Next Stop: Fictional Narrative

I can't believe that a week has come and gone. With the new month, I have started working with my 6th graders on Fictional Narratives. I HAVE decided that I am going to take a couple of months on this genre and REALLY get into the nitty gritty of it. We have been studying the structure of fictional narratives, reading mentor texts, and talking about what we read during the day from a "writer's perspective". It is really fun to hear the kids start to talk about the things they read as a writer!

For my bulletin board, I had  my amazing wife do all the writing for me. I got the purpose (top left corner), the title, and of course... THE ANCHOR CHARTS started and posted.

Because I am taking it slow and covering the concept in depth, I am still working on teaching the lessons that will fill in all the anchor chart spaces, and I am working to do those quickly- but with understanding.

However, we just had a mini-lesson on the framework of a fictional narrative and the students drew the anchor chart in their journals. It took a little while, but I love that they have mini-charts in their notebooks. Shoot! I should have taken a picture of a student notebook. They did such a great job with them! My wife made this poster sized one for my board. I really like how it turned out!

I also love that since I started at the back of the chart book and am moving forward, the anchor chart for Personal Memoirs is still accessible to the students by simply lifting up the paper (as shown below)! I love when I have good ideas (because they don't seem to happen as often as I would like).

As we continue through our journey with Fictional Narratives, I will continue to share what we do so you can enjoy the journey with me. Today, we worked on studying mentor texts and writing rules for punctuating dialogue. We found that there are four different ways that dialogue is written. We will have our anchor chart made by the end of tomorrow and  my wife will take my sloppy copy and make it a thing of beauty- THEN I will share it with you.

I am excited to take the adventure with my students. I realize that the new core standards want us to focus on and push non-fiction reading and writing, and I will, but I feel that I need to get them excited about writing FIRST and then we can move on to those other concepts.

Writing ROCKS!

Cheers!
-MrHughes

Anchor Charts and More

Howdy Friends!

Life has been crazy as ever and writing classes are humming along. We are just finishing up our Personal Memoirs and I wanted to share how the final anchor charts turned out. I have to give my wife some serious kudos for her amazing handwriting on these babies...

Can you guess which one I wrote? ha ha. I have been so pleased with how this unit went. I have spent the month teaching about Memoirs, Editing, Revision, and several mini-lessons on using quotation marks, adding detail, and more. I will be sharing several of the final memoirs next week after we finish typing them up and get them hung in the hallway.

On another note, as an upper grade team we also revised our classroom rules a little bit. I like the changes a lot. We changed our first rule from: "When someone is talking you are listening" to "When someone is teaching your voice is off and you are listening." I then put a definition of what talking is next to it (as defined by me...)

We also gave rule #2 a complete overhaul. It used to be "Put people Up, Not Down". We decided that is already included in Rule 4- "Use School Appropriate Language". So we made Rule #2 "Respect Adults". These changes were made at the suggestion of our school counselor. I like them a lot.

I also learned how to appropriately respond to problems. The counselor came and observed my teaching at my request. I have a tough class this year and wanted feedback on how I was doing with addressing behavior, etc. She told me that I was doing a great job, which made me feel good. However, by the end of the lesson I was totally frustrated and ready to quit- ha ha.

She told me that I do too much explaining why they are misbehaving. She said I need to be the broken record. "We don't use that kind of language at school", "Our rule is to keep your hands to yourself". After a prompt, they must move their clothespin down one. I have a hard time being "mean", if you will. I teach because I love kids and want them to be successful. But, I have learned, especially since moving back home to teach, that my "compassion" is causing me some serious frustration and anxiety. I must admit that the past few days, since meeting with the counselor and getting feedback, that I have been a happier teacher, had more fun with my classes, and have be able to come home mostly happy- something I haven't had for a long time. I am sure some of your are shaking your head saying, "Duh, Mr. Hughes, we have known that for years!" I am so grateful that you didn't have to experience what I have... :)

What about you? What awesome management tips have you discovered, learned, or experienced that have made your teaching life easier-

Cheers!