Molly Miscue #5 Story Finale

        “Molly, this is your fault!” said Chris as she jumped up from the rug.

            Touching the page with her finger, Molly looked toward her friend. Some of the students in the room heard what Chris said and they stared at Molly.

            “Come again?” Molly asked, not sure what this was all about.

            “You have to reread this story. If we’re lucky, that will fix everything,” Chris said.

            Molly turned back to the beginning of the story and carefully started reading.

           “The little girl picked up a piece of pepper – I mean paper – to write.”

            Nothing happened.

            “Keep reading,” said Chris.

            “The little girl wrote a myth about m-kittens landing in their rocket ship.”

            “You’re not done,” said Chris.

            “The kittens launched – no, lapped – up the milk from their saucer.”

            “Perfect,” said Miss Cabton

            The class looked out the window to see if anything had changed.

            “The mittens are still out there!” yelled a boy who ducked for cover again. Another student sneezed.

            “I have one more thing I need to do,” said Molly as she got up to go to her desk.

            She reached into her desk and pulled out the birthday pencil she received from the office several months ago. She dusted it off and handed it to Brad.

            “They’re gone!” said one student at the window.

            Everyone looked at Molly and Miss Cabton said, “You really have to spend more time practicing your reading.”

            Molly just laughed.

 

Molly Miscue #4

             As Miss Cabton quickly walked over to the window, Molly just kept on reading.

        “The mittens launched up the milk from their saucer.”

        Molly’s classmates watched as one mitten brought a container of milk out of the rocket and prepared to launch it into space. They saw the other mitten light a match and touch its hot flame to a cord dangling from the milk container.

        “Look out!” shouted Brad as he ducked behind a tall cabinet.

        All the kids (and even Miss Cabton) screamed when the milk container blasted off from the playground.

        Molly ignored the chaos and turned the page to read more from the story.

 

*To be continued*

{Make a prediction or ask a question about the story in the comment box below.}

Molly Miscue #3

 

        Molly ignored the sneezing of her classmates and kept on reading.

     “The little girl wrote a myth about mittens landing in their rocket ship.”

     Miss Cabton took a long sip from her extra large coffee cup. As she set the cup back down on her desk she said, “Molly, the word mittens rhythms with the word that is really in the sentence.”

     But before Molly could correct herself, her friend Chris shouted out the answer, “kittens!”

     Miss Cabton was about to reprimand Chris but she stopped. Several students by the coat closet were pointing out the window, yelling, “What’s that!”

 

*To be continued*

{Make a prediction or ask a question about the story in the comment box below.}

 

Molly Miscue #2

       When the class came back from recess, the kids got quiet as they waited for Miss Cabton to start reading centers. Molly didn’t have to wait to see what group she would be reading with. She knew she would be reading with the “Kind Cats”, the lowest group in the class.

     As she swept the crumbs of her sweet bread snack from her desk, Molly heard her reading group being called over to the table.

     Of course, Brad was upset as he looked at his Birthday pencil. And the magic waited for its chance to pounce, a broken birthday pencil had to be avenged.

      “You may go first,” Miss Cabton said to Molly. Her friend Chris looked relieved.

      Molly opened a book and started reading out loud.

     “The little girl picked up a piece of pepper to write.”

     “Molly, take a look at that word again,” said Miss Cabton.

     But before Molly could see she should have read paper instead of pepper, the little girl beside her started sneezing

     “Hey! Who put pepper on my desk?” asked a boy.

 

*To be continued*

 

{Make a prediction or ask a question about the story in the comment box below.}

Molly Miscue #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Molly sat by the window and looked at the kids playing baseball. Her classwork was still barely started but she didn’t care. Miss Cabton kept giving her more and more reading to do because she was always getting the words wrong. That’s how she got her nickname, “Molly Miscue”.
Molly skimmed over the pictures in her easy reader, “Barn Animal Friends”, and looked out the window one more time. She quickly wished she hadn’t because she saw Brad the Birthday boy pointing up at her, laughing.
“I’ll show him!” Molly said as she got up and hurried over to Brad’s desk. Picking up his brand new brown Birthday pencil she snapped it in half.
“Take that, Birthday Boy!” she said out loud.
That’s when the magic began.

 

*To be continued*

 

{Make a prediction or ask a question about the story in the comment box below.}

 

Remembering Arnold Lobel’s Work

In his short 54 years, Arnold Lobel accomplished more than many writers can even dream of. He has a multitude of books to his credit. And he has received many awards like the Caldecott Medal for Fables, a Caldecott Honor for Frog and Toad are Friends and a Newberry Honor for Frog and Toad Together.

