Friday, September 19, 2008

Week 3--I WILL Keep Writing!!

I am using a slightly modified version of the reading log sheet that was offered on our listserv several weeks ago and have decided I love it!! It asks them to find words they don't know, metaphors, similes, and asks questions to promote active, productive thinking as they read. The only thing is, my kids really struggle with finding metaphors...so I found a neat little ditty on grammargirl.com that served as another mini-lesson. Don't know if it helped, but I will on Monday! If you know of any other sites that might help me teach my students how to locate metaphors in their novels, please feel free to rush those links ASAP!!! I am desperate!!

We also did Janet's neighborhood map activities. I can say that I am happy that Denise threw in the questions about multiple homes/blended families to our discussion. I think I saved a lot of confusion and sadness by telling the students to add a second map if necessary. One girl told me again the next day that she was very happy I allowed two maps. Her mom's house is beautiful and is emotionally sound. Her dad has a single-wide trailer, multiple girlfriends, and up to 7 people living there at a time. We put the map and the story starters in our writer's notebooks and will add to them as we go. I thought it would be a nice way to have all of these memories fresh for whatever theme is given on the MEAP, and it will be particularly helpful to have a big list of topics when we do our memoir unit this winter.

MEAP Review is not the way I would prefer to start my year. It is laborious, time-consuming, painful, and not the best way to introduce myself as a teacher. It is also necessary. This week, we worked on "Writing from Knowledge and Experience" pieces, which we will finish early next week. I decided, in an effort to make the writing task fun, some kids will make podcasts of their work next week to put on my school website...

Besides teaching, I parent. This week my angels started a new round of swim classes, Girl Scouts, and more. On the 17th, they had school pictures, and Adam (remember, he is only in Kdg.) woke up, put on his new duds, and ran in to announce, "The ladies are gonna lo-ove this, mom!" Apparently, he liked his little Kenneth Cole sweater vest and pinstripe pants. And morphed into a teenager as he pulled each pant leg on!

Off to the neighborhood party and football game! Enjoy your week!

1 comment:

Denise said...

Hey good job teach.

I did the neighborhood map lesson too with varying degrees of success. Most of the kids drew and wrote a reasonable amount. One boy only wrote "This house is where I first ate a pickle" and absolutely could not think of anything else to write - his memories and neighborhood had been described and he was done. Kind of funny if not so frustrating.

I started a classroom blog and some of the kids are really excited. It is mskanesroom.blogspot.com but it may change - see query on the RCWP listserv.

I've been doing MEAP prep separate from Language Arts - I have that luxury. I'm doing it during science time so as to not ruin the writing workshop experience. That is what was recommended to us.