OWP06

Poetry/Fiction/Authors Websites

Web Review, By Kristin Archer

After looking through the entire web for insightful, idea-rich sites, (that were not already taken), I found some relevant ones filled with information.

First Website: www.gigglepoetry.com

     This site provides many different silly poems, ranging in different subjects and content. It even allows students to rate the poem using a scale.  It provides author interviews, ways to inspire your students to write poetry and many lessons based upon types of ‘silly’ poems. The site also contains poetry theatre, where students can act out poems. What a great idea! This site is creative and I highly recommend it as a resource for teachers. 

Second Website: www.poetryteachers.com

            This website is a continuation (or at least tightly connected) to the first website. It has the same resources listed above, but with different poems.

Third Website:  www.fictionteachers.com

        Te third website, I found is also connected to this first two that I mentioned, except for the content has to do with fiction and not poetry. It has a few resources/lessons for teachers surrounding fiction writing.

Fourth Website: www.authorsinschool.com

      This website is relevant for teachers because it provides information on various authors of poetry, fiction, informational, humor and so on. It provides a quick bio and information on how to get these authors to come to your school! I thought that it was interesting to know the resource in case this was something your school wanted to invest in.

Happy searching!

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes, Written By Judith Tannenbaum

Reviewed By Kristin Archer

Every primary teacher can relate to the title of this book. It brought back many memories and even made me miss the daily teeth problems that I do not get to enjoy during the summer. :) Not only is this title perfect for primary teachers, but the content inside is relevant and worthy of exploring.

Tannenbaum starts off with a brief introduction on how to use the book. She quickly goes in to teacher mode while she explains how to teach what a poem is to your students. The book continues as she discusses how to teach group and individual poems within your classroom. In these sections, she breaks down into smaller areas that address specific skills or types of poems, such as: writing about feelings, personifying emotions, questions poems, onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetitions, heart poems, and much more! She ends the book with ideas on how to incorporate poetry deeper into your classroom and how to share the poems the children write. There is also a section that is relevant for kindergarten teachers; which I know is greatly appreciated.

I highly recommend this book to primary teachers because of many reasons. What is valuable about this book is the way Tannenbaum explains the teaching of each poem. She uses teacher language that can be directly used with the students. She gives example of questions to ask the students within a whole group and/or individual setting. She gives examples of what language to use and questions to ask with struggling writers that are having difficulties visualizing their poem. The examples of student poems that you can read to your class are amazing, insightful and inspiring. Ordering this book is on my to-do list. I find that the flowing structure, examples, and explanations provide information that I can reference to on a daily basis as I continue the journey of teaching poetry to my second and third graders.

