Have you read the novel Spite Fences? I didn’t think so. It is a wonderful novel for 8th through *9th graders, but it is so often overlooked! (*Note: Scholastic says that this novel is geared for 6-8th grade interest levels, but I disagree based on the content and figurative language). I have been teaching this novel unit for the past 7 years, and I always see a tremendous amount of growth in my students – I just love this unit, and it is the perfect way to end our 8th grade year! We find so many ways to make cross-curricular connections between Language Arts and Social Studies with this unit.
The novel is about a 13-year old girl named Maggie Pugh who lives in a small Georgian town in the 1960s. She is poor, white, and the victim of abuse from her mother and next-door neighbor. She is at the age where she begins to notice things – facilitated by the gift of a camera to help her ‘see the world’ – and she questions the segregation and customs in her town. Because this novel is historical fiction, it is filled with references to important Civil Rights Era people and events. Since Maggie is a very bright young girl, and also a bit of a tomboy, my students don’t view this as a ‘girl’ book – in fact, my boys really love it and demonstrate much growth in their critical evaluation skills while reading/discussing this novel.
The magic of this novel is that it is the perfect piece to help students begin to discover figurative language. Spite Fences is rife with challenging language and thought-provoking questions about morals and real-world conflicts. It investigates important themes of human rights, dignity, faith, coming of age, and staying true to one’s beliefs. My students become outraged by many of the events, and we have very lively classroom discussions. There are so many subtle hints and hidden treasures that only a discerning, critical reader will catch. When I point out that the ‘fence’ represents oh-so-much-more than just a wooden structure, and that it is 6 feet tall, made of pine (::cough:: casket ::cough::) the students are mesmerized by the layers of depth and meaning.
My only lament is that this novel is no longer in print, but can be purchased second-hand or as an ebook. I still have paperback copies that I plan to use until they fall apart!
I have posted this unit in my Teachers pay Teachers store to share, since I firmly believe it is the perfect novel to use with your 8th and 9th grade students to prepare them for more challenging contemporary literature. I’ve made the reading response worksheets so that a student could even guide themselves through the novel – it would be a great option for an independent reader or a homeschooler as well. The unit spans 2 months, which is an entire quarter in my curriculum. The unit includes a prior knowledge activity – a movie guide for the film “A Time for Justice.”
This powerful 1994 documentary brings the Civil Rights movement to life and helps set the stage for this historical fiction. The best part is – you can order this kit (DVD + Lesson Plans) for FREE!
The Spite Fences Unit also includes a chapter-by-chapter reading guide with questions that range in type and complexity from inference to critical thinking, multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and open-ended short answer questions. This unit is great for end of the year test prep by providing students with a wide range of possible reading response questions. An answer key is included.
While reading the novel, my students also complete a fun reading response project. They create an Altered Book (or Scrapbook) that includes 9 ‘pages’ or installations. What we do is find some old hardcover books to repurpose by glueing or writing new things into the pages.
These Altered Book page assignments are designed to illicit deep thinking and writing that require students to find evidence and dig deeper into the topics and themes of the novel (following Common Core language for text-based discussion). Each ‘page’ has a pre-writing, brainstorming page to help students collect their thoughts. Here are some examples of their work:
This entire Spite Fences Unit includes:
* Welcome letter with lesson plan outline
* Enduring Understandings and Common Core State Standards
* “A Time for Justice” documentary movie guide with answer key to help build prior knowledge
* Reading Guide with answer key
* Altered Book Project with samples, rubric, and planning pages
If you are interested in purchasing this unit, click here!
I can’t wait for 4th quarter to start our final unit of the year – my favorite!
As semester 1 comes to a close, I am gearing up for a new intervention group. I will get a group of about 7 students who are below grade level in reading (based on the MAP Measures of Academic Progress score). I will work with them twice a week for a half hour. As a small group, we will focus on improving our reading strategies and skills, as well as confidence with reading (a key component, in my opinion).
