Friday, February 4, 2011

Snow Days and Writing Ideas

Well, no school for 4 days in a row makes it difficult to prepare for the upcoming writing test! However, I have had time to get all caught up on grading and house work.

Speaking of writing, here are some of the ways that I prepare my students for the writing test:

- 4 Square Writing: A great organization method that allows the students to lay out their writing into manageable parts.  They make a book that has everything you need for upper and lower grades.

-Creative Writing: My students do a lot of creative writing that we integrate into other subjects. We do letters from the perspective of people from history, alphabet books for different topics in science and social studies (like space and the American Revolution.) Another creative writing idea is to let your students create their own books. They can do this a variety of ways. One way that my school has started using is Student Treasures. With this company, your students can make their very own books that come back with a hard-back cover for free! It is time-consuming for them to work on them, but fantastic to see how excited they are when they get them back. Here is a link to that company's website: http://www.studentreasures.com/

- Bing, Bang and Bongo: A great technique to make a five-paragraph essay easy to create. Here is a link to a great PowerPoint that will help you introduce the concept. alex.state.al.us/uploads/27732/Howtowritea5paragraphessay.ppt


-Writing Workshop: This is a way to teach writing in which you do a mini lesson for the skill of the day and then let your students work on their writing. Each student may be working on something different. The important thing is to let students work at their own pace because we all write at a different rate. While students are working, the teacher has individual meetings with students to discuss their writing and what they need to work on. Here is a link to a great reading and writing workshop approach website: http://quest.carnegiefoundation.org/%7Edpointer/jennifermyers/workshopapproach.htm

Well that is all for today! Have a great weekend and stay safe on the icy roads.