Sunday, November 14, 2010

Rewriting, The Little Red Hen

The essential questions for this unit of study are:

clip_image001 How does reading help me become a better writer?

clip_image001[1] What can I learn from other authors and illustrators?

clip_image001[2] How can I make use of the craft of other authors and illustrators in my writing and drawing?

The Little Red Hen

by

Byron Barton

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This week we studied the text, The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton. This choice is for the following reasons:

· Most students have experiences with farm animals (familiarity and prior knowledge)

· There is a parallel story happening (from seed to bread) providing procedural text as well as fictional text

· There is repeating dialogue

· The illustrations support the text

· The story is so well known there are similar story examples to draw from

· The story lends itself to a lesson being taught (hard work reaps rewards)

Monday- I read the book and students listened. There was a follow-up conversation about the book. The majority of my students knew this story. They had a hard time listening and began to chime right in from the beginning.

Tuesday- I read the book again and most of my students joined in. I asked students what they noticed about this book. They listed the following: the animals are not helping, the little red hen had to do all the work, they animals are not nice, the little red hen taught them a lesson.

Later, I placed a chart on the overhead and asked students to tell me whether they thought the little red hen had done the right thing or not. I asked, should she share the bread or not? Ten students said she should not and seven said she should. We talked about the word opinion and how when we read, we get to form our own opinions about what is happening in the story. I asked students to share their opinion about the little red hen’s decision. As a follow up I placed a writing prompt in a center and asked students to respond to the same question in written form. This proved to be very hard for them but gives me a reference for later in the year when students will be expected to write their opinion.

Thursday- there was no school (which has happened to us a lot this semester). This project works best with five days in the school week.

Friday- the students reread the text for a final time. Then I set up a graphic organizer so the students could create their version of The Little Red Hen. The students nominated and then voted for a problem (making spaghetti), characters (a pigeon, a crow, an owl, and a bluebird), a setting (a fancy restaurant) and began to create their story. They were not very far into the story before the students began having trouble. It turned out; none of them knew how to make spaghetti. I could not have planned this if I had tried. All fall we have been talking about writers choosing topics they are familiar with or topics they care enough about to do research to gather information. My student writers were stuck because they did not know enough about their topic. I told them they would have to learn more about making spaghetti or change their problem. They voted to change their problem and went back to the original nominations for story ideas. One of the choices was building a house. The class voted to use that problem. I asked them if they knew how to build a house. Many answered yes and voiced the order in which one would build a house. They were close enough for us to get a sequential story and here it is.

One Day of Work

By Mrs. Brown’s First Grade Class

One day a crow decided to build a house.

“Who will help me build the frame?” she asked her three friends.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

Who will help me build the roof?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me shingle the roof?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Fine then I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the walls?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me build the doors?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the windows?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” said tweeted bluebird.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me build the chimney?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Fine, I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the porch?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me move in the furniture?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me watch football on TV?” asked the crow.

“I will,” said the owl.

“I will,” said the pigeon.

“I will,” said the bluebird.

“Oh NO you won’t!” screamed the crow.

“You didn’t help that’s why you don’t get to come in MY house!”

We have not illustrated this story yet. We ran out of time. We only did a bit of revising. I asked if everyone was happy with the word said all through the story. A student suggested that we use other words. The class came up with cawed, tweeted, cooed, and hooted. Then a student suggested we pattern the story so on one page we used said and on the next page we used the bird sounds. I found it interesting that although many students thought the little red hen should have shared her bread, no one wanted their crow to share his house and TV at the end of the story. This project felt rushed this week. I feel we could have done much more but had to deal with the time allotted.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Writing Using The Cow That Went Oink as a Mentor Text

The essential questions for this unit of study are:

clip_image001 How does reading help me become a better writer?

clip_image001[1] What can I learn from other authors and illustrators?

clip_image001[2] How can I make use of the craft of other authors and illustrators in my writing and drawing?

The Cow That Went Oink

by

Bernard Most

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This week we studied the text, The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most. This choice is for the following reasons:

· Most students have experiences with farm animals (familiarity and prior knowledge)

· The structure depends on speech bubbles to carry some of the message (this made an allowance for my students who cannot read a lot of text to participate)

· The illustrations support the text

· There is a surprise beginning (the author takes what we know and rearranges it)

· There is an overriding theme of friendship and resiliency

· The problem and solution are very apparent

Monday-I read the book and students listened. There was a follow-up conversation about the book. Many students had not heard this story before.

