Articles November 17, 2008

Wordless Books… (Cassady)

WORDLESS PICTURE BOOKS ARE NOT JUST FOR KINDERGARTNERS! I feel that many people do not realize the value of picture books and wordless picture books to students after they can read. However, they can be used to help simplify a difficult concept, spur on creativity and engage students of all ages. Wordless picture books can also be used as a motivator for struggling readers. When they ‘read’ the book they will begin to see that they can read too. Wordless picture books can also be used to motivate reluctant writers and ESL students. The wordless picture books allow each reader to make the story their own; having students record their version of the book can get even the most reluctant writer to write. After all isn’t that our goal, to get kids to write?

Story Development:Using Wordless Pictures Books (Reese):

To begin with Reese had the class write the story for a wordless picture book, they shared it with others and edited it, then they did the same process with pairs and finally on their own. I think that having student write in pairs, share their story and revise them will really help develop writers. Writing the story for a wordless picture book helped students learn to sequence events and to add detail to their stories as well as the basic mechanics for writing.

Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers (Lyga):

Graphic novels require the reader to do more “brain work” than reading traditional books. When you read a wordless graphic novel you play a part in developing the story. The article makes a valid point about using graphic novels- when you select the novel you must read through it for both appropriate plot and pictures. There are great graphic novels out there for elementary students but be careful when selecting them.

In addition to reading graphic novels, students can write captions for a graphic novel, and write/illustrate their own graphic novel.

Best Practices in Writing ch.3 November 16, 2008

I found this chapter to be very helpful.  I think having a better understanding of the developmental process of writing will help me to teach writing.  The text discusses that teachers need to have a deep understanding of the developmental process of writing.  Having a deep understanding of it will provide the teacher with a “road map” to know where the student is and where they need to go.  I think the narrative rubric from page 60 is a very helpful thing for teacher to refer to.  Teachers need to provide the students a ‘bridge’ to the next stage in developmental writing, knowing where their students are will help with this process.

When students are writing narrative texts there are several features of narrative text that should be pointed out to students.  Narrative text features include: sequentiality, particularity (events need to be relevant to the story), intentional states(characters actions should be motivated by their desires), canonicity(there should be a problem and solution).  Understanding what these features are and how they are incorporated into writing helps students with their own writing.

I also really liked the use of story frames to help students develop a sense of the sequence of events in a story.  This will not only help students with sequencing the events, it will also help the student to only include relevant information.

Publishing Student Work November 12, 2008

Does anyone know of a good site to publish student work because the link from our class website/syllabus is a dead link?

Articles October 30, 2008

Finding Memorable Moments…

The author states that they use mentor texts and students mentor each other about their pieces which is a great way to help students develop their voice.  People learn a lot by imitating and reading other student’s work and published work.  Through this practice students can improve their own writing.

Having students share their story out loud before writing helps them to get ideas together and partners can ask clarifying questions or suggest more detail in places.  This makes actually writing it down easier because you have a clear idea of where the story is going.  Also, listening to other people’s story can remind people of their own memories.

The “exploding a moment” technique is a great way to help student add more detail to their work.  I also like the idea of acting out the scene in order to remember more detail.

A Study of Memoir:

Before beginning to teach writing in a genre it is important to emerge the student in books of that genre.  Having students search for their own books will help them to think about the genre in a more complete way.  The act of having students sift through books and deciding what books fit their definition and why also helps them to develop a deeper understanding of the genre.  With each different type of memoir they discovered, they wrote in that form.  When students have begun to explore the topic on their own and developed a definition it is helpful to combine the definition into a class definition.  This helps students have  a deeper understanding than if they were just told what it is and given examples.  The article also mentions the power of using mentor texts to help students learn to write their own memoir. 

Writing Without Boundaries pp 105-end October 30, 2008

I agree with the text that many teachers do not teach enough writing.  With the pressure of reading programs in elementary schools teachers feel they do not have enough time to devote to a writing workshop.  However, learning to write well is beneficial to learning to read and students will benefit from exposure to a variety of texts.  Also, writing (especially multigenre writing) will help student be prepared for state writing assessments.  Multigenre writing projects help to teach many of the NCEST writing goals, including reading and writing many genres, research, editing and writing persuasive pieces.