Mechanical Pencils

Kristin Archer, OWP #4
Mechanical Pencils
        “Click, Click, Click” is heard across the room. All teachers know this dreadful, troubled sound. This is the sound of a reluctant writer doing everything in his or her power to postpone the actual event of writing. What is a teacher to do? You go across the room to inquire, inspire and support when you are hit by a sudden realization. You grasp that you are like this student’s mechanical pencil; you are the lead that is writing the fate of your writers. They are counting on you to guide.
        What has led to this realization is the fact that you are a young teacher ready and willing to take on the teaching world; that even means teaching the most hesitant writers the skills they need to be successful.  But, everyone that has been in this position before knows how difficult that task can be. Not only are you teaching writing to students that are on all different skill levels, but no one has taught you how to teach writing. The only thing that you can go on is your own knowledge about writing and the bits and pieces you have picked up along the way in classes and books. As you stare into your young writers’ eyes, you still have many questions: What is the most effective way to teach writing? What types of writing do I teach first? How can I tie in content areas into writing? How do I make time to teach writing to its full potential?
        This brings me back to the mechanical pencil. The lead of the pencil represents your output. It is your writing philosophy and style. It greatly affects your students, for it is what they are taught and what they know. What they learn comes from your ideas, reinforcement, information, brainstorming, collaboration, background knowledge, practice, literature examples and teaching you provide them with. It is the foundation of writing that occurs within your classroom.
        As all teachers know, the problem with mechanical pencils is that when they are in use the lead is constantly breaking, which then results in the click sound that is avoided by all. Some would argue that it is the quality of lead that you use that effects how often you need to click for new lead. Thin lead represents a thin foundation for learning how to write. Students with this lead have not been provided structure, which blocks them from fully understanding what elements are needed within a writing piece. They do not have the tools to brainstorm ideas and guide them within their writing. They do not have enough practice to truly understand the writing process.
        Thick lead is what we all inspire to give to our students. Thick lead is sturdy and strong. It is a solid foundation filled with the understanding of different forms of writing, writing and word structure, writing elements, rich vocabulary, prewriting skills, post writing skills, reflection, author’s purpose and confidence.  Students find it easier to write with thick lead, because they have a firm grasp of it. Thick lead produces better-quality work that lasts a life time.
        As a new teacher, you are constantly filled with new ideas and philosophies. Like a mechanical pencil, a problem occurs when lead keeps being added, yet you can only use up the current lead so fast. In order for you to take new lead in, you need to use the lead that you already have. 
        All the ideas you take with you from this summer, will provide you the tools to develop and make the strong lead to put in your student’s mechanical pencils. The summer Oregon Writing Project not only expands your knowledge of your own writing process, but you start to build a solid foundation and reflection of your own teaching of writing. You start to answer the questions you so eagerly asked in the beginning. You combine the old lead with the new lead. Make time for writing. Provide a structure that allows consistency. Provide activities in which vocabulary, word choice and language use are expanded and developed. Provide different opportunities and choices for students to share and publish their work. Model and practice prewriting and post writing activities. Teach your students to think like writers.
        At the end of each school year, you want to hear the sweet music of pencils rubbing up against paper, scratchy and full of ideas. You want to know that your students are writing with thick lead, that won’t break and be inconsistent. They will have strong skills to lead them in their future pursuits of writing.

Nonfiction Craft Lessons

Nonfiction Craft Lesson
Joann Portalupi, Ralph Fletcher

Reviewed By Kristin Archer

If you read this book, please understand that the informational writing piece is the final product for students, after all the research has been done. If you believe this, then you are in alignment with the philosophy of this book's authors. This philosophy stems from the understanding that the art of writing informational text is "not having students just 'dump' their facts" down onto paper. You want students to shape and convey their understanding of the subject.

If order to do this, the book suggests three things. The first suggestion is that you ask yourself, what do they already know? This will allow you to integrate and lead projects to meet students interests. The next suggestion is that you teach students about informational text until they are familiar with the structure, such as subtitles, picture captions, glossaries, charts, graphs, etc. Students need to be able to find information and understand what they are reading and/or looking at. They need to have the skills to find the information they are looking for. The last suggestion is that students talk, talk, talk! In order for students to have a deeper understanding of what information they are reading and writing, they need to talk and discuss the issues, facts and key points.

After the introduction, background knowledge and philosophy, the book is broken down into three sections that relate to different grade levels and are filled with nonfiction craft lessons. The sections are divided into grades K-2, 3-4, 5-8. I found the lessons difficult to follow due to the vast amount of reading that you need to do to find the main idea of the lesson. The lessons are in random order, making it hard to find a lesson relevant to the skill you would want to address.

The book does include lists of books that are relevant to the grade-level sections. That is always appreciated. This book would be usable for a teacher that finds a lesson within that directly relates to what they are looking to teach.

Diary of a Salmon

Kristin Archer

OWP # 3

Diary of a Salmon

October 11, 2006

The stream water was dirty today. I found myself staring out at my pink-orange brothers and sisters, the small pebbles that surround them and the cloudy water. There are hundreds of us eggs. Five of my brothers wiggled out of their eggs by using their tail. I can’t wait to get out. It is so stuffy in here.

October 15, 2006

Today is the day. I got out of my egg! You should have seen me wiggling around with all my might. There was a bunch of us hatching. The water was foamy. It was so cool! It felt weird to be out at first. I stayed still in one spot, because I didn’t want the current to move me away from my family. Now, if I could just get rid of this huge yolk sac that is hanging down from my belly. One of my sisters told me that the yolk sac is nutrient-rich and has all my food in it. I guess this yolk sac is important until I get older and I can eat microscopic organisms in the water, like small insects.

