Julie - I teach second grade and have 26 students
Julie - I am finding it difficult to fit everything into each day!
JT - I agree, fitting everything in is a problem. Any ideas to help?
Julie - Last year I decided to do each block 3 days a week and it was much easier but I think they need it daily.
sioux - So what fun books are people reading to their classes?
Julie - We just had fun doing The
Julie - or bell rang
sioux - what is the name of the book again, julie?
sioux - naneb - do you have a four blocks web site? or is that a different nan?
Julie - Sorry it got cut off- The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. It's described in the Guided REading book
sioux - hi alice
sioux - that is a good book!
Julie - It has lots of great aspects to explore!
Julie - Now we are doing A House is a HOuse For Me.
Suzan - i am new to 4 blocks. what is it?
Suzan - r is that too much to ask?
naneb - that is me, sorry! my husband just got home and I have not been paying attention
Julie - What are some of your concerns or questions implementing 4 Blocks?
sioux - what are some good four blocks web sites - besides the reading lady, and teachers.net of course
naneb - http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/gipsy/41/
sioux - naneb - is your web sit the one at bell south or fortune city?
naneb - both of them, I have the bellsouth one just for upper grades stuff
naneb - I have to work on it though, it needs updating
sioux - nan-when i tried to go there yesterday - it said your site couldn't be found? i got lots of banners, adds, etc!
naneb - I will give you the new link, bellsouth moved it to a different server
Suzan - i dont think this is working
sioux - you don't think what isn't working, suzan?
naneb - http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=52857&ck=
sioux - nan-is it the one you wrote below?
naneb - the bellsouth site is geared more toward older kids
Julie - Do any of you teach second grade?
naneb - I teach 6th grade special ed
Julie - I am the only one doing 4B in my school.
REI/2 - I teach 2nd grade
Penny - Me too!
REI/2 - Hi ya, Nan!
sioux - it's hard being a "lone wolf", julie
Penny - I don't teach 2nd grade. I teach 3rd but I'm the only one doing 4Blocks
REI/2 - I was a 4 Blocks lone ranger...now my building is all 4 Blocks.
sioux - great going, rei!
naneb - I am at a Middle School and no one has heard of 4 blocks
Julie - Does anyone else have difficulty with their schedule? With Specials and Social Skills and Health lessons and Computer, somedays I only have 3 hours instructional time!!
sioux - all the teachers in my building are trying it - it is really the first year of implementation.
Penny - How did you get all of your school to do it?
sioux - wow, julie - that is tough!
sioux - you can really do social skills during four blocks - use the right books, model how to coach, etc.
sioux - And when they go to computer, you may try doing some of the writing block
Julie - When I get tenured (this year hopefully!) I want to have a discussion about this with the district administrators. The Social Skills is led by a Prevention Worker who comes in and does a lesson!
sioux - well, i am a principal, and i spent last year training people, developing buy in, and providing lots of support
REI/2 - Penny~I'm fortunate. My district is receptive to new ideas. I voluntered to take on the role of district facilitator. That was 4 years ago. I now conduct workshops for other districts (in and out of state) and through our State ROE's.
naneb - we do alternate day block schedule so I have my kids every other day for 90 minutes but, we have a class to do AR so, that is my SSR block, it is 90 minutes too
Julie - Do you need to be approved as a trainer or can anyone with experience offer training?
sioux - i won't say everyone is where i want them to be, but everyone is certainly trying - we will continue to get better together
Julie - Do you need to be approved as a trainer or can anyone with experience offer training?
sioux - i don't think there is any "rule" that says that only trained trainers can teach teachers, but it is hard to do it alone.
naneb - I am checking every few minutes to see if I have school tomorrow, I am on the MS gulf coast
Penny - That is great REI! Good for you!
sioux - hope everything is going to be ok for you nan!
sioux - sort of like we do snow dances!
sioux - although it rarely snows here!
naneb - 140 mph winds and tornadoes, it is very scarey!!
Penny - Good time for prayer!!
sioux - do you do any training, nan?
naneb - for sure!! thanks
sioux - i am looking for a good upper grade four blocks presenter
naneb - no, I have only been doing 4 blocks for 2 years
naneb - I feel like I am still feeling my way through all of this too
REI/2 - Julie~no, there isn't anything that says you must be approved as a trainer. I'm fortunate. I am one of the people listed on Pat and Dottie's website as a presenter.
sioux - how do you have the time to do a web site?
naneb - I have gotten very involved with Strategies That Work and teaching those reading strategies
naneb - I think I am as hyper as my students
sioux - well, rei - do you do upper grades?
