About Dancing in the Wings.
Or an exciting moment on the playground.
Visit this lesson's student samples page for details. For this lesson, I wanted to have students combine visuals and written words on a notebook page so they would remember how to create and use a participle in their future sentences; I am always inspired by the combination of visuals and words that Marissa Moss uses in her Amelia's Notebook series, so I try to design my writer's notebook lessons to be both visual and word-based. You won't be able to post unless you are a verified member of this site's Writing Lesson of the Month ning. 1. This year, if you create an original graphic organizer (or adapt one of ours) when you teach this page's lesson, and post it, we might just end up publishing it directly here at WritingFix, and we will post it here, giving you full credit. var d=new Date(); Although, I use Dancing in the Wings, students can use already assigned texts or you can choose to use a text that appeals to your group of students. Use the overhead below to have students start thinking about participial phrases and their punctuation requirements. This Dancing in the Wings story study includes the following: • Story study title page for students • Before reading worksheet • Author research worksheet • Character
2. Here is a really large version of the page, if you want to zoom in on details or print my example on a poster, if you have that ability. If students can't think of an idea for a story, they can press the buttons on the Student Instructions Page, which will give them a participle and a character idea. Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson. One of those combinations might just inspire a bigger paragraph. by clicking here! We thank you in advance for this type of support. Step two (introducing models of writing): Before they write their own, In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. Lesson & 6-Trait Overview Student Instructions Great motivation can be spread among your students when you set-up a "top three contest" among your students, especially with the potential promise that those students' work might get moved to our official student samples page for this lesson, where thousands of teachers and students visit annually! Tell them that using participial phrases can be a great way to vary sentences for rhythm and flow, and it can also be a great way to combine two short sentences when revising. "My purpose in assigning this type of page for their notebooks is I want my students to have a creative-looking reference page for participles for future reference during writer's workshop. "First, I showed students my completed notebook page, explaining the two requirements above, then I had students create a draft on a piece of scratch paper. To submit student samples for this page's lesson, click here. Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources Student Writing Samples To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-it® Note-sized templates to your students' drafts. Hundreds of new published students now go up at our site annually! Most likely, your students will enjoy creating an illustration for this writing as they ready to place final drafts in their portfolios. Or a fifty yard dash. Created by WritingFix. View on WritingFix Share. Ask them to add them in the margin or in the space beneath their original sentences. Original revision ideas from teacher users of WritingFix can be submitted through copy/paste or as an attachment at, A Picture Book Writing Lesson from WritingFix, (You must be a member of our "Writing Lesson of the Month" ning to post. WritingFix Safely Publishes Students from Around the World! by clicking, Overhead resource for teaching participial phrases, Three fourth graders--Waheeb, Hanna, and Hibah--share their participial phrase-inspired stories, Two ninth graders--Mara and Alex--share their participial phrase-inspired stories, Sheet of 6 Sentence Fluency Post-it® Note-sized templates, Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers. The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.
Step one (sharing the mentor text): Teachers should stress, as they read the cited picture book aloud, what the author has done particularly well in writing this story: in this case, author Debbie Allen has incorporated participial phrases as part of her sentence structure variety.
from Your Teaching Toolbox. Encourage students to draw at least three arrows between sets of sentences that could be happening at the same time, and encourage them to quickly add a new sentence to their lists if they don't have a sentence that meets that criteria yet, but they can think of one. To our loyal WritingFix users: Please use this link if purchasing Dancing in the Wings from Amazon.com, and you will help us keep WritingFix free and on-line. When Professor Stick visits our pages, he is there to paraphrase a lesson on the conventions of language. Dancing in the Wings is loosely based on actress/choreographer Debbie Allen’s own experiences as a young dancer. ), Original graphic organizers for specific lessons, like this one, can be submitted as an attachment at, Learn more about author Debbie Allen Lesson Plan from WritingFix. We invite teachers to teach this lesson completely, then share up to three of their students' best revised and edited samples at our ning's Publish Student Writers group. Dancing in the Wings Paperback – Picture Book, December 1, 2003 by Debbie Allen (Author), Kadir Nelson (Illustrator) 4.8 out of 5 stars 875 ratings When I catch students forgetting to punctuate or even use participles, I ask them to flip through their notebooks until they find that page, then revisit what they've written. "For this lesson/notebook page, 'Professor Stick' was required to 1) explain what a participle is (in each student's own words) and 2) demonstrate making a participle in three steps. This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Rebekah Foster at an SBC-sponsored inservice class. We share graphic organizers with our peers, we find them in books, and we think we should also be able to find tried-and-true ones online at WritingFix. Adaptations from Your Toolbox. Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Students need to think of a situation where a character would be involved in a series of actions. If you create an original revision tool (or adapt one of ours) when you teach this page's lesson, and post it, we might just end up publishing it directly here at WritingFix, and we will post it here, giving you full credit. Start by having students write a list of short sentences about a character in one of these action-packed sequences; have them do this on a piece of paper and ask them to skip lines between sentences.
