A Teaching Pot of Gold: Transforming Student Writing

Happy Spring Everyone!  This is Jessica Zannini from Notes from the Portable and today I want to talk about using mentor texts to transform student writing.  Transformations are one of my favorite ways to introduce a new writing genre.  The rhythm and word choice of mentor texts are fantastic to get students motivated to write.

What is a Transformation?

When teaching transformations you take a great book with a specific pattern that writers can follow. Students write using a similar structure.  Transformations allow students to make reading and writing connections.  

Sample lesson using Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

1. Read Aloud Click Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, by Doreen Cronin.

2. Ask, "What patterns did you notice in the book?"

3. Have the students look closely at the notes written by the farm animals.  Ask, "What are the parts of this note?" (Greeting, Body, Signature)

4. Discuss the organization/structure of this book. You may want to create an outline that student's can follow.  

5. As a class/group write your own version of the book.  (Ex.  Click, Clack, Neigh: Horses that Text, or Zoom, Zoom, Moo: Cows that Game. An example has been provided for you to use. 

6. You can extend this and have individuals or partners write their own version. 

Click, Clack Maa, Goats that Text

By: Jessica Zannini

 Dear Farmer Brown,

    We goats are tired of the same old trash. We would like to have some fresh flowers to eat.  The flowers will make our breath smell good.  We are tired of smelling bad. 

    Sincerely,

    The Goats

  
“What!” yelled Farmer Brown.  He threw his cell phone on the kitchen counter.  “Goats that want flowers? Who ever heard of such a ridiculous thing!  Goats are supposed to attract the bad things and eat trash. They are not supposed to have fresh breath!”

  In the background he heard:

  Click, clack, Maa.

  Click, clack, Maa.

  Ticky, tack, Maa.

  Dear Farmer Brown,

  If you do not get us fresh flowers we will not eat the weeds that are growing on the farm. We also will stick to one area and not keep the pests away from the other animals.  In addition, we will not socialize with the new horses you get.  How will they ever adjust to the barn without us?  If we get new flowers we will continue doing our job with fresh breath. 

    Sincerely,

    The Goats

    “I guess I will have to give them what they want,” sighed Farmer Brown.  “My new horses certainly will not adjust without them.” 

  
Farmer Brown plugged his phone into the charger and walked to the barn.  “Goats, here are your flowers.  But in order to get them, you have to give me your cell phone.  

The goats decided that they would rather have the flower.  They handed over the phone and thanked him.  Farmer Brown let out a sigh of relief, but when he left the barn he heard:

  Click, clack, Meow.

  Click, clack, Meow.

  Ticky, tack, Meow.

Additional Transformation Books:

1. When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant 

2.  T'was the Night Before Christmas

3.  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (or any of the other Mo Willems Pigeon books.

Don't forget to check out the other Primary Peach posts this month to learn more about making learning magical!

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Workshop Wednesday: Finding Evidence with a {FREEBIE!}

Happy FALL, y'all! Jivey here!

It has been a hot minute since I blogged here at the Primary Peach!

I'm bringing you some Workshop Wednesday love... Primary Peach authors focus on reading and writing workshop on Wednesdays... but if you know me, you know I LOVE some content integration. If I can weave in some science or social studies too, I will! So I've got a reading/social studies lesson to share with you today!

4th grade teachers in Georgia, I know you are (or will be) teaching all about explorers. I've got a great freebie for you! And even if you are not a Fourth Grade Peach or don't teach about explorers, you might be talking about Christopher Columbus soon with his holiday coming up.

One thing students seem to struggle with is going back into the text to find evidence. Sometimes it's because we don't give them enough practice... and let's face it, sometimes it's because they are lazy. LOL! It is important to scaffold when teaching this skill until they really get the hang of it. (Do it with them, provide graphic organizers, etc.) In this Columbus activity, students will read about Christopher Columbus and then go back into the text to find evidence to show his years of exploration, reasons he explored, obstacles he encountered, accomplishments, and the country that sponsored his voyage.