REI/2 - Sioux~are your upper grade people attempting Big Blocks?
naneb - Guided Reading was my hardest block but, I think I have a handle on it now
Cindy - Hi! I have just came on. I am a literacy coordinator for 4 blocks. This is my 2nd year out of the classroom helping to implement 4 blocks K-4 in our school.
sioux - yes, they are, but they need a lot more guidance
sioux - they have a general idea, but sometimes the implementation isn't quite right
Penny - I'm having trouble with the writing block. The kids keep saying they don't have anything to write or they just write a couple of sentences.
REI/2 - sioux~LOL...actually I do conduct inservice on Upper Grades. Just did a two day one last week for our Regional Office of Superintendent.
naneb - sioux, do they have the 4 blocks for the upper grades book? Have them read Strategies that work, it is really geared toward upper grades
sioux - where are you, rei?
sioux - penny - what grade are you trying to do writing with?
naneb - Penny, we did lots of brainstorming of lists of ideas to keep in their folder
REI/2 - Sioux~I'm in IL.
Penny - 3rd grade
Nancy - Hi! This is my first time in a chat room.
sioux - oh - with joe furman (sp?) and delinda youngblood?
naneb - Hi nancy, nice name
REI/2 - Naneb~I love STW!!!!!! I use many of the strategies in my classroom. I'm reading Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller.
naneb - I have read that too and Mosaic of Thought, I am really starting to see some improvement in my sped kids
Nancy - Penny, I teach third grade and I teach kids to write about their real life experiences and then exaggerate them to get a full story out of it. I use Robert Munsch books as examples.
REI/2 - Well, I live in the same state as them...LOL!! Joe lives up North, but DeLinda is from my part of the state.
Penny - Where are you from REI? I"m from southern Illinois
sioux - were you at the leadership conference last year, rei?
REI/2 - Penny~I'm Southern IL too.
REI/2 - Sioux~Yep!
Penny - Thanks Nancy. I'll check into them.
Julie - I'm from upstate NY and there is not a lot of 4b going on here.
sioux - we may have eaten together - a bunch of people went to O'Charlies - we had to wait a long time - were you there?
Cindy - I'm in west-central Illinois
REI/2 - No, I went with the group that went to the "Village Tavern". That is a restaurant...LOL!!
Nancy - I read a couple of Cunningham books years ago and played around with her ideas slowly. Now I'm in a district that supports it fully except that they want us to do Fountas and Pinnell-style guided reading.
Nancy - I'm also in a snow belt area and we do snow dances all the time!
Vic - OK, as long as we are talking about writing, naneb, I could use your and everyone elses help with the writing block as well. I have k-2 sp. needs in Iowa. My students are really hung up on "spelling the words right." I've done minilesson after minilesson, after minilesson on where to look to figure out how to spell a word, all to no avail up to this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cindy - We quit doing snow dances as they take the days off our Spring Break. We get 10 days with no snow.
REI/2 - Vic...have you taught them to circle the word and go on?
Julie - I need some clarification about how reading strategies are explicitly taught, since the GR block is more for comprehension. The GR groups ala Fountas and Pinnel were very focused on teaching different strategies.
Vic - REI, yep.
Penny - Another writing question. When the kids publish their first piece should I make sure they have everything grammatically correct?
Penny - Benton
naneb - I have the same problem at the beginning of the year Vic, I model, model, model how to stretch out a word and write the sounds you know, how to just circle it to come back to it later etc, I have a student teacher and I had to stop her from spelling everything, my kids are finally beginning to try to spell on their own
Nancy - I think things should be as correct as possible when they're published...but a few mistakes can be charming, like when they look back on it years later.
Cindy - Vic, it may take some time, but if you keep modeling it, they will eventually get there.
Julie - I think it depends on the grade level as to what should be 'correct.'
REI/2 - Penny~When I asked Dottie this question a few years ago she replied that Yes the published piece should be correct.
Penny - It's 3rd.
naneb - my kids hate to rewrite, so they skip lines and make corrections in the spaces and then do one final rewrite
Vic - naneb, boy can I relate. I have to stop my para from telling my students how to spell words all the time. They really became dependent. I finally had to send her on her break to get her out of the room during writing.
