Cartoneras -- Every Student an Author

This past week we celebrated every student as an author with our Cartonera Celebration.  It is one of my favorite weeks at school.

What is a cartonera?

It is, quite literally, a cardboard book.

To make their cartonera, each student went into their writing "treasure chest" (folder) and decided upon one of their favorite pieces of writing from this year.

We rewrote them on lined paper and illustrated them.

Our amazing art teacher worked with the students to create their covers.  Last year, we used actual cardboard.  This year, we used cardboard card stock because we were short on manpower to cut 800 pieces of cardboard. (Next year, our plan is to go back to cardboard, but to start cutting it much earlier in the year.)

We put the writing together with the covers, hole punched them, and tied them with yarn.

Each day, a different grade level had their books on display in the hallway during the PTO Book Fair and Special Person Lunch for families and the community to read.  

At the very back of each book was a "Raves from Readers" page.  Classes would visit the cartoneras each day, read them, and leave kind comments.

The students were all so proud of their cartonera books and were excited to read the raves that other students had left.  (One student came up and hugged me during recess to thank me for reading her cartonera and leaving a comment.)

As a school, I celebrate seeing us all unite to celebrate writing. We have been working hard to build our level of writing and celebrating is an important part of that. Sharing our writing with others gives us an authentic audience and builds a sense of pride in our writing. 

As a teacher, I celebrate being to read the work of students in other grade levels. It gave me a good feeling for what students were able to do at each grade level. 

For my students, it was good for them to read what other students wrote.  Many of them commented to me that they had learned something from another student's cartonera (many students' writing was non-fiction) or they saw how important good spelling (or neat handwriting) was in delivering your written message. Many students were impressed with the level of writing from students who were much younger than them. As they read, I would often hear giggles as they encountered something funny or see them recommend a just-read cartonera for another student to read.

Writing was alive and breathing at my school this week!

Celebrating every student as an author -- what could be better than that?

Poetry as Mentor Texts for Writing

When I first started talking with my students about poetry, the response I got was not exactly what I had hoped for.  To say there were moans and groans when I announced that we would become poets is an understatement.

In the Common Core for fourth grade, students study poetry as a text, but nothing is stated about students having to write poetry.  As a writing teacher, I know that writing poetry is a excellent vehicle for growing students as writers, as well as working in many grammar and reading standards.

Last year, I came across this wonderful resource for introducing poetry using one poem per week:

You can read more about how I incorporated the lessons from this book here.

This year, I decided to add a writing component to our weekly poetry study.  Now, on Fridays we take the week's poem and use it as a mentor text to inspire us to try our hand at poetry.

Here is one of our recent Poems of the Week (from the Poetry Friday Anthology).

(The red papers you see are from our analysis lesson on using specific word choice.)

To use this poem as a mentor text, we first began by writing a class poem together.  Here is the poem we wrote.  Hopefully, you can see some of the inspiration we pulled from our mentor poem.

Next, students paired up and went to work.

It was exciting to see my students use resources like rhyming dictionaries and the online thesaurus.  There was a definite hum around the room as the teams worked together to write their poem.

Finally, it was time to share.  This can be one of the most powerful parts of the writing workshop, but I never force students to share.

However...these same students who previously grumbled about having to write poetry ALL shared their poem.  And let me tell you...they were pretty good!

Some poems make better mentor texts for writing inspiration than others, I will admit.  But if you make poetry a regular part of your classroom, you will come across some wonderful poems that can inspire your students to take chances and stretch in their writing routines.

How do you use poetry in your classroom to teach writing?

Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas?

The first four weeks of school in our writing block are dedicated to launching our writers' workshop.  Many students have experienced the workshop model before, but some haven't.  For others, those summer months helped them forget what workshop was all about.

One of the main selling points of the writers' workshop is CHOICE.  Students choose what their writing topics will be.  For some, this is incredibly motivating.  Again for others, pure panic.

If you run a workshop model in your writing classroom, surely you have seen students who just sit there because they can't think of anything to write.  To help avoid this, there are some fun writing activities that you can do to get those writing motors running:

1.  Write from a memory:  I can remember the time my babysitter's pet duck, Grover, chased me around the yard, nipping at my heels.  My students thought this was a hilarious story {it is!} so I turned it into a journal entry.

2.  Write from a picture:  I like to collect funny pictures from magazines.  I glue them to construction paper, laminate them, and have instant writing inspiration!  Pictures that students bring in from home spark great writing as well.

3.  Write the stories from the places you love:  Give students a blank piece of paper and have them draw a detailed map of somewhere they love -- their bedroom, backyard, neighborhood, favorite park, etc.  As they are drawing, the stories will surface.

After we have spent several days practicing different ways to gather writing ideas, we created this anchor chart to hang in our room.

What other ways do you help your students generated ideas for writing?  Please share!

Peek at My Week {9-07-14}

I'm not sure where the past week has gone, but here it is Sunday again which means it's time for another Peek at My Week!

Last week was our first week of school so we spent it learning routines, building community, and getting to know each other.  This week, we will be getting down to business.

I'm really looking forward to writing this year.  Several students have mentioned to me how much they love to write and are eager to begin.  This week, we will begin learning about workshop routines and what it means to be a writer.  I found a great resource online that includes a scope and sequence for the year of writing from Portland Schools.  It is amazing!!  If you do not have a writing curriculum and feel like you need some guidance in teaching writing, this is a must see resource!

