Check for Understanding

Last week we started our CAFE lessons. We read Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. Gosh, I love that guy's books!!

Anyways, we had a blast finishing off the lesson by making our Check for Understanding hats. My kiddos can wear those as a reminder while they read. 

Such fun in first grade!

I made a YouTube video of me introducing Check for Understanding. It's currently private, but I'll share it as soon as I figure out how to hide a few tiny faces. Hey, 17 out of 19 kiddos who follow my "DO NOT turn around to look at the camera" directions isn't all that bad! 

Building Mathematical Comprehension- Chapter 9

Second to last post of this book study. Crazy!! Catch up on my old posts by going here:

Chapter 1- Comprehension Strategies for Mathematics

Chapter 2- Recognizing and Understanding Mathematical Vocabulary

Chapter 3- Making Mathematical Connections

Chapter 4- Increasing Comprehension by Asking Questions

Chapters 5 and 6- Visualizing and Inferences & Predictions
 

Chapter 7- Determining Importance

Chapter 8- Synthesizing

Chapter 9-  

Monitoring Mathematical Comprehension

The good news: Many students take part in this mostly subconscious act of self monitoring meaning as they read and do math. 

The bad news: Not ALL students are able to do this on their own.  In fact, in the beginning of the chapter Sammons says that so many children don't expect to understand math. (249) If I don't expect myself to be able to understand, then I'm not going to have much motivation to persevere when it gets hard. It's easy to give up when the expectation isn't there. This really speaks to the importance of building a safe learning environment in our classrooms and having high expectations for ALL students!

This great anchor chart from First Grade Brain Sprinkles can easily be adapted for math.  

The great thing is that this strategy of metacognition encompasses all the other strategies!

Metacognition in math, however, is twofold. First, students must monitor their conceptual understanding (252). Then, students must monitor their understanding of the meaning of the problem (254). Many math students are so engrossed in procedural understanding that conceptual understanding suffers, thus problem solving suffers.

Here's what students need to know about monitoring mathematical comprehension:

1. They are responsible for their own understanding. Students must be aware of times when they don't understand. 

2. Students need to know when they don't understand. 

3. They can pinpoint their misunderstanding. In other words, students know what got them confused in the first place. 

4. Students can use strategies to fix their comprehension. 

5. Strategies should be used flexibly. When one doesn't work, student know to reevaluate and try something new. 

Concrete Example: When a car breaks down, we don't try to keep driving it. We fix it! When our comprehension breaks down, we don't keep working, we stop and fix our comprehension first. (258)

Red Flags Students Should Watch For:

• My internal voice isn't working 
• I can't visualize the problem
• My mind is wandering and I can't focus
• I can't recall the details
• When I ask questions to clarify, I can't come up with an answer (259)

Here are some great thinking stems to assist with metacognition. 

no source for the above Pinterest pin :(

Red Flags Teachers Should Watch For:

• Students who rush through their work
• Students who don't make mathematical connections
• Students who give up easily (260)

Strategies for Monitoring Mathematical Comprehension

Huh?

Have students put a post it with the word "huh" written on it next to the confusing part of the text. If the confusion is cleared up they add a light bulb. The teacher can walk around and see what areas of the text/work should be addressed. (263) 

Ticket Out the Door

This strategy requires students to solve a problem, rate their understanding, or show their understanding in some other way before leaving the class. The teacher then uses that formative assessment when planning the next day's lesson. (264)

 

(Ticket Out The Door poster from Teach-A-Roo)

Color-Code Math Stretch

Similar to the Ticket Out the Door, students rate their understanding of the day's lesson on color coded sticky notes. Green if they understood it well, yellow for moderate understanding, and orange for very confused. On the note students write a quick statement about the concept. (266)

Here's a bit of a spin on this math stretch from Timeouts and Tootsie Rolls.  

So, so, so much to take in. After giving your brain a little break you can check out these other links too! 

