Category: Writing Workshop

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Moving BEYOND the Topic Sentence

Squirrels are everywhere. That’s for sure! Most young writers have had a squirrel encounter or two. Tapping into a rich storehouse of knowledge is a great place to learn to craft a HOOK—not a topic sentence, a HOOK! The best place to begin a writing lesson is to tap into what the writer knows and to read a book.

Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert is a gorgeous and simple story of a quintessential city squirrel who, naturally, zips mischievously through life. Told in lively rhyming verse with beautiful collage illustration, the book is sure to capture the attention of students. At the back of the book the author includes some terrific facts about squirrels. We chose five facts to focus on:

Five Facts About Squirrels

1. Squirrels are rodents

2. They have front teeth—incisors—that NEVER stop growing.

3. They live in big nests or hollow trees.

4. They have five toes on their front feet, four on their back.

5. Their bushy tail is as long as its body.

 

Often times, when facing the blank page, students are intimidated and resort to simplistic, and, well, let’s face it, BORING solutions! Young writers resort to what they have been taught: Open your paragraph with a topic sentence. This is not technically wrong. But we can BETTER equip them!

For example these perfectly fine topic sentence are boring:

Squirrels are cute animals.

Squirrels are everywhere.

And my least favorite topic sentence of all:

I am going to write about squirrels.

So how do we teach our students to make topic sentences sparkle and shine?

We teach the to transform the topic sentence into a HOOK!

To help them get there, I gave them a BIGGER squirrel fact: Did you know that squirrels are everywhere in the world except Madagascar and Australia? We looked at a globe together and marveled at this interesting fact!

Next, I asked them what kinds of noises squirrels make. I got some very fun responses, too! I told them that we writers like to create words that represent sounds and, when we do it’s called: onomatopoeia. They liked that word! Now it was time to craft a HOOK for our paragraph about squirrels.

“Let’s imagine what it would sound like if we could hear all the squirrels all over the world.”

We generated a significant list:

Barking, Chirping Squeaking Squawking, Whistling Scampering Scratching Gnawing Grinding, Rattling, Buzzing, Crying

Next I said, “Let’s include our BIG fact via an Em Dash,” and went on to remind them that this special punctuation mark helps the reader take a long pause while adding some important information to the sentence.

Now we had our fodder and were ready to craft a HOOK! Here’s were we landed:

They are chattering, chirping,  squawking  all over the wide world—everywhere except Madagascar and Australia.

That’s the way to open a paragraph about squirrels!

 

 

~Kimberly

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Crafting a Wonder-FULL Sentence is Courageous

Staring down the blank page is a courageous endeavor.

Where to begin?

We say: Begin with a BOOK!

BIG ideas are sparked by knowledge + curiosity.

“All you need to do is write one TRUE sentence,” so said great American author,  Ernest Hemingway. But what exactly did he mean? Let’s face it, accuracy of expression may be learned in a grammar book, but depth of expression begins when a writer decides to pick up a pencil and scratch an original idea onto a blank sheet of paper. The first, BEST lesson, is to teach your students that writing about wonder leads to wonderful writing.

Here are four ways to compose a wonder-FULL sentence about owls.

First let’s gather information.

When faced with the blank page, first things first, press into food for thought. For this lesson, we dove into  Animalium for Kids, by Kate Scott and Jenny Broom. With over 160 specimens to explore in this wonderful biological compendium, we are narrowing our focus to Owls. We don’t need an exhaustive study here—this is a sentence writing exercise after all. We need just enough information to become curious and inspired to write. Getting ready to focus on composing even a single sentence requires gathering intriguing information.

The owl entry in this book is just enough to spark curiosity.  After reading, focusing in on the amazing illustrations, sharing what we found amazing about owls—storing new facts in our memory, adding to our growing knowledge of owls—we made a list:

  1. There are two main families of owls within the order Strigiformes: Tytonidae (barn owls) and Strigidae (typical owls).
  2. Huge owl eyes are stationary, fixed in their sockets—no eye rolling!
  3. Owls can rotate their head 270 degrees.

Next, let’s review the four types of sentences:

Statements are declarative. Statements tell us something.

Are questions interrogative? (Yes.) Questions ask.

Commands are imperative. Commands demand action.

Exclamations are exclamatory! Exclamations roar!

Now, let’s get writing.

A our first attempt at “NOW, let’s write a statement together,” I listened and wrote the group consensus on the board:

There are two types of owls, typical and barn owls.

