[Mentor Text Monday] A Sunday Evening Sentence Search

It's Sunday evening. I want to post a mentor text, but my brain, she be empty. I tumble through my thoughts, flip through my mental card catalogue, scroll through my Twitter feed, and... nothing.

And then I remember--books! I read books, own books, and display said books in an easy-access shelving unit otherwise known as a book shelf. Books have words! Words have inspiration! I leap up from my slouchy-couch-typing position, semi-shut my eyes, pick a book, and settle back in (a little less slouchy, but not much).

What follows is my completely unstructured method for finding mentor-textian inspiration in a randomly-selected book.

The book, chosen mostly at random from my living room bookshelf:

The Book of Questions

by Pablo Neruda

Translated by William O'Daly

Published in 1974 by a small publishing house in Port Townsend, WA (near my home town!)

I've spent time with this book before--both in Spanish and English. I didn't read it cover to cover, but it's one of my familiars. It is not what I'd call an easy or accessible read, but it is undeniably gorgeous. The entire book is a series of unanswerable questions written as couplets. 

Unanswerable questions--I like that as a discussion and writing springboard. 

Couplets--I don't find teaching rhyming couplets overly inspiring, but I can see some interesting possibilities in a couplet conversation (rhyming vs. non-rhyming, open vs. closed, end-stop or run-on). 

I thumb through some of the passages:

XII

And at whom does rice smile

with infinitely many white teeth?

Why in the darkest ages 

do they write with invisible ink?

Does the beauty from Caracas know

how many skirts the river has?

Why do the fleas

and literary sergeants bite me?

Um... no. Even in my swirly-twirly brain, these words do not inspire a teachable moment for me. I find many more phrases that are interesting, but not "the one":

How large was the black octopus

that darkened the days peace?

No...

Who can convince the sea

to be reasonable?

Better, but I'm looking for a series...

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

I like it, can I use the series?

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

How do the seasons know

they must change their shirt?

Why so slowly in winter

and later with such a rapid shudder?

And how do the roots know

they must climb toward the light?

And then greet the air

with so many flowers and colors?

Is it always the same spring

who revives her role?

Yes, I think I can use this. A few of the lines are less clear than I'd like, but as a series, it has possibility. I see a few possible links:

• geography--rivers leading to the ocean, where DOES the salt come from?
• science--plants, roots, photosynthesis, how DO the plants know?
• literature--symbolism, figurative language, what is the personality of Spring?

I'd like to try a lesson with a good read of these couplets--individually, and as a series. Depending on the grade, I would dig a little deeper in to the idea that with these questions, Neruda shows a depth of learning about the topic--the idea that good questions can hold as much information as an answer. I would like to tie it in to a content area unit, and then use this series as a mentor text for showing learning about that content. 

My next step? Trying it on. I have to try to write one to see if it is possible, to watch the path of my thinking, so see if it supports the thinking I have in mind, and to use as an example if I do use this text. Sometimes I'll try this with a topic that is interesting to me personally, but often I use content that is appropriate to the grade level I'm teaching.

3rd Grade--Physical Science: Energy and Matter

Why does the fruit bowl not light up 

with the energy it stores?

Does the energy it creates 

travel in waves as well?

Are sunbeams sisters 

to soundwaves and oceans?

Well. That was harder than I thought. I tapped out at three. It took more content knowledge than I expected, and it was difficult to find a balance between poetic and factual. This mentor text would take some time, a class I knew well, and students with experience struggling through challenges in reading and writing. Considering all of that, I'd still like to use it. I'm tucking it away in my idea file!

So, that's my process when I try on a new mentor text. Do you have a process you use, a resource you prefer, or some favorite mentor texts you can use over and over?

[New Favorite Things Friday #6] Geek Love

Today's New Favorite Things Friday is dedicated to the geeky things I am loving.

1. Logitech's Unifying Receiver

I like external mice. I have plenty of them. I used to have to carry all of the little receivers around with me and all of my USB slots were filled with receivers. Now I have one that works with all of my mice and my solar-powered keyboard (yep). I actively like it every day. I am not advertising for Logitech, but I haven't found any other unifying receiver peripherals (yes, I said peripherals). They may be there, but I'm happy with what I have, so I haven't looked very hard. 

2. DIY Discbound Notebooks

I like office supplies as a rule. I am currently into these discbound notebooks because... I don't really know why. I am also into making my own planner pages because I know what I want in a planner and I can't find it. I even bought the special hole-puncher so I can make my own stuff. I hope this crush lasts because $40 for a hole punch is just plain silly.