Building Mathematical Comprehension- Chapter 8

 

Only two more chapters to go. That just reminds me that summer is coming to an end. Bummer! But the journey to the end has been filled with a lot of interesting math info. You can find little recaps of each chapter by visiting the links below:

Chapter 1- Comprehension Strategies for Mathematics

Chapter 2- Recognizing and Understanding Mathematical Vocabulary

Chapter 3- Making Mathematical Connections

Chapter 4- Increasing Comprehension by Asking Questions

Chapters 5 and 6- Visualizing and Inferences & Predictions

Chapter 7- Determining Importance

Chapter 8- Synthesizing Information 

Students should be synthesizing during and after their reading and math work.

But what does synthesizing mean for students? It means that they take the information they know about a topic and merge it with the new information they are learning to create a completely new idea or way of thinking about that topic. (227)

What should students know about synthesizing?

1. Mathematical thinking changes as new ifnormation is encountered. It's okay to revise our previous thoughts and ideas about a topic in light of new information that we're learning. Reflection is a great way to make that happen! (231)

2. New information should be tied to prior knowledge in order to create meaning. Students need to be sure that there is consistency as they build on their prior knowledge. (231)

3. Synthesis is what you get when you combine information from various sources that you already have experience with and with various new sources of information. (231)

4.  Synthesis changes as we encounter new information. (232)

5. Synthesis helps with mathematical understanding. Discussion is important in helping students see how synthesizing deepens their understanding of math concepts.(232)

Concrete Examples to Teach Synthesis

Nesting Dolls- Just like nesting dolls, larger ideas can be made up of smaller details, ideas, and concepts. All the little pieces and parts work to build the big concept. (236)

Baking a Cake- Separate ingredients are used to make a cake. Separate ideas can all contribute to one overarching concept. (236)

Conjectures

One of the most effective ways to promote rigorous thinking in students is to have them make conjectures, or educated guesses or predictions. (237)

Boy is Sammons right when she says that teachers struggle with this idea. Well, this teacher does anyways. It's much easier in my mind to teach math the "traditional" way. I teach the concept, kids practice the concept, I test if they've learned the concept.

But deeper understanding is gained when students have to do the hard work themselves to arrive at the big concept. Teaching math concepts through problem solving is key. Not my natural tendency let me tell you. Another reason I'm glad to be a part of this study. Push  myself a little a guess :)

As always Sammons suggest Math Stretches as a way to implement this strategy. This time, however, she suggests taking a backward approach. Give the synthesis, have students provide the details. For example, asking students to Support or Disprove This Conjecture helps them come up with the proof. (240)

I love one thought she includes at the end of the chapter: "Students deserve the opportunity to delve more deeply into the discipline of mathematics, to become more than procedurally proficient." (246)

WOW!

Students deserve that opportunity. Far be it from me to take that opportunity away from my students! I've got some work to do when it comes to teaching math, but as always I'm up for the challenge and can't wait to get out on that limb!   

Building Mathematical Comprehension- Chapter 7

I'm so sad about missing this week's Throwback Thursday with The First Grade Pararde, but I'm determined to not get behind again on my book study posts. Since chapter 8 starts tomorrow, I have to squeeze this bad boy in today!

So here we go...Chapter 7: Determining Importance

Apparently some young adults (and probably full blown adults) still don't have this skill down, because as Sammons touches upon later in the chapter, you often find college students who highlight every last sentence on their page in a zillion different colors just hoping that the important stuff is going to stick. What they get is just a really colorful, very expensive textbook. 

 (picture from the Sharpie blog)

The strategy of determining importance can be taught by reminding students that:

1. Determining importance happens at the word, sentence, and idea level.

• At the word level students need to be aware of mathematical vocabulary and their meaning as related to the task/topic. (200)

• At the sentence level students understand that important words often mean important sentence. (200)

• At the idea level students are guided through navigation of details so they can hone in on the significant idea. (201)

2. Determining what is important is will be based on-

• the purpose and/or goal of the task at hand
• the student's background knowledge 
• the student's knowledge of word problem structure
• the ideas shared during discussion and collaboration

3. Mathematicians are able to explain their reasoning when deciding on important information. (204)

4. Mathematicians evaluate the validity of text and information as they determine importance. (205)

• This is developed as students discuss, examine, and interpret data with others. 

