Lesson/Review 1: Integrating web sites
Lesson for Students: Writing Lesson using Photo Prompts
Choose a photo from the choices on http://www.slideshare.net/beckerl1/pictures-for-writing-prompts.
Complete the 5Ws newspaper map to match your chosen picture. Be sure that your story has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
We will stop as a class before we begin writing. Be ready to tell your partner about your picture and ask them one question about their story (who, what, where, when, why, how).
Write your newspaper article that matches the story. Make sure that you are answering each question word from your map, and use appropriate past tense verbs.
Review of Lesson and Website Resource
Students: 5th- 10th grade ESL students from a variety of languages and language levels
English language level: Intermediate ESL
Lesson time: 45 minutes in lab
Class Location environment: This will be taught on laptops in the classroom. Students will be matched with a partner who they will talk with through the process.
What is the instructional purpose?
This is a creative writing activity to help students develop their ability to answer questions about a prompt in a complete sentence. It is scaffolded by question words for students who need more language support.
How will you use the website to meet your instructional purposes?
I feel like written journal prompts are often difficult for my students to answer accurately. By giving them choices in photos, they have another mode to construct ideas that is not based solely on language.
What handouts will I create?
I will provide the students with a graphic organizer that will allow them to gather their ideas in an organized manner before they verbally share their ideas with a partner. This will then help them take their ideas in note form and transform them into complete answers to the question words. I will double side the map for students who are able to complete responses to more than one picture prompt in the given time.
What are potential problems students might encounter in using this website?
I’ve found that the website loads pretty easily when I am searching, but as with any website with many pictures, there could be a delay in accessing the pictures when there are many students searching simultaneously. I will have the pictures up on a common computer connected to the projector if any students are not able to access the images.
I am wondering about how you will pair the students. Will they be paired by language levels? Or will they choose partners? Also, how will it work for partners to share laptops? With that, who will do the actual computer work? Or will they each have a laptop?
ReplyDeleteI clicked on the link to see the pictures and the site opened up easily and I could see the photos. Nice work.
Hi Lindsey-
ReplyDeleteI really like the website you chose. Those pictures are great! The kids will have lots of fun with that.
If I understand the lesson correctly, this is already a format that they have used before, so you do not need to model how to answer the questions or using descriptive language in order for the students to perform. You are focused on having the students practice and produce more language.
I really like the pair/share you have planned for the students as it requires them to think again about what they want to say before they transfer it into writing. Will you have the partners check each other to assure that all questions have been answered?
An extension activity might be to have the students copy the picture they are using into a word document and then type their stories to be shared, used for peer editing, or stored for a portfolio project.
Fun writing idea and good lesson,
Heidi
Hi Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteIn your introduction you mentioned wanting to make sure you had fun activities for the summer school students and I believe you have succeeded with this lesson. It's very well sequenced and provides prewriting, oral language practice with the story before writing, and opportunity for additional writing for those who finish early. Using photo prompts for creative writing is a terrific idea, especially these photos.
You included a reminder that students should make sure they have a beginning, middle, and end to their stories. Perhaps they could imagine a problem to overcome and the resulting photo was the solution? Just a thought.
I'm guessing that these pictures are manipulated with photoshop. That may be a good discussion after the writing activity. Students could generate ideas regarding which elements were in original photos and which were added or computer generated.
You made a good point about students sometimes having a hard time with written prompts. I'm bookmarking this website to use with my K-4 students. Thanks for posting this!