The Best First Week Ever!

Words cannot express how much FUN I had with my new 7th graders this week.  The Abydos training that I took this summer equipped me with some fabulous brainstorming strategies that my students loved.  Along with learning how to open lockers, my kids completed several brainstorming exercises, and by Friday, learned how to annotate a piece of writing for the first time.

Where the magic happens :)

The lesson frame including "Today's Objective" and "Today's Product".  We have a routine of reading the objective and product out loud together at the beginning of each class period so that everyone is on the same page.

 

Tuesday, we discussed goal setting as a class and students created a personal goal paw print, since our team is the Baylor Bears.  Each toe represented a subject goal and the center contained a 1st six weeks goal.  They will be displayed in the hallway outside of our rooms.  (Picture to come) The students then found an accountability partner, who is a peer they have in various classes.  We talked about appropriate responses and conversations they can have with one another if they observe their partner veering away from their goal.  We will be referencing goals often in my class.

 

Wednesday and Thursday, my classes completed a Kernel Essay, a Quick List, and a Quick Write to build the "Idea Bank" in their Writer's Notebooks, which are used daily in my class. 

I learned about the Kernel Essay in my training this summer, but if you want to check it out, I highly recommend purchasing Gretchen Bernabei's Reviving the Essay. I didn't expect them to love the Kernel Essay as much as they did.  The basic purpose of the Kernel Essay is taking a picture or phrase and breaking it into small questions for thought.  Students get 3 minutes to answer each small question, or kernel.  By the end of the 12 minutes, they have a page filled with a detailed memory. 

The Quick List and Quick Write strategies come from Jeff Anderson's Crunch Time.  Several of my students preferred these two strategies as opposed to the Kernel Essay.  Students number their paper from 1-12 and you give them a topic for each number.  They have a few moments to jot down a word or phrase the triggers a memory related to the topic.  Students choose the top three topics that they could write about, but have to put a star next to their top idea.  The teacher allows 10 minutes for students to complete a Quick Write on the topic that they chose.  To get their ideas rolling, I let them know that grammar and spelling were not essential during brainstorming, but getting all the details of their topic was the priority.  The kids left exhausted, but they learned so much.  One girl said, "My brain and my hand hurt, but I finally get it."

Friday, my students learned about the PROVE IT reading strategy and annotated a short personal narrative.  They closed class by posting an answer on the "Why do we write?" anchor chart.

We wrapped up the week with students posting an answer to "Why do we write?".  The responses were awesome!

On the agenda for next week: My students begin writing their own personal narratives and will be participating in a Clocking session!