Shepherd's Shining Stars: Writing

Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

Students in 4th grade are expected to draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support their analysis, reflection and research. This is where the Assess Your Response strategy comes in. This is a strategy I practice with students weekly.

The anchor chart to the left shows the three steps to this strategy. I call it the SSP strategy. Whenever students see a constructed response on their test or during a weekly assignment they are to put SSP in the margin of the response. The first step is to STEAL words from the question to restate and answer very simply. Students are not allowed to use "because" in the very first sentence. This comes later. Then a SENTENCE to explain the "Power Word". Last to PROVE their answer with evidence from the text. Once student write their response they Assess their response by using colored pencils to check for the three components of the response.

Red = STEAL
Blue= SENTENCE TO EXPLAIN
Orange= PROVE WITH EVIDENCE

Below you can see the daily Writing goal on the Smartboard and my modeled and guided response.

Here's a sample of students completing one in their notebook.

Mrs. Shepherd

State Testing is soon approaching for my 5th graders, so we are buckling down and preparing for the upcoming tests. This week our focus was on point of view and writing in response to a text about the different viewpoints of the characters and how their point of view influences the events in the story.

Monday and Tuesday this week we read and analyzed the text. Monday we read the text the first time to get the gist and students worked in cooperative pairs on text dependent questions. Then we went back and analyzed the text for the main character/speaker's point of view about the text on Tuesday. Students made a 3-column chart in their notebook, noting the three characters, their point of view on the topic, and evidence from the text supporting their point of view. Finally, today we took on writing in response to the text.

Before we begin writing there are a few steps we must take when approaching the writing prompt.

Our learning goal is I can draw evidence from a literary text to write an extended response by :

reading the prompt
analyzing and breaking down the prompt
making a plan
writing in response to the prompt

First we chorally read the prompt. (Prompt taken from i-Ready workbook)

Then we closely read the prompt for testing verbs and broke down those key words in the prompt for better understanding. We make our plan in the margin and then have a discussion of the text with our partners and share out with the class our thinking on what we may include in our response also noting evidence in the text to use in our response to support our answer.

Tonight students will re-read the text and tomorrow they will begin their writing response.

What techniques do you use with your students to break down lengthy prompts?

Mrs. Shepherd

Camp Write Along Day 4 's focus was on writing our rough drafts and conferring.

We began our day with watching a short clip from our Camp director, and then we sang our camp songs. Today we learned a new song called "Camp Write Along" to the tune of the YMCA. We also re-sang the "Writing Hokey" our favorite camp song so far. However, before the start of our camp day, I took a walk to one of our third grade teacher classrooms who is also hosting Camp Write Along. They were all set up for camp reflecting on what they learned from their previous day in their cool journals they made. They also sang for me the "Camp Write Along" song.

Here are my students comfortable and writing away. They wrote at least for an hour completing their Flee Maps and then writing their rough drafts.

Next we set off to the computer lab to type our papers on Kidblog and print them out for peer editing/revising tomorrow. They didn't all get to finish typing today, so we will finish up tomorrow.

Finally, we came back to class and wrapped things up by sharing their papers. Students sat in a big circle and when I called "Campers, Campers" they said pass and passed their papers to the right. They read their classmates paper and looked for evidence of their hook, reasons, and conclusions. Last, they returned their papers to their original owners and they read their paper aloud to their partner.

Guess What? At the end of our eventful day, I was announced the Teacher of the Year!

Lights our Campers!

Mrs. Shepherd

The Agenda for Day 2 of Camp Writing Along was as follows:

Message from our Camp Director
re-sang "The Writing Hokey"
learned a new song "Write Write Baby" ( to the tune of Ice, Ice Baby, which was one of my favorite songs back in the day)
Learned how to write titles for our essays/compositions
began pre-writing our essay

Here's a look at the anchor chart I used to anchor student's learning while learning how to write titles. I used the powerpoint I created in Day 1's post to review the 5 different ways to write titles, and I shared with students some books from our own library that possessed the titles we were evaluating.

