For the past 3 months my students have been working on their Family History projects. I can’t take any credit for the project because I am carrying on a 7th grade tradition. These students had to write an autobiography, create a family tree, create a pictorial history of themselves, and so much more. I think a lot of my students enjoyed the project. Thursday we will have a Family History Museum where their parents and the whole school come to visit. At the museum they will have their projects on display and have a family dish for people to sample. It’s a fun day!
Poetry Read-A-Thon April 11, 2008
Starting Monday, my classes will begin our first poetry read a thon. I got the idea from poets.org. I introduced it on Wednesday to my classes and how I would like them to go about doing the poetry read a thon. My students and I are excited.
Here’s how it works:
My students sign up for a day to read a poem to the class.I have a sign up sheet in the room so that everyone will have a chance to read a poem. The student reads the poem they have selected to the class on their designated day. The students then paste the poems into their writers’ notebooks and then respond to the poems in paragraph form using the criteria given to them.
Click below for the handout I gave my students.
Pure Comfort February 10, 2008
What better food to give you pure comfort—mac-n-cheese & a Coke.
I wrote a description of my pure comfort and tomorrow I plan on teaching a mini-lesson on editing. (PURE COMFORT DESCRIPTION) I have errors because I want my students to pick up on them. I notice they have problems indenting, so I am going to discuss that too. They will be given a rubric and we are going to discuss each component on the rubric to see if I met them. (of course I didn’t) My students don’t like to revise, so I am going to model revising as well. I hope it goes well.
Great Finds December 31, 2007
For Christmas I recieved 3 great books to help me teach writing craft, teach the context of writing with grammar, and revision. I love books and I think these titles would be beneficial to any teacher who teaches English and writing.
Writing Whizardry: 60 Mini-lessons to Teach Elaboration and Writer’s Craft by Maity Schrecengost
This book is my favorite out of the three. It presents the lesson with examples and non-examples of elaboration or craft then gives practice. After practicing there is applying the knowlege learned. I highly recommend this book if you want help with teaching elaboration and craft.
Writi
ng Workshop Survival Kit 2nd Edition by Gary Robert Muschla
This book is packed with anything you need to know on creating a writing workshop to managing your writing workshop. It also includes 100 mini-lessons that focus on the types of writing, writing techniques, and the mechanics of writing.
Hot Fudge Monday:Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech… by Randy Larson
This book is an unique way to teaching the parts of speech with the context of writing. This is an easy way to start teaching grammar in the context of writing. The book includes reproducibles that are not like worksheets you get with your grammar textbook. After practicing the skill, students apply the lesson with writing.
I can’t wait to start the new year off with my new great finds. I hope these books help you too!
Inspiration Goes a Long Way… December 19, 2007
Today was our class’s Christmas party. Before the party stated, we created an inspirational calendar for a 12 year old girl who has cancer. One of my student’s brought me an article about her and wanted to do something special for her. Stacey gave me the idea of gifts that are written, so I came up with the idea for making her an inspirational calendar. All I did was go on microsoft publisher and create a 2008 calendar with clip art and printed it off. Then I glued the calendar onto assorted colors of construction paper. Here is where my students came in: they chose an inspirational quote that I printed out from an inspirational quote site and wrote it onto white paper then decorating it however they chose. It turned out beautifully. I bound the pages with a spiral comb with the front and back cover. I had each student sign the back cover. The student, who had the idea, is going to deliver the calendar to the young girl over the holidays. Thanks Stacey for the idea!
Writers in the Spotlight December 18, 2007
Each quarter I have my students create a writing of choice. This is where they browse through their writer’s notebooks or come up with a new topic to write about. I give them a week to create their works of writing. I provide them with self editing rubrics, peer editing rubrics, and a teacher rubric. These rubrics are to help them edit their writing. The teacher rubric looks just like the self and peer rubrics; however, they don’t write on it. I use it to grade their work. I feel that they need to know what I am expecting and that’s why the self and peer rubrics have the same criteria. This has helped greatly.
After completing their writing of choice, they turn them in and I grade them. I then decide on the best ones and display them in the hallway. I have a flashlight with a beam coming down and their writing is placed on the beam. The title says “Writers in the Spotlight.” I then award those students with an award and a pen for their creative work. By the end of the year, I will have everyone’s work on the wall and they will also be awarded. I try to look for improvements in their writing. I also send a postcard to their parents to let them know how well they are doing in class. I have gotten several complements from their parents and my students too!