5. Students use their important information to solve problems. 

• Remember, the goal is increased understanding, not expertise and using the Determining Importance strategy itself. 

How To:
Here's what we all really want to know. How to teach this strategy. Here are some ideas from Sammons.

Overviewing
Teach students to skim over text before reading. Locate the important words and the question first so students have an idea of what to expect. (207)

Highlighting
Students need to be taught how to highlight. Don't just hand them highlighters and let them go at it. Remember those rainbow textbooks I mentioned at the beginning...yah...we don't want those. Be sure to model highlighting!! (208)

Read a Little, Think a Little
Break the mathematical text into chunks. In a word problem this means going sentence by sentence. Pause after each chunk to carefully consider the text. Have students put the chunks into their own words. This make retrieval later much easier! (209)

Build on the Concrete
Sammons gave a great concrete example for determining importance from the book Comprehension Connections by Tammy McGregor. You use a strainer and a pot with water and spaghetti to show how your brain lets the less important things fall through only to catch the really important stuff. Life in 4B has some great pictures and an anchor chart. Click a pic to be taken to her fab post. 

Math Stretches
No chapter would be complete without some math stretch ideas. This one is the "What's Most Important About _____?"

Students add what they think is most important about that topic. Once everyone has responded you can discuss with the whole group. This would be when you clear up any misconceptions and make confirmations as to the important details of that topic.  

Brenda over at Primary Inspired talked about this pin that she had found when covering chapter 6.

 

I loved the idea and I think it could work for this stretch too. I'm thinking of making some Velcro titles so that I can change the response questions. Pictures of that coming soon hopefully. 


Problem Solving
Make sure students are familiar with the structure of word problems.

Usually the first sentence sets the context...
The second sentence gives the facts...
The last sentence asks the question...

Be sure students understand this is a guideline and that some word problems will be structured differently.   

Whew! Glad to be caught up. Hopefully I'll stay on track and see you next week for another chapter and a throwback on Thursday. Maybe even for my first Monday Made It of the summer! That's so embarrassing to admit...I can't believe it!

Building Mathematical Comrehension- Chapters 5 and 6

Finally back for more of Building Mathematical Comprehension by Laney Sammons.

 

I don't know what happened to me the last week and half or two, but I just lost my focus and momentum there for a bit. Good to be back to it!

So now that I'm thoroughly behind I'll cover chapters 5 and 6 in this post and we'll hit chapter 7 in the next one. Hopefully I'll be caught up here soon. 

You can check out my previous posts with the links below.

Chapter 1- Comprehension Strategies for Mathematics

Chapter 2- Recognizing and Understanding Mathematical Vocabulary

Chapter 3- Making Mathematical Connections

Chapter 4- Increasing Comprehension by Asking Questions

As I've been reading I was starting to see a recurring theme. Once Sammons lays the foundation for the chapter she applies it to the classroom by giving the following information:

- how to teach the strategy through modeling and think alouds

- various activities and/or instructional methods for applying the strategy

- ideas for Math Stretches that apply to the strategy

- how to use children's literature to apply the strategy

It seems Sammons uses this same outline for each chapter. Just to help myself get caught up here, I'm going to just pick out a few things from chapters 4 and 5 that really stood out to me. 

Chapter 5- Visualization

Visualization requires students to use not only decoding skills, but schema as well. Without valuable prior experiences, students may struggle with visualizing. It must be taught and practiced. (147) Creating these mental images helps students tie their new learning with information or experiences that are already familiar to them. (148)

One huge roadblock to visualization in our day in age is the fact that students are so immersed in visuals (television, video games, iPod, Pads, and Phones...) that they don't generally have to put forth any effort to create visuals, they're all just provided. (147)

Ok, that's it. I'm cutting TV time at home. I've been way too lax this summer. Poor "movie making" baby brains.

 What do our students need to know about visualization?

