Photos for Personal Paragraphs

1. Photos for Personal Paragraphs Kimberly J. Curtis 2nd grade Nicholasville Elementary EKU Writing Project 2011

2. Best Practices http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8DaX2qOmts • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8DaX2qOmts

3. Best Practice Student centered teaching methods: • visual cues • gets ideas flowing • authentic

4. Methods • Active learning: • Students solve problems • Students answer questions • Formulate questions of their own • Students discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm • Cooperative Learning: • Students work in cooperative learning teams

5. Research • Miller, B. and Paola, S. (2005). Tell It Slant. New York: McGraw-Hill. Chapter 8 • Calkins, L. and Mermelstein, L. (2005) Launching the Writing workshop. Portsmouth: First Hand.

6. Writing a Personal Paragraph using personal photographs • Allows students to springboard into their writing. • Many students enjoy writing while others have trouble. • This activity can help trigger student’s imagination.

7. Examples: Which picture would be better for writing your own personal paragraph?

8. My Personal Paragraph

9. Brainstorm • With your team brainstorm ideas that could be used to write a personal paragraph. • Smell • Taste • Sounds • Visualizing • Touch

10. My Personal Paragraph • As a class write a personal paragraph together. • Paragraph should contain: topic sentence, 3 supporting details, and a conclusion

11. Activity • Work with their elbow partner to brainstorm ideas about your photo. • Partner 1 will begin brainstorming while partner 2 is writing down ideas. (5 minutes) • Remember to use sensory details. • Switch partners (5 minutes)

12. Writing Personal Paragraph • Students begin writing their personal paragraph. • Remember to use your graphic organizer. S1 T S2 S3 C

13. Students may share their personal paragraph.

15. Revising After students have completed their paragraphs students will start editing and revising their paragraph. • Mini-lessons • Details • Expression • Transitions • Sentence structure

16. Student Samples:

17. Natural Bridge • My family and I went to Natural Bridge last summer. My mother and I rode the chair lift up to the top. I was nervous because I thought at any time the chair was going to fall. We were high up in the air. The lift would go fast then slow. When we got to the top I was relieved because we were finally off the lift.

19. Soccer • One Tuesday I was playing a soccer game. I was nervous because it was my first time playing goalie. My coach said, “Ashton you need to go be the goalie.” I said, “Ok!” I went to the goal and I heard my mom yell out “your gonna be great” then that’s when I got confident that I could catch a ball and I did catch the ball.

21. Skiing • One summer day I was at a ski school in Louisiana and I was happy because I got up on the skis. Then I realized I was skiing around the lake. I said to myself, “Just Focus! Pay attention and hold on tight!”

22. Next Steps • Writing a memoir • Writing fiction story • Writing nonfiction article • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPWZ-7zIs3I • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPWZ-7zIs3I

23. Thank you!!