The Colors of Gratitude: 
Mode: Poetry
Audience: peers and parents during conferences; website visitors
Purpose: to explore the habit of gratitude through the use of simile
Situation: Use of writer's notebook, collaborative input and sharing, deeper discussions on gratitude


Click on the button above to take you to a PREZI presentation used during the Colors of Gratitude lesson. I have pulled out the inspiration video from YouTube here, however, for easier access. Using media and mentor text to launch thinking and discussion is powerful. Having shared text and visuals helps students to access content, and brainstorm ideas for their own writing. The idea of using sentence starters, such as "Gratitude is (color) like (make connection)" is supported by Gallagher in Write Like This (p. 37) where he says "One way to generate student reflection is to have students complete sentence starters...While drafting, students are encouraged to share a specific anecdote and to reflect on why they still hold an appreciation for this person, place, or thing." The "gratitude is" poems provide a similar scaffold to students who might be unsure as to how to use simile, or how to write poetry.

Gratitude lesson, google doc shared brainstorming, reflections, and more...
Collaboration and Technology Integration: Two things that I took away from teacher demonstrations during the RCWP Institute: 1) be not afraid. Becoming a student again pushes our thinking deeper, and when we write and create beside our students, we acknowledge that the work is challenging yet worthwhile. Again, it's okay to "wobble" and to feel a bit uncomfortable. 2) creating is messy and mistake-filled. As I worked to integrate a digital story, I frequently remembered Hick's caution "While all writing involves a process that is recursive and often messy, composing digital video has the potential to be even more so." (Crafting Digital Writing, p. 105). This is truth. While I struggled to select images, find music, and record narration, I thought about the process and how the words impacted the visuals and vice versa. I especially thought of the habit of mind that seemed to prevail: persistence. I needed that habit when I completely lost my project and had to begin, basically, from scratch. These are technology learnings that are important to teach students, and to share how persistence in creating and understanding is a life skill that will later transfer to any learning or work opportunity. 
Fable Writing Assignment: (adapt from Schertzing)
Mode--Collaborative Writing of Fable; 
Audience: students from younger grades/little brothers and sisters; 
Purpose: to teach life lessons
Situation: Collaboration in class