OLW - responsiveness ...the 6-month mark

I wrote the words below in BLACK as the 2015 year began, my first New Years Day of choosing a OLW. As I reflect on my ONE LITTLE WORD now, I celebrate that I STILL have 6 months to go (good thing!). 

I have focused on my responses to things. As I speak/react to students and colleagues, I now hear inside my head, a voice saying "Is this the best response?" 

I have NOT spent time actively learning about how to respond. But the year is only half-way over and the summer break is just 20 days, 4 hours, 41 minutes and 41 seconds away (YES, I have a count-down app on my phone!) My plan is to READ, READ, READ lots of Responsive Classroom literature. And my school is offering an August training that I will attend, too.

I chose this word because I was realizing I was bothered more and more by others. However, now I also realize that the amount of sleep and exercise and healthy foods I eat really are directly related to my reactions. So along with reading, I am also going to actively spend more time focusing on ME - my diet, my time spent moving my body, my stress level. When I am more relaxed, I find I am capable of reacting in a more calm manner.

I really do WANT to observe myself living more the below list of synonyms. I really do want to respond better to boy behavior, to colleagues suggesting a different ideas, to situations causing drama in my own life.

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson reminds me that it really isn't OK to keep waiting to act kindly. So many missed opportunities slip by. Instead, I CAN respond with kindness, openness, acceptance. 

I WILL SHOW RESPONSIVENESS...at the 6 month mark and beyond.

Copied below is my January 1, 2015 blog post:

OLW - responsiveness

As the 2015 year begins, I want to focus on my response to things. I want to spend time actively learning how to better respond to:

~ 10 year old boys
~ colleagues, thoughtful, arrogant, and/or ignorant
~ the drama of school and family situations
~ the lack of kindness shown by strangers I pass during the day
~ anyone causing me angst

As this year ends, I realize more and more, I get very bothered by others. And I respond by either just walking away and not saying or doing anything OR by yelling (as in the case of 10 year old boys who do much to drive me crazy by Friday afternoon - yes, I am a 5th grade teacher). By keeping the word RESPONSIVENESS front and center, I hope to read more and observe more and try more about ways to respond to others.

One of the definitions of RESPONSIVE is related to machinery - "the ability of a machine or system to adjust quickly to suddenly alterned external conditions, as of speed, load, or temperature and to resume stable operation without undue delay." Synonyms listed include openness, acceptance, broad-minded, observance, receptiveness, tolerant, understanding, aware, kind-hearted, sensible, warm.

My goal of keeping RESPONSIVENESS as a focus is that my responses will be positive and that quickly I can adjust to resume operation without too much delay. Presently, I respond by being annoyed. I respond by thinking an hour later about what I could have said. I respond by turning inward and letting it go and maybe tolerating too much.

Professionally, I plan to read more about Responsive Classroom. I plan to reflect weekly on my own responses. I plan to also be accepting of the speed (whether slow or quick) of my growth.

I know this is an area I CAN be better at through practice and constant reflection. I openly accept RESPONSIVENESS as my OLW for the 2015 year.

End of Year Letter to my 5th grade Writers

June, 2015

Dear Janney 5^th Grade Writing Friends,

As we end our year together, we just want to take a moment to reflect on a few things we learned with you this year. Our favorite part of being your writing teachers was the many genres we were able to write – personal narrative, realistic fiction, essay, nonfiction history, nonfiction science, memoir and poetry. We will never forget the following moments that helped us to be better writers:

·      Using these mentor texts to inspire our writing:

·      Watching these videos to inspire our writing:

o   Video of Lucy Calkins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO29k1-RvsA

§  We learned that we must honor our writing by reading it like it is gold and listening to it because it can change the world.

o   Blind man video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6gEMGuPzxg

§  We learned that the word choices we make in our writing can change the way people react to our writing.

o   Scene from Apollo 13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgHYGw9OL7c

§  We learned the importance of following a checklist to make our writing soar, just like the Apollo 13 crew followed their checklist to get the rocket to soar into space.

o   Scene from The Wizard of Oz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8

§  We learned that writing can make us feel like Dorothy, “...not in Kansas anymore”!

·      Meeting these professional writers who inspired us to keep writing:

o   George O’Connor http://www.olympiansrule.com/

o   Gail Carson Levine https://gailcarsonlevine.com/

o   Judith Viorst http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Judith-Viorst/707395

·      Using these tools when writing:

o   Our writing notebook and computer

o   Orally rehearsing our writing ideas

o   The Slice of Life writing challenge in March

As this 5^th grade school year ends, know that we are so proud of you. We saw you grow as a writer, while also growing as readers, mathematicians, scientists, historians and as kind friends in our community. Enjoy your summer. Take some time to read and write! Be sure to complete the writing process - immersion, generate ideas, draft, revise, edit and publish - often; this summer, next year in Middle School, in High School, in College and in your life-work. Through writing, we come to understand our thinking and when we make our writing public, WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!

