Writing Club Agenda October 17, 2011

I’m so excited about my very first club meeting this Wednesday. Since we are only meeting once this month, I’ve decided to do Halloween themed writing. Here’s what I’ve come up with. We only have an hour so I hope we get to finish.

3:30 – Warm-up activity – “Monster” Exchange -  Each child designs a “monster” (no blood, violence, etc. of course) and writes a careful description. They keep this secret . Then they give their writing piece to a partner ( who hasn’t seen their drawing) and the partner tries to draw it from the description. You hang them up with the writing in the middle and with both illustrations on either side. The kids really get how critical descriptive detail is!

3:45-4:15 - Halloween sensory list and ghost story activity – I haven’t decided yet how I will go about the ghost story. I may find one and read it to them first. Then have them use their sensory list to create a ghost story. I am welcome to ideas.

4:15 – share time

Writing Club Interest Meeting October 7, 2011

This past Wednesday I had my Spilling Ink Writer’s Club interest meeting. 21 students signed up and 17 attended the meeting. I was thrilled. At the meeting I passed out permission forms and a quick interest survey. I wanted to see why they attended and the types of topics they wanted to write. We wrote as well. The students seemed to enjoy it.

What makes me the happiest is one of my struggling students signed up and attended the meeting. He wrote and shared. That just warmed my heart. I know this club will be beneficial to him in so many ways – socially, academically, and mentally.

Our next meeting is Oct. 19 and I can’t wait. My plans are to do Halloween themed writing. Any suggestions?

Slice of Life Begins! March 1, 2011

Today I presented to both my 6th and 7th grade classes the Slice of Life Story Challenge using a  power point presentation to help explain it. I got the idea from Stacey and Ruth’s blog.  Instead of writing our slices in class, we are going to write outside of class and use writer’s notebook time to share our slices. I think this will work best with my classes this year. My students are excited about this and I am too. I can’t wait to read their slices.

Below is the power point:

Slice of Life Story Challenge presentation

Slice of Life Story Challenge February 28, 2011

Tomorrow I am introducing the slice of life story challenge. I made a sheet on what, why, and how solsc works. I even made a power point presentation with several of my examples on it. My hope is that my students will enjoy solsc as much as me. I am going to have them glue their sheet into their writer’s notebooks so that they have it to refer back to. I think I am going to have a pizza party for all of those students who write 31 entries to celebrate their slices. I did this in 2008 and it was a hit. I may even have a writing reward too.I can’t wait!

 

Rereading Update January 6, 2011

Wednesday I had my students reread their writers’ notebooks. The students were eager to share their patterns of topics. My hope is that my students realize that there are golden nuggets buried in their notebooks. I will definitely have my students reread their notebooks more often so that they can evaluate themselves with their writing. Some students were amazed by how they wrote about the same thing. Some noticed that they wrote on completely random topics. It seemed that they really enjoyed reread their work. I  myself found ideas I had written about and had forgotten about.

 

Rereading January 4, 2011

Rereading is a strategy that I need to do more of. Just a few minutes ago I reread some of my posts from 2007. It’s good to know that I am still doing some of the things that I have posted and I also saw where I need to go back and post on things that haven’t worked or that I’ve improved. Rereading also helps me get my mind set and to see patterns of topics. I believe tomorrow’s writer’s notebook strategy will be rereading their notebook. I am going to set a timer for 5 minutes and have my students and myself reread. Before they start I will invite them to look for patterns or entries that they started, but never finished. After the 5 minutes are up, I will invite my students to write coming up with their own topic or territory. I hope that they will see an improvement with their writing and use this strategy more often. I myself need to reread more often.

Ode to Fall October 20, 2010

www.treelink.org/woodnotes/vol6/no3/content.html (picture came from)

 

Ode to Fall

Your shades of brown

red, yellow, and orange

dance among the trees.

Your cool crisp air

awakens me

so that I may appreciate

you more.

You remind

me of God’s

precious

gift

that awaits -

Heaven

 

Andi N.

Writer’s Notebook Strategies October 19, 2010

Each day I try to give my students a new writing strategy with their writers notebook. Aimee Buckner’s book Notebook Know How has several strategies and ways to incorporate writer’s notebooks into your classroom.   I also use Roberta Allen’s book The Playful Way to Serious Writing. I have decided though that any mini-writing lesson can be a strategy. I have branched out on my own and have come up with a few strategies on my own.

I do grade my students’ notebooks. 9 weeks have come and gone. Last week I graded my 6th and 7th graders’ writer’s notebooks. I was impressed with how many students used the writing strategies taught in class with their own entries. My classes are to write 3 home entries a week in their notebooks. At the end of the quarter, I have my students count all of their class entries and then all of their home entries. I like to separate the two so I can tell who is writing at home.

This week my 7th graders are working on writing of choice so I wanted them to have another poetry type idea, so today I read them several examples of odes. I got the idea from Georgia Heard’s book Writing Toward Home. I would like to share with you the ode I wrote today with my students.

Picture came from Babycenter.com

 

Ode to My Hair

Oh, how

I love thee

Your wispy strands

Glistening in the sun

You are a fashion

Statement

Without you

I would be

Nothing!

 

Andi N.

Excited August 18, 2010

Today we finished decorating our writer’s notebooks. As I was observing my students, I heard the chatter among my students. It wasn’t just small talk; they were talking about their notebooks and how cool they are! That makes me smile!!

Graffiti Walls June 24, 2010

I learned about graffiti walls from my student teacher. It is a simple way to help students understand concepts. To create a graffiti wall you will need a piece of paper. In the center of the paper, draw a circle or any shape. I like to do a squiggly cloud shape. Write the concept in the center of the shape and everything that has to do with that concept. On the outside of the shape, have the students write everything that the concept is NOT.

My students and I created a graffiti wall bulletin board on vivid verbs. We added as many vivid verbs to the center. Some verbs we came up with are scampered, casting, stroll, animate, devoured. On the outside of our wall we placed helping verbs, conjunctions, linking verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives. Students were then allowed and encouraged to add to the graffiti wall whenever they heard of an excellent vivid verb.

I also tweaked this idea by creating a huge idea wall for my students at writing camp this week. I used a huge piece of butcher paper and across the top I placed the headings onomatopoeia, instead of said, adjectives, adverbs, and vivid verbs. I wrote words  under each category to start the brainstorming process. When I introduced the wall to my group on Monday, I had them brainstorm aloud and I added words under the category. Throughout this week my students have added words to the wall and have used the words in their writing, which was the goal!