Informational Writing Project - Newspaper/Article

Authentic writing activities can really get even the most reluctant writer excited! Well, what is authentic writing? Authentic Writing is any type of writing that students genuinely want to engage in. Usually, that means they have a choice of topic and they are able to exercise their own voices. 

My students really got involved in the inquiry process of discovering topics they were passionate about. They truly felt a sense of ownership, because they chose the topic and it was their personal article! When working on inquiry essays, students choose a research area based on a personal passion or interest. They develop inquiry questions about the topic and conduct research throughout the process, during which they take notes. These involve quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing from the sources, but also processing the source information by connecting it to what they have learned and what they find intriguing.

Give students the ability to let their voices be heard. Teaching students to be passionate means helping them to maintain and build on the natural joy and enthusiasm they were born with. All children come in with a curiosity and a desire to learn that is never truly satisfied.  Children need to feel they are part of the community and need opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way to society. Allow your child to take pictures of the things they see. Usually children photograph things that adults overlook or take for granted. Use these pictures as prompts for discussions and further exploration.

Our students become better writers by writing frequently and willingly. In order for this to happen, we need to find ways to motivate our students. One way “We’re going to make a magazine,” I told my students, “so we can share with our families and school community!”

“I want to write about 3D printing!” one student exclaimed, sending my students into a flurry of chatter. Soon enough, all of our tablets were out and my students were flipping through pictures from our community walk, writing and drawing about buildings and other places they saw.

Although the project managed to unite us as a class, it also made it incredibly easy for me, as the writing workshop facilitator, to personalize for content, learning process, and ability level. I worked with some students on paragraph structure, crafty hooks, and exploring subtopics!

By gaining the momentum for a love of writing in this first project, we were propelled into our next learning arc when we turned to our Choose Your Own Adventure Project!

Children are more vested in their learning when they are able to choose what they learn. Authentic writing should allow for choice and voice. Students were able to explore topics they were passionated about or interested in. 

When promoting authenticity in students’ writing, it is important to place a greater emphasis on the development of student's ideas. It is not about the end product, but the process of learning and engaging in real content. This is where inquiry comes in! When you give students the ability to research content that is relevant to them, the structure of writing becomes the support, not the focus. These structures then support both you and your students, even in the face of new content and opportunities that can arise only out of real-world experiences. It is through this exploration that you can bring the outside world into your mini-lessons, and your mini-lessons to the outside world.

When students know they are writing for an audience besides their teacher and classmates, the stakes are raised and students are driven to produce their best. One of the reasons we want to establish authentic audiences for students is so real people can view and interact with the projects students create. We want to take student work out of a pile of papers (or a hidden digital folder) and place it in the real world. Because when we establish authentic audiences for students, they can see the purpose for their work.

The process of creating these articles can be very manageable if broken down step-by-step. I created a presentation with step-by-step lessons, models, graphic organizers, posters, and interactive journal sheets, to help support the development of success. Being a teacher in an inclusive classroom, it was important that I made this process obtainable for all students. 

From choosing topics to writing crafty conclusions, this project was thought through with every little detail!

I modeled for students by choosing a topic I was passionate about, sloths!

Students are then able to take all of their information that they researched and put it into a newspaper/article format! Each one turned out unique and their voices truly shined through! If you are interested in this product, click on the image below!

Back to School Advise & Activities!

No matter if you are a new teacher or veteran teacher there is always stress when preparing for back to school! Here you will find a few tips that have helped many teachers feel successful the first week of school!

Before the Chaos Begins!

Create an inviting classroom by thinking about your class theme and layout. Use flexible seating and cool colors! Here are a few pictures of flexible seating in my class.

Before the Chaos Begins!

Prepare a classroom newsletter for parents that shares a little about yourself and important classroom expectations. Post it on a blog, print it out for the open house, or send it in an email.

Decorate your door and a bulletin board (or two) within your classroom. Look up new themes or songs that kids can relate to! I have shared a few cool bulletin boards below that i love!

Post pictures of school or classroom events posted throughout the year on this Instagram bulletin board!

Great bulletin board to remind students of who they want to "BE"!

I love how this looks..... great way to have an interactive bulletin board. Change the pictures and title to go with various concepts or themes throughout the year!

Bright Beginnings - First Week of School!

Create student-focused relationships! There is nothing more important as a teacher than to build relationships and community in your classroom. Build first day activities that help students learn about each other and you. Activities that move students around will make them comfortable in classroom. If you don't have enough time to create your own, check out my Bright Beginnings Activities! Click on the image below to find 6 creative and engaging activities to build community and get to know you experiences!

Bright Beginnings - First Week of School!