Fondly,

Mrs. Donnelly and Ms. Osterman

PS – Do stay in touch ...especially in 7 years, we’d love to hear where you are heading after finishing High School - sally.donnelly11@gmail.com and feel free to send me your school’s pennant to add to my wall collection! 

CLICK HERE to view letter I sent last year to my 4th graders.

Judith Viorst Visits My School

I can vividly recall reading Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day to my first class in the fall of 1986, me fresh out of college. The book plate is further evidence from that time, as it reads "Sally Stallings". In another year,  I'd married and start being called Mrs. Donnelly. That year and every year since, this book lived in my classroom. On May 6, 2015, the author Judith Viorst visited my classroom and now this very worn book is signed by this amazing author!

What a fun day we had!! She came so prepared with written notes to guide her talk that shared highlights of her long writing life. Then she graciously took questions from the students. After her 45 minutes with the 5th graders, the audience switched and she repeated with the 4th graders, which included her grandson, Isaac, son of her son, Alexander.

Some highlights:
* Her granddaughter, Olivia (Isaac's 8th grade sister) gave her the idea for her newest book And Too Boys Booed. When Judy asked Olivia how her talent show performance went, she replied "Terrible - two boys booed."  Judy told us that she probably should have said something comforting to Olivia but instead, she said, "That's a great idea for a book!" Then she read parts of this book to us. If you haven't read this new adventure yet, do!! 

 

* Her Advise for Writers:

1) You need to write EVERYDAY...a little something every day

2) FINISH what you start. "This is a good rule in writing and other things, too."

3)Writing is partly fun and partly hard. Enjoy the fun and don't give up when it gets hard.

4) The real name for a writer SHOULD BE "rewriter" because that is really what a writer spends MOST of their time doing. It is only after many, many tries that a basketball player can finally get the ball to go "swish". The same is true for writing. Write and rewrite and when it feels like "swish", you know you have written it right.

5) Be a reader so you know what you can write about and know all the ways that you can tell a story.

* Her Writing Life Now

1)A new volume of children's poetry will come out in 2016 - What are mad about? What are you glad about? For this volume, she used children consultants (including her grandkids) to read the poems and give her feedback.

2) She is working on a 4th Lulu book. "I think Lulu is based on the secret, naughty part in all of us! I like naughty characters. I also don't like people who are too perfect. Growing up, she knew a girl who was so perfect named Ethel Ann. She would call her "soap" because she was so pure and clean. Her mother would tell her "Why can't you be more like Ethel Ann? I see Lulu as the Anti-Ethel Ann. "

(I will admit that did not know this character or book series. After the presentation, I read-aloud from Lulu and the Brontosaurus. WOW! I'm hooked. I will be reading #2 and #3 and awaiting the 4th being written now!)

As she was leaving, she saw a poster in my room that I made for National Poetry Month. I wrote on it: Read a Poem  / Write a Poem

She told me I should add Recite a poem. "It is powerful to have a poem live inside you that you can recite."

Of course, I took her advise and change the sign and I will push recitation of poetry. 

Besides, poems are to be HEARD and not just read!

A final plus to this author visit was that my own mother turned 80 on May 6th. Because she lives in the area, I had her drive over to be in my classroom for the presentation!! I had purchased Judy's volume of poetry, Unexpectedly Eighty and other Adaptations and Judy graciously signed it "Happy Birthday, Mary Anne"!

(If you don't know of her adult poetry volumes, look for them! I bought Fabulously Fifty for me and Suddenly Sixty for my sister-in-law. I asked her as I walked her out if she is working on a Ninety volume. She said, not yet.

Judith Viorst is 84 and lives in Washington DC with her husband Milton Viorst. Her Alexander Book has sold 4 million copies. She has written a total of 41 books, 3 coming out last year.

Judith Viorst - SO INSPIRING!!

Poetry inspired by Judith Viorst

I say I value mentor authors but the Writing Workshop I ran on Wednesday solidified this belief. It resulted in such strong writing after I immersed the students in the poetry of mentor author, Judith Viorst.

First, I am over-the-top excited about having poet and writer, Judith Viorst, visit my classroom on May 6th to speak to my 5th grade writers. She is also the grandmother to two students in our school and lives in our neighborhood, making it easier for her to visit.
(Next Tuesday's post, I will share about her visit!)

