Writing Centers

On Sale Now...

 

 

This set of 4 Upper Elementary Writing Centers is now on sale.   Writing is always tricky in the upper elementary and middle school grades because students often see it as a daunting task.  These centers are fun, differentitated, and engaging.  Each of them comes with a pre-writing organizer and a rubric.  There are even several pages of decorative writing paper included. 

 

Centers included are:

- Are You Kidding Me?  (based on the activity Would You Rather...)

- R.A.F.T.

- Let Me Help You With That

- Picture Prompts

 

I have used them as whole class and intervention activities also.  Click below to preview the set.  Enjoy!

 



Writing Center: Would You Rather...?

I have to admit that I really didn't do much with literacy centers until about 5 years ago.  Up until then, it was something that always seemed more "primary" than "intermediate" elementary. 

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!  Centers are what keep me sane (minus the planning and organizing of them).  My students love them, and they have really helped to keep my students engaged, on task, and have allowed them to really take a concept that we have learned and expand it.

So, I created some writing centers.  The one that I'd like to share today is called "Are You Kidding Me?"  It's based off of the game Would You Rather?

I created some of my own Would You Rather Cards and even bought the card game.  I laminated them, cute them out and out them in a tin can,.  Easy so far....

Then came the more difficult part- what do I want the outcome to be for my students?

I developed a planner/organizer in which students have to choose which item they would rather do (for example- Would you rather wear boots all summer or sandals all winter?).  They have to write down their choice and think of three reasons why they chose this.  Then, they have to list three details to defend each reason.  So, it became an expository/persuasive type or writing.  I created and gave them a rubric so they could do the next step- the official writing!

This is what amazed me.  I was so shocked at the increadible writing that they did.  Some used humor, some were extremely serioius, and some were a combination of both.  They were so fun to read a share with each other. 

So, I am now trying this with only 6 days left of school, and becuase of the timing I have to spruce it up a bit.  Today, students paired up, and went through the cards until they found one that they disagreed on.  Then, they started their organizers.  We will start the writing tomorrow with the editing and final copies to follow next week.  The new part of the assignment is that they will have to convince the rest of the class that their opinion is the more desireable one.  They will present their writing to the class, and the students will vote for which person convinced them the most.  This is definitely more persuasive writing than expository.  I'm excited to see how it turns out.  They could't stay quiet today becuase they kept telling each other why their choice was better. 

If you'd like to check out these materials, click here.

Click here to preview an entire set of writing centers.



Upper Elementary Writing Centers with Rubrics, Organizer, and Writing Paper

Literature Circles

One of my favorite activities to do with my students is literature circles.  I think it's because they love them so much.  It wasn't always like this for me.  Why?????  Well that's because it used to seem like a daunting task.  With literature circles, it's all about student generated discussions to foster deep understanding of the text.  It's very difficult to get students to be able to discuss among themselves.  So, I spent a lot of time several years thinking about different learning styles and Bloom's Taxonomy to develop activities, games, and journal pages for students to use in literature circles.  Now, with some training, students are able to run their own groups while having powerful discussions in which they learn so much from one another.  Below are some of the materials that I use and some pictures some AWESOME fifth graders working on the activities.  Click on any of the materials (or this link) to get them for yourself!



Cameron & Zolin work on
the Acrostic Poem for
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

 

Kat & Manuel work on the Party Invitation
for
The Mouse and the Motorcycle.



Nayeli and Melissa work on the
Party Invitation for
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Emely and Jessie work on the
Acrostic Poem and Party Invitation
for Someone Named Eva.

Everardo, Adriana, and Odalys work on
the Character Interview Activity
for Homer Price.

Camila and Alyssa work on the
Word Search Activity for
Homer Price.



       

Jaylynn works on the Word Search
for Someone Named Eva.



Get These Materials for Yourself
 

Literature Circle Bundle with all Literature Circle Materials



 



Character Map Activity

Acrostic Poem Activity



 

Book Recommendation Activity



Word Search Activity

 

Illustration Summary Activity

 

 

Literature Circle Activity Rubric

 

Literature Circle Job/Role Cards

Literature Circle Question Cards

Literature Circle Journal Cover

Literature Circle Journal Pages

Literature Circle Student Evaluation Form

Deal of the Day

One of my favorite things in life (other than teaching) is finding an amazing deal.  So, I'd like to share the love...

Each day, I will feature a Deal of the Day from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  It'll be on the right side of this blog and will always have a picture that will link to the product.  If there's anything that you'd like to see as a deal of the day from my store, let me know, and I'll try to get it into the rotation. 

If there's anything you see that you have a question about, please send me an email. 

Thanks!

Funny Hair Day

Yesterday was Funny Hair Day.  As we continue to count down the days until the end of the year, we seem to have more and more fun.  Yesterday, lots of kids (and teachers) showcased their "funniest hair" ensembles.  Here is a picture of some ladies and their styles.



Priscila, Emely, and Alyssa don't let their funny hair styles keep them from working hard on their writing assignment.  Thanks for being great sports, girls!

