Coding at Barrows School

During a meeting with Technology Integration Specialist Kathy Santilli we were discussing the challenges with getting in to get more coding opportunities to our students.  Especially for our younger learners first starting out, getting started requires time, exposure, coaching, and a chance to “play” with code.  We finally decided that rather than trying to find a time we’d make time!

This is how our AM Drop-In coding sessions came to exist.  We have enjoyed 3 sessions so far and (as the adults) are learning from each experience.  Our first day had a significantly larger turn out than we were expecting (see ~50 as compared to our expected 15!) causing us to think on our feet while dealing with some wifi glitches. Each time Kathy and I have met to revise, reconsider, and plan how we are going to continue to engage the community in this work.  What originated as a chance to participate in #HourofCode has turned into an ongoing offering for all our Barrows students.

I have found joy in watching the process of discovery – a written code, a mistake, trial & error, and then success!  The whoops of excitement that come from groups that figure it out are contagious, leading others to inquire about what they did.  This process has fostered communication, flexible thinking, collaboration, applying skills to an unknown context, learning from mistakes, organization, and planning strategies.  Those skills are some of the many bonuses we’re observing, in addition to the learning gained from the growing coding skills our students are developing. 

Teachers and staff do an awesome job every day ensuring they are meeting the state standards, teaching key skills and content, while fostering the well-being of every child through social emotional learning.  Students often get a chance to try coding during their library/media time or during special events (like #HourofCode day), but it hasn’t yet made its way fully into daily instruction.  I suspect that opportunities to code will continue to grow as we see more and more of our future careers and college experiences requiring this skill.

I hope more of our Shining Stars will join us!  Watch in our Starburst Newsletter and our Twitter page (@BarrowsSchool) for dates.  We plan to offer more drop-in sessions Monday mornings at 7:45am!

Want to read more?

• Code.Org: https://code.org/
• Kodable: https://www.kodable.com/
• Check out this great blog by Tynker about why coding: https://www.tynker.com/content/why-coding
• Article: Why Learning Code is Important: http://www.theedadvocate.org/why-learning-to-code-is-so-important-for-children/
• Hour of Code: https://hourofcode.com/us
• Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/

Supporting your reader (child) at home

Over the last few weeks I have shared information about how families can support their students to grow their love of reading.  I have compiled all of the entries below for easier access.  Enjoy!

Value of Reading At Home

As we continue to grow in our learning over the year - an important skill that is applied across all content areas is Reading. Our staff do an amazing job of selecting a variety of genres to read with students, encouraging students to find interesting titles for independent reading time, coaching students through areas of challenge, and engaging students in literacy through individual, small group, and whole class text. As a parent/guardian you are an important part of this team effort, reading at home has a significant impact on student learning and growth. We all know how difficult it is to find time, but I would suggest to you that reading together with your child at home should be on the same level of importance to brushing their teeth.

Reading expert and author Donalyn Miller shared this thought; "Simply put, children who read the most at home surpass the educational success of their peers who do not read at home--even those who are hard-working, capable students....The children who read the most, both inside and outside of school, are the best at the school game. They are the best readers, of course, but they are also the best writers, spellers, possess the best vocabulary, and perform better in content-heavy areas like science and social studies. Clearly, reading is important, and the students who read the most possess the highest academic potential...I cannot make your children read at home in any reasonable way. The only people who can carve out reading time for your children at home are you, their parents. This is hard, but it matters more than any other academic support you could provide." (D. Miller, EdWeekly)

Wordless Picture Books

It is important to think of reading at home in many different ways, it is not exclusively a student reading independently to themselves. Fostering reading includes engaging students in many behaviors around language, stories, and art. Consider utilizing wordless picture books as a strategy to support readers, especially those that are currently non-readers. These texts provide a great way to engage family members of all ages around a common book. Wordless picture books tell a story, but also allow the reader to make their own story. They provide the components of any book; setting, characters, events, conflict, action, and more. Some favorites in my household are the "Journey" trilogy by Aaron Becker. We will take turns 'reading' the book through the pictures, take turns on each page, or will all add to each other's ideas as we explore the details of the pictures. This time of year "The Snowman" is also a great selection! This strategy can be expanded through looking at photographs, paintings, or other pieces of art to tell the "story" around the piece. Continuing this theme can be fun, challenge your child to make a picture that includes enough detail to create a story. To see more titles, check out this list on Reading Rockets website.

Looking for some good titles to check-out at the library or purchase for your child? Check out recommendations directly from children; You can find recommendations from kids a at the International Literacy Association Children's Choices site.

Listening to Books

Listening to books is a great way to practice many reading skills including comprehension, making connections, considering theme and characters, visualizing, and more. Sometimes there is a false assumption that because a child isn't reading a print text by themselves that it isn't "really" reading or that it is "cheating." The opportunity to listen to books can engage and strengthen readers of all ages 0-adult! Listening to books could happen in a few different ways;

• ·   listening to a parent, guardian, sibling, or others read a book aloud,
• ·   listening to audiobooks, books on CD, podcasts,
• ·   reading an e-book with audio (text-to-speech) support.

Reading to your child provides a fantastic opportunity to bond over books, have great discussions, and create a shared experience around a common book. This doesn't have to take a lot of time, it could be a few minutes before bed, while waiting for a practice or activity to start, or in the morning before heading off to school. Reading aloud to your child can happen at any age, and can allow younger students or students that may struggle to decode text access to richer stories. Check out some great recommendations for read aloud books here.

There are various places you can access audiobooks for your child:

• Barrows Library has an "All Access Collection" which includes audio books
• Reading Public Library has a collection of audio books as well as "PlayAways" which are portable media books that children may check out.
• You can purchase/download audio books from many smart devices
• Some websites have subscription based access to audiobook collections (including: http://learningally.org and audible.com)

Want to learn more? Check out the resources listed here:

•          Free AudioBook downloads here
•          Scholastic 100 top read-aloud book list
•          BookShare.org (a website for people with print disabilities)
•          Epic Books

Build reading into your routine

At the start of this discussion I shared that the behavior of reading should be as normalized as brushing your teeth.  We brush our teeth twice a day and don’t think anything of it.  I challenge you to build that reading normalcy into your home.  Check out some of these tips and tricks to bringing in the love of reading through routines and behaviors at home.

• Make it clear you are a reading family – when you are reading the newspaper, an article or blog post online, a cookbook, or an instructional manual – you are reading!  Acknowledge and label the behavior and invite your children to join you!
•  Have to go somewhere you may need to wait (getting an inspection sticker? Doctor’s office? Plane flight?) grab a stack of books and magazines instead of a device.
•  Let your children see you reading for pleasure – and invite them to grab a book of their own and snuggle up for some quiet reading time
• Pick a book that is also a movie, read the book together then watch the movie after – compare the two and pick your favorite
• Pick a word of the day – challenge everybody in the family to use it at least once throughout their day.  The more interesting and rich the word, the better!  Share the experience with each other at dinner
• Have a rhyming “duel” – pick a word and go back and forth trying to rhyme the word with real words! Last one standing wins
• Go to the library together and pick out books across genres – try them out together and discover some new favorites.
• Play with letters, words and sounds.  Magnetic letters and words can create a fun way to build sentences.
• Leave messages on the mirror in the bathroom when it is foggy – when the next family member takes a shower your message will appear!

You may have many more ideas to add to this list – if you have a great way your family builds reading into your family routines, please email me to share [heather.leonard@reading.k12.ma.us].  I would love to continue to grow our Barrows Community as a community of readers!

Happy Reading!

Love, Mrs. Leonard