Regie Routman Part 3

This morning our session with Regie was mainly focused on word work, celebrating and conferencing with students as writers.

Regie stressed the importance of helping students to move from the "we do it" stage to the independent "I do it."

To become independent the students need tools and strategies for reading and writing, apart from asking the teacher for help.

Regie started the classroom session with shared reading of the text that the students had written together yesterday. They read it several times, even inviting a student to point to each of the words as the class read.

Next, Regie highlighted the word /we/ and had a child identify where to find the word in their classroom (on the word wall). She had other children come up to the piece of writing and circle the word every time it had been used. Then the children practiced writing /we/ on whiteboards. After a week of practicing, this word or words will become the words they are expected to know and spell correctly.

"If you do this word work everyday you are going to have an increase of reading and writing."

Then came the celebrations. This was my favourite part of the morning! Regie chose three students to come up to the front of the room so that she could celebrate their writing from the previous day. She stressed that as teachers, we should celebrate the content of their writing and not focus on the mechanics. All of the children went back to their seats beaming with pride.

"I want them to walk away and say "Wow, I'm a writer!""

Regie asked each of the students a lot of questions about their topic and helped them to determine the next step in their writing.

"I want to be sure that the writer has the will and the energy to continue writing when I leave."

This afternoon my colleague Deidre Sagert and I decided to try to put Regie's lessons into practice... 

Here's what we did:

Step 1. Read "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon"
-an example of someone being special

Step 2.  Read "We Are Special" class book from yesterday
-the students insisted on reading their own page

Step 3. "I do it" Deidre modeled writing her own book about why she is special.

Step 4. "We do it" scaffolded conversation with student about why he is special.
-He told us he was good at jumping, it was a bit of a challenge to get enough out of him to make a book but we got where we wanted to go.

Step 5. "You do it" we showed the students the writing books they could choose from. Before they chose a book each child did a micro conference with Deidre or I about what their topic and title would be.

Mrs. Lowe's Reflection:
I have to tell you that what Regie made look so easy was in fact exhausting and somewhat painful! Writing with kindergarten students is hard work, especially when you are pushing them to do the work themselves. I know that it will get easier in time. I need to continue to give my students the skills they need to be independent. If I truly value writing, which I do, I need to invest the time and effort in writing. In the end, almost every student wrote more than I expected them to write. I can't wait to celebrate their work tomorrow.

Deidre's Reflection:

I had am amazing afternoon with Connie and the kindergarten students of Room 8.   Through co-teaching, we put into practice what we had seen in the Regie Routman residency. First I want to say how proud I am of Connie...her risk-taking and vulnerability to try something new with me was professionalism at its finest!   It truly was hard work, but I am so proud that we stuck it out and persevered.  Regie makes it looks so natural, but let me tell you, when I was doing the "I do it" modeled writing (and trying to model my thinking, provide a good model, etc. etc. etc.) my brain was in overdrive!  With much sweat and tears, we carried on... We set the bar high, provided the scaffolding, and guess what?  Those amazing kids rose to the challenge!  I will admit that there was a lot of support needed for some, and it wasn't easy...but it is about the gradual release of responsibility, and I know Connie will continue to slowly hand it over as they become more and more capable.

During our two and a half hours debrief after school, we poured over the writing and planned for next steps: who to celebrate tomorrow, what our focus of the celebrations will be, moving back to shared writing to move forward to word work, etc.   It was one of the best, most meaningful professional discussions I have had in a while.  While my eyes are weary, my heart is happy.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Tomorrow we will attempt to complete and publish our books. Stay tuned!

Regie Routman Part 2

Today was a great day of learning! 

Please go easy on me here as my purpose for blogging is to share what I've been learning but also to help me reflect on everything I saw and heard and to process my learning.

Before we began our observations, Regie spoke to all of the teachers and principals who would be watching her lesson. As she addressed the group, a number of points resonated with me. 

I want teachers to have an “I can do it” spirit.

Editing doesn’t matter if you don’t have a piece of writing that worth reading.

Kindergarten students who write become better readers. 

If you value writing, it will be the one thing you never leave out.

After our brief meeting we moved into the classroom to watch Regie work side by side with the fabulous kindergarten teacher, Melissa Kirkland. 

