Michelle Yee

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Language Arts

Found Poetry

I read students a book with many examples of "gem" words: great adjectives and phrases that were interesting and vivid.  Then we listed these words and phrases on the board.  Students then arranged and rearranged these "gems" into original poems.  Found poetry is the literary equivalent of a picture collage.

Spider Legs

Adding Detail to Writing
The students had written a draft of an adventure story.  To add detail to their writing, I taught them to use strips of paper (spider legs) taped to the appropriate spot in their draft with the details written there.  This eliminated erasing, squeezing tiny text into the draft, and discouragement at having to add new words when there was no room. 

I made a giant model of a story draft and used sentence strips as "spider legs" for the modelling portion of the lesson.  The students helped me add vivid details to my (boring) essay, and then did the same for their own work.

Author: Michelle Yee
Last modified: 4/14/2008 8:43 AM (EST)