I love this book. I did this book as part of my Health and Social Responsilbity unit. Great lesson. This book cna be used for so much. Good pick and I liked th creative writing.
The lesson designed for grade three that involved the Book-in-a-Bag was very interesting. This is something I could see using at almost any grade level with a little modification. I liked that they included AB partner talk as well as individual work. I feel like you would get a lot of amazing stories from students using a method like this. It inspires students to be creative and use their imagination. The mystery involved in finding out the ‘real’ story was also very fun. I can see using this as a fun lesson as a TOC as well.
Leah Pells July 14th-2009 Lesson # 4: Book in a Bag: Mr. Peabody’s Apples I love the lesson set up, very organized and a nice flow. The game where we had clues for the story was great. I will use this strategy for sure, as it would also be useful in other subjects. It will let the students be very creative in their writing and thinking. I also agreed with the idea of combining writing and reading, that is true and this lesson brought the two together nicely. Thank you for a great lesson. Cheers, Leah
I want to start off by saying that having a bag of unknown contents in front of children is bound to get their attention! As a former little miss know it all, I was ALWAYS curious about whatever the teacher was hiding at the front, so I think that’s a great way to get kids interested and involved in the lesson. Your lesson was very well structured, in that it allowed for students to be creative, but within boundaries. You gave us cues to write on, but little else so we were free to let our imagination soar. I liked how we were given the opportunity to share our stories as we were progressing in the writing and drawing stages because it’s always great to share and learn from each other. If a student likes what another has written, they might somehow try to incorporate that into their own writing. It inspires and encourages the students, and that’s always a good thing. I thought it was great how you connected writing and reading together. You’re right when you say that it is often thought of as separate parts of a language arts unit, so bravo for connecting them!
I wish that I had seen someone do this activity before I went into my practicum because I thought that it was awesome. Thank you for the lesson plan, I will for sure use this activity one day when I have my own classroom or even when I’m subbing. It was exciting when you were taking the clues out of the bag, and I can picture students waiting for the next clue. Also, I like the AB partner dialogue, because children can first talk about their ideas and connections and also get some ideas of from their friend that they may want use in their story. This is great for all types of learners. I was wondering if you would need to pick clues that are from a book, or can you just pick any clues and use them? I know that it’s great because if you pick clues from the book and once students have their stories written down, you can read them the book and the can see how the clues are used within the book. I really liked your lesson, it was great.
+ I like the drawing activity and using baseball, apple, etc.. and making our own stories and then later reading the story. Great way to draw students into the book that is going to be read later. Very good lesson overall, if I ever teach primary I can see myself using it for sure, thanks for providing us with a detailed lesson plan as well...
? Most of the inspiration for my reading lessons comes from the Reading Power Program. I was interested and wondering where the inspiration for your lesson came from and in general comes from? This is a question I wish I could actually ask everyone in class.
(Awesome job! It was one of my favourite lessons to partake in. For some reason I am now wishing I was a primary teacher. You guys have so much fun it seems in teaching lessons. I really liked the Primary reading lessons that most groups chose to present on).
The idea of having the student being ‘authors’ gives them ownership of their work. The ideas of connection, is an awesome strategy for primary students as they can make personal connection with the work they are doing. The activity was lots of fun, students were given an opportunity to use their creativity to make a story. Wrapping up the story with the read-a-loud gave an opportunity for students to compare their own story with the read-a-loud. This is also very engaging because students will be very excited to make reference to their stories and the clues in the book. The Thumbs up and Thumbs down strategy is also very effective because it gives every student a chance to express themselves in a quick and effective way
My favourite part to this lesson was the main idea; I really liked the story in a bag. I am hoping to use the same idea as a creative writing prompt. Being able to have the students write their own creative responses with no wrong answers can really empower students to enjoy writing and to tap into to their creative side. Well done!
