
Writing from Scratch
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Effective, engaging strategies that will boost your confidence in teaching writing
Writing from Scratch is a positive, encouraging book full of practical techniques for elementary teachers and students to get the most out of their writing time. Award-winning author Shannon Anderson presents specific, skill-based lessons through a running theme of baking and cooking. Each lesson, or "recipe," will help you serve up effective instruction on writing topics like idea generation, figurative language, plotting, and structure. This book is designed not just to develop student writing, but to develop students as writers. The experiences and guidance in Writing From Scratch will inspire you to plan a year-long curriculum-or jump in mid-year-for writing instruction that will make a difference for students today, and into the future.
- Get practical ideas for incorporating writing lessons into your elementary classroom
- Build writing exercises into content lessons, for added writing instruction
- Inspire students to get excited about writing and explore their identities as writers
- Gain the confidence you need to plan a full writing curriculum
Teachers in K-5 settings, as well as principals and education leaders, will benefit from this hands-on writing instruction guide. Perfect for solo use or as a guide for professional development, Writing From Scratch will have you cooking up fantastic writing lessons in no time!
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Person
SHANNON ANDERSON is an award-winning children's author, educator, and speaker. She taught for 25 years, from first grade through college level, and was named one of 10 Teachers who Awed and Inspired by The Today Show in 2019. Anderson currently teaches at Franklin College as an Instructor of Education.
Content
Author's Note ix
Cooking Success Tips xi
How to Use This Book xiii
01 Preheating the Oven 1
Author Chair 1
Writers' Notebooks 2
Writing Folders 2
Procedures 2
Spelling 3
Making the Most of Your Time 4
02 Purposeful Planning 5
Recipe: Apples to Apples 5
03 Main Ingredients for Writing 9
04 Recipes for Reviewing 11
Recipe: Writing 11
Recipe: Songs 16
05 Generating Ideas 19
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words 19
Recipe: ME Page 20
Recipe: Expert List 22
06 Generating Focused Topics 25
Recipe: Zooming In on Ideas 25
Recipe: Narrowing Your Focus 26
07 Adding Ideas: Elaboration Techniques 29
Recipe: Adding Details and Dialogue 29
Recipe: Adding Oomph to Persuade 31
08 Organization 35
Recipe: A Paragraph Has Legs 35
Recipe: A Paragraph as Part of a Patio 37
09 Organizing Fiction Writing 39
Recipe: Two Rectangles + Four Squares Planner 39
Recipe: Narrative Beginnings 42
Recipe: Which Is the Real Intro? 43
Recipe: Crafting Endings 44
Recipe: The Mighty Middle of a Story 46
Recipe: Story Spine Technique 48
10 Developing Characters 51
Recipe: Playing with POV 51
Recipe: Switching POV 52
Recipe: Inside and Outside Descriptions 54
Recipe: Setting the Setting 56
11 Organizing Informational Writing 59
Recipe: Informational Beginnings 59
Recipe: Research Writing 60
Recipe: Text Feature Scavenger Hunt 62
Recipe: Adding Text Features 64
12 Playing with Structures 67
Recipe: How- to Writing 68
Recipe: Alphabet Structure 69
Recipe: Compare and Contrast 70
Recipe: Cumulative Structure 72
Recipe: Diary Structure 73
Recipe: Parallel Structure 74
Recipe: Letters from Around the World 76
Recipe: End- of- Year Letters 78
Recipe: Question and Answer Format 79
13 Word Choice 81
Recipe: Strong Verbs 81
Recipe: Precise Nouns 82
Recipe: Vivid Descriptions 84
Recipe: Sensory Details 85
14 Using Figurative Language Devices 87
Recipe: Let's Alliterate! 87
Recipe: Noisy Words (Onomatopoeia!) 89
Recipe: Best Hyperboles in the Entire World! 90
Recipe: Personification Stations 93
Recipe: What Is Assonance? 95
Recipe: Similes Are as Easy as Pie! 96
Recipe: Making Metaphors 98
Recipe: Idiomatic Expressions 99
15 Adding Humor 103
Recipe: Pun- tastic Word Play 103
Recipe: Comic Clash 104
16 Making It Flow 107
Recipe: Go with the Flow! 107
Recipe: Transition Types 109
Recipe: Trying Transitions 111
17 Emotion 113
Recipe: Voice Role- Play 113
Recipe: Ewww and Awww Contest 115
Recipe: Show, Don't Tell 116
18 Grammar and Editing 119
