In the beginning of the chapter it talks about the importance of letting students use invented spelling while writing. I LOVE seeing this written down because that is what I have been allowing my students to do. It allows them to write freely without being restricted to only the words they know how to spell. All of the mini-lessons in this chapter are great! I love the painting word picture lesson because at this age, students really do need to be able to use descriptive words because their imagination is still so much alive! And I also liked how this mini-lesson allowed you to add a little bit to the poem each day instead of asking them to do it all in one day. This will definitely help the students create more meaningful pieces. I will WITHOUT a doubt in my mind be using lot a lot of the ideas used in this chapter. I am loving this book so far and can’t wait to see what other goodies it has in store.
Show, Don't Tell is very similar to an activity we have planned for next week. We are working on inferecing and this writing activity ties in perfectly!
The five-senses descriptions lesson on pg. 82 ties in perfectly with our Science lessons. We've been discussing the properties of matter and how you use your 5 senses to learn about & classify matter. We've been talking about transition words, but the students don't seem to be catching on. I'm looking forward to trying traffic-light words (pg 93) to see if it makes a difference.
We are working on descriptive writing this week so I tried the show, dont tell lesson. They really got a kick out of their teacher acting angry. It was a great start to adding those descriptive details. They were very eager to share their stories this time. It also tied in well with our reading skill, "inferencing."
I like that the lessons tie their writing into literature. Plus, this chapter provided reproducible graphic organizers which I love! My favorite is the sentencing stretching organizer. You think those questions, and you assume your students can think those questions while they are writing, but sometimes they forget. It is nice to have a format that will help them start thinking like a writer. I will use everyone of the mini lessons from this chapter.
I like every lesson in this chapter because it has to do with the Writer's Craft! Which I love to teach! The students also get so excited when they learn a new step in the writing process. I like the simple applications to teaching them each new skill. We have already learned about the Show, Don't Tell. I hope to expound on this more with other activities. I have already bought the zebra cookies for the Five-Senses Descriptions. Add Some Talking was another great activity. Quotations can sometimes be very tricky for the younger students, but this lesson seems to have a wonderful way of being on their level by building that background knowledge and talking about something almost every student has experienced. These are all wonderful mini-lessons to teach writing skills in the classroom!
I agree with Mandy. The sentence stretching lesson is a great activity for encouraging sentence fluency and word choice. I really like the extension activity where the kids "trade" words and make super silly sentences. It is always great when we can create learning experiences that are useful and fun for our students.
In the beginning of the chapter it talks about the importance of letting students use invented spelling while writing. I LOVE seeing this written down because that is what I have been allowing my students to do. It allows them to write freely without being restricted to only the words they know how to spell. All of the mini-lessons in this chapter are great! I love the painting word picture lesson because at this age, students really do need to be able to use descriptive words because their imagination is still so much alive! And I also liked how this mini-lesson allowed you to add a little bit to the poem each day instead of asking them to do it all in one day. This will definitely help the students create more meaningful pieces. I will WITHOUT a doubt in my mind be using lot a lot of the ideas used in this chapter. I am loving this book so far and can’t wait to see what other goodies it has in store.
ReplyDeleteShow, Don't Tell is very similar to an activity we have planned for next week. We are working on inferecing and this writing activity ties in perfectly!
ReplyDelete*inferencing*
DeleteThe five-senses descriptions lesson on pg. 82 ties in perfectly with our Science lessons. We've been discussing the properties of matter and how you use your 5 senses to learn about & classify matter. We've been talking about transition words, but the students don't seem to be catching on. I'm looking forward to trying traffic-light words (pg 93) to see if it makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteWe are working on descriptive writing this week so I tried the show, dont tell lesson. They really got a kick out of their teacher acting angry. It was a great start to adding those descriptive details. They were very eager to share their stories this time. It also tied in well with our reading skill, "inferencing."
ReplyDeleteI like that the lessons tie their writing into literature. Plus, this chapter provided reproducible graphic organizers which I love! My favorite is the sentencing stretching organizer. You think those questions, and you assume your students can think those questions while they are writing, but sometimes they forget. It is nice to have a format that will help them start thinking like a writer. I will use everyone of the mini lessons from this chapter.
ReplyDeleteI like every lesson in this chapter because it has to do with the Writer's Craft! Which I love to teach! The students also get so excited when they learn a new step in the writing process. I like the simple applications to teaching them each new skill. We have already learned about the Show, Don't Tell. I hope to expound on this more with other activities. I have already bought the zebra cookies for the Five-Senses Descriptions. Add Some Talking was another great activity. Quotations can sometimes be very tricky for the younger students, but this lesson seems to have a wonderful way of being on their level by building that background knowledge and talking about something almost every student has experienced. These are all wonderful mini-lessons to teach writing skills in the classroom!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mandy. The sentence stretching lesson is a great activity for encouraging sentence fluency and word choice. I really like the extension activity where the kids "trade" words and make super silly sentences. It is always great when we can create learning experiences that are useful and fun for our students.
ReplyDelete