I could tell by their feverish faces that I had crossed the line. You know the one. The line where a lesson somehow moves from excitement to near hysteria. I've been experimenting with some of Jeff Anderson's lessons lately, and the AAAWWUUBBIS lesson using Jamie Lee Curtis' book, When I Was Little, rocked. The kids loved it and wrote up a storm. So I figured, why not try Sentence Smack Down. The lesson wasn't the problem. Anderson's lesson is awesome. I just screwed up. I read over the lesson countless times and carefully planned modifications that seemed to make sense for 3rd graders. It bombed. The classroom teacher was very kind and didn't give me the you're-the-coach-you're-supposed-to-know-what-you're-doing look. But now I've got to repair the semi-disaster I created and help the kids and the teacher make sense of it.
I'm thinking I will gather them up and just tell them what I thought of the lesson and ask them what they thought and what they learned. From there I want to read them Satchel Paige Don't Look Back by David A. Adler. I got the idea by visiting Book Savors. There is one page in the book that has 2-word sentences that are perfect for teaching how a sentence contains a subject and a verb. We can also talk about how the author used those short sentences to slow down an exciting moment. The book also has lots of mentor sentences to teach AAAWWUBBIS, commas in a list, and dashes.
Another good book for 2 word sentences is Scoot! by Cathryn Falwell. Good luck with the new lesson!
ReplyDeleteI love 'the look' comment. I've been there. I'd like to know how your lesson goes. Will you be charting your findings or using an Elmo with the text? I'm curious. Thanks for linking my blog. I enjoy reading yours. MHG:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip elsie! I'm headed to Amazon to take a look.
ReplyDeleteMHG - I enjoy your blog very much. Great teaching ideas. And about the elmo, I'm not sure. I love the elmo but I like to gather the kids close too. I may just enlarge a snippet of the text to use at the carpet. When I talk with the teacher, I'll ask her what she thinks. No reason why we can't try both! I wish her screen was situated nearer to the gathering area. And yes, I am doing the March challenge. I'm really looking forward to it. :)
ReplyDeleteThe enlargement idea sounds good. I had the privilege of being in a study group with Carl Anderson. He's been my mentor for Writer's Workshop. Carl brings the overhead to the floor at the meeting place. It's very effective. It was a big 'aw ha' moment for me. In my coaching experience, I use it and the kids like being close. Just a thought. Good luck. (and I'm going to check out Scoot! as well). MaryHelen:)
ReplyDeleteI think your idea of bringing the overhead to the floor is excellent. I'm thinking the classroom teacher might be willing to help me figure out how to make it work in her gathering area. I think it would be powerful. Now if we would stop having ice storms around here, maybe I could get back to school and get going on these ideas! Thanks Mary Helen. :)
ReplyDeleteIce storms - yuck. We were hit last night and out of school again. We now are going until June 8. We have our state ISTEP test next week and I'm missing my classrooms. MaryHelen:)
ReplyDeleteZak's Lunch by Margie Palatini is an excellent text for sentence smack down. I was writing about the book this morning (snow day) and noticed some 2-word sentences. I searched and found at least 11 sentences. I posted by blog for Friday, Feb. 25. I did not list the sentences but did reference it on the post. Wanted you to know. Knew you were doing the lesson so thought it would help. MHG:)
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