Brandi J. Clark

Here’s a shocking fact, five more weeks until Victoria Day long weekend.

GASP!

I know!

But I have something that can ease your pain…I present…

The Never-ending Writing Project

This is how it works.

1. Buy or download a kid friendly magazine, like Chirp, Owl, Highlights, National Geographic for Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids and American Girl.
2. Grab a piece of paper or open a word document. Write down all the different writing forms on each page. For example – puzzle, fun facts, short fiction story, poem, interview, word search, picture essay, quiz, recipe or how to/instructions.
3. Review the list you just made, how many of these written forms have you already taught? Circle them. Review the rest of the written forms that you did not circle. How many of these written forms could be easily taught to your students? Underline them.
4. Take out your curriculum, what units or themes are you covering next in the next few months? Write those down.

Now with all this brainstorming in front of you, this is what I want you to think about.

Could your students make their own magazine or zine over the next few months – by incorporating different types of writing based on a unit or theme?

Did I just hear a YOU BETCHA COACH CLARK?

Good! I love the energy in this space.

Here are the Benefits

1. It is differentiated. Some students will create several pages and some will create less.
2. It is fun. Students create the pages, and like a magazine editor, decide on the order of the pages. They can create a table of contents and a fancy cover.
3. It can be tech or no tech. They can use paper or tech or a mixture of both to make the pages.
4. It is a writing project that exists in the real world.
5. It is never ending unless you make it end…”It just goes on and on my friends.”

For Example

These are the forms of writing included in the latest issue of American Girl – April 2018

– a poll

-a quiz

-an interview with a pet owner

-a gallery of art

-a profile on a child who sells art to support animals

-a profile on a child who rescued 8 horses with the help of her mom

-a recipe for dog treats

-a photo contest – people who look like their pets

-a reader survey

-a comic (two pages)

-how to draw

-how to start a pet business

-how to do animal yoga poses

-a quiz (12 questions – a,b,c,d)

-a coloring sheet

-how to make rice cereal hedgehogs

-a profile about a family who give animals a second chance

-a fiction story about a girl who misses her dog

-this or that (would you rather)

-who’s that girl? (a page of facts related to a mystery person on one page – the person is revealed on the next page with a short biography)

– poster

– “Dear Abby”

– photo essay – “behind the scenes”

Connecting it Altogether

ARE YOU SURPRISED at the amount of interesting writing forms?

Better than that…are you EXCITED?

If you were to take a content area connection from science, in Alberta, consider grade 2 – small crawling and flying animals.

Think about the list of written forms I found in American Girl and now think about how we can connect the two.

Here are Some Ideas

The magazine topic – All About Insects

– a word search (all bugs and insects)

– an interview with a person who keeps bees (we have a staff member who does this)

– a recipe (how to make ants on a log)

– a how to draw (how to draw a butterfly)

– a short fiction story (imagined by the student – about bugs or insects)

– a profile on harmful insects

This really can go on and on. Have fun brainstorming with your students. They will come up with several ideas.

The magazine can also be on a subject that they love, like a passion project or genius hour idea. For example, it could be about video gaming, dance, hockey, cheer, soccer etc.

The magazine can be created in all grades, all subjects.

When I worked with teachers and students on a similar project, I used it in a grade 1 and 2 classrooms. We called them All About Books (or Magazines).

A student chose Hockey, he created several pages like,

-Fun Facts about Hockey

-How to Play Shiny

-The Different Types of Equipment (Created using a series of boxes, draw or labeled or as a full size player – drawn and labeled),

-A List of Favorite Teams (Jerseys in each box – labeled),

-How to Warm Up…etc.

Do you think this student was engaged?

Um. Yes!

You can imagine how much fun it was, deciding on pages and assembling the magazine and sharing it with friends.

It is a dynamic and curriculum connected activity.

It just never ends and sometimes that is what we need as teachers…and Sharon and Lambchop would agree…I apologize in advance…this song will never leave your mind.