This lesson definitely fulfilled my need to draw! I really enjoyed being creative and trying to come up with a story to connect all of the “clues”. Receiving the clues one by one kept me engaged and wanting more. It also helped me hold my potential story in suspension, because I couldn’t completely finish it until I knew what the last clues were. The only thing I would really change would be to keep in mind where your audience is when you set up your teaching area, as your back was to some of us the whole time (though I did appreciate that you checked in on us during the drawing time and then showed us the pictures in the book ☺). Overall, a very good lesson – thanks for the great idea!!!
I have this book and LOVE it, so I was thrilled to see you using it in your lesson. This lesson is going into my "TOC" bag of tricks for sure! What a great way to engage student's imaginations and also increase comprehension at the same time. I really appreciated the bit about reading and writing going hand in hand. I think often these are separated more than they need to be. To me the two are so interwoven it is difficult to separate. I thought this lesson was VERY clear and well laid out. There was no confusion as to what was being asked or how we would implement this on our own. Great job ladies!
I wonder what made you choose this book? I had never heard of it before and was curious what brought it to your attention. Anyways… I loved the idea of visual clues guiding students through the writing process. It wasn’t difficult to create a story with these steps along the way. Just as we write ourselves outlines for essays, this helped the writer to put together their ideas and connect them. It was great to see how different all of our stories were. I also liked how you used a simple thumbs up, down, or out strategy to hear from every member of the class.
Deepa, Reema & Ashlea - Creative writing Awesome lesson! I really liked the idea of pulling out objects related to the story and having students make connections between the objects and creating their own stories based on how the objects were connected. Who says higher level thinking cannot occur in younger grades. It was a great way for students to be creative and make the story their own.
It was also a great way to introduce the story before reading it as well. It gives the students a chance to know it is about whatever it is from the clues given.
At the end of the lesson, once the children had all finished their stories, I think it would make a great addition to the classroom library, having all the students stories put together into one book and having several different stories to read. I think it would really give the students a sense of accomplishment and they would be proud of their 'published' work. :)
First, I appreciated your sensitivity to Deepa. You all seated yourselves at the table so that you were all on the same level. This allowed your presentation to flow effortlessly.
Second, your connection to ‘social responsibility’ was an excellent choice. The reality for every teacher is dealing with this issue on a daily basis and it has become a part of the regular curriculum. If you can work the two together and scaffold the learning, how much more powerful your lesson becomes. The children are much more likely to remember how telling ‘untruths’ impacts someone after reading this story and having interactive lessons with it, than if they were just told to not tell ‘untruths’.
Third, your book in a bag is a great way to stretch the imagination, while building creative writing and creative thought. One of you stated that “Reading supports writing and writing supports reading...and reading and writing is supported by speaking and listening.” This is absolutely true: one without the other is weakened. They are all connected and supported by the other. A bridge that has one weak area will eventually collapse. I think this is also true for reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is wonderful to have a way to address the needs of reading and writing development that are interesting, fun, and are effective in building the foundations of reading and writing skills. Thanks for something else to add to my bag of tools.
Great lesson ladies! I love this book... I was so excited to see that you were using it in your lesson!
I thought the "book in a bag" idea was great, and will definitely use this!! Students have a natural curiosity for things that are "hidden", it seems to increase their attention and interest tenfold; introducing the objects one by one and having them make connections by either drawing or writing, was an excellent exercise in fostering creativity! It would be interesting for them (and the teacher!) to hear how different each student's story would be, even though the same "clues" were given. I can STRONGLY forsee using this idea as a creative writing activity on its own!! It reminds me of "impromptu props" in drama - where students create a scenario to incorporate the random items they have been given. (I did, however, like the idea of closing the lesson out by reading the original story.)
During my 401/2 practicum, I read a suspenseful story to my grade 6/7 class and stopped halfway through... the kids were jumping out of their seats (really, they physically did) to make predictions as to what might happen! Being able to make connections within a story is essential to understanding. They would have LOVED something like this.
