Writing can be a challenge for many students, more often than not their papers are returned covered with corrections. It is important to encourage students efforts and to place the emphasis on the student's ideas rather than on sentence structure. Keeping this in mind implement one of the writing activities in this chapter and share your process in your post.
Respond to 2 people.
I have a student that is very low. He is a non-reader with the exception of some sight words that we have been working on this year. We do letter formation exercises. We have used WikiStix (A.k.a Bendaroos) to make letters, tracing pages, dot-to-dot letters, as well as using the ABC Trace app on the iPad. We have also been lucky enough to get a (temporary) Smart Table that my student really enjoys using. We have used it to practice writing the Alphabet, and also to practice sight words. His favorite exercise is using the Smart Table to write and draw his sight words. I write the word on my side of the table, he writes the word on the opposite side, and then we both draw a picture of the word underneath our words. When we both finish, he gets to erase and choose the next word to write.
ReplyDeleteAnother way we have practiced writing is to use an app on the iPad that helps students create "I like" sentences. He has also practiced typing words on the computer. One of his favorite things to do is look at pictures that interest him on Google. He has to spell the word into the search box in order to look at the pictures. It is hard to get my student to actually write with a pencil and paper, so being able to use all of this great technology has been wonderful for his learning.
I think the smart table would be tremendous for writng. Do you use the spelling city site for spelling? I do use the abc trace app on IPAD. Also have the old stamps and they stamp and then trace the letters. Serves a lot of purposes. Really like the smart table. So jealous!!!
DeleteI love all of your ideas. It sounds like your student really enjoys what you are doing. The Smart Table sounds great - something our kids could really benefit from.
DeleteI have low writers. When the class is doing a writing, we focus on writing name, letters to copy. Other times to do a story the child does the writing, usually letters in an order, looks like the person's name and any other letter it sees. Then have them draw a picture about the writing and then talk about it. Since this child's language is very low this can be a task to understand, but it does work.
ReplyDeleteI have often used writing story books with pictures to encourage children to express. Sometimes it is an oral expression and I copy it down, mostly shared.The pictures are great.
THis year have an older student, 4th grade and use the story lines app. On my computer I use the INto the Book site to help organize and write.
This year the Story Line app has been a great winner and motivator. Also, used the dragon talk write so the student only focuses on punctuation and paragraph things. It has also added demension for student writing.
I do like the thinking maps organizers. they help the getting the idea down. Did it two weeks ago for a writing on lions. Did keep child organized. I give the spelling to them. ALso if they use computer let them use the tools and it puts them incharge.
I will have to look at the story lines app. I don't have the ipad but have an ipod touch that I use sometimes. Also need to take a look at the into the book site.
DeleteThinking maps really do work well to organize information. My 5th grade student starts a research paper this week in science so I can put these great ideas to use! He's not really a reluctant writer, more of a reluctant thinker/worker.
I like the story lines app too. I have it on the I Pad and for the lower kid, I also use the words we learn daily to write one sentence and illustrate it. It just takes time to bulid up enough words to be able to make a sentence. That is another thing I like about the Fry lists we discussed in chapter ten.
DeleteI used the idea about writing their sentences and then cutting them apart to organize them, except I used index cards. He wrote his topic sentence, details, and conclusion sentence on 5 different cards. Then he was able to add to each card to make them better sentences and arrange them how he wanted to. He really liked doing it this way and it seemed to help him fix his sentences since there was plenty of room on the cards.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of giving a student a certain number of sentences to write, then increasing that number as they get better.
I always think that hands on activities such as this aid in student learning. It is also helpful for them to see that the parts make the whole, even in reading! This activity reminds me of an activity introduced by Dr. Marie Carbo who is the founder of the Reading Styles Institute which was one of my "go to" authors when I taught Title I. "These next few chapters are full of ideas, both new and old that we have forgotten about. Nice job Rae Lynn!
DeleteI am currently using idea #235 on page 116 in my 3rd hour reading class. We are reading a book series that contains short biographies. At the end of each reading my students are to write a 1/2 page summary over whoever we just read about using their book for reference. After the students write they then take turns reading their summaries aloud to the class. Unfortunately for them I am a better reading teacher than a writing teacher so we have not doen much writing but this last 9 weeks we are going to focus on writing more. These are all 8th graders and so they need to work on writing skills before going to high school. Luckily for them they also have an English teacher who does more writing! I am focusing on ideas more than mechanics at this point. After they read they show me their work and I make some corrections or I just orally tell them how to improve for the next day. We did this activity all last week and will continue with it this week. It does help them to hear their words being spoken! I have also used the visual organizers in the past with 6th graders. They draw a bubble map like the one on the bottom of page 115. The main topic in the center and the ideas that spider out from it become sentences for the paragraph. This is an easy way for students who struggle with getting started in writing to write a good paragraph. I have a 6th grader who struggles with fine motor skills. I am going to try the activities listed on page 110. Alot of good ideas in this chapter!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started teaching, Writing to Read was the "it" program of the time so writing has always been an integral part of my teaching repertoire. There were several ideas in this chapter that I have used both as a regular classroom teacher and as a parent. When my children were preschoolers, we would practice letter formation by writing in pudding and shaving cream, #199 to get the sensory stimulation. I highly recommend doing this activity outside with preschoolers! As a fourth grade teacher we used question-and-answer journals, #215 to respond to the the novels we read together as a class. As a teacher, I found this activity to be very rewarding not only for the student's writing abilities, but for the personal interactions it provided between me and each student. Ideas #229 and #243 stress the importance of allowing children to write creatively without worrying about mechanics and spelling. I couldn't agree more and can tell you that from experience comes success. The more a child practices writing his ideas down on paper, the better a writer he becomes. Sometimes it is so freeing for the child to not have to worry about measuring up to someone's standards and just to write for pleasure. I used this activity with a middle school special education student who was at a 2nd grade reading level. Once he realized that his writing would not be criticized, he went from writing a two to three word paragraph to an entire page.
ReplyDeleteI like writing with shaving cream in third grade as well. We can do it for spelling words after a recess when they have been sweating.....gre my drift?
DeleteGenerating Ideas was a good place to start. Often, we get the most boring sentences from our kids and I am discouraged (for lack of a better word) because when they have conversations, the language is so much more colorful and interesting. I like teaching writing because it can be so much fun once they get going. Activity 217 was too hard for my kids, but 218 fit the bill nicely. I put the sentences on the board then let them elaborate with whatever they wanted (school appropriate). If you have the right starter, the results are good. One starter I used was "My feet smell like......" I got... pizza, my dad, onions and cookies. I love this activity.
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