Penny - So, if I conference with them and show them where to put periods, etc and they do it - then I should have them write it again?
naneb - good idea Vic
Penny - I mean they don't do it then I should have them rewrite it.
Julie - Can someone answer my question about teaching strategies good readers use?
Nancy - Julie, Guess the Covered Word hits on an important strategy...I also teach strategies when kids read individually with me during SSR.
Nancy - I also model strategies when I Think Aloud during read aloud times.
Vic - Nancy, that is what I am finding is the most efficient as well. I focus on what each student really needs to move them along in their reading.
REI/2 - Penny~they should make the changes right on the copy you are conferencing on. Then if it is going to be a "published" piece, they rewrite it as a "clean" copy. I conference different ways. Some times it is what I call a "QC"~Quick Conference, to touch base on what they are currently writing and see how they are incorporating the minilessons. I also conduct "editing" conferences and "revising" conferences. It depends on the time of year it is and where we are at in our writing.
Julie - Yes, SSR conferences are used for this but now that I have such a huge class (26, second grade) I don't get to conference with them as often as I should!
Cindy - There are book marks that help the children remember to use strategies for decoding words.
Nancy - That sounds good REI. Sometimes all those writing conferences can get overwhelming when it seems like they all need you at once.
REI/2 - Julie~how many kiddos are you getting to in a typical day?
naneb - since I teach 6th graders we do peer editing, they edit, then a peer edits, then they edit with me
Penny - I'm not sure that my 3rd graders are ready to peer edit yet!
Nancy - Before a kid has a conference with me, I have them have a friend read their piece out loud....that catches lots of things first.
Cindy - This is the first year that all of our classes K-4 have 24-25 kids. Budget cuts.
Nancy - Cindy and Julie...I feel for you.
REI/2 - Nan~we do the same in my 2nd grade class. I also have a "Revising" team that starts up in the spring. I have a Team Leader and 2 support Revisers. We conduct "business lunches" and
naneb - probably not, Penny
Julie - I am just beginning to conference as I start slowly in September and have been doing running records and spelling assessments during SSR. Regarding publishing, at the second grade level, would you also have kids rewrite to a final copy? I have never asked them to- I just have them correct a reasonable amount of errors on the draft and then I have had parents help type the final copies. I am interested in other ways of publishing. We have a Print Shop I send final copies to and they laminate the covers and bind them for me, which is so great!
REI/2 - meet with the student who's piece is being revised. The kids love it.
naneb - I give bonus points to the peer editor if they find all of the errors
naneb - Julie, I have a really cool program for the computer called Easy Books Deluxe, it is a publishing program with graphics, backgrounds, title page, author page and everything, it prints on both sides of the paper too and makes a book
aggie/1/ca - Wow, naneb! That sounds great!
Cindy - Hi Aggie what grade and where are you from?
aggie/1/ca - REI------ I just sent you a pm.
aggie/1/ca - Hi Cindy! I'm in Southern CA and teach a transitional first grade this year.
naneb - http://www.sunburst-store.com/cgi-bin/sunburst.storefront/EN/Product/6763
mrs_K - hi
Nancy - I like my kids to illustrate their own books.
REI/2 - Julie~My kids rewrite their final copy. They either hand write it or use the computer. I've had kids publish using Paint, MS Word, Kid Works Deluxe, Kid Pix, Power Point and our new basal has book publishing software.
aggie/1/ca - Thanks, naneb!
naneb - aggie, it makes the cutest books very professional looking, the kids love them
Julie - I don't even have a computer in my room yet!
naneb - Julie, really? Wow, I have several
Vic - Hey Cece, I wondered if you'd be here tonight. This is your Iowa connection.
Julie - I am afraid that having them rewirte will deter them from writing longer pieces and since I have many struggling readers and writers, I feel it is better to have them focus on some errors but not to overwhelm them, Rewriting is very laborius (sp?) at this age. What do others think?
Cece - Hey! I just got home
Vic - Cece, remember the good news I was going to tell you about?
Cece - Yes, what's the news?
Vic - I started my apples unit by placing things made from apples all over the room. Then I talked about the file folders in their brains.
Penny - Julie, that's exactly what I was thinking. I thought that as the year went on I would expect them to do more editing.