Naturally, I wanted to prepare my students to meet this author. So, I had each of my four classes during Writing Workshop read three of her poems, talk to a partner about each poem and then quickly draft our own poems. First, I shared If I Were in Charge of the World, having the class choral read it, stanza by stanza. Then we shared with a partner what we liked about it. We then looked closely at the structure. Immediately, we did a quick draft of our own poem.

And after just a few minutes, we showed our partner our draft.

Then we repeated with What Dads Do:

  and finally, with Learning:

We ended our 50 minute class period having drafted three strong poems and having picked the one we will revise, edit and publish the next day.

As a perk, I bought fancy paper for them to put their published poem on. As the students left class on Wed, all seemed very motivated to return on Thursday to revise, edit and publish one poem in the spirit of Judith Viorst on the fancy paper. Now she will walk into our classroom on May 6th and see all their poems, inspired by her, lining the walls.

As the kids wrote, I gave it a try, too.

If I Were in Charge of the World by Sally Donnelly, inspired by Judith Viorst
(Click HERE to read Judith Viorst's poem)

If I were in charge of the world,
I'd cancel grits,
alarm clocks, multiple-meeting in one day
and lengthy report card comments.

If I were in charge of the world,
there'd be free round-trip airline tickets for me to the cities where my children live,
lawn service would be provided for free with my rental house
And bathrooms would magically stay clean 24/7.

If I were in charge of the world,
You wouldn't have earthquakes.
You wouldn't have riots.
You wouldn't have cancers,
or at least, not childhood cancers.

If I were in charge of the world,
a person who loved to read, could read all day long
And a person who loved to write, could write  all day long
And a person who was late for a meeting because they were reading and/or writing
could still be in charge of the world.


What Dads Do by Sally Donnelly, inspired by Judith Viorst
(Click HERE to read Judith Viorst's poem)

Throws parties
Makes people laugh
Creates good times for all
Signs his signature in the fanciest way
Draws amazing illustrations for your school book report
Buys you just the present that you need
Visits you when you are away at college
Treats you and your friends to strawberry daiquiris.
Dads work hard,
play hard
and laugh big.
I wish I still had one.

Learning by Sally Donnelly, inspired by Judith Viorst
(Click HERE to read Judith Viorst poem)

I'm learning that I know that 1+1=2
and I'm learning that just writing 2 is no longer enough.
I now have to explain why it is 2, using words
or the math teacher will say, "Explain your thinking."

I'm learning it is hard not to shut down when I can't put it into words
And want to just say, "because 2 is the answer."
I'm learning it is hard to not argue and say, "You're wrong"
when a classmate says a different answer and my math teacher suggests I listen to understand the logic of their answer.
I'm learning it is getting easier through practice to say my answer using words
and to accept or refute my classmate's answers.

I'm learning that just writing 1+1=2
is not enough anymore,
Because I'm learning that the explanation of my thinking using words
is NOW the right answer.

Memoir Publishing Party!!

Last Friday was my students' 5th grade Memoir Publishing Party.

Last Wednesday, I was collecting the students' memoirs, just two days before the scheduled Friday Publishing Party. Suddenly I realized I needed to publish these as a class collection. They had worked so hard to combine all they knew about narrative writing and all they knew about essay writing and had now written amazing memoirs. So, I stayed Wednesday late and got the copiers going! After making a cover, I ran 30 copies of each for my four classes. The collections were between 30-40 pages each, making it hard to staple together so I stopped at Staples to buy a new stapler that staples up to 60 pages. By Thursday night, I had a memoir book to distribute to each 5th grader at the publishing party.

On Thursday, we practiced for Friday by reading our memoir aloud with a partner. Our partner's job was to listen and ensure that we used expression and used a loud enough voice. Then the listener practiced asking questions using the questioning cards. I modeled this first by reading my memoir with LOTS of expression and answering the questions from the comment cards politely.

I also asked who thought they would have a parent or grandparent come. I spent Thursday night (after stapling was done) making groups. I wanted to group the kids into 6 groups - 4 in the classroom spread out across the classroom and then 2 groups in the hallway. By being spread out, my hope was all could hear the reader. And I wanted to ensure that at least one parent was with each group.






I prepared this handout for the parents because I also wanted them to share a memory during the Publishing Party. All who enter my room get to be writers!

Friday was my favorite celebration yet!! WHY?

