This morning, I awoke to the ground covered in snow and the temperatures back to the normal winter cold.  Even as I watch the light snow fall from the sky, I am hopeful that spring is almost here.  For the last week, we’ve watched the warmer temperatures melt away ALL of the snow, and with that, we’ve watched our neighborhood come back to life.  The kids are back out playing basketball, soccer, and riding their bikes, and dozens of walkers and runners pass the house in the early evening hours.  And for me, the neighborhood walks have started back up (ended when the cold weather settled in).

Title: Westvale Walks

The snowflakes flutter through the air,

but they never make it to the ground.

Fiona places her small hand in mine,

as we make our way through the neighborhood. 

“Nyasia is two heads taller than me.”

“Clara wants twenty kids.”

“My kid’s names are going to be 

Elliot, Emerson, Evelyn, and Ethan.”

We never walk in silence,

my stride to her two strides.

I need to warm my hands in my pockets,

Fiona holds onto my arm.

“I’ll still hold your hand when I’m

in sixth grade.”

“When I grow up,

I’m going to live on this street.”

I wish it would slow down,

and she’d walk with me another ten years.

But I won’t waste a minute of this time,

to learn everything I can about my baby.

Last Saturday was the first walk of the upcoming season (this poem was inspired by yesterday’s walk).  My nine-year-old daughter, Fiona and I spend our spring weekends and summer days going for walks in our quiet neighborhood.  I’ve walked the same route with all the three other kids, but they have outgrown the walk, but I’m hopeful that they will join me again when their “too cool for school” teenage years pass.  For now, I will enjoy every minute/second of time with my nine-year-old baby.

This is my favorite time of the school year for literature circles (some call them book club meetings).  Over the course of the last seven months, each student has learned the various roles that she/he will take when discussing the specific novel that they are reading with a small group of friends.  They are still sixth graders, so they need some type of close reading activity to guide them through the assigned reading.

Current literature circle books: All of the books are written by Kate Messner – All the Answers, Wake Up Missing, Eye of the Storm, Capture the Flag, The Seventh Wish, and Breakout

Current close reading bookmark: The bookmark that the students are utilizing during the reading asks them to define difficult vocabulary words, confusing parts in the story, important quotes, predictions for the next reading, connections to their life or current events, and just miscellaneous (or “other things) that they want to discuss with their group.  The bookmark is used as a guide while they are talking about the book.  One of the interesting things that I have found with the bookmark over the last two school years is that the kids will often talk about the bookmark while they are reading the assigned pages before the meeting.  I find this reassuring because they are comparing notes and ideas that they have collected even before they meet with the group.

Tidbits (interesting information) from the discussions: For this specific literature circle, there are seven groups reading six books.  I attempted to keep the groups as small as possible (six students are reading All of the Answers, so it is two groups of three).  There are seven groups and one teacher, me, so you can imagine the difficulty I have getting around to each and every group.  I do make it to every group, but as you can also imagine, I sometimes get stuck with a group (listening to good book conversation, offering assistance about a confusing part).  Here is what I heard in the first meeting:

“Do you guys know that there was a real prison break a few years ago?  My grandpa has a farm up north and he has tons of land.  We were visiting him at the time, and he was afraid the criminals were hiding on his land.  The police came to his house.” (Breakout) Says the student that is very excited about the first sixty pages of the book.  He talked and talked about the book and needed to be reminded that other people need to share.  The interesting fact that his partner’s don’t know is that he has only read about five books from cover to cover in his entire life.  It was difficult to stop him because of his enthusiasm.  He loves the book.

“I would love to see the real flag.  I wonder if it really exists.” (Capture the Flag)  His partner quickly says, “I would want to see it, but I wouldn’t want to get to close.  I wouldn’t want to hurt it.  It’s old.” I proceeded to show them pictures of the American History Museum (from my phone) and discuss with them that the flag is at the museum.  All three of the kids now want to go on a trip to Washington, DC to see the flag.