Tuesday-I read the book again and some students joined in (the text is more difficult than some of our previous texts). I asked students what they noticed about this book. They listed the following: The word oink is in a different color in the title. The speech bubbles of the cow and the pig are colored yellow and purple so you know who is talking. There is a problem and a solution. There are special marks to show that the cow’s tail is moving. There are speech bubbles. The other animals make fun of the cow and the pig because they are different. The cow and the pig help each other. The cow and the pig have the last laugh because they can do something the other animals cannot do in the end.

Thursday-Students read the book chorally with the class leaders doing the page turning and pointing. I reminded the students we would be writing a book using some of Bernard Most’s writing craft on Friday. I asked all children to be thinking about what they could write about and to bring those ideas to school with them on Friday. At this point, a student shared that Bernard Most and Lois Ehlert made the same use of the word and in their stories! She was referring to using and multiple times to extend a long list (rather than commas). That provided great joy in this teacher’s heart!

Friday-Our time was shorter on Friday because we had a theatre group present Beauty and the Beast. I was worried that it would be difficult for us to produce a text in the small amount of time we had left. I asked students for three nominations of story ideas. They provided three different scenarios: A sweet shark and a mean dolphin, a person and a sheep swapping roles, and a person who could fly and a plane that could not. We voted on the three suggestions. The plane/person won overwhelmingly. We had to shorten the time we spent on revision but student’s revised as we wrote and still came up with a text that was full of craft choices similar to Bernard Most. I provided scaffolds where needed to keep their story going but once again, they amazed me with their sense of story.

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The Person Who Could Fly

By

Mrs. Brown’s Grade One

(Pg 1) One day…there was a person who was flying. (Mrs. B “Can you show what this looks like?) His arms were flapping and his legs were kicking.

(Pg 2) He was in the air flying over the state of California, heading to Mexico.

(3) A ( Mrs. B: “What is a group of geese called?”) flock  geese.(I know it is a gaggle but the kids don’t.) of geese were laughing at him. “That’s hilarious,” said all the geese. The students are going to put, “Honk-ha, Honk-ha” in speech bubbles on this page like Bernard Most did in his book.

(4) (Mrs. B: “I am going to give you a transition word to help you move the story on…) Meanwhile…there was an airplane at an airport in Mexico. He was sitting on the runway.

(5) He was very, very (Mrs. B: “What is another word for sad?”) upset. He could not fly. He didn’t know why. He was stranded.

(6) The plane mechanics laughed at the plane. “That’s hilarious,” said the mechanics. The students are going to place “Bang-ha, Bang-ha” in speech bubbles on this page.

(7) (Mrs. B: “Can anyone think of another transition word?”) Later on…the flying person landed in Mexico. He (Mrs. B: “Does anyone know what it is called when a plane moves on the ground?”) taxied over beside the plane that could not fly.

(8) “What’s wrong, Plane?” asked the person.

“I can’t fly. I’m stranded and I don’t know why!”

(9) “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to fly, said the flying man. (Mrs. B: “Why might the plane be unable to fly?) Let me check your gas tank.” “NO GAS!” (This is going to be in a speech bubble)

(10) The flying man called to the mechanics, “Get a fuel truck over here right now!” The fuel truck backed up and put a (Mrs. B: “Can you think of the name of the thing you put in a gas tank? It is not called a hose.”) nozzle into the plane’s tank.

The flying man said, “You’re all filled up and you can fly now.”

“Thank you, said the plane, you don’t have to fly anymore. I will give you a ride.” (Mrs. B: “How do you want to wrap this story up? What will you write to let the reader know the story is over?”)

And the man never flew on his own again and the plane was never stranded again.

Note: The bold text is what I said as the children dictated the story. We had to keep the story moving to get it done. I tried to only follow their lead, encouraging word choice, pacing, and understanding along the way. The italicized text is the revision the children made as they went along. A thumbs up or down were given to each revision for approval or disapproval.

Bernard Most showed my students how to take what they know to be true and turn it upside down. He changed the norm and created a fun, imaginative story. My students realized, as the authors, they do not have to write about what is real. They can create anything they want, even talking planes and flying men who eventually become friends.