ReviewIf you are an English educator stuck or tired of your current grammar techniques then you need to check out Mechanically Inclined. Not feeling like you're the best at grammar? Don't worry! Anderson claims he is not the best either. This kind of humility and a touch of tried and true methods are sprinkled throughout the book to provide easy to understand grammar instruction. The first half of the book is a run through of the established tools Anderson uses in his classroom, including the Writer's Notebook, Wall Charts, and the Editor's Checklist. The second half of the book is sectioned off into mini grammar units with simple lessons to get your stuck-grammar-mind out of the maze and onto something great! I gave Mechanically Inclined an Exceptional rating because some of his methods and activities are great for connecting with students with grammar. Anderson is a middle school teacher, so as a high school minded teacher, it would take a bit more thought and creativity on my end to come up with a lesson or activity just as exceptional. I'm not looking for cookie cutter lesson plans to copy and implement immediately, but I do find it difficult to build some of the lessons to a high school lessons. Classroom ImplicationsI first read Mechanically Inclined during an undergraduate course titled "Crafting Teaching Practices" for English education students. We read and reviewed the rationale of the day-to-day practices of Anderson and his middle school classroom. For lesson planning and teaching practice, each of us in the class was assigned a lesson from the back of the book. We were required to modify, as needed, and teach it to our peers. This was a great way for us to plan and implement ideas in a supportive, reflective, low stakes environment. The classroom implications for preservice teachers are endless. My second read of this book was for the Red Cedar Writing Project Summer Institute. We set up our Writer's Notebooks the way Anderson suggests (see below for more information). All of our writing, if done by hand, was written in our Writer's Notebook. By doing this we were able to enact what it would be like to have Jeff Anderson's Writer's Notebook as a student. So What?"What's up with the Writer's Notebook movement? Why should students write only in a notebook? How I am going to collect that and grade it?" Nonbeliever of the Writer's Notebook Nonbelievers of the Writer's Notebook "movement" are often quick to jump to conclusions about the potential of the Writer's Notebook. Like many educational nuances, they are unable to try out and incorporate a new idea into their classroom. I am a believer of the Writer's Notebook. I was first introduced to the idea of the Writer's Notebook upon my first read of Mechanically Inclined. I kept it in my toolbox, and was introduced to another version during my internship in an Oakland County School. This "so what?" section will present these two versions of the Writer's Notebook, along with one of my RCWP colleague's version from her classroom. I will present the ideas that I think will work best in my classroom moving forward. Jeff Anderson's Writer's Notebooks are composition notebooks that need to be meticulously set up prior to use. In addition to this strict set up, rules are established regarding the use of the Writer's Notebook, such as never tear out a page of the notebook to only write on the right-hand pages (30). The sections of the Writer's Notebook are as follows:
Oakland Schools English 9 Writer's Notebook is implemented right off that bat according to the scope and sequence of the traditional English 9 curriculum. The concept of a Writer's Notebook is the be reintroduced to students, as previous grade levels have already used it. The first lesson of using the Writer's Notebook is based off of Ralph Fletcher's quote: "A writer's notebook works just like an incubator: a protective place to keep your infant idea safe and warm, a place for it to grow while it is too young, too new, to survive on its own." The Writer's Notebook is to be a "place to record observations, questions, thoughts, drafts of writing, memories, etc." In addition to this mindset, it is encouraged that teachers write alongside students and share frequently. Students and teachers are encouraged to make the notebook their own by decorating the front cover "with their own values and interests." Jessyca Mathew's Writer's Notebook is divided into five sections. Students are required to have a new notebook each semester they have her. Rather than only writing on the right-hand pages, Jessyca's students are able to write on any of the pages.