All of the conversations flowed like this.  I was on one of my “teacher highs” as I moved from group to group.  The most surprising/interesting thing from the first literature circle meeting using the bookmarks was that six groups just piled their bookmarks in the middle of the table and were talking about the book from memory (HALLELUJAH!).  Only, one group, which was also having good conversation, was using the bookmark as a guide.  I am really looking forward to the next literature circle on Wednesday.

What a morning!  Every so often, my main character’s actions help to make my day.  This morning, Griffon, the main character of the story that I’m writing, finally has something good happen to him.  An author once told my class and I, “You have to thrown your main character into the fire.”  Poor Griffon has been in the fire since the start.  Until this morning.:)

Here is an excerpt:

The latch of the locker is loose.  Someone’s been in my locker.  Again.  I slowly open the door and find an envelope attached to the top shelf.  Griffon Evans is scrawled across the front.

I pull it down, look around to make sure that no one is paying attention to me, and I open it carefully.  Stevie and Max are still gathering up their stuff, so I place the letter on the top shelf until they leave.  By the time I am dressed, the locker room is nearly empty and coach’s door is still open.

I pull it off the shelf and read it:

Griffon Evans,

I’m inviting you to come up to varsity and join the team for the playoffs.  You’ve been playing good hockey and you’ll fit in perfectly in the second offensive line.

Come see me in the morning!

Coach Miller

This is the last thing that I expected.  Am I ready to play varsity?  Did anyone else get asked?  I wonder if Coach knows?  I pack up my skates, grab my stick and the letter, and head to coach’s office.

I knock on coach’s door as I walk in and hold up the letter.

“Coach Miller’s a traditionalist.  Always puts it in writing and seals it with a handshake.” Coach says as he leans back in his chair.

“Any advice?”

“Yeah, enjoy it!  He thinks the team is going to make a state championship run.  If he didn’t need you, he wouldn’t have asked.”

“How long have you’ve known?”

Coach gets up, comes around from behind his desk, and shakes my hand.  “I’ve known all season.  Griff, you are good.  You are the best hockey player I’ve coached since coaching your brother.  I can’t wait until you realize it.” He pats my back, grabs his coat, and leaves the office.

I place the letter on the desk and sit in the chair in front of the desk.  I take a deep breath. Lay my head back on the chair and smile the biggest smile that I can remember smiling in two years.  Varsity hockey.

Okay, so we are fourteen days in and I have to ask, “Am I doing this right?”  The blog thing is totally new to me.  Writing a blog post each and every day for thirty-one days is totally new to me.  Trying not to put people to sleep while reading my post is totally new to me.  Writing is the only thing about this whole experience that is not new to me, but I keep wondering, “Am I doing this right?” (I am impressed that I made it fourteen days without asking this question.)

So, about a week and a half ago (three days into the month of March), I created a weekly schedule of writing topics.  Here is my schedule:

Sunday: Poetry

Monday: Reflection – Highs and Lows

Tuesday: Miscellaneous school topics/lessons (reading, writing, and/or science)

Wednesday: Stories

Thursday: About me

Friday: Stories (Notice that I love to write stories:)

Saturday: ELA lesson

Honestly, I love the challenge of posting on a blog each day.  I love reading the blogs of other “slicers” even more.  I find such inspiration in the posts and find myself navigating through so many posts when I should be doing other things (laundry, dishes, grading, lesson plans).  Also, the feedback that I get from others is awesome.  The responses are so thorough, honest, and positive.  I try to give the same feedback to fellow writers.  Again, I hope that “I’m doing this right.”

Each day, I spend time writing stories, and as you can see from my weekly calendar, I love posting excerpts of my stories on my blog (almost 30% of the week – two of the seven days).  If I was certain that readers would not get extremely bored of this, I would probably post excerpts of my stories five of the seven days.:)  The blog post makes me reflect immediately on my daily writing (I usually only reflected after writing big chunks of my story), and it also gives me another topic to write about during the day.

