You've Got Mail!

"It's that time of year when the world falls in love; every sound you hear seems to say"...Happy Valentine's Day! We are talking about letters and I don't mean those ABC's. Some may think that "snail mail" is an out-of-date way to communicate, but the effort it takes to write letter and put it in the mail can speak volumes to the person who receives it. Just ask a grandma who gets a letter from their grandchild, a loved one who receives a get well soon letter, or a company that receives a letter of complaint about one of their products.

Letters have been studied to learn about the way of life in other cultures, to tell stories, and to reveal more about historical events. They are a very powerful tool and learning how to write one is a skill we should not ignore. Sure email is faster and more convenient, but the eloquence and meaningfulness of a letter is invaluable.

In Kindergarten we talk a lot about why we send letters to begin with. The kids came up with a long list of different types of letters you can send. I miss you, love letters, feel better, thank you, great job, and several more were discussed. Next we talk about the parts of a letter. I always use a personal example to examine and pick apart. This time I used a thank you letter to a good family friend as my example. We learned about the greeting, or salutation, the body, and the closing. We will also talk about the addresses to put on the envelope. Immediately the kids started writing. Of course, our friend Conor who moved away over the winter break was the intended recipient of quite a few letters, but the kids also wanted to write to grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. Some kids even wanted to write to their pets. I love these kids!

100th Day of School

What a great day we had yesterday! To celebrate the 100th Day of School, all of Kindergarten began the day with a glorious parade of 100 Day t-shirts that kids made at home. There were some very creative ideas! Then the students spent the day rotating to all the different classrooms and doing activities centered around 100th Day.

Since I was on maternity leave at this time last year this was my first experience with 100th Day. I should say up front that I will never again do what I chose to do with the kids this year. My bright idea after sorting through boxes of choices was to do 100 exercises with the kids. It didn't dawn on me that I wouldn't be doing 100 exercises, but 5 times that amount. By the end of the day yesterday I had completed 500 exercises and more, because after 2 classes were through I decided to add 100 seconds of exercises to compare the two experiences. What was I thinking?!

The other Kindergarten teachers had been through this gauntlet before so they knew better than I. One classroom had 100 Day Books, another had 100 Fruit Loops Necklace, another had 100 Dots on a Dalmatian, and the last classroom had a 100th Day Hat.

We counted to 100 and back again by 1's, 2's, and 10's. We made different groups to make 100 like 4 groups of 25, 2 groups of 50, and 10 groups of 10. The kids got to wish for 100 things, think about what they'd like to 100 of, pretend what they will look like when they are 100, and 100 other things. This is not just a celebration of the number 100, but a realization that we've already come so far in these 100 days of school. What more will we learn in the next 77?

I've Changed My Mind. Assessments Aren't That Bad

It's that dreaded assessment time again and despite my usual disregard for this part of my profession I somewhat enjoy the results that I begin to see at this time of year. Everyone makes progress and on the rare occasion when a student hasn't quite made the cut-off for a particular assessment, they've usually made progress from where they were when they started the year. What's better, though, is the learning I'm seeing in small groups, large group, and conversations with the kids. What a great feeling! The kids are growing into great readers and writers; not to mention their math skills. Above it all I love seeing the way they are learning to love learning.

Back on the Wagon

So it's been since October that I posted. Hmm...I could contribute that to the busy holiday season, or just plain laziness. Well, it's now January and time for those wonderful New Year's Resolutions. Most of my resolutions have to do with dedication. In that vein I am going to post more frequently. Since the purpose of this blog is to inform and communicate I'd like to know what you would like to know more about; curriculum, reading, writing, math, science, classroom procedures and routine, testing, helping the kids at home, or any old questions you might have concerning the education of 5 and 6 year olds? Make a comment below and I'll do my best to answer questions or address your topics of choice. Thanks!

A Day with Matt Glover

On Thursday I spent the day with Matt Glover who has written a couple of books about kindergarten writers. Already Ready is a book he collaborated on with Katie Wood Ray who wrote About the Authors on which we base our writer's workshop format. Matt has been a teacher of young children, a director of an early childhood school, and his writing focuses on young children. He is what I would call an expert on growing young writers. There are three things he talked about that I would like to share with you; honoring approximations, nudging vs. pushing, and reading like a writer.



