Writing

Teaching Efficiently: Ways to Use the Same Poster

It is so helpful to have reading and writing anchor charts or posters available for students in multiple formats. This way, students have their posters to refer to at home or in different classroom settings besides just the classroom.

A few months into the school year, it can be easy to have posters taking over your walls. Although it is certainly helpful for students to have access to visuals on the wall, they have the opposite effect when they become overcrowded and too busy. When students have access to their own posters, it allows you to clear off posters from the wall after you have worked on a skill.

Below are some other ways you can use the same poster:

1. ORGANIZE POSTERS ON A KEY RING:

Organizing posters on a key ring is a great way for students to easily access tons of reference posters. They can remove or add posters to their key ring as needed. You can have them organized in different key rings by topic (i.e. reading strategies, vocabulary, etc.) or by skills they have worked on and skills they are/will work on.

On the key ring above, I printed this set of posters at 4/page under print settings. You could of course print them larger or smaller and still use the key ring though.

2. MAKE DIVIDERS:

If you are working on a specific reading or writing skill, you could have students create dividers using their posters as the cover of that section.

They can glue their poster right onto a 3-ring binder page tabs or onto a page with a sticky note in their binder. Then, students can reference their poster as they fill in targeted graphic organizers or writing on the following pages.

3. DISPLAY AS A FOCUS NEXT TO A WORD WALL:

I like to have a word wall of terms with basic, brief, student-friendly definitions up for a topic all year long. The smaller cards don’t take up as much wall space. Then, next to the word wall cards I display a full-page, more detailed poster zooming in on the skill we are working on.

4. PRINT POSTERS SMALLER FOR INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS:

You can print posters at a smaller percent or even 2/page to make smaller posters that fit more easily into a composition notebook.

5. PRINT AS A LARGE POSTER:
If you are looking to print a full-page anchor chart even larger, check out this blog post on how to print a large poster using four 8.5” by 11” pieces of paper.

6. PROVIDE POSTERS DIGITALLY:

Providing reading and writing posters in a format like Google Slides™ is a sure way to keep posters intact and organized. It also ensures students will pretty much always have access to them, whether they are at home or in school.

The posters used in the pictures above come from my Reading Posters and Writing Posters sets!

Back to School Activity: Digital All About Me Book

by Cass

Whether you’re starting out the year teaching in the classroom, virtually, or in a hybrid model, getting to know your new students may look different this year. Trying to plan with so many uncertainties is difficult, so having resources that can be presented to students in many ways will be key for feeling prepared.

No matter what the start to your school year looks like, an All About Me Book is a great way to learn about your new students on a personal level, even if you aren’t able to meet with them face to face.Since this back to school All About Me Book comes printable or in Google Slides™, you can use any or all of the pages/slides included:
– This is Me (Portrait)
– More About Me (Traits)
– Favorites
– Hobbies
– My Family
– When I Grow Up
– Home
– School
– School Favorites
– Life Snapshots
– Summer Vacation
– My Goals
– What I Want to Learn
– Free Write

Some teachers also report success with using this as a first week of school writing activity to assess students Google Classroom knowledge in a non-threatening way.

Having multiple formats allows you to use either just the paper or digital version, or provide students with both options.

A separate link is also included for 2 slides for new ELL or immigrant students. Of course you can have all students fill them out, but they are especially helpful for welcoming your new ELLs.

This Digital and Printable All About Me Book can be found in my TpT shop! The digital and paper can also be purchased separately if you only need one option.

How I teach Opinion Writing in the Primary Grades

by Cass

With students in your classroom who may not have the basics of sentence writing completely down yet, it can be overwhelming to begin planning your opinion writing, or persuasive writing, unit. For young writers learning such a new, specific format of writing, it is really important to break it up into small, clear steps.

As you can see in the chart below, students are expected to do a little bit more with opinion writing as they grow as writers from 1^st to 3^rd grade.

