My Poetry Project

Here is the link to my poetry project power point. Hope you all enjoy!!!! http://www.4shared.com/file/45166789/52b5fed8/Animal_I_poems.html

Also, here is a sample of one of our poems by Lukas Braswell
http://www.4shared.com/file/45168707/9d0b2ee4/Here_is_an_animal_I_poem_created_by_Lukas_Braswell.html

Reflection on multigenre presentations

The multigenre presentations were nothingless than incredible! So many artistic forms were presented as genres in so many manners. Tony's dance to model the strengths and struggles of her subject was absolutely moving and really was a new age interpretation. All of the presentations had some kind of personal connection to the author and that really showed through in the selection of genres and the details that some of these projects had. I know that Michelle's project on the Winchester heiress was more of an 'ology'. She really had some interesting details and little lift up things and wedding invitations to pull out and it was just so meticulous! Robin had a little Rickey (a real mouse) and Mickey Mouse dialogue that posed the question why does Mickey get all of these special treatments when poor little Rickey has to scrounge around for food? I thought that was really cute!! Jamie's Mail Order Bride topic was rather interesting and I would really like to know how she chose that topic. I mean, of all things, where does mail order bride pop into your head? It was very entertaining and I liked how she knew additional background about that time period, such as the wedding dress colors reflecting how the bride felt on that day. Over and over again I saw some really thoughtful projects and learned some really interesting things that never would have come out of research papers. Now that it is done, I am relieved and looking for a break, but I did really enjoy this project and would like to continue using this approach in future years. Thanks for all of the wonderful information everyone! Great Job!!!!!

Multigenre Pictures

Hey everybody. Here are some of my articles for my multigenre project. I hope you enjoy!

Wordless Picture Books- Hip Hip HOORAY!

WOW!!! Last night after the presentation on wordless picture books, I was really pumped up and wanting to try that approach. However, I was nervous as to how well it would work with kindergarteners, especially when I have 6 ESL students in my class of 12. But, I wanted to do it anyways and so I tried using the book Picnic, mainly because the pictures are easy enough and common enought for my children to get. IT WENT GREAT!!!!! Everyone contributed to the story and they came up with some of the greatest descriptive words. The other great part is that they were so excited about having written part of a story. You know how Dr. Frye kept talking about the little girl who called herself the "Arthur" well, that was my whole class today. We are going to continue it on into next wee and then probably present it to the other kindergarten classes. What a way to end the week!!!

Wordless Picture Books

Ok. So I will admit that I have always been a little intimidated about using wordless picture books. I mean, before my children learn to read, we do the picture walks and I have them try to create a story from the pictures and we see if that is actually what happens. But, specifically using wordless picture books has never been something I have tried to tackle.
Now, having read the articles, I understand so much more about wordless picture books and their uses. I have several ESL students and I realize that wordless picture books would be great for them. It would be really helpful for early identification of moods, expressions, objects, action, etc. and then move into interpretation after revisiting it many times. It could also be really helpful in helping my students who have limited vocabulary (not all ESL) express themselves to help me better understand what they are thinking and how I could better assist them in writing. I think it would be less intimidating to them as well and not so overwhelming.

Multigenre Update

Ok. So I feel a little bit better about the multigenre. I mean, I'm still a little nervous about the paper. I know what I have learned and I know how helpful multigenre can be at presenting information, I just don't know how I am going to get it all out. Also, I changed my approach a little bit. I had originally wanted my project to be comical and written from multiple perspectives but that wasn't coming along the way I wanted it to. So, I changed it and am writing it from a perspective of a 17 year old so that I could show the emotional issues he was going through. It is going better now and I have most of my genres complete. I am looking to put some pictures on soon. I really want to show you all the cover. I think it is kind of cool! Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions or advice, please let me know. Thanks.

my concrete poem

http://www.4shared.com/file/41918654/d28b9b42/cookies.htmlHere is my concrete poem. It is not as extravagant as some of the others, but I thought it would be interesting for my little ones and help them see that anyone can make a concrete poem. Hope you enjoy.