We will begin by having a frank discussion of why we are meeting as an intervention group. I want to empower my students, not make them feel like they are being ‘punished’ for an extra hour per week. I let them know that they have many strengths and skills, but sometimes we may need to brush up on one skill in particular or practice a skill until it become easier or more automatic. I make them feel special like we are in a top secret testing research group trying to figure out all of the tricks of the standardized tests (we discuss test-taking language and strategies as well). It’s important to me that they feel like part of a team when we meet, and that everyone enjoys working together. Let’s just say there is a lot of candy and bribery involved in the beginning.
An analogy I like to use with my struggling readers is that becoming a strong reader is sometimes like baking cookies – you can have all the best ingredients, but if you are missing one tiny item (like salt), the cookies just won’t work. It’s my job to help them realize that they have all those wonderful ingredients ready to go, and I help them find the missing ‘salt’ so that everything comes together. We aren’t starting from scratch, we’re just identifying and filling a tiny gap here or there.
On our first day, I will introduce them to this awesome new website I came across called Newsela. Newsela is self-described as, “an innovative way for students to build reading comprehension with non-fiction that’s always relevant: daily news.” Essentially, it is a news website that allows you to change the reading level of an article at the click of a button. I can upload my class roster and assign readings to my students, complete with a comprehension quiz at the end! And since we have iPads, the students can even annotate or take notes as they read the articles. If you peruse the website, you will see that they are all very high-interest stories. We are beginning with “Making a robot that flies like a jellyfish swims.”
The Lexile levels of the articles range from 630 to 1130. Below is a Lexile to grade level conversion chart reported on the Lexile website.
I can assign any student a different Lexile level based on his/her individual needs. I am going to start all of my students at the 630 level as we build rapport, confidence, and momentum. My goal is to have them reading independently at the 800 level before they are dismissed from interventions.
First, we will activate any prior knowledge students might have about jellyfish and/or robots, and we try to predict what they might have in common. Next, I will pre-teach only one important vocabulary word: imitate. We will scan the article and notice that it is divided into sections. We will read it out loud together as a group, and then decide what the main idea or key idea of the entire article was.
The next part of the lesson combines text-based reading strategies and the SQ3R method. It involves 2 different highlighter colors, let’s say pink (color #1) and blue (color #2). First, I will have the students highlight in pink (color #1) any sentences that they believe supports our main idea of the paragraph – supporting details. If our main idea is, ‘scientists are trying to invent flying robots that imitate jellyfish,’ then we will highlight in color #1 any ideas that help to explain how and/or why scientists are planning to accomplish this.
Next, we will turn each of the subsection titles into a question. For example, instead of “Very Simple Creatures,” we might ask, “Why are jellyfish considered very simple creatures?” Students will use their second color to highlight any sentences or key details in that subsection that helps them answer the question. The key here is that they are always looking for evidence in the text – it’s not just pulled out of nowhere. This plan also helps students to visually chunk the text into smaller manageable parts – a strategy they can easy enact with all of their reading.
So that is our plan to tackle non-fiction for a few weeks. I will slowly increase the Lexile level to test the waters and see how students fair with less and less guided support from me. I want to see these skills of activating prior knowledge, chunking text, and looking for main ideas with supporting evidence FROM the text, to become automatic. I have high hopes for these students, and I can’t wait to report back with their progress!
Happy 2014 to all! May your year be blessed with health and happiness.
I don’t make New Years Resolutions, but I do make year-long goals (is that the same thing?). I made 14 goals for 2014, and they are:
1. Finish my dissertation
2. Potty-train Ruffy (our dog)
3. Clean out / Organize the basement
4. Remodel the upstairs and get a new tenant
5. Save up and purchase an elliptical
6. Stick with the Paleo diet 90/10
7. Make a big dent in my student loans
8. Plant and eat my own vegetables / herbs
9. Create a family recipe book
10. Finish my handmade Christmas gifts by November
11. Use our wedding china
12. Go on at least one vacation
13. Go parasailing (I mean… why not?)
14. Cook an entire dinner for my family
Do you have any exciting plans or goals for 2014? I’d love to hear about them!
