Student Voice via Podcasts

Allowing students to share their thoughts and voice in my classroom is very important to me. I challenged myself to give students an outlet this year in which they were sharing their voice in real and authentic ways! So, I wanted to share what has turned out to be amazing addition to our classroom: WeHartWriting Podcast

Since I am teaching 4th grade writing this year, I decided to showcase my students' writing through podcasts. We created a name and logo, and students set out recording on 104.1 W.E.L.L.S. :)  We use the app Anchor to record and share our writing.

It is super simple and it automatically uploads your episodes on Spottily and iTunes! Talk about an instant real world connection!!
Click HERE to follow us on Spottily!

You might be asking yourself why should I consider starting a class podcast?

My Top 3:

1. Allows students to have a real voice and creates an authentic audience for your students regardless of the topic or subject!

2. Reluctant writers (and shy students) actually WANT to write and share!

3. Students learn from one another as they plan, record, and listen to each other's podcasts!

Students love being creative and their personalities really shine through in their recordings! 

We don't have a set time we record our podcasts. Students work recording into our blended learning rotations as their manage their own time in our classroom. I have bigger plans for a class podcast next year!  This year I just jumped in and learned alongside the kids, so you can do it too!

I'm happy to answer any questions or if you have any advice or tips on student podcasts I'd love to hear them!

Interactive Read Alouds

Picture Books are my jam! If you teach elementary school they are probably yours too!

Read Aloud is My. Absolute. FAVORITE. time of the day! It is a time that is never skipped!! My students look forward to it and it is often their favorite time of the day too!

Reading aloud allows our class to create experiences together that we don't forget and often revisit throughout the year. It helps build empathy, creates community in our classroom, develops conversations, deepens our vocabulary, and changes how we see people and the world around us. 

How do I make books come alive during Read Aloud?

1. Scared Time- 

I really talk up read alouds! Like how this is a special time for us to pause, come together, hear a great book, and learn something new. Sometimes. I let them vote on our read aloud or preview our read aloud for the next day and leave them wanting to know more. We also choose our favorite read aloud by highlighting a Book of the Month!

2. Book, Head, Heart- 

If you haven't read Disruptive Thinking by Kylene Beers, you need to! It has changed the way I read and think about books. My favorite is the "heart" in her Book, Head, Heart questioning: "What did I learn about me?" "How does this help me be better?" I want my students to be changed and think about how they can apply the book's lesson to their life. We always turn and talk about those questions at the end. The conversations that happen through those questions are INCREDIBLE!

3. Theme wall and baskets- 

I believe I got this idea from Scholastic when I first started teaching, and it is one of those things that makes a huge difference so I continue to use it every year. On one of my walls I have several common theme cards and for each book read aloud together we discuss the theme. I then put up the book cover of the book under the theme we feel was strongest. I also have baskets up front in my classroom where we place the book. These books are available to students all year long. I love the visual of how many books we have read together, and it is great to make connections across texts, genres, and characters. 

Click here for the theme cards!

4. My Maps on Google

This is a new idea I recently learned about at EdCampCyFair. Tommy Spall shared how he uses My Maps, and we started brainstorming other ways we could possibly use My Maps in our classroom. Being a reading teacher, my first thought went to Read Alouds. We can find and mark the book's setting, birthplace of the subject we are reading, or a specific place we are learning about. I love that you can add a picture of the book's cover, the person, or a landmark. We have also been adding descriptions and notes we want to remember. Students have loved being able to zoom in, walk around, and discover what the place we are visiting has to offer! I can't wait to see all the places we have traveled together by the end of the year!

5. Tweet Authors-

Last but not least, we tweet authors! Students love connecting with real authors and sharing what they loved about they books or how their book impacted them. They are beyond excited when an author tweets us back! It takes no time at all and makes the books and authors seem more authentic! 

Those are a few ways I try to make books come alive and foster of love of reading in my classroom! I would love to hear what you do in YOUR classroom or on your campus to create lifelong readers!

Happy Reading!!

Book Clubs in the Classroom

As an adult I love being apart of a book club. I love reading a variety of books and having someone to share my thoughts with. More than that I love the excuse of meeting up with friends drinking coffee! That same excitement comes to my classroom when students are broken up into Book Clubs. 

I love Book Clubs in the classroom and believe they are very beneficial for students for 3 main reasons:

1. RESPONSIBILITY and ACCOUNTABILITY: Students must meet and plan with their group to know when they are going to meet and must have read the book and/or chapter(s) ahead of time. They must use their time wisely and be prepared for meeting with their group.

2. SOCIALIZATION: Book clubs allow students the chance to TALK. They get to learn how to share their thoughts, go deeper about a topic, and have meaningful conversation about books. I love the different thoughts and viewpoints each student brings to the group. 

3.  LOVE of reading: Book clubs build EXCITEMENT, and I always feel students leave book clubs loving to read even more. They often go find more books by the same author or topic. It also encourages students to read a variety of books. 

Here are a few resources I like to use with my groups to help keep them focused and push them to tracking character development. 

1. CHARACTER NOTEBOOK: Each student gets a copy and fills in as they read independently and is then able to share ideas with the group. Click the photo to make a copy for your students.

2. QUESTIONS to guide their conversations if they get stuck and ways to add on to each other's thinking. Click the photo to make a copy for yourself.

3. COLLABORATIVE tracking templates: I give each group a tracking sheet in Google Docs to track their thinking from each meeting. They can collaboratively work on the document, and I can easily check in on each group each day and leave them comments back. Click the photos to make a copy of the following docs. 

This one focuses on chapter summaries, Signposts from Kylene Beers, and group reflections. 

This one focuses on key vocabulary, characters, ideas from the books. The goal is for students to find one for each letter and explain the importance of the word to the book. Students love filling this one out!

I hope these resources help you get started with your fiction book clubs! If you have any questions on getting started or implementing book clubs please leave a comment or email me at kyndra.hartzler@cfisd.net

Happy Reading!

Student Kindness Challenge

Hi! My name is Kyndra Hartzler, and this is my first educator blog post! I am passionate about making learning engaging and relevant for my students and put my "Hart and Soul" into all I do.  I recently attended an EdCamp and was inspired by one of the sessions to begin blogging. So, here goes nothing. 

One thing I try to do with my students is to help them build positive character traits and grow socially/emotionally as well as academically. Meredith Akers created a Kindness Challenge for her staff and that made me think of how I could incorporate that with my students. I elicited a little help from some students I was eating lunch with and #hartzattack was born.

I am going to give each student a copy on Monday and encourage them to complete the challenge throughout the month of February. Of course, I am going to join in with them spreading the love! Any student who completes the #hartzattack will be invited to a VIP lunch with me!

Grab your copy of the editable template here! (Tip: You can also print 2 or 4 to a page.) I'd love to see how you use it or hear how you help students show kindness.