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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Best Ways to Teach Revising and Editing


I am sorry I have been sooooo busy!  Not only do I work full-time, run my teacher store, and drive my kids around, but I was put in charge of our Sunshine Committee at school and planned our after Christmas Party.  Well, I can't do anything half-way so we had a blast!  I made little gift bags for everyone that had a lottery ticket, a good fortune cookie, mints, and adorable little similes that my students made and rolled up into scrolls and tied them with ribbon.  Everyone loved them!


Ok, onto business.  Since we have been moving right along in class but I haven't posted, I am going to post everything we did with the revision and editing stages!  Get ready!  We take a ton of time on these two steps!  Get out some colorful pens!  I love to see color when editing and making revisions!

REVISIONS:
I use the acronym DARE.  I don't know where it came from, but I've used it for over 15 years.


Mentor Text:  Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Jack Pretlutsky  and Dr. Seuss.  Look at the appendix to show students how famous authors find the need to revise!  This is also the place I tell them about RoaldDahl and show his  interactive hut online.  There is a trash can with scribbled notes to click!  Tell the students that even the best authors revise, edit, revise, edit over and over before they even think about the publishing stage.  www.roalddahl.com   and  http://www.roalddahlmuseum.org/discoverdahl/exploring/ 

We spend many days on lessons that we add to our writing notebooks and then revise our papers with each lesson.
Lesson 1- Deleting information that doesn't belong in our stories.
Lesson 2- We work on adding more detail in our stories.
Lesson 3- Adding transition words especially between paragraphs.   
 
Lesson 4-  Exchanging-  Exchange beginning for a rockin beginning!  Use the mentor text, Love Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles
Lesson 5- Exchanging- Exchange trash can words and every day words for Million Dollar Words!  Use the mentor text, I Love You the Purplest by Barbara Joosse.  
I created an acronym for this lesson. 
CLIPS  ( for money clips)
C- Colorful Adjectives
L- Lively Figurative Language
I- Ideal Adverbs
P- Powerful Verbs
S- Sizzling Sense Words

 It is my favorite lesson of the whole unit and I created a bulletin board to go along with it.  Above the board, I give some word lists to use instead of good/nice/great, said, run.  I also have a word list for trash can words.  Words like said and and great are trash can words and won't be accepted in writing anymore.  The kids LLLOOOVVVEEEE when they find a trash can word in someone else's writing!  Below each of the CLIPS, I post student examples found in their writing.  Off to the right side, I have the Writing Process where students move their clips according to where they are in their writing. See the bottom of post for a free link for the Writing Process Posters! 
After taking notes, we dive into our own stories and find places to exchange words for million dollar words!  I tell my students to use a thesaurus to find better words.  They also have million dollar dictionaries where they can look for ideas and add words for future use.  This is a wonderful resource for them.

Lesson 6:  Variety of Sentences
Lesson 7- Jammin Conclusions:  Mentor Texts: First Day Jitters  by Danneberg
  Owl Moon by Yolen or The First Dog by Brett, Jan.

EDITING::
I use the acronym CUPS
C-Capitalization
U-Usage
P-Punctuation
S-Spelling

We spend a day on each of the CUPS by teaching the rules for each, taking notes in notebooks, looking for errors in my story, and then editing their own stories.  If you have United Streaming, there are Pendemonium Cartoon lessons (21 mins each) for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.  Kids love them!

   Capital Rules
1.   The beginning of the sentence (He rode the bike.)
2.  The pronoun I (Did I see you at the park?)
3.  Proper nouns (Jan, New York City, Golden Gate Bridge)
4.  Titles (Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing)
5.  The first word of a quote (She asked, “Why is the sky blue?”
6.  Greeting and closing of a friendly letter (Dear Jan, / Sincerely,)

Usage Rules
1.Subject-Verb Agreement-  Singular subjects need singular verbs, and plural subjects need plural verbs
A.Singular verbs- is, was, has, had    (Ex. The bee is buzzing.)
B.Plural verbs- are, were, have, had   (Ex.  The bees are buzzing.)
2.Double Negatives-  Do not use two or more words that mean “no” in the same sentence.  (Ex. no, not, never, nothing, no where, no one, nobody)
3.Complete Sentences-  Sentences need a subject and predicate.
A.Subject- Tells whom or what-  (My mom)
B.Predicate- what the subject does- (helps me)
C.Fragment-  Missing a subject or predicate (The pictures in the book.)
D.Complete-  The picturesin the book are colorful.
4.Run-on Sentences- two complete sentences that run together.  (Tristan plays soccer they won the game.)  To Correct:
A.Two sentences:  Tristan plays soccer.  They won the game.
B.Compound sentence:  Tristan play soccer, and they won the game.
5.Verb Forms and Tenses

Present Tense
1.Singular or he, she, it-  
Add –s.
2.Plural or I, we, you, they- Do not add –s. 
   1.A dog barks at a stranger.
   2.  The dogs bark at a stranger.
Past Tense
Add –ed.  (Remember spelling rules!)
A dog barked at stranger.
    

