We are bloggers!

Currently, each student in my class hosts a blog on Kidblogs.org.  Kidblogs is a safe and easy blogging site for students.  There are various settings that allow the teacher to manage visibility and access. Each child enters his or her blog with a password.  Students can write blogs, read the posts of their peers and respond with comments.

Originally, I thought that we would use these blogs like we traditionally used Reader’s Notebooks–as a place to discuss our reading history, habits and strategies.  As my students developed their skills in blogging, I saw how the blogs could be a repository for all our thinking.  Now, students use their blogs to post book reviews, respond to text, share  new learning in inquiry projects and ask questions of our blogging community.

My students love to blog and truly view themselves as members of a global blogging community.  In the past few months we’ve received comments and feedback from around the world.  As I thought about all that my students have done with blogs, I wanted to make sure they understood the purpose of blogging.  So, I asked them to reflect on why we blog.

A few responses:

“When you blog, you tell about your work and what you do at school.”

“The reason you blog is so you can share your learning around the Earth.  It’s also very interesting!”

“If you live in another country you could blog, only it would have to be in a different language.”

“You blog in order to learn from other people.”

“A blog is a way you tell friends where they can get info and how to share it.”

“Blogging is sharing information with others!”

These responses showed me that my students do indeed, understand why we blog!  They know that we blog to share information and to learn from others.  They also know that their blogs are a forum for self-expression.  Through blogging they have learned that their thinking and learning matters. They recognize themselves as active agents in a digital  world.  I hope that their current understanding of blogging lays a solid foundation for future explorations in technology.

It’s an exciting time to be a young learner…onward, bloggers!

Regie Routman at IRA 2012

Last Monday I had the great fortune to get to see Regie Routman speak at the IRA conference.  I love Regie’s books, they were some of the very first professional books I ever read.  I was proud to see her presenting from her iPad for the first time and reflective when she showed the perfect “tea house tree house” that was built for her grandchildren. (A full imagination/reading zone and technology free place.)  It was a good reminder that in our techno-centric lives we need to remember to explicitly teach kids how to unplug as well.

I was also really happy to hear her take on the common core.  I feel a lot better about putting these standards in perspective after listening to her, Steph Harvey, and Anne Goudvis.  Districts are clamoring to buy any shiny packaged thing that has the words common core on it.  We need to pull back from that stance and think about what good teaching looks like first.

Regie is now on Facebook and you can find resources on her facebook page.

Vote and Spread the Word!

Five of our students, with guidance from the fabulous Todd Strother, created this amazing video for the Adobe Youth Voices competition.  They are now one of twenty finalists in the international competition.  I am wowed by their sophistication and creativity.  Four of these girls were in my fifth grade class years ago and I am so proud of their growth and work.  This is an amazing use of stop motion video!  Follow the link and “like” them on Facebook to vote for their work.

http://youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/finalists/4f9213bc8d536245570003ef

Why you should have attended Poetry Olio last night

The IRA convention has been full of amazing people, ideas, and exchange of thought. But the learning doesn’t end at 5:45! Last night we had the opportunity to attend our first ever Poetry Olio, a poetry slam like event featuring poets of all walks of life. This event, organized by author-educators Sarah Holbrook and Michael Salinger is one of the best kept secrets of IRA.

Yesterday morning Regie Routman talked about the importance of letting life inspire teaching. Well I can’t think of a more inspirational life event than this. I even took the plunge and read an original poem of my own. I was floored at how supportive the community was and I’m even thinking of working on a poetry book now. (Thanks to author Janet Wong’s advice.)

So next year at IRA make sure you seek out the Olio, you won’t regret it! You’ll probably even have a little fun

#IRA2012

It’s here!  The 57th Annual International Reading Association convention in Chicago, IL.  Things have been so busy lately it really just crept up on us.  But now that it’s here I’m really excited.  I have yet to pour through the fantastically large program to see what I will be catching on Monday and Tuesday.  I think that’s going to require a bigger cup of coffee!

Tuesday morning I’ll be presenting with Kristin and Carolyn Skibba, ADE and tech coordinator, on technology and literacy.  You can see the official description on our conference presentation page.