3. Pop-up Pencils

This my favorite kind of pencil. I like my pencils sharp all the time, and I can't carry enough pencils around to satisfy my preference for sharpness. And no, I don't want to carry a sharpener because I like my pencils pencil-pencil length and don't want to deal with pencil shavings. As a grown person, that is a decision I get to make. The only issue I have is that theses pencils typically come in designs like the One Direction design, the dinosaur design, the Hello Kitty design... you get the picture. I did find some nice plain ones recently, and am quite happy with them.

4. Pocket

I constantly find things I want to remember online. I have the Pocket app installed on all of my devices, and can just "Pocket" whatever I want to remember. I love it. It works for me. 

I love to learn about new geeky things to love. What things do you have a crush on that might be considered geeky?

An Open Letter to Louis C.K.

Dear Louis C.K.,

We don't know each other, but I heard that you sent some tweets about the Common Core State Standards. More than heard about them, actually.They're everywhere! I'm guessing you might be surprised by the response. I'm guessing that many things are being said about your tweets--hailing them, using them as leverage, attacking them. In fact, I saw all of that and more on your Twitter feed--it's trending!

I went to Twitter looking for more information about your thoughts. Your tweets that day hit a nerve with me (and a gabillion other people). I suppose, in all honesty, I was irritated by them. You see, I typically agree with the things you say. I find you funny and usually just right enough to make people uncomfortable--pulling the curtains back on a social issue that needs airing. I am honest enough with myself to know that when something sticks in my craw, I have more to learn. 

I stewed on it for the last week, read articles, editorials, Facebook posts, heard jokes about it on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, read your Twitter feed, and finally figured out my issue. 

This whole thing is just one sound bite. One sound bite that has the ring of truth because it is your experience as a parent of children in public schools. One sound bite that has been strung up on flag poles across the nation (nations, even) to leverage the agenda of... any group with an agenda it would seem.  Part of me hopes you're irritated by that, too. Instead of opening up a conversation, looking at all the sides, intelligently examining the specifics, the mudslingers are on a tear and your face is on the flag.

I don’t sling mud. I don’t insult what I don’t understand. I spend time reading all sides of an issue before I assert an opinion. Sometimes, I don’t pick one clear side because the information provided is too shadowed by rhetoric. Considering all of that, weighing all of the issues, I do support the Common Core State Standards. I support the intent of the standards themselves--absent the ever present conspiracy theory. I agree that what we have done in the past has not developed the learners we need. I have read the CCSS in detail, across grade levels, even the appendices (more than once, even) and it is a simple truth--there is good to be found there. I agree with you, we can’t expect something new to be perfect, and the CCSS isn’t perfect. I don’t expect a set of standards to be the panacea for a centuries-old system that no longer serves the needs of our society. I expect a set of standards to be exactly that—a set of standards. Standards are simply an end-goal, a level of quality, a guideline. As a set of standards, I support the Common Core.

The CCSS didn’t create high-stakes testing. High-stakes testing has been here for over a decade. It is a separate issue and worthy of discussion in its own right, but not on the coat tails of the CCSS. That limits the conversation to one iteration of the problem, misplaces the responsibility, defeats the purpose of the argument.

The CCSS didn’t write New York State Assessments. I've chosen not to research who did write them, but I know a set of standards didn’t do it. If the assessment is poorly written, poorly implemented, or used unfairly, that is also worthy of discussion. This is true for any assessment written by anyone. If it is a poor assessment, implemented poorly, or leveraged inappropriately, that is a concern. 

The CCSS didn't implement themselves. Poor implementation is a concern.. New York implemented early and quickly. We can learn from that. We can also learn from states and districts that are implementing differently. 

The CCSS didn’t teach your children math that made them cry. It is my guess that it was a deeply passionate, caring teacher trying his or her best to teach a wholly new focus on math without adequate preparation.  The new math standards are wildly different than what we’ve done in the past. And it's about time. In the same breath that someone blasts the CCSS math standards, they also accuse the public education system of keeping our children behind other countries in math. If you read the standards, the background of the standards, the thought behind the changes, the pedagogy at work there, you will see that the authors agree. What we have been doing isn’t working. This is an attempt to change that. A change of this magnitude is going to take time, high-quality teaching, sound pedagogy, and support. If teachers in a particular state or district are not getting the support they need, that is yet another worthy discussion.

I want to chat with you Louis C.K.—hear more about the specific concerns you have, share some insights into the standards themselves, look for ways to leverage the strength of your voice with the strength of my experience to affect positive change for all students. I don’t have a political agenda, an ad campaign, a book to sell, or a fan base to please. I have nothing to gain personally from supporting or denouncing the CCSS. What I do have is a deeply rooted passion for education. I work every day to provide quality education for all learners. It is what I was meant to do. I have seen waves of change in education, and it is this current wave—the wave that includes a set of standards focused on learning behaviors over stacks of content—that has me hopeful.