I also liked that you "polled the class" with thumbs up/ thumbs down to "hear" from each member of the class. Good strategy.
You lesson was VERY well organized, everything you did seemed to have a distinct purpose. It was very clear, well presented, interesting and engaging. I will definitely use these ideas!
The lesson about Mr. Peabody’s Apples was creative. It was interesting to see you prepare students to read the story by incorporating an element of mystery. I enjoyed the Book-in-a-bag concept where you gave the students four clues that they would use to figure out what the story was about. I believe that this would peak their interest and make students curious about what really happened in the book. I like the fact that you told us just to draw the object and make notes on how each object connected to one another then this activity would be a quick start or before activity instead of a time-consuming, high-risk activity.
The extension to this lesson of writing a story based on what you thought about the clues is good. I think that would be an interesting lesson to incorporate in a writing unit for early Primary Elementary School students. Would you teach students how to incorporate a moral into their story analogous to the one that Mr. Peabody’s Apples had? Or would you concentrate on modeling and having students focus on incorporating objects into their story to create logical sequencing and flow?
Wow I loved the book in the bag lesson! What a great way to teach making connections and associations to and within literature. I am going to try this next week with my SFU reading camp student. I think that folk tales and legends are fabulous for this activity so I am going to use either The Elephants Child or How the Loon Lost his Voice. (Now to find an elephant or a loon…..) I also thought that giving students the chance to show their ideas through the quick thumbs up and down strategy was great. I might do thumbs sideways instead of down just so my student doesn’t get the impression that his ideas are wrong, they’re just different. Thank you for the clearly written lesson plan as well. Cheers Sharon
The activity is great. I know that you mention this in your presentation but I really like that the students share their stories and I think that it is really important for the students to hear different interpretations or imaginative stories from the same four clues. Very explicit in your presentation, thanks for the great modeling!
Great lesson and I like how there is a moral aspect in this lesson. I liked how you tied writing and reading with a hook of creating a story from four items in a bag. Providing the students with the same four items and seeing what they all come up with is fantastic. No two stories are going to be alike, which presents a type of suspense that peers will want to know what others have written. I liked how you didn’t tell the students that there was a real story that incorporated all four items; this would provide a great concluding activity to wrap up the lesson or unit. I liked how you included the following sentence on your slide: “Children need a balanced literacy program, which includes multiple methods and is sensitive to the fact that children are at different levels in each area of literacy.” Great job.
It was a great idea to engage students in creative writing by using several objects that were hidden in a bag. In my mind, I always think of how I can encourage students to write in an interesting way because many students think that writing is boring and difficult. I could use this lesson with a little modification, to encourage my children to create their own stories. I always think of how I can encourage students to write in an interesting way. I think that if students can also feel the objects in their hands, they might have more ideas about the objects. Some may not even know how a feather or baseball feels like.
Group 4: Book in a bag I like how this lesson combined: imagination, writing, drawing, and sharing. I can see this being very effective in multiple grade levels and requires little prep. Having finished 405 and spending way too much time and sleepless nights prepping for a dynamic lesson I really appreciate lessons that don’t require too much. Great book choice, I used it in my grade 6/7 class for a read aloud lesson on connections and the students stayed engaged. Thanks for this useful lesson if you wouldn’t I would appreciate a copy of your lesson plan taniasymons@hotmail.com
Lejla: We chose to pick a book and then choose main clues from their so that the end of the lesson, we could read the original book to the class. We tried to emphasize that everyone would come up with different stories even though they were given the same clues, and this would be reemphasized after reading the original book. Students get really excited to know how the author used all the clues in their own way. However, if you wanted to, you could choose random objects and follow the same lesson outline; you just wouldn’t have a story to read to them at the end to wrap the lesson up. But this would still work and I am sure students would come up with something very creative. I should also mention that you can choose any number of clues from the book depending on the content. Although, I probably wouldn’t pick more then six clues.
