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Monumental Women: A Timely Short Text Set

Written by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim

Did you know that August 26, 2020 marks the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment?  As women, we are thankful for the many who fought for our right to vote.   The very first statue of women in Central Park will be unveiled this week to commemorate the 100th Anniversary and the millions of women it took to get the 19th Amendment into law. The statue will feature three suffragists -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth -- who represent this hard work.  You can watch the unveiling LIVE on Wednesday, August 26th beginning at 7:45 a.m. by visiting THIS LINK or visit it at a later time where it will be archived.   

This post will feature short texts at your fingertips focused on women and women’s suffrage that can be used in real time or to look back in the days and months to come.   

BUILDING SOME BACKGROUND

There are a lot of great books, texts and resources about women and the women’s suffrage movement.  Here, we highlight a few of our favorites that can be used as:

  • Whole group mini lessons, shared reading, or read aloud

  • Small group work led by the teacher, by students, or a combination of both

  • One-to-one during teacher/student conferring or for independent reading

PICTURE BOOKS

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LINKS TO THESE TITLES [for reference or purchase]

Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers  and The Staff of the New York Times

Equality's Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America By Deborah Diesen

History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote By Kate Messner

Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote by Kristen Gillenbrand

Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage by Claire Rudolf Murphy 

How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti 

My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth by Ann Turner 

Elizabeth Started All the Trouble by Doreen Rappaport

OTHER ARTICLES, VIDEOS & OTHER SHORT TEXTS

TRY THIS!

Step 1

Share one (or more) picture books or resources with students about the Women’s Suffrage Movement.  Invite conversation around the ideas that are shared.  Ask students if they have any questions or wonderings about voting rights, either related to today or in the past.  Jot those questions down to reference later.  Or, show the students a photograph or drawing of the new statue.  Ask them what they notice about the three women depicted. There is a great deal of symbolism included.  Then introduce the three important figures through some of the resources above.

Step 2

Pose the following questions and ideas to students, with the whole group or in small groups, and provide time and space for some conversation.

  • Did you know that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth were all from the same state?  Do you know what state they are from? [New York]

  • Was Susan B. Anthony alive when the 19th Amendment was passed?  

  • What is an Amendment and how does it become official?

  • In 1872, fifteen women voted illegally.  Who were they and what happened to them?

  • What are the rules around voting today?  Can everyone who lives in the U.S. vote?  

  • Why is this new statue so important?  Why do you think there are so few statues of historical women?

  • What other historical women do you think should be depicted in a life-sized statue?  Why?

As students share, listen in and note students’ background knowledge, misconceptions, and wonderings.  For more on ways to kidwatch, check out the Kidwatching section.

Step 3

If time and interest permit, invite students to form mini-study cohorts (small groups no larger than 3-4) to research and learn more about a voting topic of their choice. Each mini-cohort can focus on the same topic OR they can research a variety of topics.  The main goals would be for students to have an opportunity to:

  • Read more (volume!) about a related topic of interest

  • Collaborate with peers, either by researching together or sharing new information they’ve learned with others

  • Use short texts to pique interests, potentially leading to reading even longer texts 

Step 4

Determine how long you’d like to dedicate to this learning experience and share that timeline with students.  A reminder that this opportunity can be a one-day exploration or more, depending on the time you have available and the goals you’ve set with students.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT TEXT SETS

This is the perfect opportunity to use a text set.  We love to use a curated set of texts about a topic or related topics.  Start general and get more specific (e.g show an image of the new statue and then explore the woman depicted and the movement.  Or, go the other direction and read one of the woman’s life stories and then talk about the Suffrage Movement and the statue.  By reading a number of different short texts, the readers get a broader view of the topic.  And, they get to explore the topic further.  You can start by reading a text together and then inviting your students to pick another text that is of interest to them.  

COMING SOON!

Short Texts:  Mighty Mentors That Move Readers and Writers Forward by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim (Benchmark, 2021).