If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to pamper yourself, I think Birchbox is a great way to do this. I have been a member of Birchbox for over 2 years now, and I’m obviously a big fan 🙂
I explain it to people like a magazine subscription, except instead of a magazine you look forward to receiving each month, you get a box of beauty goodies instead! When you sign up for Birchbox, you tell them about your hair, skin, and beauty preferences. They send you 5 or 6 high-end beauty samples each month to try out. I love this idea, because I get to try some great products that I would have otherwise missed. In the past 2 years, I have discovered some of my favorite beauty items, such as Orofluido Elixir, Shu Uemura, Number 4 Super Comb Prep, Benefit POREfessional, Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss, and Benefit It’s Potent! Eye Cream.
I’ve received goodies that range from hair and skin products to makeup, nail polish, gadgets, and gourmet foods. Samples that don’t seem to be my style me get passed along to a friend. Once I have tried a sample, I go on to the Birchbox website and give them my feedback about the item. In return, I get points that add up to dollars I can spend in the Birchbox store on full-sized items. I saved up enough points to buy a Amika Travel Hair Straightener and Hairdryer, which excites me to no end!
Lastly, I must say that I love having Birchbox as my go-to gift for others. I have probably gifted a Birchbox subscription at least 6 times. I can buy someone a 3-month subscription for only $30, and print out the gift certificate without even leaving my home! What I will do then is grab an old Birchbox box and fill it with some goodies and the gift certificate to let my friend know to check the mail. They can then log-in to Birchbox, create a profile, and receive samples tailored just for them.
Now doesn’t Birchbox sound fun? Go ahead, give it a try! If you sign up using my special referral code (I get store points), I would really appreciate it! Click here to sign up. Enjoy trying something new and exciting in the New Year!
I love this military jacket I purchased from The Limited. It’s a great fall look, very comfortable and versatile! Best purchase this year!
I went with my niece and nephew to see “Frozen,” and it certainly did not disappoint! This movie had so many unexpected treasures – Olaf the Snowman had me in stitches, and the love between Elsa and Anna reminded me of my own sister, whom I love so dearly. My husband and I really enjoyed how Disney departed from the traditional motif of true love / romance saving the day, and a man coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress. This movie was definitely about sisterly love and girl power!
I love “House”! I feel like I could sit and binge-watch for hours (yes, yes, okay! I have done this several times!). I enjoy the intelligent, witty dialogue that keeps me on my toes. I also like that I learn a lot from watching medical dramas, such as challenging vocabulary. My doctors and dentists get a kick out of me when I listen and pay attention as they take notes or talk to one another, and I actually follow along. I’m so sad this show is over!
My favorite restaurant in Milwaukee, WI is Rustico in the Third Ward. My husband and I had our rehearsal dinner here, and we always go back for our anniversary dinner together. The food is mouth-watering. The wait staff tells me that they send their chefs to Italy at least once a year to train in new recipes and cooking methods. They have locally made Gelato, and many of their ingredients (including the Lemoncello!) are imported directly from Italy. Plus, it’s located on the Milwaukee Riverfront, so Ryan and I can sit on the dock on a lovely summer day, enjoy a drink in a copper mug, and watch the boats. It’s lovely!
I gave the Paleo diet a try, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. The Paleo diet is grain-free, dairy-free, and chemical-free. But instead of focusing on what I “can’t” eat, I focus on what I “can” eat – whole foods, meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and delicious meals I prepare myself! I can’t even tell you how much better I feel. I sleep better, my stomach is flat, I have no IBS symptoms, I have a TON more energy, and things just taste better. If you would like to read any of my posts about becoming Paleo, you can click here, here, here, here, here, or here!