1. They can use visualization intentionally (148)

2. Not understanding a new concepts is ok...there are ways to work around being afraid of "not knowing" (148)

3. Engagement increases when visualization is used (149)

4. It's ok to have to change previous visualizations or ideas about a topic as you learn more information (149)

5. It's important to share your ideas with others (149)

Even though students visualize subconsciously all the time, we need to teach them how to do it intentionally. Here's how:  

• First have students create a visualization of something concrete. You can do this by pairing students and having one student describe a picture, while the other visualizes it. Then they visualizer can check to see how accurate they were.
• Next, have students describe something they've see before but that they cannot currently see. This is a beneficial retrieval exercise.
• Then you'll want to have students do another visualization of something that is very familiar, like their bedroom or another room in their home. Have students illustrate and share. 
• Add motion next. Help students extend visualization by not only describing a snapshot of an object or thing, but now visualize an event. For example, have students visualize themselves running a race and making it through to the finish line. They should be able to "see" the event happening in their mind. 
• As student improve their intentional visualization, you can also ask students to create visual images based on details for a story being read in class. Help students to compare and contrast their visualizaitons.
• Students are now ready to examine illustrations to see various representations of text or mathematical concepts. At this point we want to help students create a nice mental "bank" of various representations for the same concept.
• Finally, students are ready to independently create mental pictures. Be sure to remind them to use these visualization skills when tackling new math problems or concepts. 

(153-155)

Chapter 6: Making Inferences and Predictions

Inferring is the foundation for comprehension in reading and mathematics. Comprehension suffers when students are unable to make quality inferrences. (171)

 

Inferring is an inductive process, meaning students students start with all the little bits of prior knowledge and blend that with new information to create meaning. Again, we see the schema connection and its importance. (172)

Here are some important things to note concerning inferring and predicting:

• Give time for students to share inferences and predictions. This is how students can reconcile conflicts between schema and new information. (175)
• Ask questions like, "What would happen if..." and allow students to make predictions (175)
• Predictions can be confirmed or contradicted. Show students how to use evidence to do this. (176)
• Examine inferences as a class to determine the value of the inference. Not every inference has value to the task at hand. (176)

 

Here are some activities for teaching inferring and predicting.

 

WORD SPLASH- Write a bunch of words on the board that are related to a math topic. Students have to predict what the topic will be. (186)

 

INFERENCE AND EVIDENCE CHART- Hold students accountable for making fact based inferences by using a two column chart. On one side record inferences and on the other side record the evidence for that inference. (187)

 

WHAT'S THE QUESTION STRETCH- Post a short story (6-8 sentences) that includes math related facts. Have students predict what questions could be asked using those facts. Students will have to infer some things about the scenario and predict what could have been asked using those facts.

 

FACT OR INFERENCES? STRETCH- Students read a story scenario. On a chart there are statements either from the story or that have been inferred from the story. Students have to decide which is which. 

 

I predict I'll be seeing you soon for Chapter 7......hahaha!

Building Mathematical Comprehension Chapter 4

 

I'm back for Chapter 4 of Building Mathematical Comprehension. Thanks to Curls and a Smile, Leaping into Teaching, and Love N 3rd Grade for hosting this week. When you're done here be sure to check out their thoughts on Chapter 4.

Chapter 4 is all about increasing comprehension by asking questions. I particularly enjoyed this chapter because asking questions is a huge part of reciprocal teaching, which I'm a big fan of. You can read about that here. 

I also generally teach Question Answer Relationships or QAR (126) at the beginning of the year. You can read about that here. Here is an anchor chart that I use with my kiddos.


 

Big Takeaway: Teachers asking high-level questions does not mean that students will give high-level answers!

This was a good reminder for me to talk less and allow students to talk more. 

Why ask questions? 

"When students' questions drive instruction, students become more engaged and, as a result, learning is more rigorous." (116)

"When students generate questions about their mathematical work, it promotes deeper, more complex understandings."(118)

How do mathematicians use questioning? (120)

1. Before, during, and after working on math problems or concepts

 My job is to model good questions before, during, and after. Think alouds are a great way to do this. Don't forget to allow time for students to ask questions. 

2. For a variety of reasons

I usually just ask questions of my students to check comprehension and monitor understanding. It was nice to see that students should be able to ask questions just because they're interested in the subject. Note to self: foster curiosity!

