Improvements in the Classroom

When I began my student teaching with my fifth graders, I found that I needed to explain one writing tip at a time.  When I first began teaching all of the writing methods at once, students began giving me some puzzling looks.  That's when my CT explained that students need to be introduced to each writing tip
I also found it to be helpful to first let students choose their topic that they want to write about.  When it came to choosing a topic for them, students began to not show any interest and would complain.  So in order to keep their attention, I chose to let them pick a topic as long as I could approve it before they began.  One thing that I made sure that my students focus on were the words that are classified as figurative language.  Some of these examples are onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, simile, and many more.  I wanted them to be able to use some of these words in order to get their reader interested in their writing.  Plus these will help my students when they are tested in the spring over their writing methods.  The things that I learned from this method is that the students writing will improve as long as they use one of these methods in their writing.  I was able to compare these lessons with the ones that I used when student teaching for my third graders.  I found that when they were introduced to these words it improved their writing and they were able to use more creative words then the same ones over and over.  I feel that the figurative language words would help students with their writing.  I would recommend them to anyone!~