[Mentor Text Monday] A is for Abecedarium

I was tickled to learn the work "abecedary" recently.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abecedary

Even more ticklish is the pronunciation. I was trying to make it fancy--/ab-ced-ar-ee/--but no. If you look in the definition page there, and even click the video it is /ay-bee-see-duh-ree/. It truly is a word made from the first three letters of the alphabet. A-B-C-dary. I'm in love with this word (only slightly disappointed with the pronunciation not being fancy-pants).

Then I realized that my new favorite magazine, UPPERCASE (see here and here for my posts extolling the virtues of this magazine), has and abecedary in the newest issue as well. I'm using my context clues here and am thinking there may be one each issue?  Sweet! I loved the one on sticky things last issue, and this one is just as amazing. 

Mentor Text Idea #1:  I referred to this here, but using the ABC structure to present or review concepts has been around for ever and a day. These UPPERCASE Abecedaries remind me that we can stretch the learning within that structure. Reach for a series words that stretches the subject in all directions. Challenge students to add new learning and show creativity within the 26-letter structure. The structure of the alphabet can serve as a jumping-off point for any grade level to develop and create a series or theme. As early as TK or Kinder, students can use them to create meaning about other topics. A 5-year-old friend of mine once spent an evening designing an alphabet book of things you'd find in a school. At first he was just imagining how the letters would be made.  For instance, the letter A could come from swingset and the letter N could be from part of the monkey bars. As he created though, he decided the letters had to somehow include the letter it formed. The letter B became "Boys playing on the monkey bars" and the letter P was formed from pencil shavings. This could be done in table groups or pairs at any grade level! My 5-year-old-friend fell asleep taht day designing and redesigning his "The ABCs of Schools" book (we had already made an ABCs of Dinosaiurs book).

Later in the issue they share a variety of alphabets inspired by office supplies.  Here are a few. You'll have to get the magazine for the rest, or go to their website and have a looksee:

Mentor Text Idea #1:  I referred to this here, but using the ABC structure to present or review concepts has been around for ever and a day. These UPPERCASE Abecedaries remind me that we can stretch the learning within that structure. Reach for a series words that stretches the subject in all directions. Challenge students to add new learning and show creativity within the 26-letter structure. The structure of the alphabet can serve as a jumping-off point for any grade level to develop and create a series or theme. As early as TK or Kinder, students can use them to create meaning about other topics. A 5-year-old friend of mine once spent an evening designing an alphabet book of things you'd find in a school. At first he was just imagining how the letters would be made.  For instance, the letter A could come from swing set and the letter N could be from part of the monkey bars. As he created though, he decided the letters had to somehow include the letter it formed. The letter B became "Boys playing on the monkey bars" and the letter P was formed from pencil shavings. This could be done in table groups or pairs at any grade level! My 5-year-old-friend fell asleep that day designing and redesigning his "The ABCs of Schools" book (we had already made an ABCs of Dinosaurs book).

As if this wasn't enough, let's add some technology! I saw a post on Edutopia with short videos using the ABC's.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Mentor Text Idea #2:  Videos like these could be made by students. Even if your classroom doesn't have 1:1 technology, creating a video like this takes many participants, planning, and very little actual technology (one smart phone to take the photos would be enough if that's all you have). Maybe take aminute and imagine a project like that. How could you extend student thinking about a topic, their skills with technology, and their collaboartive skills? My head is spnning just thinking about it!

[Mentor Text Monday] Guest Blogger--This Plus That

Wear the Cape proudly welcomes our first guest blogger!  Jeni Cass is caped teacher from a charter school in San Diego. Jeni truly does wear her cape each day in her kinder classroom. Enjoy this amazing mentor text form Jeni!