Though you wouldn’t call Ruffy a gift in the traditional sense of the word, he has certainly been a gift to our family. On the left is Rocket, our 3-year-old Teddy Bear, and Ruffy, a 7-year-old Yorkie, is on the right. My grandfather passed away last November, and my grandmother passed away this November. Ruffy needed a home, and Team Dembro became his new pack. Yes, it has been a challenge taking on a spoiled lap dog with a ridiculous amount of medical needs who is also not crate or potty trained. However, the joy we get from having him in our home definitely outweighs those factors. Rocket and Ruffy have found their stride, and they are now playing together after almost 2 months of staring each other down from a distance. Ruffy loves to snuggle. And frankly, having him here is like having a piece of Grandpa and Grandma here, too. I love him 🙂
I absolutely love this poster, and I think it is so critical that we have this conversation with our students (especially now that my students all have iPads in our one-to-one school). We have this blown up and printed as a poster in our school, and I have literally walked a student over to the poster and gone through the flow-chart with them to help them decide if a picture was appropriate or not to keep and/or post online. I think this needs to be in every school (and, um, place of employment, too!).
My favorite blog post is about the Art of Writing Conference at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I attended this conference twice this year, and you can read about it here and here. It is a wonderful opportunity for aspiring authors and artists – I love attending each year!
I have to say that I am very proud of myself for publishing my first book, The Paper Chain. It has been a cornerstone of my classroom teaching, and I have seen my students grow by leaps and bounds from using this text. Now that it is for sale as well, I enjoy knowing that it will positively impact so many other classrooms and students as well. It’s a great feeling! It is available as a digital download and in paperback.
As a gift for my mother, my family got together for a family portrait. This picture is my favorite, and captures my family perfectly!
My favorite memory this year is when my husband took me up in his airplane for the first time. He recently became a pilot, and I am so proud of him. I tell my students about the hours and hours of studying, reading, and training it took for him to accomplish his goal. Many people are afraid to go up in his 2-seater propellor planes, but I couldn’t feel more safe than when I am in his ‘hands.’ He is an extremely intelligent and conscientious person, and he is always in control. Though I get air sick, it was a lot of fun and oh so beautiful!
My goal for 2014 is to finish my dissertation. I have 3 chapters written, and 2 to go. I CAN DO IT!!!
I have been actively concentrating on finding Joy in life, and this has been the single best thing I could have ever done for myself. Joy begets joy, and it’s that simple. I avoid expending energy focusing on the negative, and I look for the happiness, humor, and opportunities instead. I’m a very goal-driven person, so it’s easy for me to set my sights on the outcome and forget about the journey along the way – finding joy helps keep me present in the moment. There is so much to love about life!
So, how was your 2013? I hope it was filled with lasting memories, joy, friends, and family. I wish you all the happiness in the world in 2014!
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you all had a most wonderful day yesterday. I had a great time celebrating Christmas 3 times! We began the morning at my husband’s mother’s house, the afternoon with my immediate family at my sister’s house, and the evening with my extended family at my aunt’s house. Festivities from morning ’til night – that’s how I roll!
As cliche as it is, I find that the joy of Christmas comes from giving, not receiving. For weeks or even months, I look forward to watching someone open a gift I carefully selected or handmade. It brings me such joy! Here are some of the gifts I made this year that I couldn’t wait to give:
Paw print ornaments for my mother and sister of our 3 dogs: Tyger, Ruffy, & Rocket. If you want to make your own, these are the wonderful ornament directions I followed (I added nail polish for flair).
My sister and I ordered a canvas print for my mother of a family photo session we had done this fall. She plans to hang it over her fireplace. She was SO excited! We ordered from CanvasonDemand.com
I made coloring books for all of my nieces and nephews for Christmas. They were a hit! (P.S. If you want to purchase a copy for yourself, you can click here).
I really wanted to give back this year, and I thought I had picked the perfect way to do so. I am O negative, which is the universal blood donor. I went in to the Wisconsin Blood Center the day before Christmas and donated a pint of blood. The problem was that when I went to leave, I blacked out. I came to with a team hovering over me, covering me in icepacks, palpating my feet and legs, and holding a fan on my face. What?! Woops.