I found the evaluation piece very helpful because it showed how to effectively evaluate a student’s multigenre project.  I like that the teacher first lists strengths about the projects before listing things that could be improved.  I also enjoy reading the student samples.

Before beginning a multigenre project a writing workshop should be established.  The writing workshop process is essential to multigenre projects.  It requires students to plan, edit and revise.  Students need to also have a thorough understand of different genres before beginning the process.  They need to read and write pieces from different genres before beginning their multigenre project.

Memoirs October 30, 2008

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

I loved this book.  It reminds me so much of my older brother.  He would pick on me without mercy but if someone else picked on me or was mean to me he always stood up for me.  I think he is very much like the older brother in the story, he picked on the younger sister so much but when she needed help he was there for her.

Shortcut

The illustrations in this book are wonderful.  As I read I was so worried about what was going to happen to the kids.  I also really liked the use of onomatopoeias to describe the sound of the train whistle and the sound of the train.

Family Pictures

This is a book that I would like to use in my class to inspire my students to create a book of their favorite family memories.  I would either create a class book and have each student create a page and a picture of their favorite family memory or each student could create their own book.  I really liked how the book was in English and Spanish, it would be great to use with ESL students.

To Dance

I enjoyed this book because I have never been interested in graphic novels.  I think that graphic novels tend to appeal mostly to boys and this is a good one for girls to read.  I enjoyed the story line and think that many girls would be able to relate to a desire to dance in a big company.  The little girl in the book loved to dance and was willing to sacrifice the things that most children do in their spare time, it is an example of what you can achieve if you are determined.

Writing Without Boundaries October 21, 2008

I would love to use multigenre projects in my classroom and one thing that I wondered was how to structure it for students.  The text mentioned to create a time line as class for when things will be due.  I think this will help students manage the large project and allowing their input will help them have more ownership over the tasks.  I also think that it is important to have weekly goal sheets.  The time line is great for overall but when students are faced with a large task it can be overwhelming.  The weekly goals will help students to see their progress and keep focused.

Another thing that I liked from the text was that it included a lot of peer editing and group work even though students were focused on different topics.  The peer conference sheet in the book is great.  I copied it and put it in my filling box of ‘teacher stuff’ because I think peer conferences/editing is useful but students have a hard time putting things other than “I like it…”!

If I were to have my students complete a project like this I would definitely use the “Museum” idea to have other students and parents view what the students have done.  Knowing that their parents are going to come is a great motivator.

I love the idea of “which famous person should make it back to civilization”, I think that topics like that are motivating and interesting to students.  It is also a great way to introduce the kind of writing that goes into multigenre projects.  The debating and rebutal that goes along with the project is great because I think that students need to practice debating skills .

Multigenre Project October 20, 2008

I am going to complete my multigenre project on the life cycle of an insect and the needs of an insect.  The project will be based on an the second grade standard course of study goal and I will focus on butterflies.

Writing Without Boundaries and The Multigenre Paper October 7, 2008

Writing Without Boundaries:

The author discusses that having children explore different genres and discover their purpose helps them to understand things written in that genre better.  Through genre study students learn to pick out the perspective, intended audience and the purpose for writing in that genre.  It is important for students to not only read different genres but to also write different genres.  Also, as we talked about with poetry it is important for students to model after other authors.  The article mentions that students should have a “mentor text” for the genre they are writing in.  A mentor text allows students to try out another authors’ style in pursuit of their own writing style.  I have never completed a multigenre project before but I think it is a great way to learn to synthesis information.  When students write from different perspectives they are forced to have a more complete understanding of the topic.

The Multigenre Paper:

I agree with the author that projects in forms other than the traditional paper are more meaningful and enjoyable. The multigenre paper allows students to do an activity different from the traditional paper.  Multigenre papers also allow for information and creativity that would not fit into a traditional paper to be showcased.  I think that the inclusion of endnotes that include: where information is from, why the author choose to write in that genre and other information not able to fit within the genre is important so that some more creative aspects can be used. I feel that a multigenre paper would encourage students to put more time and effort into the project because it is different than what they are typically asked to do.

Coral Reef Persona Poem October 6, 2008