Hi Tena, Listserves do seem to have been quiet the last week....I guess most of us are busy getting ready for the next school year...
You asked our favorite lessons....the things we look forward to: there are several things that I look forward to each year: At the beginning of the year, I enjoy doing the "I am from" poems: I think you can find all kinds of information on these if you google "I am from" poems.... I look forward to special holiday lessons.....For Christmas, I enjoy having students write a holiday memoir piece or create a special cookbook or something for family, for Mother's Day, Mother's Day poems (see Nancy Atwell's In the Middle), last 9/11, I read students The Man Who Walked Between the Towers....This year, I also have some books of children's writing and artwork that I will share in memory of those who lost their lives... This Veteran's Day I want to have students write letters to veterans, which I will try to send to a local Veteron's Association. For Halloween, and I think I got this idea from someone on this listserve....maybe you can speak up if it was you? my students had a blast writing "Halloween Show Not Tell pieces" in which they were given short sentences which they had to create a "show not tell" piece.... For MLK day, we did a lesson I got off of readwritethink.org.....I really enjoy these holiday activities with students....Oh, we also wrote stories for Red Ribbon Week....fictional stories about the dangers of getting involved with drugs and made mobiles demonstrating all of the good things that would be lost if they got involved with drugs.....there is another lesson I would like to offer as an option in which students write to the prompt, "If drug abuse was a fictional place, what would that place look like? sound like? feel like, etc.?" The point being for students to create an imaginary place, not to describe the back of an alley....not sure if I will use this one because of how it might be misinterpreted.....hmm...I also wrote my own memoir about a friend getting involved in drugs, changing names and details to protect the innocent, of course. I really enjoy teaching memoir at the beginning of the year, focusing on "small moment" stories....I love launching the writer's workshop by reading Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within you" as a read-aloud. Other things I always look forward to are sharing my favorite picture books and having students fall in love with them too.....and I did a great unit last year on creative nonfiction, where my sixth-graders made creative nonfiction picture books to share with a colleague's third graders.....Fun, fun! I enjoy all the Strategies That Work lessons....getting to see students grow in their understanding of the strategies throughout the year.... Sorry, none of these are very specific or original probably, but these are parts of the year that I enjoy... If I think of more, I'll let you know:) May On Jul 24, 2007, at 9:20 PM, Tena Linsbeck-Perron wrote: > Come on guys, I want to hear more. _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
