Tuesday, April 21, 2015

A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words!



As part of our writing unit this year, students have been studying various types of writing styles, including persuasive writing—which was covered with our Santa In Disguise project—and narrative writing—which we recently addressed and just finished in conjunction with our Photocard assignment.

The latter involved further third-grade exploration into the different parts of speech in addition to how those varying components actually translated into word choices, especially when it comes to descriptive writing.  Students also learned how those parts of speech and word choices then tied into reading and all of its own elements.

Through the course of our on-going class discussions, students discovered just how important it is to develop a good, strong plot when writing and to make sure that plot shows a rise in action en route to solving whatever problem they may have chosen to address as part of their own fictional writing.  In addition, we also examined the difference between “showing” versus “telling” when writing, with students learning that it is almost always far better to “show” than it is to simply “tell”. The importance of dialogue as a means of “showing” was examined as well, with demonstrations on the proper use and placement of quotes within their own work.

However, it was our study of figurative language that really grabbed the third-graders attention. Their fascination with similes, metaphors, personification, alliterations, hyperboles, idioms, and examples of onomatopoeia—still ring loud and clear as spontaneous bursts of group shout outs pour forth from our classroom door on a regular basis, each and every time an example of any one of these seven types of figurative language are read and/or spoken aloud during, not just reading, but also any and all of our other subject areas, too!

After sorting through a stash of old Christmas cards that are kept from year to year, students were then asked to choose a card that inspired them in some way, shape, or form and to compose a narrative story that related to the picture found on their card of choice. A lot of in-class time was devoted to this particular writing project, resulting in the third graders becoming not only well acquainted with the writing process itself but also very well informed with respect to the importance of editing, revising, and ultimately rewriting portions of one’s own work.

Students and teacher alike used classroom ipads in order to complete this assignment, with the composition and rewriting portions done by the students via implementation of the Showbie app and the necessary editing component completed by the teacher through the use of the Explain Everything app. Working back and forth between these two applications, student and teacher were able to individually confer, honing and reworking their initial draft into a finely-crafted and finished piece of narrative work! Once all of the necessary editing, revising, and rewriting were finally finished, each student’s story and accompanying card were then published with the help of a third app called Photocard.

Please click on the following link to check out your student’s own work along with that of his or her classmates!

Christmas Card Writing Project 

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