We are almost to the halfway mark of the month, and I’m already thinking about what my weekly schedule look like after the month is complete.  It won’t be every day, but it will be three to four times a week, and I PROMISE that it won’t be “stories” every time.  I am hoping to start next year’s March of writing without the question of “Am I doing this right?” hanging over my head.  I’m confident that I’ll be ready by next year.

I awoke before the alarm clock this morning, put on some music (ear buds of course – all four kids still sleeping) and did some serious writing.  Lately, music has helped me find my writing rhythm.  About a year ago, I started to track my playlist when I’m writing.  My playlist for this morning: Pearl Jam (The Essential – Rearview mirror) and Phish (Hoist)

Here’s an excerpt:

From here, the view is amazing.  The city buildings look so small and smoke is billowing from the stacks of the factories on the far end near the lake.  Every city street looks like its glazed with ice.  There more likely covered in salt and sand.  Winter makes the city look like a fantasy world.

I walk along the fence and head towards the reservoir road that leads to the bottom.  Unfortunately, the road isn’t covered by the hill, so the headwind leaves me with a chill that takes my breath away, and my sweat starts to feel sticky and cold.

A car is approaching on the emergency road.  It slows and pulls up next to me.

“Hey, Griff.  I thought that I’d find you here.  You’re just like your brother.  A creature of habit.” Coach has a big smile on his face and stops beside me.  “How many miles this morning?”

“Hi, Coach, I ran four and then did reservoir runs.”

“How many?”

“Thirty.”

The back window rolls down and Maggie, coach’s three year old daughter, says, “Hi, Griffon,” in her sing songy voice.  She sticks her little fist out the window for a fist bump.

“Griff, you do realize that most fifteen-year-olds are still sleeping.  You can take a day off.”

“You know that I love my Sunday morning workouts.  What d’ya need, Coach?”

“You know that I love my Sunday morning workouts.  What d’ya need, Coach?”

“Coach, just sit me and let Bradley play.  He and his dad won’t stop until you start him.”

“No way am I doing that to you.  Remember, I begged you to play this season.  I owe you, and I told you that I’m not caving.  They can fire me.”

“If you don’t play him, they might.”

“Get in the car and come to eat breakfast with us.  Mags would love it.  Then I’ll give you a lift home.”

I walk around the front of the car, get in the front seat, and throw my bag into the backseat next to Maggie.

“I’m getting scrambled eggs and a headlight donut. Coach Dad’ll let you get a donut if you’re good.” Maggie holds up the picture that she’s drawing.  “Look, it’s a picture of you playing hockey.”

She talks my ear off all the way to the diner.  Coach says nothing, but is smiling the whole way.

*I would love to know if others write with music.  If so, do you track your writing playlists?

For the first seventeen years, I taught social studies to sixth grade students.  I incorporated writing into every unit.  We did comic strips on the Trojan War and Romulus and Remus.  We wrote a persuasive essay on the Elgin Marbles and how they belong back in their homeland.  We created a PowerPoint presentation about the world’s greatest legacy.  We even created a written argument (with a PowerPoint and a presentation to experts from local colleges/universities) about whether the Dark Ages were dark or not.  We did tons of writing.

This year, I have taken on teaching a new curriculum.  I am teaching sixth grade science, and I AM LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.  Here comes the dilemma.  How do I incorporate writing into science class?  This being my first year, I am floundering in the new curriculum.  Since I just went to training in November for the Matter unit that started in December, I am planning week to week.  Because of all of this, I am not having the kids write as much.  I am saddened by this, but I am attempting to right the “writing” ship (Did you like that play on words?:).

