Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Do you think the title is a bit of an exaggeration? Can you think of some books or stories that include lots of exaggeration? That is one of the features of Tall Tales!
Wonderopolis shares a Wonder of the Day each day about a topic to promote thinking and conversations. One day this week the Wonder of the Day was “Why do they call it a Tall Tale?” To go along with this question, you can find basic information, vocabulary words, questions to promote thinking, and even other resources for finding out more about tall tales. There is even a lesson promoting the reading of tall tales as well as an activity to encourage writing a tall tale.
Focusing on reading types of stories, like tall tales, was something I really enjoyed when I was in the classroom. We would do studies where we would explore many examples of a certain type and then talk about the similarities and characteristics we found. I also liked to introduce a variety of vocabulary words that could be associated with that story type.
Here is some of the information Wonderopolis shares about tall tales:
Tall tales” are stories that are told as if they were true but contain exaggerated or unbelievable parts. Some tall tales are exaggerations of real events, while others are completely make-believe. Tall tales are usually very funny because the exaggerations in the story tend to be the main focus of the whole story.
A key part of American folk literature, tall tales are believed to have started from the bragging contests that tough American frontiersmen would start when they gathered around a fire. Most tall tales come from the 1800s, when courageous explorers had exciting adventures on their way to the Wild West.
If you were looking for interesting ways for students to write and “publish” their own tall tales, the Writing section in BigUniverse could be an option to use!
Even though it is not a traditional tall tale, you might also want to check out this tall tale: Sitka Rose by Shelly Gill. This story could be used as an example of the type of tall tale stories students could write. Students could work in groups to identify the characteristics of tall tales which are evident in this story.
Here are some ways you can use technology to support the study of, as well as the creation of tall tales in the classroom: http://www.vickiblackwell.com/talltales.html
Are there some tall tales that you enjoy reading? What are some ways you teach about tall tales?
Just to find out what might be out there about Big Universe, I did a search on the internet. I was lucky enough to find these pages with lots of pictures, links, and great information. Please click on these links to find out even more (I have given some of the highlights under the links, but there is so much more.)
What they’re saying about Big Universe
- We’re honored to receive such high marks from our members and the press
Affordable Student-Centered Learning for PK-8
- Learn more about how this great resource can be used
- Take a tour
- Ways to encourage reading and writing using Big Universe
- Benefits of using Big Universe
How Big Universe Learning System is used in schools
- Reading
- Writing
- Learning
- Sharing
Content and Features of Big Universe Learning System
- Large Library of Books Online
- Reading Books Online
- Writing and Publishing Books
- Safe Sharing Community
- Account Management
- Assessment
- Reading Logs
image from Big Universe
Journal writing was something I strongly encouraged in my 4th grade classes (so many benefits). I believe that writing and reading go together. To become a better read, you should write more. To become a better writer, you should read more.
Some years we (me and students) would write in journals for 15 minutes at the beginning of writing class. There would be music playing and students knew that this was a time for thinking and working not asking questions.
Students also kept Book Journals. If they had questions while they were reading, they would write down those questions. If the book they were reading made them think of something else, students would write down that thought. I found that encouraging students to write down those thoughts let them get focused back on the book rather than the idea that popped into their head.
There were also times when students when look at their Book Journals to find things to write about. We also used the Book Journal for summarizing parts of the books and even writing recommendations of certain books for others to read.
My last year in a classroom, my students used blogs as “thinking logs” or as a type of journal. Journals can take many forms, and, as much as I like to encourage writing, they don’t even have to be in written form.
I got to thinking about all the ways students could do journals after watching my 4 year old daughter walk around the house carrying a Flip camera. According to her she was making a video to send to a family member. When I started listening, I noticed that she was telling about her day, her toys, the weather outside, and a little about herself. Those are the things I remember writing in a diary or things my students wrote in journals. I guess my little girl was making a type of video journal …
Realizing that caused me to think about the ways various technology tools could be used for “journals”:
- GlogsterEDU could be used to create “A Day in the Life” posters or even a “What happened this week” poster
- Student created blogs could easily be used as a replacement for the spiral notebook journals in my classroom … as a teacher, I used blogs to keep track of the things I tried in the classroom that did or did not work
- The “A Picture Each Day” project many participate in could be seen as another type of journal … pictures could even be posted on things like VoiceThread where narration could be added
- Programs like Animoto or PhotoPeach could be used to pull together photos to be used as a visual journals
- Interactive Timelines could be used used as journals
I am sure my short list is not very comprehensive. What other things can be used for journals?
While sitting in a school library one afternoon, I looked around and saw a poster: “Turn the pages of your imagination. READ!!” That would be a great writing topic for students. I can imagine inviting children to brainstorm about what they think that message means. Here are a few guiding questions that came to mind:
- How might your imagination have pages?
- How does reading help jumpstart your imagination?
- Why do you think writers want the readers to imagine when they read?
