How Do Writers Get Those Really, Really Good Writing Ideas?

OBJECTIVE
Students will practice borrowing writing ideas from a professional writer.

ROUTINES & RITUALS REVIEW

• Date each entry.
• Write on both sides of the page.
• DO NOT tear out pages.
• Enter a title & date for each entry on the Table of Contents pages.

HOW DO WRITERS DISCOVER IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT?
1. You get ideas for writing from making connections to your reading.

2. Read Aloud/Think Aloud: I read "My Name" from The House on Mango Street by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros and relate it to my name's history. By modeling my story, students get an idea of the methods they should use when thinking about how to borrow an idea from a professional writer.

Here's an excerpt from "My Name":

In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

YOUR WRITERS NOTEBOOK

• Open your writer’s notebook to your WRITING EXPLORATIONS area
• Either go to the next page or skip 2 lines
• Write today’s date on the left.
• Begin a new entry titled, “My Name”, “My Friend’s Name” or “My Partner’s Name” OR make up your own title (i.e. “My Name or How Malcolm Little became an X”)
• Be sure to post this in your Table of Contents and look at the Blackboard to ensure you are doing the activity correctly.

QUICK WRITE STRATEGY
When you quick write, you:

• Write It! Write to get your ideas on paper.
• Get Free! Let the thoughts flow.
• Imperfection is a part of the perfecting process! Making mistakes and learning from those mistakes leads to perfection.
  

First Writing Assignment: My History As A Writer

Christen Your Notebook PART I
Tell me anything about your history as a writer.

• Memories of writing in school
• Kinds of writing you like to do & don’t like to do
• Favorites you’ve written
• Writing in your 1st or 2nd language.
• Add info that occurs to you as you write about your history as a writer.

Christen Your Notebook PART II
3 MINUTES
Turn to your partner(s) and share your writing experiences with each other

10 MINUTES
Write about your writing experiences, your writing history.

Get Loquacious!

• Read your history to your partner(s)
• Read aloud your history as a writer to the class.
• Good experiences w/ writing?
• Not so good experiences w/ writing?
• English as a second language?
• Nominate a partner w/ an interesting experience.

9/23 Setting Up Writer's Notebook

1. On the Cover write:
Writer’s Notebook
Your Name
TJMS
Ms. Cooper
Your A-Day Mod

2. On the First Page:

• VERY top of the page in the overhead margin write the title: TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Top of Page, Left of title write: DATE
• Top of Page, Right of title write: PAGE #

3. On the First Page

• Counting the TABLE OF CONTENTS page as Page One, write the roman numeral i (lower case) in the lower right-hand corner
• Continue numbering pages (front and back) using roman numerals to page vi.

4. On the 7th Page

• At the top center of the page write: WRITING EXPLORATIONS
• Write the number 1 (one) in the lower right-hand corner; continue numbering pages, front and back, to the end of of your composition notebook.

5. On Page 125

• At the top center of the page write: SENTENCE EXPLORATIONS

6. On Page 171

• At the top left of the page write the title: GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS
• To the right of the title write: See Entry
• To the right of the See Entry heading, write: Page #

7. Return to the Table of Contents Page & below the Table of Contents write:

I. Writing Explorations 2
II. Sentence Explorations 125
III. Glossary of Literary Terms 171

9/22 Introducing the Writer’s Workshop

OBJECTIVE

• Students will know what to expect from the daily Writers Workshop.
• Students will set up a Writer’s Notebook.
• Students will think about themselves as writers

THE WRITERS WORKSHOP

1. Teaches students how to excel in their writing
2. Examples of writing from various genres allow you to learn/practice diff. writing styles and techniques
3. Learn strategies for:
• drafting first thoughts
• trying out ideas
• giving support
• fine-tuning
• publishing your best work

Routines & Rituals
Opening

• Students quietly listen to instruction, participation in discussion
• Teacher demonstrate/model techniques, strategies

Independent Writing
(2nd wk of Writer’s Workshop)

• POLISH IT!
• Practice specific strategies and apply rules of grammar, usage, sentence variety, transitions that will bring polish to your writing.

Work Period
(practicing/rehearsing)

• Try strategies demonstrated during Opening
• Students will first work alone, then w/ partners and/or groups

Closing
(share out)

• Share work with the class
• Share answers to problems
• Author’s Chair
• Informal Sharing
• Homework

9/20 Active Listening & Questions

OBJECTIVES

• Students will learn about the purpose and importance of being an active listener.
• Students will generate a list of good listeners to reference when they are in large and small-group settings, which will help them practice good listening habits and maximize learning
• Students will engage with the text by asking questions to understand the text being read.

