Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Summer Reads and Writes


Run through the meadow.
Splash into the brook.
Roar through the fields.
Dive into a good book.


What did I say? Dive into a good book?

Right !

Free online books:



Now write online about your reading or write about a connection or story of your own from your reading.




Run through the meadow.
Splash into the brook.
Roar through the fields.
Dive into a good book.

Pick the field flowers.
Write your own story.
Comment back here.
Share your glory.





Sunday, March 27, 2011

Basic Photography Lesson

Check out this SlideShare Presentation to learn about photography.

Focus on "Composition" and "Light." Note the principles to remember in a Google Apps Presentation you and a partner create.

Choose photos from this site

http://www.flickr.com/groups/voicethreadphotos/

Insert them into your presentation. Explain the elements of photography used in the photo(s) you choose. Describe three photos you will take about our school. Explain each "shot" you will take, and the principles each will include.

Share your presentation with your teacher, and be prepared to take your shots!

You can make a copy of this Photography Presentation to get started:



Comment back with links once you've started your own gallery of excellent photos.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Reading Fluency, Comprehension, and Writing

Do you know what we are preparing for? Blogging and our State Test.

If we want to blog, we need to know what to write about.

If we want to pass our state test, we need to become excellent readers.

Therefore, we are working on two goals: reading to learn and reading strategies.

First, we read and practice our reading strategies. Did you know that these are the strategies good readers use?

Next we re-read and practice our strategies.

Finally, we read to take notes on the main idea and detail. One way is to complete this form (from Jim Burke's work at the English Companion ).

Do you see the Subject, Main idea, and Details areas?

The subject is the topic.
The main idea is a gist statement: twenty to twenty-five words that summarize the entire text.
The details are the facts and ideas that support the main idea.

You would not believe how easy it is to write a composition -- think great blog post --- using this form. We can draft our composition from the form, adding in our own ideas and opinions using our elaboration strategies.

We edit and check for accuracy. We monitor our paragraphing. We cite our source. Here's an example.

What do you think? Do you have a strategy to become better readers AND better writers? Are you ready to start blogging AND pass your State Test?

We are on our way and will link later to some of our blogs, and we will share our vocabulary strategies also. Check back for more...


Reflect curiosity and wonder...
Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness...

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Dialogue Detectives


How do we learn to write dialogue?

In our classroom we listened to the dilightful conversation in the short story, "Our Good Day," from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. We looked inside The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare and read the dialogue and examine the punctuation and paragraphing:


We took notes and wrote exampes in our notebooks.

Next we practiced adding conversations between characters in our own writing, an example of which would be placed in our interactive notebooks.

Some students creatively wrote in their notebooks:



If you need a reminder about writing dialogue, here is an excellent resource from ReadWriteThink: Dialogue Tags.

Adding dialogue to your writing draws your reader in to become part of your conversation, making your writing real!

If you'd like, you could add one of your character conversations in the comments.



Reminder: This is a school related site so please respect others and comment appropriately. Please contact Ms Edwards if you have any questions or need to report any inappropriate activity. Thank you.

Reflect Curiosity and Wonder... Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness...


Photo Credit:
Create Your Own Picasso at PicassoHead