Melissa-sensei Reads

Mentor texts are great and all, but where do I start? Dive right in, naturally! *~*~* Header image from idealbookshelf.com *~*~* Search by tag! Poetry Story Books Nonfiction Texts The Writing Process Book lists from other sites Lesson Ideas Docs for Teachers

[joannechocolat]

Ten Ways To Get Your Kids Reading

1. Make sure your kids see YOU reading (and enjoying it). There’s no point expecting them to do something you don’t do yourself.

2. Read to your children regularly. Make it part of their bedtime routine. Reading together helps parents bond with their children, and later, it gives them a chance to discuss all kinds of problems and ideas.

3. Don’t be a teacher when you’re reading to your kids. Be an entertainer instead. Go ape on the funny voices. Make it fun for both of you.

4. Don’t be judgemental or preachy. Choose books that deal with topics that will really engage your child.

5. Don’t approach your child’s reading as you would their education. Reading isn’t about setting targets, or impressing your friends with your child’s reading age.

6. Read the first half of a story aloud, then allow yourself to be “interrupted”. Leave the book lying around. Ten to one they’ll pick it up…

7. Whatever your child chooses to read, support it. That goes for comics, fairy books, romance or fart jokes. 

8. Don’t put your child under pressure. Reading should be a reward, never a punishment.

9. Don’t stop your child from re-reading books, or having you re-read them. It’s an important comfort mechanism. 

10. Age banding is irrelevant. Gender is irrelevant. Reading age is irrelevant. Is your kid reading? Then they’re OK.

Lastly, NEVER take a book from your child. Whether it’s a “girl book”, a “boy book”, a silly book or MEIN KAMPF. Don’t be afraid they’ll be influenced in a negative way. Where children read widely, they’re very unlikely to be influenced by any single set of ideas. Instead, they’ll learn to question ideas, and more importantly, to think for themselves…

[ifyougiveachildabook]

The BEST advice EVER, exactly why I started this tumblr separately from my Breathing Books tumblr!

If you give a child a book (any book!) … You give that child the World!

[melissasensei]

Dangerously Ever After by Dashka Slater illustrated by Valeria Docampo

What I liked: What drew me to the book was, as we are told never to do, judging it by its cover. The illustrations are gorgeous and I tutor two wonderful ladies who adore their cat so I thought I'd pick it up.

What I loved: I really enjoy when children's books flip something on its head and this book flips two things: 1) princesses like "pretty" things and 2) only "pretty" things can be adored. This princess likes dangerous, icky things!

What I wish it had: I'd debate whether or not to use this in a classroom. There's enough for the little guys, with icky stuff, but I just don't think it's wide-reaching enough unless...

When I'd use it: I'd use it to talk about stretching our vocabularies, maybe trying to use descriptive words to vividly describe icky things.

Best Age Groups: Maybe around 1st-3rd.

main image from valeriadocampo.com smaller image from amazon.com

[melissasensei]

I realized I hadn't yet included ANY nonfiction mentor texts yet (though I suppose that book of nature poems is decidedly nonfiction) so I thought I'd try making my own using the digital story format.

I made this one on a site called ZooBurst. It was really simple to use and the free version comes with enough features for it to be something to at least check out, I think.

[melissasensei]

Lesson Idea: Can a poem change when we read it out loud?

I wrote a lesson plan a little while back diving into poetry, especially how poetry is read and understood. I used a Jack Prelutsky poem then, but today I thought I'd try some good ol' Dickinson. 

Don't get me wrong, I like "children's poetry," whatever that label may mean, but I think too often in elementary school we get bogged down with "cutesy" or "funny" poems and we forget that the medium can cover topics with the same depth that we expect from our mentor texts in classes like social studies. 

So here's the lesson idea, even though it is far from perfect and it'll definitely be tweaked in the future.

Start here with this sound file!

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314) BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

And our second part, the video, is here.

[melissasensei]

In my summer class, we were talking about ways to make stories online. It got me thinking about using these, especially these simple ones like Zimmer Twins, to make story starters to get writers going!

My fist attempt: Finding a Map in the Woods

Would you/do you already use something like this in class?

[melissasensei]

I’ve been using this book during my summer tutoring sessions. I’ve tweaked it a little for each child, but I tend to use it at the start of our story writing “unit” to get things rolling. The rest of the book is great, too, but this video is just about brainstorming at the beginning of our writing process, thinking about the ingredients of a good story.

I made the little worksheet myself and the kids work on it to quickly jot down some ideas during our initial brainstorming session.

[melissasensei]

Here's a creative idea I found on youtube from a teacher named Ryan Hong. I thought this would be a interesting writing-art connection to maybe use one day.

