondering and wandering around in the clouds, I found some cloud poems to share. From The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, I read Racing the Clouds by Jacqueline Jules (p. 45) and Biking Along White Rim Road by Irene Latham (p. 109). From The Poetry Friday Anthology For Science, I read Clouds by Kate Coombs (p. 85) and Tropical Rain Forest Sky Ponds by Margarita Engle. (On a side note, I am thrilled that my students are learning the names of wonderful Poetry Friday poets.)

My students noticed metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, rhyming, and more. The Poetry Friday anthologies suggested the website Clouds Appreciation Society. (Is there a website for everything?) I pulled up a cloud picture on the board to inspire writing. Even though some of my young students go back to the acrostic form, their writing was richer, emoting more sense of tone, and embedded with metaphor. Models, models, models, teachers. They work!

Coming together
Like a school
Of fish
Under the big blue sky
Disaster, waiting to strike

Couldn’t be better
Laying under the sun
Once it was peaceful, no clouds
Underneath, we are the unsuspecting victims, of the next
Deadly hurricane
–Tobie
(To leave comments for this poet, go to his post.)

In Vannisa’s poem, you will see words and phrases borrowed from the poems we read, mixed together with her words to create a new poem.

Over Afganistan
sunlight is hidden,
for it is somewhat forbidden.
Because this is the clouds,
the round, puffy, white clouds.
The cloud of wish,
the cloud that is as flat as a dish.
They are all lakes in the sky.
Whether it is a flat, small pond,
or a fat navy ocean,
there are no
empty spaces.
–Vannisa (To leave comments for this poet, go to this post.)

Dear Emily was moved to make her poem into an Animoto video. Prepare for tears. Her poem is dedicated to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Amy knows why.

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Rose: An Acrostic Poem

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged acrostic poetry, student poem on September 26, 2014| 20 Comments »

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting today’s round up.

I have been thinking lately about what makes magic happen in writing workshop. I’m not sure, but I do know that my students feel like they are writers. This year I have a single third grader in my gifted group. She is pretty capable of doing what all the older kids are doing. But the other day, on a whim, she brought me this poem she had written. She glowed. She was so proud of it. I don’t know where it came from. It was not any prompt we had talked about. She explained to me that it just came to her. Maybe it was a stroke of genius. Or maybe it was a classroom atmosphere of poetry appreciation and writing freedom. Whatever it is and wherever the inspiration came from, I know enough to celebrate this lovely poem today on Poetry Friday.

Red petals flying with the wind.

O such grace dancing through the wind.

Sparkling shimmering as the sun joins you.

Even at night you’re dancing in the moon light.

–Erin

You can leave comments directly to Erin, aka Pegasus Lover, on our kidblog site.

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Art Heals

Posted in Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged art, NCTE, parent death, Picasso on September 23, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My little Emily is an artist. She is a fragile leaf fluttering in the wind. She blew through the classroom Monday quietly creating. I read aloud the book Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly. In this story, the character Emily is sad about her parents’ divorce. She uses art to express her feelings. That is how my Emily expressed her feelings. It was her first day back at school following the death of her mother.

I don’t want to become an expert at this, but Emily is helping me discover the best way to handle the death of a child’s parent. Be present. Be flexible. Let the child lead you to what she needs. Do not deny the death. Talk about it. Let the other students express their love. Be patient. Cry. Hope.

This is the collage project she created on her own. She gathered different papers from my box for journal decorating. She patiently used a ruler to make smaller and smaller crosses, nesting them together. The final cross is covered in black yarn glued in a swirl.

Emily needed space. She needed art. She needed freedom. I think I heard her singing.

I am posting my schedule for NCTE. Please join me if you are there.

NCTE Schedule:

Thursday, Nov. 20th from 4:30-6:00 PM: Elementary Section Get Together: I will receive the 2014 Donald Graves award for the teaching of writing, an amazing honor. Read about it here.

Friday, Nov. 21st from 12:30-1:45, I am presenting with colleagues from the National Writing Project: From Poetry To Picture Books To Polemics: We Write and We Teach Writing: A Story of Cross-curricular, Cross grade-level Collaboration Among National Writing Project Teachers.

Saturday, Nov. 22nd Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life dinner. I can’t wait to meet my virtual friends face to face.