Short Texts at Your Fingertips: Launching into Summer Writing

Written by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim

SHORT TEXTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: LAUNCHING INTO SUMMER WRITING

For the past ten weeks, we have offered a series called Short Texts at Your Fingertips.  One or two times each week, we provided teaching ideas around a different type of short text that is easily found in the home, so that no family feels under-resourced. The ideas we have shared were easily integrated into any curriculum and pedagogy, from Workshop to basal. If you are a caregiver, teacher, or curriculum director, these brief but mighty texts and lessons are our way of saying thanks. And our way of giving children authentic and enjoyable reading and writing engagements each day. For some, summer is already in full swing.  For others, summer is just a few short weeks or days away.  Regardless of when your school year ends, it’s important that students of all ages keep reading and writing across the summer months.  Last week we wrote about the WHY and HOW to create voluminous readers this summer!  You can read that post here.  This week we wrap up this series with the WHY and HOW to create voluminous writers this summer! A big THANK YOU to my friend and colleague for being such a great thinking partner and writing partner!

SUMMER WRITING

There is always lots of talk about summer reading.  Children take home books and reading lists.  Writing often gets a line or two at the bottom of the book list (e.g. “Don’t forget to write.”)   We would argue that writing needs equal attention.  Encoding is just as important as decoding and picking up a pencil can be just as easy as reading that short text.  Just as readers need daily practice, writers also need time and motivation to write.  There are lots of ways to incorporate writing into your summer plans. While some children can (and will) write and write and write, all children can create some short texts.   One of the most important ways to encourage writing is to make sure your young writer has ample materials and some great inspiration.  Read on for ideas!

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TRY THIS!

Step 1

If you are looking for some strategic ways to support summer writing, here are some possible pathways:

  • Read about authors and their writing process. Here are a few to get you started:

    • Reading Rockets has lots of videos of amazing authors talking about their work

  • Often some new writing materials to help motivate -- a new notepad or notebook and some beautiful new pens often helps, a lot. See below for more thoughts about this!

  • Correspondence is a great motivator.  A teacher or relative makes a great pen pal.  The correspondence can take place via text, email or mail.   

Step 2

Help students make a plan for summer writing.  Ask:

  • How many days each week will you write? 

  • How many minutes will you spend writing each time you write? 

Ask students what they want to write about.  Do they want to write:

  • Fiction or nonfiction?

  • Notebook entries

  • Poems

  • Letters or postcards or texts

Step 3

Ask students to identify different places to write.  Create a short list of places that might be a perfect place to write, such as:

  • The kitchen table

  • At the computer

  • At the park on a bench

  • Under a favorite tree

  • On the airplane or train

  • On the sidewalk with chalk

  • Anywhere and everywhere as long as there is paper and a writing utensil

Step 4

One of the keys to writing voluminously is to have writing supplies on hand.  Some supplies that promote writing:

  • Paper (lots of it)

    • Unlined (aka copy paper)

    • Lined

    • Construction paper, card stock, etc.

  • Pencils and pens (adults have their favorite writing instruments, encourage your writers to explore different tools)

  • Crayons, markers, paint (many authors need to draw first to “rehearse” their stories and other authors want to illustrate their words)

  • A stapler (and a staple remover) for making books

  • One or more notebooks (for catching all those great ideas and for taking places so there is always somewhere to write)

  • A computer (for those who want to write with a keyboard)

Step 5

Keep reading!  Writers get inspiration from other writers.  Use a loved author as a mentor and try to write in the same style.  Or write a sequel to a favorite story and another in the series.  Here are some other ideas to spark some writing!

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Step 6

Get some other ideas from our other blog posts.  Each one of them can inspire some writing.

Step 7

Get the writing out into the world.  Writers need to “publish” their work and have it read.  Some ideas:

  • Send a piece to a relative or friend

  • Post it on social media

  • Make an author’s video and send it to others to watch

  • Host a virtual (or real) book signing

  • Write a letter and send it off 

FOR MORE  RESOURCES, CHECK THESE OUT!

COMING SOON!