November 20, 2006

As my yolk sac gets smaller and smaller, I am able to swim in short leaps. Who knew that swimming could be so fun? As I was trying to swim further and further, I heard my brothers and sisters talking about a migration to this place called the ocean. They told me that a migration is when you move from one place to another. This is the first time I heard about this! What is the ocean anyway?

December 12, 2006

Watch out for predators!!! This old, ragged animal with a beak came swooping down and grabbed another alevin right in front of me. A large toad saw this all happen from this brown, mushy stuff above the water. I think it’s called land. I swam over to him and asked him what had happened. He told me that the animal was a bird and that the bird had taken the alevin to eat! Yikes! I learned from the toad that lots of animals like to eat salmon. That’s what I am called! I am a salmon! Yeah!!!  When I turned to leave, the toad warned me to watch out for all predators, like bears (brown or black hairy animals that live above water), larger fish, snakes, and humans (tall, colorful animals with hair on top, sometimes with long sticks that have a hook and worm on the end of it). I need to be very careful. I want to see this ocean place that I going to soon.

January 2, 2007

Today is the day I “buttoned up”! My yolk sac is completely gone!!! Now I have to search for my food in the water. Another fry suggested that I eat water organisms. It is much easier to swim without the yolk sac weighing me down. Lots of us are being attacked and eaten by birds and huge fish. I have to be observant and aware of what is going on around me. I want to survive.

February 15, 2007

Being a salmon is great! Here are three reasons: 1. You can use your fins to help swim and guide you in the water. 2. You have beautiful, colorful scales to protect you. 3. You automatically know to go to the ocean. I can sense that time is now. Here I go!!!!

March 1, 2007

Swimming to the ocean is really hard work and dangerous.  I did not realize that we had to swim for hundreds of miles. Yesterday when I was swimming close to land, a brown, furry paw came swiftly down beside my gill on one side. It scared me so much! I swam quickly ahead. When I was at a safe distance, I turned around to see what it was. It was brown and furry! Bear!!!!! That was a close one!

May 3, 2007

Today I arrived at the ocean. It took months, but now I am here! At first, I was hesitant. The water tasted and felt different. I asked the other salmon why there was a change in our habitat. They told me it was because we used to live in freshwater and the ocean is saltwater. I know I will get used to it. There is too much to see anyway!

May 31, 2007

The ocean is great! There are long, green stalks that flow with the current. There are different types of fish. We all swim together, going with the ocean’s current. We find food, and look at the unique surroundings. I love it here! Good thing I am going to be here for a couple of years! Then I will have a chance to see many different things before I migrate back to where I was born. Hopefully, I will not come across any predators!

August 10, 2007

Ok, I have changed my mind about the ocean. Ocean life can be difficult. Right now it is really rough. Food is scarce. We are weak from searching for food. I am starving.

August 17, 2007

Today I came across some shrimp. I am so glad that I did. I am going to take the scarcity of food as a sign for me to think about starting my migration back to my birthplace. I will start the journey soon.

September 20, 2008

It is sad to leave the ocean, but I sense that it is now time for me to return to where I was born. There are so many of my friends and family that will not be returning with me. I am one of a few that survived the rough life in the ocean. Everyone talks about how challenging it will be to return to where I was born. I will have to go against the current of the water, and up waterfalls. There will be many predators to watch out for. If I do make it back, I will celebrate the fact that I will spawn and continue the salmon lifecycle.

September 28, 2008

Today I went up a waterfall! It was so difficult!!!! I had to try eleven times. The water kept forcing me back down to the river, but I would not give up. When I finally made it to the top, I looked back. I was one of five salmon who made it up the waterfall. I will miss the others.

October 1, 2008

I came across a rough, brown thing that would not get out my way! I told it to move, but it would not budge. I tried to go around it, but it was connected to the land. Someone told me that it was a tree that had fallen across the river. Well, it was blocking me and I needed to get through! So I jumped over it. I sort of landed on a branch which threw me off a little, but, I soon wiggled my way back into the water and swam away.