- How do the things you imagine help you understand what you are reading?
- How might the things you imagine cause you to not understand what you are reading?
- If reading helps you turn the pages of your imagination, what could you do next?
That brainstorming or journal idea could be used as a pre-reading activity to get students thinking about or imagining what could happen in a certain story. That activity could be used to activate prior knowledge and/or generate a purpose for reading.
Another way that brainstorming or journal idea could be used is as a post-reading activity for students to reflect on what they read and how they used imagination in the story.
Students could also provide illustrations of what they imagine. Those illustrations could be connected with the before reading activity and/or the post reading activity.
So while the idea mentioned above could be used before or after reading, students could keep track of the things they imagine while they read. A small notebook, a piece of paper, or even a program like bubbl.us could be used to help student notice things in the story that cause imagination to take place.
Imagination plays a role in reading … before … during … and after
Why don’t you pick a book from Big Universe and see how it turns the pages of your imagination?
image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/24113168@N03/3803641352/
Big Universe Learning "hearts" Valentine's Day.
It’s been decades since I decorated a shoebox for Valentine’s Day. All you needed was some shiny paper, a box, scissors to cut construction paper hearts and some paste to make things stick. Of course you couldn’t forget to cut a hole in the lid. If you were an optimist you cut a mailbox slot wide enough to receive a heart-shaped lollipop or a small box of chalk-flavored candy conversation hearts…and maybe, just maybe, a chocolate heart.
Years have flown by since those elementary school days, and somehow the holiday has fallen by the wayside. As I’ve gotten older I’ve tried to sidestep blatant commercialism of holidays, but I think Cupid had me in the crosshairs of his bow this year. If I’d been paying closer attention, I probably would have heard the “Twang!” as he released his arrow.
Several valentines arrived in the mail. I got invited to a Valentine’s Day luncheon out of the blue. An extraordinary bouquet of brilliant pink carnations caught my eye at the grocery store, and soon it and two heart-adorned tea towels landed in my cart – along with some chocolate strawberry truffles. A few days later I heard the legend of Valentinus read by a librarian with a knack for storytelling.
Joy bubbled to the surface. Heart-shaped memories woke up. The kid in me responded.
Rose-colored glasses? Perhaps. But, wearing them is a lot more fun than being cynical and jaded and grumpy about gray February skies.
Valentine’s Day can be really fun if you let it be. And, it’s not too late to share time with the little ones in your life, read a book, send a note, give a hug, eat some chocolate, and tell someone you really love them.
Valentine’s Day Printables
I adore the printables for kids at the Super Teacher Worksheets website, so they get my Valentine’s Day vote of approval.
Activity Village has several cute activities too, including card and stationery templates to practice writing.
AmazingMoms.com also has some good Valentine’s Day games and party ideas. Take a look.
And, don’t forget BigUniverse.com’s Author Tool, which is the perfect vehicle for writing your own Valentine’s Day story. Use the website’s “Write” tab and click on the “Create and Publish Books!” box. To illustrate your text, simply go to the “Occasions” category in the clipart library and select “Holidays,” “Celebrations” or “Valentines.”
XOXO, Suzan
To talk or write effectively, a child need to be very familiar with language by using it and hearing it often, so children who read or are read to are often better writers. They have more exposure to stories, story language, story elements, and vocabulary. By being exposed to models of good language, students have better banks of knowledge to draw from to imitate. Imitation is an important part of learning.
I try to provide effective story models for my students to imitate. I like to use examples from published stories and books to effectively get the point across and make it memorable for students. For example, one way to begin a story is to use a sound effect to capture the reader’s attention. In class students search through books I have provided to find beginnings that use sound effects and then attempt to write a beginning imitating that feature.
Another way to start a story is to immediately put the reader in the middle of the action. The beginning of Because of Winn-Dixie (chasing the dog through the grocery store) is a very effective model of this story element. After discussing this with students, I will challenge them to look at the beginning of the stories they write to see if it is full of action like that one.
The thoughts reflecting back on the story at the end of Charlotte’s Web and The Mouse and the Motorcycle can be used to demonstrate effective ways to end stories. I encourage my students to imitate or follow the models of good authors when they write.
There are lots books on Big Universe that can be used as good models of writing. Can children find some that have good beginnings to imitate? Can children find some that have fun sound effects to use as models for their own stories?
Can children find some characters that they like in stories on Big Universe and write more about them? What if you have children write a “what comes next” story after you finish reading a book on Big Universe?
There are lots of great ways to connect reading and writing!
image found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/3388098244/
Balanced Literacy is a way to instruct students incorporating a variety of reading and writing approaches since students must use multiple strategies to become proficient readers. Here is a basic outline of some of the key reading and writing areas in a Balanced Literacy Program.
Reading
- TO children (read aloud)
- WITH children (shared reading)
- BY children (guded reading)
Writing
- FOR children (teacher model)
- WITH children (shared writing)
- BY children (guided writing)
Think about the many ways you can use the resources available from Big Universe in the various components of a Balanced Literacy Program. Think about the ways you can use materials you already have in these components.
Here are some other Teacher Resources for Balanced Literacy:
Balanced Literacy – Teaching the Thrills and Skills of Reading
What is Balanced Literacy?
Components of a Balances Literacy Program
Balanced Literacy Components
Balanced Literacy Background Knowledge
Balanced Literacy – A Parent’s Guide
Matching Books to Readers in a Balanced Literacy Program -an excerpt from Chapter One of Matching Books to Readers by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell
Writing is a very important piece of the Balanced Literacy Framework. In my classroom, we read and looked at lots of examples of a certain type of writing before students attempted to use that writing framework. I am a firm believer in allowing students to express ideas in the best way possible, and I tend to shy away from specific writing formulas. I do think it is important to teach children about the different types of writing possible and there are certain qualities associated with each type. When I first came across Recipes for Good Writing, I will admit that I was a bit skeptical. I started looking at the different recipe card (different colored “card” for each). For each type in the recipe box, you have a recipe card that highlights some of the details for that type of writing and makes suggestions. You also have an Ingredients Checklist to make sure you include all the needed parts. There is also a type of graphic organizer to help the writer brainstorm some idea. Since measuring is important when preparing a dish from a recipe, there are measuring spoons which link to additional resources. My students liked it when they had something like a blue print (or a recipe card) to help guide them when they were asked to write certain things.
Recipe cards are available for the following types:
- Acrostic Poem
- Biography
- Book Report
- Business Letter
- Cinquain Poem
- Compare & Contrast Essay
- Diamante Poem
- Haiku Poem
- How-to Article
- Journaling
- Limerick
- News Story
- Personal Narrative
- Persuasive Essay
- Research Paper
- Short Story
Writing is an important piece of Balanced Literacy that is easy to overlook since when most people think about literacy, they focus on the reading. I just started reading Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner. On page 6, there is a neat comparison of how the difference between reading fluency and reading word-for-word is like the difference between spreading butter and margarine on a piece of bread.
“When spreading butter, the bread often tears and the butter is lumped in places on the bread. Margarine goes on smoothly, not tearing the bread, and covers the bread evenly.”
She goes on to comment about how “writing fluency is equally important for writers. Being able to think and write at the same time — getting words on a page, writing a paragraph, a page, or even a couple of pages in one writer’s workshop — is an important skill for students to develop. When students are thinking, they are less likely to forget what they want to say. Fluency is the ability to generate text — a lot of it — in a short period of time. This gives students something to work with when it comes to rereading, revising, and even editing.”
One way to encourage the development of writing fluency is to have children write every day (that goes along with the saying that Practice makes Perfect). Children don’t have to write a lot each day … they just need to write something. For the first 10-15 minutes of my class each day, students would write in their journals. Most of the time there was soft music playing. No questions were to be asked during this time. As the teacher, I was writing in my journal too (at least I tried most of the time) to model the behavior I wanted for students. Some days there were topic choices on the board, but students seemed to like it more when there were no given topics and they could write whatever they wanted. In hopes that children would share ideas and write freely, I was careful to not focus so much on grammar and punctuation when discussing journals with them. I felt that was a time for expression.
So what other things can we do to promote fluency in both reading and writing?
When attempting to use the Balanced Literacy Approach for reading and writing instruction, maintaining a balance can be pretty tricky. All of the pieces of this approach are important to cover individually, but the effectiveness of the approach really comes when the pieces are used together.
Laura Chandler discussed the Balanced Literacy Framework that she has used successfully for the last several years on her webpage. She also has list of activites and printables for using a Balanced Literacy Approach on her site. Think about the many ways the Big Universe Site could be used in the various parts of this framework to combine reading and writing instruction as well as the many things both of those areas involve.
Here are some helpful guidelines for working to achieve that balance from a Scholastic Instructor Article, “Balanced Literacy: Teaching the Skills AND Thrills of Reading” by Dorothy Strickland.
Five Rules of Thumb for Maintaining Balance
- Teach skills as a way to gain meaning. Skills are not ends in themselves.
- Each day, include time for both guided instruction and independent work. Otherwise, students will never internalize skills and make them their own.
- Avoid teaching children as if they were empty receptacles for knowledge. Instead, allow them to build knowledge in a process-oriented way.
- Integrate print and electronic materials effectively. That way, your classroom will reflect the multimedia world in which students live.
- Always consider standardized test scores in light of informal assessment data. Encourage parents to do the same
What I get from these rules is that all the pieces need to work together for the best Balanced Literacy Approach. If we teach skills in isolation, students may not realize those skills can be used together and incorporated while you are doing something else (like reading and writing). Help students make those needed connections. How many isolated skills do you use each day? In your daily experiences, do you have to integrate print and electronic media? Shouldn’t we be helping children learn how to do all of these things?