This Plus That by Amy Krause Rosenthal

As a kinder teacher the thought of doing a mentor text in the beginning of the year seems pretty daunting.  I tend to stick more with illustration and author studies (see Katie Wood Ray's work for more information onm those).  But I haven't given my kids the credit they deserve as learners.This summer I searched for texts that have concepts and writing that my kids could do.  I found the perfect one to start with.  It's super simple but the students really got into it.  Here is what I did to help them be successful:

First we read the book...a couple times.  We talked about the concepts, the illustrations and just generally enjoyed what it had to show us. 

Next, we discussed what the author was doing, taking two items and adding them together to make something new.  Then as a class we talked about possible combinations of things.  Here is where I really had to help them out.  I gave them at least 10.  

Then I started with giving them just one thing and they had to tell their neighbor (knee to knee) what they would add to it.  Finally it was their turn to orally tell their neighbor an entire phrase. 

Together as a class we listed them on a chart paper so everyone had a chance to share out and see the different possibilities.  Students then went back to their tables to write their sentence.  

By the end of the year I let them spell it out themselves and leave the chart up for support.  This time I actually cut the chart paper up and had them take their own phrase back to their seats to copy.  After illustrating them, they were done!! 

My littles were so excited to see themselves as writers and make our own This Plus That book.  It is a favorite in our class library!

[Mentor Text Monday] Creative Collections--more from UPPERCASE Magazine

Last week I talked about using UPPERCASE Magazine and their focus on "sticky things" as mentor texts. I also alluded to the fact that I would use more from this magazine.

While the theme of this issue is collage, there is a "Creative Challenge" on page 75 that suggests collecting artifacts. There is a great page on which you can cut and paste images physically or digitally.

From UPPERCASE: In our current issue, we provided a page with an image of an empty typecase. Since this is our collage and assemblage-themed issue, we encourage you to glue and modify this page, take a picture or scan of it and send it to us!

The process of collecting items, like in the abecedary in the previous post, has many possibilities in the classroom.

The UPPERCASE blog is showcasing reader collections.  Here are some of my favorite--with an eye to teaching possibilities:

Another creative challenge submission! This box of treasured things is by Lisa Fitzhugh of Wideyed.

Read Vanda Vilela submitted her response to our earlier creative challenge.  Thank you to all who submitted over the past couple of months. I guess it is time I issued a new challenge! I will be posting all the open calls for participation very soon.

Kathryn Cole submitted this one: "Inspired by your call for creating a shadow box, I created one with my favourite shells that I collected at the my favourite beach in Florida and some fresh roses from my yard."

UPPERCASE subscriber Cornelis vanSpronsen writes: 

"I received my copy of UPPERCASE today and was immediately inspired to respond to the creative challenge on page 75. For many years my wife and I have collected special mementos that were both of great importance as well as those that were memorable for just a small moment in time. This is some of that collection. Going through these is like leafing through a photo album but only better because there are memories attached to these things that photos could never capture."

As springboards for writing, illustrations for published pieces, or even the act of collecting and labeling as a writing task. I am tickled by the idea of this simple wooden type case and the fun of filling it up.

Some of us are participating in a photographic collection--SDAWP Photo Voices. On a weekly or monthly basis, we curate our images from a designated time period and display them in a collection (of one or many). Previously I've collected images on symmetry,  the color green, and the color yellow (I did well with colors).

For the month of October, we have the theme "writing." Oddly, I've struggled. Combining my SDAWP Photo Voices theme and this idea of collections, here is my "writing" collection so far:

Where do you think you take this in your classroom? What collections do you have or would you have? How would you fill in this amazing wooden typecase? 

[Mentor Text Monday] "An Abecedary of Sticky Things"

UPPERCASE Magazine, Issue No. 18, "Cut it Out" is all about collage. Yup.  you read that correctly, collage. It's a beautful magazine printed on amazing paper.  The tagline is "a magazine for the creative and curious." Well that's us in a nutshell is it not?

Keeping "creative and curious" in mind, I thought I'd share some mentor text thoughts that crossed my mind during my "1st Draft Reading" last night. I have about a gabilllion ideas, so I'll start with my favorite.