So what do you say, Louis C.K.? Why don’t we chat about all of the sides of this issue that you inadvertently stirred up? I can learn from your experience as a parent. You can tell me what you know, what you want to know, and what the solutions might be. I can share my understandings with you, and, in the process, learn more myself. Nothing to gain but mutual understanding and movement towards a mutual goal of improved public education. Yeah?  Sound like a deal?

--a dedicated education professional

P.S.—in response to the person that is concerned with your habit of double-spacing after a period. I do it too. It’s how we were taught in high school in keyboarding class.Word processing programs do it for us now, so we are, in effect, making three spaces when we try to double-space. That doesn’t stop me. I just use the "find and replace" option after I type to take them all back out again. I support you in your double-spacing.

[Mentor Text Monday] The New Culture Club

Okay, not really. The old Culture Club was enough to tide us over for a few more decades at least. Admittedly, I did just scour Culture Club lyrics for something witty. There may be a Culture Club mentor text coming soon.

For today, I want to thank one of my amazing siblings for this mentor text from OpenCulture.com.

OpenCulture's Twitter Bio describes it most succinctly:

https://twitter.com/openculture

The site itself is mind-boggling and will require much more of time to explore thoroughly. I may have found a third favorite source (UPPERCASE Magazine and WIRED Magazine being numbers one and two). Expect to hear enough about this site to become bored and eye-rolly.

From an array of options so huge I cannot even rest my thoughts, I have chosen this article and video as my mentor text for today.

Forrest Gump Directed by Wes Anderson

What I imagine here is a mentor text for a book or film trailer, or a summary of an historical even to science topic. Because this is a specific "wes-andersonian" style, I'd have to decide if I was going to dive into both the trailer and the style, or focus on one or the other.

I'm fascinated by the way an entire movie can be portrayed using text and simple images--I see some great summary or synthesizing practice here. Picking out only the points that are most important, and then distill them down to text and one or two images.

I'm equally fascinated by Wes Anderson's film style or, more to the point,  the concept of having an artistic style. How is a style developed. Students can examine the styles of favorite authors--create a book trailer that honors the style of the author. Students can examine their own style. How is style developed?  Can style change? Is your writing so very "you" that someone could try to mimic it?  I might segue into the figurative language concept of a synedoche during this discussion as well. Such infinite possibilities.

In my own planning, I start with a text or texts that strike my fancy, and then work to plan using the Common Core State Standards. I teach lessons in a variety of classrooms, and in this case I am planning something for 4-6th grade 1:1 technology classrooms. This video has so many options running through my head, that it was tough to narrow it down to one or two standards.

At first, I chose:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

After reading the standard as it progressed through the grades, I realized that this was not my most effective focus. In grade K-5, this standard lends itself to a more specific focus on word usage and connotation than I want to do with this text. 

So I changed my focus to:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7
Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

I always use a writing standard as well, and will be focusing on:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

I read through each grade level of each standard to make sure I understood the intent and the progression. Click here for a documents showing the progression CCR.R.4 and CCR.W.4.

This post is getting long. I will post my next planning steps later this week!

While I'm at it, is this video something you could use in your classroom? Is there something else on OpenCulture.com you might be able to use? What Common Core Standards might you use?

[R@ndom] New Favorite Things Friday #5

For my new favorite things this week I have focused on things that are orange. There is no reason for this other than the things I thought of first were orange and themes are always fun.

Happier
I found this app accidentally one of the many nights this week that I couldn't sleep. It reminds you to post things you are grateful for throughout the day. It's fun and bright and rains virtual confetti on you when you remember to post something.

Orange-Carrot-Ginger Juice

This homemade juice has yet to disappoint me. I love it every single day that I manage to make it. 

Orange Tic Tacs

Not only are they orangy, they are minty, and they are low-guilt. Keeping a pack of these (or lime or strawberry) in my purse has saved me a during a couple of extra long meetings this week. Thank you fruit-flavored Tic Tacs, for you rmulti-tasking deliciousness.

Outlook

This week--during above mentioned long meetings--I had the opportunity to begin the massive task of cleaning up my Outlook Inbox. I have gone from 600 unread emails to 410, and managed to stay steady at 410 for the last few days. Now, I should assure you that NONE of those unread emails signify an un-answered question. It just means that I have to delete them, or file them, or follow up on them. The fact that I've maintained the 410 number means I've started to organize them as I receive them--something I've meant to do all along. So a shout-out to Outlook for keeping them safe for me for so long, another shout-out to Amy for not stressing too much at the number, and a shout-out to Ana for managing to get hers to zero on Friday!