 

3. To find more than one answer to a question

When I was in school it was a "get the right answer, who cares if you understand this stuff" approach and that is why I struggle with math to this day. I like this option for really pushing students' understanding.

 

4. To guide further exploration

Remember to give more "open ended" questions that require students to explore concepts more deeply.

 

5. To inspire new thinking while listening to the questions of others

I really need to incorporate more math discussion in my class!

Thick vs. Thin Questions (128)

Thick Questions

• focus on the BIG picture
• begin with WHY? How come? I wonder?
• answers require a lot of discussion and exploration 

Thin Questions

• used for clarification of concepts and/or words
• have literal answers
• simple yes and no answers 
• don't extend thinking

How to Teach Meaningful Questioning (131)

Start by holding small-group strategy sessions. Focus on the strategy not the skill. Small groups allow you to meet the needs of your students more precisely. 

The following can help create an inquisitive environment in your classroom:

• Thinking Stems- these help get those questions juices flowing
• Wonder Walls- students post questions on a chart before, during, or after a lesson
• Question Journals- have students keep a journal of questions AND answers that they find during mathematical investigations. 
• Question Webs- a graphic organizer where students pose a question in the center and contribute to the answer on stems that extend from the question. Thinking Maps translation = circle map.
• Math Stretches- small discussions that stretch students thinking
• Children's Literature- there are so many picture books that focus on math. Incorporate those for a dose of learning fun!

Chapter 4 has been a favorite so far...well, maybe chapter 2....or 1. Ok, let's face it, it's all good stuff! 

Looking Ahead...A Linky Party

I'm so glad that I blog hopped my way over to Kim's pad, Finding Joy in 6th Grade.   

 

She's hosting her first linky party; a time for looking ahead to next school year (I'm glad I'm not the only one already making plans!) and taking note of those things we know we'll be doing differently. 

When I sat down for some reflection time I had a bazillion "I wish I had..." "I should have..." It would have been better if I had..." "I'll never do that again..." thoughts flooding my mind. It was seriously hard to narrow it down. Here are few of the easier ones that came to mind. 

When students turn in a big project I always make sure to assess their neatness and effort. But that is not always the case when they are turning in their daily work. So much is going on each day that sometimes I don't even realize that their work is a train wreck. My goal is to start the year off by making it clear that students will have to redo papers that are messy or hardly legible.

We've had a handful of moments where I've brought my third graders to an open spot on the carpet and have read them a picture book. They absolutely LOVE it. You are never too old to enjoy a great picture book. And it's a great way to tuck in my CAFE reading strategy mini-lessons. 
 

This year the flu hit my family with a vengeance! It took about 2 1/2 weeks for the whole thing to cycle through. I was out for the count for 4 days! I didn't have 4 days worth of sub plans. Ouch!! I had to drag myself to the computer and figure out what the sub would do with my class each day. My sweet partner teacher helped out the best she could and she would call occasionally with questions. I could hardly think clearly enough to give her a good answer. It was an unfortunate situation all around. Watch out flu...you won't catch me off guard next year; although I'd prefer that you not catch me at all!

Of course this list could be insanely long, but I'll leave you with that. Go link up with Kim while your thoughts are fresh in your mind. And as always, if you don't have a blog to link, hit me up in the comments section. 

FREE Reading Resources

I have some readers who really struggle with fluency so while I was searching for some ways to help I stumbled upon the Florida Center for Reading Research.

Let me tell you, I felt like I hit the jackpot! They have some really neat student activities for grades K-5. 

When you go to the website www.fcrr.org you'll see the spot on the right for Instructional Materials for Teachers. If you click on that it will show the Student Center Activities split up by grades.

 

I clicked 2-3 since I teach 3rd grade. You'll be taken to a page where the resources are then split up by category including fluency, comprehension, vocabulary etc. 

 

 Under each of those headings you'll find PDF's of several types of student activities. 

One that I found under the Fluency section was this Affix Zip activity. 

 

Students practices reading the affixes and they record their progress on the little chart shown below. A lot of the activities have these progress tracking charts which is great for motivating students.