* I loved that there was time for each kid to read their entire meaningful memoir aloud.
* I love that so many parents/grandparents came (even my sister and mom came!)
* I love that the adults shared meaningful memories with their table group with many even writing very moving 6-word memoirs!
* I loved hearing students and parents say so many specific comments about how a writer crafted their memoir.
* I loved all the smiles each student-reader had as they listened to their table group's comments about their writing.
* I loved that the table groups started to sound a bit like a book club discussion...and the "book" being discussed was authored by one of my students...so powerful!!

a memoir

My 5th graders are writing memoirs right now. 

Here is the memoir I wrote while guiding them through their memoir unit of study.

Chores Can Also Bring Positive Energy

By Mrs. Donnelly

 “I can’t right now. I have to drive my mom and her friends to a luncheon,” I reminded my husband. I would much rather go hang out with him but I couldn’t that day. Instead, I had, what I call, a chore to do - chauffeuring my mother and her friends. I often have chores to do. Looking back on all my time spent doing chores, I realize something. Chores sound boring. Chores can be tiring.  Chores can take up my time, time I’d rather being doing something else. However, I realized now looking back, that many unexpected experiences often occur while doing chores. And because of the unexpected, I sometimes end my chore time actually feeling energized.

For example, there was the time I gave my mother and her friends a ride downtown. I thought it would just be a boring ride. I knew I'd have to fight the downtown traffic. It also was a chore that took me away from spending a Saturday afternoon with my husband. On a beautiful Saturday last May, I was tasked with driving my 80-year old mother and her friends to a birthday luncheon at a restaurant in downtown D.C.. All those in the car, including my mom, had grown up in D.C. As we passed landmarks, they shared their memories while I drove and listened.

“How did we survive without AC?” my mother said to all in the car as we drove in my air-conditioned Subaru when the temperature on the dashboard read 92 degrees.

“My brother and I would go to Rock Creek Park and sleep there overnight on hot days,” one woman replied. “You probably can’t do that today.”

“You just camped out?” I asked, thinking how that doesn’t sound like a safe thing to do.

“It was a different time and the park, with all those trees, was so much cooler on a hot night,” she answered.

“That house reminds me of Dr. Brennan’s row house on my block,” another said as she pointed to a row house with a corner tower on its right side. “His house was the first with an indoor bathroom.”

“Your house didn’t have indoor plumbing?” I asked.

“Not until I started school,” she replied. “I remember we were all a little skeptical about using an inside bathroom. We were used to the outhouse.”

“That’s where I use to get the bus to ride back home after school,” a third friend said pointing to a street corner. “I remember once my mom gave me a dime to ride the bus home. But I wanted to buy candy from the candy store instead. So I did. Then I stood at the bus stop and pretend-cried. A lady asked me why I was crying and I said I’d lost my dime and can’t ride the bus. She felt sorry for me and gave me a dime.” Laughter filled the car after hearing that third story.

I kept driving the car through the city with these friends who grew up in a different time. I loved hearing how different the city was 70 years ago. I loved hearing how different these women’s lives were from mine. Before I knew it, I had arrived at the restaurant, completing my driving chore. However, instead of feeling tired or annoyed, I actually felt energized. I helped out a group of ladies and in return, I enjoyed their stories.

Looking back at my life, I realize I spend lots of my time doing chores. Sure, I say I would rather be spending my time doing other things. But now, I must admit that my time spent helping others through chores, leaves me feeling energized.

Before That...a poem written by Pigeon who finds a hot dog

Before That

by Pigeon 

 Pigeon and Duckling share a hot dog while Pigeon realizes that the Duckling is very clever!

Before that, Pigeon states all the many, many reasons why this is his hot dog and why he should eat the whole thing by himself.

Before that, Duckling asks if a hot dog tastes like chicken (for the second time), 

using a very curious voice.

Before that, Pigeon goes berserk due to all the staring and questions from Duckling.

Before that, the Duckling asks if a hot dog tastes like chicken (for the first time).

Before that, Pigeon tells Duckling he should really try tasting a hot dog.
He says it in a very poetic way - a hot dog is a “celebration in a bun”
but reminds Duckling that this is HIS hot dog.

Before that, Duckling says he hasn’t tasted a hot dog before and innocently asks about its taste.

Before that, Pigeon tells Duckling that the food in his hand is called a hotdog.

 Before that, the Pigeon finds a hotdog and is very, very excited to eat it all by himself. 

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I see this poetry form as another way for a student to RETELL a story. 

Why not start at the end and go backwards!

I will admit, I read and reread this book MANY times in order to write this poem accurately. 

What a fun way to encourage multiple close reads!!