Notes+From+Session+One,+March+29



** HVWP- PDS Book Study: **// Wondrous Words // by Katie Wood Ray Notes: Session One, March 29, 2011

Facilitators: Dotty Feldman and Anita Merando Recorder/Advisor: Mary Sawyer Group: Jan, Susan, Debby, Nan, Judy, Lynn, Brian, Ruthie, Sue. 3:30 ** Snacks/Social Time ** (sign-up sheet for snacks ) 3:45 ** Opening/Introductions ** · Participant introductions (Name and teaching context) · Present Book Study Group as a form of “homegrown staff development” · Read & reflect on quote from __Because Writing Matters:__ // The path to change in the classroom core lies within and through teachers’ professional communities; learning communities which generate knowledge, craft new norms of practice, and sustain participants in their efforts to reflect, examine, experiment, and change. (p.57) // // Comments:  // Nan: The enthusiasm that feeds us and that we then bring to our classroom community is the basis for what starts our students’ interest in comprehension. Susan: Teachers are learners, and it needs to be safe to be a learner Ruthie: Liked the part about studying authors’ craft and am interested in studying authors in this way Dotty: This quote connects to the different strands of this HVWP-PDS Book Study: Reading text, Writing & Sharing, Inquiry & Examination of Student work, and Reflection 4:00 ** Writing Prompt ** (Write and Share in small groups and then as a whole) What chapter, excerpt, or quote from the book “spoke to you” and why? // Comments (please forgive me if I have the wrong names for the comments; I missed the introductions at the beginning of the session):  // Ruthie: p. 121-writerly things vs. readerly things. I am used to looking at things in a ** // readerly // ** way, not a ** // writerly // ** way. Nan: Not ** __pointing__ ** to the skill….but noticing things as a discussion. As exploration of writing, similar to our other explorations in the PDS curriculum Debby: The end of // Stonefox //…how does it evoke so much emotion? Looking back and noting the craft. Susan: Sometimes, I don’t want to read that way… Sue: But it can be really nice to get immersed in an author….perhaps authors like Rylant, DiCamillo, Jan: I am interested in Revision: And being able to come at it in a new way. The “envisioning”parts of the book interested me, on p. 60, 142. (Chapter 6) Judy & Lynn: We were interested in “An Invitation to My Library” (Chapter 7)— Debby: Wouldn’t it be good to create a “mentor text library” as part of this book study…. Sue: I have a professional book about that—// Mentoring Texts //. And I have some great mentor texts I can share. 4:20 ** Group Discussion based on // Write and Share // time: ** Decide whether to read specific chapters together or read what individually strikes us as useful for our students. (consensus) 4:30 ** Model Lesson/Book-Classroom Extensions & Explorations ** · Anita shares her exploration “using familiar text (// Where the Wild Things Are //) and no pictures” with mostly Kindergarten students. We heard digital recordings of students’ poems. · Dotty shares her exploration with 6th grade performance poetry and we all had a first-hand experience for ourselves. Here was the process · Choral Reading of familiar text · Finding “wondrous words” in the text (15 words or less) · Gathering of Voices: reading excerpts as one continuous voice in circle group 5:00 ** Sharing Student Work ** Examine cross-grade level examples of student work, in which students transform their “wondrous words” into performance poems · Examing Dotty’s students’ poem. “Untitled” · Dotty asks, “Did kids succeed in choosing “striking words” and making a group poem from them? (Discussion follows—we generally agreed that the students had been successful, even Justino’s line “They need rain...”) 5:15 ** Ending **: · We decided to meet on April 12 at 3:30 to give us more time to explore the book in our classrooms and so that people can go to Patti Stock’s Workshop in they wish. on April 5 (4:15-5:45 pm, Locust Grove) · We decided to focus on Chapter 6 (Organized Inquiry—Teaching Students to Read Like Writers) for next time. Ruthie volunteered to bring explorations from her classroom, and Sue will also try to share something. · We can also continue to explore chapter 4 (Reading Aloud) after being inspired by the explorations of Dotty and Anita in their classrooms.