 

This next activity is practice with common syllables. There are several pages and they can be printed, cut, and laminated into flashcards.

You may not be able to use everything from this site, but I'm sure you'll find a few resources that will be helpful. The best part is that it's all FREE! What teacher doesn't love that!?

QAR: Question-Answer Relationship

One of my favorite comprehension strategies to teach in the classroom is question-answer relationship. 

This is a great strategy that helps students learn where the answers to questions can be found.  Once students realize there is a relationship between the question being asked and its answer, they will think more deeply about their reading selection.

Reading Rockets has a great page on QAR, explaining its benefits and how to use this strategy in your classroom.  

Here it is in a nutshell:

Questions are either found IN THE TEXT or IN YOUR HEAD. 

Questions found in the text are categorized as either:

• right there, meaning you can find the answer in your reading selection OR
• think and search, meaning the answers are in the selection, but you may have to piece together some of the information.

Questions found in your head are categorized as either:

• author and you, meaning you have to take information from the selection and what you already know about the selection (prior knowledge/schema) to formulate an answer OR
• on your own, meaning the answer is formulated completely from prior knowledge. 

Here is a poster that I created with my students during my QAR mini-lesson. 

 

This poster was copied almost exactly from one of my favorite textbooks:

                                          

Click here for the Amazon page for the textbook. 

Happy Reading!

Reciprocal Teaching, TpT, and a Freebie for Feedback

One of my favorite lessons that I created during college was on reciprocal teaching. 

I was working with third graders at the time and wanted a fun and memorable way for them to remember the four strategies used in reciprocal teaching: Predicting, Clarifying, Questioning and Summarizing.

I decided to create little characters that would help them remember each strategy. I found clip art online and created funny little descriptions for each character that related to the strategy. I cut out the characters and descriptions and attached them to large craft sticks. 

During my introductory mini-lesson I introduced each character and the kids loved it. Then as I had them practice each strategy, they were able to hold the character. The descriptions on the back were nice because students could refer to it if they forgot what they were supposed to be doing.

I still adore my originals, but I'm not going to share them because it's possible that I kinda-sorta swiped some clip art that may or may not have been free of charge. Lets just say that my originals happen to have huge watermarks all over them. 

Moving on. 

In hopes of being able to share my delightful little friends with you, I found some adorable clip art over at the KPM Doodles Etsy shop and revamped my characters to be of a more legitimate nature.

I'd like to introduce you to my...

 I have four Buddies:

 

Each of my new buddies still have cute little descriptions that tie them to the strategies. I'm excited to introduce my students to my new friends. 

I also thought my buddies might be a nice first item to add to my TpT store, which currently sits with nothing in it because, well, I'm a chicken. 

So here's the deal. I'm going to give a freebie for some feedback.  

The first four of my blogging buddies (make sure you're following) to comment on this post will receive my Buddies for Reciprocal Teaching set for free before it hits TpT. 

But remember, if you get the set you have to hold up your end of the bargain and email me with some constructive (aka: sweet, kind, encouraging) feedback, since, you know, I'm a chicken and all. 

Don't stop here...keep reading, it gets better!

Since being buddies is so much fun, those first four commenting buddies are going to get to give me the name of a buddy who they think would LOVE to check out my Buddies for Reciprocal Teaching. When that friend becomes a buddy (follower) I'll send them the set for free too!  

Thanks for all your support. Now get out there and buddy up!

*November 2012 Update: You can now find these adorable buddies in my TpT store by clicking here.

The Write Stuff

To earn CEU's my school has signed us up for an online professional development program. It's a portal of sorts where we can watch TONS of great videos, dialogue with other teachers on various topics, and store our virtual professional portfolio. I just watched my first video and I think it's going to be a great resource for me. I'm excited to share with you what I'm finding. 

Yesterday I started putting finishing touches on the items I want in my writing folders. I love to write (and I'm pretty good at it from what I've been told...if I'm allowed to say that?!), but teaching writing this last year was a challenge for me. I knew I needed to start by getting our writing program organized. 

