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Important Work: the Art of Integrating Literacy

BOOKS

Blackbird & Company Discovery Literature Guides are designed to integrate the skills of reading and writing. 
Over time, the curriculum will enable your children to develop the tools necessary to independently analyze and respond to great stories. Our goal is to help the child work independently freeing up the mentor’s expertise. Each week, the mentor has two tasks:
 
1. Read the section to facilitate discussion, helping your readers tap into the heart of the story. Our guides have discussion questions built into every section, providing the framework for weekly interaction between you and your children. Questions are designed to spark student’s memories, trigger their interpretations, and get them thinking beyond the page about how a story can relate to their actual lives. In time, students who participate regularly in a discussion circle will become excited and amazed about what they glean from books.
 
2. Conference with the writer, lending expertise necessary for the emerging writer to gain the skills necessary to articulate an original idea on paper. Encourage young writers in Levels 2 through Level 3 to develop the skill of self-conferencing —having drafted, re-read, and made self-edit marks in red. 

Establish a routine. The comfort of routine, once established, will set roots deep into soil, establishing a framework for the tree to grow strong. The following schedule—45 minutes to 1 hour per day—will allow your children to pace (not RACE) through the Discovery guide and establish the Habits of Beings specific to literacy.  

Saturday & Sunday – Read the new section over the weekend… Create a tradition of cozy reading!
Monday- Complete the vocabulary Acquire and begin taking notes in the Journal (Characters, Setting, Plot)
Tuesday- Complete notes Journal (Characters, Setting, Plot) and begin comprehension Recollect
Wednesday- Complete the rough draft Explore, re-read and make edits with a red pen
Thursday- Conference with an adult mentor and complete comprehension Recollect
Friday- Complete the final draft, carefully re-reading and implementing all edit suggestions 

We remember the things we discover for ourselves. As your children grow, the intensity of the important work that will enable them to discover, increases. Work is GOOD!

Remember, no child is able to do the work of bringing an original idea into the world without the tools. You can present a child with oil paint, for example, but without the skill to utilize the tool properly—color theory, practice mixing, good brushes and so on—the child will produce muddy colors.

Nothing fosters the higher-level thinking that allows students to form new ideas and opinions about real life more than hashing through a story in a discussion circle. What begins as an imagining in the mind of the writer is translated to story, and in turn, transferred to real life through group discussion. Integration is a powerful tool.

-Kim

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Through is a Way Out

Through

 

Write about an unexpected sliver of nature found in the city. Find inspiration in the dandelion between sidewalk cracks, the butterflies in South Central L.A., rain in the parched corners of downtown.

 

Example:

butterfly in the subway

 

did no one notice how you wandered in,

like that one person at a party

who came late and doesn’t know anyone,

and after tipping his hat at the birthday boy

bobs his fluorescently orange way out?

 

-Constance

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Write for Real

Fingerprint

The exchange always goes something like this:

“I can’t teach writing.”

“Yes you can! If you have ever been inspired by words on a page, then you can teach writing.” 

If you can read and ask questions when you read something that is not clear, you can be a writing mentor. Whether we are reading a newspaper article, a scientific journal, a novel, or a poem, who wants to read words that are void of ideas? 

Great writing begins with an idea crafted to words on a page by a courageous writer.

Madeline L’Engle in, Walking on Water: Reflections of Faith and Art, confides, “I am grateful that I started writing at a very early age, before I realized what a daring thing it is to do, to set words on paper, to attempt to tell a story, create characters.”

The most important thing we can do when it comes to teaching a child to write is to value their imagination and to teach them to do the same.

In my book, Habits of Being: Artifacts from the Classroom Guild I’ve collected snapshots from my experience teaching my own children and students in my Guild to demonstrate just what happens when they engage their curiosity. 

Ask yourself, “Do I want my child to write formulaically or to write for real?” 

Teaching children to write for real begins by teaching them to believe that their ideas are important enough to do the work of shaping words on a page.

Teach your children to become storytellers. Regardless of domain—fiction to non-fiction—great writing tells a story. Writing is a wonderfully tedious process. Provide writing opportunities that teach children the cardinal rule of real writing: Imagination first. After all, imagination is the seat of great ideas. When children discover that their imagination is valuable and relevant, they will work diligently to refine their voice. Purpose helps writers develop habits of being that motivates them to move through the writing process:

  1. Come up with an idea
  2. Write your idea
  3. Re-read and refine your idea
  4. Have someone else re-read and refine your idea
  5. Polish your words on the page

Moving from reading and recognizing ideas, to engaging in personal expression through writing, develops an awareness of the world at large. When students are encouraged to engage in the process of writing, they will discover the power of words.

Great writing is work connected to the soul. Great writing brings shape to imagination. Great writing evokes, engages, and inspires human curiosity. 

