We spent a good deal of time after lunch today discussing word choice in our memoirs. This is not the first time students were taught about word choice, we spent a lot of time exploring and using strong word choice in our adventure stories.
This round though, whew! They nailed it. I saw thesauruses out all over, resources shared among tables, and pink highlighter filling rough draft pages.
Our mini-lesson was on the floor the last two days, close together, where they can truly focus on what I'm doing. We usually meet at my "blue carpet" in the back of the room where there is a bit more space, but this worked just as well, if not better. I love feeling the closeness of us when I teach like this. I plan to do it more often for Writing.
Modeling what strong word choice looks like in my own personal memoir I'm writing along with my 5th graders. They enjoy hearing my personal stories and like that I apply the skill they are learning to the writing piece I am working on.
You'll notice the notebook on the floor. That is my mentor "Mini-Lesson Notebook". I use notebook inserts for all of my literacy lessons. Here are the three inserts for Voice, Word Choice, and Message (we will hunt for Message on Monday)
Students are expected to have their Mini-Lesson Notebooks out whenever they are working on a writing piece. Keeping the notebooks purposeful and teaching students how to use them as a tool for learning has greatly enhanced my students' writing skills.
Students at work today... I'm so proud of their stamina and attention to detail.
As you can see, I'm loving this Memoir writing unit, and writing in general right now. We are having fun, learning a lot, and displaying great writing ability.
No comments:
Post a Comment