Banish Boring Words

Banish Boring Words
Leilen Shelton


Leilen Shelton has created an awesome mini-thesaurus to use with your students.  Its 48 pages contain 26 different word choice lists, ranging from "Action Verbs" to "Sound" to "Easy/Hard" that you can refer to or refer to and photocopy to share with your students. 


I've used bits and pieces of the "Action Verbs" portion to discuss word choice with my students. I look forward to using more of the book in the upcoming weeks.


Word choice is a neat writing trait to teach because it helps students make their own writing more interesting but it also teaches them vocabulary words that help them better understand other writers' stories.


This book is well organized and easy to use.  I would recommend it.

Live Writing by Ralph Fletcher

Live Writing
by Ralph Fletcher


I read Live Writing about five years ago and didn't get much out of it.  I must not have been ready for what the book had to offer because I just reread it and found so much useful information.  In the book, Ralph Fletcher actually mentions that you should reread the book over and over.  I probably laughed the first time I read that passage, but now I totally agree.  When I read it again, that's when, not if, I know I'll pick up new ideas to improve my writing instruction


I'm not sure if this book is written for students or for teachers.  Either way, it will help all of us become better narrative, personal or fiction, and poetry writers. While it never mentions the 6 Traits, it covers all of them.  It hits ideas and organization in multiple chapters.  It covers voice, word choice and sentence fluency in individual chapters.  


Live Writing doesn't contain any mini-lessons but as you read it, mini-lessons pop out at you.  "Leads: Breaking the Ice" inspired me to come up with three solid lessons on leads. "The End: Getting the Last Word" helped me figure out what I need to teach about endings. Finally, "Conflict: Here Comes Trouble" showed me what I needed to show my students about problems in narrative stories. 


Please read this book if you haven't read it before.  If you were like me, and read it a while ago, read it again.  First time and repeat readers are bound to gain insight into their writing instruction. 


Published: 1999

Location:  Amazon

"Getting Ready For Bed Directions" - Organization Lesson

Organization Writing Lesson
   - Getting Ready for Bed Directions


My class has been working on organization for the last week.  We've talked about and practiced bold beginnings and catchy endings but I'm still concerned about students putting things in order.  This lesson is to help students practice putting steps in order.

First, I'll ask my students to think about what they do to get ready for bed.  We'll take a minute or two to share.

Second, I'll read at least one of the following three picture books. None of the books are great upper elementary picture books but they apply to the topic in a fun way and get students thinking.


     1.  How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
          -  This book explains how dinosaurs say good night using two parts.  The first part details what    

             dinosaurs do not do.  The second part explains what dinosaurs do to get ready for bed.

  

     2.  Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready For Bed? by Barney Saltzburg

          -  An adorable pig does his bedtime routine, but the illustrations show that he is being extremely silly.  

             Finally, after going through six steps, he tells his mom that he forgot one thing.

     3.   Good Night, Monkey Boy by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

         - A young boy in monkey pajamas acts like a monkey while he gets ready for bed.

Third, we'll discuss what the characters did to get ready for bed.

Finally, I will ask the students to write.  Each student will imagine they are a parent writing a list of directions that tell the step by step how a baby sitter would put their six year old to bed.   Each student will be asked to write at least 10 directions in a logical order.

I did this assignment last year and allowed the students to be creative in choosing the 10 steps.  They came up with some very interesting writing.  This year I'm going to require them to use realistic bedtime activities.

I Can Write Like That!: A Guide to Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writers' Workshop, K-6

I Can Write Like That!: A Guide to Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writer's Workshop, K-6
by Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer

I Can Write Like That! is broken up into three parts. Part 1 introduces 27 craft elements, such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, and simile.  Part 2 provides sample lessons for 10 of the craft elements. Part 3 provides picture books to use as mentor texts for instruction.  Each mentor text is connected to multiple craft elements. 


I'll be honest, when it comes to teaching writing I love to teach ideas. I could spend all year focusing on ideas: adding dialogue, exploding moments, adding thoughtshots, and taking out unnecessary information.  


But I know my students need more than idea instruction and I feel I Can Write Like That! is going to help me teach other traits more effectively.  So far, I've only tried one craft from the book, point of view, but I had fun teaching it and my students had fun doing it.  


We've done a number of different activities where I've asked the students to tell the same story from different points of view.  One activity asked students to tell a story of playing catch with me from their point of view, my point of view, and the football's point of view.  Many students have since written independent pieces from unusual point of views, such as a time they lost a shoe from the point of view of the dog that stole it. 


Published: 2009

Location: Amazon