Our goal is to present a lot of the work that we’ve been doing this year, open up some dialogue on thoughtful uses of technology in literacy instruction, and share some ideas that we think are pretty neat.  If you’re in Chicago please join us 9:00 am on Tuesday morning.

If not you can follow updates on Twitter.  The official hashtag is #IRA2012.

How Did You Use Technology Today?

Today…

my students started their first ever ebook read on their ipads.  They set up a color coding system for thinking notes, important vocabulary, and items to bring to discussion circles.

a student who was absent watched the math lessons from yesterday and was able to catch up in 10 minutes.

students worked out mixed number addition problems using a virtual manipulative app and then took a quick check-in quiz via google forms so that I could track their progress before they moved on to their final assessment, a recording on a whiteboard app that lets me hear their thinking as they solve the problem and narrate.

They read different articles about Ancient Greece and then blogged about what they learned and what they thought of it.

They used Google earth to study the topography of the Mediterranean and Europe.

How did you and your students use technology as a learning tool today?

QR Codes and Anchor Charts in Math

A while back I wrote a post about two great resources for math instructional videos.  I enjoy exposing kids to these instructional videos because it gives them the opportunity to hear other teachers and students explain things.  After much hemming and hawing I’ve found a way to easily and quickly make and integrate my own videos into my classroom.  Although I’ve recently been using Explain Everything I’ve found that the Show Me app actually works better for my math videos.  Essentially it’s the simplest solution with the least amount of time investment on my part.

After a lesson I will do a quick 2-3 minute review video on Show Me.  I then upload this video my Show Me account.  It’s a very simple interface, extremely easy to use, and all you have to do is make a free account.  Using a QR code generator I make a QR code that links directly to the video and then tape it to the anchor chart.  Bam!  Automatic interactive anchor charts.

Because I have limited space, as I take anchor charts down I take the QR code and put it with a title on a board of topics and QR codes.  Even though the chart may be down or buried under other charts students can still access the review learning by just scanning the code with their iPad.  The other benefit is that they can access my Show Me videos from home so if they forget how to do something they can hear me explain it again.

I haven’t tried this with longer lessons but I think for a simple, fast, and effective way to capture snapshots of our teaching to share with students Show Me is a great solution.  You can keep videos private (only those with the link can access) or publish your work to share with other teachers and students around the globe.  Plus it’s free!

New Way to Help Kids Compose Music?

I love David Warlick’s Video-a-Day blog.  He always finds the most amazing and USEFUL videos.  As I was watching this one below it struck me as a particularly useful tool for teaching kids how to better compose music on Garage band.  Visually speaking it mirrors what they see as they work and I think it would really help them break free from the concept that every instrument needs to play all time, beginning to end, as loud as it can.

A Midpoint Inquiry Check in 1st grade

As you may know from Katie’s posts, we are up to our elbows in inquiry circles across the school!  On Friday we will have our once-a-year, doors-wide-open inquiry celebration for grades PK-8.  Get ready…

Currently, I have 10 inquiry circles up and running around Ancient China.  Each circle has 3 students, with the exception of 1 group that has 4, since I have 31 students.  I’ve got kids studying the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Buddhism, education, emperors, marital arts, Terra Cotta Warriors, the zodiac, Silk Road, and food.  There is a lot going on in our classroom!

We’ve asked questions, done research, had minilessons on collaboration and made our work plans. Last Thursday we started to take our thinking public with projects.  Today,  with only a few days left to work, I had my students complete a midpoint “check-in” to assess how it was going.

Using Google forms, I surveyed my students and asked them to complete the following information:

1. Name

2. Topic (Shown as the first column below)

3.Supplies/Materials needed

4.How it was going with their collaboration (on a scale of 1-5)

5. How much work they still had to do (on a scale of 1-5)

6. Which jobs they’ve completed (check all that apply)

7. Are there any issues or concerns you’d like me to know about?

Here are the results:

Google forms provided me with a lot of information in a quick, at-a-glance format.  I was impressed with the detail and nuggets of information my students provided.  From this data collection, I was able to take the information and plan how I would support each group in the coming days.  I even accessed it after school at the craft store to see what I needed to purchase for my students!

