Last Sunday was my idea of the perfect weather, so I took advantage and explored Marie Antoinette’s garden. A man-made mountain in the shape of a snail, a temple of love, springtime flowers a…
Look out criminals, it's Color Boy and Peepers, to the rescue! Seriously, stop laughing.
NaNoWriMo is just over the hill now. Why don’t we dig a little deeper into the minds and details of our characters before we embark on that adventure? Character Profile and Interview
How something as simple as the naming of coins can add depth and realism to your fantasy world. Dig into currency and monetary systems to add an extra layer to your worldbuilding.
The internet is fraught with content mills taking advantage of writers who simply want to put in the effort and get paid to write. When so many of these mills pay $5 for guest posts or $10 per article, it’s no wonder freelance writers get discouraged when trying to make money online.But dig deeper, and you'll
After reading How a Book is Made by Aliki, try some of these ideas for making books with kids. Great canvases for great stories!
Explore mary_robinson's 517 photos on Flickr!
Last week we looked at the beautiful language and sentence fluency in All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan. I decided to do a small writing project with the kids to help them adopt a more fluent writing style and to write more like Patricia MacLachlan. We noticed that all the places the characters loved in her book had to do with nature. I modeled for students how I thought of a place in nature that I love (the Horicon Marsh), followed by nouns that I see, feel, smell, hear, and taste while I'm there. After all, good writers appeal to a reader's senses! Students then followed my model and thought of their own special place in nature and filled out their pre-writing sheet with powerful nouns. We also used a page from All the Places to Love to help us look at different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We recorded several examples of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and similes. Students kept track of this new learning in their Powerful Words & Phrases tab. Eventually we used our pre-writing sheet to fill in our drafting sheet. I gave students a general outline to encourage the sentence fluency of Patricia MacLachlan. With their new knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and similes, students could better understand the different words they were to include in their draft. Good writers have their pre-writing sheet right next to their draft so that they can stick to their plan! After students read their writing to a peer, it was time to publish. We used the computer lab to help us with this task. Fourth graders aren't the most fluent typists but the short length of this piece allowed them to get a feel for publishing using a computer without feeling too overwhelmed. We will be putting each student's page in our own classroom book called All the Places 4B Loves. :) Our literacy coach, Mrs. Johnson, came to help us get better with answering short answer questions. She used this anchor chart to help us learn the steps to writing a great answer! We looked at two different sample responses and together we evaluated whether the responses were strong or not. We looked specifically for a question stem, complete sentences, details and examples from the text, and whether the student truly answered the question. Then it was time for students to try out their new learning. They received a short reading about dolphins, a short-answer response sheet, and a self-assessment sheet to evaluate their answer during and after writing their response. The next day we had a chance to look at some of our own answers from the day before. I scanned a few samples and we discussed what each writer did well (strengths) and what the writer could do to improve (goals). In this sample, we noticed how the writer used part of the question to help her formulate the first line of her answer. Bravo! In this sample, we noticed this writer also used part of the question to help her start her answer. We also discovered that this writer needed to include more examples or details from the text and do some rereading of her answer as she writes to make sure it makes sense. This writer used great transition words to write her answer. We noticed that her topic sentence actually appeared as the last sentence in her response so we thought it would be a good idea to move it to the top of her response. After we discussed as a class about strengths and goals, I handed back students' short-answer responses from the day before. They reread them, and then I had them write a response about their strengths and goals in their My Thoughts tab of their Thoughtful Logs. In guided reading, we continued looking at different types of print. Students showed evidence of being able to identify the definitions of words in a different type of print. They recorded their thinking in their Thoughtful Logs. Today we added another non-fiction text feature to our list: headings! I photocopied a page from our social studies text book and a page from a question and answer book to help model the different headers and sub-headers we see in texts. This anchor chart communicates my explicit teaching point for our reading lesson today. I modeled my own thinking when I got to the first header of an article about satellites. I activated my schema and made a prediction before I read on. After I modeled my own thinking, I gave students their own copy of the article so they could practice the strategy themselves using the next header in the article. The header read: Movers and Shakers. During guided reading, students read a non-fiction article about Yosemite National Park and did a similar response show evidence that they understand how to think when they get to a header in a non-fiction text. Students used the header From Paris to the Parks. During Writer's Workshop today we learned that we need to indent and start a new paragraph every time our topic changes. We looked at real published writing from a book about koalas to help us see that indenting is really something published authors do when they switch to writing about a new topic. Then I modeled for students how to pre-write for a piece of writing that's about three different topics. I used the listing strategy to jot down several key words about each of my topics. Then I modeled how I took each of the key words on my pre-writing plan and expanded them as I drafted each paragraph. Each time I switched to a new topic, I was sure to indent! Students got a chance to practice this strategy independently. I had them glue a prompt sheet in their own notebooks, pre-write their ideas, and draft from their plan. You can see this writer showed evidence of understanding that she should indent every time she switches to writing about a new topic. This small writing assignment also helps me assess students' convention use, sentence fluency, word choice, and their ability to draft from their pre-writing plan. You'll notice in the above piece of writing that the student highlighted the words 'a lot' three times. Students in our room know to highlight anywhere in their writing when they know they're meeting their writing goal. For this writer, one of the goals we set for her a few weeks ago was to make sure to spell 'a lot' as two words rather than one. When I looked at this students' writing, I saw the highlighting which was a signal for me to mark in my writing binder that she met her goal. Now that she showed evidence of applying her writing goal three times successfully, I officially signed off on her goal! Way to go, girl! Homework: 1. Reading - 15 mins., Pizza Log 2. Math - 10 mins. of facts, WKCE prep questions 3. Handwriting - pgs. 22-23 4. Social Studies - test tomorrow! Extra: Costume in a bag! Our party will begin at 2pm.