"An Abecedary of Sticky Things" pg. 14

First, a word study.  Abecedary--an ABC Book.  What an amazing word! A-Be-Ce-Dary--see it? Even more fun, it's an ABC book of... sticky things!  The list is creative and gives pause for thought multiple times. I imagine this as one in an array of ABC book mentor texts, though the depth and vocbaluary used in this one makes it my all time favorite. Just look at this list!

I know, right?  What a rich and thoughtful list of... sticky things! We're not talking a Level 1 or 2 DOK (Webb's Depth of Knowledge) list here. Historical reference, science, Dr. Seuss, candy, toilet plungers, and, of course,  bubble gum. This two-page magazine spread is chock full of learning, thinking and creativity.  I can't wait to use it! 

That's pretty cool in itself, I'll grant you. But let's take it up a notch.  On page 101 of the same issue is an article called "Sticky Business: A Brief History of Glue."

Looking for a piece of complex non-fiction text for upper grades? Try this one out.  It's a challenge, most certainly, but link it with the Abecedary of Sticky Things above and you have two texts on a similar topic Common Core State Standards CCR R.9), one is more accessible than the other (differentiation!), one serves as a practice in deeper reading (Common Core State Standard CCR R.1), and one provides a jumping off point for an informational writing assignment (CCR W.2) that also uses write-to-learn strategies. Use technology to draft and display your finished abecedary and you've got a hat trick!

There is only one teeny tiny itty bitty downside to this brilliance. UPPERCASE Magazine is not what you'd call a budget publication. Each issue runs $18. I rarely allow myself to buy it. It is a marvelous publication and worth the money, I swear, but there is a budget option. The folks at UPPERCASE are very thoughtful and provide their articles online for free.  I don't know how long they leave it up, but this issue is on the blog right here.  Pretty cool, huh? So maybe go out and try an abedecary with your own learners? I most certainly am!

Please share here if you do!

Next week... Creative Collections as mentor texts, A.K.A. more ideas from UPPERCASE Magazine

Linking up to the #113Texts Mentor Text Challenge on SDAWPVoices.com

[#113texts] Mentor Text Submission--Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet

For my first #113texts Mentor Text Challenge post, I am going out on a limb, out of the box, out of... something. This isn't a typical mentor text for me, nor is this a typical mentor text post. But then again, the #113texts Mentor Text Challenge isn't typical either, now is it?

Caveat: I am not currently teaching in a classroom, and haven't had a chance to use this text with more than a group of two. Typically, for this challenge, I'd suggest sharing a text you've used and including student work. I'll share some of those, too. 

I discovered this book while roaming around a large bookstore-that-shall-not-be-named. In fact, I knocked a pile of these books off of a table and ended up carrying one around the store with me for a bit. I ended up leaving it there and getting the e-book edition at home, but taking it for a walk in the store was enough to set my pea brain to thinking. That, and I remember my dear SI Fellow-WRG-group-member Cynthia asking specifically for texts that could be used in the upper grades. And Mindy who helps us all remember the importance of math as we learn in SDAWP. Hey Cynthia and Mindy--how about this one?  And Kim, didn't you mention a book like this, or even this exact one? Why didn't I read it right then?

Enough fanfare, let me begin...

I have an unreasonable fear of math. It strikes me as a kind of magic that some people can do and that I cannot. Or a language similar to that of the Swedish chef on the Muppets.

I want to speak the language, do the magic, and I might be able to with the right teaching, but as of right now my brain still shuts right down when math approaches. Any math. Even addition.

This book is written by someone that speaks the language of math, but in a format that I can access--words. As we continue to explore the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in ELA and Math, we will be looking for texts that provide complexity, opportunities for deep reading, opportunities to take learning across more than one text, and that allow for students to do more than give us one single right answer. We are also asking teachers across the content areas to focus on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I say, let's also thread the content areas into each other and into our ELA classes. Enter... Thinking In Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math by Daniel Tammet.