Short Texts:  Mighty Mentors That Move Readers and Writers Forward by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim (2022)

Short Texts at Your Fingertips: Articles

We offer you Short Texts at Your Fingertips. One or two times each week, we provide teaching ideas around a different type of short text that is easily found in the home, so that no family feels under-resourced. These ideas can integrate into virtually any curriculum and pedagogy, from Workshop to basal. If you are a caregiver, teacher, or curriculum director, these brief but mighty texts and lessons are our way of saying thanks. And our way of giving children authentic and enjoyable reading and writing engagements each day. 

Written by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim

SHORT TEXTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: ARTICLES

Articles are a perfect short text.  Found in newspapers (the old-fashioned ones still found in driveways and at newsstands and now also online), in magazines and on websites, they are easy to find and easy to share.  While we all want to be careful about how much of current events we share with children, there are lots of fascinating articles to share with any age group.  Sports stories are often the hook needed to get a reluctant reader interested.  And, if you read about a game you watched or attended, you bring lots of background knowledge to your reading.  We are particular fans of the quirky human interest story: the armored truck with the faulty door that spills thousands of dollars in cash all over the highway or the message in the bottle that washes up a 100 years after it was dropped into the ocean on the other side of the world.  There really is an article for everyone.

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TRY THIS!

Step 1

Find an article you want to share.  There are lots of places to find articles.  One excellent source is your local newspaper.  It is a great source of information about your town or neighborhood and is likely to be filled with issues and events of interest to your young readers.  Local papers usually have online platforms, making it easy to share the article or get a printer-friendly copy in readers’ hands. In addition, there are many online sites to peruse so take a look at the resource list provided below.  

First, select a subject matter that will interest readers.  Consider a:

  • Current event

  • Human interest story

  • Sporting event

  • Historical event (old newspapers also have fascinating articles)

Next, ask yourself, will you and your students read the article:

  • All together?

  • Partially together and partially on their own?

  • On their own?

Step 2

Discuss the article.  There are many ways to guide the discussion such as:

  • Look at the features of the article and talk about their importance. 

    • Headline -- What is this article about?

    • Byline -- Who wrote this article?  Can you figure out their job at the publication?

    • The “Lead” --  How does this article begin?  What’s the pithy sentence or two right at the top to catch readers’ attention?

    • Photograph / Image -- What do you see?  Is there a caption?  If so, what does it teach you?

    • Quotes -- What are some one-liners from the article worth noting?

  • To keep the conversation going, considering asking:

    • What are some facts from this article?

    • Do you have any connections or new ideas based on your reading?

    • What are your opinions about this article?

    • What other questions do you have about what you read? 

Step 3

Ask students to brainstorm a list of interesting topics that they may want to learn more about (such as animals, space, rainforest).  Then, invite students to go on an article hunt and find 1-2 articles related to any of the topics that were generated.  Ask students to share the articles with their peers.  This can lead to high interest, voluminous reading filled with texts curated by students for students.  For more on ways to curate texts to inspire voluminous reading, check out this blog post.

Step 4

Give students opportunities to write their own articles for their peers or for online publication submission.  Check out these two resources:

  • Time for Kids  - A great site which includes articles by grade level. 

  • Google has some free templates that students can use to create their own newspapers. 


FOR MORE  RESOURCES, CHECK THESE OUT!

  • DOGO News - A great site that one can search by topic.

  • Scholastic News  - A tried and true publication which is organized by grade level.

  • News For Kids  - Lots of interesting articles organized by date, with the most recent articles at the top.

  • KidsPost  - This the kids’ section of “The Washington Post”. 

  • Teaching Kids News - A site started by a parent and a teacher and geared for grades 2-8.

COMING SOON!

Short Texts:  Mighty Mentors That Move Readers and Writers Forward by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim (2022)

From Ed Consultant to Teacher Mom: Reflection #4

Three weeks ago I would have said that I know my kids deeply.

I think I was wrong.

Of course, like all parents, I know my kids. I know their patterns, their likes and dislikes, what makes them laugh and what scares them. I know what they like to read and their favorite spots to write and complete homework. I know the at-home and on-the-weekend and in-the summertime kids. .