Here’s where writing get’s fun! Add details, rearrange, think about word choice to make the above statement a tale that will turn heads. Follow the W Rule:

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, to WOW the reader!

For this sentence, I had a basket of blocks all different shapes but only two colors that I poured out onto the floor, asking my students to quickly sort by color. We, obviously, ended up with two colors. Then I gave them another fact about owls—there are 200 species in the world—and asked them to help me add this detail to our statement. Here’s what the group came up with:

All 2 million owls in the world (200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Finally, let’s translate the statement to a question, command, and an exclamation:

Statement:

All the owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Question:

Isn’t it amazing that all 2 million owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls)?

Command:

Please sort the 2 million owls, all the owls in the world (all 200 species) into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Exclamation:

All 2 million the owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls)—Wow!

There you have it, all four sentence types in one fell swoop! Once you’ve tackled this exercise a few times as a group, it’s easy-peasy to make it an independent activity—from gathering information to four TRUE sentences!  Ernest Hemingway would be proud.

 

~Kimberly

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Coming this APRIL: The Wonderful World of Phonics

Do your students shut down at the mention of reading?

Do they cringe when you gently hand them a freshly sharpened pencil, suggesting it’s time to write an idea?

Some students need a little extra support to unlock the code that is key to engaging in the act of reading and the art of writing. Our targeted and systematic approach will bridge the gaps. The goal here is for students to overcome challenges, and to ultimately enhance comprehension and spelling skills.

Reading is the act of translating code on a page to speech—spoken aloud or silently to one’s self.

Writing is the act of crafting code to a page in order to communicate an idea.

                                 So let’s begin at the beginning:

Phonemic Awareness  is the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds that make words.

Phonics is the relationship between the sounds we speak and the alphabetic letters or combination of letters that represent those sounds.

Morphology is the study of how words are formed and possess specific meaning.

Etymology is the study of word origins and the way meaning evolves throughout history.

Fluency is the ability to read fluidly and with expression.

These five elements of literacy are the foundation of our remediation toolkit.

Once the student has worked through the initial placement, the journey begins. From assessment, through instruction, to mastery—our toolkit will guide your students every step of the way and beyond.

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Sentences are Poetry!

How do we get students excited to write a sentence?

I’d start the lesson with this whopping fact:

Every year more than a SEPTILLION snowflakes fall on Earth.  Hundreds of inches of snow falls on the Sierra Nevadas here in California alone! Septillion is a cardinal number—a “quantity”—that’s represented by the numeral 1 followed by 24 zeros. One septillion is a very BIG number!

I’d follow this with some smaller, yet still amazing facts:

Snow is made up mostly of air:

Fresh snow contains a bunch of trapped air, which is why it feels light and fluffy. 

Snow is frozen water:

Snow is simply water vapor that has frozen into tiny ice crystals in the clouds. 

Snow can fall even when it’s not very cold:

As long as there is enough moisture in the air, snow can fall even at temperatures slightly above freezing. 

Snowflakes are six-sided and unique:

Depending on the temperature and humidity, and because each falls through the air differently, they have unique patterns and six-sided shapes—needles, columns, and plates.

Close the lesson with another BIG fact:

The biggest snowflake, recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records back in 1987, was found in Montana. The snowflake was 15 inches in diameter and 5 inches thick! That’s one BIG snowflake! I’d likely mock up a way to help them see this fact:

Next, I would read some wintry books. Here are some favorites:

The woodland animals were all getting ready for the winter. Geese flew south, rabbits and deer grew thick warm coats, and the raccoons and chipmunks lay down for a long winter nap. Come Christmastime, the wise owls were the first to see the rainbow around the moon. It was a sure sign that the big snow was on its way.

Here we’d think about winter taking place in the natural world. We’d explore the four seasons, focusing in on winter.  As the animals watch fall slipping away and prepare for winter, students will follow, learning important information along the way.

No one thinks one or two snowflakes will amount to anything. Not the man with the hat or the lady with the umbrella. Not even the television or the radio forecasters. But one boy and his dog have faith that the snow will amount to something spectacular, and when flakes start to swirl down on the city, they are also the only ones who know how to truly enjoy it.

Now it would be time to write: “This wonderful book begins with three short sentences.”

The skies are gray.

The rooftops are gray.

The whole city is gray.

These sentences have one word in common: gray.