More on Organization November 23, 2007
My students have a writing binder that stays in the classroom. It has 5 tabs in it to help organize their binders. This idea came from Judith Gould except for the rubric tab. That’s my idea.
The order of tabs:
tab 1 = my work – this is where their current writing is located (choice of writing, assigned writing, etc)
tab 2 = conferences – all the essential tools needed for conferencing are located here
tab 3 = rubrics – this is new this year! I have several rubrics for my students to use (self editing, peer editing, & teacher rubrics) I found that having a place for their rubrics helps me and them stay organized
tab 4 = writer’s helpers – all the essential tools to help them be better writers (transitions, proofreading stuff, whatever you would like for your students to have, etc)
tab 5 = tips from writers – any pieces of writing from other authors that they may want to use for guidance in writing styles
Each quarter I have my students turn in a choice of writing. This writing is anything that they choose to write about. (poems, songs, stories, etc) They are given time in class to work on these pieces. Once the pieces are done, I have them use rubrics to help edit themselves. The rubrics consist of self editing, peer editing, and teacher rubric. The self editing is where they edit their piece of writing themselves and once finished with that they get a peer editing sheet. The students are to give their piece of writing and the rubric to any peer to edit. They then conference on what was edited. Now, my students are to make any revisions that they may have. After making revisions and they are ready to hand in the writing of choice, they are to get the teacher rubric. The teacher rubric is the one I use to grade their work. Each of these rubrics have the same criteria on them except the teacher rubric has a scale of 5-1 and the self/peer rubric has yes and no check sheet. I found last year that giving students a scale of 5-1 didn’t work because they didn’t know what consisted of each criteria. Yes, I need to model each of these and that would show them each, but right now I haven’t had the time.
Back to organization:
To organize their rubrics, I bought color coded folders and labeled each of them. Each folder has a different type rubric in them because you know that poetry is different from essays.
Blue folders= 7th grade poetry/songs
folder 1 = self editing rubric (students are to get this rubric first)
folder 2 = peer editing rubric (after self editing, they are to peer edit)
folder 3 = teacher rubric (get when ready to turn in)
Pink folders = stories or essays
folder 1 = self
folder 2 = peer
folder 3 = teacher
Yellow folders = 6 poetry/ songs
I have a rubric station where they can get these rubrics when they need them. I took time to explain the rubric folder system. We’ll see how it goes. Next week I plan on going step by step on each rubric to explain what the criteria means.
Finished Celebrity Profiles September 6, 2007
My students finally finished their profiles and they look fantastic.
They loved creating their own pen names!
Thoughts to Ponder On August 28, 2007
Today, I introduced to the sixth grade their first thoughts to ponder on. Thoughts to ponder on are quotes, questions, pictures, etc that I want my students to respond to in their writer’s notebook. I was amazed at how well my sixth graders worked. They had time to write and they USED it! Some were still writing when I was ready to go on to the next step. I am pleased by their eagerness to write. I can’t wait until Thursday when we discuss more in depth their writing territories and what they can write about in their notebooks. I had 3 students even ask if they could take it home to write. I said if you have the inspiration to write then write.
One of my thoughts to ponder on is a quote by Abraham Lincoln. I think it is very profound. 
Whatever you are be a good one.
After Labor Day my students will be required to write in their writer’s notebooks during class and at home. This is my first time doing this, so I hope it goes well. Seventh grade seems to be doing fine with thoughts to ponder on. I wonder if it is because I taught them last year how to respond to Literature with their response logs. I guess I’ll see later. This is possible inquiry.
Personalizing Writer’s Notebooks August 27, 2007
Today we personalized our notebooks. I learned that you need 2 full class periods to get the job done and there still might be some that don’t finish. Glue sticks work the best ( I will definitely ask for those on the supply list next year). I used laminate paper to cover them and that was a chore. Next year, I am going to have parent volunteers help me because it was very cumbersome. Laminating was a TWO MAN JOB! I wanted to have them covered because it protects them and their pictures won’t fall off. They also move from class to class with them. My students’ notebooks look fabulous. I will try to get pictures soon.
Why personalize? Well, personalizing creates a since of ownership with the notebook. When a student has ownership they are more likely to keep up with their notebook. Another reason to personalize is that they can use what is on their cover as writing topics in case they get stuck. My students were excited to show off their art work to each other. The room buzzed with enthusiasm.
