I love having the students do journal writing over whatever novel we a reading. For Sign of the Beaver, I had the students make their own journals from construction paper and notebook paper. As we are reading I have them write from Matt's point of view. They are resposible for making sure that they use the correct format, show the characters emotions, have evidence from the text, and doodle or illustrate what they have written about. My students are loving this... especially my TITLE group. In the front of the journal, we glued the rubric so that they would nkow exactly how I would be grading their journals. You can find the rubric here. The depth of their thought so far has been AMAZING!! :)
(Sorry about the image quality... my blackberry does not take the best pictures. )
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You're amazing! Thank you for sharing this, I REALLY appreciate it. Are you creating these materials yourself? Where did you get the fun font that you've been using for the titles?
ReplyDeleteWe started today with a couple of pre-reading activities. First we read an article about the author and talked a bit about what they guessed "Sign of the Beaver" might be like based on what they read about her (not having seen the cover of the book or anything). Then we did the pre-reading activity you posted the other day. Looking forward to actually starting the book tomorrow!
Just found your post from earlier this month about the font website so maybe that answers my font question :)
DeleteI created them myself... the kids are LOVING this book. I am learning as I go with this novel study because I did not do it last year, so I add and delete things as I go.
DeleteThe font i ised for the title was on my microsoft word program, but you can get it off datfont.com. It is burnstown dam.
Chapters 13-15 journal entry:
ReplyDelete"Today I helped Attean kill a bear! I had smacked it in the face with a rabbit I shot earlier..."
I don't know why but the "smacked it in the face" just sent me into a fit of giggles :) Wanted to share it with someone.
That is so funny... you can picture it in your head! lol :)
DeleteWhat writing prompts did you use in the journals? I'm interested in doing this with my students.
ReplyDeleteI actually would stop after several chapters or a major event had taken place and the students would write a journal entry for those chapters or events from Matt's perspective. There were specific prompts... just reacting to particular readings.
DeleteI see. This is my first time teaching the book, so I'm trying some new things. Thanks for your help!
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