A Winning Formula

Lobel’s books have certain characteristics that helped endear them to the hearts of young readers everywhere.

● They are written with short easy to read sentences.

● Key vocabulary words and phrases are repeated.

● His books are filled with loveable, funny characters.

● The illustrations invite you to join Lobel’s make-believe worlds.

What I like about Arnold Lobel’s Books

I have been reading Lobel’s book for a long time and I never get tired of them.

▪ I enjoy the crazy adventures the characters get into. My daughter and I love to read about Frog’s trouble with chocolate ice cream or Uncle Elephant’s need to count things.

▪ The books remind me of all that was good in my childhood. Open one of his books and you are immediately carried back to a pleasant moment in elementary school.

▪ Lobel writes for children and he is careful to respect their needs as readers but this doesn’t take away from the quality of what he writes.

My Favorites

I appreciate all of Arnold Lobel’s writings but some books hold a very special place in my heart. If I had to rank them it might look something like this:

1.) Frog and Toad All Year

2.) Frog and Toad Together

3.) Mouse Soup

4.) Grasshopper on the Road

5.) Mouse Tale

View the video to find out about my favorite Arnold Lobel story. I’d love to know about your favorite, leave a comment.

~Michael <><

 

 

Some Favorites

The Thrill of Election Night

For many, there is nothing like the thrill of Super Bowl Sunday, the World Series or March Madness. But for me, the greatest thrill of all is the finale of my favorite contact sport (politics) known as election night.

There are several steps that lead up to this special night. Two years before the election, the obvious candidates play coy with the media and pretend not to be interested. In the primary season you vote for the candidate who touches your heart. When that person loses, you hope the winning candidate can fire you up with a rousing acceptance speech at the mostly irrelevant convention. During the general campaign you endure the onslaught of political commercials. At the debates you hope your candidate can land a myriad of one line zingers to get a bump in the endless polls – conducted daily. By Election Day you can’t wait to wait in line to cast your ballot with your children in tow.

And then you wait again…for election night coverage!

First, there’s the pre-game analysis. Republicans and Democrats are handicapped before the returns start to come in. Candidate applause lines and gaffs are repeated. Battleground state strategies are laid bare and initial poll results are thrown out as teasers (“single red-headed women who own a toy dog are trending toward candidate A!!”).

While the analysis gears up, in a corner of your television screen the countdown clock relentlessly ramps up the anticipation. “45 minutes until the polls close in Massachusetts, 30 minutes for Delaware, 15 minutes for Wisconsin, 5 minutes until Illinois is called!” When the clock expires, you get a declared winner or hear the words, “too close to call”. You begin to get a feel for how the night may go.

As the evening continues, the state by state tallies keep coming in. One goes red and another goes blue. Some are obvious and some are a surprise. And then some stay blank, again, “too close to call.” You keep your eyes on the Electoral College totals on the bottom of the screen and calculate the effect this might have on your candidate’s prospects.

And then the moment comes…

A key state is called and immediately a winner is declared! (Cue the music: Hallelujah by Handel or the Imperial March from Star Wars.) You question what you heard, so you turn to one of the other 24 hour news channels to see what they’re reporting. And sure enough, they are all saying the same thing.

Once the acceptance and concession speeches have been delivered, bleary-eyed you turn off the TV, content that the majesty of American democracy has spoken. As you tuck yourself into bed and think about the January inaugural address, one final thought comes to mind…

…How long until the mid-year elections are over and this whole process can start again?

God bless America!

Your comments and questions are always welcome. I will reply to every one of them.

~Michael <><

 

Vote. Don’t let the fun start without you!

Repeal the Spelling Code!

In this election season as candidates debate thorny issues and the minutia of each others voting record, there is one issue I’d like to see addressed by office seekers: REPEAL THE SPELLING CODE.

As a reading specialist working with students for over ten years now I’m still amazed by the trouble kids have with learning how to read. And the problem isn’t with our language (okay, helping verbs,i.e. “we will be going,” are a challenge) it’s with the spelling code.

We have inherited a complex, Byzantine system for spelling the words in our language. The English language has a storied past. Words have come into the language from every corner of the world. We have borrowed words or phrases from living and dead languages. German, French, Latin and Hebrew, they have all made rich contributions to our spoken tongue. But somewhere along the way a cruel trick was played against us. The spelling patterns from these languages were adopted into our spelling code. We are forced to remember that ballet is pronounced “bal-ae” not ”bal-et”, nation is pronounced “nae-shun” not “na-ti-un.”

