The Mysteries of Harris Burdick revealed!

I use the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick at the beginning of the year , as a writing prompt (click here to read more about how my lesson). My students pick a picture and then they use that to spark their writing idea. I recently came across the book, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. In this book, 14 well known authors from Lemony Snicket to Linda Sue Park to Lois Lowry to Louis Sachar to Sherman Alexie to Steven King all have written their own short stories based on the picture. I picked a few short stories to read to my students, before they wrote their own stores based on the pictures. I felt that it really let them see an example of good writing, and that every story can go in such a different direction that what you may originally think. It also has an interesting introduction about the pictures, and where they came from written by Lemony Snicket. If you don’t have these books, they are a must for your classroom! They enhance writing, discussion and reading!!

Websites to get Kids Writing!

Your Child’s Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity and Skill at Every Age: by Pam Allyn 

Here is part two of my thoughts, see the last post, for my initial thoughts about why teachers and parents should get this book!

This is starred in my copy that I need to keep in mind as I teach writing:

Also found in Your Child’s Writing Life by Pam Allyn was a list of  some amazing websites that foster real and new audiences for writing (aren’t we all looking for authentic publishing opportunities?)

Has anyone used any of these sites in your classroom, and wants to share ?

Check them out, and may they inspire you to get your student’s writing!!  

Your Child’s Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity and Skill at Every Age!

Your Child’s Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity, and Skill at Every Age by Pam Allyn is a book that I came across that I started flipping through, and then realized this would be a good book for me to have. Although I don’t have any biological children of my own, I do have hundred every school year that I consider my own!

The book is useful for parents with kids or teachers. It focuses mostly on children from birth to 12 and how we can enhance their writing life and experiences.

Something that struck me from the beginning of the book that immediately struck me was we, as teachers, are looking to create life long readers in our classroom. Do we also think about and want to create life long writers in our classroom?

After reading this book my goal for this upcoming school year is to create life long readers and writers.

Here are some of the highlights from the book that I jotted down as I read it:

• Writing leads to guaranteed improvement in academic achievement.
• “ Writing fosters a child’s emotional growth. Writing is a way to pay better attention to our lives and to build the confidence to trust our opinions and voices.”  Middle school students struggle so much with confidence and voicing their opinions. I have seen in the past that when students share their writing, they are able to voice their feelings, opinions and stories. It helps them to gain confidence in themselves when others respond positively to their writing.
• The book also has a list of Twenty Great books to inspire writing- if nothing else, these titles make it worth it to get the book- add these to your classroom library!
• Another good tip was that older children may be hesitant to share their writing, so sharing writing from other people (yourself, real authors, past students) may help your student to feel more confident in their writing.

These are just a few notes I jotted down, in a few days, I will add other thoughts I had after reading this book!

Figurative Language & Creative Writing

So you teach your students the definitions of all the figurative language terms, and you read some poems and writing with figurative language in them, so now what? Why do we teach figurative language? Do you ever get your students to write using figurative language?

I found lots of writing ideas that you can share with your students in the book, Rip The PageL Adventures in Creative Writing by Karen Benke. The book is written for people who want to practice their creative writing skills, but there are lots of ideas with examples that you can share with kids. You can also look inside the page here.

Some of these I will require students to try, and others may be at a writing station that they can pick through a try. I may even use some as writing sparks.

Some of my favorite ideas  with the chapter titles are:

Sly Similes and Mighty Metaphors: Using similes and metaphors and giving them the titles- self portrait and my soul

Nothing, You Got that: Have nothing to write about? What gets you angry, annoyed, frustrated, sad, yelling- mad? Spit out everything you don’t want to say. Everything you refuse. All that you despise.

A Color Only My Soul can Understand: Pick a color, then take a walk. Take your time to see and feel all the things that are this color.

Personification party: Here’s what happened at a party when the colors showed up personified, and a poem about what the rain would be like if it were a fisherman.

Catching Whispers: Finish the sentences below:

Today a cloud said…

Last night a spider admitted…

The weeds pushing through the sidewalk asked if…The hangers in my closet were wondering if…

I could go on and on, but I feel that this book is packed with prompts, ideas, writing examples and notes from writers to improve the craft of writing, check it out for yourself!

 

Fresh Writing Sparks!

It is always nice to get some fresh writing spark ideas. Here are some new ideas I have used, or have been thinking about. What are some writing sparks you like, and more importantly get the kids thinking and writing ?

Here are some one liners that let them take it wherever they want to go (lists, poems, stories, short passages, memoirs etc..):

If you really knew me….

I believe….

What I wish the world would hear me roar…

This is my message to___________

What gives me hope:

Lucky- I show my students the video below and give them the word lucky and they go with it- I find that this spark brings out lots of writing ideas for them!

If you had one day to live, what would you do?

There is an MTV show called The Buried Life.  The show is  about four guys who are on a mission to accomplish a list of things they want to do before they die. As they travel around crossing off items from their list, they also help someone do something on their list. They always end the show with, if we were to come to your town and asked you, if you had one day to live, what would you do? Would you know what to say?

I went to youtube and grabbed a video  of the intro of the show and showed it to my students. I used it as a writing spark, and they loved compiling their list. This was a spark I also really enjoyed writing and sharing with them. I loved looking back through my past bucket lists I have made and seeing how my items have changed as I have grown.

If you don’t want your student to compile a list, you could also just use the writing spark- if you had one day to live, what would you do?

Writing Circles Made Easy

Writing Circles Pt. II

For those of you who read my post  recently about writing circles, I wanted to update with some other ideas of how this is working for me in my classroom.