I am struggling with having the kids write lab reports.  They are only in sixth grade.  I have started to have them write lab summaries, which lets me incorporate skills on how to write a solid paragraph (topic sentence, details, and a closing) and how to write a summary.  I am also having them write reflections on a set of lab experiments that teaches one concept (example: the phases of matter).  I know that this seems dry, and I would agree with you, but I am trying to find my groove with my writing expectations for science class.

Occasionally I will also throw in interesting writing assignments (at least more interesting than summarizing and reflection).  Next week, the students will be researching women in science and doing a short writing assignment about the obstacles that they overcame while studying science.  They will also write a short biography.  The most exciting part of the assignment is that they will be working with another sixth grade classroom and not the typical students that they are in class with during the day.  They will work together on researching and editing.  I can’t wait!

On Wednesday, we will be writing a police report on the teacher (completely make believe – I am still a kid at heart) that left a nasty note attached to my classroom door.  The note reads, “Your hair is getting too long.  Is it a science experiment?”  I’m going to pretend I’m mad (I like my hair long – I may not have to pretend:), and then I will present the evidence.  I will have a pen from each sixth grade teacher’s desk and we will use the chromatography paper to determine “Who did the crime?”

These writing ideas are okay, but I am searching for some real substance in the student writing.  I’m also looking for some consistency.  I teach energy, forces, and motion, matter, simple machines, and different forms of energy.  If you have any good ideas or suggestions about writing in science, please let me know.  I would be greatly appreciative.

That’s enough for this morning.  My children tell me that when I don’t comb my hair I look like Professor Poopy Pants from Captain Underpants, so I’m off to nail that look and head to school.

Each night at the dinner table, the family answers two questions: What was your high of the day?  What was your low of the day?  Our nine-year-old started this nightly tradition about two years ago.  Every member of the family has a chance to answer and everyone else is expected to listen.  Sometimes, the highs and lows of the day spark conversation that takes us off task, which is usually a good thing, but sometimes it’s not so good (on Sunday night, the nine-year-old confessed her low of the day is that she is worried that she is not going to grow:).

So, at the end of every week, I do my highs and lows of the past week.  They can be any highs and lows (personal or school-related), but for this week, I decided to focus my highs and lows on the past school week.

My highs:

1. The Holocaust Resistance Museum was spectacular.  The students worked so hard on the project and the museum presentation showcased all of their work.  The museum attracted about sixty visitors, and the students did a nice job explaining the life of their assigned rebel and the actual project.  Their written reflections were equally as spectacular as the museum presentations.  I also found it refreshing that they understood that they were honoring these people who resisted Hitler and the Holocaust.  There will definitely be a 2020 version of this project.
2. Since this the first year that I have taught science (I taught sixth grade social studies for the first seventeen years of my teaching career), I was unsure about how the students would do on the analyzing inks investigation.  They needed to listen carefully and read through the steps while using the chromatography paper.  I only had a set amount of chromatography paper, so the kids could not make any major mistakes.  I am using the rest of the chromatography paper to do an assessment in class on Wednesday.  The students worked well with their partners and accomplished the lab while learning about separations.  Dare I write that I truly believe that they had fun with this investigation?  I am hopeful that they will do well on the assessment activity (a “Who done it?” mystery letter activity).
3. The essay is a daunting task for sixth grade students.  The mythology essay topic is the natural phenomenon and lessons learned from the myth entitled “Echo and Narcissus”.  The students started out a little slow at the beginning of the writing process.  They struggled to decide what to write about during the brainstorming stage, but soon found their way while outlining their ideas.  While writing the first draft, the momentum picked up and they began to get into a rhythm with their writing (and I got into my rhythm with the individual writing conferences).  During the revision stage, I did a mini-lesson on writing a closing sentence (I wrote about it in my Day #9 post).  Their final drafts, which I have been grading all weekend, are very good.