Here is my found poem

Hi guys. Here is my found poem. I hope you enjoy it.

Some more thoughts on Multigenre

For me, mutigenre writing is a way to explore anything, gather knowledge about a subject, and present it in a unique and creative way, contrary to typical essays. I think multigenre is exciting as well. I mean you take research, which most people don't mind doing, and infuse it into this masterpiece on a topic, much better than sitting down and typing 6-7 pages on anything. You can put anything in it too that shares information. For my project, I am doing childhood obesity and presenting it in a way that is comical and appropriate for my kindergarten students. It is basically going to be a battle between adults (parents, doctors, etc.) and a child and how the child only likes to eat junk. I think this will be a fun way to present this to my students. It is kind of like the I Wanna Iguana book where the little boy keeps writing letters to his mom telling her why he should get his neighbors pet iguana when he moves. We have really been focusing on health recently from February so it would be a perfect time to bring this up. Another thing I like about mutigenre is that it can tap into the lower grades. I mean, kindergarten would be a little difficult, but 1st, 2nd grade, sure no problem! It would be a fun way to engage students in writing without stressing them out and boring the daylights out of them.

My new thoughts on Multigenre

The readings have really helped me understand multigenre writing better, especially the Moulton article. I loved how many examples she included. The power points were nice to see in color too. But Moulton really helped to shed some light on utilizing multigenre writing in the classroom, especially if you weren't really familiar with it and it sounded like she was a little nervous as well. I guess the Moulton article helped to shed more light on multigenre than the readings from the text. For me, the text bounced back too much and Moulton was very condense and focused on the nitty gritty of doing multigenre for the first time. But I am feeling much better about doing this project and I think it will be a lot of fun.

A Haiku 4 U!!

And my Haiku! Hope you like it too!!!http://www.4shared.com/file/39825176/4c40b8bf/Thirst_Quencher_haiku.html

I Poem

Here is my I Poem. Let me know what you think!!!
http://www.4shared.com/file/39825063/24f31746/The__Great_Bat.html

I poem experience and such

So, as I was writing my I poem, I found that it worked much better for me to make mine rhyme!! This really surprised me because I usually don't like for my things to rhyme. I am more of a free verse type of girl. But, I did mine on bats and I tried to make it interesting for my children. I have really started putting myself in their shoes with my writing. Even as I have begun the multigenre exploration. I read that a lot of multigenre projects are on topics of research but I started thinking about how I could make a model for my children that would have some research aspects in it but would be funny, kind of like the Mr. Jolly book and I came up with the idea of a child arguing with his parents and adults about what he likes to eat and how he hates vegetables!!! I know this is silly, and it may completely be off key, but this is the way I'm thinking now, for my students!!

I Poems and their use in class

I liked the article about the use of I poems to help children further experience novels. By having students pick various descriptions or characters in a novel and have them research them, both through the novel and through independent research, allows them to better connect to the text. To me, this is a perfect outlet for creativity. Also, being able to describe some aspect of a text through poetry shows a greater mastery of the material than a test. It shows the deep thought process that a child went through to take on their subject and write about it as if they were the actual thing. I think Kucan realizes this fact and in turn, nurtures it by utilizing the I poems.
This would work wonderfully for second grade up. I think it could really show comprehension, build research skills, as well as creative thinking. For kindergarten and first grade, this task could prove difficult. A good way to approach the I poems, a way that I would use, would be to take an everyday common object that each child has experienced and create a class I poem based on its characteristics. I would do this a couple of times and then proceed to try it with a simple text that has a strong character or setting. Perhaps, maybe a Halloween story. Children are easily able to describe scary settings and would probably do well at this task.
I, personally, would have loved an assignment like this. I love poetry and have written some I poems on my own, but to have had an assignment like this in school would have really enthused me about many novels.