My students are 5 and 6 year olds, and while they are very smart I have to remember that they've only been alive 1/6 the time that I have. That means that I've had 6 times the experiences, learning, and time to get to where I am right now. I expect them to write and spell like 5 and 6 year olds and not like an expert. A lot of times even grown ups don't write and spell like experts. Very few adults I know can bang out a new text and have no spelling or grammar errors. While kids are writing I don't want the fear of messing up to stop them from writing. I want them to feel comfortable enough with their own abilities to try any word they've heard. Then after they feel like they can try risks and their writing shows their willingness to try without the fear of mistakes I can find teaching points within their writing and give them little nudges.

Nudging writers is seeing what they are "using but confusing" in their writing. For example, if I see a kid is putting periods all over the place I can use that as a teaching point and we'll practice using a period only at the end of a sentence. Compared to a push, nudges are within the kids' comfort zones and it's something they are going to be able to do successfully, maybe with teacher's guidance at first, but then independently.

I am so lucky. When I came back on Tuesday I asked all of my kids if they felt like writers. They ALL raised their hands and said that they all felt like writers. This is a huge advantage! With these writers we can go ahead and keep reading like writers. We can notice what professional authors do in their books and try to use it in our own writing. Some of the things we'll be observing in books this year are onomatopoeia, the language of writers, listing books vs. story books, how the writers use the words to show feelings, and so much more. Now should I be worried that when I asked if the kids thought I was a writer they all said no? Might need to work on that.

Assessments: Why I Loathe and Love Them

It's assessment time and I have been assessing my test off (switch the words around... it's OK to groan). OS scores and DRA's and more OH MY! Teachers this time of year are ready to pull their hair out, but with the little time and energy we have left for anything other than testing our hair is falling out on it's own. With the humidity lately it's hard to tell, but the ponytail is skinnier than it used to be. Wish I could say the same for other things. Moving on.

Formal tests are a necessary evil, but why?

Shouldn't informal, fly-by assessments do the trick and tell us what we need to know about the kids' development and future teaching points? Yes and no. The effort we put forth at this time of year to meet with each student individually and run through the battery of tests which a group of bureaucrats deemed important (I love that part!) actually force us to check and recheck what we know about each particular child's literacy development. Every year I am actually surprised to find one or two darling children who are lacking in one or two areas when through observation and conversations with them during our literacy block I would never have thought they needed help in that particular area. Time invested now also pays off later in the year when we can fly through the testing once - or twice - more and see that our teaching has taken hold and the students are progressing. We can also see who isn't and begin the necessary interventions so no one is left behind.
All sarcasm put aside it is nice to have hard data in my hands so I know specifically what pieces I need to focus on so all go forward. At least we can use the Observation Survey created by Marie Clay. I've heard through the grapevine that other school districts use assessments that are much less meaningful in showing what needs to be taught and they end up using the OS anyway.
Here's a brief explanation from a Reading Recovery website. http://www.readingrecovery.org/reading_recovery/accountability/observation/index.asp
Throughout the year I will also do informal assessments with kids in flexible groups to see if they are progressing. This is another argument for the success of formal assessments. I can call groups of kids to meet with me by looking at exactly what they need. Say most of the class has mastered the connection between letters and sounds except for about 4 or 5 kids. I know exactly who they are and what sounds they are having problems with so I can really focus my lesson on what they have and what they need. No time is wasted and the kids get an individualized lesson. Win - win!
Yes, to complete these assessments is a huge investment of time and energy (and the Diet Coke consumption is no joke), but in the end the information I can get from the data is invaluable to my teaching and the differentiation for the students.

Retelling

We are now studying Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales. During this unit of study we practice retelling stories quite a bit. Why is retelling important? Retelling is a core component of comprehension. Reading without comprehending, or understanding what is read, is basically decoding. When retelling a story we focus on the story elements, details of the story, and making sure all the events are in order. When reading with your child ask what their favorite part was and then what happened after their favorite part. Ask about the characters in the book, where the characters were, or what they were doing. For higher level thinking ask what would happen if a character was missing or the setting would change. Reading is always better when you understand what is going on.