Source

Reading workshop will begin this week as well.  We will be reading lots of picture books to review the comprehension strategies and begin working on writing response.  It's always good to have mentor texts to demonstrate what is expected and I plan on using snippets from Spaghetti Book Club and This Kid Reviews Books. These two websites are book reviews written by kids, for kids.  Check them out!

We will also begin using my Word Parts We Know program this week to learn new prefix and suffix word parts.  Each week, students learn five new word parts, working to build their vocabulary up in a slow, but steady way.  I have had HUGE success with this program in the past.  Students vocabularies explode as they are able to decode and understand longer and more difficult words.  This has also helped on assessments such as the MAP test where many of these word parts appear.  I am excited to begin!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wishing you a wonderful week!

A Peek at My Week {8-31-14}

Thanks for stopping by this week's edition of A Peek at My Week, my weekly linky party where we can all share our plans for the upcoming week.

So here we go...

Tuesday is the first day of school!  Back in June, this day seemed so far away.  I am super excited for this year!  We will spend much of this week building community,  learning routines and expectations, and of course, reading a lot.

The first read aloud I am going to share is a book I read over the summer that I absolutely loved, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner.  I usually begin with The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, but I am saving that one for the Global Read Aloud in October.

The beginning of the year is a great time for goal setting.  However, in years past, students have set these really ambitious goals then they get filed away and forgotten about.  This year, I am going to have my students write out their goals on this form and we are going to slide the paper into the front cover of their 8-pocket plastic folder.  This way, the goals will be front and center all the time, for both students and parents. :)  You can grab this form for FREE by clicking on the picture..

Font:  KG Fonts

Graphics:  Creative Clips

To begin our writing year, students will write "Five Things I Want My Teacher to Know About Me."  This will help me get to know them personally and as writers.  We will also set up our Writer's Notebooks using my Writer's Notebook Divider Pages and my Writer's Notebook Reference Pages.

In math, we will be working on getting those math facts fluent again and practicing some helpful mental math strategies.  I am excited to teach math again this year.  (I never thought I would hear myself say that... :).

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you enjoy this long weekend and have an amazing week!  Don't forget to stop back for Positive Thinking Thursday.

Engaging Student Writers

Do you have students in your classroom who are looking for a little extra challenge or engagement when it comes to writing?

You know the ones...Those students who create the most amazing stories or writing pieces with little effort while others are expending major energy on just building five minutes of writing stamina.

If you do and you are looking for a way to engage and excite your prolific writers, have you seen this new website for student writers (ages 10-18), KidsAreWriters?  I just came across it on Twitter last night and thought it looked pretty amazing.

On this website, student writers are offered activities and ideas to take their writing to the next level.  They have fun writing activities and picture prompts like this one:

They even just finished a virtual writing summer camp for students with daily writing prompts.  (Oh, how I wish I knew about this website back in June...)  As students complete their writing, they are able to submit it to the website via the comments section for feedback on a first come, first served basis.  How fun!

So as I begin this new school year, I will be adding this website to my teaching toolbox to use to help me meet the needs of all of my student writers.

What tools or resources do you use to help differentiate your writing instruction?

Writer's Toolkits -- A Workshop Must-Have

Have you ever had a student who spent more time during writing class looking for a pencil than actually writing?

Yep, me too.

Last year, I decided it was time to put an end to this excuse by giving each of my students a Writer's Toolkit at the beginning of the year.  This week, I have been working on putting together the Toolkits in preparation of school beginning on September 2nd.

What goes in the Writer's Toolkits?

• A pencil
• A highlighter
• Two pencil cap erasers
• One pink eraser
• A red pen
• A green pen
• A small pack of Post-Its 

All of these writing supplies go inside a plastic pencil case.

Then I put a label on the front of the box and write the student's name on the top of the box.

You can download the label for free from my TPT store if you would like.

In our writing workshop, students are taught to get their Toolkit out when they go in their desk to retrieve their writer's notebooks.  They also bring it with when they conference with me.  That way, we don't waste time trying to find a pencil to take notes or a pen to work on editing.

What tips and tricks do you have for your writing workshop?

Writer's Notebook Resource

I'm so excited that I FINALLY finished my newest product on TPT, just in time for the beginning of the school year when writing workshops are getting started.

In my writing workshop, my students keep a writer's notebook in which they store their works-in-progress writing and other important writing tools.  One of my favorite sections of the notebook is the Reference section.  This is the place where my writers go to when they have a question about some aspect of writing that we have learned in class but they may have (temporarily) forgotten.

Writer's Notebook Reference puts all of these resources into one booklet that can either be copied as a complete packet and placed in the notebook, or can have pages copied and added as needed.

Topics include:
Editing Marks
Paragraph Rules
Capitalization Rules
Transitions
Confusing Words
Other Ways to Say "Said"
Use This, Not That to Improve Word Choice 
Great Grabbers for both Fiction and Informational Writing
Power of Three Tips
Editing vs. Revising
Revising Tips
Editing Checklist

Want to win a copy? Just pin my product and leave me the Pinterest link in the comment section below.  A winner will be chosen on Friday, August 2nd.  Good luck and thanks!!