Teach Writing Right

Hello, teaching friends...sometimes we educators are simply swallowed by a tsunami of deadlines.  In March, it was the end of our grading period, I was enrolled in a two-credit night class,  and our students all presented their final projects (in the evening to panels of community judges), and those three things stole every free moment that I had to work on any of my websites.

So...I was and am behind; however, I have no grading to do this weekend, and I am catching up starting with this post!

Here are the last three weeks' worth of "winning" metaphors that my students submitted into my classroom's "Metaphor of the Week" contest.  My students write them and submit them, we choose a winner, and then my great student aide (Matt) illustrates them.  It's turned into a fine process and is a new way to offer legitimate extra credit points to students who are taking ideas we've discussed to an extra place.  I have a lot of students writing about the weekly metaphors in their writer's notebooks, I have also noticed.

So three weeks ago, the "Metaphor of the Week" prize went to seventh grader Ian.  I pointed out to the class that this really wasn't a a true metaphor, but I liked the statement's positive sentiment, and I like the implied metaphor about life having storms that we weather.  Thanks to Ian; I hope he inspires some of our kids to head out into the spring rains in April and dance their hearts out!

Two weeks ago, another seventh grade boy--Jared--submitted the following metaphor, which I felt was an appropriate one to end our unit on Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.


And finally, last week, Nate became my first sixth grader to submit a "winning" metaphor to this classroom process.  Although it's supposed to be "Mr. Stick's Metaphor of the Week," I allowed Matt (my aide) to go a little-less-stick and more-Seuss-ian with the accompanying drawing.  If that unique creature doesn't remind you of a Star-belly Sneetch, then you obviously don't know that book!


After this week, we have our Spring Break.  I have a challenge on my Edmodo classroom site right now to create a spring-themed metaphor for this upcoming week.  I am betting that the next metaphor I'll be posting will be somehow spring-inspired.

Expect more posts this weekend!  I have a lot of student samples "back-logged" and two new lessons to post.

--Corbett

A great lesson is never truly finished.  As with a piece of writing, revision can always improve something--even if it's a pretty good lesson.  I learned that this last month.

I have taken one of my favorite lessons--Extended Metaphors Across the Curriculum--and added some new elements to it, which made my teaching of it better this last month.

One major change I made was that I taught a good friend's lesson (Holly Esposito) the week before I began my writer's notebook lesson.  Her "Four Metaphor Poetry Lesson" (with its use of Mem Fox's Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge) set my kids' brain in the right direction to do so much better with their notebook's metaphors.  This was the best set of metaphors I have ever received in my students' notebooks.  I totally appreciate Holly's lesson as a means of priming my kids' thinking, and I will always use her lesson the week before I introduce the lesson in the future.

I invite you to check out the new version of my Extended Metaphors Across the Curriculum lesson, which features new images of my students' notebooks after these changes.

Always remember...a good lesson (like a good piece of writing) can become better with a thoughtful revision.

We're finishing Flowers for Algernon this week, and my seventh graders will begin working on projects that explore this book's themes.  Two weeks ago, we had a metaphor about knowledge, then a metaphor about ignorance, then a metaphor about confusion.  I am hoping these three metaphors help my seventh graders arrive at some interesting discussion points that will lead to some discoveries of interesting themes about Charley Gordon.

Anyway....on her birthday...my seventh grader--Wonje--had her metaphor chosen as the "Mr. Stick Metaphor of the Week" last Friday.  I finally had a chance to post it today.  Enjoy!

Good work (as usual), Wonje!

Another Flowers for Algernon-inspired "Metaphor of the Week," I suspect.  We had a great book-club discussion last week on what group of people was happiest in life: below-average intellectuals, average intellectuals, or above-average intellectuals.

Anyway, here is 7th grader Gwen's metaphor for ignorance.  I suspect it will add to our discussion this week too!

Have a great week!

--Corbett

Thanks to 7th grader Mitchel (for writing it!) and 8th grader Matt (for illustrating it on my whiteboard!), I have a metaphor of the week in honor of Charley Gordon, main character in Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, which my 7th graders are currently reading.

The version of the book begins with the following quote from Plato, which we've been using as our "jumping off spot" every time we have had a class discussion about the story's progress.  I chose Mitchel's metaphor this week because it will help us speak one more time about this quote: 

"Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other..." Plato, The Republic

Thanks again, Mitchel and Matt!  Have a great week, everyone.  "Meta-Force be with you, students and teachers!"


--Corbett

Our fourth week of LOVE metaphors to prime ourselves for Valentine's Day this Tuesday.  I've been trying to convince my students that writing a poem to your potential Valentine is the best technique for showing your love or interest in someone; certainly better than a Hallmark card or some fattening chocolate!  I believe I have a number of them planning to do this, and I believe these metaphors of the week have helped them understand poetic elements!

My Start & Stop Poems, which we started last week, have proved a good format for these Valentine's Day poems, especially for those of my kids who need more poetic structure.

Anyway, below is this week's "Mr. Stick Metaphor of the Week."  This is the third week that my students have been the contributors for these metaphors; thanks to Kendall (one of my sixth graders) for this metaphor. And this is the first week that I have turned the writing and illustration of these metaphors to my student aide, 8th grader Matt!

It's a good feeling to be able to turn over classroom responsibilities like these over to my students!


Have a great week!

--Corbett

After spending December and January "boning up" on our ORGANIZATION skills, I've officially switched my trait of the month.  We are now studying SENTENCE FLUENCY skills to use in our next two Writer's Workshop papers.

My classroom trait bulletin board & poster set.

We have also been studying/writing poetry to improve our ability to write sentences that have rhythmic sound to them; in particular, I have used my friend Holly's Four-Metaphor Poetry lesson (from WritingFix) and a brand new variation of my "Start & Stop Poems," which is part of my classroom set of Bingo Cards.


Check back soon!  I will be developing a few more sentence fluency activities that I will post, along with some new student samples.