[melissasensei]

Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies Illustrated by Mark Hearald 

What I like: This delightful collection of poems has something for every season. You could tie these in with so many science lessons in addition to all the writing lessons it could work for.

What I love: The illustrations are great and, for a collection of poems meant for children, which can sometimes be not so great, these are really quite wonderful.

What I wish it had: There are so many poems in here to use in class, I really don't think it's lacking anywhere.

When I'd use it: This is obviously a book of poems, so it's full of possibilities to be a mentor text for poetry. I'm currently using it as a source of mentor texts to teach figurative language. 

Best Age Groups: With all the variety in here, I'd say it could work anywhere K-5 depending on how the lesson was structured and what the goal was. I cannot stress enough how many good pieces there are to use in here.

And can I mention it enough times? The illustrations...

are totally...

wonderful, too.

Main Image from bibelotshops.com Others from anatarambana.blogspot.com and arepreading.tumblr.com

[melissasensei]

Does your district/school/grade group use online gradebooks?

For class, we were experimenting with it (sweet names, I know), but I've always used paper ones in the past.

Do you have a preference?

[melissasensei]

A resource page for Educational Technology

Here's a concrete poetry webquest (well... the start of one) that I created just to see what making a webquest was like. I hadn't made one before. It's pretty sparse... but I had to share it for class. ^.~

You might notice A Curious Collection of Cats popping up as an example.

What's been your experience with webquests?

[melissasensei]

Teaching Powerful Writing Through Personal Mentor Texts

Georgia Children's Literature Conference Presentation

Alright... I know it's long. 44 pages for a presentation is long. BUT it's a good read.

I often think of mentor texts as being purely from professional writers and I forget that the classroom teacher providing the mentor texts and being able to talk about and think about being a writer is a powerful tool, too.

Reading and writing are deeply tied together in school, but it doesn't have to stop when the bell rings. We want forever readers! Why not also some forever writers?

We model being mathematicians. We model being readers, and scientists, and whatever else comes in the day. I'm going to challenge myself to model being a writer, too.

[melissasensei]

A short, but useful list of books that fit in with different connections we make with texts in the classroom: text to self, text to text, and text to world.

I'm personally super partial to Chrysanthemum.

[melissasensei]

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I created this for my class as another way of getting children to thing about their "best fit" books. I adore those "best fit" anchor charts, of course, but I thought this might be an interesting alternative sometimes.

I couldn't figure out how to have a "results" page, so you'd have to go over the results with the kids. 

Mostly As: Might be too easy or too boring. Try to find a good challenge! Mostly Bs and Cs: Might be just right! Give it a try. Mostly Ds: Might be too difficult or not good for you. Try to find an even better book!

[melissasensei]

Mentor Texts for Writing Workshop

Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.

Really nice, easy to understand way to look at reading as writers with mentor texts. I particularly like the "I can..." statements from the students' point of view. That kind of thing always helps me shape my unit plans and visualize how the students should be progressing.

[melissasensei]

When I taught in Japan, my second graders had a unit on the days of the week followed by a unit on plural fruits. In the spirit of integration and connecting our learning, The Hungry Caterpillar seemed like the perfect choice. I loved doing book-making projects and the kids, most of them at least, had read the book in Japanese already.

I did this book activity three times in three years and each time the book they worked on was a little different. Sometimes I had the kids write more without tracing. Other times I had them trace the letters of the words. I ended up keeping the tracing element because then they could focus on where the letters should go AND - happy bonus - they could practice seeing how the letter "s" came at the end of most plural words.

At the end, I'd always tie together, like, 200 of these little things with ribbons. YES. It was insane, but they were so happy to have a book they made! And the English was simple enough that I heard from some parents later that they took it home and shared some of the English with their family, too!

Images from me!

[melissasensei]

Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer

What I like: I have to admit up front; I really like the "Olivia" books. I think she's charming and funny and that makes her stories engaging to read.

What I love: This book, like a lot of Olivia books, has a lot of imagination, but it also has a lot of excellent examples of sound words.

What I wish it had: Honestly? Nothing else!

When to use it: The book is centered around preparing to go see fireworks, so it could be a themed thing if your class was discussing the fourth of July. But I'm planning to use it as a way to talk about more onomatopoeia because there are lots of vivid sound words throughout this book.

Best Age Groups: I'm thinking best for 1-3, probably not any higher than that, but it could depend on the class.

Image from amazon.com

[melissasensei]

One of my favorite blogs, in this post contributors at ATUE write about a poetry unit and give three mentor texts to use!