Persuasive Writing

 This was the first time I used the OREO (opinion, reason, explanation/example, opinion restated) graphic organizer to guide students in writing a persuasive essay.  To begin with, after reading the book, "I Wanna Iguana", the students brainstormed ideas about what they wanted or things they wanted to change.  After generating their lists and discussing reasons they could use to persuade someone, they started to write some rough drafts in their journals.


Once students became comfortable with using the OREO and writing persuasive letters, we transferred that skill to our unit in social studies on the Pilgrims.

Students were asked to state opinion as to whether or not other family members should come to join them in the New World.  We put together a class anchor chart of pros and cons about coming to the New World.

 
Students then took a position and wrote a letter back home to a family member.

Here are some examples of their writing.

They made a wonderful hall display right around Thanksgiving.

Writing Folders

Using two pocket folders taped together, I created a way for students to manage the writing process.

The first pocket is for the pre-write (AKA: graphic organizer).  The second pocket is for their first draft (AKA: sloppy copy).  The third is for revision and the last pocket is for editing before publishing.  We use these folders when we want to take one of our journal writes and bring it through the whole writing process.  These worked out very nicely and lasted all year.

Know Atom

Our school system is trying a new program called Know Atom.  So far, I love it!  They have student readers and hand on activities.  Here is the first activity students created: a model of an atom.

In Class We Can....

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In an effort to make all things positive, students created a 'behavior' book on what they 'can' do
in class to help one another.  They determined the rules and then went on to illustrate them.  The
book was left out all year long for students to read and reread.  

Accountable Talk

This year, in particular, the students were having a hard time staying on topic when discussing literature. A couple of anchor charts and  repeated conversations have helped.  Here are two charts that I refer to right before we have literature discussions to keep students on track.

Writing/ Show, Don't Tell

During the process of writing our personal narratives, we studied how author's engaged their readers.  One of the most powerful strategies writers use is to 'show' their thoughts and feelings as opposed to just 'telling' them.  Here is an anchor chart created with students to help them understand this concept.

When creating these charts, I modeled through a 'think aloud' how someone might 'look' if they were sad.  Then I asked students to share how someone might 'look' when they were happy.  Students then worked in partners to develop words or phrases to 'show' anger.  By the time we got to the rest of the words, the students were off and  flying!  (This was over the course of several days.)

It was so exciting when I began to see students using some of the showing examples in their own stories.  Samples of student work coming soon!

Common Core Notebooks

 A few weeks ago I came across the "My Common Core" Notebook.  I purchased it from teachers pay teachers. (A very addicting site, so be careful!)

First I asked all students to bring in white binders and sheet protectors.  I then made copies of the common core domains and put them in the binders.

Next, I explained to students that the common core was all of the wonderful things they were going to learn about this year.  Next, I introduced the binders.  They were very excited and impressed!

I am going to use these binders as an evidence folder.  They will make great resources for sharing work at parent conferences.  They also allow me to see the growth and understanding of each student.

At the end of the year, students will take these home as a memoir of their "Thinking in Third" grade!

These are the binders students brought in.  For the covers, I copied and laminated them and wrote with dry erase marker  before I put them in the binder pocket.  My plan is to use them next year.

 Here are the domain sheets that will be the heading for each section of the binder.

 Each of these are put in protective sleeves to help separate the sections.

 


Here are some samples of the Standard Recording Sheets.  We have been working on personal narratives for several weeks and the question I have used here is the same one that has been posted for several weeks.  As evident by the  responses we have been working on 'show, don't tell' sentences, adding action words, and using graphic organizers to improve our writing.  Behind this sheet will be their drafts, revision, and editing papers.

Also included in this purchase were samples of essential questions for each domain as well as a common core checklist.  I use the essential questions to help guide my thinking and the students' as well.  I love the checklists because I can see at a glance what standards still need to be addressed.

So far, this have been working out great!  I will blog more about this as the school year progresses.

Deb