And With A Light Touch Chapters 8 & 9

I am a little bit late in writing about Chapters 8 & 9 from the book….And with a Light Touch by Carol Avery.  Starting a new school year takes so much out of a person, it is hard to find time to read and find time to take care of your self however things are starting to settle down around here.  So I am hoping to get back to reading and blogging again. 

On the first page of chapter 8 Carol writes about the sharing time of writing workshop.  She writes how important sharing ideas in the classroom build the class community.  Of course she has some guidelines for sharing:

1.  Raise your hand. 

2.  When you share a comment begin with “I” statements.

(I think…I wondered….I didn’t understand….)

3.  Always end the sharing sessions by applauding the authors.

As I looked at the first page of the chapter, I could see a child sitting in a special chair sharing their book.  It reminded me of when I first started teaching.  I had an author chair in my classroom.  I thought back to those days and I reflected a bit and remembered that the chair could be used for so much more.  So I decided to create a “sharing chair.”

My sharing chair is for anytime in the classroom when the students have something special to share:  books,  show and tell,  Fluffy’s Journal, or just science observations. 

Another thing that Carol wrote about the stuck with me was ways to publish student work.  She recommends Real ePublishing.  I don’t know anything about it and I need to look into this more.  At our school the computer teacher recommends the website www.zooburst.com.  I don’t know anything about it yet, however it is on my list of things to do. 

Carol writes in great detail about publishing in Chapter 9 and an author celebration.  The first time I read this book I did take this advise to heart and this is something I have incorporated in my classroom over the years.  However I have modified the Author Celebration a bit.  I generally have the children take home their published book home to practice reading and then the next day they can read it for the class during snack time.  I am thinking of changing it up a bit to record the readings on the ipad.