Shared Writing

Like I've mentioned before, I always struggle with teaching writing.  I need as many ideas as I can get and let me just say this one is a gem!  Such a great idea for a station during a literacy block or reading rotations.

It's called Shared Writing

Here are just a few ideas but the possibilities are endless! 

Within this classroom I subbed in the students had Shared Writing as a rotation during their literacy block.  The group of students assigned to that station all sat around a table and picked one of the topics available and wrote a story that related to the topic.  Students can go back through the book and read other classmates' stories and add their own as well.  I loved the idea of students sharing their writing.  Often times students are anxious to share their writing but due to time constraints it is something that is easily skipped.  It's important to allow kids to share their work, taking ownership and showing pride is a great way to develop an inspired and passionate writer.

Can't wait to try this one in my own classroom!

~K

My Favorite Part of Me is....

Happy Monday
(well as happy as they can be),

I have a lot of catching up to do on the ideas I've been gathering for the past yearish, so pardon me if the ideas seem random.

I believe I mentioned before that I just finished a long-term sub job for a 3rd grade class and let me just say I miss those kids, staff, school and even community.  The school was in a small rural community (very farmish), the school was small and had about 400 kids K-8, and there was this delicious lunch spot that I frequented when I was too lazy to bring a lunch.  Words can't even begin to describe how amazing the staff was there.  Great ideas flowing through the hallways and smiling faces every corner you turned.  This idea I'm going to "store" into my save files on this blog is such a cute one.

The idea behind this writing activity is that the students choose a part of their body they love (could easily tie this lesson into a science lesson) and write about why they love it.  Some of the body parts these first graders wrote about and why they loved them were so cute!

My Favorite Part of Me......

Teaching writing is always a struggle for me.  I search and search for great, fun ideas that actually inspire kids to write.  So many kids struggle to find a passion to write and writing is often overlooked when teaching.  I want ideas that are not only fun for the kids but fun for me to teach.  The fact that I got a kick out of their final pieces I can only imagine what the process was like inside the classroom.  I love that this teacher also took pictures of the kids showing what their favorite part of them is :-) 

Can't wait to try this out with my future class!

~K