eggs-ellent! how to turn a short informational text into an opportunity for collaboration, writing,...
TRANSCRIPT
EGGS-ELLENT!How to turn a short informational text into an opportunity for collaboration, writing, and deeper learning.
I ASKED MY STUDENTS, “WHAT MADE THIS LESSON INTERESTING OR ENGAGING?”
“What made this interesting was that you would go read first and the lesson would help you remember the text by having you answer questions, and it even had some grammar help and analogies in the lesson.”
“Being able to connect with other students talking about the text…”
“It was interesting because it was more interactive…”
SCRAMBLED EGG DEMONSTRATION
Read the article Get together with your team Each teammate should number his or her
paper 1 – 20 Decide on the runner Remember, this is a not a race. Accuracy
counts more than speed. Have fun and begin!
HOW TO USE THIS STRATEGY…
Find useful informational texts Create thoughtful questions with varying degree of difficulty and skill
Adapt to make it work in your classroom
GREAT CREATIVE COMMONS SOURCES…
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ http://whyfiles.org/ http://www.npr.org/
Share what you read.
Share your interests.
Share what is going on in the world right now.
Use Internet access and education/fair use copyright law for other articles you may want to share.
HOW TO CREATE QUESTIONS/TASKS… Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Variety of question types Variety of question difficulty Use specific and open-ended questions Don’t be afraid to integrate other
subject areas Save time for discussion and answers
ADAPTATION OPTIONS…
Can be used collaboratively or individually. Students can read the article and create their
own questions for other teams. Questions can be rotated from team to team. Teams can be any size (groups of two or three
work best). Other content area material can be used to
practice reading skills.
WHY THIS ACTIVITY WORKS…
It engages students. It teaches curricular content. It provides low-stress reading
comprehension practice opportunity. Coursework is provided in a social
context. Students must practice and exhibit task-
and time-management behaviors.
GIVE IT A TRY…
Copies of three articles with “scrambled egg” questions.
Copy of Revised Blooms Taxonomy Useful Verbs/Sample Questions sheet.
Copy of strategies: Finding informational texts Creating questions Adaptation options
Link to electronic/downloadable version of all content including this presentation.
GO, GO, NANOWRIMO!
QUANTITY MATTERS!
WHY QUANTITY MATTERS…
Substantial writing opportunities (quantity) are essential for students to practice and improve their writing.
Writing “more” empowers and changes student attitudes about writing.
Quantity comes before quality. 400 words
WHAT IS NANOWRIMO National Novel Writing Month – November Writing event where the challenge is to
complete an entire novel in just 30 days. The word-count goal for the adult program is
50,000 words, but the Young Writers Program (YWP) allows 17-and-under participants to set reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.
In 2012, over 300,000 adults participated in NaNoWriMo, and 80,000 young writers participated through the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program.
I ASKED MY STUDENTS, “WHAT MADE NANOWRIMO INTERESTING OR ENGAGING?”
“I actually got to write a story that I made up…not something I was given!”
“We got to write all day everyday. I wrote over 30 pages and like tons of words.”
“It took a lot of creative thinking and brainstorming, and it helped on learning how to organize things and come up with better ideas.”
PERSONAL INTEREST
HOW DOES NANOWRIMO YWP WORK?
Short answer…however you want it to work.
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ National Novel Writing Month’s Young Novelist Workbook
Flexible scheduling Common Core fulfillment and alignment
LESSONS
Genre Characterization Conflict Plot Setting Dialogue Leads/Beginnings Adding details Goal-setting and progress monitoring
LET’S TRY A LESSON…ON CHARACTERIZATION.
SCHEDULING AND PLANNING
Flexible Writing Workshop options Word count goals Time to write
Focus on quantity Non-graded Student choice
PROBLEMS AND PITFALLS
Student participation Student buy-in Quality of work Publication