October 5, 2008

While I was struggling up the river, I saw a silver gleam of light by the shore of the river. I went over to this gleam of light. I swam back and forth admiring the piece of silver with a delicious worm attached. I wanted to eat the worm so bad, but I remembered that I was warned to avoid all worms attached to silver hooks. As I swam around the hook, another salmon came up to the hook. I yelled at him to not eat the worm. He did not listen. When he bit the worm, he was yanked up out of the water. I knew that he was gone.

November 2, 2008

The place where I was born is near, I can smell it. The smell is so familiar. When I arrived at an entry to a small stream, I knew this was the way to my home, by smelling it. I am growing very tired with fighting all the obstacles, such as ladders. I have noticed that I am turning a stunning shade of scarlet.

November 5, 2008

Today I arrived to my home. When I arrived I noticed that a lot of salmon had laid eggs and then died. I know that this is a part of the salmon lifecycle. My fate awaits me. I must find a mate, make a nest, also known as a redd, and then lay my eggs. I will make the nest by clearing small rocks and mud away with my tail.

November 18, 2008

As I prepare for my final job as a salmon, I reflect on the challenges I have faced and how I keep trying to beat the odds. When I was a young salmon, I set off to the ocean with thousands around me, but I returned with just a few. Many salmon could not survive the many predators and obstacles out there. I am lucky. As I lay my eggs, I understand the challenges my eggs will face during their fight for survival. I wish them good luck.

Is That a Fact?

Is That a Fact? Teaching Nonfiction Writing K-3, By Tony Stead

Reviewed by Kristin Archer

For anyone that is interested in bringing extensive informational writing into their classroom, this is the book for you! Tony Stead does an excellent job at reviewing why teaching how to write informational text is important. He believes that "nonfiction" is very broad and needs to be broken down. He recommends that classroom libraries be filled with informational text that is broken down into specific categories as well.

Tony gives many ideas on how to teach informational writing. He provides chapters with specific examples of units teachers have used for teaching the following: instructional writing, descriptive reports, scientific explanations, persuasive writing and nonfiction narratives. Within these, he gives student writing examples, small group and whole class topic ideas for each type of writing, structural elements of each form, and lists of books relevant to student's reading and listening levels for use with instruction and student research.

This book provides a solid background for teaching informational writing. I found myself asking questions as I read. As soon as I asked the question to myself, it was answered within the book. I would recommend this book for primary teachers that are looking to have their students write very specific types of informational writing and would love a "how-to" book on teaching those forms.

Wondrous Words By Katie Wood Ray

Wondrous Words
By Katie Wood Ray

    As I read Katie Wood Ray's book, Wondrous Words, I constantly reflected on the language I use when I am teaching writing in my classroom. This book discusses how we need to teach our writers to read different author's work with the understanding and questioning over the intentions of the writer. Students need to see themselves as writers and ask, "What is the author trying to do?" She describes how everything that we know as writers is known first in someway as a reader. She advocates for reading aloud to your class throughout the day and with meaning and purpose. She discusses setting up writing workshop within your classroom. The most valuable section of the book is where she gives titles of books that can be used to teach text structure and ways with words. This book is focused on teaching writing within elementary classrooms. Therefore, I recommend this book for elementary teachers interested in gaining information and insight about specific books and ideas for connecting reading with writing.