Cece - That is a neat thing! Did you get it from Debbie Miller's book?
REI/2 - Julie~We teach the same grade level, I think. I have an inclusion classroom. When we begin publishing (not until usually November) most of my kiddos are able to publish their "clean" piece within 2-3 days. Now of course later in the year when they are writing "chapter books" it then takes longer.
Julie - I attended two week long summer writing institutes at Teachers College with L Calkins and others. They advise focusing on one aspect of the mechanics of writing at a time.
Vic - I told them to open the file folder marked apples, and take it out. We made a KWL chart. Anyway at the end of day one, one of my kiddos said that he was going to put a bookmark in his file folder as he knew that we would be learning more about apples on the next day.
tacitone - can someone help me with a grammer question??
Julie - Rei, you don 't find it diffiult for them?
tacitone - Can someone help me with a grammer question?
Cece - That is great! It's amazing how kids can develop language and ideas about comprehension.
Cece - What's the question?
Julie - REi, do you ever type their books for them or do they always do the final copy?
Vic - tacitone, what's your question?
Penny - What is your grammar question?
Vic - Cece, have you ever met Angela Meiers?
REI/2 - Julie~My students type their own copies. It is part of their "ownership" of their piece of writing.
Cece - No, I don't think so. Who is she?
Vic - She's working with our district this year on comprehension strategies and writing for our reading excellence grant. Gail Saunders-Smith is also working with the newer schools in the grant.
Cece - We have a lot of nonfiction books that Gail wrote at our school. Where is Angela Meiers from? Our training for REA is coming from Dr. Sharon Walpole.
Vic - Angela is from here in Iowa. I really miss working with Gail.
Cece - Each state is doing it differently. Did your grant fund a literacy coach? Is your training through Iowa universities?
Vic - I think that we have 7
Vic - oops, 7 Reading Coaches for the grant. No, most of our training is using 4 blocks materials, and with Gail and Angela.
Cece - 7 literacy coaches? Do you have one at your school? In GA each school funded got a literacy coach in the building.
Vic - I think that I'm going broke buying all the 4B books that I can get ahold of. We share a coach with one other building. We had the same one for the first 2 years of the grant. This year we have a new one.
Cece - I heard Joe & Dottie's book just came out, but I haven't seen it yet.
Vic - I've seen it mentioned a couple times, but it will have to wait until after Christmas.
Cece - How is it going in your classroom? I worked 1/2 a day in kindergarten today. Whew! K teachers deserve a raise!
Vic - Tell me about it. Inside recess today, temp. dropped 20 degrees since yesterday, barometric temp. changed and whatever else. My kinders even acted up today. One of my 2nd graders went on new meds today and he went psychotic at 1:00, and my 1st grader broke his finger leaving home and mom didn't take him to the doctor, until we called DHS in. Same-o same-o.
Julie - Goodnight all and thanks for all the ideas and info! It's 10 pm here and I'm bushed!
Penny - Bye Julie nice chatting.
Vic - How's your new job going?
REI/2 - Calling it a night as well. Have more Reading With Meaning to read tonight. I am really enjoying it. Think I am going to add it to my Reading Methods course for Spring Semester.
Cece - Night, REI
Vic - Enjoy your reading REI. Have a good night.
Cece - Vic, the job is going well. It's really different, but I love working with the teachers. The job is evolving, but I really like it.
Penny - It was nice chatting with you, REI.
Vic - How many schools/teachers are you working with?
naneb - Just found out , no school tomorrow
Vic - Will you be leaving your area naneb?
Cece - naneb, are you near the hurricane?
Penny - I'll keep you in my prayers!!!!
naneb - No, I am the computer tech for my school so, I will go to school to help prepare
naneb - right on the coast in MS near AL
naneb - we have to cover everything with plastic, unplug and move away from windows, etc
Vic - Cece, will you be affected by Lili?
naneb - Cece, where are you?
Cece - It's so sad that area is being hit again so soon. I hope all will be well. When I was a kid we went to Biloxi a few years after Camille? I think hit. It was amazing all the damage that was done
naneb - It is a different place now, Cece
Cece - Vic, we'll probably get lots of rain. We got about a week's worth of hard rain off the last one, but nothing like south AL & LA. Naneb, I live in Northeast Alabama and work in Northwest GA
Vic - I think that one of teachers that I worked with in '86 is now the superintendent in Biloxi.
