Creative Thinking

I am not currently in the classroom so I do not have a group of students that I could implement a mini project on. But I do have an 8 year old boy that I can experiment with. My son is a great reader and has been speeding through some big books while still scoring high on the AR tests. Being a great reader is good, but I still feel like there should be something to supplement the reading to help him to take his time and absorb rather than speed read. I felt like he was really lacking in being able to think creatively. I could see this in the simplest tasks, such as when the teacher would have them write sentences with his spelling words, or even when it came to creatively thinking up a new game to play with friends, he seemed to be lacking this skill. My son has been reading the Harry Potter  book series and I have really been wanting to do something with him.I decided to have him create a new character that would fit into Harry Potter's world. I wanted him to come up with a new classmate or new roommate of Harry's. I wanted him to really think about the details that he knows about all the other characters and to make sure he developed this new character with all the same attributes. Each day I had him write a new paragraph describing one aspect of the characters life. First we should know why this student has come to Hogwarts. We should also have some sense about his background, who his parents were, what kind of powers they have. 
In the beginning it was very difficult. It was like pulling teeth to get even one or two short sentences out, much less a whole paragraph. We didn't get very far in the development, but I think it was great experience for him

Teaching writing in the classroom

In my son's kindergarten classroom his teacher had the students keep a daily journal. Each student had a notebook dedicated to this purpose that kept at school. We, the parents, got to see the notebook at the open house and again when it came home for the summer. 

The notebook was a great way to not only give the students a place to "journal" but it was also a fabulous keep sake for the parents to see their child's progress over the course of the year, and I would venture to say that kindergarten is probably the year of the most progress for most students; going from barely knowing your alphabet to writing thoughts and sentences is amazing. 

At the start of the year the journal basically consisted of the students copying from the board, the day of the week, month, and year, as well as their name. As time progressed and the date and name were perfected different items were added to the journal. Next it was the weather that day, then it was the season or mention of an upcoming holiday. By the end of the year the students were writing mini paragraphs. The date, their name, the weather, upcoming holidays, and something personal, such as what the did over the weekend (or were going to do) or something about their family, mention of a sibling or a parent. 

At first the idea of kindergartners journaling seemed ridiculous. But they way this teacher broke it up into little bits, it was completely doable by the end of the year. I think having students keep a journal is an excellent idea in any grade. It can be something that is heavily emphasized and checked daily or it can be something that is checked on a weekly or even monthly basis. Either way its a good way to keep students writing. To offer them an outlet to unload without restriction. 

Online Resources

With such easy access to technology there are so many ways that we can make our (and our students') writing better with minimal effort. Here is a list of a few resources that are my "go to" sites when working on writing something. 


1) http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
I absolutely LOVE this website. It is, as the name suggests a digital thesaurus that allows you to visualize the connections between words. After having stumbled upon this site I don't think I can ever go back to a "traditional" thesaurus again. 
Besides using it as a means for the students simply to look up synonyms to words they use in their writings, this site can be used as a tool, perhaps projected overhead, as a means to talk about the relationship that words have with one another and maybe explain why in some instances 1 word would make a good replacement and in another instance that same word might not work. 


2) http://www.dailywritingtips.com/
This is another "go to" site that I use for general questions regarding correct word usage and grammar. I have also been there to get answers to things that are hard to explain, such as the difference between effect and affect, or toward vs towards. 


3) http://www.duplichecker.com/
This is website is meant to check for plagiarism. You enter the excerpt that you are curious about and confirm that you have not plagiarized 
This is a great tool to use for student's to check their own work if they weren't sure if the excerpt was changed enough so that it wouldn't be plagarim 


4) http://www.toolsforeducators.com/writing/
This site provides different worksheets and flashcards that can be used to help students learn and understand. I think the students could use it as a leaning tool and work on vocabulary that can help their writing.