This realistic fiction writing unit is so much fun for your first and second graders! Looking for more writing resources?! You can find ALL my writing resources for a fraction of the price here in my FIRST GRADE WRITING - EVERGROWING BUNDLE! This unit has students digging deeper into the writer's workshop process as they expand on characters, add problems and solutions, and come up with satisfying endings to their stories! In this unit: How to get started: background and preparation In my classroom Daily paper options Mini-lessons and activities for each of the following: 1. Realistic fiction vs. fantasy 2. It starts with a character 3. Storytelling and sketching 4. Characters think & feel 5. Stories need a problem & a solution 6. Don’t leave us hanging (adding a satisfying ending) 7. Characters can have lots of stories Anchor charts and re-teaching activities for the above mini-lessons Editing and revision checklists (individual and partner) Rubrics Publishing book template Enjoy! Susan Jones
Do you teach how to write realistic fiction in your first or second grade classroom? See how this first grade teacher has students creating characters,
Here are the 8 elements that every nonfiction book proposal needs if you want to get it published.
Different characters play different roles in a story. These roles fall into three categories (Card, 1988, p. 59), with the major character...
Interested in a Google Sheets version of this bundle? Check out my new listing here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1047357783/12-week-goals-bundle-for-google-sheets Virgo Rising's paper design templates are created to encompass thorough planning strategies in a minimalist design aesthetic. The 12 Week Goals Bundle is comprised of a series of templates inspired by the teachings in the book, "The 12 Week Year" by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Instantly download this 12 Week Goals Bundle and either: • Print from your home printer and fill in by hand • Send to a print shop to create a personalized planner • Open digitally on an PDF editor like Adobe Reader or Preview • Use a stylus to fill in on your tablet ► F E A T U R E S Zip Folder includes: • 11 page PDF in US Letter ( 8.5 x 11 in ) • 11 page PDF in A4 ( 8.27 x 11.69 in ) • 11 page PDF in A5 ( 5.8 x 8.3 in ) All PDF's: • Feature hole punch safe margins • High resolution ► HOW TO USE Recommended Printer Settings (not required): • For Letter, A4, and A5 sizing select the "Actual Size" (100%) in your printer's sizing settings • Use heavier weight matte paper • Use your printer's highest ink quality settings ► TERMS OF USE • This is a digital product which means no physical materials will be shipped to you. You will gain access to download the digital files instantly after payment and may print them as many times as you like. • Virgo Rising's paper design products are for personal use only. Please do not share, sell, or redistribute these files.
One of our most important goals as educators of readers is to help instill a love for reading. Yes. It is also to teach them how to read. Yes. But we also want them to understand what they are reading. And not just at a surface level, but at a deeper level. So basically...our goal is to nurture our students into... deep, thoughtful, fluent, "can't put the book down" readers. Not an easy task. But an exciting one. And one that requires some great mentor texts that support and excite our young readers. Last year, Tanny McGregor stopped by our classroom to present a new lesson on theme. Within this lesson she used concrete materials, anchor charts, and discussion to help our firsties discover the theme across several texts. We were excited to put what we learned from her into place this school year. And we knew just the books that we wanted to use. Ruby In Her Own Time and Leo the Late Bloomer are two texts with a similar story line. As you can probably guess from the titles, both stories are about characters that learn to do things a bit later than their peers. They are "late bloomers" and learn to do things "in their own time." Ruby is a duckling that hatches later than her siblings, learns to eat late, and also learns to swim last. But as the title states, Ruby learns to do all the things that her peers do, but at her own rate and in her own time. Just like the little duckling, Leo learns to read, write, draw, and speak; however, he did not "bloom" until he was ready. It is interesting that the mother in both texts know that the child will "bloom" in their own time. To begin, I want to introduce the word "theme" to my first graders because this a new term for them. The Common Core states "retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson." The shift from the term "central message" to "theme" happens in forth grade, but I don't think it is a bad idea to expose them to both terms. When identifying a theme across multiple texts, Tanny called them "Text Cousins." As the lesson progresses, the possible themes are recorded on a large chart paper. This allows students to think about all the possible themes based on evidence from all three texts. To begin our study of central message, I will display a quote from Gandhi. I will read it, we will read it, and they will read it. The students can then identify surface level information about this quote such as: 16 words, 2 contractions, or 2 sentences. As these surface level items are discussed the students will get to touch the surface of the sand in my glass bowl. Side note: I am using "moon sand" for this lesson because I like the way it moves when we dig deeper for the theme. After students explore all