LOL I thought the same thing when I was typing it...feeling like I was answering my own question. The prompts I normally use do NOT go to such scary place but we have a bunch of pumpkins in our room right now for math activities and the kids have been talking about Halloween non-stop and the I found the prompts so I thought I would try them. So much for spontaneous thought, haha.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of suzie herb Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 5:04 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] writing scary stories or guns My concern is how appropriate is this as a prompt? And what would we expect from using a prompt such as this? I wouldn't want to go into the house, would you? A house that nobody comes out of. The prompt is not grade appropriate, whoever it was that gave it. A grade three prompt if you need such a thing would be, "I feel scared when.....". but to be counter balanced by 'I feel brave when" What is the purpose of the prompt? What are we expecting from a third grader in response to such a prompt? Limits do not have to be set but rather through the model of good language and description modelled by the teacher and the stronger models of good literacy from books/stories and other student writing. This will encourage and expand the thinking of our students beyond the 'quick fix' of the AK 47. Talk to your third graders about what makes them scared and how they deal with fear, and move away from prompts that promote the most negative of thinking and quick fix solutions. Just thoughts. --- On Mon, 26/10/09, Kelly Andrews-Babcock <[email protected]> wrote: From: Kelly Andrews-Babcock <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] writing scary stories or guns To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Received: Monday, 26 October, 2009, 6:46 AM Sue, I heard Ralph Fletcher speak last year on boy writers and gore. He basically said boys love gore and want to write about it, but if a topic is disturbing to you his teacher, then the student is asked to discuss it with his parents and have their permission to write about it in school. Perhaps you bring the "problem" to the class and let them help solve it. (Although it may not go as you wish.) Kelly AB On 10/25/09 12:49 PM, "Sue" <[email protected]> wrote: Hello everyone, I teach 3rd grade and every year I go through students writing stories about guns/violence or scary "not Halloween" stories. I teach in a rural area and students do hunt and we talk about the difference between writing a story with a gun that is about hunting or "video game" violence. Last year I had a child obsessed with writing scary stories and I eventually let him write but he could not share with the whole class because I had kids that would get scared. I am wondering how you handle this in your room. I don't want every story to only be a "happily ever after" story or stop them from writing but I need to have some limits. I just had a little boy write this story and he is SOOOOO excited and he wants to share it. I don't want to dampen his enthusiasm for writing but.. "Scary" is presumed here because they are Halloween prompts and we talk about the difference here as well. Although maybe I shouldn't even encourage this with the prompts. It began with a prompt I got from Laura Candler: No one was ever seen going into the old house at the end of the street. No one was ever seen coming out. So when my friends and I saw lights flickering in the attic, we just had to go check it out.. Here is what he wrote: When I went in I had to climb a creaky staircase. Creeeeeeeeek. Finally I got to the top. I looked over to the other wall. I saw a AK47. I grabbed it. When I looked back I saw..dancing skeleton dragging a chest full of candy. I ran up to the skeletons and said "eat led" BBBBBBBBBB Bones were scattered all over the place. I went home and ate all of the candy. Buuuurp. The end. Should I go back and help him think of "another way, without the gun to get the candy" Just not let him share it with the whole group. Let him share it and use it as a lesson about not using the guns- maybe have the class brainstorm other ways to get the candy. It is early in the year and I want to get this under control now. The other problem I have is kids writing something that happened in a movie or tv show. Sometimes I think they have a good story but when they read it to the class the kids are like.that happened on "blah, blah, blah"... HELP>>>> Sue _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ____________________________________________________________________________ ______ Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. 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