Chapter+3

Chapter 3: Building Content Debra Kent EDG 593 Reflection 2: Non Fiction Mentor Text November 16, 2010 Chapter three on using pictures to aid in writing brought up a few thoughts as I read. As a self proclaimed visual learner, I find using pictures to be a great help in understanding a topic and being able to see the whole picture. I like the idea of using a picture to develop student descriptive writing. I think it is a good tool to use as an example. Especially when many students are giving the description. The problem I have run into with using pictures and asking for “more descriptive” words is the lack of vocabulary students have. It seems as if everything is nice, good, bad, mad, or NASTY! My students do not see beyond those words. They like to add a suffix to a word and consider it a synonym for the given word. For example, today a student was asked to give a synonym for smart and she gave me smartest. It is one of the more frustrating aspects of my job. I also think cartoons are a great way to have students show comprehension of a topic. I like to give them a cartoon and have them write the words. As a stick figure artist, I try to model not everyone needs to draw museum worthy pictures. Children seem to avoid drawing if it is going to be graded. Most are insecure in their artistic ability. Again, I reassure them I’m not looking for the next Monet, I even do an example first. Still, the quality of work seems to suffer. I love the use of pictures in writing so students can first see what they want then go to the words. It is great when a student is struggling with finding something to write about. I like to give a picture and have them write what is happening in it. When I taught first grade, my students made our photo albums. I would provide the pictures, they would write what we were doing or where we were. __**Photos have produced some of the best writing I have received from children (including my own).**__ Using examples from their own life to show examples is a good idea. The only downfall there is they tend to write everything they say and in revisions they have to cut out some words. In church I always like when a priest uses an antidote to illustrate how the readings relate to everyday life. Students benefit from connections and I model them as well especially when discussing vocabulary. I think using pictures is a great idea and I love the list of books that are provided. I just have to make sure we have built a good vocabulary background so the students can be descriptive and add to their writing.

**Ginnie Goldovich November 16, 2010 **

**EDG593 ** **Reflection 2 ** //Nonfiction Mentor Text (Dorfman & Capelli) // · Chapter 2: Establishing the Topic and Point · Chapter 3: Building Content

**“The best nonfiction writing begins with a __writer’s passionate curiosity__ about a subject.” ** //-JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher, Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing, K-8 //

I felt compelled to comment on this opening quote because it directly connects to how we get children hooked to the writing process, and often times writing nonfiction is difficult for many students. As an educator I stress to my students that in order to do something well, you have to really love it, or have a passion for it. This year, I am trying to get my students to find their passion for reading and writing. It is a challenge, but if you take the time to talk with the student as a person first and find out what they enjoy, then you can help channel that to a passion that maybe that would like to share with others.  In my writing blocks, I just finished doing a descriptive piece with my students, and they had to describe their favorite place. After a lot of brainstorming activity and mentor pieces, about 60% of my students got the idea, //the essential question,// and could very succinctly describe their sanctuary, or favorite place. Twenty percent were very passionate about vacation spots and the remaining twenty percent are not their yet with regards to describing their passion. They know it, they just need to be mentored more with how others have shared their passion. **“Without __sufficient detail__, my students tend to write paragraphs that may have an impressively relaxed tone, but that lack force, or memorability, because there’s nothing to __sink one’s teeth__ __into as a__ __reader__.” ** -//Laura Robb, Non Fiction Writing: From the Inside Out// On page 38, Dorfman and Cappelli are so right in stating how students can come up with a good idea, but have difficulty developing that idea. How many times have we asked them to write about something of their own choosing, assuming that they have such vast knowledge about it because //they love the idea.// Then, we delve into the pile of writing, only to discover that they are not as much the experts about it as they are the list makers.  We have a responsibility as the educational leader to guide the passion that our students have, harness their excitement and energy and direct it. In our classrooms we can flood their senses with the content load that they need to develop the ideas that interest them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"> If we give our students tool kits for reading, we can certainly help to fill their kits for writing. Creative tools like using different venues to describe the everyday in a new way will help young writers become accomplished authors of work that a reader can really sink their teeth into one day.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Christelle Patselas ** **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">EDG 593 ** **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Journal Entry #2 ** **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 3 ** **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Nonfiction Mentor Texts ** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> When I was reading about using pictures to help with writing descriptions it made me think about how much time I take with a picture walk and how I talk about how the pictures in the story is another way of reading the story. After our picture walk we always read the story and then compare the pictures to the story. However, I think it would be fun to put a picture up on the smart board and have the students write about the picture. I think it would be interesting to compare what the students write and how they describe those pictures. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Another part I really enjoyed was have the students write cartoons, I have a wonderful book that already has the pictures that the students need to color and write in what the people are saying. It is a great way to begin cartoons with the students. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Finally, when looking at the Your Turn Lesson 1 from this chapter, I was really surprised because this is an activity we complete in first grade when we teach the students about fish. We have the students’ label the fish and then we have them write about five sentences on fish.