Last Week we drew a mountain in our composition books and planned our personal narrative about our special place. A mountain plan is great for planning our fiction narrative stories (later in the year) because it shows how we introduce our characters and/or settings at the beginning of our stories. As we move up the mountain, we build the action of the story. As you probably know, most great narratives have a problem. On the mountain plan, you can decide how the problem will get worse and worse until you reach the top of the mountain. As with climbers, reaching the top is the best part! This is the "climax." Something has to been done about the problem at this point. We want this to be the best part of our story. Slowly, we descend the mountain and our story works it's way to the end where we have a resolution to all our problems.
Well, when we use the mountain plan for our personal narrative we "tweak it" just a little. There may not be a problem in our personal narrative, but we want our story to be the most exciting at the top. We can plan the actions, climbing up the mountain, that lead to the excitement at the top. Then, we can begin to "wrap up" our story as we descend the mountain until our story ends (hopefully leaving the reader satisfied).
Many students finished their rough draft and met with a partner. They switch composition books and read each other's stories. As they read, they listened to their "inner voice" and "chunk and chew" the story. The wrote their "thinking" down on sticky notes and posted them in the composition book where it made them think. Sometimes they may write, "I really like the way you described your character here." or "I can't really get a picture of the setting here, it needs more details." or may they wrote, "I'm confused here." When both readers finished they exchanged their composition books again and read what the other person wrote on the stickies. Then they talked and gave suggestions on how they could each make their stories better. This is called "peer revising," taking what's in the writing and trying to make it even better. Now they go back and rewrite.
Two books that we read that helped us focus on our writing were:
Owl Moon by Jane Yolan
This is an amazing look at the experience of a child, spending special time with dad, owl watching. It is a great way to demonstrate "seed stories" (Lucy Calkins) because it describes the child's feelings and thinking about one short experience. The descriptions of the setting and experience paint a picture through all 5 senses.
Whales Passing by Eve Bunting
This is another great book by Eve Bunting. Mrs. Bunting captures the feelings and thoughts of a young boy as he stands on a cliff whale watching with his father. It is a wonderful "seed Story" (Lucy Calkins) and mentor text for students because it demonstrates the ability to write about one experience that made a big impact in a "short" amount of time. The setting is decribed in great detail with lots of figurative language that emerging writer may "capture" and add to their own writing style.
Showing posts with label Genre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genre. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Oct. 5 through Oct. 16
During English Literacy, we are working on the writing process. So far, we have read several stories about "Special Places." These books include: All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan & paintings by Mike Wimmer, Let's Go Home: the wonderful things about a house by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin, Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran & illustrated by Barbara Cooney, and A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood & illustrated by Dan Anderson.
Next we brainstormed a list of places that are special to us and chose one place to write about. Before we decided on our special place we discussed the difference between writing watermelon stories, slices of watermelons, and seed stories, ask your child about it. We then drew a "map" of our special place. This is another way to brainstorm and helps us think of details about the setting and things we do in our special place. After that, we used an Alphabet Taxonomy to think of the things we see, smell, taste, touch, feel, and do in our special place. An Alphabet Taxonomy is a graphic organizer that has each letter of the alphabet on a line. We think of as many things as we can, about our special place, that begins with each letter. As I told the students, the Alphabet Taxonomy may not be the best way to brainstorm for each person-it's definitely not my favorite. But we are trying it out and if it works for some students they may use it as a brainstorming tool whenever they want. It doesn't really help me very often, but I was amazed at how many things I was able to brainstorm for my special place and Cass came up with over 200 words on his.
Next week, we are going to look at different authors and their styles of writing-specifically looking at how they describe settings. We will create a "mountain plan" of personal narrative, this helps us to organize our writing before we start. Then we are off to the races with our own writing! We will write a "seed" story about one thing we have done in our special place, making sure we really describe the setting and the actions in detail.
I can't wait to see what the students write about!
Next we brainstormed a list of places that are special to us and chose one place to write about. Before we decided on our special place we discussed the difference between writing watermelon stories, slices of watermelons, and seed stories, ask your child about it. We then drew a "map" of our special place. This is another way to brainstorm and helps us think of details about the setting and things we do in our special place. After that, we used an Alphabet Taxonomy to think of the things we see, smell, taste, touch, feel, and do in our special place. An Alphabet Taxonomy is a graphic organizer that has each letter of the alphabet on a line. We think of as many things as we can, about our special place, that begins with each letter. As I told the students, the Alphabet Taxonomy may not be the best way to brainstorm for each person-it's definitely not my favorite. But we are trying it out and if it works for some students they may use it as a brainstorming tool whenever they want. It doesn't really help me very often, but I was amazed at how many things I was able to brainstorm for my special place and Cass came up with over 200 words on his.
Next week, we are going to look at different authors and their styles of writing-specifically looking at how they describe settings. We will create a "mountain plan" of personal narrative, this helps us to organize our writing before we start. Then we are off to the races with our own writing! We will write a "seed" story about one thing we have done in our special place, making sure we really describe the setting and the actions in detail.