ACTIVE LISTENING
My questions helped me think about:

• action in the story and what might happen
• what some of the words meant
• how the character was feeling

My questions made me want to:

• discover more about this topic

I listened to the story because:

• I wanted answers to my questions
• Some of my questions weren’t answered. I need to read more and find out.

Think About It
How did questioning help you understand your book?

Small Groups

Objective

Students will understand and be able to apply the procedures for talking about the books they are reading.

An Intro To Discussing Books

• Everyone in the group should be able to see each other.
• One person talks at a time.
• All listeners look at the speaker.
• When the speaker is finished talking, others share thoughts, ideas, questions, then the next student takes turn.

How to Have Great Conversations About Texts
1. Everyone in the group should be able to see each other.
2. One person talks at a time.
3. All listeners look at the speaker.
4. When one speaker is finished, other students share their thoughts, ideas and ask questions.
5. The next student takes a turn.
6. Generate topics within the group.
7. Be respectful.

Think About It!

• Practice listening respectfully and sharing information about any text you’re reading or one of the shared readings in your small group.
• Be ready to share out.
• Follow the expectations & be a model group!
• What do you think of the experience?
• How can this help you as a reader?

Overview of 9/17: Re-reading, Reading Ahead & Using Context Clues to Decode words and ideas

Shared Reading: Reading Ahead
When critical readers encounter an unfamiliar word, they read ahead and return to re-read the sentence after figuring out the unknown word.

Strategies Critical Readers Use to Solve Word Problems
We notice if the words we read:

• make sense
• match the letters and sounds of the word in the text
  

We use the context clues to solve a word problem.

Strategies Critical Readers Use to Solve Meaning Problems

• We solve problems by reading ahead
• We predict & confirm as we read
• We read with fluency so it sounds like talk
• We read for punctuation clues so we read with fluency and phrasing
• We re-read to maintain meaning

I Do/We Do
Ms. Cooper models how to use pictures, words, sentences and context clues to decode what the word and its definition could be.

I used an article from USA Today's previous edition of an article on R&B star Ne-Yo. I decoded the words sartorial and spawned. Click here to read, "R&B Star Ne-Yo Flaunts His Gentlemanly Style".

Students did the "We Do" portion of the class using a blog on the artist Kanye West Vibe.com called "Kanye West Has The Blues."

They were to do a Think/Pair/Share for the words: livid, critique, contentious, barrage and momentum. During a Think/Pair/Share students divide into pairs or small groups and think for a minute about the problem, trying to create solutions alone. Then, they pair and discuss possible solutions. During the "share" they share out their answers with the rest of the class.

When You Read

• Look in your independent reading text for places where you decode an unknown word by reading ahead.
• Think as you read.
• Go back and re-read to understand.
• Go back and re-read when your mind starts to wander or you begin to lose focus.
• Occasionally stop and check-in to see if you remember what you read.

Think About It!

• Where was a place in your book where you used the “Reading Ahead” ot the “Re-Reading” strategy? How did this strategy help you read your book?
• How did you work toward or maintain 3: The Standard in reading today?

Think About It!

This is our closing, a time when students reflect on what we've covered during our 70 minutes of class time. Mainly they verbalize what they've learned about themselves as readers, reading strategies they will implement, areas they'd like to make improvements in and areas they're flourishing in as readers/students.

Today's Think About It! is: What behaviors do you do well and what behaviors do you need to practice?

Increasing the Ability of Students to Read Independently

Objective: Students will be able to self-assess their personal independent reading habits.
3: Meets the Standard (what all students should be striving for)

• Focused on reading the entire time.
• Read independently everyday.
• Respect other readers by following rituals and routines.
• Do your best and have all of your reading materials ready.
• Read texts from a variety of genres & challenge yourself to read new genres.
• Read with a purpose.
• Record your reading progress daily in your Reading Log.
• You use reading strategies from the Opening
• You try to solve reading problems during
  independent reading time every day.

2: Needs Revision

• Focused on reading some of the time.
• Read independently most of the time.
• You respect other readers most of the time by following rituals and routines.
• Most of the time, you work as hard as you can and have all of your reading materials ready.
• You read texts from a few different genres.
• You record your reading progress in your Reading Log most of the time.
• Most of the time, you use reading strategies from the Opening to solve reading problems during independent reading time. Other times, you continue reading without fixing the problem.

