Writing!

Our class has been writing personal narratives.  Starting off, it's helpful for students to understand that real writers often get writers block, and they use strategies to come up with story ideas. We have been using strategies to generate story ideas. Example: Think of someone important to you.  Think of small moments in time you have spent with this person.

With many story option to choose from, students have been at work drafting and redrafting, using all of the strategies and skills they know of to write great personal narratives.  

After writing some pieces, students started coming up to me and asking, "How does this measure up?" What a GREAT question!  What's important is that the students themselves have some idea of what to look for in quality writing.  We brainstormed some ideas, and here are some of the traits they came up with:

Great narratives give the writer an experience-not a summary.

Great narratives don't try to tell the entire story using only dialogue. 

Great narratives include a lot of interesting details.

They're on the right track! Great narrative writing should have an emotional impact on readers and be full of much imagery and sensory details. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This week, we planned how we could deliver such an experience to our readers.  We came up with a story line that we would all use to apply a new strategy: Little Billy becomes unhinged when his mother buys him an apple at the ice cream stand.  We wanted our reader to INFER that Billy was mad - to FEEL his anger.

...People don't plan to fail.  They fail to plan. We planned ways that characters reveal themselves: by what they say, think, and do.   Also we discussed how 90% of what we communicate to others is non-verbal, so we planned body clues (like balling up his fists or veins popping out his neck) for the piece. 

With the planning complete, students went to work drafting their pieces.  

After we were done, we used different colored pencils to circle sentences containing one of the four categories:  Say, Think, Body Clues, Actions

Students then analyzed their work to see how they were able to use different types of details to make their character dynamically alive!

Finally, students went back to their own personal narratives and did the same type of analysis.  Many students had an "a-ha" moment and became aware of a practical strategy that could help them bring their narratives to life.

Example of student work (written by Zach):

One beautiful Sunday afternoon, Billy and his mom were out for a walk when Billy saw an ice cream stand. "Mommy, can we get something?"

"OK, but don't spoil your appetite!" 

Billy's freckles shined as he showed his missing teeth.  I hope they nave cookie dough! Billy thought.

"Hi, can I get an apple?" Billy heard his mom say.

Who's getting an apple? Billy thought.  Is this a joke?

"Here you go, Billy," said his mom, handing him an apple.

Oh, you're going to pay, Mommy, thought Billy. All of a sudden, he threw the apple on the ground and said, " I HATE YOU!  AHHHHHH!" Billy had smoke coming out of his ears, and veins were popping out of his neck.  With his bright red face and slanted eyebrows, Billy looked sort of funny.  With growing rage, he shouted, "Give me ice cream, NOW!" Everybody was staring as he started jumping on the table.  Suddenly, he kicked his mom in the face and shouted, "THBBTTHH" as spit fired like a machine gun out of his mouth and on to his mom.  

"BILLY! The apple was for ME! I just wanted you to hold it while I order you ice cream. NO ICE CREAM NOW!" His mom said full of anger.  

"Oopsies," said Billy quietly. 

Homework

Students and Families,

Please look for next week's homework that came today (with many other notices-including picture day forms).  Take some time to look over the homework policy at the bottom, and let me know if you have any feedback. The same cover sheet will be used each week and will allow you to keep track of your child's progress in meeting their first trimester goals.

HOMEWORK  Policy:

•          Assigned Friday: Due following Friday

•          H.W. should take about 50 min per night (4 nights per week). Students missing school work will have more.

•        There’s no expectation that students work on H.W. over the weekend; however, this provides some flexibility for families with hectic evenings full of extra-curricular activities.

•         Completed packets are the expectation every week. Students may ask for help Mon-Thurs, but there’s not time on Fridays.  Plan ahead: look through the pack early in the week.

•         Packets are discussed and corrected as a class and are not sent back home. Use the H.W. cover sheet to help you track progress each week. 

Dear Families,

                We’ve had a great week, and I could not ask for a nicer group of young people! (Sincerely) I hope your child has come home this week feeling excited about the school year.   We’ve done a lot activities to build our classroom community such as some games like Moon Ball, Retail-Detail, and Morph.  We’ve been getting to know each other by sharing and listening to each other explain five items that represent our interests and passions. We’ve created fun, artistic t-shirt designs with a goal using different representations of numbers to show others the numbers of our lives.  For example, we might have shown that they were born in MMVI (2006) or that we have 2² goldfish.

                 A practical task for the week was to get students organized for the year.  Students have a place for everything -all of their belongings have labels (chairs, folders, pencils, cubbies, coat hooks, etc.)  They have signed a Cubby Contract and Chair Rental agreement, agreeing keeping our cubbies clean and organized and to stack our chairs at the end of the day.  Students made “Clock Buddy” sheets they will use all year to quickly get with different learning partners.  We’re off to a great start in the organization of our things.

                MBA has embraced a new Positive Behavior Plan. This week, our class has been discussing the expected behaviors at school in terms of Safety, Responsibility, and Respect- in the many different contexts of school. (For example, safety might look very different in the café than it does out at recess.) Our hope as a school is to recognize good behavior and praise students frequently.  Students will be given chips, which each class will then contribute to a school-wide pile of chips.  When we reach our goal, we’ll have a celebration.

We’ve also completed many of the necessary assessments need at the start of the year. In math, we have taken an Everyday Math beginning-of-the-year assessment that measures students understanding of math concepts that were developed in fourth grade. They also took a facts assessment (fact knowledge makes powerful math students). A computation assessment was given to determine if students have the skill to add, subtract, multiply, and divide…which is one of our first trimester goals.  In reading, students were assessed on their current level of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.  They wrote their best personal narratives, and I’m excited to see how much they grow as writers in this trimester!  Now that these assessments are complete, I’m excited to dive in to some new learning with informed understanding of your child’s needs! 

It’s fun to see all of the new faces, including some younger siblings of my past students.  I look forward to building a solid partnership with you this year.  I invite you, at any time, to share questions, concerns, or celebrations that you have. Like you, I’m a parent.  My wish for my children are probably very much like many families. I want a teacher that cares and is supportive…one that strives to bring learning to life…one that is skilled…and one that knows how to have fun and make school a joyous place.  …I also hope that their homework doesn’t stress out the whole family!  Please let me know how things are going for your child, and if you need anything- or want me to consider trying a different approach.

Sincerely,

Neil Renner