The assignment for their first posts was about friendship and they had to respond to the following questions:  What qualities do you look for in a friend? What are some responsibilities that you have toward your friends? If friendship were a color, what color would it be for you? How are you a good friend to other people? What’s your favorite thing to do with a friend?

At 8:00am they arrived to school bouncing off the walls and in full costume.  We had 3 of the 4 Beatles, a ladybug, a birthday present, Indiana Jones, and so on.  By 8:20 I was reminding them that the parade was not until 10:00 and we that we needed them to calm down and cooperate.  Now I was having serious misgivings about doing anything academic.

At 8:30, half of the class went to science and the other half followed me (dressed as Bob the Builder) into our smaller room down the hall.  They were very excited when I told them to each get a laptop because we would be writing our first blog posts.  I gave directions while demonstrating on my new smartboard and set them to work.  I walked around between the tables to monitor their progress and to be available for tech assistance.  As I walked around I realized very quickly that it was totally silent except for the sound of fingers tapping on the keyboards.  Here were thirteen 8 and 9-year old kids in full costume, working, focused, engaged, happy.  It was an awesome sight.  I was further amazed when almost half of them completed the post before time was up.  I was only requiring 4 sentences, but that can take an eternity for a child who is new to typing.

Now our classroom blog is up and running!  Please click here to see The View From 3rd Grade or click the link to the right under the “Additions” menu.  The 3rd graders are excited and ready to receive comments from you.  Drop on in for a visit!

Earlier this week, Vinnie Vrotny, my friend and colleague asked me to send him a lesson that I created using my TabletPC and the smart cart projector on my floor. He explained that he wanted to use it to show at our school auction in order to share how Lower School teachers are using newer technology. At first I was very nervous about this idea, but I have decided to jump straight into this with both feet by using a new technology tool called Jing to share this with the parent community.

First I must go back in time to an earlier post . . .

Their homework assignment sheet looked like this . . . and this. Just a normal Microsoft Word document

Then I imported the text from the document into Microsoft Journal. This is an application on the TabletPC that allows you to write using a stylus. SinceI never have and never will be a great typist, I have enjoyed using this program for writing and projecting brainstorming sessions (like when we voted on names for the class gerbil) and for teaching cursive.

By importing the text into Journal I could model what I expected the 3rd graders to write. We watched a scene from the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When the short scene was over, the kids recalled what was said, what the characters did as they spoke, and how they felt throughout the scene.

When they brought their homework back the next day, I first let them share what they wrote if they wanted to. The kids were very eager and as they shared I mentally selected “good candidates” for writing out the scene with all of the parts in one paragraph.

Here was a scene that a student shared from the movie The Parent Trap. We began our class rewrite with some of the dialogue she wrote down. Next we chose a sentence that explained the setting of the scene. Then came more dialogue and we inserted some action for the character, Hallie. The class decided to put in some of what Annie, Hallie’s twin, was feeling. Then we concluded the paragraph with Annie’s final statement and some more action.

What we ended up with was a paragraph that would give a reader a clear picture of what is going on in the scene.

The 3rd graders used this and other lessons to help them write their fiction stories which were presented at our annual “Hot Chocolate House.”

Parents and alumni, thank you for supporting the teachers and students by coming out the the “Green B. Lounge!”

Listen to two people talking (either live or on T.V.) for a few minutes. Watch what they do with their hands, face, and body. Notice whether they listen to each other, talk over each other, or hesitate before they speak. What do they say? What do they do as they speak? What do you think they are feeling during this conversation?

The kids then shared their homework (if they wanted to – and many did) with the rest of the class. Below is an example of a student that watched a scene from the movie “Parent Trap.”

What do they say?

“Hallie, we got a major problem, said Annie. “Dad is in love with a different girl! You and Mom need to come to California.”
What do they do as they speak?

Annie is talking to Hallie on the phone. Hallie goes into her closet to talk because she doesn’t want to be heard. Annie is talking on the phone and hiding in the bathroom.

What do you think they are feeling during this conversation?

Annie doesn’t know what to do.

Next, we created a paragraph that included the setting, dialogue, emotions, and action all mixed together.

“Hallie, we got a major problem, “said Annie. Annie is talking to Hallie on the phone. “Dad, is in love with a different girl!” Hallie goes into her closet to talk because she doesn’t want to be heard. Annie doesn’t know what to do. “You and Mom need to come to California,” said Annie. She is talking on the phone and hiding in the bathroom.

I was able to use my TabletPC and Microsoft Journal to project this on the board for them. This way I could also use various colors for each type of sentence (dialogue, emotion, etc.). In this way, we were able to see how pure dialogue can be expanded into a short, descriptive scene by adding these details.

Here is a screen capture of the journal page.

As I travel through this unit logging my experience, please also check out my wikispace for updates. I will eventually be posting all of my assignments there while I use this blog for reflections.

Stay tuned for the next writing adventure . . .

On Monday I told my 3rd graders, “You have shown us that you are really great writers by all your work on personal narratives this fall. We think you are ready for fiction writing.”

Their answer??? “YAY!!!” (That is one really cool thing about 3rd graders, they love new challenges. Older kids do not get nearly as excited about things like multiplication, cursive, homework, and spelling tests.)

Now I will be implementing the new writing curriculum that I created during my summer curriculum grant. One of the reasons I started this blog was to connect with other teachers globally to discover how others tackle creative writing with their students (for more read my post “Growing and Trying New Things”). Although I have not been able to share ideas in the way I had visioned, I am excited to use this blog as a way to reflect on how this experiment turns out.

The first part of this unit is called “Observing Like a Writer,” which is a chapter title of the book I read this summer called Writing the Whole Story by Karen Jorgensen. (For a more complete look at the curriculum as it evolves check out the wikispace I have created with all my notes.  I would love feedback!) We have just begun to study dialogue. The kids need to be taught that characters talk to show action, intention, and emotion. Here is their first homework assignment:

Listen to two people talking (either live or on T.V.) for a few minutes. Watch what they do with their hands, face, and body. Notice whether they listen to each other, talk over each other, or hesitate before they speak. What do they say? What do they do as they speak? What do you think they are feeling during this conversation?

I am looking forward to what they come up with.

However, there were often obstacles to being able to save this shared information in any meaningful way. I have sometimes stopped calling on kids because I have run out of whiteboard space – not because they have run out of ideas. Or what about the times when I had to erase for the next lesson before I had time to copy down what was written? To counter against this, I have used chart paper for recording ideas, but then the large pieces of paper are hard to store long term.

Today I led a brainstorming session using Microsoft Journal, a smart cart, and my new Tablet PC. Now I could write their ideas down and click for a new page if I needed more space. I could project what I was writing on the board so they could all see it. Then I showed them how I could convert the writing into text so I could insert it into our Friday Newsletter, turn it into a poster for the room, or just to save for another day.

I was afraid that the technology would distract them from getting into the writing activity, but they had the same great ideas they would have had if I had written them on the board instead. Now I would be able to catalog their ideas in ways I couldn’t before.

But, to be perfectly honest, the best part was how excited the kids were about doing it this way. And who can blame them? Thank you to my school for getting me this great teaching toy . . . OOPS . . . I mean teaching tool.

Do you teach fiction writing in your classroom? 

If so, what pieces do your kids create?

In my class, my kids write a free choice story for Hot Chocolate House, and we Native American legends.  We also write poems in the spring. All other pieces are personal narratives or journaling.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

I started here an as assistant teacher in 3rd grade, filling in for someone who had left to do her student teaching. Next I assisted in JK (junior kindergarten), 2nd grade, 4th grade, and back to 3rd again. All of this time, I was preparing for a move up to head teacher, and I was honored enough to make that move up here! Last year, I co-taught as a head teacher in 2nd grade. This year I am also co-teaching, but I have moved up with my class to 3rd grade. This is wild because I am co-teaching with the wonderful teacher who I assisted that first spring of 1997, and the transition has been seamless.

So with all of those years gaining experience in various grades, meeting some wonderful children, and facing some tough challenges, I am ready to embark on a new quest this summer.

Last year, our school began funding summer curriculum grants. The idea is that teachers could be paid to spend some vacation time developing curricula that would be implemented in the following school year. The benefit to teachers (beside the extra funds) is that you are given the gift of uninterrupted time with colleagues to do creative work. The benefit to the school is that new and innovative ideas are being infused into our curricula, and teachers are growing and learning new things. It also gives you the opportunity to get to know other teachers better, which builds community.

The teachers who were awarded grants last summer were invited to present what they had done at an all-school faculty meeting after winter break. It was so inspiring, but also very intimidating! I knew that I wanted to work on something this summer, but what and with whom? During this time, my 3rd graders had begun a fiction writing unit. After doing personal narrative writing all fall, they were ready to spread their creative wings and were very excited! The culmination of the unit is the Hot Chocolate House. We set up the 3rd grade classroom to look like a coffee house from the 1960s. The kids dress as beatniks and we snap our fingers as kids present excerpts from their stories on the small stage standing in front of a microphone. It is great fun.

Anyway, I was having a lot of trouble editing some of the kids’ stories. As I read more of them, it hit me that kids today do not take their sense of narrative from reading good literature, but instead from T.V., social-networking websites, video games, etc. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. We have always had the occasional child who wants to write a Pokemon story, but this year there seemed to be more stories like these than ever before. What was wrong with them? Characters popped in and out without introduction, description, or relevance to the main problem of the story. Events were disjointed from each other, lacking transition and explanation. Inanimate objects appeared for humorous purposes and made no sense to the reader. Some of the stories read like . . . well, like story frames for one of the new shows you can find on “Cartoon Network.” Cute and funny, but not much to say. Well, it didn’t take me too long before I knew this unit was what I needed to work on this summer.

While I was figuring this out, my co-teacher and the 2nd grade head teacher had already been discussing implementing a writing program called Units of Study for Primary and Intermediate Writers, a series of books written by Lucy Caulkins. My co-teacher had already been to a writing conference in which she presented, and came back very inspired to try changing our curriculum. We had already been using her idea of “small moment writing” in the fall with our class, and the 2nd grade teacher was also ready to try this program with her class as well. Lucy Caulkins is at the top of her field, but she doesn’t introduce fiction writing until 6th grade in her curriculum. While we understand and respect her choices for doing this, we believe that we would be denying our young children some great opportunities for expressing their imaginative ideas. Consider how much your imagination changed from lower school to middle school!

So the three of us joined forces to develop a curriculum that would balance fiction and non-fiction writing for grades 2 and 3. We had to write a lengthy proposal, and we were awarded a grant to spend some time this together summer on our writing units.

I got a great book that I have just started reading called The Whole Story: Crafting Fiction in the Upper Elementary Grades by Karen Jorgensen. There are some great tips which I will share on this blog in future posts. But, the main reason that I have created this blog is so I can begin to network with other elementary teachers on a global scale. I am hoping to start gathering answers to questions as we meet to discuss this topic in cyberspace.