You've Got To Meet WALTER!

Hello all!
I came across this link at Scholastic.com  http://blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2011/03/analyzing-characters-with-walter.html and am busily introducing WALTeR to the teachers and students at my school.  W.A.L.T.eR is a handy acronym to remember how characters' Words, Actions, Looks, Thoughts and Responses help us provide support for our thoughts and opinions about narrative texts.  Since the Common Core asks students to defend their thinking when they generate opinions or arguments,  WALTeR is a great scaffold to help them go back into the text and focus their attention on specifics.  When we're asked to make judgments across texts, for example, comparing one heroine to another, WALTeR will give students something to sink their teeth into--providing concrete guidance for what aspects of character may provide food for thought.  Thank you to Mary Blow for sharing WALTeR with the world!

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Vocabulary Teaching Through Poetry

     Keeping up with the National Common Core Standards is going to require more rich vocabulary work.  One of my favorite contexts for teaching vocabulary is through poetry.   Even if a poem doesn’t have any juicy Tier II words, you can substitute one for an everyday word.  Here’s a possible teaching sequence:  Read the poem as it is.  Tell students you’re going to work on a new word they can add to their mature vocabularies.  State the word, show where you’ll be making the substitution, define the word, read it in the context and discuss.  Then, reread the entire poem with the substituted word.  Here’s the clincher:  combine your reading with a “Poetic Mini-Drama.”  Act out the poem using your upper body, facial expressions and your voice.  When you add in the dramatization, students will want to read the poem (or recite it) again and again.  Naturally, this will help move the new word to their long-term memories.  When you’re finished dramatizing, have the students generate their own sentences using the word in new contexts.

Let’s look at a simple example (Here’s a shout “Hello!” to my new kindergarten friends, too!)

“Row, row, row your vessel, gently down the stream.  Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”  

     Of course, many poems are ripe with Tier II and Tier III words—no substitutions needed.  Adding the poetic mini-drama will take motivation to new level .  Plus, put several of these dramas together, and you have an entertaining event for other classes or families.  Easy and fun!

Below, another example using a poem I wrote.    Imagine how you and your students might dramatize it.  Vocabulary-wise, I focus on the Tier II word “eject."

Five Fat Peas

Five fat peas,

sittin’ in a pod.

One said, “Let’s go!”

and left with a nod.

Another rolled away

when the first one went,             

leaving only three

in their pea pod tent.

“I’m off,” cried the next,

“to see the world!”  She dropped.

The one next to her

ejected with a POP!

“Now there’s only me,”

said the last lone pea.

“I guess I’d better plant myself

and grow more family!”

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How do Teachers of Writing Develop thier Skills?

    At a recent training on writing and the Common Core, I shared the writing sample below from my niece, fifth grader Lily Cate (yes, she lives in the South).  I read about ten lines in and asked the K-5 audience, what would you say to this child--how would you honor the voice/celebrate the writer?  One teacher called out, "Do you want to teach the class?"  Another shared, "You write much better than I do."  We all shared a laugh.  The comments speak to the bigger issue of how teachers often feel about themselves as writers:  unsure, uncomfortable; much less skilled than they are as teachers of reading.  If you share these feelings, think back with me for a moment.  How did you learn to teach reading well?  Did it come naturally just because you are a proficient reader yourself?  Or...did it take some reading, thinking, learning and collaboration in classes, in workshops, and in the field?  How did you build your knowledge of what good readers do and what strategies they use?  How have you built your teaching craft?  Are you still "in process?"  Even though we have high self-efficacy as readers, we still had to (and have to) work to learn what readers do and how that translates to classroom practice.  So...take heart, dear, unsure teachers-of-writing.  You may just be embarking on this learning adventure, but, even if you don't fully recognize it, you've been there before.  And, look at you now!  You’ll build your skills as a writing teacher in the same ways, especially if you're willing to take the leap, stick with it, and give yourself permission to learn right alongside students.
    One more note:  Another teacher in the audience asked, "How did she (my niece) learn to write poetry?"  "Funny you should ask," I replied.  "My sister and I just spoke about this last night.  She's passionate about writing poetry because she reads poetry.”  Yep…no big surprise here.  My sister read poetry to Lil since she was young.  She’s been delighting in dabbling in poetry ever since…and, she’s getting pretty good, don’t you think?

The Beauty of Spring        by Lily Cate                     
5^th Grade, February, 2011

The buds were sprouting up out of the ground

yawning and stretching their leaves.

The sun was shooting warmth down to the Earth.

The little song that was sung by the soft wind

calmed the stormy clouds to a slight drizzle.

The birds spread their color around the land

and the streams bubbled in response.

I was just a little tree, surprised by all this.

I had never seen the first day of Spring before.

Yet, being a small little stick that would one day touch the sky,

I thought that Spring was just something small.

It is so much more.

The buds in the gardens opened up,

revealing the beauty that was trapped inside.

The birds kept on singing.

The young children and their families played.

And, I grew.

I grew to see the beauty of the season,

and now you should see the amazement in the season, too

because Spring only comes once a year!

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