A Mini-Lesson With Vivid Verbs and Adjectives

In the beginning of the text, it talks about the power or vivid verbs and adjectives in a story. I wanted implement these powerful words into the classroom and include them on the word wall. The first thing I did was give a mini-lesson on vivid verbs and adjectives. I began my lesson by asking my students if they knew what a vivid verb or adjective was. They took a few guesses. One student asked if it was a type of verb tense. Another student asked if it included words that ended in "es." I explained to them that verbs and adjectives are the most powerful words in a story. I also explained that another name for these types of words are "sparkle" words. I told the class that vivid verbs and adjectives can bring stories to life and really help their audience get a sense of imagination and sensory. Next, I gave the class some examples. For vivid verbs, I used grinned for smiled, sprinted for ran fast, and interrupted for talking while someone else is talking. Then I asked the class how much more powerful a sentence can become if I said "The boy ran down the hall" compared to "The boy sprinted down the hall." I emphasized that with the word sprinted, I could really imagine how fast the boy was running.Next, I gave examples of vivid adjectives. I used beautiful for pretty, horrible for bad, and clever for smart. I also emphasized the difference in a sentence. Using the word pretty to describe a flower conveys a different meaning than saying a flower is beautiful.

After the mini-lesson, I divided the class into groups of three and gave them directions. Each group had to find 10 vivid verbs/ adjectives as a group in books in the class library and write them down. Next, each student had to write one sentence for each vivid verb/adjective. After they were finished with that, they had to pick, as a group, their favorite three words. I monitored the students and made sure they were understanding the concepts of a vivid verb and adjectives. Some students chose ordinary words so I made them go back and find another word. I told the class I was going to take their groups three favorite words and place them on the word wall. Next week, I will assess their use of vivid verbs/adjectives and the word wall by having them write a story using five vivid verbs/adjectives on the word wall.

I implemented this lesson because I think it is important for children to learn how to use vivid verbs and adjectives to make their stories more interesting. It also allows students to bring out their creative side. I had one student who finished his work early and decided to write a story using all his ten words. It was very creative, and it allowed him to use his imagination. I also wanted the class to have an activity that incorporated the word wall. A word wall is very important in a classroom, and some classes do not use it to it's full potential. This was not my classroom, but I do know from doing this activity, I will want to do it again in my future classroom. The children worked together and learned a new concept through a fun activity. Worksheets can be so boring. This activity really gained the children's interest and they will be able to apply it in their future stories.

* Some Words the Students Came Up With*
weeping, rooted, violently,corky, friendly, sticky, sassy, hysterical, impressionable

*Mini-lessons with Stories that Need to Be Edited*

Currently, I am not a full time teacher, but I do teach writing to fourth graders two times a week for an hour as part of my Master's Project. I have been implementing the writing process for the last 4 weeks. I began to notice that my students were not correctly editing each other's papers. Then, I realized that I taught them about editing, but I did not teach them how to do it. Many teachers teach grammar and writing separatley. Since my teacher wanted me to focus on the students basic skills in writing, grammar had to be included somehow.

This week I did an activity with the class that actually worked, and I think it can be easily implemented into any teachers writing lesson. I gave the class a story that contained many mechanical errors in it. I modeled how to give constructive criticism to their peers when they reached the editing stage in the writing process. I told the students to pretend that the story in front of them was the person sitting next to them's paper. I asked each student to tell the student sitting next to them what errors they see in the story. We practiced giving constructive criticism and pointing out grammatical errors in a story.

Next, I numbered half the students as ones and half of them as twos. The ones got one story with errors on it and the twos got a different story with errors on it. I told the students to find a partner that did not have their name story. My next directions was to have them pretend that they wrote the story in front of them and they were in the editing stage. Partner one had to tell partner two using constructive criticism what type of errors there were in their story. They could not switch papers and they could not correct their own papers. They had to work together one at a time to fix "their" stories. Whoever made all the corrections on both stories recieved a piece of candy.

They really liked this activity, and it was very beneficial. Instead of doing grammar worksheets with separate sentences, I think students should practice editing by correcting errors in a story. These can be done with 15 minute mini-lessons and correct a different story as much as time allows. Sometimes have students work together, other times they can edit on their own, and other times you can do this activity as a whole class. This activity can also be integrated into different subjects. Reading separate sentences and focusing on one concept at a time is different than reading a story and focusing on helping another person fix their errors. Finding errors in a story, I think, will help them more during the editing stage in the writing process. They also begin getting used to the types of mistakes that are seen in their classmate's stories which makes it even more beneficial. Next Tuesday, I am having them edit each other's stories they wrote today. I think reminding them of how to edit like the activity we did today and how to give constructive critcism is really going to help them work together and improve in their grammatical skills. If this continues to be very beneficial, I will definetly recommend it to the teachers who work at my school. I will let you all know how it goes!

Online Writing Resources

1.) Tutor-vista.com
2.) Rubistar.com
3.)readwritethink.org
4.)www.edzone.net/~mwestern/ww.html

My favorite online technology resource is ReadWriteThink. It is divided into different categories including student interactive activities, grade-levels, themes, and learning objectives. It has so many different lesson plans for reading and writing and it also has a lot of student interactive activities for your class that could be easily integrated into a classroom. It also has a lot of information from the National Council of Teacher of English. I have integrated a lot of information about the writing process in my master's project using this site. It has research about different teaching strategies and how to make them work in your classroom. It also has professional development cites and parent and after-school resources.
It can be used in every aspect of your teaching. It has information for teachers about how to teach writing in a more efficient and beneficial way to your students. It has student activities that are very fun and interactive that could be integrated into s mini-lesson during a writer's workshop. It also has standards from the NCTE and what they expect different grade levels to learn and be able to do. It is also very easy to find information on the site. It is organized and simple. If you have not used this resource, I would highly suggest it!

* New Experiences with the Internet*

I am very excited to learn more about blogging. I have heard about blogs and had teacher who have had blogs, but I have never used one and have no experiences. It is one of those things I would not be interested in unless the opportunity was given to me and an address was given to me (which occured in this mini assignment). This semester I have learned about how to create a wiki and now a blog! I think both of these things will be very helpful for me as a future teacher and a great way to communicate with parents and older students!