Tracy: I like your idea of putting all the students’ stories together in a class book. I created one in my practicum on spring, and the class loved to read through it during silent reading time. Great idea!
Lisa: Since we don’t read the story till the very end of the lesson after students have already created and read their stories, we probably wouldn’t talk about incorporating a moral into the story beforehand. The focus is more about connecting all of the clues and creating a story that is logical and flows well. However, if you have previously talked about morals in stories, I suppose you could ask them to try and include one in their story- or perhaps set it up as an option for those who may want a challenge.
Sharon: I used this lesson in my practicum, and I also had a few clues that I couldn’t really bring in as the real thing. Instead, I brought in a picture of the object, which worked well.
Julia: I think it is a great idea to have students actually feel and touch the objects. This is something I would add to the lesson plan.
Group 4: Mr Peabody’s Apples – great story that I had never heard of so thank you for that. I liked the thinking/relating to Adrienne Gear, whom I am familiar with from my practicum. The encouragement of individuality and using a variety of strategies is excellent! I really liked the four-part story prompt page with the thumbs up or thumbs down – great! This allows kids to engage in the thinking process and encourages creative freedom - well done!!
I read through the comments and surmised that the group used a clue giving game/strategy to get ideas for a creative writing activity. I did a similar activity but as a pre-reading strategy for my novel study. What I did was make three boxes, each about half a page big. I then gave students three clues for every box-things like a word or a concept. They had to draw, write or use a combination to explain how they thought the three items would come into play in the story. It was a great activity and the students would often flip back to their predictions and say “I KNEW IT!” as we read along. Students, especially elementary, do love a mystery and this also helps with their inferring and predicting skills if done properly.
I love this book. I did this book as part of my Health and Social Responsilbity unit. Great lesson. This book cna be used for so much. Good pick and I liked th creative writing.
ReplyDeleteThe lesson designed for grade three that involved the Book-in-a-Bag was very interesting. This is something I could see using at almost any grade level with a little modification. I liked that they included AB partner talk as well as individual work. I feel like you would get a lot of amazing stories from students using a method like this. It inspires students to be creative and use their imagination. The mystery involved in finding out the ‘real’ story was also very fun. I can see using this as a fun lesson as a TOC as well.
ReplyDeleteLeah Pells
ReplyDeleteJuly 14th-2009
Lesson # 4:
Book in a Bag: Mr. Peabody’s Apples
I love the lesson set up, very organized and a nice flow.
The game where we had clues for the story was great. I will use this strategy for sure, as it would also be useful in other subjects. It will let the students be very creative in their writing and thinking. I also agreed with the idea of combining writing and reading, that is true and this lesson brought the two together nicely.
Thank you for a great lesson.
Cheers, Leah
I want to start off by saying that having a bag of unknown contents in front of children is bound to get their attention! As a former little miss know it all, I was ALWAYS curious about whatever the teacher was hiding at the front, so I think that’s a great way to get kids interested and involved in the lesson. Your lesson was very well structured, in that it allowed for students to be creative, but within boundaries. You gave us cues to write on, but little else so we were free to let our imagination soar. I liked how we were given the opportunity to share our stories as we were progressing in the writing and drawing stages because it’s always great to share and learn from each other. If a student likes what another has written, they might somehow try to incorporate that into their own writing. It inspires and encourages the students, and that’s always a good thing. I thought it was great how you connected writing and reading together. You’re right when you say that it is often thought of as separate parts of a language arts unit, so bravo for connecting them!
ReplyDeleteI wish that I had seen someone do this activity before I went into my practicum because I thought that it was awesome. Thank you for the lesson plan, I will for sure use this activity one day when I have my own classroom or even when I’m subbing. It was exciting when you were taking the clues out of the bag, and I can picture students waiting for the next clue. Also, I like the AB partner dialogue, because children can first talk about their ideas and connections and also get some ideas of from their friend that they may want use in their story. This is great for all types of learners. I was wondering if you would need to pick clues that are from a book, or can you just pick any clues and use them? I know that it’s great because if you pick clues from the book and once students have their stories written down, you can read them the book and the can see how the clues are used within the book. I really liked your lesson, it was great.
