Kate Mamot

4th Grade/All Subjects/Inclusion/Power of 2

Caldwell Heights Elementary

BEFORE the ki

ds!

About Me…Military Kid:

Upstate NY

MD(twice), VA(twice), FL, TX, Japan

TX State-undergrad and graduate school as Teacher FellowM.Ed.-Methods and Materials

Taught 4 years(eek!)

3 years in 3rd

1 year in 4th

Caldwell Heights Elementary

• PK-5 Campus• Title I, Dual-Language,

Bi-lingual, Functional Academics Classroom• Recognized Campus

(1 student in one sub-group away from Exemplary again)

• Population:AA-12.6% Hispanic-40% White 43.7% Native American-.1% Asian/Pacific Islander-3.6%

Further Breakdown

• Bilinugual/ESL-15.5% TAG-3.7% SPED-9.3%

• Economically Disadvantaged: 37.2%At Risk: 34.7% LEP: 15.7%

• Class Specific:20 students5 SPED/1 ESL2 504

A Day in the Life of Room 208• Over a few days as the teacher, I:

– Immerse in genre. What do you notice? What did this author do? What

did this author do that we can do? Why did this author do that?

– Model genre of writing. Start with think aloud for pre-writing…compose piece with/in front of/after school for students to see.

– Think Aloud Revisions piece. Share tools for revising in mini-lessons. Share just

snipits of revisions, nothing overwhelming…take it a little piece at a time.

• Snapshot of one day– Gathered

on the carpet by the easel for the mini-lesson, access to text; think-pair-share

- Off to write “wherever you are comfortable”

- Teacher-student conferences (hope to really add in peer conferences!) focus on individual needsstop class to share if a “major teaching point”

- Students share with at least a partner or the whole class

Philosophy, according to Kate…

• Natural-no tricks or gimmicks

• Authentic

• Use of Mentor Texts

• Inquiry/Teacher Facilitates and Questions

Research(People I Jive With)

“As we develop teaching relationships with authors and their work, we will find that certain texts seem to surface as very important to teaching. These are texts that are just full of curriculum potential.” -Katie Wood Ray (2002)

“The fingerprints of the authors’ craft found in mentor texts often become our own. Mentor texts are as comfortable as a worn pair of blue jeans…They ignite the writer’s imagination and determination to create high-quality text that mirrors the mentor text in many ways. …it empowers them to try something new.”- Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli Mentor Texts (2007)

Yes, you too are so right…

"I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.” –Socrates the basis for inquiry

“Children, too, need images of what good work looks like, so when we teach writing we need to immerse them in the sorts of texts we hope they will write.” - Lucy Calkins Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing (2006)

Sandra and her Mentors

We learn by emulating others.

Sandra Cisneros

Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

Reading with a Writer’s Eye What did the author do that I can try?

• The purpose of this lesson is to read as a reader AND switch to reading as a writer.

• Choose a text students are familiar with…it is good to revisit the same text! You are looking at it with another lens!

• Notice: What did the author do? How can I do that too?

This piece by definition is not a personal narrative…the character, Rachel, is not the author of the book.

However, the excerpts that I’m going to read have the aspects and qualities that I would want to read in a student’s personal narrative piece!

Author’s Chair/Share Out

Who was your mentor?

Why did you choose that sentence/paragraph/part?

How did you use it in your own writing?

Student Work

• A collection of narratives from the past year.

• Specifically:

Grandpa and Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark

Questions, Comments

How can YOU use it??

Think about this…

“I often think that when I watch a really good teacher of writing, it’s almost like there are life-size cardboard cutouts of authors all around the room. Jane Yolen is standing up by the chalkboard and Eloise Greenfield is just by the door to welcome students as they enter…With a room full of authors to help us, teaching writing doesn’t have to be so lonely.” –Katie Wood Ray (2002)

Oh, yeah…this too…

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out.” -William Faulkner

• Need: - Memoirs/Narratives out for us to use as

mentors– Chart paper/marker(s)