1: Needs Instruction

• You have a hard time focusing on reading at all.
• You hardly ever want to read independently.
• You need teacher guidance to follow the rituals and routines and continue reading in class.
• You only like to read texts from one or two genres.
• You record your reading progress once or twice a week in your Reading Log.
• You don’t spend much time practicing the reading strategies from the Opening.

Homework 9/15

Students should read for at least 20 30 minutes from any text of their choosing. Reading every day for at least 20 30 minutes:

• Boosts speech and language development
• Increases vocabulary
• Increases knowledge of other people, places, things and ideas
• Makes you smarter
• Makes you more inquisitive
• It's a great way to relax
• Increases your ability to critically analyze ideas and themes
• Makes one more able to have conversations with anyone from any kind of background
• Increases your ability to think creatively

Want more reasons? Click here!

What We've Been Up To

Last Thursday and Friday, Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, the English Department administered the MSA Benchmark. I did not give homework and there was no formal classroom instruction.

If you would like to know your child's scores and have not received them, please let me know and I will send a copy home via your child.

In class tomorrow, I will let your son or daughter know when they should receive the results of their benchmarks.

Homework 9/10

1. Homework: In a paragraph, discuss how you ensure you are a critical reader.
2. Extra Credit/Homework: Do you think the reading strategies we’ve discussed in class work for you? Explain why or why not.

Reading Strategy: Clarify

1. Critical readers stop and clarify words or ideas in the text while they read. Critical readers ask clarifying questions:
–This seems to be about…
–The author believes…
–The most important idea is…
–I think the word means…
–At first I thought…, but now I think…
–This character seems…
–Do I understand this?

Group Norms

1.Everyone has a role:
• Facilitator: Moves the agenda along and ensures all of the goals are accomplished
• Speaker: During the class share out, speaks on behalf of the group
• Recorder: Writes and records notes on group outcomes and activities
• Parliamentarian: Ensures everyone remains on task, all of the group norms are enforced, and all are participating.
2. Do not interrupt the teacher while small group instruction is taking place.
3. Participate!
4. Move quickly and quietly.
5. Student-Teacher behavior norms in place.
6. Choose a name for your group.

Reading Strategy: Question

1. Critical readers ask questions about the important information in the text while they read.
2. Question Starters:
• Why?
• How?
• What If?

Before, During & After Reading Strategies

Before Reading Strategies
1.Survey & Preview the text
2.Set a Purpose
3.Predict
4.Question
5.Connect
6.Use Prior Knowledge

During Reading Strategies
1.Re-read the text
2.Restate
3.Connect
4.Confirm Predictions
5.Summarize
6.Visualize
7.Note-taking

After Reading Strategies
1.Question
2.Clarify
3.Evaluate

Homework 9/9

1. HOMEWORK: Think about the text you are reading in class. What 3 questions will you ask yourself as you read tomorrow using the “Questioning” method of: Why, How, What if?

2. Extra Credit/Homework: In a paragraph, why are the reading strategies important? Use at least one example in your response.

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read a text with a steady speaking voice, while also understanding or comprehending what one has read.

How can fluency make reading easier to understand & more enjoyable?

• Allows the reader to think and wonder
• Allows the reader to make more accurate predictions
• Allows the reader to be able to connect to the text and infer meanings from concepts, words, actions introduced.

Pay attention to the characteristics of fluent reading. Make a prediction about what will happen next. Confirm your prediction by reading ahead.

Reading Strategies

Students will use before reading strategies to prepare for reading:

• Visualize
• Connect
• Predict
• Question
• Prior/Background Knowledge

Students will use during reading strategies to read:

• Re-reading the text
• Restating in your own words
• Connect
• Confirming Predictions
• Summarizing
• Visualizing
• Note-taking

Reading Conferences

• Book abandonment: Give books a chance. If you read the first two chapters and remain uninterested, then abandon it. But not before.
• 25 Books Commitment form: Complete it every time you start a new book
• Book Closure form: Complete it every time you finish a book.

Homework Sept. 8

• Read for 20 minutes practicing the Predict & Visualize technique
• Write three predictions and three confirmations.
• Write a brief description on what you visualized as you read.

9/5 Today's Lesson: Making Predicitions By Activating Your Background (Prior) Knowledge

On Friday, we discussed the importance of predicting when we read as a reading strategy. This enables readers to interact with the text, by asking questions of themselves, the characters, the mood, and any thing else they recognize as being of importance to the immediate or general outcome of the book's plot.