So, with my 1^st graders, we focus on developing 1 reason to support their opinion and a closing. With my 2^nd and 3^rd graders, we focus on giving at least 2 reasons (or a reason and an example), and a closing. Below is how I tackle opinion writing step by step:

INTRODUCE:
I first explain what an opinion is using this opinion writing poster. Then I go over a pre-generated opinion writing model with my students. We identify and discuss each part of the piece of opinion writing (opinion, reason, example, closing).

GUIDED WHOLE GROUP PRACTICE:
Next, we choose a topic that all students can relate to. Some examples could be my favorite thing to do on a sunny day, the best lunch in the cafeteria, favorite things to do after school, etc. On a post-it, each student gives his/her opinions, or feelings, on that topic and a reason why they feel this way. We add these to our “Opinion Brainstorming Bubble.” I use at least one post-it to generate a new model with the class on lined anchor chart paper. While writing, I model referring to a list of sentence starters for introducing an opinion, reason, and closing.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE:
1. ANALYZE WRITING MODELS
Students use “Opinion Color Coding” stories to read through and identify the opinion, one supporting reading (first grade) or 2 supporting reasons (second-third grade), and the ending. I find giving them space to independently practice with this visual strategy is when the opinion writing format begins to really click for my students.

2. TIME TO WRITE: SUPPORTED PRACTICE
Students are given an opinion writing prompt with visual choices. Students either get a practice writing prompt with the sentence starter already chosen for them (first graders or other students that need the support), or use the sentence starters guide to choose their own sentence starters (higher writers). For students who need extra support I also provide graphic organizers they can use to first brainstorm before writing. These graphic organizers come in different formats. One graphic organizer I like to use with my students very simply breaks down an opinion and reason for 1st grade, or and an opinion with 2 reasons for 2nd and 3rd grade. Another graphic organizer I love to use (pictured below) is an O.R.E.O. opinion writing template for 1st grade, and an O.R.E.R.E.O opinion writing template for 2nd and 3rd grade.

3. INDEPENDENT WRITING
Now it’s time for students to begin opinion writing from scratch! I usually provide a writing prompt for the entire class to focus on, but you could also give multiple options or have them develop their own individual topics. During the prewriting phase of the writing process, students brainstorm using a graphic organizer (shown above). While writing their draft, they have their sentence starters guide to help them begin introducing their opinion, reason, and their closing statement.

All of the materials shown in this blog post can be found in my TpT store.

Looking to have your students write with more vivid details? Read this blog post on How I teach Explode the Moment Writing.

How I Teach Explode the Moment Writing

by Cass

So often, students just tell about the large picture of an experience. They get so caught up in listing all of the “moments” of the experience that they forget to really hone in on each part of it with vivid details for their readers. This is why one of my favorite writing strategies to teach is “explode the moment” writing.

The first time I teach “explode the moment” writing, I go over an anchor chart that breaks down what this strategy entails, along with an example. I stress the importance of using descriptive word choice and sensory images. Using the example, we go through picking out sensory details the author used. We also mark strong, descriptive word choice that helps us paint a picture in our minds. While marking the text, I like to make a T chart where we also record the strong sensory images on one side and strong word choice on the other side.

Then, I give students a pretty narrow topic/prompt. I might ask them to explode a moment from their first day of school, a special event at school (field trip, class party…), etc. After they are comfortable with narrower topics, I make it a little higher-level thinking. For example, I have students explode a moment they felt a certain way (i.e.”A time I felt lucky”). I first give students a graphic organizer to fill in the setting, characters, what happened, feelings/emotions, thoughts, and sensory details from their moment. They use this graphic organizer to then create their rough draft in this organizer below that makes the “explosion” visual for them.

Lastly, students write their final copies onto pre-made “explosion” templates. I find that students really like sharing and reading each other’s moments, so I make a bulletin board of these final copies to have on display.

All of the resources pictured in this blog post can also be found in this Explode the Moment Pack:

Do you teach opinion writing with your elementary students? Read this blog post on How I Teach Opinion Writing in the Primary Grades (1-3).