Writing Archives — A Touch of Class

Summary Writing – The Easy Way

January 23, 2017 by Miss Kirk Filed Under: All Subjects, graphic organizer, Reading - Literature, Writing Leave a Comment

Do you struggle teaching kids to write summaries?

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I have always struggled with teaching students exactly how to write a summary. I either received summaries that were too short, or they turned in summaries that were 3 pages long. (Longer than the actual text they were referencing!)

Anchor Chart

After a much needed search of the internet, I found a technique that many other teachers recommend after using it in their classrooms.

A few weeks ago, I began implementing this little trick in my class. I am happy to announce the “light bulbs” are finally on and shining during summary writing in fourth grade!! I created a graphic organizer I wanted to share with you for free. Hopefully, this helps you too!! To the left, you will see the anchor chart I created to help kids remember the 5 words. I plan on keeping this up all year. It has been so helpful! It is very important that students realize this technique works best with literature. I had many students try to this method when summarizing informational text, and they quickly discovered it didn’t work out so well.

Get this graphic organizer for free!

I would love to share this with you, as I can definitely say it has worked very well in my class. In order to get this awesome resource for free, please sign up for our monthly newsletter, and I will send you an immediate link to download this resource. Signing up for the newsletter also grants you access to monthly freebies just like this delivered right to your inbox! You may opt out anytime, of course! Oh.. and I’m just a normal 4th grade teacher, so I won’t be sending you crazy emails and spam all the time.. I promise! 🙂

Writing a summary

My Future is so Bright, I Have To Wear Shades!!

May 10, 2015 by Miss Kirk Filed Under: All Subjects, end of the year, Writing Leave a Comment

One of the most challenging times of the year is when testing if completed, and the kids (and teachers) are excited about Summer. I am not the kind of teacher who just throws puzzles at my students as the last day of school approaches. I try and find meaningful but fun activities that still require students to turn on their thinking caps, but also also them to be creative and enjoy their last days of school. This activity, however, can work for any time of the year!

Get Students Thinking of Their Futures

I have made an activity for my students that allow them to think about their futures. It puts a positive, creative spin on a common end of the year activity. The students are required to think about what they want their futures to be like. What do they want to be when they grow up? In the next grade, what do they want to accomplish? What hobbies or activities do they want to complete over the summer? All of these questions are ones that I encouraged the students to think about when doing this activity.

Each Students Chooses Their Own Sunglass Design!

The activity is called, “My future is so bright, I have to wear shades!” The students pick from 15 different sunglasses templates. I suggest making a few copies of each design, laying them on a table, and drawing names to let them choose. They then draw two different illustrations inside of each lens representing two goals they have set for their futures. Then, they draw their faces around the “shades”. After the illustration, they write a couple of paragraphs describing their drawings. I love reading their writings and getting a glimpse into their plans for their futures!

Students Samples

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY

Future So Bright - End of the year writing and art activity

Weekend News

March 4, 2015 by Miss Kirk Filed Under: All Subjects, Freebies, Writing Leave a Comment

Do your students come in on Monday morning just buzzing about their weekends? Are they anxious to tell you every single detail about their days? That’s fine if you only have one or two kiddos to share this experience with, but when you have 20 + students, it can be difficult! How can you look at those kids and tell them you don’t have the time to listen? I struggled this year with finding the time to listen to my students share their stories. I felt terrible when I had to cut some of them off because we had to get started on our learning. That is when I came up with “Weekend News”.

Great Bellringer Activity

I always try to have something ready for my students to work on as soon as they
come in during the mornings. This gets them focused and ready to learn. With the Weekend News activity, students draw a picture of something they did over the weekend then write a paragraph describing the event.

Serves Many Purposes

This activity does multiple things. It helps the students with writing, and it gives them an opportunity to share events that happened during the weekend. Reading their writings helps me learn about their lives.

I love hearing about my students and what their lives are like outside of school. I am sure to comment on their papers, and they absolutely love it!

This activity can also be implemented during centers, for early finishers, before dismissal, etc… You can use it anytime during your day. Feel free to modify to meet your needs.

To download this activity for free, click the image below!

Student Blogging Made Easy

November 22, 2014 by Miss Kirk Filed Under: All Subjects, Common Core, Writing Leave a Comment

First, I want to start by saying I am NO expert on the Common Core Standards. I am learning just like most of you. I do know, however, that quality instruction is not only about the standards!! Among the long list of factors that affect student learning (teachers being number one in my opinion), student motivation is right up there on the list! You could have the best standards, instructional strategies, etc.. but if the students don’t enjoy it or want to do it, they either won’t do it, or they will not give it their very best. This is why I am so incredibly happy to share a resource with you that the students actually enjoy!! They are more motivated about writing than I have seen all year.. keep reading. 🙂

Oh… those Common Core Standards!