Each child completed this form on their iPad.  Once again, I see kids who are inspired to write more when presented with a digital format.  I’ve had my students do midpoint check-ins previously on paper and with pencil; I’ve never received this much information with earlier status checks. I’m thrilled with my students’ ease of interaction and use of digital tools.  I remember what a challenge it was for them to navigate the screen and send an email in October…just look at them now!  Experts at the Google form!

Looking closely at these 2 entries, I can see that both students are confident in their topic and project choice.  The first entry explains that she is “doing a life-size Emperor Chi and he was China’s first emperor.” The child has 2 simple requests (using nice manners)–silk and paint.  Her group’s collaboration is going “so-so,” getting 3/5 points and her work is almost done.  She wasn’t quite sure if there was anything I needed to know about, “Well, I don’t really know if we’re ok…is that fine?” This comment shows me that she is self-monitoring her progress and work flow and is looking for reassurance that she is on track.  Tomorrow I will check-in with her group on their collaboration and let her know that she is on target for completing the project.

The latter entry again provides detail about the silk road project and materials they need to accomplish their work.  This group is having great collaboration (5/5) and his inquiry circle is half way done with the project.  He shows his enthusiasm by announcing in uppercase letters, “WE ARE DOING GREAT!”  Tomorrow I plan to provide the materials requested and encourage them to journey on with their project.

This Google form provides valuable self-assessment information as students monitor their work and collaboration.  This will aide me in completing their inquiry circle rubrics after this cycle ends.

I can’t wait for my students to take their thinking public on Friday!  They are ready to show their thinking and learning.  Get ready Explore More!  Here we come!

Going Public With Learning

This post is part of my series of posts that chronicle a two and half week inquiry project from start to finish.  Here are some other posts in this series.

Explore More: Explaining what it is and the background of the project.

Going Deeper with Questioning: Sparking students’  curiosity using images.

Collaboration: Supporting students’ work in small groups.

Focusing on Process (not just product): Helping students reflect and document the learning process.

Keeping Kids Organized During Inquiry: One way to help students learn about time management and organize their group work.

I usually put off any discussion of final products until the students have had a chance to research and get to know their topics.  Most students will put the cart before the horse on projects and think about what they want to make first.  This can derail their research pretty quick.  I also try to teach students to pick ways to go public that suit the topic or issue they are covering.  This year we gave them a chart that listed a variety of ways they might share information and that described what each way is good for. You’ll have to excuse the typos as I was finishing this on my 20 minute lunch one day!

Each group had a thoughtful conversation about what products they would create for their Presentation. It was a lot easier for them to collaborate around this issue because they were thinking about what would be best for the project and their learning not what each of them personally wanted to do.

 

 

Keeping Kids Organized During Inquiry

This post is part of my series of posts that chronicle a two and half week inquiry project from start to finish.  Here are some other posts in this series.

Explore More: Explaining what it is and the background of the project.

Going Deeper with Questioning: Sparking students’  curiosity using images.

Collaboration: Supporting students’ work in small groups.

Focusing on Process (not just product): Helping students reflect and document the learning process.

Helping students organize themselves and learn time management skills is an essential part of the inquiry process.  This year we gave each group a small report cover filled with essential documents to help them through the process.  It’s very important that students learn these management skills and that we support them in doing so.

Here are the books for the groups that I am managing this year. I've written a brief reminder note on a post-it to each group after reviewing their work for the past few days.

Each “book” starts with a wonder page.  When student groups initially met their first task was to brainstorm a list of questions both big and small.  They add to their page as more questions arise.  This is a great way to give them a daily reminder of the real purpose of their work.  To inquire into topics and questions that THEY find interesting.