Collaboration is your friend, so start this on day one. Get your students involved with setting classroom best practices or rules. When kids are a part of this important task, it becomes personal and gives them incentive to meet these goals. Once class rules have been finalized, have students sign it, post them in a place where all students can see them, and you can refer to them as needed.

Focus on the positive actions of your students. Give lots of praise when transitions and procedures are done well. Show respect to your students by giving it and expecting it to be returned. Then do it again and again. Establish a personal relationship with every student. Ask your students about themselves. Prove you care about their wellbeing. All things will fall in place when you build a positive classroom community. Now you can post this.....

Guided Reading Groups & Conferring Binder

RACE STRATEGY (Restate, Answer, Cite Evidence, Explain)

Ughhhh! Okay, do I sound frustrated? Maybe. I think you would agree that when it comes to testing time, teachers revert to eye-rolling and grunting. Even more frustrating is that over the years, there has been a major shift in reading assessments. Students are no longer required to only choose between multiple choice questions, but are now expected to respond to a question with a written response....aka constructed response. 

These tasks, open-ended questions (often described as performance assessments), require students to construct their own responses rather than select them from a set of given possibilities. And, if you are a typical student, this assessment may be the first time that you have been required to respond to a task by doing little more  much more than filling in a bubble. Needless to say, if you are a typical student, responding successfully to such a task might prove daunting. Unfortunately, students are not experts in providing a thoughtful, well-designed constructed response. 

Well, that is where the  strategy can help! The RACE strategy is a great way to guide and encourage students to write thorough and meaningful reading responses. 

stands for:

Although, the RACE strategy is a great way to break each component of a successful response into manageable chunks, students need scaffolded modeling of each component and meaningful practice to be successful. Below you will find the strategies I have used to be successful with my students. 

First, share with students what the RACE strategy is and how each component can help them answer an open-ended question!

                            

Next, help them to practice with each component.....

I use the PQA strategy, Put the Question in the Answer. I use task cards with opened ended questions to provide practice with the PQA strategy!

Answer the question thoroughly with details and examples by using the ANSWER strategy.

                                               

Cite evidence using details from the text and evidence based stems. Also, citing the author word-for-word using appropriate punctuations marks.  I use short passages and open-ended question task cards to help students practice and apply citing evidence. You can download these task cards below for free.

Explain your thinking involves using background knowledge, experience, and connections to elaborate and deepen the response.

If you are looking for a fun and exciting way to teach your little monsters lovelies how to use the  strategy, click on the Race Strategy: Weird but True Animal Edition. You'll find a great presentation, student companion sheets, posters, task cards, weird but true articles, and graphic organizers!!

                                                   

                            

     

Class Management & Attention Grabbers

“Quiet Down! I'll just wait until you are finished talking!" ​ Well, this happens sometimes more than I'd like it to happen. While my monstrous lovely kiddos are chatting away, I turn into a real-life skeleton! 

Being able to effectively manage behavior can be one of the biggest challenges for teachers. Okay, I admit it....sometimes I would like to just pull my hair out.....NO, BANG MY HEAD ON THE WALL..... find a few strategies to help grab my students' attention and keep it!

 I will share some strategies that have worked in my classroom to improve behavior management and keep kids focused during lesson time . 

1. Novelty successfully captures young students' attention, such as the sound of a wind chime or rain stick. Also, you can try telling your kiddos, "Pop a marshmallow in." Next puff up your cheeks, and the kids follow suit. It's hard to speak with an imaginary marshmallow filling your mouth.

2. An equally imaginative approach involves filling an empty Windex bottle with lavender mineral oil, then relabeling the bottle "Quiet Spray." Or you can blow magic "hush-bubbles" for a similar impact.

3. If you want to go electronic, check out Super Sound Box, Class Dojo, or the Too Noisy App -- an Apple and Android tool that determines noise level and produces an auditory signal when voices become too loud.

4. Getting Your Students’ Attention: The Psychology Behind Pattern Interrupt. The basic idea behind pattern Interrupt is you are breaking someone’s pattern or behavior by interrupting them with an unexpected stimulus. So, how does this work in the classroom? How can Pattern Interrupt be used as a teaching strategy? Imagine a teacher standing in a room full of chatting students. The teacher can’t get their attention, so s/he suddenly breaks out in a dance, singing Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Now what do all the children start doing, they start singing in unison...peanut butter, jelly time... peanut butter, jelly time. Now that you have captured their attention, you can proceed with your lesson.

Below, you will find some of my favorite pattern interrupt sayings.... and you can also find 40 posters with Attention Grabbers at my TPT store!

Get these COOL Attention Grabbing Posters 

by clicking on the image!