4600 S Prieur

My friend Jamie had a great idea for some everyday writing.  I sometimes feel stuck always writing for one purpose.  There was times in the last few years where other types of writing were not practiced through out the whole year.  I felt like they were forgotten.  My students are masters at writing personal narratives, but I did't feel quite as confident about other types of writings until now.


There are five centers: Letter Writing, Persuasive Writing, Journal Writing (Personal Narratives), Article Writing, Fictional Writing.

Of course each of these centers are not all done each day, but one every morning to start our day.  By Friday we have  written in each style.  Since it is after LEAP, we have also been making (their choice) one writing into a final copy.  Here are the anchor charts I use:

Whole Brain Teaching!

Even though it is the end of the school year, my students are refocused because of the techniques of Whole Brain Teaching.  We had such a good time today and this week.  We read Wilma Unlimited.

The students and I discussed the qualities of a biography the first day.  Tuesday we had a great time finding facts and opinions from the book.  I have confidence that every student knows the difference after 'Mirroring' how to find and locate them.  The anchor chart I made reinforced the purpose of the lesson.

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Wednesday we talked about the author's perspective.  We discussed all of the different reasons the book could have been written.  Thursday I let go of the reins.  I was amazed about how much they accomplished, and how brilliant they are when I gave them their own time to teach each other.

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/

Whole Brain Teaching-  I am so intrigued!  I watched a three minute video of a teacher using their management skills last night.  Today in my classroom I used what I had learned.  It was amazing!  I had complete control of everyone in the room.  I even had a teacher walk in and give my rowdy class a complement.  My favorite Whole Brain Teaching technique is 'Mirror' and 'Teach-ok'.  (even though what I was doing was similar, the students responded so positively to the new words and organization of the techniques)

I used my 'I can' statement and had an even more engaging lesson with these new techniques.

While I was reviewing this chart.  The students repeated what I was saying.  When we were done reviewing, each student turned to their partner and became the teacher.  I had every student in the room sharing at a high-level of engagement.  I was so proud of them.  It was a great start to the lesson.  I plan on using the 'Mirror' and 'Teach-ok' techniques everyday to review and introduce new information.  I can't wait to try it with my grammar lesson tomorrow!!!!

Camp Write Along-   Day 1, 2, 3, 4

Camp Write Along was a success.  It was such a great way to keep my students entertained while practicing for the writing portion of the LEAP.  I sat my students down each morning and we practiced our Writing Hokey Pokey.  Writing Hokey Pokey was a great song that reminded the students of what they needed to include in their compositions.  The first day we read scary stories to get the students excited to write the prompt: Write about a time that you were scared of someone or something.   The students only used their time to brainstorm and organize their papers.   They wrote rough drafts at home.


Day 2 the students read a Patricia Polacco book, The Junkyard Wonders.

This story was great for the writing prompt: Write about a time that you were proud of something you made.  Their stories were great.  Also a huge plus was that because of this book I didn't have any students say,"I've never made anything I've been proud of before."

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Day three we read Jumanji.  We also brainstormed and organized our compositions.  The writing topic was... One time you found a cart of bananas in the middle of the road.  Where did they come from?  Who put them there?   What did you do with them when you found them?  Now write about the time you found a cart full of bananas in the middle of the road.

Day four was the most productive, and I hope beneficial.  Watch my EDITORS go to work!

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Book Talks

www.edmodo.com

Here my students make video Book Talks about the books that they are reading.  Poor Jayce had to be the first author of the first Book Talk.  He does a great job!  We are working towards giving more information about our books and how we feel about them.