Cece - We are off next week on fall break and head for Disney on Monday. We were afraid the hurricane would hit FL, but it went west
Vic - Anyone have any words of wisdom to get my students over their "How do you spell..." phase? I've modeled and modeled and taught strategies, all to no avail up to this pt.
emma - How's 4 blocks going for everyone?
Cece - Emma, I am working as a literacy coach this year, so I am not teaching a class every day. How's your year going?
Cece - Vic, what strategies are you focusing on? Schema? Connections?
emma - Mine is wonderful, now that I have writing mini-lessons for 2nd. That writing was hard for me last year.
Cece - I haven't seen it, but I know Deb was excited about getting it published
emma - Now I'm trying to get a handle on Guided Reading!
Vic - mainly schema. I got writing mini-lessons for 1st and it is terrific!
Cece - Emma, that is a full time job! GR is definitely a difficult block, but it is really fun.
Cece - Vic, have you used any of Kevin Henkes books? I used them for connections and the kids really could relate to the story lines.
Vic - No, maybe I should look into those. Tell me about his books.
Cece - My favorite is Chrysanthemum. It's about a mouse who loves her name until she goes to school & the kids make fun of her. I really relate to that one.
emma - Vic, I'm starting out VERY simple with my 2nd graders. I use Deb Smith's OWL strategy. Do you know about it?
Vic - I've used a lot of rhymes, tongue twisters, and using words you know. It's really tough this year. They are very immature.
Cece - Shelia Rae, the Brave is about a big sister who gets scared and helped out by little sister.
Cece - He also wrote Julius, Baby of the World, about a new baby brother. Great stuff kids relate to.
Vic - Good, thanks Cece, I'll definitely look into those. My students seem to be grasping connections ok, but this may be a way to get them to open up in their writing.
Cece - I like to use Patricia Polacco's books as read alouds early on, because later in the year when the students are familiar with her style, we go back to them and get some great strategy lessons!
Cece - Vic, do you remember the idea in Debbie Miller's book about putting kids around chart paper to draw their connections? I used that with Shelia Rae and got some wonderful drawings about their connections.
Vic - Can you move to Iowa Cece? I could sure use your help.
Cece - Come to GA, Vic, the pay is great!
Vic - I did that activity during my Johnny Appleseed unit. You're right, it does work.
Cece - I love Eve Bunting's books. She writes with such variety. The Wednesday Surprise is good for inferring. She does everything from fiction to allegorical books about the Holocaust.
emma - Anyway, the Observe, Wonder, link activity works well for me. But I'm a true novice at GR.
Cece - Emma, what are you using for GR? A basal, tradebooks?
Vic - I'll look into that one too emma, thanks for the suggestion.
Vic - I had a student make a fantastic inference yesterday while we were reading Little Miss Muffet.
Cece - Emma, Guided Reading is hard to get the hang of, especially if you've taught lots of groups. It seems way to easy!
emma - Well.... Cece, right now I've used mostly Scholastic, my basal and some poetry and books connected with a ladybug unit I'm doing. It's not very consistent right now.
Cece - That should be too easy! You feel like you aren't doing enough, but if you keep the focus on comprehension, you can't go wrong!
Cece - Do you have state or district standards, emma? What grade do you teach?
emma - I teach 2nd and yes we do have standards. I try to correlate what I teach with the standards but 4 blocks stresses comp. much more than our standards do.
drumma - im trying 2 get some extra credit here
drumma - does ne1 no what part of the brain strucrutre some people are born w/out..but it doesnt effect nething
Cece - First get them used to story elements, emma (characters, setting, beginning middle & end), Then focus on comprehension strategies. Do you have Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way?
drumma - its extra credit n i need it!!!
emma - Yes, Cece, I have ALL the books! Thanks for the tip. So start with basics?
Cece - Yes, emma. I would also read up on comprehension strategy instruction (Michael Pressley's work, Mosaic of Thought, Reading with Meaning
Vic - Cece, stay in touch, I have to delve once again into our new curriculum guide and guidebook and mxm to figure out where I'm headed next. Oh also have to incorporate IEP's in there somewhere as well. Presented an inservice for para's today after school, so I think I better get out of here and get to work so I can face another day tomorrow. Night everyone.
Cece - I need to go, too. I have bus duty! YUCK! Night all!
emma - Bye Vic.
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