Practical writing instruction

One of the things I hear most often from teachers is about the struggle to find time for everything and make it all "fit together." I realize this can be difficult when special events and timed-to-the-minute daily schedules are the the norm, but I see it a little differently. One of the things I have committed to doing with my students a lot is low-risk-high-interest writing. And I am continually surprised by how often we can "fit it in." 

 For example, during our social studies unit on Citizenship, we studied many different current and historical figures that are examples of compassion, curiosity, commitment and community involvement. My students collected information about them in whatever way they would like in some research packets I created. The information was to be organized into those four C categories I just listed... but it didn't matter to me if they drew with labels, wrote full sentences, made a flow map of events or recorded important dates...just as long as it made sense to them.

After all the note-taking, it seemed like they still had a connection to these people, and in some cases lingering questions. Enter----letter writing opportunity! I took one day to show, study and explain a few letters (including the format of the one from MLK to JFK from the previous post) before sending them off to write one of their own. They were able to choose which person to write to and had only the following expectations;

• Follow the letter format (greeting, body, salutation)
• Identify one of the four Cs that the "Great Citizen" showed and the evidence
• Ask one question
• Thank them for their example

The results were wonderful as you can see, they really loved the chance to channel what they learned and write with purpose about something they had studied and cared deeply about. And the best part is, I thought of it in the car on the way to school, took 20 minutes to teach them how and 45 minutes to let them work...we got a lot out of that hour and 5 minute learning experience :)

        

Using primary source documents in primary grades

During my time at the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project Institute last winter, I was reminded of the importance of sharing real pieces of history with our youngest learners. As we practiced deep thinking and literacy practice with primary source documents at the institute, I began to image what I could do in my classroom.
This winter, as my students began studying great citizens and we dove head first into content are literacy centers, I was delighted to go back to the Library of Congress website to retrieve a couple great pieces to share with them. If you haven't visited their site, you should! There is a classroom materials section and collections of primary source documents by theme.
Since most of great citizen study began with Martin Luther King Jr. I was immediately drawn to a letter that he wrote to JFK, just after he was inaugurated. It became the focal point of my "Write Around Center" and I was not disappointed by the engagement and conversations it sparked!