 We have set the stage, ignited curiosity, and offered some really intriguing fodder. Now I’d get into the lesson:

There are four types of sentences:

Declarative sentences give, or declare, information.

Imperative sentences give commands, make requests, or implore.

Interrogative sentences ask questions.

Exclamatory sentences express strong emotions.

Here I’d pull out another book. This one is a book of poetry, but not just any poetry,  these poems are focused on the tenacious birds who stay put in wintry conditions.

We will read several poems together, learn about specific birds, then we will focus in on the blue jay. We will read about the blue jay in the appendix at the back of the book before focusing in on the poem. We will learn that these birds store up to 100 seeds and nuts per day in preparation for winter. We will learn about its tricky ability to hide the store and locate it easily when needed. We will learn about courtship and nest building and the raising of baby jays. This and more. And then we will read the poem.

First we will notice that the poem is two stanzas. Then we will notice something wonderful: All four types of sentences are woven here! We read aloud. As we read we hear the tight rhythm, we hear the perfect rhyme. Isn’t poetry grand?

But now it’s time to craft some snowy sentences, and before the magic slips away, I’d remind my students: Sentences are POETRY!

I would help my students get started (you can too!):

I’d write on the board: In winter…

I’d ask: “What next?”

The student might write:

In winter, animals are hungry.

I ask: Which animals?

In winter, chipmunks and owls and deer are hungry.

I ask: What will they do?

In winter, chipmunks and owls and deer are hungry, so they collect and store food away for the coming snowy days.

Now that is a sentence,” I say to them! That is a sentence that is like a poem:

In winter

     chipmunks and

          owls and

               deer are hungry,

so they collect

and store food away

for the coming

snowy days.

 

 

~Kimberly

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Words are Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

To read is to imagine.

To imagine is to story tell.

To story tell is to write.

This last weekend we went and saw my son in a performance of Mary Poppins. He had been rehearsing for months and it was finally his time to “wow” the audience from the big stage. Everyone came armed with their role and their costumes and their props and their accents. The stage was transformed and we were transported to London in 1910. The main stars of Mary Poppins are of course, Mary Poppins and her magical chimney-sweep friend, Bert. But the story itself really centers around the father, Mr. Banks, who sees his role as a father as strictly providing and not in nurturing. As the musical performance played out, the audience experienced the magic, the struggle and the transformation in the family and especially in the father. Mr. Banks was no longer a 14-year-old boy, but a man struggling in his role of provider, husband, and father.

I reflected later that we as human beings need to share our ideas, feelings, and stories. I never could know how it felt to live and be the head of a house hold in 1910, in London. Things we will never experience, we can feel and learn through stories.

In Pages online, we read a terrific story during this last session with my middle school Level 3 students called Banner in the Sky. This book was about a boy climbing the highest mountain, the Citadel, in the Swiss Alps. It is a fictional book but based on real research and experience climbing. As we read, we were transported to these mountains, holding on for our lives, experiencing the harsh weather conditions and the strength of the climbers both physically and mentally. Before this book I had never pondered what climbers experience.

 

Books take us places we have never been to experience things we will never do.

 

Through books we get a glimpse of the past we never experienced. We learn about things we have never done. We ponder what things might be like in the future. In my Level 4 Pages class, we read The Giver—a book that talks of a newly created community where everyone lives in sameness, under a set of rules where the weak and rule breakers are sent to Elsewhere. Memories are too painful for people, so they are taken away and placed with one single person, a person separate from society, called the Giver. The book is set in an unspecified future with no exact date. This young adult dystopian novel was written in 1993 and has sparked questions about conformity, individuality, unexamined security, freedom and the importance of our past and experiencing pain.

Blackbird and Company has created curriculum to accompany the journey and adventure of books; comprehension, setting, plot, vocabulary, themes, motifs and symbols are covered. But we really dive deep when we ask the student or should I say the writer to write, their ideas, feelings, opinions, beliefs. Our prompts ask, what tricky or fearful experience have you encountered? How did you get through? What would you do if faced in the same situation as the character? What do you want to do when you get older? Who influenced you?

Suddenly we are telling a story—our story—we are the writer of our story!

 

To write, we need only to start with a word, a phase, then one true sentence. It sounds so simple, but the words we choose to use are important, meaningful. We can paint pictures with our words, create dramatic scenes, show painful, tragic moments, create laughter, and love. In the performance of Mary Poppins, one of my favorite scenes is when they sing the song, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Mary Poppins, inventor of this word, gets the whole stage singing her brand new magical word! Simply said, it is something to say, when you have nothing to say!

