This is Elizabeth Peterson's page
It’s great to find good literature about math. Big Universe has two ebooks about the important ancient mathematician, Pythagoras. Even though I’m not responsible for teaching these exact concepts to my fourth graders, I did show them these books and encouraged a few interested students to read them for understanding. Here are links to the books:
Pythagoras and the Ratios 
What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras?
In addition, here are some other resources to support the information they are reading.
Pythagoras Info for Kids
Funny animated video that illustrates the Pythagorian theorum
Biographical information about Pythagoras
Presenting students with online information is quickly becoming a great way to spur on a small independent study. With these few helpful links of information including these great ebooks from Big Universe, I have some students who are now creating their own models of Pythagoras’s work and showing other students in the class. What a great way to get students motivated and interested in math – through the integration of literacy and technology!
~EMP
This is one of the ultimate goals of reading instruction: get your students to think about their reading. We teach them skills strategies for comprehension and then give them time to practice under our guidance as well as on their own. Readers learn best when they are reading and one way I’ve found that my students start to understand what their brains are doing while they read is to keep a journal.
Many teachers do this. You may ask your students to write down what they are thinking as they read. Sometimes this is done in a journal, a separate piece of paper or on sticky notes. One method I’ve learned is for readers to write double entries in a journal. For this, students create a two column chart in their journal, titling the left side “Text” and the right side “Reflection.” When they come to something in the text that resonates with them, they can take a moment to write down what they read and then what they were thinking. they may also decide to read the passage first and then go back to write in their journals.
We use our reading group times to have a grand conversation about what students have written in their journals. We also take time to look at our reflections and identify them according to reading strategies. Students often make connections in their reflections, but also will ask questions, make predictions, and infer about what they have read. Taking the time to notice these things (and mark them in their journals) can be a helpful way to allow students to understand how they think while they read.
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” – B. F. Skinner
I read this quote last week and it has stuck with me. It reminds me of the one about teaching a person to fish and giving him the tools to eat for a lifetime.
It is my hope that in some capacity we are able to teach our students to love reading. Sure, some of that will come from exposing students to great literature, regardless of the age group or reading level. But there are other ways we can teach students to love reading. Explore these three with me:
Model, Model, Model – Modeling good reading strategies is of course a reading teacher’s second nature. We are constantly thinking out loud and pointing out what we do as we read different genres of texts. But we also need to model our own love of reading. Making time to show students what you are reading on your own is one way. Actually reading silently in front of them is another. It seems like we get so caught up with prepping, meeting and checking email that we often don’t get to do this in front of our students. (At least that’s me.) However, I do find plenty of time at the end of the year for this. Every June, I make a point to bring my students outside and into our school’s garden to read silently for 30-60 minutes. We all have our own books and quiet space. It is a very enjoyable time.
Provide Free Reading Time – Along those lines, we need to make sure students are reading every day. Whether you call it DEAR or SSR or any other name, independent reading is a very important part of instilling a love of reading in our students. And of course, the best way to become a better reader is to READ. Allowing students to choose their own material is also an important consideration. I know personally how assigned reading put a damper on my own love to constantly have an open book in my hands. I wasn’t given free reading time in school, so I always want to provide that for my students.
Make Reading Highly Accessible – Books and other reading material is everywhere: in public libraries, school libraries, classrooms, homes, and don’t forget about the vast library available on Big Universe! Often teachers, as well as librarians, will group books by author or genre to make choosing a book easy, but I have found that there are some students who can stand in front of the most organized and concise classroom library and not know where to start. Sometimes you really need to walk a student through the process of choosing a book. Maybe another student can make a recommendation for a classmate. An eLibrary might also be the key to giving these students a fun, interaction with a variety of books.
It’s not just about teaching a student to read, but it’s about teaching them to enjoy, dare I say love to read. That’s a tall order, but something we should strive for, for with reading comes unlimited learning and opportunities.
How exciting!
~EMP
It’s National Poetry Month! I’m a firm believer that teachers should take advantage of this time to not only have students read and study great poetry and poets, but to also write poetry. This balanced approach to poetry study gives students a well rounded appreciation of poetry.
I always start my poetry writing instruction by making sure my students know that there are so many forms of poetry and that it doesn’t always have to rhyme or have rhythm. There are some poetic forms students may be familiar with, such as acrostic poems and couplets, but there are others that may be less familiar.
Dada Poetry was first written by artists and poets in Paris France. They clipped words from newspapers, scrambled them and poets in Paris France. They clipped words from newspapers, scrambled them and then arranged them in lines to form nonsense poems. You can take this idea, have students take 14 or so words (from content vocabulary or other means) and have them arrange them into lines of poetry.
Blackout poetry is another fun poetic form with which to experiment. Basically, you take a paragraph or other text and black out words so that the ones that are left create a poem.