I think I assumed I knew my kids as students. However, I’m realizing that I don’t know them, really know them, as students, like I am getting to know them now. How could I? They’ve spent the majority of their learning-selves at school. And, now, their learning-selves are at home. The difference at this point, is their learning-selves at home excludes one of the most important aspects of learning which is the social capital they receive from learning with and from peers.

Creating Learning-at-Home Rituals

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been working to co-create rituals and routines with my kids so that they have things they can count on each day. We created shared agreements about when we would:

  • Get up and get moving [9:30 a.m.]

  • Join together at the breakfast table & get organized for the day [9:45 a.m.]

  • Work through assignments posted online for each of their school classes [10:00-2:00 with lunch thrown in there somewhere]

  • Unstructured refuel yourself time filled with choice activities such as art, backyard play time, trail walks, puzzles, gaming, etc. [2:00-3:00]

  • “Mom School”, as my boys call it, where we spend time reading, writing and thinking together [3:00-4:30]

Kidwatching My Own Kids at Home

This pandemic has given me opportunities to study my own kids in new ways. I’m learning more about them each day as readers, writers, mathematicians, citizens, scientists, artists, siblings, chefs, gamers, backyard explorers, family members, comedians, and as dog-lovers. Through kidwatching, I’ve learned that one or more of my kiddos:

  • has interest, stamina, and finds pleasure in paint-by-numbers

  • uses cooking / dessert making at the 5:30 p.m. hour as celebration for completing all online assignments from school

  • actually talks more during the dinner hour since the pace of our lives has slowed down a bit

  • has learned to do a backflip on the trampoline and has taught the dog to jump on the trampoline too

  • finds joy in beating his mom at a friendly game of trampoline COVID-19 basketball [formerly called HORSE]

  • felt “cheated” out of book club time when we had a day where our schedule was a little clunky

  • thinks our digital COVID-19 writing buddies experience might be kind of fun

When we first started learning at home together, I thought it was short term. I went into the what should we do to get through the next week or two mindset. Now that we have a clearer view that we’ll be going from short to longer-term, I decided to get my boys’ perspectives about who they think they are as learners — at school and at home. I gave my boys this Who Are You as a Learner note catcher.

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To be honest, they weren’t sure what to do with it at first. I think it felt very school-like to them. I told them I wanted them to self-reflect about their interests, passions, curiosities, successes, habits, etc. so that I could think about them as learners in both environments. I’m not going to share their responses because they are for our work at home together, but one important point to mention is that we added ideas across several days. Like most kiddos, my boys started out reluctant about adding ideas. Maybe they felt vulnerable? Maybe they didn’t quite understand the purpose at first? Regardless, they needed more than one go at it before they started adding ideas that uncovered the deeper side of who they are as learners at school versus who they are as learners at home. Hint: Giving kiddos two post-it notes —one for ideas related to school and one for home — works great too!

Whether you are a parent at home who is educating your own kids OR an educator at home educating your students in their homes, I highly recommend giving kiddos an opportunity to reflect about who they are as learners — both at school and at home. Their responses just might shape your next moves as you provide the love and support they need as people and as learners during this time.

Writing to Make Sense of Our Work in Schools

Over a decade ago, a group of amazing women educators came together to study, define, collaborate, and write about what really matters in education. We spent a year — looking at research, creating sustainable professional learning structures, and naming and practicing our beliefs about learning. The positive implications from that time are deep and wide.

Across our year of study, we each kept a notebook filled with ideas, inquiries, and wonderings. Individually, we made a list of book titles that outlined what mattered most to us. These were books-to-be-written in the years to come. They captured what lived in our heads, hearts and guts and came directly from our years of teaching experiences and our love of education.

While miles separate us today, our work from that year continues to resonate with me. That year shaped me. It nudged me to think differently and it created space for me act bravely. I kept that notebook and continued to add to it. Eventually, the one notebook turned into seven—what fun—and out of those notebooks came writing that has helped me make sense of our work in schools.