I can't wait to see what the students write about!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Bravest Knight
The Bravest Knight is a wonderful book with beautiful illustrations about a young squire. We read it to learn about squires to go along with our Royalty of the week. As we read, there was a dragon whining and we decided to make our own classroom dragon. The students named it Spike. Spike is on the hallway wall and represents behaviors we do not want to have in our classroom such as bullying, whining, being disrespectful or mean. When ever we say, "Don't be a Spike" we know we need to change our attitude.
My Bookshelf
Several of the books on my bookshelf, to the right, are books we have read in class.
"That's Good, That's Bad" is a wonderful book that contains a pattern the students love to repeat as I read. There are also many onomatopoeia, words that sound like a natural noise such as the word "moo" sounds like a cow mooing. The word "splat" sounds like something falling on the ground. The students enjoyed saying the words aloud with me and soon we will brainstorm as many onomatopoeia as we can so we may add them in our own writing.Click Clack Cows that Type also contains onomatopoeias.
"That's Good, That's Bad" is a wonderful book that contains a pattern the students love to repeat as I read. There are also many onomatopoeia, words that sound like a natural noise such as the word "moo" sounds like a cow mooing. The word "splat" sounds like something falling on the ground. The students enjoyed saying the words aloud with me and soon we will brainstorm as many onomatopoeia as we can so we may add them in our own writing.Click Clack Cows that Type also contains onomatopoeias.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
This Week in Class
Today we had our first Passport Club. Although students did not have a lot of time to study, most of them made it to level 2 or higher. They were so excited to take their map quiz that they interrupted a great math lesson to let me know we were late getting to the multipurpose room. I'm so glad they keep me on track.
During Explorers' Club:
This week we are brainstorming all the different topics we can write about, in our reading journal, after we read a book. This is important because writing about characters, settings, events, genres, and story plots (just to name a few things)makes us think about the story in more detail. While we're writing we may wonder why the author chose a particular setting or how the dialogue moved the story along. These thoughts may help us understand the story better. In addition, we may be able to use our understandings to write our own fiction narrative.
We will also discuss the attributes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction writing. How are they similar or different? What types of genres are there for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. We can apply what we know to choosing books that are just right for us to read.
Literacy:
This week we are reviewing nonfiction reading strategies. We are discussing the 3R's and 1A.
1. Read the text features of a selection and make a prediction about what we will find
in the article.
2. Read any questions we might have to answer later.
3. Read the selection. "CHUNK and CHEW"
4. Answer the questions.
These strategies are important because they include pre-reading and reading activities that will help us understand what we are reading. Looking at text features such as photos, titles, heading, caption, and maps (there are even more) helps get out brains focused on the article. When we "Chunk and Chew" we read a little and then write some of our thinking in the margins. This may include connections to other books, connections to self, or connections to the world.
Math:
In math, we have been completing several mental math activities that are a lot of fun! There's color it on the hundred's chart, weight logic, and mental math on the 100's chart. During Number Corner, we have been been following the patterns of ancient Egyptian numerals and learning about their place values. We are also collecting decimeters. We have learned 10 cm = 1 dm = 1 m 1 dm is 1/10th of a meter. Soon, we will start working with area models to represent multiplication facts.
During Explorers' Club:
This week we are brainstorming all the different topics we can write about, in our reading journal, after we read a book. This is important because writing about characters, settings, events, genres, and story plots (just to name a few things)makes us think about the story in more detail. While we're writing we may wonder why the author chose a particular setting or how the dialogue moved the story along. These thoughts may help us understand the story better. In addition, we may be able to use our understandings to write our own fiction narrative.
We will also discuss the attributes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction writing. How are they similar or different? What types of genres are there for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. We can apply what we know to choosing books that are just right for us to read.
Literacy:
This week we are reviewing nonfiction reading strategies. We are discussing the 3R's and 1A.
1. Read the text features of a selection and make a prediction about what we will find
in the article.
2. Read any questions we might have to answer later.
3. Read the selection. "CHUNK and CHEW"
4. Answer the questions.
These strategies are important because they include pre-reading and reading activities that will help us understand what we are reading. Looking at text features such as photos, titles, heading, caption, and maps (there are even more) helps get out brains focused on the article. When we "Chunk and Chew" we read a little and then write some of our thinking in the margins. This may include connections to other books, connections to self, or connections to the world.
Math:
In math, we have been completing several mental math activities that are a lot of fun! There's color it on the hundred's chart, weight logic, and mental math on the 100's chart. During Number Corner, we have been been following the patterns of ancient Egyptian numerals and learning about their place values. We are also collecting decimeters. We have learned 10 cm = 1 dm = 1 m 1 dm is 1/10th of a meter. Soon, we will start working with area models to represent multiplication facts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)