Friday, November 26, 2010

Beautiful day

Wednesday was a gorgeous day! Not outside, but in. I don't think I could even describe it in words. It just felt right.

That morning, we had traveled to a nearby school and met our new friends from Twitter. We were hoping to Skype with a class in Ireland, but that didn't work out. However, we wrote letters to them, enjoyed community circle and morning message, and read a favorite book together (Beware of the Frog).

After we left, our class had to eat lunch in our classroom due to a different lunch time. I read a book that reminded me of Edward Tulane and them of the dish and the spoon from the nursery rhymes in our fluency folder. Then began a time of buddy reading. I had two boys model how they had taken buddy reading to the next level by asking questions and checking on in tricky words as they took turns reading. As we discussed what we noticed about their buddy reading, one of my girls took our Chinese ELL, sat side by side, and read a beginning book with her. It was beautiful! Learning was happening all over. Students then began to read together and I was blown away. I wasn't even needed! They had work to do and people to do it with. I checked in with a few readers and then gathered them together for a sharing circle.

Two readers shared about when you can't agree, someone has to compromise. Another group shared that you need to keep your brain focused in the books as you read. One of the girls was trying to share that idea and couldn't remember what she wanted to say. Her partner tapped herself on the head to remind her of their lesson. I chuckled. Another group shared to cross your fingers if you want to connect to someone's thought and don't want to interrupt them.

The previous day our shares had included to use the phones wisely (so they can listen to themselves read). As she was going on and on trying to share her point, one of the students told her that she could have just said, "Don't play with the phones," and it would have been faster. And while he's right, what I am more impressed with is that he took her comment and summarized it!

We also learned the phrase "fed up" and while it doesn't mean stuffed with food, we were able to link it to agitated and thus learned what synonyms are.

Great days of learning...great days are to come!

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