When you look up “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (the magical word of Mary Poppins) in the dictionary, there it is, defined as: something extremely good or wonderful.

What a challenge that word would be to put in an essay, but much more powerful, might I say magical, than simply saying something is good.

Mary Poppins would say to our students: Learn words, words and more words!

By the age of 5 years old children recognize at least 10,000 words. By 10-years-old, children can speak and write an average of 20,000 words and learn on average 20 new words a day. They can also understand the fact that words have multiple meanings. A High school student may know anywhere from 25,000-50,000 words. When I looked up the average vocabulary for adults, it ranged from 20,000-35,000 words. Children double their vocabulary between 5 and 10-years-old, learning an average of 20 new words a day! But over 10-years-old, learning new vocabulary slows or even stops. An average teen or adult might just have a vocabulary of 25,000 words. That’s only 5,000 more than a 10-year-old, maybe staying this way for their lifetime.

We have moved away from books you hold in your hand and dictionaries you flip through. We’ve have moved to media. As a whole we have moved away from writing with a pencil and instead typing on the computer.

How do we inspire our students to read and to write and to thing? How do we keep them learning, and adding to their vocabulary? To become the communicators of the future? How do we inspire our students to be writers who express that wonderful one true sentence? To bring that idea, that feeling, that story to life? How do we make what feels impossible, possible?

 

Mr. Daniels, of Fish in a Tree, instructs the main character, Ally, to draw a line between the M and the P in that word impossible.

 

I M / P O S S I B L E

 

“So, now, Ally…….that big piece of paper in your hand says possible. There is no impossible anymore, okay?”

We can create possibility. We can create words and meaning. The possible starts with YOU. And the way I see it, with a good book and some time.

“In this world of words, sometimes they just can’t say everything.”

Or can they? I would like to find out!

 

~Clare

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Haiku of Stars

Did you know you can see 20 quadrillion miles away? That’s how far it is to the very brightest star in the sky, Cygnus. And, did you know every single star you see in the night sky is bigger and brighter than the sun? Our sun, after all, is a dwarf star. That’s right a dwarf!

So what has this got to do with poetry?

Everything! That’s what!

Learning to write well does not happen by learning the rules. No! Learning to write well is rooted in wonder. And what is more worthy of our wonder than the 200 billion trillion stars in the universe?   That is an unfathomable number, right? On any given clear night, we humans can only see around 2,000 stars.  So let’s press into curiosity and consider what 200 billion trillion actually means. Seeing only 2,000 of the 200 billion trillion stars is like looking at a single speck of sand compared to all the grains of sand on the beach! This should make us marvel.

Now, back to crafting haiku, it all begins with a single 16 to 18 syllable sentence. This one is 17 syllables:

Words are like stars spilling a symphony from the night’s indigo stage.

Next, break the sentence into three lines:

Words are like stars spilling / a symphony from the night’s / indigo stage.

Finally, polish the sentence into haiku form:

Words are like stars spilling

a symphony from the night’s

indigo stage.

Enjoy the following singular sentences shaped into haiku form:

Looking up into

the sky, a twinkling star was

winking down on me.

~Ayela

Looking up in the

sky, dazzling stars illuminate

the darkness of night.

~Elias

I wonder if there

are different types of vibrant

stars in other cosmos?

~Jude

Looking up in the

night sky, you will see small stars

but they are fiery.

~Jackson

Little star in the night

glowing light, floating high

in a cobalt sky.

~Aylen

Looking up into

the sky, something brilliant,

something like a giant star.

~Claire

Little star in the sky,

your shimmering glow

was shinning so bright.

~Emma

Far away Cygnus, bright

star, radiant pearl in the night

sky illuminates ’till it dies.

~Rowan

Looking up to the dark sky,

I began to see the glowing

bright Big Dipper.

~Kate

When I see the stars

at night, I wonder at the

brilliance of the sky.

~Brynnan

Thank you Mrs. Kontos (Walla Walla Homeschool consulting, WA) and your terrific students. Wonder-FULL. Simply wonderful. Congratulations to these student writers who courageously brought shape to an idea with pencil on paper.

~Kimberly

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Writer’s Voice and the Essay

What is. There are. I am. These are passive phrases.

But what about: sister is and heart is? Well, these are passive phrases too!