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Digital Encouragement

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, tagged blog comments on September 21, 2014| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Comments encourage. They lift me up and propel me forward, like wind beneath my wings. I strive to be a good commenter, but it takes time. Time to read the blog post thoroughly. Time to reflect. Time to connect.

Selfishly, I love comments. In the classroom, I encourage them. My students are required to comment on at least 3 blog posts a week. They read each other’s posts, but I wish they would comment more. On Friday, Matthew read Tobie’s post about Harry Potter. Matthew loves Harry Potter. He sat at the computer and laughed and said, ” I love this post, especially the end where he says…”

I replied, “Don’t forget to comment.”

Matthew said, “Oh, I don’t have time for that. I have to write my own post.”

That is exactly how I feel! I usually post on Slice of Life Tuesdays, Spiritual Thursday, and Poetry Friday. Less frequently, I review books for It’s Monday: What are you Reading and Nonfiction Wednesday. I am also posting on Celebration Saturday and here today with DigiLit Sunday. That’s a lot of writing in a week. If I want and expect others to read my posts and leave comments, then I need to do the same.

The last few days, comments have supported me in the grief for a child’s mother, in the celebration of the NCTE award, and with the reading of my poem from Summer Serenity. Thank you, blogging friends, committed commenters. You sustain my writing. You comfort my soul. You are my friends. I hereby promise to be a better commenter.

Link up your DigiLit posts.

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Using Piktochart

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged hurricanes, Piktograph, student motivation, Wonder on September 14, 2014| 6 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

I enjoy trying out new apps online but not as much as my students do. On Friday morning I had meetings, and my students had French class and hearing testing, so we were running behind in whole class time. Not the best atmosphere for teaching a new skill. (Did I mention it was Friday?) I was determined to have something new to write about today for DigiLit Sunday, so with only half an hour left for our class time, I showed them Piktochart.

Last week’s Wonder theme was Hurricanes, so for this first try at an infographic, I suggested they work on hurricanes. We brainstormed information we could find: categories, safety tips, cost of hurricane damage, and location. I paired off my kids, but with an odd number, I told Vannisa I would work with her. I sat next to her at the computer and watched her go to work.

First she chose a template that she liked. The template had a circle graph. We discussed what kind of information would fit in a circle graph. We found a web site showing the number of hurricanes that occurred within each month of the 6 months of hurricane season from 1988-present. Together we worked on the data chart. Here we quickly had to figure out what data went where. Vannisa was more skilled than me.

The short time that Vannisa and I were working together I was fascinated by how quickly and easily she jumped right in to the app. She was motivated to find more information. She kept saying, “Look at this,” and “I love this,” and “Let’s find more information.”

Matthew stayed late in class because he decided to make an infographic on Houdini. He is a bit obsessed with magic and just finished a biography of Houdini. When I told him he could use the Piktochart to make his reader response on the book, he hugged me.

I can’t promise hugs, but I know your students will be motivated by Piktograph. I plan to introduce it to another group of students this week. I look forward to seeing what they will do and how much fun learning can be.

If you have a digital literacy post, link up!

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14 Cows and 9/11

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged 14 Cows for America, diamante poems, Sept. 11th on September 12, 2014| 5 Comments »

Renee at No Water River is hosting the round up today. Click here to join in.

In the past I have avoided the subject of the tragic Sept. 11th with my young elementary students. Yesterday, fellow blogger Holly Mueller posted about using the book 14 Cows for America to teach empathy on Sept. 11th. So I looked in our school library first thing in the morning, and she had the book. I took it as a sign. There was also an accompanying YouTube video about the story of the 14 Cows. I showed the video and read the book aloud. I have to admit I was fighting back tears the whole time. This day affects me deeply as I am sure it does many of you.

Following the read aloud, I asked my students to write for a few minutes. I was amazed by the profound nature of their writing. They can all be found on our class kidblog, but I wanted to share a few.

Point of View

Looking at a plane,

directly in front of you,

coming closer, closer, closer,

finally, you run. But you’re too late.

It has already hit. Shards of glass graze your skin,

you’re blinded by dust. Finally, you’re out.

You wipe your eyes and see…nothing.

Fire, smoke, and debris are where you just were.

The other tower, just south of the first, is hit.

The first collapses, and you know anyone inside is gone.

–Matthew

Cows are the grass that sways.
Cows are the roads we drive on.
Cows are the great buildings standing tall.
Cows are the stars in the sky.
Cows are life.

–Vannisa