INTRO
When we started the day, students answered the following questions:

1. What is a prediction?
2. Why is making a prediction important when you read?

CRITICAL READERS
Second, students were asked to challenge themselves about what critical readers practice when they read.

• Critical readers think about the story they are going to read before they start reading and as they read the story.
• Critical readers: Predict > Check the Prediction

PRACTICE PREDICTING
Then, we moved into practicing some predicting strategies. Using the book The Pigman, by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Paul Zindel, students examined the cover of the book and asked responded aloud to the question: What will happen next?

I asked for specific examples. Why? Because specific examples allow the student to both express their opinion by giving a specific example from the text. This is EXTREMELY important.
When students are asked to do the same on paper, they must explain their opinion by supporting it with facts directly from their observations in the text.

Next, I read from the first chapter of the book aloud. I stopped every now and then to ask them the predicting question: What do you think will happen next? Why?


INTERESTING QUESTIONS
Two of the most interesting questions to come out of my original question were: "Is the narrator a male or female?" (from me) and "Is the narrator white, black biracial, Latino?" (from students).

READING STRATEGIES
Finally, I discussed specific strategies they need to think about to be critical readers:

• We Problem Solve by reading ahead.
• We Predict & Confirm while reading.
• We read with fluency so it sounds like speaking.
• We read for punctuation clues so that we read with fluency & phrasing
• We re-read to maintain meaning
• We think about what we already know to understand the text.

Reader's Notebook

Everyday, students update their Reader's Notebook. The area above and Reading Strategies receive the most attention right now.

Homework Sept. 4

1. Homework: Using one of the “Connect” strategies, write a paragraph that demonstrates (shows) your personal connection process with the text. Be sure to use one example from your text.
2. Extra Credit/Homework: Using the genres on the board, make a chart placing titles (of your own choosing) with the correct genre.

• Informational Text
• Poetry
• Narrative
• Memoir/Autobiography
• Biography
• Draaphyma/Plays
• Fantasy/Sci-Fi
• Humor
  

9/4: Today’s Lesson

Reading Strategy: Connect
In today’s class, we discussed a new Reading Strategy: Connect. This strategy enables students to “connect” or interact with what’s happening in their text while they read. “Connecting” to the text, or specifically, to a character or series of events in their books will help them to become active and more fluent readers. This means, they will be able to understand what they read and demonstrate that understanding verbally or via writing.
•This reminds me of…
•If I were…
•It seems like…
•I wonder why…
•I really like (don’t like)
•I can’t believe…
•I’m not sure because…
•I know how a character feels because…
•I was surprised…
Reader’s Workshop/Conferences.
In class, we also discussed ways in which readers can “handle their business” during the Reader’s Workshop. Reader’s Workshop entails both independent reading (15 minutes) in addition to the process of learning how to be a better reader.

It is during Reader’s Workshop that I will have my 3 min-5 min conferences w/ students. During these conferences, we will discuss:
•Their academic progress
•Maintaining their personal progess for the 25 Books Campaign (are they OK w/ the book they have, do they understand the book, do they need to switch to another book, etc.)
•Is the overall class work challenging, too easy or just right?
•Notebook check
•Anything else the student would like to discuss

I will meet w/ most students every 2 weeks or so. For those who need to see me more frequently, they are able to sign up for a meeting using the sign-up sheet at my desk.

Homework: Sept. 3

• You must write in complete sentences.
• You must tell the genre of your text.
• Give at least two specific examples that provide the basis for your predictions and answers.
• Your answer should be at least 5 sentences.
• Earn an extra ticket for no spelling errors.

Choose one of the following:
1) How power or the lack of power impacts the decisions two of the characters make in your book. What would change if these characters either possessed power or had none at all?

2) What is the main problem in your book? How do you think the characters will solve it? If you could rewrite the book, how would you solve the problem? What affect would your solution have on the plot?

3) Extra Credit: You are a journalist interviewing your least favorite character in the book you are reading. However, this character is so busy he/she only has time for 5 questions. Write 5 questions you would ask this character and explain why you would ask them.

Back 2 School Night @ TJMS

Thomas Johnson Middle School’s Back To School Night will be Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. This is a night when parents take the time to meet their child’s teachers, see the classrooms and school facilities, learn more about TJMS (and we learn more about you).

I’ll post more information about the night as I learn more about this. In the meantime, for more information, contact the TJMS front office at 301-918-8680.