Then students got comfortable and began writing the body of their paper. The students are writing to their teacher explaining which field trip destination they would rather, Monticello or Mount Vernon. They are to give details from both passages in their essay. They are given a 3-4 paragraph description of each destination in which they need to use to include text evidence in their essays, as well as their own opinions and voice.

Below you can see, Mr. Martinez, my partner teacher and ELL teacher, conferring with a student about his writing.

Working hard at Day 2 of Writing Camp!

Lights Out Campers!

See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Shepherd

So, I thought for sure I'd be back at work today, but due to the damage brought by Hurricane Isaac my school district has decided to keep school closed till Thursday. That means I have two more days off! We will have been out of school for a total of 8 days by Thursday. That's a lot of days to make up!

I am saving our Unit on Plot for next week, and I am going to spend Thursday and Friday discussing, writing and describing our experiences through Hurricane Isaac. My goal for Thursday and Friday is for students to complete a well-written essay describing what they did to prepare, what they did during the storm, and what they did after the storm. I am also going to build on how the setting impacted our feelings and motivations and also have them choose a few character traits to describe their feelings throughout the last two weeks. These are previous skills we've done during the first two weeks of school.

I plan to begin the lesson Thursday by having students watch a video I created on Animoto and then discuss how the video has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Students will then draw a "Flee Map" listing out what they did to prepare for the storm, what they did during the storm, and how they have recovered from the storm. We will also discuss how this made them feel and how their feelings and their families feelings changed with the setting and add this to our Flee Maps, as well. We will also add a simple question hook such as (Do you want to know why I've been off of school for 8 days? or Do you want to know what happened in southern Louisiana?), and a conclusion such as (Now you can see why.......). I will show students my essay written out on chart paper first showing them how I took my information from the Flee Map and transferred it into an essay format.Then students will begin writing their rough drafts putting their thoughts together into a two-paragraph essay.

Friday, I plan for students to begin publishing their stories via Kidblog and would also love to share some of our experiences with you and your students through Google Hangout. Please leave me your email address in the comment sections below if you are interested!

On my day off today, I experienced Google Hangout for the first time thanks to my good friend Ms. Naugle. She introduced me to Google Hangout and some really neat effects and tools that can be utilized during a hangout. I really enjoyed the hangout today and the opportunity to meet some other educators in the states.

Here's a pic from the hangout this morning. That's me and my oldest son. You can see he is wearing a Dr. Seuss hat, one of the effects you can utilize with Google Hangout. You can also see Ms. Naugle below with the dog mask.

Don't forget to comment below if you are interested in learning a little about Hurricanes and hearing a couple of our personal experiences through Hurricane Isaac.

Hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday!

Mrs. Shepherd

Today was devoted to revising. We began our day with a short video from our camp director.

We sang all of our songs!

Then, I reviewed with students how to revise using the anchor chart shown.

I then had them draw a circle map and write down two of their favorite adjectives. I modeled by using the words stupendous and scrumptious. Then students turned and shared with their buddy and recorded a word from their buddy's circle map that they liked.

Next, I had them flip their papers over to draw another circle map on the back to brainstorm other words for said. You can see from the picture we came up with a few.

Then I sent students off to revise. They each received a dictionary and thesaurus to use, as well as, a colorful pen to make any revisions.

Students shared their essays with their partner for more revisions, and then set off to publish on their blogs. Please take a look here at a few student samples and leave a comment.

Mrs. Shepherd

Today was another fun filled day at Camp Write Along.

We began the day with announcements from our Camp Coach(me). Then we reviewed all our songs, "Write, Write, Baby",and "The Twelve Days of Writing." Today we introduced them to a new song called "The Writing Hokey."

Next, my student teacher read the book Amelia Bedelia goes Camping.

My second class had library today, and our friendly librarian came to our camp to share a book.

In the middle of our camp, I had a call from our office that my son's school called to report that he was injured during recess. He ran into a little girl, and her head hit him right under his eye. Luckily since his school is right next door, I walked across to pick him up. Here is a picture of him and I at Camp Write Along.