(If you are wondering about the colorful notations, check this post out on my blog about interactive notetaking!)

Keep these tips in mind as you guide students to find evidence in a text!

1. Some of the evidence will come from multiple paragraphs, so showing them that they have to continually read and re-read and KEEP reading is important to help students find evidence!

2. Give students the reason or purpose they need to look back at the text (questions or graphic organizers).

3. Show students how to pay attention to key words, such as "difficult" when looking for obstacles.

4. Talk through it TOGETHER. Students need to understand the thinking process for when it's time to do it on their own.

5. Did I mention re-reading??


If you do teach about explorers, I have a whole pack with articles and graphic organizers just like this one, plus other activities! You can check that out here.

Thanks for visiting today! For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Workshop Wednesday - Strategy Lesson - Book Introductions

WHOO HOOO!

My first post on the Primary Peach. I'm so excited!

Okay, so my school sent me to a staff development back in February. All the Assistant Principal told me was that it would be about working with Guided Reading. Okay, that's fine. Our school is already pretty big on Guided Reading Workshop Model (think Fountas and Pinell), but okay.

It was a horribly cold wintry Tuesday with big fat flakes falling from the sky. The ten of us were huddled around the principal's door to see if they would cancel the conference. They didn't. We braved the elements and drove downtown in the driving snow. If you remember the incident in Atlanta from last winter, you'll understand our trepidation. No one wanted to spend 15 hours bundled up inside a car stuck on the highway. I had thrown in some blankets and water bottles to the trunk just to be safe.

We arrived with only one small icy slide to the Cobb Galleria and walked in to meet Jennifer Serravallo, an educator, professor, and author of several books on the teaching of reading. It was a fantastic day spent looking at the methods and strategies surrounding Guided Reading.

The best thing I learned that day was something she referred to a Strategy Lessons. I've heard of them before from Stephanie Harvey's texts floating around at school. Jennifer presented them in a very clear concise format that I immediately jumped all over. This format is from the Teacher's College.

She starts with a Compliment Connection  where she doesn't over enthuse with such stuff as "Great job yesterday reading quietly!" She wants to correctly name the procedures she noticed them doing and call attention to the skills involved.

Next is the Teaching Point, or what it is we will be working on today. Once again correctly naming the skill being focused on during reading time. For example, we might be Reading with a Question in Mind. The students are asked to read a passage or a chapter in their books looking for evidence to bring back to group that deals with only one specific question.

Engagement was the third step. It involves giving the students an assignment. Something they must accomplish during the Reading Block. In my example they might need to pick a character and hunt down information the author provides on this person in order to make a judgment about them.

Finally comes the Link portion where you remind them that they can use this skill with other books they read in the future.

I tried it out with my class to great success. We had just started our new extended text, The Homework Machine. I wanted to introduce it so they really paid attention to the characters they were about to meet. Also, I was not going to be reading it aloud to them as usual. This time they would take 'parts' and read out their parts as if the book was a Reader's Theater.

You can see a video of my lesson below.

That was the compliment connection portion of the program. I specifically named the strategy they had employed, Active Listening,

Here's the Teaching portion. I explain that we will be paying attention to our Inner Monologues to make decisions about characters.

 

In this section I give them an assignment to write their thoughts on a sticky note on Page 6 of Chapter 1 with evidence to back up their thinking.

After they have completed the assignment I bring them back in together and remind them that we've paid attention to our Inner Monologues to make decisions about characters. They share their thoughts with each other and then continue with their regular Reading Workshop activities.

As we continued to read through the book, I was walking around monitoring that they stay on task. It was so funny to  hear them all using voices that fit their characters. Oh, sure. They all giggled and laughed when their friends first began using these voices, but they got over that soon.

Strategy Lessons are a way to make sure your students know exactly what they are expected to learn and begin to use these not just for today, but for any book they read in the future.

Let me know how it goes!