Writing Lesson - Two Voice Poem

As of right now, I have not made progress on the writing lesson!  YIKES!  I will certainly begin this.  Actually, my class is really focusing on technology, so I'm really thinking about how I am going to implement the technology portion into this.  I want to make it a really good final product, so I want to play around with things to do this.  I'm thinking something in StoryRobe would be really interesting.  Since it is a two voice poem, I think the kids will have a partner.  The pairs will write the poem together and will also do the final product together, each voice being their separate parts.  I think I will have them implement pictures into this also, showing the different perspectives of the poem.  I think the differentiation aspect will be the use of partners.  I am going to have a TON of examples for them!  I will be doing the perspective of explorers and Native Americans.  We will write one of the poems together as a class as well.  We will brainstorm different ideas that we can use together.  I'm excited to do this with my class!!  I will be able to bring electronic examples to share with the group.  I think that's about it!!  I'm looking forward to incorporating technology to make it exciting for the students.

Students' Historical Thinking

We had great discussions about the students' ability to demonstrate historical thinking through their writing.  I was so impressed with how well the students do when verbally expressing their opinions about things, but was VERY impressed with how well they demonstrated their historical thinking in their writing.  Our students were supposed to write a persuasive essay on the different theories that came with the disappearance of the Roanoke colony and they truly supported their opinion.  It is amazing how they can connect to events in history.  I think that when the students work on the next writing project - a double speak poem from two different perspectives of the same event in history (leading up to the Revolutionary War).  I am very eager to see how they do with using primary source documents. 

My Reflection in Wordle

This is a wordle that goes along with my reflection on our persuasive writing group project (it's called a group project, but I haven't done anything for it!).  I notice that one of the large words is need.  I know that I need to do more writing.  I need to make it more fun.  I need to teach more history!  These words are about me as a teacher and what I NEED to do for my class.  I NEED WRITING...it says it in the wordle.