Finally, students began writing. Here is our writing prompt from today and a student sample.

Day 3 writing prompt

View more documents from Erica Shepherd

Last but not least, a short video to showcase our day!

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Mrs. Shepherd

Today kicked off our first day of "Camp Write Along." It was full of singing, reading, purposeful talk, brainstorming, writing and even eating.

We began the day with a message from our Principal, Mrs. Daniilidis.

These announcements came from Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies.

Then we started with a chant directed by my student teacher, Mrs. Ahmad.

Next, students gathered around our campfire for a shared reading of The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco. The focus was on the "Wonders" that the students created. We also discussed how Trisha's class was unique,what made Mrs. Peterson a great teacher, and how everyone's dream can come true.

Finally students, were introduced to the writing prompt and they began writing.

Here is the snack for today made especially by me!

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Mrs. Shepherd

Do you have students who are always off task? Or students who just aren't getting it because it is not fun, and they are obviously bored?

Well, thanks to Whole Brain Teaching Strategies and techniques my classroom environment has dramatically changed. My students are engaged in purposeful talk, applying skills and completing purposeful and meaningful products.

The Whole Brain teaching lesson that I am currently using is the Genius Ladder. My students are writing paragraphs everyday, and not just simple paragraphs but complex paragraphs including compound sentences, descriptive words and transitions just to name a few. It is so exciting to not only see my Regular Ed students achieving, but also my Special Needs students.

Here is a colleague of mine demonstrating the Genius Ladder in her classroom with her 3rd graders. She is the one who inspired me to begin! Thanks Lisa!!

Mrs. Shepherd

Once again another wonderful lesson was discovered on the Writing Fix. Students began the day today learning how to stretch or expand their sentences.

Here is the modeled lesson that was done with students.

Anchor Chart

Student Samples

To conclude the lesson, a student volunteered their sentence to showcase. The class helped to revise the sentence.

Mrs. Shepherd

This week students are analyzing first words and the sentence lengths of their writings. The lesson used this week was taken from the Writing Fix. This lesson was created and posted by Writing Fix's webmaster Corbett Harrison.

Here is one student's Brainstorming process using a circle map.

Students are analyzing their sentence lengths.

Working on their rough drafts.

Here they are analyzing the first words used in their essays.

Finally, today they continued to revise adding details.

Mrs. Shepherd

Writing
Our "I can" statement this week was as follows: I can create a three paragraph essay by including the following: a catchy title, include three paragraphs each on a different topic, a closing, 2 adjectives, one compound sentence, and use a dictionary to check my spelling.

Students created a three paragraph essay to describe what they did during their holiday break. On Monday, students brainstormed their ideas and began their rough drafts. Tuesday they continued writing their rough drafts. Wednesday we brainstormed adjectives to go with each of our senses a lesson I borrowed from 4th Grade Folics, and then they added at least 2 new adjectives to their papers. Thursday we worked on making compound sentences in our writing, and then finally they began writing their final drafts. Here is a picture of the students' completed writing posted outside of our classroom.

To conclude our writing lesson for the week and to make sure students really understood how to create and include a compound sentence in their writing, our ELL teacher Mr. Martinez had students write a short description about another student in the class without giving away their identity and to include a compound sentence. Students wrote their descriptions for about 10 minutes, and then took turns standing up to share so we could all take a guess.

Reading

This week in Reading students worked with their partners to participate in a shared reading to evaluate the author's purpose using the text My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris. The students participated in purposeful talk visualizing and making predictions, while learning about MLK during his childhood. On Wednesday, this week I shared another mentor text A Nation's Hope a Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. I used this text for students to compare and contrast the subjects. Joe Louis's biography discussed the time of Adolf Hitler so before reading the text with my class I showed them a video on Brainpop titled "Adolf Hitler". We summarized the video and discussed the difficult times faced by Germans and Americans. The boys really loved this picture book, and they all cheered at the end.