Do you have any favorite thigns this week?  Orange or otherwise?

[Slice of Life] A Story From the Reading Well

It's Slice of Life time with Two Writing Teachers! A story from the story well...

The first chapter book I ever read by myself, from front cover to back cover, every single page, understanding the whole thing without any help, was The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.

I remember the day I finished it. I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade at the time, but on this day I was home and it was daylight out. We were living in what we still call, simply, "The Green House" (As opposed, of course, to the white house, the brown house, the Drayton Harbor house, and the house my parents still live in today--the Harborview House. Good names, yes?). I was in the top bunk of the extra-tall bunk beds my dad had made for us. I don't know where my sister was at the time. I'm sure if she was home I would have been bugging her instead of reading, so she must have been somewhere.

My eyes were tired. I had bifocal glasses (click here for that sad tale), but I always looked over the top of the bifocal part. I had that feeling of having read too long, but I knew the end of the book was close, so I toiled on. As I read I imagined how I would announce my roaring reading success to my family. I would be official.  A reader.  A CHAPTER BOOK reader. I think I spent more time imagining finishing the book than paying attention to the story. In fact, right now I can only tell you that I imagine the mouse rode a motorcycle at the end, but I can't guarantee it.

I remember finishing the final paragraph--with that lovely blank and empty end-of-the-book space after it. I remember shutting the book and starting the climb down the ladder. I'm certain I was calling out my success as I climbed.

And, I hate to be anti-climactic here, but that was the last moment of that day I remember. I remember afterwards and ever since thinking of that book as the first chapter book I ever read by myself, from front cover to back cover, every single page, understanding the whole thing without any help, but I don't remember what happened after I climbed down that extra-tall ladder.

Must have been some party, huh? That's all I can figure.

How about you? Do you remember a reading first of your own?

[Mentor Text Monday] I Heart Wired Magazine

Those of you that talk to me on any kind of a regular basis know about my love for Wired Magazine. I love every issue that comes out, and I thank my engineer friend for getting me a subscription. It's online as well,  but I truly enjoy the hard copy each month. Of course it isn't a perfect magazine (what??? impossible!), but I'm accepting of a periodical's growth areas.

I have narrowed down my Wired love-fest to four Mentor-Text-Monday-worthy reasons: Titles, Academic Language, Whole Text Structure and Text Complexity.

Titles

The article titles themselves serve as mentor texts for writing headers, titles, and punctuation for effect. Check out these intriguing titles:

See How Cadbury Hatches 350 Million Goo-Filled Eggs a Year

Are Touch Screens Melting Your Kids Brain?

Ridiculous New UFO Poll Reveals … Nothing Important

This Ex-Astronaut is Stalking Asteroids to Save Civilization

How to Make Fake Brains and Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

Academic Language

Wired Magazine does not shy away from academic language. Using a super-cool tool called WordSift (thank you Kenji Hakuta and Greg Wientjes of Stanford University and the SDAWP Fellow that shared this with me), I was able to sift through the text for various kinds of academic lanaguge.

Whole Text Strucutres

There are also some fascinating mentors for whole text structures:

Bird flipbooks made from old clocks and bike parts

A photo study on the earth's relationship with water

Chased by a Zombie
A Physics problem using zombies. Need I say more?

Text Conmplexity

The text in Wired Magazine is of a high level. I took one text--the body of a short article accompanying a graphic--and ran it through some text analyzers. This text, Science Graphic of the Week: 5.3 Million Years of Sea Level Change on One Cliff Face, was especially high. There is a variety, but expect to find texts that push the limits for your students.

So there you have it. four excellent reasons to go online and spend some time reading Wired Magazine articles. You'll learn at leas tone interesting thing, I promise!

Linking up to Mentor Text Monday on SDAWP Voices.

[Slice of Life] Ashrams and Baseball

It's Slice of Life Tuesday!

It's time!  It's for me to share the #1 person I would follow to an ashram anywhere.  Click here and here to see what the heck I'm talking about.

So, super duper, a-number one, longest standing person I would follow to an ashram anywhere is...

Edgar Martinez--retired designated hitter for the Seattle Mariners

Yup. An interesting departure to be sure. I have great reasons though.

He's nice.
He's genuine.
He signs autographs for crowds of kids--or plays catch with them.
He plays along. 

He thanks his fans and appreciates getting paid.

He is good to his family.He was humble even though he was, arguably, the best designated hitter of his time and since.

During a time of poor role-modeling from professional athletes, Edgar was always above it.

And for this, I would follow him to an ashram. Because he is the model of what I think professional athletes should be. Maybe it doesn't have to be an ashram. Maybe just some bleachers at MLB Spring Training in Peoria. That would be fine.

Your turn!