Also, consider how you can simply inspire your students to create a poem. Encourage them to use all their senses to create poetry as they:
- Go outside and listen
- Watch other students playing
- Observe nature
- What a dancer
- Listen to music
- Move through space
- Draw
For your reading purposes, here’s the link to all the poetry ebooks on Big Universe. Use these for inspiration too or simply to enjoy a great poem.
Happy poem reading and writing!
~EMP
One set of skills I want my students to learn is how to enjoy, respond to and discuss what they are reading be it individual books, ebooks or the same books as their classmates. One way to promote this type of learning is through a “Grand Conversation.” I was once taught this method of conducting a reading group’s discussion while taking a video course through Canter University. I’d like to share it with you.
- Students come to the reading group/literature circle prepared to discuss a portion of the text.
- The teacher or a student asks a question, gives an opinion of the book or mentions a part that was particularly interesting.
- Students, in turn answer or comment on the conversation starter until there is no more to say. The teacher remains as quiet as possible.
- Another student or the teacher starts another conversation, and another until time is up.
Now, this may seem very simplistic and no big deal. Or you may be thinking that there is no way your students would be able to sustain one conversation, let alone multiple conversations without teacher input. There is more to keep in mind for a “Grand Conversation.”
- These conversations are students led. The teacher is an observer, prompting only when the conversation gets off topic or starts to die down.
- The teacher should be keeping track of who gets a turn to speak. I keep a tally as the students converse.
- No one should take over the conversation. In fact, there is a rule: a student is only allowed to talk twice until all the students in the group have had a chance to contribute to the conversation. This is part of the reason why you must keep track of who is talking during the conversation. I’ve had to ask some enthusiastic talkers to be patient and let others speak. It’s a good lesson (and practice) for all.
- Let the students practice. Just as with any other skill we teach students, the art of the conversation is something that needs practice. Not only are you practicing how to contribute to a conversation, but you are also going to discuss proper eye contact, patience and listening so you can respond appropriately. This is not something you should do once or twice, but many times throughout the year. I will have students conduct “Grand Conversations” often, especially when we are reading longer novels.
Using the concept of a “Grad Conversation” has been a wonderful experience for me. It allows all voices to be heard, gives students some ownership over their reading and learning and is quality processing of a book or concept.
Please comment to ask a question or share how you use conversations in your literacy block.
~EMP
I just recently read a post by Kristina Peterson called Writing: When Experience Molds Your Teaching – the What, the Why and the How. In it, she talks about how a writing experience from when she was in high school affected her as a writer and how now it inspires her teaching.
It caused me to think back to my own schooling, pondering what writing projects inspired me. I remember a magazine project from fifth grade. We were asked to choose a topic for our magazine and then we had to design advertisements, write two informational articles, two fictional stories and other various things to include. I chose the topic of babysitting, calling my magazine “Cry Baby.” I loved that project – still have it in my bookshelf downstairs.
In seventh grade, my LA teacher had us create autobiographical books that contained 7-10 stories about our lives. I remember writing a piece about a great friendship I had at the time, a piece about how I was so boy crazy and a heart warming article about the grandfather I never knew. That too I still have and love to look at every once in a while.
These are the projects that we remember – the ones we put our hearts and souls into, worked hard on and were interested in. And that’s what we need to continue to do in our classrooms.
I remember earlier this year, I assigned an math ebook project to some of my students: just told them what I expected, showed them examples on Big Universe and let them work on it. They produced great work and love showing it to others. I was most impressed by their motivation and engagement in the project. They practically begged me to work on it each day.
That’s the kind of work I want to do more of. That’s the type of engagement I want for my students. I want to inspire them to write. Maybe I will revive the projects I once did as a students and rework them for my own class. In some ways, it can all boil down to audience and purpose and if those two things are well defined and real, then our budding writers can truly be inspired!
What writing projects do you assign to your students that inspire them to write?
~EMP
When searching for great stories to share with your students, make sure music is in your list of resources. So many songs can tell a great story! And this is a great way to integrate Music in Our Schools Month with Literacy month all March.
There are some songs that not only capture our interest, feed our emotions and get us motivated, some have all the makings of a well told story. This week, I want to share a playlist with you that you can use with your students to teach some of these things. For example, these songs have a beginning, middle and end. Their beginnings draw you in by setting a scene, introducing a character and/or grabbing your attention. They then go on to develop the story by giving details and showing a sequence of events. The listeners need to visualize the actions and draw inferences. This is real literary practice!
Playlist:
Songs that Tell Stories by Elizabeth Peterson on Grooveshark
I do this type of work with my students all the time and it always amazes me to see how many students love the activities of using their reading strategies with listening to music. It also allows me to see some struggling readers shine. Without the words to get in the way, I can tell that they are capable of visualization and drawing conclusions.
When I ask students to listen to music, we listen to one song multiple times. Just as you get more out of a story if you read it more than once, the same is true with music. And listening repetitively to music reinforces the importance of reading texts again and again. When you give students the opportunity to do it with music, they grasp that concept more readily.