ReplyDeleteGroup 4 (Book in bag)
ReplyDelete+ I like the drawing activity and using baseball, apple, etc.. and making our own stories and then later reading the story. Great way to draw students into the book that is going to be read later. Very good lesson overall, if I ever teach primary I can see myself using it for sure, thanks for providing us with a detailed lesson plan as well...
? Most of the inspiration for my reading lessons comes from the Reading Power Program. I was interested and wondering where the inspiration for your lesson came from and in general comes from? This is a question I wish I could actually ask everyone in class.
(Awesome job! It was one of my favourite lessons to partake in. For some reason I am now wishing I was a primary teacher. You guys have so much fun it seems in teaching lessons. I really liked the Primary reading lessons that most groups chose to present on).
Ashok K. - God Bless and Drive Safe :)
Book in a bag
ReplyDeleteThe idea of having the student being ‘authors’ gives them ownership of their work. The ideas of connection, is an awesome strategy for primary students as they can make personal connection with the work they are doing. The activity was lots of fun, students were given an opportunity to use their creativity to make a story. Wrapping up the story with the read-a-loud gave an opportunity for students to compare their own story with the read-a-loud. This is also very engaging because students will be very excited to make reference to their stories and the clues in the book. The Thumbs up and Thumbs down strategy is also very effective because it gives every student a chance to express themselves in a quick and effective way
My favourite part to this lesson was the main idea; I really liked the story in a bag. I am hoping to use the same idea as a creative writing prompt. Being able to have the students write their own creative responses with no wrong answers can really empower students to enjoy writing and to tap into to their creative side. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThis lesson definitely fulfilled my need to draw! I really enjoyed being creative and trying to come up with a story to connect all of the “clues”. Receiving the clues one by one kept me engaged and wanting more. It also helped me hold my potential story in suspension, because I couldn’t completely finish it until I knew what the last clues were. The only thing I would really change would be to keep in mind where your audience is when you set up your teaching area, as your back was to some of us the whole time (though I did appreciate that you checked in on us during the drawing time and then showed us the pictures in the book ☺). Overall, a very good lesson – thanks for the great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteI have this book and LOVE it, so I was thrilled to see you using it in your lesson. This lesson is going into my "TOC" bag of tricks for sure! What a great way to engage student's imaginations and also increase comprehension at the same time. I really appreciated the bit about reading and writing going hand in hand. I think often these are separated more than they need to be. To me the two are so interwoven it is difficult to separate.
ReplyDeleteI thought this lesson was VERY clear and well laid out. There was no confusion as to what was being asked or how we would implement this on our own.
Great job ladies!
I wonder what made you choose this book? I had never heard of it before and was curious what brought it to your attention. Anyways… I loved the idea of visual clues guiding students through the writing process. It wasn’t difficult to create a story with these steps along the way. Just as we write ourselves outlines for essays, this helped the writer to put together their ideas and connect them. It was great to see how different all of our stories were. I also liked how you used a simple thumbs up, down, or out strategy to hear from every member of the class.
ReplyDeleteDeepa, Reema & Ashlea - Creative writing
ReplyDeleteAwesome lesson!
I really liked the idea of pulling out objects related to the story and having students make connections between the objects and creating their own stories based on how the objects were connected. Who says higher level thinking cannot occur in younger grades. It was a great way for students to be creative and make the story their own.
It was also a great way to introduce the story before reading it as well. It gives the students a chance to know it is about whatever it is from the clues given.
At the end of the lesson, once the children had all finished their stories, I think it would make a great addition to the classroom library, having all the students stories put together into one book and having several different stories to read. I think it would really give the students a sense of accomplishment and they would be proud of their 'published' work. :)
First, I appreciated your sensitivity to Deepa. You all seated yourselves at the table so that you were all on the same level. This allowed your presentation to flow effortlessly.
