With a school-wide focus on improving students ' expository text writing skills, Ms. Rearick worried about her ith-grade students ' abilities to write text that explained what they had learned. She had tried a variety of informational topics; however, they all proved to be lackluster for her young learners. After reading Tough Boris (Fox & Brown, 1994), Ms. Rearick realized that the topic of pirates had piqued her students' interest. Inspired by their enthusiasm and inquiry, Ms. Rearick took the opportunity to develop a one-week mini-unit on pirates.
After searching the Internet and collecting all of the pirate-related books in the library, Ms. Rearick felt encouraged that her students would respond well to the subject and hoped it would generate myriad opportunities for discussion. She knew that connecting classroom learning with this pop culture topic would provide the motivational avenue to facilitate her students' expository, text-based writing development. Drawing about pirates might logically lead into writing about pirates.
Knowing her students' interest in drawing, Ms. Rearick was confident that the Open-Mind Portrait Strategy (Tompkins, 2008) would help develop her students' expository writing skills. She launched her pirate unit with a variety of motivating activities, graphic organizers, and creative projects. As a result of Ms. Rearick's student-centered planning and preparation, enthusiasm for reading and writing about pirates soon flooded the classroom.
After searching the Internet and collecting all of the pirate-related books in the library, Ms. Rearick felt encouraged that her students would respond well to the subject and hoped it would generate myriad opportunities for discussion. She knew that connecting classroom learning with this pop culture topic would provide the motivational avenue to facilitate her students' expository, text-based writing development. Drawing about pirates might logically lead into writing about pirates.
Knowing her students' interest in drawing, Ms. Rearick was confident that the Open-Mind Portrait Strategy (Tompkins, 2008) would help develop her students' expository writing skills. She launched her pirate unit with a variety of motivating activities, graphic organizers, and creative projects. As a result of Ms. Rearick's student-centered planning and preparation, enthusiasm for reading and writing about pirates soon flooded the classroom.