Students who engage in the process of real writing will develop confidence in their voice, strengthen their ability to communicate new ideas and become keen observers of their world. Authentic voice is a one-of-a-kind fingerprint. And those are words on the page that are worth reading.

 

-Kim

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It’s All About the Notes

Bbco_notes

Taking notes is a foundational skill that will accompany your student through their entire educational journey and beyond. Even though there is no right way of taking notes, it is important to learn how to extract relevant and pertinent information from a text in a neatly organized, concise manner. This takes practice. As students are encouraged to practice over time the art of capturing the most important details from their reading, they will begin to recognize how the intricacies of a story fit into a larger picture. This is precisely how a Habit of Being is established.

When readers take note of character development, trace a setting, and watch a plot thicken, they are learning more than just the skill of recording facts, they are actually beginning to realize the potential of storytelling. Teaching students to dig into a story, to do the work of reading for meaning, enables them to discover how language has the power to communicate significance. Learning to take notes helps to lay the foundation for rich, clear, and organized writing.

Some might argue, when faced with a classroom of 30 students, or even when faced with one student sitting at a kitchen table stubbornly refusing to write, that teaching from a textbook that tells the student what to learn is an easier method than pulling teeth trying to nurture the independent skill of note taking. We would argue that learning to extract information from a story trains students to do the hard work of, not only attending to the details of reading, but more importantly to develop the skill of integrating knowledge into life outside of the book. As students discover the details and framework that make a story great, they will apply this new-found knowledge to broader academic pursuits in all subject areas.

-Kim

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Gathering to Celebrate Books

 

BooksGather

 

Nothing fosters the higher-order Critical Creative Thinking that allows students to form ideas and opinions about real life, more than hashing through a story in a discussion circle. What begins as an imagining in the mind of the writer is translated to story, and in turn, transferred to real life through group discussion.

Blackbird & Company literature guides have discussion questions built into every section, providing the framework for weekly interaction between you and your students. These questions are designed to spark student’s memories, trigger their interpretations, and get them thinking beyond the page about how a story can relate to their actual lives. Add to this the opportunity to cultivate a cozy book-minded community and share original ideas during the fifth week of culminating projects and you will have a crafted a literary tradition. In time, students who celebrate books regularly will become excited and amazed about the potential of the written word.

Consider the following when putting a group together:

COMFORT & SIZE
Gathering in a comfortable area, whether in chairs or sitting on the floor, helps set discussion time aside as special and relaxed. Groups of 6-8 work best for allowing everyone to participate.

READING ABILITY
Clustering students with similar reading skills alows the group to coalesce. As students begin to feel comfortable with their group even reluctant speakers will share what’s on their mind.

CONSISTENCY
Having a regular scheduled time each week helps students pace through their reading and builds anticipation.

DIRECTION
Be inspired by student responses and guide the discussion where it wants to go naturally. Don’t worry if things get a little off track as long as students are thinking creatively.

FLEXIBILTY
Feel free to use the questions creatively. For example, assign each question to a different student for presentation to the group; allow two groups to take sides and debate the pros and cons of a particular question; use the questions as writing prompts for paragraphs or essays; allow students to role play their response to a question. Use your imagination. The possibilities are endless.

 

-Kim

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Haiku for the First Day of Spring

Spring3

On this first day of spring step outside, celebrate the blossoming and craft a haiku greeting.

How to craft haiku:

 

five syllables 

s e v e n  s y l l a b l e s

five syllables

 

1. Haiku poems consist of a three-line stanza—16 to 18 syllables total—written in the following pattern:

Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables

*Slight variations in syllabication is appropriate as this helps the poet maintain "one thought in three lines"

2. Haiku poems are typically observations of nature (though the form welcomes other topics), often making reference to the seasons. 

3. Haiku poems are tiny snapshots capturing moments in time.

 

So, a  "haiku moment" describes a scene that leads the reader to a feeling. 

But, remember, your three lines should be woven to a single thought: 

 

and I croon in the

scent of Spring's dotted song, swoon

in her blossoming colors 

 
Spring4
 
Spring2
 
 -Kim

 

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after Robert McCloskey

McCloskey

During the fifth week of Discovery, Section 5 encourages each reader to develop a creative culminating project with options that provide a variety of ways to demonstrate deep understanding of the book. Your students will not only have a chance to demonstrate their originality, organization, clarity of purpose, and critical thinking skills, more importantly this culminating endeavor will allow them to show off what they have learned in their own, uniquely creative way.

Students really love sharing their culminating thoughts about great stories. Encouraging readers to create Section 5 projects with a high level of execution teaches them that their ideas are valuable and builds integrity into their work.

This sweet and yummy final project was sparked by our Robert McCloskey Earlybird literature discovery guide. After reading Blueberries for Sal, this student was inspired to do a little research on blueberries and bake muffins for his friends! Learning over great books is so rich!

