Guest Post and Link Up

Just a quick post to let you know a couple of things:

1.  I wrote a guest post for Diary of a Word Nerd about sharing poetry with children.  The blogger, Julia Tomiak titled it Poetry + Children = Silliness.  I am happy to be featured on her blog.

2. Mr. Hughes of An Educator's Life has a link up for freebies called Share the Wealth.  Mr. Hughes is also a contributor for All Things Upper Elementary, so his target audience is teachers of grades 3-6.

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday.

How to Use a Story Board when Teaching Narrative

My freebie this week is one I created as I prepared my students for the state writing test. My students spend one day writing a story to a prompt. Using a story board is one of the suggested prewriting strategies. To download the story board as a Google Doc click here.

I introduce the idea of the story board by finding out how many students know how their favorite animators organize their ideas.  Most animated DVDs have extra material on how the movie was made.  Just casually reviewing the choices on YouTube, I saw many writers who share their thought process.

I model my own story board and then talk about how to elaborate each scene using dialogue, description, and action.  Some students had to elaborate in several steps, because the idea of their story wasn't clearly communicated to others.

If you have students that need a little more direction, I have labelled the four sections: Beginning, Problem, Complication, and Resolution.  We talk about the elements of story and the importance of each.

You can purchase all ten forms I use for creative writing assignments and bulletin boards here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and here in my Teachers Notebook store.  I have included at least two suggestions for each form that are not here on my blog.

Juvie Three by Gordon Korman

I would definitely recommend reading this with middle school students and discussing the relationships and the choices the characters make. It is not a book I would share with my fourth graders.

Gecko, Terence, and Ajay are in juvenile detention centers until Douglas Healy brings them to his group home to help them make it in society.  When something happens to Douglas, their group home should be disbanded, but the three boys continue as though nothing has happened to keep out of detention.

Here is a graphic organizer for readers to note how a character's strength might also cause problems.

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Wordsmith Studio

It started with a challenge on MNINB (My Name Is Not Bob).  A group of writers who follow Robert Lee Brewer, the poetry editor at Writer's Digest, committed to building our writing platforms every day for a month April 2012.  I was a little overbooked: teaching full time, family responsibilities, National Poetry Writing Month.  I decided to jump in and complete each of the thirty challenges.

I learned so much about social media this way.  I met a group of writers who were learning along with me.  I have had a chance to guest blog and link up with some of them.


This group became Wordsmith Studio -- a community of writers that support each other in the challenges and successes of writing.  This month we are celebrating the anniversary of the challenge. 

Happy Anniversary Wordsmith Studio!

Quote of the Week -- April 14, 2013

“Optimism is the ability to focus on where we're going, not where we're coming from.”

Simon Sinek

A Not So Wise Owl Writing Prompt

In Aesop's fables owls are usually wise and helpful. 

This time write a fable where the owl needs to learn the lesson.

Click here for a Fable Assignment Sheet to help your students plan this and other fables.

 

 

 Click here for my paid product Writing Fables with Intermediate Students available at TPT or TN.  This unit has directions for teacher and students, an assignment sheet, two original mentor texts, and a rubric for easy grading.

 

 

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

A couple of months ago, I received this book in my school mailbox from Random House.  I had seen posters for it, but I hadn't bought a copy or read it.  I read it in a couple of days.  The main character has a birth defect that has caused him multiple surgeries.  In fifth grade he enters middle school, having been schooled at home up till now. 

Auggie's classmates don't quite know how to respond to his obvious differences.  The story is told from multiple perspectives.  The characters learn about courage, friendships and bullying.

I haven't decided yet if I will read it aloud to this year's class.  They are generally accepting of people with differences.  They had no problem filling our acts of kindness jar.  I don't have the issues with them that I have had other years.

On the other hand, I think they need to see the power of the bystanders in the world.  Bullies get more power when the group won't intervene.

Update June 2014: I did read this aloud to my students knowing that I would cry.  Here is a free printable form to analyze an event from multiple points of view.

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