Hey, Mom! Guided Writing
Posted on March 18, 2018Share This Content
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Do your students struggle to compose sentences about nonfiction topics that make sense or sound right? Do they lack structure at the sentence and paragraph level? Here’s a few tricks I’ve been trying with small groups of late-early and transitional stage readers. As part of a conversation generate key words they will use to orally …Read more
Is anybody else sick of the five-paragraph essay? The book Writing with Mentors (Marchetti & O’Dell, 2015) was so refreshing to read as I ponder how to keep students excited about reading and writing analytically. The authors provide insight into how we can engage students in writing for authentic purposes in a variety of non-five-paragraph …Read more
Love this short video clip on the Teaching Channel of a 5th grade teacher helping students make meaning of informational text through conversation. The students sit in a circle for a 20 minute discussion; they signal to the teacher with two fingers when they have a thought to add to the previous student’s comment or …Read more
I’ve given up calling on one student at a time during whole group instruction. A few weeks ago I was walking down the hallway in an urban school and stopped to ask a fourth grade student for directions. She knew where I needed to go, but she struggled to tell me. “Like…well, it’s down there…like …Read more
My daughter is enjoying a new school in a new state, but I was dismayed to see the traditional, worn out book report requirements for her 5th grade class. I want to say first – her teacher is hosting some amazing learning experiences – they are currently studying the eye, are engaged in research reports …Read more
Last year I had the honor of working with two kindergarten teachers who immersed their students in nonfiction author studies. Late in the spring they led a two week author study – week one on Steve Jenkins’ books and week two on Nic Bishop’s books. Monday-Wednesday or Thursday, they read aloud a book and …Read more
Watched two 2nd grade teachers (my dear colleagues) hard at work today modeling for students – writing restaurant reviews (Common Core, Writing Standard 1 on opinion writing). They are in week three of a writing workshop focus on review writing. The first week they wrote book reviews and the second week they wrote movie reviews. …Read more
Earlier I blogged about mentor texts for procedure writing with primary grade students. Once you launch your unit with mentor texts, jump into shared writing of procedure texts with your students, co-creating models of procedure writing and related anchor charts with reminders for writing these texts. You might start with a “how-to” demonstration so the …Read more
“Who will you tell?” This is a conversation I’ve started having with students at the guided reading table before they write in response to an informational source. I usually start by saying something like the following: When you go home tonight and your mom asks about school, you could just say, “It was okay” OR …Read more