Take a look at our Flickr page for some great examples of culminating activities. We’d love for you to share your ideas.

-Tracey

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Worth 5-minutes of Your Time

DrawContour
Do you want your hands to learn to see?

Not possible you say?

Read on…

Wherever you are this very moment, look around, hone in on a cluster of objects.

First, look. Trace the edges with your eyes.

Next , grab a chunky marker and a piece of paper. Beginning with your eyes focused at the bottom of one of the objects, begin to follow the outline edges (very  s l o w l y),  moving the pen at the same speed and direction as the eyes. Do not look at the paper—keep your eyes off the page! No peeking! And, do not lift the pen! Try to make the pen in your hand "see" all the curves and bumps that your eye sees. 

Don't rush. Making a connection between the eyes and the hand is a slow motion exercise. Only when your eyes are back where you began can you lift the pen from paper to see with your eyes what your hand saw.

You might giggle the first time you try blind contour because it takes a few tries to sync the sped of eyes and the hand. But when you stop giggling, you will see that the lines achieved during a blind contour are unique, beautiful in their own way.

Remember, the ultimate goal of blind contour drawing is to practice "seeing" the world with your hands. If you practice often, you will begin to notice moments when these drawings are more realistic than the drawings you made using eyes only.  

DrawContour2

-Kim

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Flying Fish

 

Creech

In her book Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech repeatedly uses the phrase “trying to catch fish in the air” to mean trying to achieve the impossible, when disillusionment is a much more likely situation. And as a writer with an idea, she doesn't just leave us there, no. Sharon Creech takes this concept of "trying to catch fish in the air" and gives it the form of a picture book (her first) in collaboration with the wonderful art of Chris Raschka. Inside the pages of Fishing in the Air, the world of imagination becomes a place where the similes and metaphors of memory are the storytellers of the mind's eye.  

Now let's write.

Visit our Pinterest Write it board and scroll through until you find a boy flying through the air on a shimmering orange fish. Start imaging. Where is the boy on the fish headed? What might his "fish in the air be"? What impossibility is he trying to make possible? Now, choose one of your personal "fish in the air" and describe it in a poem or vignette. What would happen if you actually caught one of those "fish in the air and rode" it where you pleased? Write about what would happen if you caught your singular fish in the air? What would happen if you caught five of your fish in the air? What kind of day would that be like?

 

Example:

Daydreaming

 

I usually think of it when I’m in line

usually somewhere in the steaming depths

 

of an amusement park in the summer,

somewhere in the crush of bodies slippery

 

with sweat and sunscreen. Or I think

of it somewhere in the musty belly

 

of the library basement, when I look up

from radio static of black words

 

on pallid page, into the one dim bulb

flickering like a sleepy eyelid.

 

When it’s been ten hours driving down

a straight road, and the car’s air

 

is a soup brought to a slow boil,

I shift in my place between the luggage

 

and the door, stare out the window

at particularly inviting cloud,

 

climb its towering pillar as my feet

make deep imprints in its soft stairs,

 

and perch on the very tip, where birds

pass each other with a faint rustle of wings.  

 

 

-Constance

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The Bold Lines of Fernand Léger

Mozart

It was time for Section five and the creation of a project inspired by The Mozart Season. Two things struck me as funny.

One. Let's begin by saying that this little book is a sleeper, a quiet little thing. The story is set in real time and place. The protagonist is fictional but preparing for a very real violin competition. And as many times as I have explored it with various circles of readers, during the Section 1 Discussion the consensus is unanimous, ""Not capturing me." Still, it never fails that by the end of the book the readers encounter some very real extraordinary in the seeming mundane ordinary. But what I find most tremendously interesting is the fact that, hands down, the most profound Section 5 projects have sprung from this particular sleeper.    

Two.  As we continued our explorations of lines in art and the specificity of the master artisan's linework, Lizzy wasn't particulary inspired by the bold lines of Fernand Léger.

And this is where the magic of integrated learning and Discovery always takes my breath away.

"it was Diedre who started the song. She began slowly, BONG bong Bong bong on the three big columns, walking between them. Then she reached up high and down low, faster, and I hit one of the two columns, walking between them."

And so begins this story's music. And so it is that this passage (that continues to develop in the pages of the book) has inspired several of my all-time-favorite Section 5 projects. And Lizzy's is one.

As I watched her begin the process of bringing shape to her idea, I was fascinated that, after a close study of Léger's lines (lines that did not thrill Lizzy in the least), Lizzy began to sculpt those very lines without knowing! I pulled out the original study sheet when I recognized the familiarity and we were both amazed! In art we call this, after Léger.

So I suppose if you were to title this Section 5 project you might call it:

Lizzy's Music Maker, after Léger and The Mozart Season (2014)

 

Leger

 

Leger2

 

-Kim