I am currently starting WRINGER, my first experience with Plugged into Reading.  Anything I should be aware of that someone has encountered?  Any good ideas?

Thanks, Judi

For better or worse, I do like PowerPoint, or any presentation program, for that matter. I like that I don't have to be at the board writing notes down and also like being able to annotate or quickly flip to a website. Being able to walk around the classroom interacting with each of the students is also a huge plus. In short, I like the flexibility and opportunities that it creates.

I am so happy to report that I am now wireless!  I had a blast teaching my math lesson with the kids at their desks and me walking around the room.  No more leash for me and my tablet!

Today the second graders created an ABC Penguins class book.  Each child was assigned two letters of the alphabet.  They had to write a sentence to include a fact about penguins that related to their assigned letters.  Using the Windows Journal program, they wrote the fact and created a picture to go with their sentence.  We printed them out to have laminated and bound into a book to add to our classroom library. My class is doing great when we use the tablets.  They are careful and remember the rules we have when using the tablets.  I am impressed by how much they remember from the last time we used the tablets.  Many of them are able to navigate in the program with little help from me. 

My only frustration that I continue to experience is saving their work to their files.  Due to the limited fine motor skills, they tend to "gobble up" other files as they are locating their own file.  It is a "now you see it, now you don't!" issue.  When they drag the pen on the tablet, files combine and appear "lost" to them.  It is difficult to locate them at times.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Marty, who was visiting our school to learn about tablet usage, seemed to be quite impressed with my class's skills and how well the kids worked while using the technology. 

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Icons or avatars add to the fun of the site, so pick an image and dress up your posts! (Oh, yeah, that's me with the baton over there...)

I am very excited about the opportunity to bring so many people together... literally on the same page.  I have many questions.  Missy what did you decide on as the next novel to dive into? How is it going?  I am looking forward to hearing from the teachers in South Bend.  The fact that they could hardly stop reading long enough to  teach strategies because the students were so set on finishing the core novel, created a lot of excitement.  I am also anxious to hear from the teachers in South Carolina as they begin their exciting adventure into Plugged- in To Reading.  In the past week many have asked questions about the materials, schedules, and graphic organizers.  I will post some of the feedback I have received as soon as I figure out how to accomplish this.

 One particular question is about the Google graphic organizer. The particular group of students had difficulty with this.  Any suggestions on how to make this easier?

Since I am no longer in the classroom, I am looking forward to hearing about your exciting moments.

 Angie

Well, I thought I'd copy Melissa's idea to let others know how the core novels went for me and my students.  I think I can say that Melissa and I probably had similar experiences.  I read Among the Hidden with my 9th grade classes (3 of them) and Slumming with my 10th grade classes (2 of them). 

I think Among the Hidden is a great way to start.  The reading itself is not challenging but there are very interesting issues for the students to contemplate and discuss.  Actually, my students hated the audio at first.  I told them to get through 5 chapters and then if they didn't like it, we'd stop listening and I could read out loud.  But after five chapters, all classes voted to continue with the audio.  Also, like Melissa's kids, we quickly got to the point when they complained when we were stopping and begged to hear more.  There were several times when I had to point out that we had less than 2 minutes left in class and that's why I wouldn't allow us to continue on to the next chapter.  The suspense/cliffhangers at the ends of the chapters make Among the Hidden an ideal book to begin with. 

After reading about Melissa's interactive word wall, I decided to try more with the vocab.  I had them start playing with concept circles.  For example, I put propaganda, rally, revolution, and crusade together and asked students to explain how those words are connected.  Then I gave the title of "change" and asked them to explain how they're related to change.   Then I had them categorize words and make their own circles.  I also gave them circles and asked them to fill in a related word.  It makes so much sense that they'd do better with the words if they're thinking about how they're related to other things and I found it much more successful that way.  I look forward to the next core novel where I can use Melissa's word wall idea and the concept circle together.

I will say that Melissa and I had one difference.  My students felt that I had them do too much while we were reading.  I think I got a little carried away with the different strategies and graphic organizers.  So, I'll need to tone that down next time I teach this.  But the book was really a success.  In fact, although I had copies of the sequels already in my classroom, I had to go buy more because the kids wanted to keep reading about Luke.

I would say that my 10th graders were less enthusiastic about Slumming.  My 2nd period class was so quiet, I often wasn't sure whether they even liked the book.  But almost every single 10th grader said it was good and that I should read it again with my classes next year.  The reading of Slumming is definitely more challenging because there are 3 different points of view and the readers have to do a lot more inferring.  Those are the things we focused on as we read.  We used the graphic organizers to keep track of what we knew about each character and what we could tell about them from their words and actions.   

This is a great novel to have students talk about how people are judged.  We had some great discussions.  The fact that there were 3 very different main characters really broadened our discussions.  For example, Alicia led us to discuss how blind girls can be sometimes when it comes to guys they're attracted to.  We looked at the inferences she made about him and the evidence she based those inferences on and the kids agreed that she made faulty inferences.  But we also agreed that all of us have done the same or know someone else who has.  I'm glad that I was able to do this novel with my 10th graders because I think we had much more mature conversations than the 9th graders would have had.  But, this might be perfect for the 9th graders after we've had a few novels under our belts, and especially after they've discussed novels in the lit circle format. 

http://teacherplaces.com/missyh/weblog/44.html

It was interesting to read Lee's post because I had a very similar experience with my students. Some of my students were not "feeling" the book (as one outspoken student put it)until the end of chapter eight. When I stopped the CD a chorus of protests erupted in the room. The same thing happened at the end of chapter 15! The majority of my students are now definitely "feeling" the book. The only downside is that they want to hurry through the assignments to get back to the story. This is not a problem I am too upset about- wanting to read more! The Y charts are working especially well for all levels of my students. Our word sort has been interesting as well. I posted the words and student selected categories on the wall. Almost every day we interact with the words to either reorganize or move our unknown words into pre-existing or new categories. I will take a picture and try to post when I am done with my roll of film (I know- I need a digital!).

Something else that has been going well is my students are making connection with the text. Because of my students' socio-economic status, there is special attention to how the government treats the commoners vs. the barons. Also, there is a link that could connect well online today about America reaching 300 million people. I believe the link is through the Today show. Here is an attempt to add the link: [Click to view link] rats! I don't think it is working. It is on msn- there is a message board about if we should worry about the pop growth and related articles about the environment and the economy. My students don't have regular access to computers, so I think I am going to incorporate it through homework or extra credit. Hope this helps!

Choate Student Work Policy Will Delamater asked me to post this policy that was approved by the Senior Administration in 2004, but never published in the Student Handbook. I'm curious to hear your feedback on the policy and whether you think it is still appropriate two years later.