My lows:

1. This week, I will be teaching the students about electrolysis and we will be splitting hydrogen and oxygen.  I had planned to do the lab with the kids on Friday, but they are struggling with the concepts.  I am struggling with how to teach them the concepts, which are difficult to understand, so that all of the students understand electrolysis.  I am worried that this concept might be over their head (and understanding level), but I will attempt to do the investigation with them on Monday.  I am not overly confident, but maybe I’ll be surprised.
2. On Monday, the students will choose a book to read with some reading partners.  Kate Messner is the author of all of the book choices.  On Friday, we did a scavenger hunt on Kate Messner’s website to find out more about her and her writing.  The kids did a great job on the scavenger hunt, but when it was time to read the summary and look at the seven books (I laid one out on seven different tables in the library) the students rushed through the process.  Many of the students just picked the first book on the list.  Unfortunately, only four students can read that book, so they were to pick a second and third favorite.  Because they rushed, I added a little time to Monday’s class to give them a few more minutes to pick a book.  I will be emphasizing how important it is to pick a book that they will like because they will be reading it for the next two to three weeks.
3. I also had high hopes for the students to being writing their final poem for the poetry mini-unit.  I have all of the examples to show the kids ready to display, but we are behind.  It has taken us longer to get through the reading (and discussing) of some of the poems from last week.  Also, because of the mini-lesson on writing a closing sentence, I find myself farther behind with the final written poem.  We will complete the poem this coming week.

I’m ready to tackle a new week, and I am looking forward to two special guests that will be talking with the kids about the Holocaust (one is a teacher’s husband that will be showing the kids pictures and discussing the historical context of the pictures and the second guest works at the U.S. Holocaust Museum).  Obviously, these are tremendous learning opportunities for the students (and for me:).  I’m confident that it is going to be a good week.

The Shamrock Run

A sea of heads as far as the eye can see,

as the starter gives the command.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.

A rhythmic flow of 6400 feet,

pounding the pavement.

Under the historic upside down traffic light,

the pack spreads out.

Zapding, zapding.

Zapding, zapding.

A dozen watches ding,

one mile down and three to go.

Weaving through neighborhoods,

up and down the steep and narrow hills. 

Huffing, puffing.

Huffing, puffing.

The breathing gets louder,

more unsteady as the finish line approaches.

Into the beautiful city park, Burnet Park,

for one last final climb.

Stomp, stomp.

Stomp, stomp.

The last gasp on heavy feet,

making the final push to and through the finish line.

When you get a forty-degree sunny day after weeks of bitter cold and snow, you make the most of it.  I made the most of every stride that I took through the four mile Tipperary Hill Shamrock Run course.  It’s the city’s famous March race that draws thousands of runners from throughout Central New York to the historic Irish neighborhoods of Tipperary Hill.  What a day!

Every week, you start with a plan.  The week started with the Holocaust Resistance Museum (check – WOW! It was awesome!).  This week, the plan was to read aloud Glory Be and teach the importance of character development from both a reading and writing perspective (check).  The plan also tackled the subtle messages that can be found in poetry.  We read Carl Sandburg, Robert Hayden, and Langston Hughes and discovered the messages that lie in these beautiful poems (check).  We learned about complex sentence structure, word use, and its vs. it’s (check).  Finally, we worked through the drafting stage and revision stage of the mythology essay about Echo and Narcissus (connecting it to natural phenomenon and/or lesson learned) (check).

We were coasting along with these plans until Wednesday afternoon.  At 1:19 PM on Thursday afternoon, just six minutes before the end of the ELA class period, which lasts eighty minutes, a young writer whispered under her breath, “Why is it so difficult to write a closing sentence to an essay?”  This happened following the peer revision session where a student suggested that this young writer needed a powerful closing sentence.  It is always thrilling to hear the results of peer revision, but time was not on my side to teach a mini-lesson on the closing sentence.  It would have to wait until tomorrow (Thursday).

