Lori: 2nd Grade Writing Focus of Organization/Ideas

2nd Grade Writing Focusing on Organization and Ideas
By Lori Gentry

Duck On A Bike
by David Shannon




Mentor Text: Duck On a Bike is a great story about a duck trying out transportation on a bike. Along the Duck's journey all the animals from the barnyard have something to say about Duck's wild adventure. This story really can engage students by asking them questions like "What is the animals really thinking?".


Purpose: The reason I chose this book is because it is fun and really gets the kids thinking as to what happens next and thinking about how others perceive the duck's choice to ride a bike. Using animals is a general topic that students love, and students can easily see the organization of the characters.


About the Author: David Shannon is an author and illustrator of many very well know children's books. He graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a fine arts degree, and then moved to New York City. His editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Time, and Rolling Stone, and his artwork has appeared on numerous book jackets. For more information and a video interview on David Shannon go to http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/shannon.




Lesson Plan: The teacher will read Duck On A Bike and ask thinking questions like"What do you think will happen next?" and "What do you think the other animals really think?".

Once finished the teacher will provide an graphic organizer to the student's. The graphic organizer should include an animal, a transportation, and a setting. Then on the graphic organizer break it into steps. Step one will be the animal getting on the choice of transportation. Then you will have 2 or 3 additional steps of what happens when the animal passes the first person or animal, ect. Then final step is to conclude the story.


This graphic organizer will help students organize and get all their ideas down. Once this prewriting process is complete students can write their story. If time allows once student's finish they can share their stories or even help edit each others story.



Content Standard: Writing Process Standard
A. Generate ideas for written compositions
C. Use organizers to clarify ideas for writing assignments.
D. Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organize word choice and detail.

Lori: 2nd Grade Creative Writing

2nd Grade Creative Writing

By Lori Gentry

Gentle Giant Octopus

By Karen Wallace

Mentor Text: Gentle Giant Octopus is a story that explores the life of an octopus. It is a very describtive book that has been poetically written. The story is give in small chuncks so that children learn the most. The book also is informative. Students learn that Octupus have no bones, and they have 60,000 babies at a time. When a fish bites off a tentacle, the tentacle grows back. It can fit in really small places. Octopi squirt ink to get away from predators. Students will not only learn many true facts about the octopus, but this book does a great job of modeling descriptive and creative writing.

Purpose: I have chose this author and book because of its high interest, and beautiful word choice. This is a great example of how to creatively write about a true thing. I feel that this author has done an excellent job presenting the octopus in such a poetic form.

About the Author: Karen Wallace was born in Canada and grew up in a log cabin in Quebec. She had a very good childhood and reflects on her senses as a child when writing her natural history books. Karen writes for children ages 5 to 15 years of age. She went to London University to read English. She also writes scripts for children's television, natural history programmes and the occasional documentary. Although she states that writing scripts uses a different writing muscle. Some of Karen's publications include: THINK OF AN EEL, IMAGINE YOU ARE A TIGER, and I AM A TYRANNOSAURUS REX. Other publications and more information about Karen Wallace can be found at

www.karenwallace.co.uk/about.htm

Karen Wallace -

Lesson Plan: After reading the book Gentle Giant Octopus guide the students into
Creative Writing:
First go through and list vocabulary from the book. Then approach the students:
You are a deep sea diver whose mission it is to explore the seas. Describe what you see through your diver’s mask. Remember to use vocabulary from the Gentle Giant Octopus book by Karen Wallace. Let your creative juices flow by using your senses (sight, hearing, touching) to help you write your response. Include a labeled diagram of what you have visualized in your writing piece.

Content Standard: Writing Process Standard

D. Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organization,
word choice and detail.

Lori: 2nd Grade - Writing Ideas

Second Grade : Writing Ideas


By: Lori Gentry



If A Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold

Mentor Text: If A Bus Could Talk is a book based on the Civil Rights movement and the story of Rosa Parks. In the book a bus talks, and a child named Marcie learns how Rosa Parks became the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Readers are exposed to the cruel reality of segregation and how Rosa refused to give her seat up to a white man. The story ends with Marcie getting to meet Rosa at a birthday party.

Purpose: I chose this book because it is a great way to educate and get young writers to generate ideas of their feelings. I believe this to be a very important part of our history, and it stirs ideas within student's minds to how they would feel in the same position. When teaching young children to write using a real life situation generates their idea process and gives them the ability to write a clear message from their own feeling.

About the Author:

Faith Ringgold, began her artistic career more than 35 years ago as a painter. Today, she is best known for her painted story quilts. She has exhibited in major museums in the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Her first book, Tar Beach was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, among numerous other honors. She has written and illustrated eleven children's books. She has received more than 75 awards, fellowships, citations and honors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship for painting, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and seventeen honorary doctorates.
Faith Ringgold is married to Burdette Ringgold and has two daughters, Michele and Barbara Wallace; and three granddaughters, Faith, Theodora and Martha. She is a professor of art at the University Of California.

Lesson: Describe to the your students the pain of segregation. In particular describe the bus situation in Alabama cities like Birmingham. How would you feel if you had to sit at the back of the bus?? If possible conduct your lesson on a local school bus. Ask some students to sit in the back. Talk about how it makes you feel.

