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.

Writing 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.

The Lemonade Club October 14, 2007

What a wonderful story to teach mood, voice, and themes of friendship with! I sat in Books a Million and cried while reading this book. I will definitely use this with my sixth graders when teaching mood and voice. Thanks Jen!

Writing Conferences September 26, 2007

It’s that time of the  year when I start conferencing with my students on their writing. So far my students have been drafting their personal narratives. Of course the next step is to have a teacher conference. Yesterday and today, I spent time conferring with students. I use the system of taking a number and waiting your turn. Sometimes I go to the students and sometimes they come to me. When they wait, they are to work on writing of choice, read a book, or work on some other assignment.  This doesn’t always work because my attention is focused with the conferring student wherever I am in the room. The class catches on to this and notice that I am not paying attention to them, so I have a little clowning around. What can I do to make this more successful? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Teachers must Write too September 24, 2007

I am a firm believer that teachers need to write along with their students. YES, it’s easy to sit behind your desk and grade papers or play solitaire instead of actually write. Writing is hard for everyone, especially students. It takes practice. When teachers write in front of their students, they demonstrate that writing is hard for everyone. It shows them that you are human. Modeling writing also makes your students aware of thought processes and that authors actually do the same thing. In order for anyone to get better at writing, they need to write daily–even teachers. The article “Becoming Your Own Expert” has a lot to say about teachers writing themselves. Please take a look at it.

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.

This Week in Writing Workshop August 26, 2007

Last week I spent time teaching writing workshop procedures with my students. I have both 6th and 7th grades. I still did this with my 7th graders even though I taught them last year because I have new students and I bet some of them forgot over summer. I feel teaching procedures is crucial to success with writing workshop. I developed a power point that I showed my students. It includes what writing workshop is, what to do during workshop, and how to organize their writing binder. Their writing binder includes tools for them to use during writing workshop (rhyming words, common misspelled words, transitions, etc). We add to it as the year goes by.

I have planned this week’s writing workshop. I am excited and hope it goes smoothly.

Monday: personalize writer’s notebooks

Tuesday: celebrity writer’s profile-show Avi’s profile and mine- discuss what good writers do and write in writer’s notebook-students create their own profile and then display them on bulletin board and hallway

Wednesday: finish celebrity writer’s profile – type them

Thursday: discuss how to use writer’s notebook and what they may place into their notebooks- read from Ralph Fletcher’s book A Writer’s Notebook ch 1-explain (how I grade)  rubric and class procedures for writer’s notebookwriter’s notebook handout – have them write their first entry from writing territory sheet

Friday: pretest on nouns- 2nd writer’s notebook entry from writing territory sheet