A White Iris!

Just finished some work in a second grade classroom on opinion writing as detailed in the Common Core State Standards.  The classroom teacher and I have done several lessons and this last one was using the popular book Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon.  Students were asked to form an opinion about the book and detail reasons for that opinion through some informal writing.  Naturally, pretty much everyone loved the book…save, one lone oppositional soul.  How grand!  This little boy was in a reading intervention group I worked with last year.  It’s been a thrill to see him blossom AND now, to see him bravely stand up in the crowd and say, “Wait a minute, I think this and here is why!”  What a memorable teaching moment.  Naturally, we made a HUGE deal about his confidence and how this is the sort of thinking we strive for when we develop our own opinions.  Here’s a bit of what wrote:

“I did not like the book.  I don’t think you should read it.  The book is not a good book because the baby gets taken away (from his mother) and they get separated.  I don’t think anyone should read this book because he (Stellaluna) is being threatened to do stuff he doesn’t want to do (by the bird mother).” 

Yes, the thinking could be further developed and detailed.  But, I had to share this today, in honor of this little boy:  the solitary white iris in a crowd of purple!     

(Just FYI:  The lessons we’ve been using were adapted from the Unit on Opinion Writing I posted on my school website.  For info, see my April 22nd post.)

(Also must say, I love Janelle Cannon’s books!)  J

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Willy VS Earl

     What fun (with purpose!) we've had playing around with WALTeR (see March 17th post).  It's often useful to introduce a new strategy with easy, yet engaging, text.  I met Willy and Earl while strolling around Barnes and Noble and was immediately enamored with the two of them and their epic battle over…Bobo, a sock monkey (I Must Have Bobo by Eileen Rosenthal).  The book's simple text and illustrations naturally lead readers to all kinds of inferences which can then be supported by utilizing WALTeR.  Marc Rosenthal's clever facial expressions and masterfully depicted body language provide perfect fodder for how characters' LOOKS are so very telling (what a devious feline!).  Even our sixth graders relished the opportunity to analyze Willy and Earl's character traits and motives (one boy declared, “That was a fun lesson, Ms. Wag.”  (it wasn’t me; it was the book).  We decided Willy is quite immature (he LOOKs like a 4 year old, he ACTS like a 4 year old (coloring on the floor, playing with blocks, relying on his sock monkey for security while nervously navigating life amid such dangers as insects, dogs, and ominous playground slides), he SOUNDS like a 4 year old (his WORDS:  is that a ‘bitey bug?’); though he’s also persistent and determined (he repeatedly must search for Bobo since the cunning Earl keeps stealing him away).  We made a three column note page to guide our thinking as we read:  header for column 1:  Inference, header for column 2: W.A.L.T.eR. (is it the character’s words, actions, looks, thoughts or the responses of others that led you to the inference?), header for column 3: Evidence (go back to the text…specifically which words, actions, looks, thoughts, responses?)  

     After the laughter, the wondering, the discussion, the evidence-seeking and the defending of inferences, we added three words to our “Vocabulary Hot List” (adversaries, cunning and  persistent) and summed up how WALTeR is a useful tool for expanding and supporting thinking about characters.  I left the room missing the times I used to cuddle with my cat (which makes perfect sense if you read the book), then thinking, “Hmmm, I bet those pigeon books would also be entertaining prospects for using WALTeR.”  Yep, they are.  Spent twenty minutes with one of the books from Mo Willem’s series in our other sixth grade classroom, left thinking, “My three year old sometimes acts like that pigeon!" And, “I’m so glad I met WALTeR!”

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