My Ideal Writer's Notebook would be divided into sections similar to Anderson's and Mathew's. I like the organization that sections affords students. I like the idea of only writing on the right-hand pages to write, record, take notes, etc. and have the left-hand side be used for edits, revisions, and/or brainstorming. I have found this sandbox space to be helpful towards my writing. Personalizing the Writer's Notebook is a great idea, too, and, if time is allotted in class to decorate, it allows students to build a community of writer's. Reviewing these formats of Writer's Notebooks have given me a solid start to designing my own use for them in the classroom. As the fall approaches and curriculum is planned out, I will look back on these set ups and develop a useful Writer's Notebook for my students and I to use. Continuing the ConversationDo you use Writer's Notebooks in your classroom? If so, what is your format? If not, why? Feel free to comment below!
0 Comments
With my students as the selection and voting committees, I had all of the components to run the tournament. At the end of February I asked my students to select their three to five favorite books of all time. I told them that their votes were going to help make the "teams" for our book bracket. #BookBracket2015 had begun! After counting up all the votes, I was met with quite the list of books. Definitely an avalanche of 258 different titles! Fortunately there were 32 top books, so a bracket of 32 was created. Books were seeded based on the number of votes and four regions were established. The stylish bulletin board in the back of my classroom was going to receive a new look, slowly but surely. I say slowly but surely because I only revealed two games (four books involved) per day with my students. I would also post the match ups on my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Each book had a # before it (i.e. #AmericanSniper) and #BookBracket2015 was used in every post. For the month of March, every day that I was in the classroom began with #BookBracket2015. I would recap the previous day's games with a clever pun and reveal the day's match ups. Students would vote via secret ballot for the book that they wanted to win per match up. I collected and counted each vote. By the Elite Eight, I was beginning to get tired of counting the copious scraps of paper, so I opted for hand raising and having students stand on the side of the room for the book they wanted to vote for. I received several complaints from the diehard #BookBracket2015 fanatics. They complained that the integrity of voting was being lost as people were voting based on how their friends were voting. In the Final Four and Championship, we went back to secret ballot voting and a champion was declared: Green Eggs and Ham! Upon reflection, #BookBracket2015 was a success! It allowed me the opportunity to talk about books in my classroom, gave me an avalanche of books to navigate through over the summer, and let me share my passion of reading and sports with my students. My students enjoyed participating in #BookBracket2015 and many have provided me with great feedback for next year. I am looking forward to #BookBracket2016 and who the eventual champion will be! Welcome to "The Avalanche ... of Books" blog! In this first post I hope to answer the usual "first blog post" questions, including who I am, why I am blogging, and why I am calling my blog "The Avalanche ... of Books."
To begin, I am a 2014 graduate of Michigan State University. I completed three degrees in English, history education, and social sciences education. These three degrees led to a lot of required reading. I am three weeks away from completing my teaching internship from MSU's College of Education. I have been teaching several sections of English Language Arts 9 for the past school year at Clarkston Junior High. I have also had the opportunity to observe and learn from other educators in the building. Overall, it has been a great experience and I have learned a ton about myself and teaching! As an English teacher and lifelong learner, I love to read, and I feel like I am in a constant avalanche of books. My bookshelves are teeming with titles ranging from fiction to history to historical fiction to classics to texts focused on teaching and so much more! I am a huge proponent of reflection. During my internship, I constantly asked my students to reflect on the units we accomplished and asked questions centered around what did they did/did not enjoy, what was easy, what was difficult, which type of reading/annotations/assessment did they prefer. I greatly appreciated their details, notes, and feedback. It helped me improve as a teacher both in the moment and for future units and classes. I hope to continue this type of reflection as I move into my first classroom. This blog will be my reflection on the books that I read, along with the classroom implications that they may have. Some posts will be reflections of what I'm doing in the classroom related to books and reading. Other posts will be about books that I read and how I hope to bring them into my classroom. The possibilities and titles are endless (trust me!). |
The Avalanche of Books
As an educator and avid reader, I am constantly hearing about books. I feel like I am being chased by a giant, rolling avalanche of titles and authors. Rating System
5 books - New fave! Read it now!
4 books - Shelf worthy 3 books - Quality read, but ... 2 books - Borrow it 1 book - Skip it Archives
December 2017
Categories
All
|