For more on how to bring listening experiences into the classroom, go HERE.
Enjoy the playlist and happy listening! I hope you are able to share these songs and stories with your students.
~EMP
This month, as well as being Literacy Month, it is Music in Our Schools Month! March is a great time to bring music into your classroom through listening, performing, creating it. Of course you can also read about it, and Big Universe has some resources that you will find to be a great addition to your bookshelf.
- Music Around the World – This is a book that describes various instruments from different countries while also touching on the concept of patterns.
- Add some more math into the mix of music with Pythagoras and the Ratios as readers discover how the Greek contributed to the way in which we tune and play a variety of instruments.
- Power Chord – This chapter book is a good read for middle school students. The main character decides to start a band (to get the girls) and ends up facing a moral dilemma.
- Why not add in some biographical reading with The Beatles Graphic Biography. As far as I’m concerned, every kid should learn about these guys!
- For a listing of all the books in the Big Universe about music, go HERE.
Dig through your own books and those in your school or local library. You will find lyrics or books about song, theory books and song books, composer biographies and beautiful picture books whose theme is the power of music. Displaying a small (or large) collection of music books in your classroom is a great way to get students thinking and excited about music in their lives.
~EMP
Dr. Suess’s birthday is in a couple of days and when that happens our school, as with many other schools, celebrate reading! Let’s face it, love his work or not, Dr. Suess has done wonders for the world of reading to children. His lyrical, rhythmic rhymes, flow so twistedly, creating a story that is open to interpretive visualization. The sound alone of his lines is catchy, as music is. I remember reading some of his works to my crying children when they were really little, trying to calm them down and lull them to sleep. “Big A, Little A, What begins with A?” It worked every time.
At school we celebrate his birthday by inviting people from our community to read to our classes. Each adult comes in with a favorite picture book and reads it to the students. The students love listening to, not only the story, but the reason why the person chose the book. Read alouds can be powerful. Every time you read a story to someone else you are sharing an experience with them, going on a journey with them. As teachers, parents and adults we are modeling good reading behaviors as we pause to look at the illustrations, or stop to think about the story or ask a question. Engaging the ones we are reading with in this way makes the whole experience more enjoyable.
Big Universe even has a read aloud collection of books that can be read aloud to individual students, a small group or the whole class. It’s kind of fun to hear the different narrators on each of the stories and compare their styles of reading. Some are slow, some are rhythmic, some are sing songy. The same is true when a new adult comes into our room to read to us. We hear their enjoyment in the story, notice the changes in tone and pitch in their voice.
Here are some other benefits to reading books and stories aloud to children of all ages.
- It helps with comprehension as you discuss the story before, during and after reading.
- It builds vocabulary as you read new words in context.
- It helps children to visualize, especially if you are reading a story without words and pausing from time to time to check understanding. (Even books with pictures helps this. Challenge the students to study an illustration and then put it into motion in their minds.)
- It builds a love of reading and learning. When others see the model reader enjoying a story, the listener is automatically pulled in.
And notice I mentioned children of all ages. Don’t underestimate the power of reading to older students and even adults. I remember reading carefully chosen books to my eighth grade classes when I taught music. Even they liked the experience of read alouds! There are also times when I pull out a relevant story to read to adults who take a workshop with me. Their faces light up at a familiar, comical or touching story.
So think about how you can add some emphasis to reading aloud to your students this week and in the weeks to come. What are some stories you consider great read alouds?
~EMP
Each year, my fourth graders participate in a “Wax Museum.” This is where each student chooses, researches and becomes an important figure in history. They write and memorize a one-minute speech and then dress as their figure. During the Wax Museum performance, each student stands by their biographical poster dressed as their figure and standing in a frozen pose. When a passer-by stops and pushes their button the student comes to life and recites their speech. It is an amazing evening where students’ really shine, but there is much work that goes into putting on such a performance.
At the core of this project is, as you may have guessed, the biography. Each student is required to find an age-appropriate book to read and learn about their character. Each year, students rush to the school and town library to find such a book. This year, I am happy that many of my students are able to not only use a physical biography, but also one of the great ebiographies found on Big Universe. Big U has a collection of graphic biographies on people including George Washington, Amelia Earhart and Jackie Robinson. I’ve enjoyed showing my students these books to use as a primary source or an additional viewpoint of their person’s life. Each biography is fun to read and contains a lot of information. They’ve been especially motivating for my struggling and reluctant readers.
There are more that graphic novels here at our fingertips. All my students have to do is search for their historical figure and see if there is a biography her on Big Universe. And there are many; full of interest and information.
Here are only some of them:
There are so many biographies here on people that have made significant contributions to our society that you are sure to find one that interests you. I know my students have really enjoyed seeing the ebiographies about their person and those of their friends. It is serving as a great preview of the Wax Museum as students are sharing and reading up on other historical figures as well as their own. Happy Reading!
~EMP