When writers are constrained two ways—no passive verbs allowed and write an idea through the sense of sight—it’s rare that a passive verb doesn’t appear in the rough draft. Often times they peek in via contractions—what’s, it’s, she’s, the’ve and so on.

When this student opened the “sound” paragraph with,  “We stand in the line eagerly awaiting what’s to come,” my red pen formed a triangle around the culprit. “What’s” is “what is,” after all! There is a list in the student journal to help guide the omission of passive verbs.  Contractions are not listed, but rather, learned quickly!

So, back to that opening sentence. How do we help our students accomplish the task at hand? This was an opportunity to use an important writer’s trick—combine sentences. Voilà!

We stand in line eagerly awaiting as the chatter of the crowd and the thud of footsteps climb in volume.

After reading this refined, combined sentence your ears perk up! Right?

This paragraph is focused on detailing a scene through the sense of sound, and this is the perfect sentence to open the idea!

Introduction to Composition: The Essay, Volume 1 offers an opportunity for students to learn all about essay form and practice constrained writing. Each of the five lessons will explore specific traits of the essay—the thesis statement, topic and subtopics, the magic of three, body paragraphs, and how to open / close effectively. While students will not compose essays in Volume 1, they will engage in weekly writing activities to develop a strong voice. Writing an expanded paragraph through one particular sense without using a passive verb is not an easy task! But students will rise to the occasion and find their footing. At the end of the five lessons, students will be equipped with the tools they need to move into Volume 2 and Volume 3.

 

~Kimberly

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Sharpen Some Pencils

Writing is an art form.

Writing is an art form achieved via a series of steps:

1) It all begins with an IDEA. Without an idea, the writer will simply stare at the blank page.
2) Once there is an idea in the mind of the writer, the PENCIL steps in to translate thoughts to words on the page.
3) When the pencil’s work is complete, the job of the writer is to become a READER. Encourage your students to RE-READ everything they write.
4) Empower students to use the RED PEN as they re-read to REVISE. Teach them to use strong words, to fearlessly re-arrange, to make corrections, and to not be afraid to strike through.
5) Polish the draft, preferably in cursive by hand.

So how does this happen?

THINK Tortoise (not the hare).

Learning to write is a long journey. We know this to be true. And, on this journey, there is NO better technology than the PENCIL.

When it comes to literacy, much of the exceptional work that your students will accomplish is subjective in nature tied to their ideas.  As students read great stories, they make observations. These observations will inspire ideas. Cataloging ideas in writing—pencil on paper—over time builds confidence, develops voice, and promotes perseverance.

The PENCIL enables student writers to engage the brain in multisensory ways. When we write we 1) HEAR the idea stirring in our mind; 2) We SEE the letters and words we are forming; and 3) We engage HAND-EYE coordination.

Here are some ideas to inspire PENCIL work:

Mastering the art of handwriting fosters the ability to concentrate, to contemplate, and to communicate confidently. Download our FREE handwriting worksheets here and here. Cursive is not only a beautiful art form, it is a skill that promotes concentration.

Encourage your students to sharpen some pencils!

More than 15 years ago, my mother-in-law enlisted Liam with the task of sharpening fifteen dozen pencils that she would be taking to an orphanage in Uganda. I appreciate how she organized these perfect child-sized humanitarian activities for my children.

Liam got to work immediately. At one minute per pencil, 180 pencils, the task would take about three hours without a break! The task actually took Liam most of the morning. At one point he came in and asked me if he could use the manual pencil sharpener.

“The electric one might be faster.”

“But it’s clogged.”

“Okay Liam, sure.”

“Thanks Mom.”

***

A couple of hours later Liam came bounding into the kitchen with a pencil stained grin holding the sharpened pencils tucked tidily back into their original packaging.

“Wow Liam, all these sharpened pencils!”

“I hope the children in Uganda are happy when they write!”

I choked back the lump in my throat, “I hope so too Liam. Well done son.”

Later that evening I went into the studio to tidy up, and there it was, a brand new installation—our manual pencil sharpener had somehow been removed from its perch in the pantry and re-attached with screws to our antique Craftsman desk! After a moment of letting the shock settle, I let a little smile crackle. My son set up shop, got the job done, and I must admit, to this day I am super proud.

BIG ideas written beautifully by hand with a PENCIL on paper are a gift!