Encourage students to think of interesting adjectives or prepositional phrases they might add to their short sentences that have arrows between them. Ask and answer questions about Dancing in the Wingsby Debbie Allen 2. Share Original Revision Techniques or yr=d.getFullYear(); Step five (editing for conventions): After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. Focus Trait: SENTENCE FLUENCY Support Trait: CONVENTIONS, Publish your students at our Ning!
After they showed their rough drafts to each other, checking one another for correct spelling and punctuation, they carefully created 'final draft' of their notebook page, adding Professor Stick in their margins. Stick as our 'margin mascot,' which means he is the visual that can appear on their notebook pages. (You must be a member of our "Writing Lesson of the Month" ning to post.). She uses them to add spice to the descriptions of characters; instead of merely using adjectives, Debbie Allen takes active verbs and turns them into participial phrases in order to help the reader visualize the trials and tribulations of her main character. We're currently looking for student samples for all developmentally appropriate grade levels for this lesson! Remind them that the participial phrase could go at the beginning, the end, or smack dab in the middle of the other sentence. 3. For grammar- and punctuation-inspired notebook pages (like this one on participial phrases), we often bring in 'Professor Stick' to take the place of 'Mr. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. "In my classroom, we use Mr. Help us obtain some from your students, and we'll make your hardest-working students "famous" to the thousands of teachers and students who use this lesson annually! A Picture Book Writing Lesson from WritingFix Step four (revising with specific trait language): One tool for revision is provided below. Or a dance. if (yr!=2000) The groups will certainly talk about the sentence fluency , since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's conventions as well. Write a narrative on how students can make their mark Learn more about author Debbie Allen You might earn a free classroom resource from the NNWP! Interested in publishing student work on-line? The writer's notebook lesson in the yellow box is an optional step for this lesson, and it also would work well as a learning log lesson, or as a group poster-making assignment. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author. Not all sentences should have participial phrases. Let them work with a partner to figure out how to combine their "arrowed" sentences with a participial phrase. The writing started with this lesson might become even more polished for final placement in the portfolio, or the big ideas being written about here might transform into a completely different piece of writing. Show them the examples on the overhead again, if necessary. Encourage students to use a different action verb in each short sentence. Images courtesy of publishers, organizations, and sometimes their Twitter handles.
Create Lesson Share. Inspired by Barry Lane's Reviser's Toolbox, the WritingFix website encourages its teacher users to adapt our lessons, especially the tools of revision we have posted here. Pre-step (before sharing the published model): Before sharing Debbie Allen's book, do a mini-lesson with your students on participial phrases. Stick.' With these multi-leveled lessons, students are encouraged to explore the important elements of any fiction text to support comprehension.
Walk through the class, and help students make good choices about their participial phrases. Also includes two customizable spaces to respond to questions, reflections, or learning targets.
Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to: 1. Dancing in the Wings Story Map Multi-Leveled Lesson.
My purpose in including my own notebook page here as a model is to inspire you to create your own to show your students, but I will understand if you want to use mine as yours. You can read excerpts from the text to support how to use the new concept, if time does not permit you to read the entire text. Students should try to have all three types of participles (beginning, middle and end) represented in their paragraphs. WritingFix Homepage For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-it® Note-sized templates, click here. Often this simple-to-draw character 'lives' in the margins, pointing out things on the page with his dialogue bubbles. This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Rebekah Foster at an SBC-sponsored inservice class. ©