Celebrating our new book

The book is here, the book is here! I finally got my hands on a hard copy of our new book, Reading the Whole Page: Teaching and Assessing Text Features to Meet K-5 Common Core Standards, (Maupin House, 2012). Of course, nothing compares to the feeling of holding your child for the first time, but thumbing through a finished copy of something you worked so hard on is one of life’s great joys. The best part is that all those lessons and thinksheets I have used to teach text features are now in one place, professionally designed, and ready to be used. I can’t wait to pop the CD in and begin using it with this year’s group of kids! My husband Jeff, a fifth-grade teacher, is trying to negotiate shared custody of the book so he can take it to his school on Monday. I’ll have to get him his own copy.

Open a new box of chocolates (both literally and figuratively)

I met my new students at open house today. It always gives me that Christmas feeling – you know, nerves, warm feelings, enthusiasm for what is yet to come. Seeing all those sweet, excited faces in their carefully chosen outfits is heartwarming. I can already tell that there will be lots of parent support. I can’t wait to get started on our family literacy nights

Everyone has gone and the room is full of dropped-off supplies and anticipation. The sharpened pencil bin is overflowing, all the nametags are pristine, and the whiteboard is completely white. The room won’t stay this way long, but it will be filled with the sounds of great conversations, pencils scratching paper, giggles, dice rolling, pages turning, and people working together to learn. I can’t wait for Monday!

Turn an empty room into an engaging place to learn

Today I came into my classroom for the first time this school year, and this is what I faced.

The girls put the desks in groups, made sure every seat had a good view of the board, put up all my bulletin boards (hallelujah!), and cleaned. A couple of hours later, it was all ship-shape, leaving time for us to catch the lunch specials at a local sushi place.

Dive into some great new nonfiction

 My friend Daryl just sent me a big box of books for my classroom. It's so exciting to see the kids’ reaction as they sort through the box! I looked through and found some really great titles for teaching nonfiction text features. My very favorite is from the Scholastic Discover More series. It's called Penguins and it's by Penelope Arlen and Tory Gordon-Harris. Even on the first two-page spread, it has maybe ten different text features. As you go through, there are examples of pretty much every text feature I've ever seen, plus a few extras. What makes it so incredible is that it uses a lot of photographs in the text features. This book could be used to show examples of different text features and would really tie in well to a unit on habitats or species. There are also some great documentaries about penguins. I'm very excited to introduce this to my kids. Apparently there's a free digital companion e-book that goes with it, so I can use it on my whiteboard to show text feature examples. Very cool! 

I might even be more excited about another book that was in the box. It's called Biggest Bugs (Life-Size!), and it's by George Beccaloni. For years I've used an excerpt from The Big Bug Book for fluency practice. I have kids read the part about the tarantula hawk wasp, and it's really morbidly fascinating. But what I love about this book is it not only describes all those just gross, weird, and cool bugs, but it also shows them in life-size photographs, so the ick factor is really ramped up. Plus there is a map on each two-page spread showing where the bug is found, a photograph of the habitat, and grossly engaging photos of things like the insect devouring another animal, laying eggs, or carrying babies on its back. Yeah, my kids are going to really love this one. Thanks, Daryl!

Hello!

Nicki Clausen-Grace

Don’t you love how you feel this time of summer? Enough time has gone by since the last day of school that you can fully relax, you have probably read a book or two about teaching, or maybe you’ve gone to some workshops, and your creative juices are starting to flow as you envision this next school year.

I’m even more excited than usual because our book on teaching nonfiction text features, Reading the Whole Page from Maupin House, has just come out and today I am launching this blog.

Do you use a lot of sticky-notes in your classroom? We do – for everything from identifying main idea to recording notes for literature circle discussions. Because there are sticky-note pads all over my room, I usually end up writing my reflections, epiphanies, and to-do lists on them as well.  This blog is a more organized and public place to keep those deep thoughts and anecdotes. It took me a while to warm to the idea of blogging, but I’ve been reading some great blogs by other people and think I might have something to share. Plus, it might cut down on the little yellow squares floating around my classroom. 

If you’ve read either of my first two books with Michelle Kelley, Comprehension Shouldn’t Be Silent (IRA, 2007) and R⁵ in the Classroom (IRA, 2008), then you will probably enjoy reading along as I chronicle the first six weeks of school in my classroom. Just like you, my first weeks of school are traditionally punctuated by broken air conditioning, way too many assemblies, and the ubiquitous rainy day dismissal. So you might find it fun to see how it goes as I try once again to assess, teach learning structures, teach text features, develop rules, team-build, create a safe learning environment, and begin to develop both metacognition and reading engagement – all in the first six weeks of school. Hmmm…I’m a little tired already. I think I’ll take a nap.