Future Tense
Add –will in front of the verb.
A dog will bark at a stranger.

Punctuation:  Mentor Text:  Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulverand Eats Shoots and Leaves:  Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference by Lynne Truss 

Punctuation Rules
1.Period
A.End of statement  (The monkey was swinging from the tree.)
B.Abbreviations  (Mr.  Mrs.  Dr.  Rd.  Ave.  St.  in.  ft.  yd.)
C.  Initials (U.S.A.)
2.Question Mark-  Asks a question.  (Where is the cute puppy?)
3.Exclamation Point- Shows a strong feeling. (Look at the huge whale!)
4.Commas
A.In a Series (I want a piece of cake,pie, and candy!)
B.Combining sentences  (I went to the zoo, but didn’t see the lions.)
C.Introduction (Yes, she is here.  Well,I never thought about it.)
D.Between city and state (Pittsburgh,PA)
E.Between date and year (July 4, 2013)
F.After a greeting and closing in a letter (Dear Mom, / Sincerely,)
5.   Quotation Marks-  Around what the person actually says
      (Drake said,I am going to the concert.”Notice that there is a comma after said and ending punctuation before the last quotation marks.
6.   Apostrophes
A.To replace letters left out of contractions (can not/ cant)
B.Show ownership (Lisa’s pencil)

Spelling Rules  (Free Spelling Dictionary below)
1.Always put a u after a q.    (quack, quiet)
2.Every syllable has a vowel.
3.The “soft” sound of c (s sound) or g (j sound) is usually foll0wed by i, y, or e. (city, gym)
4.Write i before e except after c or when sounded like a.  (thief, believe, ceiling, receive, neighbor, weigh)
5.Spelling Rules for Adding Inflectional Endings to Words
A.Most words-  Add the ending.  (talk- talked, talking)
B.Words ending in a single vowel and consonant-  Double the final consonant and add the ending. (stop- stopped, stopping)
C.Words ending in silent e- Drop the ebefore adding the ending.  (bake, baked, baking)
D.Words end in a consonant and y-  Change the y to and i then add the ending unless the ending is -ing.  (hurry- hurried, hurrying)

E.Words that end in ss, ch, sh, zz, or x:  Add –es  (foxes, wishes)


Whew!  I made it!  I was getting tired towards the end.  Next, we will do peer reflections!  Stay tuned!  

(I have all of these resources in my store if you need them.)

All Inclusive units (400 pages):  Includes everything on this blog post plus plus plus.

3rd Grade Bundle 4th Grade Bundle 5th Grade Bundle 6th Grade Bundle Grades 3-6 Bundle


Student Resources:  Resources for Writing



So what do you think?








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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Martin Luther King Jr. Activity


Since we were gone for two weeks and it is a new year, I wanted to put up a new bulletin board.  I thought I would put up a Martin Luther King Jr. board.  That way I can keep it up for the rest of January and it will tie into Black History Month.  I was so amazed by some of my students and their work!  How do these little minds come up with such big ideas?

We started off by reading a biography on MLK.  I actually wrote one to go along with the activity so the students would have enough information.  We read it together then we started working on a newspaper template.  We filled out the timeline together.  I explained the importance of increments in timelines.  Then we highlighted all the dates and added them to the timeline.  I also showed them how to find dates that aren't listed.  For example where it says two years later.  Then I explained that they will need to pretend they were reporters from back in the 1960's.  They need to choose 1 positive and 1 negative event from the bio.  I demonstrate how to create a newspaper title, heading, picture caption, etc. and then I let them write!  Here are some of their examples:
Cute huh?  Well wait to you see what we did next!  My heart was melting!  I told the class to think about our world today and what they would like to change.  WOW!  I had tears in my eyes as they shared.  I think I will send the parents a list of their ideas. 
Here is a quick peek at other students' ideas.  Amazing!
Get rid of all sickness
No poverty
Happiness for everyone
Be worry-free
No wars
No crimes or violence
Low gas prices
Better equipment for natural disasters
Nobody be homeless
No animal cruelty or suffering of animals
Don’t judge on appearance
End world hunger
No pollution
Cure for cancer
Save the environment
Save the trees
No global warming
Bring all soldiers home
Peace all over the world
Education for everyone
No endangered animals
Better life for everyone
Everyone have jobs
Find way to avoid concussions
Don’t judge people
Everyone respected for who they are

We put both of the lessons onto one paper for a bulletin board display.


Here are the cute signs!

What do you think?  You are welcome to borrow my idea!   

If you need the informational text and newspaper template along with a rubric, you can find it here:
  Martin Luther King  It is also included in my January Writing Bundle


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