their surface level thinking with the quote, I want them to begin thinking about what Gandhi really means by this quote. What is his message to us? (As I ask this question, I am going to dig deeper in the glass bowl.) As students share their thinking in this lesson, I will keep track of these theme ideas on our chart paper; however, students will also get to dig deeper into our bowl and place a "digging deep: theme" card at the bottom of the bowl. We will continue our discussion of digging deeper into the theme with the book Leo the Late Bloomer; however, I will only be showing the illustrations from this text and talking with students about what they see going on in the story. I want them to focus on the overriding theme and message from the author through the illustrations. Once the picture walk is complete, students will add their theme ideas to our chart (while also digging deeper into our bowl). The final book, Ruby in Her Own Time, will then be read aloud in its entirety. Students will "turn and talk" to decide what they think the possible theme could be across all these texts. As we record these theme ideas, I will be asking what evidence led them to that conclusion. This lesson can be used with any texts that fit the needs of your students. Within this resource, you will find the quote from Gandhi typed up in case you would like to use these specific "text cousins: (as Tanny called them). Along with the quote, there are surface level and digging deep cards. The surface level/deeper thinking cards can be used as an additional visual when the students touch the surface of the sand or dig deeper into the bowl. I would like them to not only see the surface of the sand but also SEE where their thinking would fall in this bowl. Then when they have deeper thought, I want them to not only dig, but place a thinking card. Two graphic organizers are included to assist your students understanding of surface versus deeper thinking. The first organizer is more of a labeling activity to help them show you what they learned from the lesson. The second organizer requires students to determine the theme of a text and provide support for their thinking. This could be used in a whole group, small group, or independently. I hope that this is a lesson that you can use with your students this year. Be sure to grab your Freebie by clicking on any of the product images! Please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions about this lesson on theme. Thanks! Before you move on to the next post, my mystery word is Butterflies. [HERE] is the link to the form you can use to keep track of the mystery words at each stop. You'll need them for an entry on the Kindergarten-2nd grade Rafflecopter below. a Rafflecopter giveaway An InLinkz Link-up
Brian's Winter is a story that even your most reluctant readers will love, and this novel study is designed to engage them in meaningful post-reading activities that won't overwhelm or discourage their excitement. It is hard enough to find ways to keep reluctant readers excited about books. You don't need long lists of chapter comprehension questions to get in your way. That's why I created this trifold novel study format. Each day focuses on a single comprehension skill, and students dig deep without feeling the overwhelm that often comes with the traditional novel study format. Your download includes: Instructional planning guide 3 paper-saving novel study trifolds - up to 15 instructional days 3 weekly word of the day flip books for text-based vocabulary Cut & paste comprehension prompts for interactive journals Easy-to-follow directions for printing & prep Trifold Answer keys Reading Comprehension Skills Addressed: Main Idea & Summary Analyzing Text Making Inferences & Drawing Conclusions Analyzing Characters & Change over Time Sequencing Cause & Effect Problem & Solution And so much more! Benefits of Trifolds over Traditional Novel Units: ❑ Foldable format provides novelty and encourages student engagement ❑ Daily comprehension focus builds reading comprehension skills vs. plot recall ❑ Less overwhelming to reluctant readers and writers ❑ Requires deep analysis and application of text-based knowledge ❑ Encourages discussion about skills & strategies Questions? Click here to contact me directly!
100+ Words to Use Instead of VERY in English.
Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future by Franz Born illustrated by Peter P. Plasencia ©1964 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Great little book on the futurist Jules Verne, illustrated by Peter P. Plasencia, who, as you may recall, illustrated the wonderful Space Alphabet book. I love seeing how Peter utilized the gouache to create various depths of field by the use of the subtle shades of grey. All the while flattening the space within the composition. Superb work. Love it.
Clear, Concise and Consistent are the 3Cs of UX writing. Find out how to use them to write great microcopy that will massively improve User Experience.
The Café de Flore, opened in the 1880s during the Third Republic, is celebrated for its famous clientele which have included some of the greatest French writers and philosophers. Georges Bataille, Robert Desnos, Léon-Paul Fargue, Raymond Queneau were all regulars, along with the artist Pablo Picasso. Jean-Paul Sartre spoke of the café during the war: … Continue reading "Photographs of the Famous Café de Flore in Paris"
New and upcoming releases that got attention at this year's Book Expo America!
The movies have lied to us yet again. This time, we're digging in to common misconceptions about knights and their horses in medieval Europe.
