¡Ándale ya! Spanish Grammar and Composition on June 11th in Richardson, Texas

I will be conducting a Spanish grammar and composition workshop on June 11th in Richardson, Texas entitled ¡Ándale ya! with Gretchen Bernabei.  I will share many Spanish resources as it relates to parts of speech, sentence structures, punctuation, spelling, and usage. I will also share expository structures and revision strategies. If you are a bilingual/dual language teacher in the primary and intermediate grades, this workshop is for you!  I shared some of these strategies at the 2nd Annual Dual Language Conference in Humble, Texas recently.  The teachers really liked the workshop and were pumped to go back and immediately implement what they had learned. In Richardson, we will have the whole day! I am so very excited about sharing my work with you. If you love Gretchen Bernabei's work and research as much as I do, then you are sure to walk away with many, many resources in English and Spanish that you can implement the next school year.  If you are interested in attending, please click on the link below. I look forward to working with you and sharing my love for writing and grammar!



https://www.eventbrite.com/e/richardson-andale-ya-spanish-grammar-and-composition-with-maureen-ucles-tickets-52694994146

For more information about the Trail of Breadcrumbs website, see the link below.
http://trailofbreadcrumbs.net/writing-workshops

Trail of Breadcrumbs Spanish Grammar and Composition for 4th Grade Teachers Coming in August to Houston!

I will be presenting with Gretchen Bernabei on August 1st at  Town and Country's Norris Center. We will be presenting in Spanish and English. This workshop is tailored to meet the needs of 4th grade bilingual and esl teachers. We will focus our training on the teaching of grammar and composition in Spanish. I am so excited to be presenting with Gretchen Bernabei. It will be such a treat. I cannot wait to share what I have been tinkering with in my bilingual classrooms these past three years. I hope you can join us!

¡Andale ya! 

Please use the link below to find out more information:

¡Andale ya! Spanish Grammar and Composition with Trail of Breadcrumbs

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

¡Andale ya! Spanish Grammar and Composition with Trail of Breadcrumbs

Getting Kids Ready for the Fourth grade STAAR in Spanish with Maureen Ucles and Gretchen Bernabei

August 1$240

Norris Conference Center, Houston, Texas

Click here to register!

Teaching English Learners and Simultaneous Bilinguals-Pronouns and Antecdents-Explicit Instruction-Patterning

I have been working with my students on tracing pronouns back to the antecedent. We have studied subjective, objective, posssessive, and reflexive pronouns. I wanted them to be able to identify the different pronouns and to understand the function. Understanding pronouns requires a knowledge of their cousins, the nouns.  We could even say, their parents.  In order to understand a pronoun, you would need to know that the pronouns takes the place of a noun. The nouns should be written first and then the pronoun can be introduced. If that is not the case, then we have a vague pronoun reference.  When I introduced this, I talked to my students about how my mother always uses a vague pronoun reference. My mother, with our many conversations, says, "Well, you know that they say that you should drink more coffee. They say coffee is good for you." That always drives me crazy. I always ask, "Mom, who are they?" That question always gets her angry. She gives me the frustrated look and states, "You know. The doctors!" I then reply, "No, Mom. I didn't know because you didn't first state who they were. You were vague." I let the students know that their job as writers is to be clear to the reader. To be clear, the reader has to be able to see what you are talking about. When we start with the pronoun, the reader become blind. I then introduce subjective pronouns. We then read mentor paragraphs from articles and books where the antecedent (noun) is introduced primarily. Then we find the pronoun in the same sentence or in the next sentences. I teach them to trace the pronouns back to the antecedent. As I had taught them previously, we code the singularity and plurality of the nouns and pronouns by coding them (1)(one) and (+1)(more than one).(This idea was adapted from Gretchen Bernabei's Grammar Keepers.) I discuss how they should agree or if not the reader will be confused. I love teaching this. I have included some photos of their work.

First, I teach them the academic terms like antecedent and then we move onto subjective pronouns. (This idea came from Jeff Anderson's book Mechanically Inclined.) Throughout the next two week, I introduce objective pronouns, possessive, and reflexive pronouns.
We find the pronouns, trace them back to the antecedents, code the antecedent and pronouns, finally we code them to check for agreement.  We do this through the use of mentor text and editing invitations taken from the research of Jeff Anderson's Editing Invitations  and Mechanically Inclined.
I show them published examples paragraphs from published text. We discuss what we notice and trace the pronouns back to the antecedent. Then I have them try writing sentences where they first mention a noun and then continue with other sentences using pronouns. I show them how to do this with my own writing and by imitating previously studied mentor text. They write their antecedents and pronouns in their notebooks and on sentence strips. Finally, they are invited to collect (Invitation to Collect) examples that they find in books and articles. My students do this with a partner. They write examples in their notebooks and are prepared to share with other partners and the class.

I have included some photos of their work and other coding that they have done with nouns. I hope you find this helpful.

Indelible Moments-Reading and Writing Institute

I made a Stupeflix Video about Indelible Moments that we experienced at the Reading and Writing Institute at Edgewood Elementary. I wanted to try to capture what we did. The idea for Indelible Moments is found in Gretchen Bernabei's Story of My Thinking. We wrote down memories that were triggered by using artifacts such as paper plates, wrapping paper, coffee filters, luggage tags, school paper, thank you cards, memo pink slips of missed phone calls, and other mementos. The writer then writes about memories that flood the brain. We had so much fun mining the memories. Enjoy!

Reading and Writing Institute at Edgewood

I conducted a Reading and Writing Institute at Edgewood this week. We started on Monday and finished on Wednesday. Teachers  from grades 3-5 attended. My colleagues from Edgewood also attended. We worked on understanding expository and narrative text structures from a Reading and Writing perspective.  We wrote about important stories in our lives and explored topics to develop in our writing. We used common objects to be utilized as artifacts to help us trigger memories. These Indelible Moments from Story of My Thinking by Gretchen Bernabei were fun to explore, write and share. We also learned several revision techniques including RADAR, Pitchforking, and Renaming.


We also learned more about the teaching of grammar in relevant and natural ways. We studied Jeff Anderson's work titled Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing. We used the sentence constructs from Dr. Joyce Armstrong Carol in Acts of Teaching, and Gretchen Bernabei's work from her book Grammar Keepers. We also study parts of speech using mentor sentences and the Invitations to Edit. In addition to that, we study nouns, verbs, and explored proofs and conversations to help  interiorize language from Grammar Keepers. Finally, we brought it all together in an Express Lane Edit.

Also we studied each other's sentences and kernel essays by sharing continuously with partners and in triads. We vacuumed the residue with the 3, 5, 7 brainstorm and top ten list. Then we studied sentences using Sparkling Sentences. We had some really wonderful peer writing to highlight and analyze. It was a fun filled 3 days of learning. I can't wait to do this again possibly next year!  I do, however, need to get some rest! I am bushed!

Indelible Moments

Sharing a Moment Using The Memory Kernel

Revising Using RADAR and Tracking the Movement of the Mind

Vacuuming the Residue

Sharing Collecting Signatures

From Three to Joining the Triads to Vacuum More of the Residue

Invitation to Collect and Celebrate-Mentor Sentence Share