One of the most powerful ways to become a better writing teacher is to write. And one of the most essential things to write is what we expect our students to write. Dina Coverstone is doing just that. Her fifth graders are learning about research and speeches. Their charge is to research a president and then give a speech that reflects upon the president’s life. Dina chose Abraham Lincoln. She is collecting research, taking notes, organizing her information, writing speech cards, creating a visual and giving her speech in front of her class on Monday.
Stacey shared the idea below with me as a way to organize research notes for expository writing. She does this with her personal essay unit; Dina is using the same technique for this speech unit. Regardless, Stacey’s system is brilliant!
Each of the envelopes represents a subtopic. Inside the envelopes, students tuck pieces of support or facts for that particular subtopic. It folds up and fits into their writing folders. Thanks for the great idea Stacey!
And kudos to Dina for completing the same project she expects of her students.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
It went well. The kids began their presentations yesterday. So far, so good. The organizing tool shown in this post was a HUGE help for my less organized kiddos!
LikeLike
It is so time-consuming, but I know it will be well worth it. The kids are looking forward to Miss C.’s presentation too! It is showing to be a good motivator – not only am I asking them to do the work, I am working with them. I work on the project at home (often) but I also spend some of our workshop time on it. I am a firm believer that we have to be models for our kids. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
LikeLike