Expository: Fight the Boring

It doesn't have to be painful...

I have a confession to make. I hate reading expository texts. There, I said it. Unfortunately, Texas has decided that expository is the mother of all writing. So, here I am a few weeks away from the beginning of school and I am thinking about the one thing I hate the most. 

What is it about expository that makes it so awful uninteresting to me? I mean, I really like watching documentaries, the news, listening to NPR. All of those are expository texts. Non-fiction and informational. All the things I say I don't like. But I can't get enough. I am such a news junkie that my two year old asks to watch the news instead of cartoons. So, it can't be the "entertainment value" that turns me off to cracking open an article and reading it. It must be something else. 

I went to my thinking spot and thought, thought, thought, and I realized. I just don't like teaching non-fiction. Usually when faced with teaching an article, I don't know what to do beyond read it and talk about it. How boring for everyone involved in the process of learning. 

Proposed Solution

First, I have to chose expository texts that are high interest. The internet will help me out with that I'm sure. I used one last year about the Shia and Sunnis using Romeo and Juliet to change Iraq (It's FREE). The kids really liked it. But I didn't do a great job of teaching the article. At the end of the unit, I patted myself on the back for working non-fiction in to the Romeo and Juliet unit, but I could totally do better. 

Secondly, I need a WAY of teaching the text that allows the students to take ownership of what they are reading and eventually turn reading into writing. Easier said than done, I know. But I created this graphic organizer as a start. It can be used with any expository text. And I think it can be used in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms. So far, it's a step in the right direction. 

In conclusion

Step 1: high interest texts

Step 2: a guide to analyzing the high interest text that leads to writing

Let me know how you integrate non-fiction articles in your curriculum and what you use to do it. 

Until then, happy teaching!!

Writing Strategies Galore

Look at all those tabs!

Last week I had the pleasure of going to a two-day seminar with Gretchen Bernabei. I can't even begin to explain how much I learned in twelves hours. True, most of the things we talked about were things I already teach, but the strategy to teach those things made me wonder how I didn't think of that in the first place. By the end of the seminar, I had a composition notebook full of stuff to take back to my classroom.



Here are a few of my favorite:

The Kernel Essay

Kernel: tiny yellow seed with the potential for yummy, buttery goodness when microwaved. 

Writing kernels are the same minus the butter and microwave. However, they can still be yummy. Sometimes. They are made up of four sentences that become the structure of the essay. 

Here's mine for the prompt "Write an essay about your favorite place" or something like that:

I have used this strategy in class in the past and the kids really latch on and get it. I am going to amp it up this year though. Also, this can be done with any type of writing, expository, narrative, or procedural.

You can go here to see a HUGE list of possible structures kids could use when writing kernels. Or, they could come up with their own. 

Expository vs. Narrative

When we did this together, I nearly face palmed myself. It's so simple and clear that I don't know why this isn't how we all show the difference between writing modes. It also employs our advice of "show not tell." My problem before was always just TELLING them the difference. Then, when I read essays, I would be so frustrated because I would be reading stories instead of essays. Then, I'd tell them again. Rinse and repeat. But this simple T-chart SHOWS instead of TELLS.

Before we did the chart, we chose an object from our childhood to write about. I chose a little stick man made of toothpicks that I used to decorate my Dad's "Over the Hill" cake when he turned 40.

Now, draw a T-chart like this:

We then wrote for two minutes. First on the left side, then on the right. Here's what I came up with:

I didn't finish, but you still get the idea. 

And, BOOM! There's the difference. The kids can actually see the difference in front of them. Then we took those short paragraphs and wrote kernel essays on note cards. 

Here are mine:

Gretchen then took them up and read them aloud having us guess which one was narrative and which was expository. So, the practice could continue from this one activity.


Expository











Narrative 

Pitchforking

Again, an oldy, but a goody. This strategy gives kids a more direct way to add detail to their writing. Take this sentence for instance: We baked a cake. Not terrible, but not great either. It offers so little explanation of my experience baking a cake, that you as the reader have to imagine a time when you baked a cake just to stay interested. That equals not good writing. That's where pitchforking comes in. 

Here's what my paper looked like at the end of this activity just for ONE SENTENCE!

I turned "We baked a cake" into "We laughed, decorated and sweated in the hot kitchen as we baked Dad's birthday cake, a moist, delicious reminder he was over the hill." Ummm.... wow!!