I’m excited about some new books that I’ve written and co-written that are coming into the world—each with ties to that first writing crew all those years ago.

Side by Side instructional Coaching: 10 Asset-Based Habits That Spark Collaboration, Risk-Taking, and Growth [Benchmark, 2022]

Audience:  Instructional Coaches, Principals, Curriculum Directors, Department Chairs, Team Leaders [anyone who facilitates learning with and for others]

Gist: Every child deserves a teacher who has a thinking partner.  That’s because our work in schools is too complicated and important to go it alone.  The 10 Habits in this book are designed to create support structures for everyone and led by everyone—administrators, instructional coaches, department chairs, team leaders, grade level colleagues.  The key ingredient is working together in asset-based ways to build capacity across the learning community.  Whether you already have a well-established coaching program or you are trying to build support from the ground up, this book will give you lots of practical ideas, tips, tools, how-to lists, and protocols to support your efforts.  Although this book has a literacy focus, the 10 Habits are transferable to all content areas.

This book unpacks these 10 Habits:

1. Develop Relationships

2. Communicate Plans

3. Define Beliefs

4. Design Goals

5. Co-plan

6. Co-teach

7. Create Tracks

8. Reflect

9. Build Capacity

10. Prioritize Across the Year

BUY THE BOOK HERE!

What’s Our Response? Creating Systems & Structures to Support ALL Learners [FIRST Educational Resources, 2021]

Audience: Classroom Teachers, Intervention Specialists, Instructional Coaches, Administrators

Gist: In education time is never on our side.  Too much time is being spent in meetings to discuss students’ deficits and not enough time harnessing their assets. Students come to school each day with individual and collective wants and needs, and it’s our job to harness who and where they are. The RtI process doesn’t have to be a machine model approach with an over-reliance on short sided skill and drill; it can be a dynamic, flexible, in-the-moment response focused on good instruction.   This book explores how to keep students at the center of decision-making so that the focus is fidelity to our students instead of fidelity to content, curriculum or program by addressing 5 Problems of Practice with RtI which include:

  • We need to break out of the RtI box.

  • We need to honor and increase teacher autonomy and agency.

  • We need child study teams focused on students’ assets.

  • We need to increase students' thinking and doing time.

  • We need good instruction because that makes the best interventions.

This book will provide dozens of ready-to-use, solution-oriented tools to create asset-based systems and structures so that you are better positioned to create an instructional response that will support all students’ growth.

I’ve been blessed with incredible mentors, thinking partners, and editors. I’m inspired by a current writing group called The Radish Writers. Being a part of a writing tribe is one of the greatest gifts—if you don’t have one….go start one! Gather people who want to write and think and do together. It will inspire you. It will unleash you. It will change you.

BUY THE BOOK HERE!

Short Texts: Mighty Mentors for Readers and Writers

Audience: Classroom Teachers [K-5], Intervention Specialists [K-8], Instructional Coaches, Principals, Curriculum Directors

Gist: Short texts are everywhere, and so are the readers who love them.  In this anthology, learn how to select, plan with, and use short texts to increase reading volume and inspire opportunities for writing.  From novel excerpts to the writing on the back of a cereal box, short texts have so much to teach our students about the form and function of reading and writing in the world. And this amazing resource has so much to teach us about the power of “short” to help readers and writers go the long distance.

What you will find in this book:

  • CONSUME, PRODUCE, SHARE, EXTEND—a process for considering what texts we choose to consume, how we mine texts for what matters, whether we want to produce something to share with others, and opportunities to extend our reading and writing

  • 30 + short texts spanning non-fiction, fiction, poetry, environmental print and more!

  • One-page Planning Templates that help you think through the trickiest parts of each text type and the stickiest ideas 

  • Completed Planning Templates to give you a running start of ready-to-go lessons

  • Ways to use short texts with all your readers (whole class, small groups, and one-to-one) and across the content areas

  • Extensions for using each short text to inspire and inform writing

  • Resources and templates for you to start finding and using your own short texts

COMING SOON!

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