Wendy Ritter - Writing Lead Sentences

[Wendy Ritter]

During my 8 years at Florence Drake as a special ed. resource teacher, I have primarily worked with the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. With the emphasis on the writing test and helping my students become better writers, I have put much of my focus on teaching the writing traits and on basic writing skills. As a resource teacher, my responsibilities are to my students in special education. Depending upon the student, I may work with them in small groups or collaborate with their teacher and work with them within the general education classroom. I am fortunate that the classroom teachers welcome me into their rooms with such acceptance. However, there are students within the classroom who need similiar help that my students need. These students may become part of my pull out groups. Last year, what began as teaching the writing traits and preparing for the writing test to a small pull-out group of 5th graders has blossomed into working cooperatively with the 5th and 6th grade teachers and teaching the writing traits to their whole class. I have been able to take the many lessons from Writingfix.com and other resources and try them out with both my small groups and these large groups. This has been such a great experience for me, and I look forward to continuing this sharing next year.
Over the years, I have learned that taking the time to help my students brainstorm and generate ideas about their topics before ever writing a sentence is rewarded with longer, more descriptive writing with less frustration. With my support and encouragement, my students feel comfortable writing and sharing what they have written. I am consistently surprised and pleased at their creativity. I use the same approach when writing within the 5th and 6th grade classes: basic structure, time to brainstorm and time to share. Another important aspect of teaching writing I have learned is not only having students share their writing, but sharing of my own writing and stuggles with them. The students may feel comfort hearing that I struggle with similiar issues when writing.
One issue in which both my students and I struggle is creating a great lead sentence which invites the reader into the story. Sitting at a table one day with 5 pairs of eyes staring at me, waiting for help to create a new lead sentence for their story helped me realize how difficult this task can be. It motivated me to work on providing a structure to guide students when writing that important first sentence. Using the Little Red Riding Hooks developed by Dena Harrison as a foundation, I taught a lesson the the 6th grade class teaching the different lead sentence ideas and providing time to practice those leads. This is the lesson I am planning to use as my demonstration lesson. The more I work with this structure and with my students, I see a need to provide more practice and use of mentor texts to provide examples. I plan to incorporate these new ideas into my demonstration lesson.
If you have any suggestions of resources which may help me develop this idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Gisela Daniel]

Hi Wendy,
It was interesting for me finding out that the 6th graders have some of the same problems than kindergarteners do. I often think that if I address those hard skills in K. they will be good at it when they get to the higher grades. I think I didn’t take in consideration that as the content get more complex they have new challenges and the fact that they master a skill in kindergarten doesn’t mean they will as they get older. I can wait to see if the strategies you use are pretty much the same ones we use just making more complex sentences. It will be great to get new ideas to work with the kids to help them come up with topic sentences for their writing.

[Lisa Larson]

Wendy,

I teach seventh and eighth graders and writing a good opening sentence is an important skill! It determines whether or not the reader wants to keep reading, or put down the book (or essay) and do something else!

I've used Little Red Riding Hooks with my students and it has helped my struggling writers write sentences that "hook" the reader. These suggestions are great alternatives to the tired, "start with a sound," or "start with a question" that so many students seem to use. As a scorer for the state writing exams, I enjoy reading different openings that show the student has learned a technique and isn't afraid to experiment with it.

I think you have a good presentation idea and I can't wait to see how you are going to expand on Dena's approach and help us offer more choices and techniques to our students.

Lisa Larson

[Jetta Lovett]

I too, have struggled in this area and I look forward to hearing about the methods that you use. I also share my feelings about writing and how it doesn't come easy to me as well. They seem to take comfort in knowing that. Brainstorming as a class always helps my struggling writers, but I'd like them to take it upon themselves in the writing process. Seldom do they stretch themselves. I look forward to your presentation.

Jetta Lovett

[Mary Lynn]

Hi Wendy,
I applaud your abilities to share and work so well with classroom teachers and all their students, what a great idea! I have done very little with lead sentence writing, so I am looking forward to hearing some new techniques from your demo. lesson. I work with third graders, however some of them are at a 6-8th grade reading level, and some are at kinder..., but I know that today, in our classrooms, with such diversified abilities, the insight of Sped. teachers is invaluable.

[Sandra Madura]

Wendy,

You have given a full explanation of your thinking. I can see much of this ning entry as part of your rational for developing your demonstration and the accompaning booklet. I think you have hit on the core idea of why some children struggle--they do not have the tools they need to even begin writing. Without your guidance the blank page becomes overwhelming. Providing your students with a structure helps them get started. You follow that by providing alternate ways for your students to begin their writing; through this, each child is given power over his own learning by selecting from a list of techniques to jump start their ideas. In addition writing with your students makes your students' tasks less daunting. Your collaborative, small group setting opens up a circle of support for everyone at the table.

I'm very excited to see you shape your classroom successes into a powerful presentation.

Sandy

[Catherine Guild]

Hi Wendy,

This is a great topic because so many of us and our students struggle with writing a great lead sentence that draws our readers in. I have taught these types of lessons to my students over the years, but it doesn't seem to get any easier, and when they become frustrated I feel as if I've hit the wall with them. I look forward to your demo to gain more ideas and tools to use in my classroom. I also appreciate that you share your writing and struggles with your students. I agree that it helps them feel more comfortable with their own struggles. I definitely need to do this more often with my students.

[Temoca Dixon]

How has your research gone? I had a little bit of a difficult time to start with my article research, but I was able to pull up a couple to use. I like your idea about working on great lead sentences to jump start writing. The Red Writing Hooks is a good lesson and I have used it in my class. I also have gathered mentor texts to help students study the type of writing I want them to produce themselves.

I look forward to talking about this with you.

Temoca