Chasing Vermeer

This weekend, my daughter and I attended the Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt & Vermeer exhibit at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  My goal was to see A Lady Writing, painted by Johannes Vermeer around 1665.  It was on loan from The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. for this special exhibit.

For those who have read Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, you know that Petra and Calder are searching for A Lady Writing on the campus of the University of Chicago.  Liz Szabla of Scholastic described Chasing Vermeer as "a puzzle, wrapped in mystery, disguised as an adventure, and delivered as a work of art."  It is one of my favorite books to read with my sixth grade reading class, because we are able to work across curriculum areas.

Chasing Vermeer (affiliate link)

My favorite resource for Chasing Vermeer was previously hosted on a website titled "A Different Place".  However, I believe that teacher has retired, and the website is no longer active.  Some other websites have useful material as well:

Chasing Vermeer Teacher's Guide by Scholastic
Chasing Vermeer Sixth Grade Unit by ReadWorks.org

Great Supporting Websites:

Author Blue Balliett Website for Chasing Vermeer - It took Blue five years to write Chasing Vermeer, because she was still a classroom teacher.  The website includes a slideshow of the actual places that inspired the locations in the book.

Find A Lady Writing on Google Art Project
Visit Essential Vermeer for artist information
Writing lesson by Writing Fix: Writing Like an Artist Paints
Wikipedia article about Chasing Vermeer
University of Chicago Map
Powell's Books website
Art Institute of Chicago
Write a message in Secret Code or create your own
Go on an art adventure or play Vermeer games 
Learn more about the Camera Obscura which experts believe Vermeer used

PENTOMINOES

Calder always carries pentominoes in his pocket, and he uses them to work through some mysterious questions.  I give each student a set of pentominoes to "carry around" while they are reading Chasing Vermeer.  They will often have the pentominoes out, just as Calder does, trying to figure out answers to the mysteries in the book.  If you don't have pentominoes available, you can print some out, or you can use virtual pentominoes.

Enjoy the mystery!

Tech Tip Tuesday

Each Tuesday, students can sign up to share a "Tech Tip" ~ something they have recently discovered and think would be useful to others.  We are currently using a shared Google Doc with the above image as our form to sign up and share.  Early on in the school year, I am usually the only one sharing a tech tip.  As the year progresses, more and more students sign up, but I usually have something that I want to share as well. These range from the simple (but useful) keyboard shortcuts, to valuable websites or apps we have discovered, to more complex programming tips.  It has been a great way for us to grow as learners together!

Creativity for Everybody

Last week I read Creativity for everybody by Kathryn P. Haydon and Jane Harvey.  A quick read, and a great reminder that, YES, everyone can be creative.  The first section of the book, designed to help you make a personal connection, gives you small "concept-bites" which are free of academic jargon.  The second section, "Dig Deeper" provides the supporting research on the science of creativity.

Creativity for everybody (affiliate link)

Fun book feature ~ if you read the book sideways,
you will find a flip book of quick tips and reminders.

I love to collect and think about favorite quotes and lines from books.   I always have a notebook handy when I am reading so I can add to my collection.  Thanks to the WordSwag app, I can create fun visuals for the quotations.  Here are some of my favorites from Creativity for everybody:

On a related note (inspired by another source), I made some "Hello My Name Is" posters to display in my classroom this fall using the website Canva.   I think it would also be fun to have students choose a word that describes them, and write their words on regular size name tags.  In thinking about the growth mindset and the role creativity should play in education, I want my students to know that the great thing about life is that we are all continually learning.

You can find a PDF version of these here.

Looking for a simple way to inject creativity in your school day?  Try the Creativity Calendar.  Pick and choose from opinion, fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and "the answer is..." questions for each day of the school year.

Creativity Calendar

How do you encourage creativity in your students?

Fun Finds Friday

On Fridays, I share "Fun Finds" with my middle school students. These include cool websites,  interesting images and photographs, and intriguing videos.  If we miss a Friday, the kids are disappointed, and always ask to make it up on the following Monday.  While these finds are often entertaining, they also plant seed ideas for future projects, independent study work, or just add to our schema for future reference.  Innovators pull from a variety of experiences they have had, and connect them in a novel way.  By exposing my students to a variety to "interesting things" I am helping them to develop a broad background of experiences from which to pull.

Fun Finds For This Friday:

1.  The Unseen Technology Behind the NFL's "Magic Yellow Line" - So I am not a football fan, but I am intrigued as to how they make the yellow line magically appear on the field during a broadcast.  The video on the website branches into other sport applications, and explains the complicated process behind this technology.

2.  Google Maps Smart Pins - Putting Trivia on the Map - Geography Based Trivia!  You can start a multi-category game, or choose from specific categories: March Madness, Arts and Culture, Science and Geography, Sports and Games, Entertainment, or History and Cultural Events.  A question is posed, and you drop the virtual pin on the location you believe answers the question.  A point for each mile you are off is deducted from your original 1000 miles. You keep playing until you use up all of your miles.  Many students took this on as a challenge to improve their geographic knowledge!