Just imagine if we could get our kids to pour over one sentence like that! But after a lot of practice, this strategy won't be a strategy anymore, it will just become natural.The great writers sitting in my classroom do this naturally, so hoping for that for the struggling writers isn't beyond our reach. 

These strategies only skim the surface of what I learned. For more, you can visit Gretchen's blog. A word of warning: combing through all the strategies there might take hours. So, make sure the kids are fed, all water facets are off, and there's no laundry to do in the near future. 

The Odyssey Happens Everyday

Eleven Dollars Well Spent

As a rule, I don't pay for lesson plans. If I can't find it/make it for free then you can count me out. When a colleague suggested that I check out the Curly Classroom, i took her advice spending hours scouring their blog for everything those great ladies give away for free. But, as I continued download after wonderful download, I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop. Then, those curly-headed sirens tempted me with the Odyssey Skills by Scene. And I needed it. 

Remember, I had just spent half of the previous month creating something like that for Romeo and Juliet and the thought of going through all of those painstaking hours again when all I had to do was hit the checkout button made forking over the cash an easy decision. I will not post any of the actual activities from the Skills by Scene; however, I will go through the supplements I added to "The Homecoming of Odysseus."

Homecoming Week

The students thought it very strange when they walked in my classroom and saw signs for Homecoming Week everywhere. (Next year I plan to make a tiny mum, or something like it, for everyone). They walked in and I had their attention immediately, mostly because they thought I had lost my marbles. But, if that's what it takes to get their attention in the third to last week of the school year, I will TOTALLY take it. 

Skills by Scene has great graphic organizers for different sections of Odysseus' Homecoming and I used the heck out of those things. I taped them up around my room as my "homecoming decorations" with directions and pointers to filling them out. (Next year, I'll add streamers.) And the best part was the kids got to do the rest of the work. I just sat back and watched it happen. Some days we "celebrated" homecoming in table groups, sometimes, they had partners, sometimes they were working individually, but it was a whole week of analysis, practical application of things they have learned throughout the year, and it was magical. 

But I couldn't let that be the end (mostly because I still had one more week to fill after Odysseus got home). That's where this article entered the scene. I wanted to bring the Odyssey into the modern era, and this New York Times article is the best. Thinking of Odysseus in terms of a veteran coming home made the Odyssey real for a lot of my kids. I saw their eyes grow wide as they thought about how their brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather, mom and dad were like Odysseus, this bigger than life hero. And... it's expository... double wham!

But I didn't stop there. There's this poem that has followed me through my life since college. Every year, I put my favorite quote from it in my room, on the class passes I give to students who go above and beyond, and on every recommendation I am asked to write. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Of course, it from "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. When I have a chance to teach this poem I take it, and I wasn't going to miss this chance. 

The E Word

We analyzed, we compared, we laughed, we watched this TEDtalk about veterans missing war, then we took a test. I know, so anti-climactic, but it's the end of the year and that's what we have to do. BUT I couldn't leave all our veteran day talk as just talk. I wanted the kids to put into action what we have been learning about. So, I spent all week before the test scaring them by saying the E word. You know the one... essay. Over and over I warned them about the scary essay at the end of the exam. It loomed until I had kids fill my tutoring time with questions about what it would be about, could they use a notecard, would they have to use text evidence. I have never had so much interest prior to a test. 

Then test day arrived. I handed out the test and all of them flipped it to the back and read the "essay" directions:

Letter Writing: Write a letter to a veteran. Be sure to stay within the requirements listed below (20pts).

Formatting Requirements:

·          Correct letter format

o   Greeting

o   Date

o   Paragraphs

o   Salutation

o   Signature

o   One full page

·          Content Requirements

o   You CAN:

§  Thank the veteran for his/her service

§  Offer encouragement

§  write about yourself

§  write about this assignment

o   You CANNOT:

§  Write about religion, politics, death or killing (this is a requirement used by Operation Gratitude)

     The letter is a requirement for the test; however, I hope to send them along to a veteran. If you DO NOT want me to send your letter, please write “DO NOT SEND THIS” at the top of your paper. I will still read/grade it based on the requirements outlined above. 

I got many kinds of looks. The knowing look, the eye roll (I like to think it's because I made such a HUGH deal of seemingly nothing), the appreciative smile, the sigh of relief. 

But the letters they wrote were truly thankful for the veterans who fought so they could be sitting in my classroom and taking a test, so they could enjoy movies, family, friends. So they could live free. I can't think of a better way to celebrate D-Day than by writing letters to those who deserve our respect,

honor, and gratitude.