ReplyDeleteSecond, your connection to ‘social responsibility’ was an excellent choice. The reality for every teacher is dealing with this issue on a daily basis and it has become a part of the regular curriculum. If you can work the two together and scaffold the learning, how much more powerful your lesson becomes. The children are much more likely to remember how telling ‘untruths’ impacts someone after reading this story and having interactive lessons with it, than if they were just told to not tell ‘untruths’.
Third, your book in a bag is a great way to stretch the imagination, while building creative writing and creative thought. One of you stated that “Reading supports writing and writing supports reading...and reading and writing is supported by speaking and listening.” This is absolutely true: one without the other is weakened. They are all connected and supported by the other. A bridge that has one weak area will eventually collapse. I think this is also true for reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is wonderful to have a way to address the needs of reading and writing development that are interesting, fun, and are effective in building the foundations of reading and writing skills. Thanks for something else to add to my bag of tools.
Great lesson ladies!
ReplyDeleteI love this book... I was so excited to see that you were using it in your lesson!
I thought the "book in a bag" idea was great, and will definitely use this!! Students have a natural curiosity for things that are "hidden", it seems to increase their attention and interest tenfold; introducing the objects one by one and having them make connections by either drawing or writing, was an excellent exercise in fostering creativity! It would be interesting for them (and the teacher!) to hear how different each student's story would be, even though the same "clues" were given. I can STRONGLY forsee using this idea as a creative writing activity on its own!! It reminds me of "impromptu props" in drama - where students create a scenario to incorporate the random items they have been given. (I did, however, like the idea of closing the lesson out by reading the original story.)
During my 401/2 practicum, I read a suspenseful story to my grade 6/7 class and stopped halfway through... the kids were jumping out of their seats (really, they physically did) to make predictions as to what might happen! Being able to make connections within a story is essential to understanding. They would have LOVED something like this.
I also liked that you "polled the class" with thumbs up/ thumbs down to "hear" from each member of the class. Good strategy.
You lesson was VERY well organized, everything you did seemed to have a distinct purpose. It was very clear, well presented, interesting and engaging. I will definitely use these ideas!
The lesson about Mr. Peabody’s Apples was creative. It was interesting to see you prepare students to read the story by incorporating an element of mystery. I enjoyed the Book-in-a-bag concept where you gave the students four clues that they would use to figure out what the story was about. I believe that this would peak their interest and make students curious about what really happened in the book. I like the fact that you told us just to draw the object and make notes on how each object connected to one another then this activity would be a quick start or before activity instead of a time-consuming, high-risk activity.
ReplyDeleteThe extension to this lesson of writing a story based on what you thought about the clues is good. I think that would be an interesting lesson to incorporate in a writing unit for early Primary Elementary School students. Would you teach students how to incorporate a moral into their story analogous to the one that Mr. Peabody’s Apples had? Or would you concentrate on modeling and having students focus on incorporating objects into their story to create logical sequencing and flow?
Wow I loved the book in the bag lesson! What a great way to teach making connections and associations to and within literature. I am going to try this next week with my SFU reading camp student. I think that folk tales and legends are fabulous for this activity so I am going to use either The Elephants Child or How the Loon Lost his Voice. (Now to find an elephant or a loon…..) I also thought that giving students the chance to show their ideas through the quick thumbs up and down strategy was great. I might do thumbs sideways instead of down just so my student doesn’t get the impression that his ideas are wrong, they’re just different. Thank you for the clearly written lesson plan as well.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Sharon
The activity is great. I know that you mention this in your presentation but I really like that the students share their stories and I think that it is really important for the students to hear different interpretations or imaginative stories from the same four clues. Very explicit in your presentation, thanks for the great modeling!