Just look at the Table of Contents and consider the possibilities:

• Family Values
• Eternity in an Hour
• Counting to Four in Icelandic
• Proverbs and Times Tables
• Shapes of Speech
• On Big Numbers
• The Novelists Calculus
• Selves and Statistics

I spent some time with one chapter in particular--Chapter Four: Proverbs and Times Tables.I was thinking in terms of the possibility of using this with younger students as they learn multiplication and with older students who may be struggling with number sense or math concepts.  Don't get me wrong, this text is complex and will be a challenge for may grade levels, but rather than look at  what we can't do with it, let's look at what we can do. Try these excerpts from Chapter Four on for size:

Narrative Non-Fiction:

"I once had the pleasure of discovering a book wholly dedicated to the art of proverbs. It was in one of the municipal libraries that I frequented as a teenager. The title of the book escapes me now, the name of its author too, but I still recall the little shiver of excitement I felt as my fingers caressed its quarto pages. " 

Informative/Explanatory:

"One hundred proverbs, give or take, sum up the essence of a culture; one hundred multiplication facts compose the tens times tables. Like proverbs, these numerical truths or statements--two times two is four, or seven times six equals forty-two--are always short, fixed and pithy. Why then do they not stick in our heads as proverbs do?

Opinion/Argument:

"But they did before, some people claim. When? In the good old days, or course. Today's children, they suggest, are simply too slack-brained to learn correctly. Nothing interests them but sending one another text messages and harassing the teacher. The critics hark back to those days before computers and calculators; to the time when every number was drummed into children's heads til finding the right answer became second nature."

These three short excerpts could provide opportunities for close reading for many grade level--as young as third grade, I'd say. Yes, there are some structures that are difficult, some vocabulary they may not know. Perfect, right? And each excerpt above, from each CCSS text type, is rich in discussion and writing opportunities--discussion centered around proverbs, learning, math, and perception. 

Let's go a step further and examine an excerpt where Tammet discusses math as the essence of knowledge:

'The facts in a multiplication table represent the essence of our knowledge of numbers: the molecules of math. They tell us how many dimes make up a dollar (10 x 10), the number of squares on a chessboard (8 x 8), the quantity of individual surfaces on a trio of boxes (3 x 6). They help us divide fifty-six items among eight people (7 x 8 = 56, therefore 56/8 = 7), or realize that forty-three of something cannot be evenly distributed in the same way (because forty-three, being a prime number, makes no appearance among the facts)."

Let's just pull out the math vocabulary in this short paragraph: square, quantity, surface, trio, divide, evenly, distributed, prime number. Are one or more of these vocabulary words found in your grade level curriculum? I think, perhaps, yes. 

After a close reading of this text, imagine the discussion opportunities! Imagine a classroom full of eager elementary school students--eager to make those odd and personal connections to each topic we introduce.  Where could they take these concepts? Either in isolation (proverbs and then multiplication tables) or together (learning proverbs vs. learning multiplication tables), this discussion could really go somewhere. Our kiddos wouldn't leave the discussion with a correct answer, but would their brains be buzzing?  Would they be buzzing about things we want them to buzz about?

How about in a high school English class? The CCSS demands that content area teachers incorporate reading, writing, speaking, listening into their lessons.  What if an upper level English class incorporated some math? What would happen? 

All of this from just one chapter. A. Maze.Ing.

Here is a summary of this text for the #113texts challenge:

• Title and Author

Thinking In Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math by Daniel Tammet

• Text Type and Genre

Informative/Narrative/Argument
Memoir/Non-Fiction

• Approximate Reading Level and/or Appropriate Grades

Excerpts could be used for younger grades.  Chapters for high grades. 

• The ways in which YOU have used the text successfully with as much detail as you can.

I have not yet used this text with students, which sort of breaks the rules. Anyone have some students I can borrow?

• Some excerpts from the book that exemplify the writer’s craft or other writerly tools

See above