For Genius Hour, we "married" ourselves to a topic. This is the topic we are going to write about for the remainder of the year. For example, in writing beside the kids, I am writing a book. I use this book and the development as a model for the students. Our lesson today, we took our idea and began to explore organizing the book, or screenplay, or newspaper, as one students is doing.
We looked at two organization methods and connected each to making a puzzle. For some students, outlining what their book will entail, almost like a table of contents, helped focus some students. We compared this to the people who make a puzzle by building the border first. Next, understanding and providing examples of authors, who write in this fashion, students looked at writing many ideas, i.e. seed stories, and linking them all together to make a book. Some students acknowledged their puzzle creation by starting with the focal points and linking them together as the puzzle goes on.
How students translated this lesson into practice, helped both the students and I gain insight into their idea development and idea of writing development through a story or informational text writing. Some students skipped right off and began writing in a linear fashion, as habit would suggest. Other students took time to outline what would go into their story. One boy listed nine chapters linking his ideas to Mike Lupica's "Comeback Kids" and Game Changers book (yes!). Another boy, had his idea, "a football game." I asked him if he had any ideas leading into the football game. He said no, just the game. I invited him to explore options when the time came. He pondered for some time. His consideration was worth gold!
A partner group wanted to explore building houses in Minecraft. After the today me how to do this in their conference, I asked them what kind of informational text could the write, followed by "What else do you want your reader to know?" This perplexed the boys, like most writers, currently in my class, who seem to think they have to produce an idea, draft it, and write a final copy. Before leaving, they realized there is more to explain about Minecraft than just this one feature.
Genius Hour, like the student who wants to write a book with book reviews of all the books she has ever read, is showing me what students need, which is leading into the development of reading writing reciprocity in gr. 5/6. This student needs to learn how to write book reviews. I know she needs models. Another student is writing an adventure book, so we are going to work on making his TBR list a compilation of adventure books.
We looked at two organization methods and connected each to making a puzzle. For some students, outlining what their book will entail, almost like a table of contents, helped focus some students. We compared this to the people who make a puzzle by building the border first. Next, understanding and providing examples of authors, who write in this fashion, students looked at writing many ideas, i.e. seed stories, and linking them all together to make a book. Some students acknowledged their puzzle creation by starting with the focal points and linking them together as the puzzle goes on.
How students translated this lesson into practice, helped both the students and I gain insight into their idea development and idea of writing development through a story or informational text writing. Some students skipped right off and began writing in a linear fashion, as habit would suggest. Other students took time to outline what would go into their story. One boy listed nine chapters linking his ideas to Mike Lupica's "Comeback Kids" and Game Changers book (yes!). Another boy, had his idea, "a football game." I asked him if he had any ideas leading into the football game. He said no, just the game. I invited him to explore options when the time came. He pondered for some time. His consideration was worth gold!
A partner group wanted to explore building houses in Minecraft. After the today me how to do this in their conference, I asked them what kind of informational text could the write, followed by "What else do you want your reader to know?" This perplexed the boys, like most writers, currently in my class, who seem to think they have to produce an idea, draft it, and write a final copy. Before leaving, they realized there is more to explain about Minecraft than just this one feature.
Genius Hour, like the student who wants to write a book with book reviews of all the books she has ever read, is showing me what students need, which is leading into the development of reading writing reciprocity in gr. 5/6. This student needs to learn how to write book reviews. I know she needs models. Another student is writing an adventure book, so we are going to work on making his TBR list a compilation of adventure books.