Of course I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have some wonderful food to cook/bake for the holidays. I made a plate of Paleo Christmas Cookies, Mashed Cauliflower, and Coconut Almond Green Beans. The cookies are Cutouts (my personal favorite), Chocolate Peppermint Macaroons dipped in Godiva Dark Chocolate, Cardamom Thumbprint Cookies, and Energy Bites (my second favorite). I had 2 helpings of the Mashed Cauliflower because I thought it tasted aMAzing! I didn’t tell my family it was cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, and most of them couldn’t even tell!!!
Today, we are enjoying the leftovers and relaxing. The dogs are pooped!
Having off of work is GREAT!!!! For the last 3 days, I have been cooking and baking like a madwoman. I’d love to share some photos and recipes with you. By the way, all of the food below is Paleo, which means grain and dairy-free.
1. Vegetable Omelet – just egg, unsweetened almond milk, peppers, tomato, broccoli, and avocado on top at the end.
2. Baked Kale – delicious! Just put a bunch of kale in a bowl, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and mix. Then spread the kale on a baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, garlic, and ground pepper, bake for 10 minutes at 350, et voila!
3. Bacon – I bake the bacon on a metal rack on top of a baking sheet so the grease can drip off. Make sure to line the baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier cleanup. 350 for 20-30 minutes.
4. Salmon in a Bag – I cut 6 round slices of lemon to line the bottom of a piece of aluminum foil, then placed the salmon on top. I sprinkled the salmon with salt and garlic, then topped with a few thin tabs of butter. Close up the aluminum foil, and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the fish flakes apart and is cooked through.
5. Cardamom Thumbprint Cookies & Peppermint Macaroons dipped in Chocolate – I am a Norwegian, so I couldn’t resist trying the Thumbprint Cookies for christmas. The cookies turned out fantastic, and I will add that you really need to beat the vanilla frosting for at least 10 minutes to get the consistency you desire. I plan to add red and green food coloring for something festive 🙂 The Peppermint Macaroons turned out deliciously as well, but I will use less peppermint extract next time. Dipping the bottoms in dark chocolate (and licking the spoon!) was the best part!
6. Gyro meatballs and Tzatziki Sauce – this is BY FAR my favorite thing I have made! I used high grade ground sirloin, and I also pan-friend them after baking them to give a nice brown crisp to the meatballs. For the Tzatziki sauce, I used coconut milk instead of coconut cream or yogurt, and this was a mistake. It still tasted fantastic, but was a bit watery.
7. Party Tray – I made this for a party I attended. Crackers, 2-year aged cheddar, salami, goat cheese, almond cheddar spread, pistachios, almonds, and strawberries. Obviously the crackers and cheese are not Paleo, but the rest is proof that you can enjoy Paleo snacks with your friends!
8. Banana Nut Muffins – these are mostly just bananas and eggs with very little flour. They taste pretty eggy to me, but perhaps I should have used more ripened bananas. They are great warmed up with a touch of butter.
9. Homemade Granola – My husband and I just love this. It is absolutely better tasting than any granola I have ever purchased. I will make this again! Next time, though, I will add more nuts because there is quite a bit of the honey-mixture to go around.
Our last Friday before Winter Break was so much fun, I just had to snap a few pictures to share!
The Friday before school let out for 2013, we had an all-school Holiday Assembly. Each grade, 6 – 8, creates a volleyball team, and they compete for the honor of playing against the staff team. The Poms team performs, the Choir sings the National Anthem, and the Student Council veejays. What a treat this year – one of our students was surprised by his older brother returning from military service a day early and showing up at the assembly. The soldier was a former student of mine, all grown up and in his military uniform. Oh, how I cried! It was very touching. The students were all very well behaved and they had a great time! 1. A few other highlights of the day – the top left is my FAVORITE gift I received. A donation to the Sandy Hook Fund is such a perfect, meaningful gift for a teacher!
2. One of my classes was about 15 minutes ahead of my others, so we had some time to enjoy a small bit of ‘Home Alone’ – yeahhhh!!! (P.S. I gave them the options of ‘Elf’ and ‘Home Alone’, and they picked ‘Home Alone’ because they’ve been ‘Elf’ed to death. Is that even possible????)