Recipe: Check, Please! 121
Recipe: Dialogue Done Right 124
19 Revising 127
Recipe: Advise and Revise 128
20 Assessment 131
Recipe: Writing Review Rubric 132
Recipe: Rubric- Ready 134
Recipe: Collaborative Conferences 136
Recipe: Teacher and Student Conferences 137
21 Creative Writing Exercises 139
Recipe: Quote- tastic! 139
Recipe: Write It Down, Pass It Around 141
Recipe: You've Got 30 Seconds! 142
Recipe: Ode to Food 144
Recipe: Cookbook 145
Recipe: Vote for Me! 147
Recipe: Stick with the Script! 149
Recipe: I Didn't Know That! 151
Recipe: Weighty Words 152
Recipe: Picture Prompts 153
Recipe: Squiggle Story 155
Recipe: Fractured Fairy Tale 156
Recipe: Tiny Teacher 157
Recipe: Branching Narrative Story 159
Recipe: Newscast 161
22 Poetry 163
Recipe: Rhyme Time! 163
Recipe: Haiku 165
Recipe: Cinquain 166
Recipe: Shape Poems 168
Recipe: Fingerprint Poem 171
23 Other Writing Forms 175
Recipe: Daily Journaling 175
Recipe: Writing from the Wild 177
Recipe: Biography Projects 179
Recipe: Career Exploration Projects 180
Recipe: Class News 182
Recipe: Goal Setting 184
24 End- of- Year Publishing Project 187
Mentor Text List 191
A Note to Teachers 193
Acknowledgments 195
About the Author 197
Index 199
09 Organizing Fiction Writing
Kids may not be aware of all of the different ways that stories can be organized. For example, you could share some of Jan Brett's or Laura Numeroff's stories that have full-circle structures. You could read one of Lisa McCourt's Stinky Face books, which are organized around a dialogue between a mother and her son. Kevin Henkes's book, Wemberly Worried, follows a problem-solution structure. Wemberly has a worrying problem that we see her work through.
For the youngest writers, you may simply make a beginning, middle, and ending graphic organizer or planner for a story. Fold a piece of paper lengthwise into thirds to create three sections. The kids can open each flap to jot a few details of what will happen in the beginning, middle, and end of their stories.
For more experienced writers, students can use a traditional story plot arc graphic organizer to detail the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Or they can use a planner for the character motivation, inciting incident, multiple attempts and failures, and ultimate result. In this section, we will look at ways to organize personal narratives and fiction writing. We can plan out how to organize our stories and also look specifically at each part of our stories: the beginning, middle, ending, characters, and setting.
Recipe: Two Rectangles + Four Squares Planner
Notes from the Chef
- This is an easy planner to use with younger kids to plan a story that is only four to six sentences long. It is also a great planner for older kids to plan a story with four to six paragraphs. You can use it accordingly.
Ingredients
- Two Rectangles + Four Squares Planner
Appetizer
- Discussion: When organizing a piece of writing, we have some kind of beginning, or introduction. The writing in the middle is organized into chunks of information, or paragraphs.
- We also have some kind of conclusion at the end. Using Two Rectangles + Four Squares is a way to "shape up" what we're going to write about. How could we use these shapes to plan what we want to write? Show example with the shapes labeled.
Cooking Demonstration and Practice
- Model writing a personal narrative. Choose something from your ME Page, or use the example here to talk through how you would plan your personal narrative.
- Be sure to brainstorm and talk aloud as you figure out the introduction, what to say in each paragraph, and how you would wrap it all up. Be sure to point out that besides the beginning and the ending, you are not using complete sentences. These are just notes.
- Ask students to choose a topic from their ME Page. Pass out the planner PDF to fill out.
- Allow plenty of time for students to fill out ideas on their planner. Have students save these for a future writing assignment when they will actually write out their narratives.
Dessert
- Students will not be writing their narratives today. This is just showing them an efficient way to plan. Demonstrate using your planner to orally tell what your story may say once complete. Allow students to partner with someone to orally tell their story, using their planners.