Regie began by introducing herself to the students. She showed them photos of her family and some of her favourite places to go. I loved hearing her speak to the students with such passion. The students were completely engaged!

The goal for the session was for students to begin writing their own books about why they are special. In the hour long session, Regie spent more than 45 minutes preparing the students to begin their writing. She makes it clear that you cannot just assign students a topic and send them off to write independently. 

The process she uses is called the Optimal Learning Model (I do it, We do it, You do it)

For the "I Do It" portion, Regie wrote a couple of sentences about something that makes her special (making jam). She asked the students for suggestions about how she could write it so that people would be interested in reading her story.*

For the "We Do It" part, Regie asked for a volunteer to come and write their story with her. A brave little fellow stood up to write his story about being really great a Wii baseball. Regie helped him to choose a title, begin his writing and stretch out words to record the sounds he knew. 

Along the way Regie worked with a sense of urgency and moved at a fast pace. She noted the words that the students should know how to spell correctly and could use for word work later in the week.

I wondered...

While Regie was working with the students she recorded their words exactly as the students spelled them. For example We ar spl for We are special. I wondered if she would leave he spelling like this or if she would correct it at some point.

I was pleasantly surprised when she went back after the writing was complete and congratulated the students how close their spelling was. She used a different colored marker to write the correct spelling under each word. This way, the students felt proud of themselves but were not displaying writing with spelling errors.

*Prior to this part of the lesson the students had read many stories about being special and unique, wrote a story about how their class is special and even wrote a class book with one sentence about how each of them are special. Regie calls this "Front-loading"

Regie Routman Part 1

Hello Readers,

It's Mrs. Lowe writing tonight.

I am excited to announce that I have been given an amazing opportunity for learning. For the next three mornings I will be traveling to Strathmillan School to observe Regie Routman teaching writing in a Kindergarten classroom.

Regie Routman is an internationally respected author and educator. She has written many books on teaching reading and writing. Her current work involves coaching teachers and principals though residencies in schools.

Over the past two years, the staff of Stevenson School have been reading Regie's books, watching videos of her teaching, reflecting on our teaching and beliefs, and improving our skills as teachers of reading and writing.

I am excited to share this opportunity with all of you through our blog. Be sure to check back for updates.

If you want to learn more about Regie Routman, you can visit her website here.

Story Bird

This week students worked together to write a story.  We used a website called www.storybird.com

Here's our story.





Story bird is a great website to help inspire story writing. Writers can drag and drop artwork to match their story. There is a single text box to add writing. The stories that are created can be purchased or shared for free online.

Try it out yourself!

Digital Cameras

Hello, it Mrs. Lowe blogging tonight.

What do you get when you give 19 five year olds digital cameras? Hilarity!

This week we finally had some warmer weather and the students were eager to get outside and start working on their winter "We Can See" book.

At the beginning of the week they learned how to use the cameras. On Wednesday they ventured outside with the cameras to capture all of the snowy sights.

Tonight I got the fun treat of uploading all of their photos. I have to say, it was absolutely awesome to see the world through their eyes. Some of the photos were stunning but I'll save those for the kids to show you.

These photos made me laugh out loud! Enjoy!

Yikes, what is up with Mrs. Lowe? 

Our Math Enhancement EA, Ms. Janz 

Happy Valentine's Day!

It was an awesome day in Room 8! Happy Valentine's Day to all our followers!

Personal Space

Today we learned all about personal space. Mrs. Macdonnell and Mrs. Lowe showed us that we could imagine that there is a hula hoop around our body to represent our personal space. Everyone needs personal space. We practiced having personal space in the classroom, in line and even on the playground.

We also talked about playground problems. We learned that if we have a problem outside we need to tell an adult on duty so that they can help us solve the problem.

We watched a video all about personal space.  You can view it here.

Perfect personal space in line.

Today we were lucky to have a special guest blogger. Here's what she had to say:

"Hi its Krystal. I do not know what to say about personal space. All I know is to imagine thare  is a hula hoop around your body ( your wlowe body).

PS I am 6 years old so I am almost in grade 1."

The hula hoop represents our personal space bubble.