I used the free chevron backgrounds Dana, from 3rd Grade Gridiron, so graciously shared with us (Thanks Dana!) to create a quick and simple cover for our writing folders. 

You can snag Dana's backgrounds here!


I'll be including a "No Excuses" word list and another list of frequently used words that are based off of a list of the 1,200 most frequently used words. If you click here you can get a copy of the word lists (They are geared for 3rd grade).

 I also have a list of transition words.

I'm also going to include a little chart of proofreading marks, but don't have that put together yet.


What else do you put in your writing folders? Am I missing anything important?


Naturally when I sat down to do some of my PD videos, I had writing in mind. So without further ado...

Why do we use them? Many students:

• have trouble organizing information
• lack confidence
• are unable to make personal connections to the prompt
• don't know how to start
• can't let go of the need to do it "right" the first time

One of the biggest barriers students face when they begin writing is the blank page sitting in front of them. 

The Strategies

• Drawing
• Journal Response
• Visual Imaging
• Research with Graphic Organizers
• Guided Imagery

Drawing
Drawing strategies help students let go of their inhibitions and the need to do a "perfect" rough draft. One drawing strategy is a Draw Your Partner activity.

I've played games like this at baby showers where you put a plate on your head and draw the Mom-to-Be. The results are hilarious. The point, though, is that since you can't see what you're doing, you don't have the choice to worry about how it comes out. You just have to go for it!

To implement this activity, put your students in pairs. They have to draw each other without looking at their paper. You can have their partner hold another piece of paper in front of the one they're drawing on so they can't peek. 

Here's my attempt at drawing my little girl...who is much cuter in real human form! 

Once this activity is finished, and the giggles have subsided, you can easily transition into the point of letting go of the rules and focus on creating a "picture" with their writing. 

Journal Responses
Journal responses help students make personal connections to the writing prompt. Journal responses should require students to answer a few questions in their response. This process should only take about five minutes. Be sure to tailor your questions so that students can make a personal connection to the upcoming writing prompt. 

Visual Imaging
This activity helps stimulate ideas for writing. Start with piles of different images. Old calendars are a great way to collect pictures that are useful for this activity. Try to find a variety of images that would evoke a wide range of emotions and feelings. 

Students get to choose their own image and then they list words of what they see in the picture. It might start off very literal, but with practice, lists will move closer towards what they imagine they see within the picture. Encourage students to pass their image and list to several peers so that peers can add to the list. Seeing what classmates list might spur on more ideas. 

Again, the idea of this strategy is to stimulate ideas. It's a great strategy to use in conjunction with writing poetry.

Research with Graphic Organizers
Using graphic organizers helps student have a visual map of the information they want to include in their writing. When using graphic organizers while writing research papers students can easily see which information they still need to gather. 

Graphic organizers are one of my favorite things to use in a variety of content areas. 

You can get an idea of the variety of organizers by visiting here.

Guided Imagery
This activity might be better suited for middle school and high school grades, but I think you'd have to judge it based on your particular group of students.

Begin this strategy by having students close their eyes and keep everything out of their hands. Walk students through a relaxation exercise. Encourage them to let go of all the things on their mind. Ask students to begin to visualize whatever the writing prompt is. 

For example, if the prompt is about their favorite birthday, the guided imagery may sound something like this:

Go back in time to your favorite birthday. Create a picture in your mind of where the birthday was. What decorations were there? What smells and sounds do you remember? Picture the faces of the people who were there when you celebrated. Recall some of the events that took place during the celebration. Did anything special or unusual happen?

When you finish, ask students to madly free write about everything they just visualized. 

Free Write
A free write is similar to a journal response. You may or may not have a series of questions to answer in a free write. You may ask students to write everything they know about a certain topic. 

The most important thing to convey to students during a free write is that this is an opportunity to let all of their thoughts spill out all over their page. Free writes should be brief and students are encouraged to forget the "rules" and just write!

I remember doing free writes a lot in high school. My english teacher would be adamant that our pencils not stop moving, even if it meant writing the same word over and over until another thought came to mind. 

How might you use one of these strategies in your class? What other pre-writing strategies have you used?