3.  Desmos Creative Art - Student Examples from Graphing Calculators - A fun connection between art and math!

4.  Flat.io - Allows users to compose musical scores online, including collaboratively.  The free plan met the needs of my students who wanted to try it.  They also offer "Flat for Education" where you can follow student progress and work on class projects.

What "Fun Finds" have you found?

Graphic Novels

My students adore graphic novels.  They require depth of thinking ~ students must comprehend the story and "fill in the blanks" between the pictures and limited text.  They are especially attractive to those creative minds that appreciate the opportunity to add their own thoughts to story lines.

When some of my students were inspired by graphic novels from some of these favorite authors, they decided to write their own graphic novels as part of their Passion Projects.

With a solid background reading a variety of graphic novels from modern-day authors, we decided to add a research component.  Enter in Scott McCloud's works Understanding Comics and Making Comics.  Both proved to be an invaluable resource to our budding author/illustrators.

Next, we added some fun graphic novel/comic book templates, and allowed the students to be creative.  They welcomed the opportunity to branch out from the traditional forms of writing and and work to create original pieces of literature.

An example from a fifth grade student

Introduction of the characters:

A scene at school:

Passing out school pictures:

School is over for the day:

We can't wait to see how this story develops!

Link to graphic novel / comic templates

             

Do your students love graphic novels too?  

What do you do to encourage their passion areas?

Growth Mindset

Class Dojo is releasing an engaging video series to help students better understand the Growth Mindset.  The videos are short and very kid friendly. I have had success sharing them with my first through fifth grade students.  They provide excellent entry points into class discussions.

Video 1 of the Growth Mindset Series

Video 2 of the Growth Mindset Series

Video 3 of the Growth Mindset Series

Video 4 of the Growth Mindset Series

Video 5 of the Growth Mindset Series

Youcubed at Stanford University has a series of Growth Mindset videos in conjunction with their "Week of iMath".  They are more technical than the Class Dojo series, but I have had success using them with upper elementary students and middle school students.  Register for a free account to access the videos and engaging math lessons that provide opportunities for students to practice a growth mindset.

Day 1 Mindset Video  

Professional Reading Suggestions:

(Read It, Loved It)

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools

Books to Read to Your Class:

(Read it to My Students, They Loved It)

Your Fantastic Elastic Brain

What Do You Do With an Idea?

The Dot

The Most Magnificent Thing

I created these recognition cards to give students when 

they are demonstrating traits of a Growth Mindset.  

They are available in color and black line, with two boys 

and two girls for each style to give teachers 

more flexibility.  

Growth Mindset Student Recognition Cards

on TpT

What have you used to support a Growth Mindset in your students (and in yourself)?

Using Plot Maps With Stop Motion Animation

Shorts of the Week


We are currently reviewing "No Excuse" Literary Terms in my middle school reading class.  When I dropped the subject of Plot Maps, they acted like they had never heard of them.  I am pretty sure they have seen them repeatedly in their educational careers.  However, since it was one more topic they appear to never have been exposed to, I decided we needed something catchy.

My fourth and fifth grade students happen to be working on creating Stop Motion Animation (more on that later).  We had been watching some pretty cool Shorts of the Week as examples.  I decided to pull these gems in for my middle school students to analyze and complete plot maps.

The Process:

I walked them through a short Stop Motion Animation clip called Gulp.  In it, a Jonah-style fisherman gets caught in the belly of a giant fish.  At 1:45, it is an easy one to view, discuss, and repeat as needed.  The beauty of Stop Motion Animation is that when you are scrolling through the video, you can see clip by clip progress, and stop just where needed. 

The first time I tell the kids to watch and just enjoy.  Afterwards, we jot down everything they can remember about the clip.  In most cases, that includes the title, creator's name, protagonist, antagonist, a few rising actions, and the resolution.

After a second viewing, we are able to fill in more pieces.  During the third viewing, we stop many times and had an in-depth conversation.

While not part of our Plot Map, we did discuss the foreshadowing evident in the video, and the connection some students made to the story of Jonah.

Be sure to check out the Gulp.  The Making of

Free Plot Map

The next day, we repeated the process with another Stop Motion Animation piece called Back to the Start.  This one clocks in at 2:21, and is branded content for Chipotle.  It is a touching story about sustainable agriculture.  It is a more complex piece than Gulp, and a great one to take kids to the next level. 

After viewing the clip many times and discussing it, the kids completed a Plot Map.  This time, we were able to have a discussion about symbolism in the video, and ventured into an ethics discussion on sustainable agriculture and the environment.  

We also talked about how Willie Nelson's version of "The Scientist" impacted the mood of the video.  We then listened to Coldplay's version of "The Scientist" and inferred how the mood would have been different if the creator would have chosen it to accompany the video.

While we didn't compare a written text to a multimedia version, we were able to analyze how the plot plays out just the same way it would in a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

On December 28, 2014, there was an article available on The Atlantic called "Cracking the Sitcom Code".  It's interesting how sitcoms all follow the same simple formula.  It appears as though many Stop Motion Animation films follow the typical Plot Map my middle school student claim to have never seen before...

Hopefully, this time they will remember.