Schoolwide Blog Entry by Elisa Waingort

Schoolwide Blog Entry
Feb. 25, 2010
Elisa Waingort

    After reading aloud a chapter book in the classroom I sometimes struggle with getting my students to respond in authentic and meaningful ways.  I’ve tried stopping whenever anyone has a comment, (these may be meaningful or not – it’s usually hit or miss - and may interrupt the flow of the story and interfere with attention); allowing children to comment at the end of a story only (some children can’t hold onto their ideas for that long and may lose interest in the discussion when it does happen); asking specific questions about the reading or prompting the children to make a particular connection to the reading; and modeling how a proficient reader (me) thinks about what she is reading.  More...

Elisa Waingort Feb. 17, 2010

 

Schoolwide Blog Entry
Elisa Waingort
Feb. 17, 2010

    As a teacher of writing, I hope that all of my students will think of themselves as writers by acting like writers.  And, how do writers act?  Here’s my short list:
•    A writer is always writing even when she doesn’t have a pencil or laptop at hand.  
•    A writer loves to talk about what she is writing now and what she might write about next.
•    A writer is always planning the next piece of writing as she is finishing a project.  Sometimes the writer plans “in her head” and sometimes she plans on paper.  
•    A writer takes notes for future pieces and stores them in a place that she can easily access.  
•    A writer writes every day for different purposes.
•    A writer finds ideas for writing in everyday situations and in books.
•    A writer enjoys the act of thinking about ideas and topics for future pieces of writing.  
•    A writer sometimes gets stuck and doesn’t know what to write about; she keeps writing anyway. More...

FUNctional Writing Lesson: Notes & Cards for Valentine’s Day (2/11/10)

What are you teaching for Valentine’s Day? In this week’s lesson and video, Schoolwide Educational Director Rory Cohen shows us how functional writing can be incorporated into notes and cards such as valentines to create practical, real-world compositions.

Learn how to:

• Create a fun exercise while integrating practical writing techniques;
• Explore how a writer communicates with different forms of functional writing; and
• Elicit a list for a chart of occasions for writing cards, including Valentine’s Day.
  
  CLICK HERE FOR THE LESSON OF THE WEEK.
  

 

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Are you forwarding the Lesson of the Week? Pass It On The Lesson of the Week is not only a great individual professional development tool but also something you can use with your colleagues for discussion school wide. We’d love it if you’d forward the LOTW to your coworkers, staff, or administrators, or sign them up at www.schoolwidenetwork.com/lotw.

Thanks so much for your participation. Read. Learn. Enjoy! 

JACQUELINE JULES: Stop To Cross The Street: Five Tips For Young Writers

Recently, I had the privilege of hearing the esteemed author Jane Yolen give the concluding remarks at a conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. To an audience of over one thousand children’s book people, Ms. Yolen eloquently provided an amusing and inspiring set of guidelines. She began with “Eschew the exclamation point” and “Go easy on adverbs,” along with a number of other warnings about mistakes even experienced authors make in first drafts. As I listened, I thought about my students. What mistakes do I see over and over again?  If I made a list of five rules for student writers, what would they be?

 

• Rule Number One: Use Your Inside Voice. Limit your use of exclamation points and capitals. Ten exclamation points in a row and capital letters are like shouting at your reader.
• Rule Number Two: Stop To Cross The Street. Watch out for the conjunction “and.” More than two “ands” in the same sentence are often a signal to stop and use a period.
• Rule Number Three: Dare to be Different. Beginning every sentence with “then” or “the” can be dull for the reader. Rearrange your words to vary the sentence structure.    
• Rule Number Four: Play With Words, Not Fonts. Spend your writing time choosing the perfect descriptive word, not the prettiest font type or size.
• Rule Number Five: Be Active. “Was” weakens the action. If Rapunzel needs to cross the street, say “she walked” instead of “she was walking” or “she started to walk.” 

 

These guidelines address some of the problems I’ve seen repeatedly in student stories.

Teaching students to watch for these pitfalls will help them be more effective editors of their own and their peers’ writing.   

 

Jacqueline Jules

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/

New Ideas For Writing Workshop Elisa Waingort Feb. 5, 2010

 

Teaching writing is one of my passions.  I love to roll up my sleeves in order to get eye-level with my students to talk about their writing.  I love seeing the spark in their eyes and hearing the emotion in their voices as they talk about the piece of writing they’re working on or what they’re planning to write next.  And, then there are those times when it seems that I can’t find an entry point into a student’s writing or none of my suggestions are well received.  Instead, I aim at moving targets trying to find an angle that will get my students to extend their writing or to write pieces that are meaningful to them.  Recently, I’ve decided to be more proactive after reading a book that I will be reviewing for an online journal, soon.  More...

Elisa Waingort Jan. 17, 2010



    In my last blog entry I promised to report back on how well my students responded to setting goals and making a plan. That process is still not complete. As soon as it is, I will blog about it. Instead, I want to turn my attention to the topic of student choice.
My school is involved in a school board-initiated project to help teachers plan instruction that addresses the needs and interests - social and academic - of our students. To this end, all students responded to a short online survey. One of the questions asked students to rate the amount of choice they feel they have in school.

More...

Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week: Drafting Using Mentor Texts (1/22/10)

Dear Community,

Subject: Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week: Drafting Using Mentor Texts (1/22/10)

How do your students structure their writing? What form works best for expressing unique ideas? A poem? A picture book? A list book? In this week's lesson, Schoolwide Educational Director Rory Cohen uses Valorie Fisher's My Big Brother to help teach organization and how to structure writing ideas.

Learn how to:

• Use a list book to help students organize their writing;
• Help students introduce their subjects in engaging ways; and
• Give students concrete methods for making an outline to help structure their ideas.
  
  CLICK HERE FOR THE LESSON OF THE WEEK.
  

To contact Rory Cohen about a professional development workshop for your school or district, please e-mail us at pd@schoolwide.com.

 

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Highlights

Lesson Title: Using a List Structure to Organize a Personal Narrative

Subject: Writing Workshop / Drafting (Organization)

Audience: Grades K-1

Description: Writers often use lists to structure their writing. Rory Cohen discusses what she looks for in mentor texts to help students organize their thoughts and ideas early on in the writing process and how to present them to their readers.

Share: Create a common tool for your entire school or school district by sharing the Lesson of the Week and using it to provide consistency. Please contact me at ldavies@schoolwide.com and I will be glad to assist you with this process.


Thanks so much for your participation. Read. Learn. Enjoy!

Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week: Reading Patricia Polacco (1/14/10)

 

Schoolwide Presents a Free Lesson of the Week

Dear Community,

Subject: Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week: Reading Patricia Polacco (1/14/10)

Do you read aloud to your students? How do you use dialogue or conversation to conjure lifelike memories in memoir study? In this week's lesson, literacy consultant Sarah Cordova uses an interactive read-aloud of Patricia Polacco's My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother to drive home the importance of conversation and reading like a writer.

Learn how to:

• Use family conversation to develop good writing;
• Help students "read like a writer" and understand how dialogue makes writing more memorable and lifelike; and
• Engage students in storytelling with the voices from their own lives.
  
  CLICK HERE FOR THE LESSON OF THE WEEK.
  
  

 

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Highlights

Lesson Title: Interactive Read-Aloud of My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco

Subject: Writing Workshop / Reading Like a Writer - Interactive Read-Aloud

Audience: Grades 2-6

Description: Writers use conversation/dialogue to conjure concrete memories of people and places. Sarah Cordova explains how teaching students to "read like a writer" offers several teaching points, from punctuation choices to how to evoke mood and emotion.

Share: Create a common tool for your entire school or school district by sharing the Lesson of the Week and using it to provide consistency. Please contact me at ldavies@schoolwide.com and I will be glad to assist you with this process.


Thanks so much for your participation. Read. Learn. Enjoy!


Sincerely,
Ladi Davies
VP of Educational Solutions
Schoolwide, Inc.

JACQUELINE JULES: Teach Your Students To Think About The Reader

 

After years of participating in critique writing groups, I have learned to spot problem areas my critique friends would question. “That part is confusing.” “This part is too wordy.” “The story doesn’t peak my interest until the fourth paragraph.” And when I miss something, I am grateful when my critique friends point it out. As an author who hopes to impress editors, I want mistakes corrected before I submit.
 
But students just learning the joy of putting a story down on paper can be reluctant to make changes. Many students think editing should be limited to the correction of spelling and grammar mistakes. Asking a student to re-write a story that does not make sense can be a painful experience. How does a teacher encourage a student to fix confusing or nonsensical passages without squashing creativity?


 

In my work with young writers, I encourage them to think of their readers. We compare writing to playing an instrument or performing in a play or dance concert. Students readily agree that they want audiences to have a good time when they perform. Using this logic, it is easier to accept why a paragraph should be changed to make a story more enjoyable. Some details distract the reader from what an author is really trying to say. Run-on sentences can be confusing. Cryptic asides can puzzle readers. And sometimes all the little things we explain at the beginning are not needed. Ask your students if they know someone who takes too long to get to the point. For instance, a woman who talks for ten minutes about what she ate for breakfast, when she is trying to tell you how she cut her finger. Most students will smile, remembering such a person in their lives, and understand why they don’t want to keep their readers from the most interesting part of a story. Thinking about the reader helps all writers do their best work.

Jacqueline Jules—author, poet, teacher, librarian                         
http://www.jacquelinejules.com/

Angela Johnson: Everyone Has a Story to Tell / Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week (1/8/10)

 

Dear Community,

Subject: Angela Johnson: Everyone Has a Story to Tell / Schoolwide's Lesson of the Week (1/8/10)

What stories can your students tell? How do you help them take their own or their families' stories and turn them into evocative writing? In this week's lesson, famed children's author Angela Johnson tells us how she brings these stories to life.

Learn how to:

• Take family stories and make them powerful;
• Help students discover compelling facts about their own community; and
• Build students' confidence in their writing skills by demonstrating how everyone is good at something.
  
  CLICK HERE FOR THE LESSON OF THE WEEK.
  
  

 

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Highlights

Lesson Title: Everyone Has a Story to Tell

Subject: Writing Workshop / Generating Ideas

Audience: Grades 4-8

Description: Stories are all around us, and many are passed down through each generation. Angela Johnson explains how the people in our lives are sources of intriguing stories to tell and write about.

Share: Create a common tool for your entire school or school district by sharing the Lesson of the Week and using it to provide consistency. Please contact me at ldavies@schoolwide.com and I will be glad to assist you with this process.


Thanks so much for your participation. Read. Learn, Enjoy!