During Thursday’s ELA class, we started with a mini-lesson on the closing sentence.  Prior to class, I created a nice graphic (with a computer image) on the whiteboard of three kids with a thought bubble that stated, “What do I write in a closing sentence?”  Around the image, I showed examples of different types of essays that we write in sixth grade.  The most important part was that each of these essays has a different type of closing sentence, which makes it very difficult to write.  Some examples:

Mythology essay: Connection to the content that we learned during the mythology unit (part of Greek history – they were all Greek myths; natural phenomenon, lessons learned, and the hero’s journey)

Persuasive essay: Ask for action

Narrative essay: Make it memorable (what you want your reader to remember about YOUR story)

On Friday, we went back to all of the novels that we read during the school year and looked at the closing sentences.  Then, we analyzed the closing sentence as it connected to the story’s plot.  Finally, the kids went to work on writing their closing sentences (most of them had it written, so it was revising time).  Here are some examples:

1. Even though these Greek myths were proven wrong with science, we still admire the Greeks for their explanations.  These myths are still studied and read today to find out more about their culture and beliefs.
2. This myth is very important because it teaches us two important lessons about the world. We can learn by the mistakes made by Echo and Narcissus.
3. Even though these Greek myths were proven wrong with science, we still admire the Greeks for their explanations.  These myths are still studied and read today to find out more about their culture and beliefs.

It is a wonderful week when your best mini-lesson of the week was unplanned and just what the students needed (check).

Should sixth graders read young adult novels?  Should fourth graders read middle grade novels?  I believe that kids should read anything that turns them on to reading, but I do worry about whether they are ready for the content.  Many of my sixth graders are ready for some mature topics (they are 15 weeks away from being seventh graders).  Some want a little more romance than a middle grade novel can give them.  There are very few middle grade romances.  This is a dilemma.

This problem has found its way into my own writing of stories.  I have a middle grade manuscript (I never write that it is completed because I don’t believe any of my stories are ever complete – if it ever gets published, I’ll change my mindJ) and it contains a little romance (holding hands and a little kiss).  Many of the kids (even the ones that don’t like romance) love the part in the story.  I read it to them at the end of the school year, so they are ready for a little more mature content.  On this manuscript, I succeeded with finding just the right amount of romance and mature content for an “almost” seventh grader to handle.

Unfortunately, I am not finding as much success in the story that I am working on now.  It started out as a middle grade story, but I’m in the process of revising it to be young adult.  I have two reasons.  The first is the romance, but the second, and more important reason, is there are just not that many young adult hockey stories.  There are not many middle grade stories either, but my story plot is moving towards a more mature audience.  Obviously, I am in the process of revising many parts, but I’ve found it enjoyable and the changes are flowing, so I believe that I’ve made the right choice.

Here’s a snippet of this morning’s writing (and the beginning of a romance):

Ding.  I am startled awake by the text.  How long have I been sleeping?  I’ve never loved history class, but this is the first time that I’ve used the textbook as a pillow.  Did I drool on tonight’s reading assignment? Yuck.

I look over at my phone as it dings a second time.

Can I come over to study?

Samantha’s name appears above the message.  My heart starts racing.  I didn’t put her name in my contacts.  Did I?  I can’t have her here.  She can’t see our living room that’s also Mom’s bedroom.  She can’t see all of the dishes that Dad and I haven’t cleaned from the week.  She can’t see the constant darkness.  She can’t feel the silence.  She can’t see Mom.

Can we meet at Reggies?

Reggie’s Diner is off of Main Street and has the best bacon cheeseburger in town, probably the best in the world.  Reggie played hoops overseas before taking over the diner from his pop.  He gave me so many pointers this summer when I was thinking about trying hoops instead of hockey.  He’s got the sickest crossover dribble.

See you there at 7:30.:)

It’s a twenty-minute bike ride from here, so I’ve got time to wash up and clean the drool off of my cheek.  I can’t believe that I have a study date with Samantha.  I wonder if she thinks it’s a date.