New Year's Resolutions

I want to lose weight. I need to go to the gym more often.  This year, I am determined to learn to play the piano.

Many of us begin the New Year with great hopes of making significant changes or improvements, only to slip back into old habits. This is true for our students. Starting the New Year with the following lesson ideas on making and keeping New Year’s Resolutions will engage your students and help them choose resolutions of their own.

Primary Students

Read the attached story: Taking Care of Buttons. Discuss the following questions with students. You may choose to do this orally or in writing using the question sheet.

1)      What problem does Joey have in the story?

2)      Why is it hard for Joey to take care of Buttons?

3)      What is the difference between a wish and a plan?

After discussing the story, students will choose a New Year’s Resolution of their own.  This resolution can apply to school, home, sports or recreation.  To help struggling students, brainstorm a list of possible resolutions as a class.  Remind students their choice should be something they would like to improve.

It is now time to make the New Year’s Resolution Wish into a plan.  To help this process, students will respond to the following questions.

1)      What do I wish to change?

2)      What small steps can I take to make this resolution happen?

3)      How can I keep track of my progress?

Reflection is an important part of any plan or goal.  Make a resolution to check back in with students on the success of their New Year’s Resolution.

Intermediate Students

You may choose to have students read Taking Care of Buttons as you introduce the concept of New Year’s Resolutions. For a humorous take on resolutions, share the poem New Year’s Resolutions by Bruce Lansky.  The poem can be found at https://www.kidsgen.com/rhymes_and_poems/ny_resolution.htm

Students will quickly see the irony in the poem.  Discuss the following questions with students, either orally or in writing. A copy of these questions is at the end of the blog.

1)      What is the author’s purpose in writing this poem?

2)      Who do you think is speaking in the poem?  Provide evidence to support your answer.

3)      What tricks do you think the author may try next?

4)      How would e-learning or remote learning change the tricks the author might try?

The speaker in this poem has done many rotten tricks in the past. The speaker’s resolution is to create new tricks for the upcoming year. After discussing the poem, students will choose a positive New Year’s Resolution of their own.  This resolution can apply to school, home, sports or recreation.  To help struggling students, brainstorm a list of possible resolutions as a class.  Remind students their choice should be something they would like to improve.  Encourage students to create a plan for this resolution which will help them be successful.

To help this process, students will respond to the following questions.

1)      What do I wish to change?

2)      What small steps can I take to make this resolution happen?

3)      How can I keep track of my progress?

Reflection is an important part of any plan or goal.  Make a resolution to check back in with students on the success of their New Year’s Resolution.

Taking Care of Buttons

By Write Now – Right Now

Joey and his parents were having a family meeting.  “Joey,” said Mom. “I need you to take better care of your gerbil, Buttons.  If you can’t, we will have to find a new home for her.”

Joey began to cry. “I will do better,” he said. “I don’t want Buttons to go to a new home.”

Joey really wanted to take good care of his pet.  However, he often forgot to give Buttons food and water and would let the cage bedding get dirty and smelly. 

“I wish I could do better,” he told his Mom. “I am not taking good care of my pet.”

“Right now, you are wishing you could remember to take care of Buttons.  You do not have a plan, you just have a wish,” responded Mom.  “Tomorrow is New Year’s Day.  Let’s make a New Year’s Resolution that you will be a better caregiver for Buttons.  We will make a plan so you will be able to keep your New Year’s Resolution.”

Together Mom and Joey wrote out his New Year’s Resolution.  First, they made a schedule to help Joey remember to feed Buttons. He would give Buttons food and water every morning right after breakfast.  To remind him, Mom set Buttons’ food right next to the breakfast cereal.  Before he brushed his teeth at night, Joey would give Buttons his dinner and check to make sure his water bottle was full.

Joey also needed a plan to clean Buttons’ cage. Mom printed off a monthly calendar to hang in Joey’s room. Together, she and Joey chose days that Joey would clean Buttons’ cage and circled the dates in bright red marker.

Joey felt better.  He followed his New Year’s Resolution plan carefully, remembering to feed and clean Buttons. He had turned his wish to be a better pet owner into something real.

Questions for Taking Care of Buttons - Primary

1)     What problem does Joey have in the story? 

2)     Why is it hard for Joey to take care of Buttons?

3)     What is the difference between a wish and a plan?

Planning a New Year’s Resolution

1)     What do I wish to change?  

2)     Why small steps can I take to make this resolution happen?

3)     How can I keep track of my progress?

Questions for New Year’s Resolutions - Intermediate

1)     What is the author’s purpose in writing this poem?

2)     Who do you think is speaking in the poem?  Provide evidence to support your answer.