Read: If A Bus Could Talk

Then have students think about what they feel about their experience on the bus. Generate a list of ideas on their feelings.
Write about those feelings and what it means to have or not have civil rights.
Together, or alone have your students come up with a list of their own civil rights.

Content Standard: Writing Process Standard A. Generate ideas for written compositions.

Lori's Introduction

Hello friends! My name is Lori, and I am currently finishing the Master's Intervention Specialist Program at Wright State University. I teach Criminal Justice classes for ITT College and have always worked with troubled youth. I seem to have the patience for the students that many teacher's could pull their hair out over. My philosophy is to provide the best intervention I can to student's in order to deter them away from crime. I am very excited to share some of the research on teaching writing to children I have gained! I am a firm believer that education develops a successful member of society!

3rd Grade Creative Writing Prompts

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

By: Dr. Seuss

About the Book:

A little boy in a yellow jumpsuit travels through different cityscapes and landscapes where he finds different situations some good, and so bad. I don't want to review all of the places he visited because it is another one of Dr. Suess's must read books.

About the Author:

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known asDr. Seuss, was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Suess uses the influence of Springfield in many of his drawling in his books. He married Helen Plamer who became an author of children's books herself. His fist book that was published was And to Think That i Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times. He died September 24, 1991. At the time of his death he had written and illustrated 44 children's books.

Purpose:
I believe this book show creative writing at its best. I want my students to understand that writing can be something made up in their imagination. I believe this book will spark different ideas of all students when deciding a topic for a creative writing piece.

Minilesson:

The teacher will give the students 3 minutes to write down as many different ideas to write about. The students will then put the paper to the side.

The students will gather on the reading carpet, where the teacher will read Oh, the Places You'll Go by, Dr. Suess. After reading the book the students will discuss the different things that happened in the book. The teacher will spark the discussion about the use of imagination.

The students will return to their seats and pull out the idea list they created before the book. Now the students will add more idea that could involve their imagination. From the entire list generated the students will determine a topic to write on. The students also need to determine an audience they are want to write for.

Standard:
Writing Processes

A. Generate ideas and determine a topic suitable for writing.

B. Determine audience and purpose for self-selected and assigned writing tasks.

First Grade: Developing a Character

By: Christy Sexton

Francis the Scaredy Cat

by Ed Boxall

Mentor Text: Francis the Scaredy Cat by Ed Boxall, is a story about a cat named Francis, who is aftraid of the dark. In this book, Boxall does a wonderful job at developing the main character, Francis. At the beginning of the book, Boxall describes the activities that Francis likes to do, and the things that he is interested in. The reader is able to get a good idea of who Francis is. Then, Boxall goes on to talk about Francis's problem. Francis is aftraid of the dark. After Boxall has described Francis, he goes on to talk about what happened to Francis on one particular night. It is a wonderful story, that I have personally read with first graders. They absolutely loved it.

Purpose: I chose to use the book Francis the Scaredy Cat, because Ed Boxall did such a wonderful job at developing the main character. When children are first learning to write, they need to see good models of how a writer develops a strong character. In this book, the first seven pages are dedicated to developing the main character, Francis.

About the Author: Ed Boxall writes and illustrates children's books. He has had five books published by walker books. Three of his books include, Mr. Trim and Miss Jumble, Scoot on Top of the World, and Francis the Scaredy Cat. Boxall always knew that he wanted to be an artist, and grew up to study art at Saint Martin's College of Art in London. Boxall says, "I got the idea for Francis the Scaredy Cat from looking back to my childhood and remembering that I felt I was a little bit different from everyone else."

Academic Content Standards:

Writing Process Standard

Benchmarks:

A. Generate ideas for written compositions.

D. Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organization, word choice and detail.

First Grade, Writing Processes Indicators:

1. Generate writing ideas through discussions with others.

2. Develop a main idea for writing.

4. Use organization strategies to plan writing.

10. Add descriptive words and details.

Writing Applications Standard

Benchmarks:

A. Compose writings that convey a clear message and include well chosen details.

First Grade, Writing Applications Indicators:

1. Write simple stories with a begining, middle and end that include descriptive words and details.

Lesson Plans:

1. The teacher will read the book Francis the Scaredy Cat by Ed Boxall.

2. After reading the book, the teacher will create a chart that describes the character, Francis. After the chart is created, the teacher is able to point out all of the characteristics that Ed Boxall used to develop the character Francis.

3. Next, the teacher will do an interactive or shared writing with the students. In this writing, the students are going to create their own character, and write a story about it. Before writing the story, the teacher should lead the students in creating a Character Fact Sheet. The Character Fact Sheet will allow the students to create a detailed character sketch, before writing the story.

4. Once the character has been developed, the teacher can begin interactively writing the story.

Christy's Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Christy Sexton, and I am a student at Wright State, in the Reading Endorsement Master's program. I graduated from Wright State in 2008, with a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education. I am currently a toddler teacher at Mini University, which is the Child Development Center on Wright State's Campus. I love working with children.

During my undergrad, I completed my student teaching in a first grade classroom. My experience in a first grade classroom helped me come up with the lesson plan ideas for my blog. First grade is such an exciting grade, and I would love to teach in a first grade classroom someday.