[LIT] Lessons to share...

[Ty Dartez]

Hi Tena,

Listserves do seem to have been quiet the last week....I guess most of 
us are busy getting ready for the next school year...

You asked our favorite lessons....the things we look forward to: there 
are several things that I look forward to each year:

At the beginning of the year, I enjoy doing the "I am from" poems: I 
think you can find all kinds of information on these if you google "I 
am from" poems....

I look forward to special holiday lessons.....For Christmas, I enjoy 
having students write a holiday memoir piece or create a special 
cookbook or something for family, for Mother's Day, Mother's Day poems 
(see Nancy Atwell's In the Middle), last 9/11, I read students The Man 
Who Walked Between the Towers....This year, I also have some books of 
children's writing and artwork that I will share in memory of those who 
lost their lives...

This Veteran's Day I want to have students write letters to veterans, 
which I will try to send to a local Veteron's Association. For 
Halloween, and I think I got this idea from someone on this 
listserve....maybe you can speak up if it was you? my students had a 
blast writing "Halloween Show Not Tell pieces" in which they were given 
short sentences which they had to create a "show not tell" piece....

For MLK day, we did a lesson I got off of readwritethink.org.....I 
really enjoy these holiday activities with students....Oh, we also 
wrote stories for Red Ribbon Week....fictional stories about the 
dangers of getting involved with drugs and made mobiles demonstrating 
all of the good things that would be lost if they got involved with 
drugs.....there is another lesson I would like to offer as an option in 
which students write to the prompt, "If drug abuse was a fictional 
place, what would that place look like? sound like? feel like, etc.?" 
The point being for students to create an imaginary place, not to 
describe the back of an alley....not sure if I will use this one 
because of how it might be misinterpreted.....hmm...I also wrote my own 
memoir about a friend getting involved in drugs, changing names and 
details to protect the innocent, of course.

I really enjoy teaching memoir at the beginning of the year, focusing 
on "small moment" stories....I love launching the writer's workshop by 
reading Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer 
Within you" as a read-aloud.

Other things I always look forward to are sharing my favorite picture 
books and having students fall in love with them too.....and I did a 
great unit last year on creative nonfiction, where my sixth-graders 
made creative nonfiction picture books to share with a colleague's 
third graders.....Fun, fun!

  I enjoy all the Strategies That Work lessons....getting to see 
students grow in their understanding of the strategies throughout the 
year....

Sorry, none of these are very specific or original probably, but these 
are parts of the year that I enjoy...

If I think of more, I'll let you know:)

May




On Jul 24, 2007, at 9:20 PM, Tena Linsbeck-Perron wrote:

> Come on guys, I want to hear more.