Lisa's+page

media type="custom" key="6465771" width="60" height="60" It was great to experiment with this. Looking at other people's pages showed me that this was a very successful tool. Now that I know more about how to maneuver around wikispaces, I feel as if I could come up with a better poster to represent my topic. I was unsure as to what I wanted as my topic, so I did not know where to go with it, but now I have a better grasp of what I am capable of doing and what wikispaces is capable of doing as well.

I am excited to experiment more with this at home so that I am more proficient with it. I would love to take it back to my school and offer it to all of the staff, including the computer technology teacher. She probably already knows about this -- but I think alot of the teachers will "run" with this. My students will absolutely love it -- I just have to figure out how to break it down into several lessons -- because we have such short blocks of time in the computer lab to experiment with it.

Thanks so much for sharing.

** A Lesson on Word Choice **
 * __Banish Boring Words:__ **

By: Lisa Lewis 4th Grade Teacher – Reading/Writing Gaithersburg Elementary School Gaithersburg, MD Email: lisa@lewislimited.com

Teaching writing to underperforming, Title I, and highly unmotivated students has been one of my biggest challenges as a teacher in the Montgomery County Public School system. I have been teaching 3rd and 4th graders at Gaithersburg Elementary School (GES) for 6 years. Gaithersburg’s population is extremely diverse: 54.3% of our students are Hispanic and 28.1% of our students are African American. 40% of our 530 students are considered ESOL students; and 68.1% of our students receive Free and Reduced Meals. We also have a rather high mobility rate at GES – 31% of our students enroll and/or withdraw during a given school calendar year.
 * // __Background__ //**

I have always felt a passion about the teaching of writing as far back as I can remember. Not only do I love to teach students to write, I personally love to compose as well. As I witnessed over the past 6 years, writing tends to be put on the back burner for many schools, as well as principals and teachers, because of the lack of knowledge of how it should be taught. Many people do not feel that writing is nearly as important as Reading or Math. Set state and county curricula often either don’t meet the needs of the students, or teach writing from a whole different prescribed perspective, one that is so far from where I believe it should be.

The MCPS 4th grade curriculum addresses “feeling” words vs. character traits as a small part of what needs to be explored with students. I have found that students: 1) have a difficult time distinguishing between “feeling” words and character traits; 2) tend to choose the basic and simplistic words such as “good, bad, sad and mad”; and 3) are entirely unmotivated to learn synonyms for these words and use them in their everyday writing.

In my writing classes I have strived to offer students several things to motivate and inspire them to be writers in my classroom. One of my strategies is to be sure that every student is writing in a journal daily. Using a prompt they are given, or perhaps one that another student has given them, students write for 10 minutes daily and have the opportunity to share their writing with their peers. They also explore many “hands on” experiential writing styles, such as personal narrative writing, mystery writing, writing of poetry and autobiographical writing to name just a few. Students have the opportunity to write among the different genres through the prescribed curriculum that serves as our guide. This workshop was developed to aid in helping me conquer some of the most difficult ideas that I want and need to get across to my students. 1. How do I get them to understand the difference between a character trait and a feeling? 2. How do I get them to understand that “word choice” for the basic and simplistic “feeling” words is a crucial part of their writing? 3. How do I motivate my students to continue to contemplate their “word choice” on a daily basis? 1. Background and introduction of workshop (2-3 mins) Give background information about what brought me to inquire about this topic. 2. What is a “feeling”? (group discussion – 5 mins) How would we collectively define a “feeling” without using the word “feel” or “feeling” in the definition. (See attached dictionary definitions) 3. Word/smiley face/color spectrum matching game (5 mins) Using word cards, smiley face cards and color spectrum, match up one feeling word with a smiley face that represents it, and give the word and face a color from the spectrum that might also represent that feeling. 4. Choose one word/face/color spectrum sample and write why you matched them together (5 mins) Choose one trio (word, face, color spectrum card) and write several sentences about why you matched these together. How do the color spectrum samples and faces represent your word?)
 * // __Why?__ //**
 * // __Workshop Activities__ //**

5. Share out of writing (5 mins) Students will share why they created their match. 6. Read __Today I Feel Silly__ to group and discuss different feelings mentioned in the book. Have students make connections. Explain that they will use these connections to write and illustrate their own feeling book.(10 mins) 7. Write and illustrate a book telling the story of a time when you experienced very strong feelings. Be sure to use your new feeling words and fill in at least 6 pages. (15 mins) 8. Share (10 mins)

9. Response letter writing (10 mins)

 “Emotions,” wrote [|**Aristotle**], “are all those feelings that so change men as to affect their __judgments__ , and that are also attended by pain or pleasure.”
 * // __QUOTES:__ //**

[|I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”] By: **James A. Michener**

“ [|Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”]  By: **Pablo Picasso**

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” By: **Mark Twain**

[|Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.]

By: **Rhys Alexander**

**

__Definitions of “feeling” (Emotions)__ ** __Dictionary.com:__

. . .a consciousness or vague awareness; an emotion or emotional perception or attitude; capacity for emotion, esp. compassion; a sentiment; attitude; opinion __Websters.com:__

. . .expressing emotion or sensitivity __Encyclopedia Brittanica:__

. . .the perception of events within the body, closely related to [|**emotion**] __Children’s Dictionary__

. . .to be conscious of a physical or mental state 

__BANISH BORING WORDS__

tearful tickled pained elated unhappy thrilled mournful delighted empty ecstatic blue blissful blah overjoyed down cheerful hurt content sorry pleased awful upbeat depressed merry dejected jolly disheartened joyful
 * __SAD__ **** __HAPPY__ **

awful poor nice extraordinary terrible unspeakable pleasant awesome horrid excellent crappy fantastic lousy wonderful evil peaceful dreadful exceptional crummy pleased defective relaxed unsatisfactory fabulous unacceptable amazing icky calm terrified angry shocked irate horrified enraged nervous annoyed uneasy upset alarmed hateful scared crabby frightened grumpy fearful disgusted shaken grouchy worried frustrated tense bitter threatened outraged uncomfortable fuming peaceful content pleased cheerful cozy relaxed satisfied jolly bubbly tickled excited great safe joyful 
 * __BAD__ **** __GOOD__ **
 * __AFRAID__ ** **__MAD__**
 * __GLAD__ **