Thursday, February 9, 2012
Here’s a school honoring writing. Sandhills Elementary in Swansea, SC. A beautiful framed board where teachers can honor the greatest recent writing by their students. Bravo!
The Divine Writing Wall!
See how the teachers at Sandhills Elementary honor writing and analyze books. (more…)
It is going to take me quite a while to process all the great teaching techniques I witnessed at Indian Hill Elementary and Indian Hill Primary, two schools in Cincinnati. Just look at what Mrs. Bauer and her class were doing with nonfiction. This is a classroom full of words. You can see their process on the walls. (more…)
These are from Hamilton Traditional School in Indiana.
This amazing teacher worked with her students to put together a Thanksgiving-appropriate story using the structure of Crocodile Listens. See what happens when turkey listens!
They also created a turkey chant using the chant books as a structural element. Mrs Schwartz is clearly an extraordinary teacher.
| Sayre’s Books As Models For Teaching The 6 + Traits of Writing |
| Ideas | (details, development, focus) | Trout Are Made of Trees
Stars Beneath Your Bed: the Surprising Story of Dust Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds Ocean, Coral Reef, and other in the “Exploring Earth’s Biomes” series |
| Organization | (internal structure) | Vulture View
Trout Are Made of Trees Home At Last: a Song of Migration Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds Ocean, Coral Reef, and other in the “Exploring Earth’s Biomes” series |
| Voice | (tone, style, purpose, audience) | Trout Are Made of Trees
The Bumblebee Queen If You Should Hear a Honey Guide Army Ant Parade Dig, Wait, Listen: a Desert Toad’s Tale |
| Word Choice | (precise language and phrasing) | Vulture View
The Bumblebee Queen Stars Beneath Your Bed Dig, Wait, Listen: a Desert Toad’s Tale Shadows Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds |
| Sentence Fluency | (rhythm, cadence) | Vulture View
Bird, Bird, Bird: a Chirping Chant Home At Last: a Song of Migration Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant Shadows |
| Conventions | (mechanical correctness) | any |
| Presentation | (handwriting, formatting, layout) | The Bumblebee QueenTrout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab (Great for pagination.) |
Baths are a favorite writing topic for guided essays because most kids have had experience with them. See what clever teachers and students did with art related to my animal baths book.
School Visit Activities
April Pulley Sayre is an award-winning children’s book author of over 55 natural history books for children and adults. Her read-aloud nonfiction books, known for their lyricism and scientific precision, have been translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean. She is best known for pioneering literary ways to immerse young readers in natural events via creative storytelling and unusual perspectives.
© Copyright 1994-2009 April Pulley Sayre. All rights reserved.
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