3. The bottom left is a card for our wonderful custodian, Joe. I have learned in my 7 years of teaching that custodians and secretaries are the most valuable and hardworking in our school. Joe ‘The Custodian’ is much loved by staff and students alike, and he was recently diagnosed with cancer. We learned that he would be working all through the Winter Break cleaning and painting our classrooms, so we decided to leave him a few treats throughout the school: cards, notes hanging on the walls, student-made posters, etc.
4. We left with only 5 days before Christmas, and I made sure to remind every student to take some time to thank the people in their lives that matter, and to try and make something nice for their parents for the Holidays (even if it’s just a heartfelt card).
5. And finally, our Student Council gave every staff member a car charger for our iPads, which is very helpful.
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe rest of December, and I hope January doesn’t come too soon!
Hellooooooo, Winter Break! Oh how much I’ve looked forward to seeing you! Here are the highlights from week 16:
1. Chair Bungees for Restless Students: I discovered a really great, inexpensive, QUIET, unobtrusive fidget tool for the classroom – chair bungees. There’s not much to it, you just wrap a bungee cord or some kind of sturdy, elastic material around 2 chair legs. This gives students something to lightly bounce their legs against during class. Hopefully, this won’t disturb their neighbors or make any noise, but will provide sensory feedback for the student and a mindless outlet for fidgety behavior. I like that it occupies their legs instead of their hands, which we need for work!
2. Ready for January! I am all set to come back for break, which is a great feeling. I don’t have any correcting or lesson planning to do over my winter break, which means I can focus my energy on my family and on my dissertation. My calendar and assignment board are all set!
3. Phonics Spelling App – I found a great new app for our students struggling with phoneme-grapheme mapping, sight words, and basic foundational skills. Of course this is only one component of our multi-faceted reading intervention program for students who are reading 2 or more levels below grade level. The Simplex Phonics Spelling App costs $5, so I am working on locating the funds to purchase this app for our small-but-growing list of identified students. My hope is that I can introduce them to the app at school, but they will practice the app at home and with their parents. I installed and interacted with the app for a while, and I liked that it offered lots of support and that it didn’t seem too ‘babyish’ for our 6th through 8th graders. Here’s hoping this is a winner for our students!
4. Spirit Week! Leading up to winter break, we have had a ‘Spirit’ or ‘Dress-up’ day each day this week. Monday = Pajama Day / Tuesday = Twin Day / Wednesday = Blue Day to honor our custodian with cancer / Thursday = Nerd Day / Friday = Red Day. I love dressing up with a theme, so of course I was on Cloud 9 all week!
5. Like a Rock Star: I made the front page of TpT! I was so excited to see this!
So how was your week? I hope you are already (or thinking about) enjoying your Winter Break!!! See you in January 😉
Yesterday morning, I was asked to give a presentation to the staff at our monthly Morning Staff Meeting on Reading in the Content Areas (Science, Math, and Social Studies). Though I am a Language Arts teacher for 3 classes a day, I am also the part-time Reading Specialist for our school, so Professional Development is one of my honors and duties in that role.
For this Professional Development session on Reading, I decided to focus on Close Reading and Text-Based Reading Strategies, which I have been studying as part of my Reading Specialist coursework as well as my PhD in Language and Literacy. I created a 10-age handout on the top strategies that a classroom teacher can implement to modify a text for struggling readers.
I designed this handout by first selecting a short, 1-page text that might be used in a 6th through 8th grade classroom. Then, I described each of the strategies/modifications as well as modeled how I would use that strategy with the model text. This way, teachers will have plenty of examples right at their fingertips. I also offered to help teachers select, create, and implement these strategies in their classroom. The strategies include:
The great news was that my colleagues had heard of or had experience with each of these strategies at some point, but they were glad to have a resource that modeled how to use them as a refresher. It’s also a helpful idea to have this list of ideas in case you just need a reminder of another strategy to try.
If you would like to purchase this handout on Close Reading and Text-Based Reading, you can access it at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store by clicking the link or picture above. Thank you!
