Co-Teaching Strategies- Cooperative Learning

Jennifer Heckman: Co-Teaching Strategies- Cooperative Learning

Day 2:

Subject: Writing Workshop: 8th Grade Unit: Creating Interesting Dialogue Standards: 12.6: Analyze, evaluate, and apply knowledge of how authors use techniques and elements in fiction for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes. 15.7: Evaluate how an author’s choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a work. 19.14: Write stories or scripts containing the basic elements of fiction 20.4: Select and use appropriate rhetorical techniques for a variety of purposes, such as to convince or entertain the reader.

Lead: 1) On the overhead show a segment of dialogue from The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. 2) Look at Christine and say, “There’s something wrong with this set of dialogue and I just can’t put my finger on it.” 3) Christine, “Well, does it serve one of the purposes of effective dialogue we talked about yesterday?” 4) Me:“Yes, it definitely helps develop the character and also advances the plot, but I don’t know it feels like there’s an easy fix to make this good dialogue great.” 5) Christine:“Oh, I see what you mean. There’s one word that’s repeated an awful lot. That really takes away from the writing. Does anyone see what the word is? Turn to your neighbor and try to decide what it is.” 6) Students will discuss and share to the full class. Christine and I will guide them to the key word “Said” if necessary. 7) Underline each time the author said “said” in the dialogue tags. 8) Ask the students why this is a bad thing. What does it do to the writing? Have the students Think/Pair/Share.

Procedure 1: 1.) Today in your table groups we’re going to look for words that an author should use other than said. 2.) I’m going to walk around with the group role cards to let you know what your job will be for today (leader, recorder, time keeper, presenter, errand monitor). 3.) In the center of your table you will find two children’s books. Your group will look through your books and the group recorder will record all the words you find that you find in dialogue tags other than said. 4.) Timekeepers, you have 10 minutes to complete this task. 5.) While the groups are working Christine and I will walk around and monitor group work. 6.) After all groups are finished or at the end of the 10 minutes (whichever comes first). Presenters will report out their findings. Procedure 2: 1.) Then, have the groups take 5 minutes to come up with other great words for said that were not on their lists and not shared with the whole group. 2.) While the students are working, Christine and I will pass out a column from the words other than said list handout, face down on the desk. Each group will receive a different column and a speech bubble for each member of the group. 3.) When students are finished coming up with their own lists, remind the students that using words other than said help paint a picture in the readers mind of what the character looks like when he/she is delivering the dialogue. 4.) Today we’re creating a word wall for words other than said. The student’s task is for each member of the group to create a dialogue bubble that both shows and tells one of the words other than said. Students can use one of the words that their group came up with or one of the words from their column. Rules, More than one member of the group cannot do the same word, and if a word is already on the wall they cannot use it for their bubble. 5.) Students will use the next 20 minutes to create their bubbles, cut them out and position them on the bulletin board. Procedure 3: 1.) We will take the last 5 minutes of the class to replace Munsch’s “saids” in Paper Bag Princess from the beginning of the block as a group. Homework: 1.) Students will take one of their journal entries and edit their saids for more vivid verbs. Materials:  Paper Bag Princess sample transparency.  Cooperative Group Role Cards  Sample children’s books, at least 2 per table.  Instead of Said columns.  Dialogue Bubbles