Throwback Thursday- A Turkey's Plea

Back for another week of the Throwback Thursday Linky. 

It all started when someone purchased my persuasive writing lesson on TpT. I had posted this last year after the Thanksgiving holiday was darn near over so I thought now would be a great time to give this little turkey another shout out. Especially good timing for those of us trying to prepare NOW for the fall...which is probably anyone reading this!

I LOVE persuasive writing. We have a blast doing it in class. The parents even commented on how much they loved the writing graphic organizer. Without further ado...last year's post:

We just finished parent-teacher conferences this week...yay! I was able to get lesson plans done all the way up through the end of the month, which feels fantastic. Here is the activity that I'm most excited for next week:

 

I'll start the lesson by reading My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. It's an adorable story about a pig who outsmarts a fox by giving the fox different reasons why the fox shouldn't eat him. It's the perfect lead in to persuasive writing. 

  

When I teach writing, I use an "I do, then you do" method. This allows me to model writing techniques and talk through my thinking process. I have a blank graphic organizer like the one below and all of my students do too. I fill in a section and then I let them fill in the section. I let students share so that reluctant writers can hear variations and different ideas. Hopefully it spurs an idea within them.
 

 

Here's what mine might look like when I'm finished. Theirs should be similar, but with their own ideas. 

 

 

After this planning stage, we write rough drafts. I also model this for them using the graphic organizer that I completed the first day. It allows me to share my thought processes as I take information from the organizer and turn it into complete sentences. 

After rough drafts we revise our own work and then have peers proofread for us. I  have a checklist that I hand out to each student. 

Then we write our final drafts and share our work. I'm going to have students write their final drafts on the paper below.   

You can find all of these resources, along with the revising checklist and a brief 5 day sample lesson plan here.  

A Turkey's Plea

We just finished parent-teacher conferences this week...yay! I was able to get lesson plans done all the way up through the end of the month, which feels fantastic. Here is the activity that I'm most excited for next week:

 

I'll start the lesson by reading My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. It's an adorable story about a pig who outsmarts a fox by giving the fox different reasons why the fox shouldn't eat him. It's the perfect lead in to persuasive writing. 

  

When I teach writing, I use an "I do, then you do" method. This allows me to model writing techniques and talk through my thinking process. I have a blank graphic organizer like the one below and all of my students do too. I fill in a section and then I let them fill in the section. I let students share so that reluctant writers can hear variations and different ideas. Hopefully it spurs an idea within them.
 

 

Here's what mine might look like when I'm finished. Theirs should be similar, but with their own ideas. 

 

 

After this planning stage, we write rough drafts. I also model this for them using the graphic organizer that I completed the first day. It allows me to share my thought processes as I take information from the organizer and turn it into complete sentences. 

After rough drafts we revise our own work and then have peers proofread for us. I  have a checklist that I hand out to each student. 

Then we write our final drafts and share our work. I'm going to have students write their final drafts on the paper below.   

You can find all of these resources, along with the revising checklist and a brief 5 day sample lesson plan here.  

 

Writing Process Pencil and a Sneak Peek

I know I should be saving this for next week's Monday Made It with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics, but I just can't do it. And I do have another larger project in the works for next week!

I found this darling pencil visual to keep track of where students are working in the writing process. I pinned it from Second Grade Style. 

Here is my finished pencil.

 

Here is how I did it:

I was first inspired to actually start the project when I found the PERFECT pencil colored poster board at Michaels. In my stock of scrapbooking supplies I had all of the other colors I needed. Is that pinkish paper not theee most perfect eraser color or what!?

 

 

I cut the yellow poster board to be the same width as my eraser colored paper. I quickly drew in some jaggedy edges at the bottom. 

 

 

Then I used the brown paper for the sharpened portion of the pencil. I adhered it to the back of the yellow paper, trying to line it up carefully so I could cut a nice point. As you can see it didn't match up that great so I trimmed off some of the yellow and it was fine. 

 

 

I used a square of black paper for the tip. It was easier to adhere it to the front first and then flip it over to cut from the back.  

 

Next, I measured white paper three inches wide and adhered it to the top of the yellow paper. 

 

I cut the pink eraser colored paper 4 1/2 inches and when I stuck that on I made sure to stick it under the white so that the white was on top of the yellow and the pink paper. 

 

I used my Creative Memories corner rounder for the ends of the eraser. 

To finish it off I drew black lines horizontally along the white paper. And now that I'm looking at this picture I realize I forgot to trace over the lines I drew in between each step of the writing process. Ooops! I'll have to go back and do that. 

 

I used vellum for the titles, but one lesson learned: When using Creative Memories frosted photo splits, be sure to use Creative Memories vellum. You can tell that the drafting section is a darker vellum (the CM brand) than the other sections and so if you look up close you can see the little tabs of adhesive under the lighter sections. Oh well, it'll do. 

I'll use clothespins with student names or numbers on them to track student progress just like in the pinned version from Second Grade Style.  

Boy am I glad I found that yellow paper at Michaels! 

Here's a sneak peek at the big project I started for next week's Monday Made It!

What a Process!

When summer started my main goal was to reorganize, revamp, and rethink my teaching and curriculum. 

Whew, what a process this is! It is extremely time consuming, a bit overwhelming at times, and so much FUN! It's so much fun that once I'm certain everyone in my family is fast asleep, I sneak out of my bed to hit the computer for more ideas. It's too bad I don't drink coffee, because I could probably use some right about now. 


While I'm on the topic of processes, I thought about the writing process. I love that my school still teaches traditional grammar, but I want to put some more life into the writing portion of our Language curriculum. 


I figured I should start at the beginning and whip up some writing process posters that are based on our curriculum. I had some store bought ones but they didn't match the curriculum. Boy was that confusing!


Click here to get a copy! They need to be printed on ledger sized paper which is 11x17. I know that's a pain, but I wanted them to be bigger than a regular sheet of paper.

I also want to take a minute to pass on the One Lovely Blog Award.

Here are the rules for this award:

Once you receive the award, you must follow 3 rules: 

1.  Follow the person that gave you the award

2.  Link back to the person that gave you the award 

3.  Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers

Now, I had a hard time finding 15 new/newish blogs that hadn't already received this award, but I found a few. I'll keep looking! 

Here goes:

 

 

 Ramblings of a Deaf Ed Teacher's Mind 

Congratulations!