When we were kids this spelling system befuddled us. As adults we are grateful for spell check. Children are forced to make sense of this chaos in order to read and write. Adults see it as a rite of passage into the real world.

But I say shame on us. We all know that the spelling code is a train wreck. Imagine what it would be like for our society if we invented a new spelling code, one with a single letter for each sound in the language. Children would learn to read and write more quickly. Students could have a chance at being more successful in their academic careers. Classroom instruction would be able to focus more on comprehension skills and less on decoding strategies.

Now I realize that such a draconian measure would lead to problems initially. Questions like, “What would we do with all of our old books?” and “How would we reconfigure the keyboard?” will have to be debated. But if we did the right thing and scrapped the present spelling code, wouldn’t future generations thank us?

 Your comments and questions are always welcome. I will reply to every one of them.

The Summer Vacation Essay

Many of us are either getting our classrooms ready for students to return or we have already welcomed our new charges to the building. Most if not all of our students are mourning the loss of summer vacation. How do we help them work through their grief? We ask them to think of all the good things they miss about summer vacation by writing an essay. Well, I think turnabout is fair play, so I’m going to pen my own essay about my recently expired summer vacation.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

     When the final bell rang on the last day of school in June, I said good-bye to the principal and my colleagues. I had no lesson plans to write, no reading groups to gather and no meetings to attend. I drove home a free man. Totally free except for one responsibility, the care of my energetic two and a half year old daughter, Hannah. From dawn to dust we would be constant companions.

     And so the summer began with its new routines and schedule. In an attempt to get my little girl out of the house we went for a walk around the small lake near our home. The lake has a walking path around its perimeter with patches of trees almost numbering a forest. But the one spot we like the most along the path is a bridge that takes us over part of the lake. Here congregate the fish, turtles, geese and ducks that populate the lake. And they wait for you to throw food to their eager mouths. Hannah and I offered as much bread as our fridge could spare. After each morsel was tossed to the animals, my little girl would say, “Do it again, Dada!”

     Often in the morning as I coaxed her to eat her breakfast, we sat in the playroom. I took wooden blocks from their container and built towers that reached the sky. To my daughter’s amazement, I would place one of her prized stuffed animals at the top of the precarious tower. After admiring the structure for a brief moment or two I gave Hannah the signal to knock the tower over. This she did with a squeal of delight and we laughed as the hapless stuffed animal came tumbling down. As the last bang of the tower’s wooden pieces died down, my little girl would say, “Do it again, Dada!”

     Then after a long lunch, we headed up stairs with her favored stuffed animals in tow. We placed them on a ledge overlooking the downstairs. Here they would wait their turn to be sent down the banister to the floor below. As Hannah called out the name of each stuffed animal, I held it at the top of the banister. Once released, the stuffed animal raced down, either stopping at the wall or skidding into the kitchen. Laughter echoed through the house as my little girl would say, “Do it again, Dada!”

     Now I’ve returned to work. The principal has welcomed me back and I’ve listened as my friends and colleagues related their adventures over the past two and a half months. Soon the bells will ring in the first session of the new school year. But what I would give to be back at home to hear once again, “Do it again, Dada!”

     Your comments and questions are always welcome. I will reply to every one of them.

          ~Michael <><

Summer Friends

Vocabulary Strategy: Draw & Vote

Draw & Vote: A Vocabulary Strategy

     I designed a simple vocabulary strategy last year that my students enjoyed. I’ll be using it again this year but I thought I would post it here so others could take a peek at it. This is a Before-Reading strategy meant to help students master the vocabulary in a novel or content area textbook.

Here are the steps for this strategy:

1.) Select the vocabulary you want students to learn. Write each term on a small scrap piece of paper and fold it up several times. Place in a cup.

2.) Work with your class to develop student friendly definitions for the words.

3.) Have students record the vocabulary words and definitions in a notebook.

4.) Divide the class into groups of 5 or 6 students.

5.) Pass out Draw & Vote worksheets to students.

6.) Have students pick one vocabulary term from the cup

7.) Direct students to draw 1 or 2 pictures for their word (without letting other students know what they have).

8.) When everyone is finished with their drawings, tell students to pass their worksheet to the person on their left.

9.) Have students look at the drawings and try to figure out what vocabulary term was illustrated. At the bottom of the worksheet they will write an answer. This is their “vote”.

10.) Repeat this process until everyone in the group has voted.

11.) Review answers with students.

Benifits:

A.) Students have to evaluate the important parts of the vocabulary in order to illustrate it for their classmates.

B.) Students need to analyze the drawings for clues pointing toward to correct vocabulary term to vote for.