Love

Coach Clark

A Cute Story to Start…

I read with kids. It’s the funniest part of my job. Case in point….

We had just finished reading The Tortoise and the Hare. Of course, the moral of that story is: Strong and Steady Wins the Race.

My student raises her hand. “Nope,” she says, “Not true. My parents hate that I do everything slow. It drives them crazy. That story is not true.”

And, she’s right. All 8 year old’s are right!

So in my reading groups I try to see their side of things, or as Joni Mitchell would sing, “I’ve looked at love from both sides now.”

In my case,

I’ve looked at books from all sides now! (Please sing it, it sounds so cool, trust me.)

Last week I sat with a group of students to read a book called Fishing with Grandpa. As usual you ask the students, what do you know about the subject of the book? …which in this case is fishing.

Blink – Blink – Blink (This is the sound you hear when students can not relate to a topic. It’s louder than you think.)

So what do you do?

Making Better Connections

Well, we read through the story, pulling out some connections to what they have experienced about fishing in books, movies etc. In education we call this, Making Connections. I encourage students to make connections to themselves, to other books/movies and the world.  What I don’t want is students to make superficial connections like:

this book about fishing reminds me of Rainbow Fish it is also book about a fish

or

the character has a grandpa, I have a grandpa

or

the water is blue, I have seen blue water  (The students say these things, teachers cry a little inside, we try so hard!)

So what do you do with books that kids lack a real connection to?

Think HEART….not harder! (I just made that up, I most be having a good Sunday)

Think HEART means feeling. Can you get the students to connect with a feeling?

In this book it was disappointment. The disappointment of not catching a fish. Can kids relate to disappointment? Um…yes!  So, we had a discussion about feeling disappointed and how we moved passed it. In the story, the grandpa suggests that sometimes disappointments can happen but if we really engage in the moment, we can enjoy just “being there” …being there experiencing the sounds, smells, the beauty of the day and who you are with.

So I asked students if they could connect to disappointment.

“Yes,” said one student. “ I was supposed to go swimming with my mom but we didn’t go. I was disappointed.”

“Did the day turn out ok?” I asked.

“Yes, we had fun at home instead.” (She filled me in on all the fun. It was fun!)

Extending Reading into Writing

One of my favourite though leaders, Chris Brogan says, “give ideas handles.”  I understand this to mean, express your ideas so the others can relate to them, understand them and use them.

I believe strongly that reading workshop should and can fuel ideas in the writing workshop.

So, in the classroom, the student who missed swimming with her mom now has some ideas to fuel writing, she could:

– write about it in her journal, “Fun at Home with Mom”

– or it could inspire a nonfiction list, “Fun Things You Can Do At Home When You Can’t Go Out”

-or create a poem with this stem….

“I was disappointed (when)…..but on the bright side…I did (this) instead.

Bonus Thoughts and Ideas…You’re Welcome!

She could list several disappointments and related “bright sides”. This is a powerful thing for students to be able to reframe disappointment. Which, I am thinking out loud now but it would be interesting to use an actual “frame” for the reframe. I imagine a frame without glass or a back on it. Teachers could help students problem solve during the day but saying …”Of that is disappointing…how can you “reframe it”. Then the teacher pulls out a frame to remind the students to think about a positive way at looking at the situation.

(If I can digress further, by the way this is my brain on the daily …anyway this talk leads into Growth and Fixed Mindsets. A fixed mindset means nothing can change, this is how it is, to growth mindset which allows for a flexible way of viewing situations. Please check out Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck if you are interested in this idea. I have a copy. If you know me ask, I will let you borrow it.)

Anyway, I leave you with these ideas.

• Think HEART not harder!
• Relate connections to feelings.
• Extend those connections into a deeper discussion or possible writing products.
• “Give Ideas Handles”

Lastly, I remember way too much, of well…EVERYTHING!!!

Here is my memory of fishing…from Sesame Street, my first teacher.

Love always,

Coach Clark