This is an example of one group's initial wonder page

We also include a planning calendar for the duration of the inquiry.  This is a great way to teach students how to work on time management skill and helps them collaborate more efficiently.  I ask students to reflect on their calendar periodically during the course of the project to see if their predictions for time allotment were correct.  This helps them to build those skills for their next inquiry.  I model how to fill out these calendars at the beginning of the year.  Because we usually do inquiry work in two or two and half week segments students are used to the pace that they need to work at to get things accomplished.

An example of how one group decided they might spend their time. I love that they have included a day to practice!

As I wrote about in my last post, reflection is a big piece of our work this year.  We spend the last 5-7 minutes of every class reflecting on the day.  This has been really instrumental in helping the students develop their metacognition of the process.  It’s also a great tool for me to do a quick check on any issues or frustrations the groups might have.

Here's an example of one group's reflection form for the day. They've included a fact that hey found shocking as their learning for the day. Certainly they learned more than this, but the goal is to get them to discuss what they learned and decide as a team what to put on the sheet. Clearly this group had a great day collaborating. Not all groups will. This feedback is essential information so that we can inform our teaching for both whole and small group lessons the next day.

Focusing on Process (not just product)

This post is part of my series of posts that chronicle a two and half week inquiry project from start to finish.  Here are some other posts in this series.

Explore More: Explaining what it is and the background of the project.

Going Deeper with Questioning: Sparking students’  curiosity using images.

Collaboration: Supporting students’ work in small groups.

Explore More is a big event that coincides with grandparents day at our school.  It’s easy to feel pressured to focus on the product when you know there will be a live audience.  We really wanted students to think about their process this year and be really thoughtful about the journey they took with their topic.  So, I invented something I’m calling an Inquiry Story.  Yup, that’s right I just went ahead and invented it.  At least I’m pretty sure I did, I haven’t seen any other ones out there.

Anyway, in preparation to create this inquiry story students spend the last 5 minutes of class filling out a reflection form and gathering their artifacts for the day.  These artifacts can be a wide range of things.  Here are some suggestions we gave students.

Next week students will work as a team to put together and narrate their inquiry story in iMovie.  This will be shared on our presentation day so that our visitors can see the process of learning as well as the final product.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

photo credit: markchadwickart via photopin cc

Collaboration!

This post is part of my series on our two and half week inquiry for Explore More.  You can read other posts in the series here and here.

I really wanted to write this post today to demonstrate that things don’t always go perfectly for me either.  Sometimes when I am presenting or showing videos from my class I hear teachers say things like “not with my kids” or “I could never do that.”  The truth is you can, we all can.

Whenever kids work in groups there are days when things go south.  Children need to be explicitly taught how to collaborate.  Although my kiddos have worked in small groups all year and have had many collaboration lessons our Explore More projects this year provide new challenges.  Because we made groups with students from both classes there are kids working together that haven’t had a chance to work together at all, maybe ever.  This has been both a wonderful surprise for some groups and a bit of a shock for others.  But a good teacher knows that students will need support with collaboration and issues are bound to arise.  Don’t get frustrated, teach them!

Today I should have taken my own advice.

I have one group that is really struggling.  There are two students who are like oil and water.  If one says left the other says right.  If one says up the other says down.  I really didn’t anticipate this at all.  Now, one of these students I am very familiar with and I know that this student has had trouble in the past.  Compromise is a word that really needs to be added to their vocabulary.  I have to admit that today when I saw a sulking face I was pretty irritated.  How many times do I have to teach this student to compromise?  How many lessons will it take?  How many more times will I have to step in and mediate a conflict or suggest options that can make everyone happy?  The answer is…

As many as it takes.  So, after I walked away to think on this group I went back and I taught them again.  I prompted them with questions.  I pushed for compromise.  In the end we found a solution that made everyone somewhat happy and the group resolved to communicate with each other in the future instead of shutting down.

I don’t think it will be smooth sailing for this group from here on out.  But I hope it will be smoother.  Working in teams is a part of life and we all have to find ways to work with people we don’t always get along with.  These skills and strategies will last them a life time.  So when I feel annoyed I have to remember my own mantra, “don’t get frustrated, teach them!”  After all, that is my job.

photo credit: lumaxart via photopin cc

A Big Day for Big Learning! Active Agents in a Digital World!

