Writing to the Kid President

I have been working on developing a stronger classroom community this year. My current students are challenging because their personalities are all strong and unique. I found a common interest that they have and I thought I would use it to build some positive relationships toward this end stretch of the year. Since this common interest is from a somewhat mainstream and pop-culture person their own age, I knew it would hook my students.

My students enjoy watching the Kid President videos. So I created a writing lesson which allowed them to write a list of ideas with him as their audience. We watched his video 20 Things We Should Say More Often (click on the title to view the link). Then students wrote their own lists of things they think people should say more often.

If you watch the end of the video, you will see that Kid President adds in a bonus idea that people should dance more. My students and I decided that at the end of the day we could dance if 5 people are on outstanding at the top of the behavior chart and no more than 5 people are at the bottom of the behavior chart.
 
Here are some of the ideas that appear on our list, Things We Wish People Would Say More Often:

 

 

 

And just like Kid President, a couple of students made a Bonus item on their lists:

 

 

Yes, written above are the lyrics to Boom Boom Pow by The Blackeyed Peas!! Below you will see the lyrics to the song What the Fox Says!!

 

Hooked on Art

I used the Picasso Hook from Teach Like a Pirate to activate my students' creativity during Reading Workshop. When they arrived at my Literacy Block, there were piles of yellow and black paper on their tables. They had glue and scissors in their supply buckets. I simply told them to create a bee. I did not give them patterns or examples. I made one too under the document camera so that my reluctant artists could have a model.

I had the students hang their bees on the cupboards to create a swarm. We talked about what a swarm of bees might sound like and then mimicked the sound. This led into my focus lesson on creating a buzz about books. Students learned how to share their ideas about what makes books so wonderful to read. We discussed how to recommend a book to other readers.

I think this hook was a success because the students worked efficiently and successfully. The most overheard comment was, "I can't believe we get to do art and it's not even Art class." This did make me sad. I know that I am so focused on the standards I need to cover and the student growth I need to show by May that I do need to remember they are only 8 years old and need to have fun. Teach Like a Pirate has helped me put fun back into my teaching!

Repurposing Battered Books

Instead of throwing away books that have been taped, glued, and taped again...

 

Cut them apart and use them to make anchor charts!  I created this anchor chart from a well-read copy of a Magic School Bus book.

Suitcase Story

I have an old suitcase I got at a yard sale.  I fill it with items and books that all relate to a common topic, usually from my Social Studies lesson.  Students examine the objects and books in the suitcase. They pretend they are the person who uses this suitcase. Then they write a postcard to their friends or family telling them about where they have been traveling and what they have been doing on their travels. Remind students to describe the climate, landforms, and bodies of water they may have seen. The books in the suitcase will help students decide what pictures to draw on the front of the postcard. You will want to include examples of postcards for students to use as samples.

Post Office

Letter writing is becoming a lost art.  This center gives students the opportunity to write cards or letters to friends and family members.  They can make their own cards or use ones that I provide for them.  They learn how to address an envelope. They get to be artistic and design stamps for the envelope. This center gives students exposure to artistic, linguistic, and interpersonal skills.  I placed all of the materials in a Priority Mail Box to make it authentic!

I put junk mail in this center for students to read which is another authentic purpose.  Sometimes I switch it up a little bit and attach question stems to the junk mail fliers.  Students can also do sorting activities with the junk mail based on author's purpose.

I also included some books that use letter writing to tell their story. One unexpected outcome of this center is that if you include thank you cards, the students begin writing them for each other which ends up being very positive for your classroom community!

Front and Center

During my sixeen years of teaching, I have designed numerous literacy centers with cross-curricular activities. With the implementation of Common Core Standards upon us, my district has looped back to a balanced literacy approach.  I have heard whisperings of Four Blocks in the office of my school's Literacy Facilitator and I am excited. 

I participated in a book study of Barbara Blackburn's Rigor is Not a Four Letter Word and was motivated to increase the higher level-thinking students could enage in during center activities. During the study I learned to make centers authentic and give students a reason for learning. You should offer projects that stimulate open-ended thinking and provide the opportunity to work with difficult text and ideas. In addition, rigor should be personally and emotionally challenging. Rigor creates self-confidence and perseverance. After reading Blackburn's book I thought that rigor could be implemented by combining it with Marzano's levels of thinking. I revamped some of my typical centers after reading Robert Marzano's Classroom Instruction that Works. Several of my activities utilize Marzano's question stems.

Students think my centers are fun.  My adminstration finds them educational, organized, differentiated, authentic, and purposeful.  I will share how I organize my centers, my record-keeping methods, my student accountability record sheet, and the curriculum links. 

Let me begin by first listing some of the Common Core Standards addressed within my centers:

R.L. 3.1 Ask and answer questions
R.L. 3.3 Describe characters and how actions contribute to sequence of events
R.L. 3.10 Comprehend text independently

R.I. 3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words
R.I. 3.5 Use text features to locate information
R.I. 3.7 Use information from illustrations to understand text

R.F. 3.3 Know and apply phonics and word analysis
R.F. 3.3c Decode multi-syllabic words
R.F. 3.3d Distinguish between similarly spelled words
R.F. 3.4 Read accurately and fluently


W. 3.2 Write informative/explanatory text
W. 3.3 Write narratives