ReplyDeleteGreat lesson and I like how there is a moral aspect in this lesson. I liked how you tied writing and reading with a hook of creating a story from four items in a bag. Providing the students with the same four items and seeing what they all come up with is fantastic. No two stories are going to be alike, which presents a type of suspense that peers will want to know what others have written. I liked how you didn’t tell the students that there was a real story that incorporated all four items; this would provide a great concluding activity to wrap up the lesson or unit. I liked how you included the following sentence on your slide: “Children need a balanced literacy program, which includes multiple methods and is sensitive to the fact that children are at different levels in each area of literacy.” Great job.
ReplyDeleteCreative Writing –book in a bag
ReplyDeleteIt was a great idea to engage students in creative writing by using several objects that were hidden in a bag. In my mind, I always think of how I can encourage students to write in an interesting way because many students think that writing is boring and difficult. I could use this lesson with a little modification, to encourage my children to create their own stories. I always think of how I can encourage students to write in an interesting way. I think that if students can also feel the objects in their hands, they might have more ideas about the objects. Some may not even know how a feather or baseball feels like.
Group 4: Book in a bag
ReplyDeleteI like how this lesson combined: imagination, writing, drawing, and sharing. I can see this being very effective in multiple grade levels and requires little prep. Having finished 405 and spending way too much time and sleepless nights prepping for a dynamic lesson I really appreciate lessons that don’t require too much. Great book choice, I used it in my grade 6/7 class for a read aloud lesson on connections and the students stayed engaged. Thanks for this useful lesson if you wouldn’t I would appreciate a copy of your lesson plan taniasymons@hotmail.com
Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments!
ReplyDeleteLejla: We chose to pick a book and then choose main clues from their so that the end of the lesson, we could read the original book to the class. We tried to emphasize that everyone would come up with different stories even though they were given the same clues, and this would be reemphasized after reading the original book. Students get really excited to know how the author used all the clues in their own way. However, if you wanted to, you could choose random objects and follow the same lesson outline; you just wouldn’t have a story to read to them at the end to wrap the lesson up. But this would still work and I am sure students would come up with something very creative. I should also mention that you can choose any number of clues from the book depending on the content. Although, I probably wouldn’t pick more then six clues.
Tracy: I like your idea of putting all the students’ stories together in a class book. I created one in my practicum on spring, and the class loved to read through it during silent reading time. Great idea!
Lisa: Since we don’t read the story till the very end of the lesson after students have already created and read their stories, we probably wouldn’t talk about incorporating a moral into the story beforehand. The focus is more about connecting all of the clues and creating a story that is logical and flows well. However, if you have previously talked about morals in stories, I suppose you could ask them to try and include one in their story- or perhaps set it up as an option for those who may want a challenge.
Sharon: I used this lesson in my practicum, and I also had a few clues that I couldn’t really bring in as the real thing. Instead, I brought in a picture of the object, which worked well.
Julia: I think it is a great idea to have students actually feel and touch the objects. This is something I would add to the lesson plan.
Group 4: Mr Peabody’s Apples – great story that I had never heard of so thank you for that. I liked the thinking/relating to Adrienne Gear, whom I am familiar with from my practicum. The encouragement of individuality and using a variety of strategies is excellent! I really liked the four-part story prompt page with the thumbs up or thumbs down – great! This allows kids to engage in the thinking process and encourages creative freedom - well done!!
ReplyDeleteI read through the comments and surmised that the group used a clue giving game/strategy to get ideas for a creative writing activity. I did a similar activity but as a pre-reading strategy for my novel study. What I did was make three boxes, each about half a page big. I then gave students three clues for every box-things like a word or a concept. They had to draw, write or use a combination to explain how they thought the three items would come into play in the story. It was a great activity and the students would often flip back to their predictions and say “I KNEW IT!” as we read along. Students, especially elementary, do love a mystery and this also helps with their inferring and predicting skills if done properly.
ReplyDelete