What a great day in first grade! We had a big day of learning and saw exactly how our thinking matters in the larger community. Way to live a curious life first graders!

Each Wednesday we follow Wonderopolis.org and engage in our “Wonder Wednesday” challenge. We view recent wonders posted to the website and then create our own blog posts, either responding to Wonderopolis or sharing our own wonderings.

This site has become a classroom favorite and kids now visit it throughout the week. On Friday, one student was thinking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day and asked, “Are leprechauns real?”

As we pondered the question, someone said, “Hey! I know! Let’s send the question to Wonderopolis.” So we did. I modeled how to submit a question on my iPad and projected it for the class to see. We submitted our question and then several students submitted additional wonders to the Wonderopolis website.

Well on Saturday morning, you can imagine how THRILLED I was when I checked my Twitter feed and saw the Wonder of the Day.

I could hardly wait for my students to enter the building! As soon as they came in, I had them get their iPads and go straight to the website. When my class saw Wonder #531 the room erupted in squeals! Such joy! Total amazement! What a feeling of empowerment!

I have been teaching my kids all year that they need to live a curious life. Ask questions. Seek answers. Look for deeper meaning. Have a set of resources that can help you find the answers to your questions. Access experts in your every day life.

 

Today Wonderopolis gave them a foundational experience for what it feels like to be a digital citizen and member of the global learning community. My kids have now experienced curiosity and the “search curriculum.” They are inspired to ask again and are moved to let the world know their thinking matters! Today they truly believe that others are interested in their ideas and the thoughts and questions they have to share.

After celebrating this milestone, my students got right to working letting people know that their wonder had been answered. Nearly every child posted a new blog announcing the “big news.” Six students created iMovies with student interviews and screen shots from Wonderopolis. Four children created instructional eBooks on how to use Wonderopolis and another is currently working on a Keynote to share with the kindergarten class.

THIS is the type of thinking and learning that matters.

My students know how to ask, use and share information. They can name and employ tools to document their thinking and take it public to teach others. They are active agents in their own curriculum development and they confidently promote learning.

What more could a teacher ask for?

THANK YOU Wonderopolis for making this monumental day of learning possible.

I know that this experience has changed my students as digital citizens and will serve as a catalyst for future learning. Three cheers for Wonderopolis and the curious kids in Room 106!

Going Deeper with Questioning

A few posts back I wrote about starting our Explore More projects.  Over the last few days Michelle and I have been guiding the students in coming up with a wide variety and range of questions to spark their interests.

First we put together a slide show with a variety of images.  I showed students all images set to music and then they went back and were able to access them on their iPads.  Students worked in partners to brainstorm questions and add them onto a collaborative Google doc between the two classes.  (They loved working on something with the other 5th grade!)

Here is a screenshot so you can see some of the types of questions they came up with.  Our original plan was to create an interest form from this, but after looking at the questions we decided that the students needed a little guidance going deeper.  So our next step was a whole class discussion.

Each student had the images and google form up on their iPad and we began to put together an anchor chart with “Big” questions and topics.  If students suggested a small question we helped them categorize it into a larger topic.

We still felt like they needed a little more time.  So, we then took those big questions and put them on big paper for a graffiti board.  Over the course of the afternoon students stopped by the graffiti board to fill in additional questions and follow up questions.  This is our final product.

 

Now we were ready!  We created a preference form using Google forms and each student indicated their level of interest in the various topics.  Here are a few screenshots of the form we used.  It turned out to be quite large since the kids came up with so many great inquiry questions!

Once students from both classes filled out the form.  I used the conditional formatting function to color code their responses.  Then I sat down with the other fifth grade teacher and our special education teacher and we grouped kids based on their interests, making some crucial decisions along the way.

Conditional formatting lets you color code text or background based on the occurrence of specific words or numbers in a field.

Although it took us a few more days than we had planned we felt really good about the depth and range of questions that students came up with.  We also felt that since they spent a lot of time with the questioning phase they were better able to develop their own sense of wonder around these topics and zero in on what they were really, really interested in!