Here are some points that have worked for me with my writing circles:

• I have my writing circles meet once a week on the same day. This consistency helps the kids stay organized and they know that on Tuesdays they will be expected to share their writing with their group.
• At the end of each session I have the students pick their topic for the following week. I also have them pick who will be the first reader (the person who will read his/her piece first next week) and the task master (the person to keep everyone on task and to make sure they listen to each other and everyone shares).
• Before the groups meet, I have the students write three topics they would like to write about in their notebooks. Then I have them pick their top idea and write that on the notecard and bring it to the group. This way they aren’t influenced by each other’s ideas. Also it makes things move more quickly.
• I am going to have my students pick their favorite writing and add it to their blog. Then I am going to have them comment on each other’s writings via their blog. This will enable students who are not in each other’s writing groups to be able to hear others writings and comment on them.

If anyone has tried writing circles and has other ideas that work, please share!!!

Get past the “I have NO idea what to write about!” comments

Writing Circles

I have had my students work with their writing groups for some time now, and the ideas and topics of what to write about are getting redundant and dry. I  find my students are struggling to come up with  fresh topics to write about.

I adapted an idea from Jim Vopat’s book, Writing Circles: Kids Revolutionize Workshop.

I had the students think of three topics that they felt they could write something about. I told them this could be a word or phrase. I gave them examples of flowers, dogs, red, friendship, peace, I hate, boys vs. girls, baseball etc… I then had them pick the one topic that they are the most interested in writing about. They wrote their word on a notecard. Then I had them get into their writing groups and pass the cards in a circle marking each topic according to how they felt:

·         * Is they would like to write about this topic

·         ? if they are willing to try the topic

·         X if the topic won’t work for them.

They then collected the topics and the one that had the most stars was the topic that they had to write about. I give my students one week to write about the topic in any genre.  There is a little writing time in class for this, but they also may need to do some outside of class. I told them that it is not a final copy, but they must share what they wrote with their writing group. This may be a half page to one page.

Since I have done this, the kids seem excited to have a specific topic that they need to write about. It helps them get over the hump of I don’t know what to write about. There is still chouice given in this because they come up with their topics and have a voice in which topic they like. They also are able to write in any genre that they choose.

So far the students have really enjoyed the writing circle topics. Even if they get a topic they don’t care for, they write about how much they hate that topic. Since I require them all to share their writing, they are motivated to write well since they know their peers will be reading it. I heard a student say that he wanted to work harder on his topic this week because he was not proud of his writing he brought to this group!

Using writing topics will enable the students to write various genres on lots of topics and have many rough drafts. In a few weeks I will have them pick a writing that they want to take further in the writing process so that they can have a published piece.

 

Two Great Gift Books!

There are two books that are perfect for gift giving this time of year.

One of them is The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things by Neil Pasricha. In the book are small awesome things that we may find in  you every day lives that makes you stop for a moment and say, Awesome! After each awesome moment is a brief story or explanation- many will leave you nodding your head yeah that is awesome! We have started a tradition where we read one awesome moment at dinner every night- it is a simple reminder to appreciate the small awesome moments in our lives.

I also had my students come up with their own small awesome moments as a writing spark!

 

Examples from the book include: Wearing underwear just out of the dryer, Being the first table called up for the dinner buffet at a wedding, When the vending machine gives you two things instead of one, The first shower you take after not showering for a really long time, When cashiers open up new checkout lanes at the grocery store, Sleeping in new bed sheets etc…

Another great book to give to others  that I read is: God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours by Regina Brett. What I like about this book is that there are 50 short life lessons that are meaningful to many people at different stages of life. This is a book that you can read and then keep coming back to and re-reading as there are different  parts that will resonate each time it is read.  I have given this book to a few friends and they have loved it!

This is a summary from Publisher’s Weekly about the book:  “On turning 50, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Brett wrote her most popular piece ever, containing the cancer survivor and single mom’s most important life lessons. Here she expands and expounds on that column, incorporating other essays penned over her 14 years as an opinion columnist, to make a rousing inspirational collection. Most of her pieces-dedicated to substantive but familiar ideas like “Overprepare, then go with the flow,” “Stay put in the day you are in,” and “God loves you because of who God is”-are short, sweet, and frequently resonant (if at times overly simple). Complimenting her own experience with anecdotes from friends and others, as well as poems, prayers, psalms and excerpts from treasured books, Brett employs a veteran writer’s knack for keen observation and thorough self-knowledge, delivering hard-earned wisdom with deceptive ease.”

 

Get the creative juices flowing with some “sparks!”

I give my students writing sparks these sparks may be an image, video clip, song, quote, object, words etc… Then I have them write silently for a few minutes. I find that for their choice pieces that I require them to have in writing workshop, many of their ideas for their pieces come from these writing sparks. Here are two images that I thought would be great sparks. I used the golf picture the other day with my kids and we loved looking, writing and talking about all the people in the background!!

This is an image that was recently taken and is known as  the greatest photo that Tiger Woods gave us:

*This is from the Ryder Cup. No, it’s not staged or Photoshopped. That’s really Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball straight at the camera.

How’d it happen? By mistake. The cameraman, Mark Pain of the Daily Mail, was in the proper position on the 18th hole when Woods flat-out duffed his shot. The ball hit Pain’s camera and dropped to the ground. But unlike many instances when Woods and caddy Stevie Williams have taken issue with photographers, Tiger had nothing to say here. He knew he was in the wrong, not Pain.

(Aside: best part of the gallery in this picture? The smiling dude with the cigar on the right side of the frame. He’s the only thing about this photo that looks fake.)

* Taken from Devil Ball Golf.

Here is another picture to remind your kids the importance of proofreading and double checking your work: