10-30-08
Another part of writer's workshop is to start each class with a relevant mini-lesson. As I observed yesterday, some of the students really didn't still quite "get" how genres differed from one another. One student worked on a wanted poster that was about a dog that he had lost. When he started the final draft, he promptly covered the edges in glitter ! So, in today's mini-lesson, I used that as an example and we talked about why a poster looking for a lost dog wouldn't be covered in glitter. We talked about what it WOULD look like--it would probably say "Lost Dog" or "Missing Dog" in large letters at the top. It would probably have a description of the dog and would include a picture. It would be neatly written so people could read it. The dog's name would be included. A phone number to reach the owners would be listed on the poster (flyer) and could even be on tear-off strips at the bottom. Among the facts would be where the animal was last seen, any distinguishing characteristics, and perhaps a reward. OH! After this discussion, I could see the proverbial light bulbs slowly brightening. Several students scraped their first drafts (by abandoning them--I don't let them tear them out and throw them away because starting over is part of the process, and we learn just as much from our errors. I then made an impromptu homework assignment at this point--students needed to bring in one authentic example of a genre from their list so that we could keep looking at them as we wrote. I will also make these available to students at my "reference table" (also with my example of this finished project). Today, I had little behavioral problems (a first!) as students excitedly worked. One boy asked, "How do you do a first draft of a poster?" "Well," I explained, "Do you think people who make concert posters just throw their first ideas together on poster board and call it done?" Of course, the boy decided not. I helped him through brainstorming what he wanted his poster to show. Then, in his learning log, we drew a big rectangle, and here he began to plot out where he wanted certain elements to appear. Overall, a successful day!
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