Hiker, I am Not

Hiker, I am Not
By Kristin Archer

        As the sun swells and reaches out, sweat and dirt drip down my face. My legs ache so badly, I truly believe I will not be able to walk tomorrow. It has been an hour of agonizing walking, catching up, and literally crawling over rocks.  “How much longer to the top?” I whisper to my friend. I whisper because I am out of breath and literally dying for this to be over. When will the torture end? This is always the case when my friends decide to take me hiking. I don’t know what they are thinking. Why do they bring me? They know how I feel about hiking. Really, I can’t believe that they can even stand to hike with me.
    I know what you are thinking. How bad can a hike be? You are probably a hiker, born and raised. So you might not understand the horror I have experienced hiking. I was born and raised in California. The eight year transition to becoming an Oregonian is almost complete. The last thing on the list is to become a hiker (or at least be able to handle a short hike up a gradually steep hill.) But, as you can probably guess, it has not been checked off for so many reasons.  I could blame my parents. That would be a good idea. They never took me hiking, therefore I was not exposed at an early age. Oh, I wish I could blame them. But, of course I cannot. You could be thinking I am lazy. I promise that I am not. I work harder than ever on those hikes. Maybe my body is just refusing to hike. You could be thinking that I dislike nature and all that goes with it. That is wrong too! I love nature. I love the smells and sights that you  experience be observing and wandering through nature. Except, there is one part of nature that I am deeply afraid of and if I tell you it might help you have a deeper understanding of the dynamics with my fear of hiking . . . snakes.
    Snakes are my worst enemy! The way they move and hold their heads will haunt me forever. They are creatures that I would not care to see for the rest of my life. Yet, I always seem to come across these squirmy, slithering reptiles. And it is always when I am hiking. There was this one time when I had made it to the top of a mountain and was being led down a different path than which we came. I won’t even go into the fact that I am always led to a different path then the one that I was led up, which leads to an argument about if it is even a path at all. This results in getting lost, and hiking down in the dark because you waited too long to go down the wrong path, which then took way longer and was harder. Now it is pitch black and you don’t even have a flashlight!
        Anyway, back to the story. I was hesitantly walking on a very narrow path. My friends were walking very fast way ahead of me. (Surprise, Surprise.) The path was suddenly overlooking an edge. It became tighter against the mountain. What is a girl, who by the way, does not like heights to do? I moved steadily over close to the wall of the mountain, unsure as I stepped in the crunchy grass and weeds. I called to my friends, pleading with them to come back. Afraid of what lurked where I stepped, I awaited my rescuers. Suddenly, I looked down at my feet at the loud rustling in the weeds. My heart stopped as I saw a gigantic snake with a half eaten rodent in its mouth. I have never been so terrified. I screamed and closed my eyes, hoping that this would help the snake disappear. As I continued to rant with frightened emotions, I was caught between the edge and this hideous snake. My rescuers, probably wondering if I would emotionally survive this incident without therapy for the rest of my life, came quickly, glancing at the snake as though it was nothing more than a piece of grass. They helped me unsteadily maneuver the shoddy, rocky path, past the monster. As I continued emotionally unstable past this tragic incident, I came across yet another snake that was lying across the whole path. Why do I continuously come across these creatures?
        Every time I go for a hike, I am reminded of why I did not want to go on the hike in the first place. I am reminded of how it took me the whole car ride to convince myself that I was a very capable human being who could survive anything, including a two-mile hike. There have been hikes in which I was promised they would last one hour, but turned out to be six hours long. I was promised hikes that would not be steep and turned out to be 90 degree angles filled with sharp, jagged rocks. Have you ever tried to crawl up a mountain with a treacherous, rock-strewn incline? It is real entertaining; you should try it some time. Once, I was almost killed while driving up a steep incline of a gravel road, just trying to get to spot to start a wonderful hike. The car weaved and slowly started edging off the road of a precipitous incline. No way! You could not make me hike after understanding that this incident was a sign saying, “Do Not Hike, Time to Turn Back! Run!” Nevertheless, I was forced to hike after the near death experience; however it took a lot of coaxing and the promise that I would have to walk back the one-hour drive to the comforts of my safe home.
        So, for those that feel as though they can be the one that transforms me into a hiker, and would like to pursue the daring, fearless act of taking me on a hike, please provide the following accommodations; one month advanced warning for a very long pep talk (I want to be mentally prepared), all snakes removed within a two mile radius, backpack filled with cold water (you can carry this), flashlight or headlamp (whatever you prefer to carry, even though a spotlight might work better), helping hand for the rough spots (tall rocks and steep inclines), helicopter at the top (my left knee does not do well going down hills), a cell phone (just in case I need a ride home, earlier than you are expecting to leave) and lots of positive reinforcement, perhaps even some pushing. If all of my needs are met, maybe then, I will become a hiker, just maybe.

