Common Core CPR - Chapter 3 - Engaging All Students

This chapter not only suggested ways to engage students in reading and writing, it made me think "outside the box" about meeting the requirement to include more informational text in the classroom.  One teacher uses movie trailers as informational text to start talking about intended audience and voice.  Students not only identify the targeted audience, they have to back their claims up with details from the text/trailer.  I have used movie segments from Shrek and passages from The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss as discussion starters for audience and satire with great success in the past.  I need to find similar materials to start discussions at the start of other units.   (For The Butter Battle Book introduction to satire -- adapted from a lesson plan on ReadWriteThink.org -- I scanned every page of the book and added each picture to a PowerPoint presentation that I then show my students while I read.  Even my most lively senior classes are remarkably quiet when I read the book to them!)

The chapter starts with an example of how one teacher addresses the idea of clear writing.  His students write directions for making a peanut butter sandwich.  The next day, he brings in everything he needs and then follows their directions with varying degrees of success.  He does this at the start of the school year and refers back to lessons learned through this activity throughout the year.

Another idea to encourage reluctant writers is to only grade early drafts for completion.  This provides a student who has had bad experiences with writing to get ideas onto paper in a non-threatening environment.  I have successfully used journal writing in a similar way.  I require students to write at least half a page in response to a writing prompt.  I mark what I see as the top three errors in mechanics and grammar, but do not deduct any points so long as the student makes it to halfway down the page.  With some classes -- those that need the additional motivation -- I give bonus points for reaching the 3/4 and full page lengths.  An idea that I plan to implement from this chapter in conjunction with these journal entries is to require that students address each entry to a specific person.

There is so much more in this chapter.  After reading it, I feel better about incorporating more informational text into my classroom.  I am already rethinking some of the units I have planned for spring semester -- the units will stay the same, but the activities will change.