Mulling Over Blogging

I’ve written many posts about my journey with my students and blogging.  Most recently I gave students a survey about their thoughts and ideas on this topic.  This year my students have made huge progress in their ability to think and write about books.  The amount of writing they do is far more than they would have ever done in a notebook and we’ve been able to build an online presence for our classroom community.  We’ve opened our blogs to the outside world and had comments from authors, other students, and teachers. The fifth graders have even started supporting their first grade friends efforts by reading and commenting on their blogs.

One of the things that I did towards the beginning was to try and give students a structure.  Their initial blog posts were short and very casual.  Then they began writing “book reviews.”  Next, they started exploring how to include their thinking about the book.  (This is where some students still reside.)  Now, several students are starting to experiment with voice and point of view.  While I’m glad I gave them the structure to help them learn to not just summarize and start to really have a conversation I think they and I are ready for more.

The truth is the structure feels “schoolified.”  I want students to feel like they can experiment and explore, discover their voice, and use their blog as a place to connect with the world.  My next steps are to find some great mentor posts for them to study and use as a way to regain some of their creativity!  If you have one please leave it in the comments below.

photo credit: Mexicanwave via photopin cc

It’s That Time of Year Again….Explore More!

Explore More is upon us.  If you’d like a little background you can read some of my posts from last year’s Explore More where we did Literature Inquiries.

• Getting Into Beyond the Book Inquiry
• Organizing for Inquiry
• Knee Deep in It
• Explore More Day

This year Nash and I (Nash is my teaching partner) decided that we would put a theme out there and then have both classes generate inquiry around our theme.

We have several units that connect to this theme: Da Vinci in the Renaissance, Myths of Greeks and Romans, and then there’s that whole unit they do on forces of flight.  Of course as soon as we got going on this idea we thought…is there enough for 60 kids?

So Tuesday, on our launching day, we’ll be helping students to generate the widest variety of questions related to our theme.  To do this we are creating an image file with pictures from any aspect of flight we can think of; snowboarders, balloons, kites, gymnasts, machines, rockets, circus performers, birds, feathers….you get the idea.  Then students from both classes will collaborate on a Google Doc to record all of their questions.  The approach with this is simple.  Find compelling images and select them in order to stimulate divergent thinking.  Ask only three simple questions:

1. What do you see?
2. What does it make you think?
3. What questions do you have?

Let the students do the rest.  Because they have done this before they will likely dig right in, although we will still model how use these question and how to navigate to the Google Doc and enter them.

Once we see where they are going we’ll help them organize the questions, pull out groups and have students submit a Google form to let us know which Inquiry questions they want to study.  Students will then be grouped based on interest across both classes.  Pretty cool!

Out of the mouths of babes…

On Friday we celebrated Read Across America with a pajama party.  All students were invited to wear their pajamas and slippers to school and to bring a favorite stuffed animal as their reading buddy.

As many of you know, my classroom is deeply immersed in a poetry unit.  We’ve studied a wide variety of poetry strategies and employ them daily in our writing. As we gathered on the rug for our writer’s workshop share, suddenly one child yelled.

“Oh my gosh you guys!  My pajamas are covered with onomatopoeia!”

As he held his arms wide and smiled, I looked down and indeed, his pajamas were covered with onomatopoeia!

Thank you very much Marvel comics!

All the kids in the classroom gathered around the child to see the pajamas and read the onomatopoeia. Students congratulated the child on his amazing poetry pajamas! It was a beautiful moment for everyone in the room.

“I can’t believe it! I wear these all the time and I never even noticed the onomatopoeia until right now!” the child exclaimed.

What a great feeling to see a student living our learning.  It made my day!

The Lions of Little Rock

Linda B from the Slice of Life Challenge introduced me to this little meme.  It’s hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.

I just picked up this book called The Lions of Little Rock and I haven’t been able to put it down.  It’s a masterfully crafted story about the year after the Little Rock Nine took place.  In the author’s note Kristin Levine writes about how when she began research for this book she initially wanted to have it take place during 1957 when the Central High School was first integrated.  But, when she began to interview people they mostly talked about the year after that 1958 when all the schools closed down to prevent integration.  So she decided to place her characters in 1958 instead.

