Now that you have had time to process the workshop from last week, what are your take away thoughts? What are two things you plan to use with your students?
One big take away for me, was Kate's emphasis on allowing time between drafting and revising. First grade likes to do seasonal and thematic projects, and these would fit in perfectly between a draft and revising. I liked her idea on p. 26 about the "bonus detail". That is language a student at any age can understand. I also liked her idea on p. 41 to think of different titles or words associated with your story, then cut them apart, and begin to sort them in many different combinations. Carrie
I really enjoyed the workshop. We started our short story unit and have already implemented many of the strategies. Last week, we used the brainstorming chart with 3 columns, and the students had so much fun mixing and matching columns to create ideas for possible stories. This upcoming week we are having the students act out emotions with partners and write down their observations, just like we did with Kate Messner! We are also giving students a day to research about their character or setting, so they can add those details to their story. The workshop definitely changed my way of thinking about revision, and the strategies are very practical and easy to use in the classroom.
I completely agree with Courtney. The strategies Kate Messner introduced us to have already proven to be valuable in our classrooms. When Kate Messner said that one of the reasons kids are so reluctant to revise is because they spend so long drafting, it really stuck with me. This unit, we had the students do a quick, timed draft for 20min one afternoon and we now are going to spend several class periods revising and making it better. Our "show not tell" lesson, in which we had to students apply the notes they took while watching a student act out a certain emotion from their story, was very powerful. The kids were able to see right away ways that their story improved and they were actually excited to continue to revise! They even pointed out times that the author of our read aloud did "show not tell" later in the day! I am excited to continue to implement these strategies and get students interested in revision. :)
Courtney is a teammate and I have also done the same activities. The stduents really loved drafting in 20 minutes. They were very hesitant at first but afterwards expressed how much they enjoyed the experience. They instantly had so many idea on how to revise and make their story better. Yesterday, we used one of Kate's "show don't tell" strategies. The students worked with a partner to act out a character's emotions. They wrote about their partner's body, face, and actions and put those observations into their story. It was practice and fun and the students loved it.
I found Chapter 5 very powerful, especially the part where Kate shares a response to a student’s letter about do authors really use webs and outlines. Kate shared so many ideas and she compared prewriting to a toolbox where you always have prewriting options that you can pull from when you need them. It is important to have a wide variety of planning strategies. This concept could be beneficial for students in a visual format. Maybe have a real tool box and each time you introduce a new prewriting “tool” it can go into the toolbox. You could also create a visual in SMART notebook.
I love the idea of sensory field trips that Kate talks about in Chapter 8. Students are given different colored post-it notes which correspond to the five different senses. Then they go on a sensory field trip, down the hall, outside, travel somewhere or go on a virtual field trip. Their task is to write down things they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. I find that many of my students get “stuck.” They write something and want to be finished. The sensory field trip gets them up and away from their piece of writing. They can move around and go to different places. They collect information on colorful paper, which is always fun, and they enjoy getting out of the classroom setting. When they come back they are somewhat more refreshed with a new perspective that they can use to revise their story. Brilliant idea! I can’t wait to try it!
One big take away for me, was Kate's emphasis on allowing time between drafting and revising. First grade likes to do seasonal and thematic projects, and these would fit in perfectly between a draft and revising.
ReplyDeleteI liked her idea on p. 26 about the "bonus detail". That is language a student at any age can understand.
I also liked her idea on p. 41 to think of different titles or words associated with your story, then cut them apart, and begin to sort them in many different combinations.
Carrie
I really enjoyed the workshop. We started our short story unit and have already implemented many of the strategies. Last week, we used the brainstorming chart with 3 columns, and the students had so much fun mixing and matching columns to create ideas for possible stories. This upcoming week we are having the students act out emotions with partners and write down their observations, just like we did with Kate Messner! We are also giving students a day to research about their character or setting, so they can add those details to their story. The workshop definitely changed my way of thinking about revision, and the strategies are very practical and easy to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteCourtney
I completely agree with Courtney. The strategies Kate Messner introduced us to have already proven to be valuable in our classrooms. When Kate Messner said that one of the reasons kids are so reluctant to revise is because they spend so long drafting, it really stuck with me. This unit, we had the students do a quick, timed draft for 20min one afternoon and we now are going to spend several class periods revising and making it better. Our "show not tell" lesson, in which we had to students apply the notes they took while watching a student act out a certain emotion from their story, was very powerful. The kids were able to see right away ways that their story improved and they were actually excited to continue to revise! They even pointed out times that the author of our read aloud did "show not tell" later in the day! I am excited to continue to implement these strategies and get students interested in revision. :)
ReplyDeleteCourtney is a teammate and I have also done the same activities. The stduents really loved drafting in 20 minutes. They were very hesitant at first but afterwards expressed how much they enjoyed the experience. They instantly had so many idea on how to revise and make their story better. Yesterday, we used one of Kate's "show don't tell" strategies. The students worked with a partner to act out a character's emotions. They wrote about their partner's body, face, and actions and put those observations into their story. It was practice and fun and the students loved it.
ReplyDeleteI found Chapter 5 very powerful, especially the part where Kate shares a response to a student’s letter about do authors really use webs and outlines. Kate shared so many ideas and she compared prewriting to a toolbox where you always have prewriting options that you can pull from when you need them. It is important to have a wide variety of planning strategies. This concept could be beneficial for students in a visual format. Maybe have a real tool box and each time you introduce a new prewriting “tool” it can go into the toolbox. You could also create a visual in SMART notebook.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of sensory field trips that Kate talks about in Chapter 8. Students are given different colored post-it notes which correspond to the five different senses. Then they go on a sensory field trip, down the hall, outside, travel somewhere or go on a virtual field trip. Their task is to write down things they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. I find that many of my students get “stuck.” They write something and want to be finished. The sensory field trip gets them up and away from their piece of writing. They can move around and go to different places. They collect information on colorful paper, which is always fun, and they enjoy getting out of the classroom setting. When they come back they are somewhat more refreshed with a new perspective that they can use to revise their story. Brilliant idea! I can’t wait to try it!