Reading for Intermediate and Advanced Learners, Spring, 2011

One of the strategies I have written about and modified for my RWT lesson, was a Hamburger Paragraph Organizer. It is set up so that you have a top bun, the meat, lettuce, ketchup, and the bottom bun. Sounds tasty huh? Anyway, the top bun represents the introductory sentence, the meat, lettuce, and ketchup are the detail sentences about the introductory sentence and the bottom bun represents the closing sentence.
This really helps students break down how to write a paragraph and they write without even realizing they are writing very much. There are so many ways to use this strategy in writing. For older writers you can also use it to help write a five paragraph paper (top bun= first paragraph, lettuce, ketchup, meat= three middle paragraphs and the bottom paragraph = closing paragraph). The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

The Strategy, Save the Last Word for Me, by Harste and Short (1988), is done during reading to help students reflect and process what they've read on a deeper level. As students read, they select a quotation that interests or provokes them in some way and write it on an index card. On the back of the index card, they write their reaction or comment about the quote they chose. When the class meets next time, the quotation from each card is read one at a time. Then, the students read their comments they've witten about the quote. The student gets the last word before a dicusssion takes place. A lively discussion should be sparked! This strategy should help reinforce students thought processes of their reading.

Kristen- I have also used the hamburger description strategy with my students to describe a story. I have found that it gives a great visual and really helps them understand the parts.

Kristin, I love the hamburger strategy. That is cute and the kids would love it. I could definitely use it whole group with my K students.

Reshawna, The last word sounds very interesting, especially for older students. I like that it makes students think deeply about a quote in order to comment on it. I think it would make students focus more on what they were reading since they were trying to come up with a good quote to share.

One strategy I found that I thought was interesting was called Picture Prompts. I found it in a Mailbox Language Arts strategies book. For the strategy, there are boxes with picture cards in them (you could use word cards also without pictures). Each box is a category, for example, a setting box and a character box. The student chooses one card from each box to develop a story/sentence about. I love it because a lot of the combinations would end up being funny so the students would enjoy it. I run into the problem of students saying "I don't know what to write today." If these boxes were ready you could refer the students to them when they are stuck for an idea. You could expand the idea for older students to include more categories like character emotion, action words, details, etc. This strategy is for students of all levels because the result is open ended- they may write a sentence or they may do a whole story.

Instructional Strategy: I found a strategy called Shaping Up Review. I thought this was a great way to review a topic or concept that had already been taught, although it may have to be modified just a bit for my first graders. I thought it would be a good way to work on comprehension for a story we have read together, and I am planning to use it in that way for our basal story we are reading this week about Frog and Toad.

Procedure:
Pass out the Shaping Up Review worksheet.
In the upper left-hand corner, "The Heart," have students write one thing that they loved learning about in the lesson being reviewed.
In the upper right-hand corner, "The Square," have students write four things that they feel are important concepts from the lesson being reviewed. One concept should be placed in each corner.
In the lower left-hand corner, "The Triangle," have students write the three most important facts they learned from lesson being reviewed. One fact should go in each corner.
In the lower right-hand corner, "The Circle," have students write one, all-encompassing (global- like the circle) statement that summarizes all of the important concepts and facts learned in the lesson being reviewed.

Kristen, I have seen the hamburger strategy before as well, in actual picture form where they could write on the parts of the burger, but I had forgotten about it. Now I will have to see if I can remember where I saw it...that's a great idea; kids would love it just because it's about a food they like.

Reshawna-Save the last word for me: A lot of the little books we read in first grade may not have any quotes in them, but I thought to adapt this they could write an interesting fact of word they find in a book we are reading and then we could use the same procedure. They always want to talk about what they've read so this would give them a good springboard for discussion.

Jackie's Picture Prompts: That is a really neat idea! I have kids who tell me they don't know what to write about all the time; we have a topics poster with pictures of things for ideas, but they get bored with those after a while. The added humor element would make this more interesting. I do an activity with writing where I cut out interesting pictures from magazines and they may choose one to write about for a center activity some days, but I really like the box idea too. What was the title of the mailbox book you got it from?

Jackie- I have used that strategy with my First Graders before. I have science picture cards with various types of animals and objects on them. They love using these to write with.

Lorie- That sounds like a great way to review a concept. You know how you feel like they've really understood a topic and they do well overall when they're tested on it, but when you return to that same concept later, they struggle to remember. This would be a great way to keep important ideas fresh in their minds. This could also be applied to virtually any subject area we teach. I'll have to try this out!

Lorie, The shaping up review sounds neat. I have never heard if it before! I could see using a similar topic with my kinders. Maybe having them draw a picture of their favorite part in one square, the setting in one, write something in one, etc. I love the magazine picture idea- I have printed animal pictures off the internet and had them write about it. They love that too- your magazine picture idea would be a great literacy station idea. The book I used for my Picture Prompts was The Mailbox Language Arts Independent Practice. It is actually a first grade book.