Taking it off the map...

If you know me, you know I love, Love, LOVE Thinking Maps. The way they help my students organize their thinking is just magic! 
This student created a Bubble Map to describe tomatoes and then used that information to Take it Off the Map - using it to write.  Specifically, he was using the Bubble Map to help him revise a mentor sentence to make it more interesting with vivid word choice!
This is exactly what I've been guiding students to do, what we've been practicing together, and now to see him utilizing the skill independently makes my teacher heart soar!

Mentor Sentences

I don't know about y'all but my precious little ones struggle with writing. This is true most every year so every year I'm on the hunt for a new way to improve my practice and up my game.  This year, I am using Mentor Sentences by Ideas by Jivey. Basically it follows the grammar structure for Writer's Workshop and uses mentor texts as exemplars for writing. 

Day One we notice whatever we can about the chosen sentence from the text (which was read aloud previously). On Day 2 we label all the parts of the sentence we can. On Day 3 (today!) we revise the sentence to make it more interesting. On Day 4 we imitate. The students come up with super awesome and creative imitations of the sentence. Then, on Day 5 we take a quiz that allows students to demonstrate skills in editing, writing and grammar. 

We've been using the Mentor Sentences since week 2 (this is week 9). I don't know what all to attribute it to, probably a variety of factors, but this year my students are making quicker writing gains! 

#winning

Check out their revisions today...