I don't usually put a lot of product placements or plugs on my blog, OR even all that many teaching ideas. (If you want some, follow me on Pinterest! :) But I've found a couple of *gems* in these last couple of weeks that I thought I'd pass along because they are WORTH POSTING ABOUT!
Writing is really important to me, and not just because I personally love to do it. I think it synthesizes everything else we are teaching our children about literacy in authentic and engaging ways, and creating is not only a great outlet BUT it's the highest level of learning on Bloom's Taxonomy (one of education's most practiced theories, right up there with Gardner and Maslow). Some of the problems with getting kids to write in school are that (a) it's kind of overly structured a lot of the time, (b) it's required and graded, which is just a turnoff for anything for some kids, and (c) a lot of the writing prompts teachers give are personal, journal-like entries instead of actual creative ones.
Enter the fun book
Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston!
Written for older students (I'd say 4th grade and above for most of them, although you may be able to get motivated younger students to try), this book is full of almost 200 writing prompts that are "NOT personal, NOT introspective, and NOT boring!" A little sample of what I mean:
#1: Write a paragraph about a girl named Dot, but use no letters with dots (i,j).
#14: Write a sentence that makes sense reading either from left to right or right to left. See how long you can make the sentence.
#27 (one of my favorites): "You are a writer who has a secret arrangement with the automobile industry. You will be paid $10.00 for every word you publish that includes the word car. (Examples: scar, cart, carp, carton.) The hope is that repetition of the letters c-a-r will encourage people, subliminally, to want to buy cars. You are starting a short story for a magazine. Write your first paragraph. How much money can you make using c-a-r in just that paragraph?"
See what I mean? FUN. And with the element of competition in a lot of these (against yourself or others), you don't have kids worried about their grades as they write. :)
Another fun find thanks to our resource room is "Silly Starters" and other flipcharts in the "Write-Abouts" series by McDonald Publishing.
If I had the time, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I would have made myself...but now I don't have to! I love the one for grades 1-3 a ton, but there are some great ideas in the grades 4-8 book as well. Here's how it works:
There are three cards to every silly story starter. The first tells you what kind of thing you're writing--a short story? A poem or song? A postcard? A list? etc. The second flap tells you the subject, while the third flap gives a little more information about that subject. You can flip through dozens of options in any of these three sections, creating literally *thousands* of possibilities!
I seriously want to use these in my OWN daily writing...and I could do it for YEARS and never repeat myself! How awesome is that?
Anywho, if you're struggling to get your kids or students (or yourself!) motivated to write daily, check out these two products. You won't regret it! And, no, I made no money by promoting these books, I just love them THAT MUCH. :)