The main character Marlee is shy to the point where she doesn’t speak to people outside of the family.  Her brother has gone to college and her sister is being sent away so that she can attend school.  Marlee struggles to socialize in school but when  a new girl comes that all changes.  Marlee has a real friend in Liz and then one day Liz disappears.  The rumor is that she was a colored girl “passing” for white.

This is a story about overcoming great obstacles, about doing the right thing instead of the easy thing.  It is masterfully told through the eyes of this young girl who struggles to understand why no one wants her to keep her one true friend.  Levine has captured a very real story.  I can’t wait to pick up her other book The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had.

This book would make a great book club book for fifth and sixth graders.

Poetry on the iPads, Part 2

I have been waiting all day to write this post!  We had another wonderful week writing poetry in first grade.  As I watched my students this week, nearly all children made attempts to compose on the iPad.

The children who had explored line breaks and revision last week deepened their understanding of these skills.  Using mentor texts in class, I showed them poems that had shape or used line breaks in an unusual fashion, like to form stair steps. Below, this child modeled her line breaks off a poem she read that formed the text of the poem into the letter V.  Here, she attempts to model that as each line gets shorter in length forming a funnel down the page.

Another child modeled their writing off the stair-step mentor text.  Differing slightly, as one can see in the piece below, the child attempted the steps to progress in a backwards direction. The intensity and importance of the words “it will grow” shines through as each word is provided its own line and space to communicate the message.

As we often see, kids who are innovators, like those who suggested creating poetry on the iPad, often turn into mentors for other students.  I saw this take place many times throughout the week.  Initially, they mentored their peers on technology management–how to copy an image, how to paste an image into the document, which apps to use and how to move the cursor to insert a line break.  As the days passed, they inspired their peers to “have a go” and make attempts at writing on the iPad.  A reluctant writer was moved to create this wonderful  poem on Laptops and inserted the strategy attempted (repetition).

As more and more students created poems on the iPad, the role of the student mentors shifted to that of revision partners.  My students asked these early innovators for advice on where to split their lines, suggestions for powerful words and modes for formatting their writing to communicate a message.  Recognizing the powerful impact that reciprocal teaching can have on learning and long-term retention of information, I was thrilled to see my students engaging in such a manner!

This week I introduced inference and shared how poets oftentimes make their readers infer what they want them to know.  We looked at Eloise Greenfield’s poems Things and Rope Rhyme as mentors.  Most students understood the strategy and attempted it in their writing as seen below.

Things I noticed as students created their poetry on the iPad:

My students created their poems in several different formats.  I had not suggested, “If you want to write a poem on your iPad, do it in Pages.”  Therefore, as students began to write, they chose a format that met their needs as a learner and writer.  My kids chose to use Pages, eBook Magic, StoryKit, Keynote, and Notes to create their text.  Similarly, they also varied in the tools they chose for illustrating, however, most used Drawing Pad or Doodle Buddy.

I believe that by providing them choice in their mode for creation, students were able to personalize their learning experience.  They used a format they were comfortable with.  They had authority over the outcome of the project.  Their design aesthetic and sense of style was present throughout the piece and this enhanced their ownership of the poem. As they viewed different products when we shared, they were also introduced to new formats and were provided additional ideas for their next writing attempts.

I also felt that these poems synthesized our learning across the school day.  We’ve investigated poetry in both reading and writing workshop.  We’ve studied artistic techniques designing classroom murals and inquiry projects.  We’ve identified our audience and layered our technology skills across the year. NOW we see it all come together.  These poems–the art, the word choice, the format and the voice–provide a special window into each child as a learner.  They give a peek at their personality, their interests and their dreams.  These poems share who we are and hint of where we are going. My students are truly learning to use poetry to communicate their message.

I’m not sure if this child’s intent was to represent our classroom community, but on a Friday afternoon, I like to think of that as a possibility.

We do live in small world.  It’s very important.  And I think my students are showing with their poetry just how important that world can be.