In my 5th grade class, we have been implementing the close reading strategies that support the Common Core Standards. At first, I was rather skeptical of these new standards. Now that I see the impact they are having on my students and their reading progress.. I am a believer!

Writing & The Common Core

One of the things I was worried about was writing. I am used to the very strict 5 paragraph essay. With the new Common Core Standards, students are encouraged to write about what they are reading. It is a continuous process of reading and writing – writing and reading.. and over and over again.. The focus isn’t so much on the organization of the writing as it is the content. (Don’t get me wrong.. organization is extremely important too!)

In my class, when we read, we discuss… a LOT. The students are learning how to create conversation around the stories we read. They are learning to read closely into what the authors themes are. They are beginning to understand these big metaphors. I have noticed how much they are learning by discussing. I wanted writing to be that way as well.

Writing Aligned With Reading:

First, let me explain how I am incorporating my writing with my reading.

It would take hours to try and find reading resources and text dependent questions to use in the classroom. Luckily for us teachers, there is a website that has taken our basal readers and has created common core aligned lesson plans that go along with each of our stories. We have the text, and now we have text dependent, Common Core aligned questions and writing prompts to use as well. I have been using the Basal Alignment Project in my classroom, and it has been very helpful!

Recently, we read a story from our basal called, “At The Beach”. Students were asked to find text dependent evidence supporting the fact that the main character, Fernado, learned lessons.

First, we read the story multiple times. We discussed it in our groups, and we talked about it as an entire class. Next, the students were given a graphic organizer that allowed them to document any text evidence that proved Fernando had learned lessons in the story. (This took a lot of teacher support for some students. They wanted to put down “anything” instead of actual text evidence.)

Next, the students were to write a paper explaining how Fernando learned lessons. Basically, they took their answers to the text dependent questions, and they wrote about it. They put it all together in an essay. I had to provide the students with lots of instruction on how to organize their papers. They weren’t confident enough to begin writing, so we took a few days learning how to organize their papers. After revising and editing, students normally would type and print their papers and file them away. I wanted something more. I wanted the students to come together as writers and discuss the content, organization, everything!

How can I create a writing community packed with discussion & peer feedback?
That question. Whew! I thought about it over.. and over.. and over.. I came up with lots of different ideas but nothing seemed to fit my classroom’s needs. It was either expensive, time consuming, or just impractical. I searched for websites that could aide in my writing community. I finally stumbled across a true gem!!

Kidblog!

The above caption sums this resource up nicely, “Safe & Simple Blogs for Your Students,” Kidblog offers a free and easy way for students to experience writing in an entirely new light. Kid blog offers multiple benefits to the students:

1. Students have a safe, password protected environment where they can write & save their work.

2. Students can publish their work and share with their classmates.

3. Students can immediately give & receive feedback to and from classmates.

4. Students have their very own “piece of the web” that they can call their own.

5. Students can personalize their blogs to suit their unique personalities. (upgraded version only)

6. “Kidblog facilitates feedback and moderation at all stages.”

Read more to learn how I have implemented this into my classroom!

Whole Class Website

When the students first log in, they must provide their username and password. After inputting this information, students will be taken to a “Recent Posts” page. This shows the title, time, author, and comments of all recent posts from any member of our class.

On the main page, you will also see the blog directory. This lists all students in the class. You can click on a student’s name, and it will take you to their individual blog. Only people registered in the class can see students’ writings. All content is password protected.

Student’s Individual Blogs

From the main page, you can also click on a student’s individual post. This will take you to their individual blog as well. Here, you can see their current blog post as well as their previous posts and all comments.

Comments, Feedback, MAGIC!

Excuse me while I wipe a tear of joy from my eye…

Ok.. I’m good now.

This part of the website is my absolute favorite!! I was so incredibly pleased with how supportive the students were of one another! Briefly, I spoke with the students about how to comment on their peer’s writings. I told them if they had any constructive criticism, that they should always start with something positive. Keep in mind, we only wrote our introductions for our “testing phase” of Kidblog, but the students did an amazing job of encouraging their peers. I had students provide help with spelling, introduction organization, confusing sentences, etc… I can’t wait to see what their feedback looks like when we start typing our body paragraphs! This is where it is going to get interesting. 🙂

Well.. there ya have it folks! An easy way for students to, not only publish, but interact with their writings. Stay tuned.. my next post will be about how I taught the students how to organize their writing! There will be some freebies!!