 

~Kimberly

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Bouquet of Red Pens

The first day of fall is just around the corner! It’s Back-to-School season. Likely your students are close to completing their first CORE journal of the year. Now’s the time to offer a lovely bouquet of red pens.

“What’s your big idea?”

The purpose of writing is to communicate an idea. In order to accomplish this goal, students need to develop the skills and confidence that will prepare them to communicate that idea well.

Teach your students early on to read what they write.

Take this a step further. Hand them a red pen!

Before conferencing with your students, encourage them to read their first draft and to indicate mistakes they catch with red marks. Encourage them to look for misspelling, capitalization, and grammatical errors. They might not catch everything, but you’ll certainly be surprised what they will catch. Once they are confident, challenge them to consider word choice, to rearrange phrasing, to strike through redundancy, and to avoid what we writers call waffle!

All writing comes into being through a process:
1. First comes the IDEA. Without an idea, the writer will simply stare at the blank page.
2. Once there is an idea in the mind of the writer, the pencil steps in to translate the idea to words on the page.
3. When the pencil’s work is complete, the job of the writer is to become a reader. Encourage your students to READ everything they write—absolutely everything! It is often best to leave space between the “draft” and the “read” stage.
4. Next, make sure students use the RED pen as they read through the first draft of their idea. Teach them to look for spelling errors, for capitalization errors, and for grammatical errors. Beyond this teach them to use strong words, to fearlessly re-arrange, and to not be afraid to strike through unnecessary words.
5. Lastly, teach them to polish the draft, preferably in cursive.

There is NO substitute for consistently encouraging your children to write their ideas. No matter the level, kindergarten through high school, make sure your students are equipped with a pencil and a red pen. We urge you to courageously coach your students in the process of writing! Teaching your students to engage in the process of constructing ideas—to read what they write and use their very own red pen—will certainly teach them more about writing than hours and hours of deconstructive writing tasks.

Come June, your students will have not only brought shape to significant original ideas, but also learned to enter into the work that makes those ideas shine. More importantly, they will have gained confidence in their ability to communicate. Writing an idea is genius.

 

~Kimberly

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Intersection of Science and Writing

Research writing for middle school moves from research of people to research in the field of science! Over the course of eight lessons, students will explore and research the diversity of the animal kingdom—journalling what they learn each step of the way.

Have you heard of Carolus Linnaeus?

His life’s work will inspire you.

All living things can be ordered according to their common biology. Classification allows scientists to explore levels of similarity, dissimilarity, and interconnectedness of cells, systems, and structures. The first level of classification is the Kingdoms. There are five: Protista, Monera, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Here’s how this writing unit is organized:

Week 1.

SORTING IT ALL OUT

The unit begins with an introductory section for students to begin gathering information that will enable them to enter into more advanced non-fiction research writing. In this case the culminating research writing is conducted in the five kingdoms of life, from simple living things to more complex—Kingdom Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

Week 2.

TAXONOMY THROUGH THE AGES

In this section, students will continue to gather information that will enable them to understand the history of classification which will, in turn enable the student to, beginning in Week 4, conduct more advanced research and write an expanded, information packed paragraph tied to one of the Five Kingdoms of Life. This week culminating research writing is biographical.  This assignment can, of course, be differentiated—from simple paragraph to expanded paragraph to essay.

Sample Prompt:

RESEARCH PROJECT

Read: Classifying Living Things
» Page 27 – Linnaeus and His System

After reading the above assignment, use books or the internet to do your own additional research on Carolus Linnaeus.

Use what you learn to write a paragraph about him on the following page.

Week 3.

THE FIVE KINGDOMS

Week 3 provides the final informational notes that will set students, geared up, to write about living things through the Five Kingdoms of Life.

Weeks 4, 5, 6 7, and 8.

Weeks 4 through 8 provides the scaffolding to enable students to conduct research in each of the five kingdoms—Monera, Protista, Fungi, Animalia, Plantae. While this unit is topical, the goal is not necessarily teach biology but to help students acquire the vital skill of note-taking and the knowledge necessary to write a non-fictional idea. Simply think of the student workbook filled with the student’s new knowledge (“the notes”) as a springboard to the writing. Each week the writing can be differentiated—simple paragraph to expanded paragraph. Expand the research two more weeks, compiling one paragraph for each week (4 through 8), add an introductory paragraph, plus a concluding paragraph and, voilà, at the end of week 10 your student has completed an essay entitled: The Five Kingdoms of Life.

 

~Kimberly