Bubble Gum Bonanza!

My students have been really well behaved lately (actually, they are most days), so we're doing an Alphabet Countdown through the end of the year.  Basically, we started with A when there were 26 days left, and we go to the next letter in the alphabet each day.  Each day has a theme starting with the specific letter of the day.  Today we were on B, so we did a bubble gum blowing contest.  It was more fun and we had more laughs than I expected.  (It was a bit spooky at first because the kids were so quiet.  I guess that's what happens when your'e trying to blow bubbles with gum.....which gives me an idea......)

Anyway, here are some of the pictures that I was able to snap today.  Enjoy!

Ooops...POP!

So determined!

Thanks, 5K, for making this so much fun!

R.A.F.T. Writing Activity



Today, we tried something new (not the jicama that we had for snack either)!  We tried a variation of the R.A.F.T. writing strategy.  Traditionally, this is an activity done to get students to write an original piece of writing from a specific perspective, for a certain purpose, to a specific audience, and about a specific topic.  It is really great for practicing the word choice trait.  However, this is a spin (on pun intended) on the traditional version.

I turned it into a game.  Each letter in RAFT  (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic) has its own spinner with 8 different options on each.  This allows for lots of different variations in writing.  You could also use less spinners if you know that students must write about a specific topic of in a specific format.  There are options for students to choose their own elements too. 

After students spin the spinners, they use the brainstorming organizer to write down any ideas they have about how to combine the elements to create a piece of writing.  It was really neat to have the kids work together.  They came up with some creative ideas.

Today, the kids spun to find their elements, completed their organizers, and started their drafts.  They're off to a wonderful start.  I'm excited to see (and share) their final pieces. 



Everardo and Nayeli give the spinner a go and start their assignment.

 

Odalys and Emely take turns deciding their R.A.F.T. fate.  Great job working together, Ladies!

 

Alyssa, Kat, and Rey are busy organizing their thoughts. 

 

Melissa, Senia, and Camila make a great R.A.F.T. team!

This is a great way to introduce this strategy before having students choose all elements on their own. I use it as a writing center after students learn how to do it.  Click here to get your own set of materials.

Literature Circles in Action

My students are amazing...simply amazing!  I am so impressed with the work they have been doing in literature circles. 

Literature Circles can be really difficult to manage, organize, and keep straight.  It seems that once all of that is done, it's even more difficult keeping students engaged with interesting conversation and activity.  With much hard work and effort on their part, my students have really been running their own literature circles successfully.  I rarely have to sit with groups for more than a few minutes at a time because they are able to generate interesting conversation among each other.  They understand their roles and take them seriously, but most importantly they end up learning from each other based on the conversations they have.  Here's what I just happened to listen in on today.  (Because of the file size, I had to break it up into 3 videos.)  In the third video, you can see the value of literature circles as one group member figures something out with the help of the others.  I was so proud!  If you're interested in how my students were able to get to this point, read on.  Enjoy and way to go kiddos!

Students doing their literature circle jobs and having a conversation about the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

This didn't just happen overnight.  As you can see, the students have a lot of materials in front of them.  First, I spent two weeks during shared reading using the same book to model six different roles that the students would be expected to do in their groups. 

 While completing their reading assignment, they complete a literature circle journal that requires them to analyze vocabulary words, summarize, ask questions, make predictions, infer, visualize, and think about an idea they'd like to share with their group.  This along with the role cards are what they they use to guide their discussion. 

 

  

After they've had about 10-15 minutes to discuss, they have the option to complete items from the literature circle activity set or play a literature circle game- both require more discussion and higher level thinking. 

 

They stay on task for 45 minutes.  It's amazing to have seen them come this far, and the best part is that they are enjoying their books and really working well together, and that's what it's about.

If you want to know more about these materials, just click on any of them.

Freebies...Yay!!!!

I have to admit that I one of the things I love the most in life is a great deal.  Finding useful and FREE teacher materials is one of the things that I love to find the most.  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there, so in light of that, I have linked several of my free items in the column to the right.  There are math FREEBIES and reading FREEBIES.  If you find something you like, please let me know.  I appreciate kind and honest feedback.

Cheers to all the great FREEBIES out there.  Enjoy!

Elissa

Fractured Fairy Tales

Fractured Fairy Tales are so much fun to write with students.  We had a really good time with it this year.  I did something different this go-round by introducing two graphic organizers for brainstorming before writing and also writing a class story first.  This really helped students write their own stories. 

If you're not quite sure what a fractured fairy tale is, it's another version of a traditional fairy tale that is retold by a different character or narrator.  Some published examples include The True Story of The Three Little Pigs by Scieszka and Seriously, Cinderella is so Annoying! by Trisha Speed Shaskan .

So, here are some examples that were created in my classroom.  I am so proud of the work they did.  This is not an easy writing assignment.  Way to go 5K!!!!!!

If you're looking for the materials that I used with my class, you can find them here.





The Three Little Pigs told from the Wolf's Perspective



The Three Little Pigs told from the perspective of the Wolf