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When school starts, everyone is a reluctant writer. I usually start the year with narratives and if you do, too, here are two strategies to get those reluctant writers producing work in the narrative genre. Use can use the "seven circles" on your first first day of school! (Remember, these first two were made the at the beginning of the pandemic so I suggest that you watch the video, steal my strategies and use your own seven circles and your own childhood map to model. I mean, the kids want to hear about you, not me!)
In this slideshow, there are multiple images where kids can start writing about what you see, and analyze it. This is a great time to bring in the Icons of Depth and Complexity for your Gifted Kids.
The daily routine that you want to do is show the image on the screen, have students share out ideas for about three minutes, and then write as much as they can in their notebooks for about fifteen minutes.
Another teaching strategy that I try is to print all the iamges, four to a page, and hand them out randomly to students. This really gets kids excited to show others their image and then excited to write about it and share that writing.
On that same strand, when we are doing our science unit on volcanoes and all things geosphere, I use this slideshow for students to get writing about informative topics: What do you know about volanos, what do you wonder about volcanologists, make a list of questions about fossils... These images have the students share what they already know and improve writing fluency.
Three Photos and a Pencil
This activity is a fun way to get everyone talking, everyone writing.
Prep: Print out the pictures in color. Sort them so every group has at least one white, one yellow, one purple. ( You can use one green if you feeling it!)
Step 1: Hand out the pictures to groups
Step 2: Let kids try to come with a story using the images. Students can put them in any order.
Step 3: Everyone writes (can read) the same story. Students can do it in their journals or on a chart paper. Everyone must write and everyone must read.
Once you have the process down, you can repeat this activity regularly, with some variations. (A) Every group has the same set of images (B) Every group has a different set of images (C) Everyone in the group comes up the same story, but everyone is allowed to write different. (D) Everyone in the group comes with the same story but each group member is assigned a different role: describe the setting, describe the main character, describe the problem, write the fight scene, etc... (E) Don't give three images... give seven!
Pixar Short Films
The rest of these videos here are created for one purpose: GET KIDS WRITING. Each video has a similar format: It tells kids to get out a piece of paper, it shows some images, some sounds and some prompts to get kids describing, connecting, imagining. There are about three minutes for some images but a timer runs on the screen so kids can pace themselves. At the end of each video, it asks kids, "How many words do you have?" I have a running chart in my class about the daily average and it really does encourage kids to write and more. Hope it helps your class!
Ancient Peoples
Ancient Peoples
These first three videos are step one to getting those reluctant writers writing. There are very vivid battle scenes as much of my class that year was interested in ancient civilizations, ancient peoples. This point in the year we were doing non-fiction. These three are best done with pencil and paper and with a writer's notebook. Just push play and the video has all the instructions for kids.
These next three videos are about American immigration in the 1850s. There are images from the 1850s and later, trying to get kids to image life in the USA after the American Revolution, right near the Civil War. The first one (pink) is a protest painting, but kids have to think pretty deeply to understand it. So, that video is definitely a "high ceiling, low floor" activity. The second video (purple) is a bit more boring, describing a family scene in the 1870s. The third one (green) is about when some of these immigrants tried to assimilate... Of course, that is my favorite little chunk of history: the Tape family. Kids will be introduced to them and be able to freely write. Just push play!
The 1800s
The 1800s
Geology Writing
Geology Writing
Finally, this last group is of volcanoes. We were deep in the science unit at the time. Same concept to get kids writing, but these videos match up with my science unit. If you want the science unit, click here for the science lessons. If you want the informative writing unit that is all about volcanoes, well, then, click here for the writing unit. It's nice to use a variety of prompts to get all kinds of kids writing, writing, writing!
California Stuff
California Stuff
To spin in a different area of history, I created these for California's fourth grade history standards. The one with the graph... guess what? It hits history, math and writing standards! Each one has to do with a different history standard: interperting graphs, viewing primary source documents.. and it all pushes students to make observations and write!
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Here is one of my earlier videos... with my god-awful voice! This was the height of the pandemic so I needed my voice on it for the Distance Learners, but I also needed them to get writing. That was a tall order. Use the strategies in the video but for the love of all things holy, voice over it!
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