Heavy Footsteps

Heavy Footsteps
By Kristin Archer

     I stared out the window as the awkward bus clumsily turned into a small dirt parking lot. The sky was grey and dark, picking up on the mood of the place we were about to see. The music that had been playing loudly was dimmed by my thoughts. Would I be able to handle what I was going to see? I thought of the people that had lived in this place. What had life been like for them? How many had survived? As this place began to haunt my emotions, I thought of how it has haunted the lives of every person that has walked through its gates.
        As the bus came to a slow, lazy stop, it filled with silence. I was looking out the window at Mauthausen, a former Nazi concentration camp in Austria. From that moment on, I knew that this was a day I would always remember. I knew that I would leave this place with emotions that I had been lucky to have never experienced before. I was filled with internal struggle and interest of what the prisoners had gone through during their stay at this dusty, old ruin.
        We departed the bus and walked straight towards the entrance gate. As I walked through the gate, I saw an iron chain on the inside wall. It had been used as an instrument of torture. This caused me to hesitate, for I could imagine the torture of what the prisoners had experienced beyond this point. I felt hesitant to continue. Was I ready to face the horrific actions that had taken place here? I thought of those who had experienced the ugliness of this place, and had turned it into a place where the lives and stories of its prisoners could be told.  I continued on.
        The concentration camp was filled with many huts that had been used for the prisoners living quarters, decontamination and torture chambers. As we walked slowly through them all I listened to the voices of those that had lived there. I heard their voices through the black and white photographs hung on the wall that told the story of what their living conditions had been. I heard their voices through the dark, worn wood.  I heard their voices through the sounds in the wood as I walked where they had walked years before. In the pictures I was painfully aware of the details; their ragged clothes, the way their skin hung on their bones and the deep hopelessness and pain in their eyes. In the walls and the floors, I visualized where the beds had been placed for multiple prisoners to lay on and wonder over the circumstances of their lives. Why were they experiencing so much sorrow, pain and grief? Why were they being treated so horribly?
        As we continued on I learned more information about Mauthausen.  I was deeply disturbed and horrified to learn that over 195,000 people were imprisoned and more than 105,000 men and woman has been killed there or perished as a result of the torments of camp life. As I walked on the soil that had been soaked by the blood of innocent people, I felt as through I would never live another day filled with small problems, anger and hatred. I would live a life that these innocent people had hoped to live.
        My experience with this haunting, life changing place was almost at its end. As I walked towards my last stop of this emotional tour, I passed again the huts and other areas of disturbing acts. I dreadfully walked passed The Crematorium where prisoners had been tortured and executed in the oil-fired furnaces. I passed The Gas Chamber where prisoners were tricked into thinking it was a shower, but was instead a way of executing masses of people. I passed The Execution Corner where prisoners were asked to stand in the corner to take their height measurement, and then were shot through their necks. I passed The Camp Jail where many European politicians were detained under false names. I passed The Wailing Wall, where new prisoners had to stand at attention. Depending on the mood of the guards, they were brutally ill-treated, sometimes having to stand facing the wall for days. As I passed each of these places, I read the names of so many that were engraved into memorials, so that we never forget the faces of those that received such cruelty.
        I walked with heavy feet to the “death steps”, the quarry steps. On these steps many had worked and died because of the work they were doing or for other reasons unknown. As I walked down the quarry steps, I noticed the bullet holes in the rocks where many had been shot carrying heavy rocks and boulders. Why had they been shot? Were they too weak from hunger or thirst to carry a boulder twice their size up a slippery, rocky slope? Had their feet dragged against the ground as mine did, heavy with the news of such maltreatment of the human race?    
        Everyone slowly started walking towards the bus. I stood still contemplating how I was supposed to walk onto that bus and back to reality after experiencing the sorrow of something so much more powerful than I had ever imagined. I bent over and picked up a tiny pebble. I put the pebble in my pocket and I walked to the bus.
        I took that pebble that day to remind me not only of what I had experienced at Mauthausen, but of the people that had lived and died there, the people that had been directly effected by hatred and ignorance. How would they want me to live my life? How would they want me to treat others? What would they want me to teach others? When I have a hard day, or feel defeated, I pick up that pebble and I am reminded of what these prisoners went through. I am reminded of what the human spirit can over come and the kindness and knowledge that I can spread and teach to others.