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/ can’t)
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.
Million Dollar: Million Dollar Bulletin Board, Dictionary and Resources
Student Resources: Resources for Writing
So what do you think?
What do I think? I think I am obsessed! I have so many questions and want to just sit and chat with you! I am about to end my second year teaching. I teach with an awesome team but we are all new! Together we decided writing really needs more of our attention next year. This year I used the expository writing notebook for 4th grade and now in preparation for next year I purchased your AMAZING inclusive year of writing notebook. I am in LOVE but I have a few issues with how to implement it at my school.
ReplyDeleteFirst our 4th grade is departmentalized. We each teach one area to all three classes for math, science/S.S., and Reading...(I teach math so I get really excited about writing since it is a chance for me to really hear the kiddos). Then we each teach our own class of writing. For a few different reasons (one being my maternity leave) our team needed to come up with a plan that allowed the 4th grade classes to switch homeroom(writing) in the middle of the year without parents freaking out. I had the idea of all of us taking a core area of the writing and kind of rotating the kids through each quarter that way they see all teachers anyway and there is no freaking out going on. Also, I thought it would be easier for us teachers to hone in on one area of the writing and teach that throughout the year. So one teacher would teach Opinion writing for 3 quarters each quarter with a different class of 4th graders. While the others did the same but one with Expository and one with Narrative.
The issue I am seeing is how to make that work. Looking through your notebook I thought we could all three keep our homeroom classes the first quarter and teach poetry and build the writers notebook focusing on the paragraph writing and writing process in that first quarter. Then students could rotate for quarter 2, 3, and 4. Then I read through your year long lesson plan document and I like how you continually hit on poetry throughout the year along and thought we could do that within our rotations as well. OR option 3 was that we take a couple weeks each quarter to focus on paragraph writing and the writing process in our rotations and spend Quarter 4 doing poetry. I actually have more options written on paper and ways to make things work but I am just not sure what is best at this point. How can we take writing and share it 3 ways so that the kids are hitting all the standards, growing in their writing all year, while not repeating or overloading one quarter with work. OR is it completely terrible for one class to do expository first and not in the order you have laid out?
I realize a lot of this may not make any sense to you....which is why this is totally something I would just want to sit and chat about! BUT if you have any ideas or thoughts to share I would love the feedback and help. If you are too busy I totally get that too and thank you for your amazing resources on TPT and here on the blog!!
Hello Chistyyyna!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to commend you on being so excited about teaching writing! So many teachers dread this subject and it is my FAVORITE! I would love to talk with you and share ideas. A few things I feel is best when teaching fourth grade is to work on a little poetry at a time (monthly poetry writing and analyzing) and during the 4th quarter, tie it all together with a poetry portfolio and poetry slam. You will thank yourself because they will remember the prior lessons and it will make more sense to them. You won't need the whole 4th quarter to make this happen. The same thing goes with writing. In my opinion, students at this age are not ready for taking notes, researching, etc that is involved in informative writing early in the year. The progress of skill level gets them prepared for the more difficult task. The order in my notebook is perfect for this age level and I've seen amazing growth in my students' writing. Complete sentences, paragraph writing, narrative, opinion, informative. Narrative is always the easiest type of writing for students because they have been exposed to it all of their school career. In my notebook, most of the writing skills are taught through narrative writing and simply reviewed or adjusted for the type of writing after that.
With that being said, I need to understand you dilemma a bit more. Here are some questions:
1. May I ask the reasons for wanting the change?
2. I notice you mentioned maternity leave, will you have a certified sub who can follow through the notebook? You will have the main foundations already taught.
3. If you want to share the responsibility, is it possible for each of you take on a quarter on writing and adjust your schedule? Ex. All teach 1st quarter. Teacher 1- Teach writing 2nd quarter. Teacher 2- Teach writing 3rd quarter Teacher 3- Teach writing 4th quarter That way you can let the teacher know where you left off in the notebook. This year, it took us longer than 1 quarter to get through complete sentences, paragraph writing and narrative writing (since you are teaching all the basic skills in narrative writing). The cons I see with this, is the language you have with the students and the knowledge you have with their writing habits.
I am happy to bounce more ideas. My email is rockinresources@gmail.com We can share phone numbers there if you would like to talk it out. Good luck and thank you for asking for advice! I wish there was someone out there when I was a beginning teacher! It took me a long time to iron it out to where I found what worked well!
Sincerely,
Pam