Recipe: Narrative Beginnings
Notes from the Chef
- The beginning of a story is a big deal. From an author's perspective, we want the beginning to hook the reader in and cause them to want to keep reading. From a reader's perspective, you want to get a feel for the tone and type of story it is.
- You want to feel grounded in some way or have your curiosity peaked. There are several ways you can do this. This lesson will share all kinds of ways we can begin our stories.
Ingredients
- Plate, cup, utensils, napkin
- Mentor narrative texts with different types of beginnings
- Chart paper
- ME Page
Appetizer
- Set a table in your room with a place setting: plate, cup, utensils, and napkin. Ask a student volunteer to knock on the classroom door and pretend they are coming to your house for dinner for the first time.
- You answer the door and whisk the student off to the table, set them down, put the fork in their hand, and say, "Eat!"
- The student will probably be a bit confused at this abrupt behavior, and rightly so. Share with the class that we wouldn't welcome someone into our house for dinner like that.
- Have the student knock on the door again. This time you may have other volunteers act as your spouse, kids, dog, or others in your home. When you answer, invite them in the door and welcome them. Introduce them to your family. Show them around. Then walk them to the table. Maybe even ask what they'd like to drink.
- This time, you've introduced your guest to some "characters" and the "setting." You gave them some grounding before jumping in to the main course. This analogy is like our stories. We want to introduce the readers to something. We can welcome them into our story with the characters, setting, or many other things before hopping into the main events.
Cooking Demonstration and Practice
- Gather 5-10 books with different beginning lines. Read each beginning and have students decide what the author was using as a technique or introducing the reader to. Record each on chart paper as you go. Here are some example books I use year after year:
- Verdi: "On a small, tropical island, the sun rose high above the steamy jungle." (Setting)
- Me First: "Pinkerton was pink, plump, and pushy." (Character and alliteration)
- Bridge to Terabithia: "Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, bariptiy, baripity, baripity, baripity-Good. His dad had the pickup going." (Onomatopoeia)
- Coasting Casey: "Casey, please pay attention!" says my teacher, Mr. Tay. Oops! He caught me drifting off. .It happens every day. (Dialogue)
- Charlotte's Web: "Where's Papa going with that ax?" (Question)
- Have kids go to their seats to retrieve a book they are currently reading. Let some students share the beginning lines of their books. Discuss which type of beginning the author used. If they're not already on the chart, add the new types of beginnings.
- Project up your ME Page, from the beginning of the year. Allow a student to pick a topic from it. Then allow a student to choose three different beginning techniques from the chart you just created. Using the chosen topic, model writing the three types of beginnings the student chose. Think aloud as you figure out your three different beginnings.
- Have students get out their ME Pages and choose a topic. On three separate pieces of paper or documents, have students craft three different beginnings.
Dessert
- Allow several students to share their favorite beginning out of their three examples. Have students save these beginnings in their writing folders for future use.
Recipe: Which Is the Real Intro?
Notes from the Chef
- This lesson is a great way to have kids practice writing a beginning and assessing the beginnings others write. It is gamified, as students are trying to trick classmates into believing that their beginning is the one written by the author.
Ingredients
- Mentor text that students aren't familiar with
- Enough lined paper for all students
- Whiteboards and markers for students
- Optional: prize for the winner
Appetizer
- Show the cover of an unfamiliar book. (You can do this activity with any or all genres.) Have kids think about what the introduction to a book like that might say. Explain that you're having a contest to see who can get the most points. They can earn five points for guessing the actual introduction by the author, or get two points for each time other students guess that their written introduction is the correct one.
- This activity causes kids to use the higher-order thinking skills of judgment and evaluation. They not only have to discern while trying to write a professional-sounding introduction but also when hearing the writing of others.
Cooking Demonstration and Practice
- Have each student craft a two- to three-sentence introduction for the book.
- Collect all of these digitally or on paper. If you have them write on paper, be sure to write the actual introduction on identical paper. Mix up all of the introductions and number them from one through however many intros you have.
- Have students come back to your sharing area with a whiteboard and a marker.
Dessert
- Read aloud each beginning and its corresponding number. Students who believe an introduction might be the real one can record the number of the intro on their boards.
- After reading all of the intros, take a show of hands for how many people voted for each one. If the intro doesn't get at least 10 votes, it is taken out of the contest. This should significantly narrow down the selections.
- Reread the few selections left and have students record their final vote on their boards for which number they think is the real...
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