3)     What tricks do you think the author may try next?

4)     How would e-learning or remote learning change the tricks the author might try?

Planning a New Year’s Resolution

1) What do I wish to change?

2) Why small steps can I take to make this resolution happen?

3) How can I keep track of my progress?

Expanding Our Writing - Multiple Paragraph Essays

As I recently worked with a class of 5th graders, it was apparent they had mastered opinion paragraph writing.  Their topic sentences were solid, their big idea sentences clear and their detail sentences were examples of how a long and luxurious sentence should be written.  It was time to challenge these writers.

                In Social Studies we had been reviewing and mastering note-taking skills.  The learning objective for the next few days in writing would be to combine note-taking and opinion writing, two skills the students had already mastered.  The new skill we were adding would be taking our opinion writing to a multiple paragraph essay with the inclusion of an introductory and concluding paragraph.

                We began with a prompt.  The prompt was timely, as many of the students were planning their holiday vacations.    

You will read informational articles about three different National Parks / Monuments.   Think about the reasons that encourage people to choose a historical place to visit on vacation.  Read the information about each location.  Choose one site from the list and write an essay persuading someone to visit the site you chose.  Include three reasons people would choose to visit this historical site.

These 5th graders quickly realized that before choosing a location they must first gather information about that park.  To help narrow their search, I told them they must choose between Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, and Mesa Verde. These parks were chosen as they might not be as well-known to the students, forcing them to use their research skills, not simply background knowledge.

                Students were asked to research all three parks, looking for reasons people might choose to visit this area.  This led to a conversation with students about what things influenced people to choose a specific place.  For example, the entry fee might be $9.00 per person.  Taken alone, that is merely a fact. How might ticket cost become a reason people would choose a destination?

                Independently taking notes on each park was the first step.  Students were given a class period to randomly gather notes on each park – no organization was required at this point.  Students independently collected their research on notebook paper.  At the conclusion of this time period, everyone chose a location in which they were interested.  Using large chart paper, common groups gathered and compiled the information they had found.

                Referring back to the prompt, students reviewed their task. Each student must choose a park and then write a multi-paragraph essay, convincing the reader that their choice is best.  Taking their notes, students sorted their ideas into three Big Ideas and composed a plan.  They were ready to begin their writing!

                The concept of taking each Big Idea and its Supporting Details and turning it into a separate paragraph was easy for these writers.  However, the question soon arose, “What type of topic sentence do we use?”  This was the perfect segue into the need to stretch a topic sentence into a topic paragraph.

                When we began to master various topic sentences, we did not learn each type in a single day.  In the same way, we learned different ways to write a topic paragraph slowly. We began by practicing three different ways to introduce a topic paragraph.  The purpose of the initial sentence is to capture the readers’ attention.   Information about the topic would follow after this attention grabbing sentence.

After dividing a piece of paper into quadrants, we labeled three of the sections Question, Hyperbole, and Statistical Information.  These were the types of attention grabbing sentences we would use to introduce out topic paragraph.  Using one of the parks as a topic, we began with writing a hyperbole, or exaggerated sentence.  (This is definitely a student favorite!) 

Mesa Verde, the best park in the world, will lead you to an explosion of exhilaration.  It is a whole new world when it comes to thrill.  

Now that you have grabbed your reader’s attention, you must now inform them of the information to follow in your essay.  As you have already organized your ideas on a plan, this step is easy. Simply list the big ideas found on your plan in a sentence.

This National Park is best known for its pueblo homes, hiking trails and tours. 

Students repeated the process using both a question and statistical information as attention grabbers.  They now had three topic paragraphs from which to choose. 

Writing the body of the essay was a familiar task.  Through the use of extended details, each big idea on the plan became a separate paragraph.  The students quickly completed this portion of their writing and were soon ready to write a conclusion.

A concluding paragraph of a multiple paragraph essay also has additional requirements. We learned that a concluding paragraph must contain the following three sentences:

·         A concluding sentence, similar to a single paragraph

·         A reminder of the big ideas

·         A call to action

As a writer, however, you get to choose the order of these sentences.  We again folded a piece of paper to help us focus our practice.  The students practiced arranging these three sentences to conclude their writing until they found the most interesting order. 

The students were proud of their accomplishments and asked to publish their writing.  After revising and editing their drafts, the final essays were ready to be typed and published.  Their notes, plans, topic paragraphs and conclusions were filed in their writing binders to use as guides for the next essay they would write.  These 5th graders had spent multiple daysengaged in a topic.  Through writing an introductory and concluding paragraph, these writers had stretched their writing from a single paragraph to a multiple paragraph essay.