Pay it Forward

Each year, I read the novel Rules by Cynthia Lord aloud as a mentor text for my character analysis unit.  This book is about a girl named Catherine who has a brother with autism.  It focuses on the struggles she faces because of her brother's differences.  Catherine befriends a boy in a wheelchair, whom she treats just like "any other boy".  This book allows me discuss the importance of being a good friend and the power of giving back to our community.  Each fall, I'm excited to launch the "Pay it Forward" project.

This past Friday, I introduced the project, and my students were so eager to get started!  I give the students a list of random acts of kindness that they could perform on their own, but it's always fun to do a team service project as well.  This year, since my students and I have LOVED Kid President so much, I figured we'd hop on board with his Socktober campaign.

My team's four language arts and social studies classes will be competing to see who can bring in the most socks and/or food items for the Mason Food Pantry by the end of October.   I can't wait to see what a difference my students will make in our community!

Make time to dance

The craziness and fun continued this week in fifth grade!  But, to be honest, I found myself stressed out much of the week, trying to fit in everything that I needed to teach.  Just in my class alone this week, my kids had a social studies and language arts quiz.  It wasn't until Thursday night that I came to the realization that If I'm stressed out trying to TEACH my students, I know that my kids MUST be overwhelmed to learn it.

Kids are required to do so much more in school than ever before.  The days of Halloween parties or "just for fun" movies days are well over.  When I get caught up in the act of trying to fit in yet another assignment or assessment of some sort, I have to stop and remind myself that my students are just 10 years old! 

Over the past year, I've followed a boy (who goes by "Kid President") on YouTube.  Kid President is a 10 year old boy who works with his brother-in-law to create videos that inspire people all over the world to laugh, dance, and most importantly, be AWESOME!  (If you watch any one of his videos, you'll understand what I mean.)  This boy is a true inspiration, not only to my students, but to me as a teacher and person.  To make things even better, he has the world's most contagious laugh.  It's simply impossible not to laugh right along with him.

I was surprised to learn that Kid President has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bone disease which has caused him to have over 70 breaks since birth.  But what's most inspiring about this little boy is that he doesn't let this disease get him down.  In fact, you would never know that he was (and is) fighting to overcome so many obstacles at just 10 years old.  I didn't even realize that he had this disease until just recently when I watched The True Story of Kid President.  In all, this boy's short videos bring smiles to my students' faces and encourage them to be better people.  Each Friday, I've decided that I will make time to laugh with my students and Kid President by taking just five minutes out of my day to show this boy's videos.

My kids now come into the classroom on Friday mornings (or afternoons, for my PM class) eager to watch yet another episode, and I swear my Fridays are better because of it.  

I encourage you to MAKE time to dance each and every day.

Making sense of summary writing

Although it was a short week, there was lots of learning going on in 5th grade!  Our week was full of reviewing figurative language, summary writing, poetry reading and writing, and learning about the migration of American Indians.  It's official... my kids and I are finally getting into the swing of things!  There really is something to say about 10 and 11 year olds... They're eager to learn and so much fun to be around.  I don't know if my group of kids could be any better!

I wish I could say that the week was all rainbows and butterflies, but struggles with summary writing snuck up on me first thing on Monday.  In our district, students in every grade level are required to complete a weekly language arts reading and skills sheet.  Students complete the sheet at home and then bring it back to school on Mondays for a pre-check and assistance on any of the incorrect questions.  As I was looking through their work, I was alarmed by their summary writing skills.  To be honest, their knowledge of summary writing seemed to be anywhere from minimal to nonexistent.  As I was helping a small group of students rewrite their summaries, I found myself frustrated beyond belief.  They simply weren't understanding the way that I have traditionally taught summaries.  (Sentence 1- main idea, sentences 2-4 - supporting details, and sentence 5 - conclusion)   Students seemed to be pulling random lines from the passage, throwing them down on the lines provided, and calling it a summary.  I had to stop and think... How could I make summary writing make sense in a different way? I leafed through my Ohio Writing Project 4-week materials and found the solution to my problem: note card summaries.  

How to Use the Note Card Summary Strategy
The note card summary breaks summary-writing in smaller portions.  Students select five words (or sets of related words) after reading the passage.  As students read the passage for the first time, they are encourage to only think about what the main idea might be.  He/she must choose a few words that describe the main idea.  This/these word(s) should be written on the center of the card.  Then, students choose three to four from the passage that help the reader better understand the topic that is written in the middle of the card.  I advise my students to circle these words and then write them on the four corners of their note card.  Then, students number the note card to show the order in which their summary will be written.  The middle section, or the topic, is given the number one because it is the first sentence.  The corners are numbered two through five to represent the four other sentences of a summary.  Before beginning to write, students think about how the words that are written on the corners of the note card relate to the topic, and why they are important.  On the back of their note card, they write the summary using the important words as a guide.

This summary-writing strategy works wonders for nonfiction reading!

Important Poem Summaries

Students can also write a summary using the Important Poem that I blogged about last week.  After reading a passage, students choose the most important sentence in the passage.  Then, they mark that sentence with a Post-it Note.  Next, students choose three sentences that support the most important sentence.  They then mark those sentences with a different color.  Once four Post-it Notes have been placed on the passage, the student turns those sentences into an Important Poem summary.  

My students have used this strategy for both fiction and nonfiction passages.  

I'm ready to enjoy a great weekend and hope you are, too!