Stretch It Out!

I am guilty of telling my students to stretch out their writing, but if I'm honest, I'm not sure my students really understand what this means.

Think about flip books. From beginning to end, there are a lot of little actions to comprise the mini books. That's what stretch it out means. Writers must include all of the little actions and details that occurred from the beginning to the end.

Before kids stretch out their own stories, try having them practice stretching out a story with a group. Write the beginning on the first page, skips a few pages, and then write the ending. Students will be forced to stretch out the story, filling pages with actions and details that develop the story. I think you'll be surprised to find what they come up with!

Here are some story ideas to get you started:

One day I was walking by the pool.
I was all wet.

One day I was playing with my sister.
We both got a time out.

I played tag.
I went to the nurse.

I went to a taco truck for lunch.
I got sick.

Close Reading in Second Grade

In Falling in Love with Close Reading, Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts define close reading as “an interaction between the reader and the text.” They explain the three crucial steps of close reading. First, students must read through lenses such as characters, relationships, setting, or time period to gather evidence. Then, they must use lenses to find patterns. Some questions they might ask themselves are: Which details fit together? How do they fit together? Lastly, students use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. Below is how this played out in a second grade classroom. 

Step in Close Reading Process	Observations
Read through lenses	Students read through the lens of character actions as Mrs. C read Harriett and the Garden. While Ms. C was reading, students put a thumb up when Harriet did something important. Half way through, students turned and talked with their partner about what Harriet did. At the end they discussed what other things Harriet did in the second half of the book. Ms. C wrote the actions on the board.
Use lenses to find patterns	Students used a sentence frame to describe how Harriet felt based on her actions. “In the beginning… In the end…” According to the students, in the beginning Harriet was scared, shy, ashamed, upset, and worried.  In the end, Harriet felt proud because she made things right and solved the problem by herself.
Use patterns to develop a new understanding of the text

Seeing close reading in action made me think. What if the focus in classrooms was no longer finding evidence to answer questions as a means to obtaining exemplary scores on the state assessments each year? What if, instead, the focus in reading was to form conclusions based on an analysis of evidence that students gather? I believe that kids would grow to become more independent readers who not only analyze the books they are reading, but also media and social constructs around them.

Spelling Homework

Ms. C's Spelling Homework

Writing Portfolio

I always prefer for students to write in writers' notebooks despite what the TCRWP experts say because hundreds of "lost" drafting papers give me anxiety. I have found the solution! This second grade writing portfolio is very organized, which my type A self loves. Students know where to put their work at various stages in the writing process. More so, it is very practical and fosters independence. If a student has finished one stage in the writing process, there are directions about what to do during the next stage. Thank you for the brilliant solution, Ms. C!

Exploring Memoirs

Fifth graders from Ms. B's classroom determine which pieces of writing are memoirs and which are personal narrative. Students are required to use higher order thinking skills to compare, contrast, and dig deeper into the texts. I can't wait to see how these mentor texts influenced their students' memoirs.

How Children Recognize Written Words

According to Linnea Ehri’s research, there are five different ways a reader can recognize a written word.

1. By identifying and blending together the individual phonemes in words
   
   
   /c/ /a/ /t/
   
   
2. By noticing and blending together familiar spelling patterns, which is a more advanced form of decoding
   
   
   /s/ /ight/
   
   
3. By recognizing words as whole units, or reading them “by sight”
   
   
4. By making analogies to other words that are already known
   
   
   "can" and "her" to identify "banter"
   
   
5. By using clues from the context to guess a word’s identity
   
   
   i.e. pictures on the page or meaning of the passage

Reading Goals

Second grade students set goals around four main areas: fluency, focus, tricky words, and comprehension.

Teacher: What goal are you working on today?

Student: I am trying to stay focused on my book by keeping my eyes on the pages, and I am solving tricky words by stretching them out.

Preach, Lucy!

This excerpt from A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop echoes all that I believe to be true. Students must learn about the structures and systems so that teachers are able to teach. Structures and systems are good. In fact, structures and systems are vital to workshop.