Chapter 6-Best Practices

Does anyone else remember the day when you hated to do any kind of prewriting or planning??? I DO!!!! I never got into planning in school. I didn't see the point, we were never really taught how to do it, it seemed like a waste of time, and we rarely used our prewriting and rough drafts to compose any finalized work. So, when I saw that we had to read a whole chapter on planning out writing in the classroom, I was less than thrilled and enticed. However, as I read the chapter, I began to understand why I had so many issues with planning and why I never liked it.
In the chapter, I was one of the "Many developing writers that minimize the role of planning in their writing." I would sit at a table, start writing, and go from thre, something known as "knowledge telling". Thus, my papers at times were jumbled up, jumpy, and constructed with poor grammar. I had never learned the importance of planning and thus, it did not reflect in my work.
Chapter 10 gives some really nice methods for teaching the process, role, and importance of planning so that students understand it's value. It lists three interventions of prewriting, or generating ideas around a topic; inquiry, or the use of questioning, observation, etc. the generate knowledge about a topic and strategy instruction, or explicit teaching of the process of planning, and revision.
Prewriting and inquiry are more student led and in a way allows students to hopefully come to their own understandings about the writing process. When observed in a classroom, both practices showed a positive effect of .32.
Strategy instruction is teacher driven and shows students the important parts of planning and revising. It is used to ensure mastery of the skills learned in the process and is modeled many times by a teacher. This direct instruction based approach showed a positive effect of 1.03. So, one would discern that a combination of both types would work well for students.
The last thing I would like to comment on is the fact that these authors picked up on why students did not like planning. The topics were meaningless, so students put no effort forth, prewriting wasn't praised or considered a major part of a writing piece, and children saw few results, especially if their work went unpublished. The teacher didn't really seem to value planning, so why would the students? Especially if there really wasn't any reason. The book suggests praising the prewriting and revision process and encouraging students to take different points of view. That way, they can see how planning can better help them get their point acoss.

Chapter 10 of Best Practices and Graves' Article

These two articles were very interesting. I especially liked Graves' approach to writing something that is meaningful. I think of so many of my own writings that actually were well constructed, interesting, and thought provoking and meaningful, and these were all the ones I ever really cared about writing. Essays and other papers that were on topics that had no value to me or did not interest me were always lesser in quality. Same goes for poetry. Poetry that was forced upon me never turned out right and Graves really picks up on that fact in his article. He thinks writing should be an expression of whatever is going on or important in your life and I agree.
Chapter 10 of Best Practices in Writing goes along with some aspects of Graves. The authors of chapter 10 say that in order to motivate writers, writing assignments should be purposeful and interesting or "authentic". The authors also believe that choices should always be given. I again think this is an interesting idea. If choices are provided, it gives the student the chance to find a topic that connects with them, thus increasing the motivation and likleyhood of success.

Let's talk writing!

Chapter 1 of Best Practices in Writing Instruction was interesting to me. I never really realized that there were such huge gaps in writing performance. I mean, you remember which writing classes you didn't like in school and which ones took you off to other places and really fostered your abilities, but to hear of classrooms where children's work is not displayed or they are not encouraged to improve on their writing is ridiculous!! I work with kindergarteners and we expect them to improve all of the time. We go back with "dictionary" pens and correct spelling and we make sure we capitalize in the write places and use correct pucntuation. To think that this is not happening elsewhere is a bit scary.

Hello To All!!!

Hello Friends!!! Glad you stopped in. A little about me. I'm 4'11, 23 and I spend all of my time teaching 5 year olds who are almost as tall as I am, and, who make sure to remind me everyday! Gotta love life!! But honestly, what other job could I have that would suit me any better??? I'm a complete nerd who loves Harry Potter, shooting spit balls on occasion, and dressing up in wacky outfits!!! I guess that's why my students love me and I love them!!!