Is There a Hemingway in the House?

Jigsaw article summary

Key points:

- kinesthetic students think writing seems like an inefficient way to communicate-slower than talking and far more dangerous: when you speak, nobody notices where you put the commas; write and they’re after you with a red pencil.

- Great teachers wrestle with facts, struggle with details, and rework raw information into language that reaches their audience.

- Students need effective, bite-size opportunities to help those master writing skills.

- Warming up to writing activities which help students become real writers

Name	Purpose	Participants	Methods
Hand Writing	Kids know some words to use, and they don’t have to fumble for the correct spellings. Note: - Students will be staring at a wealth of words about the topic, clustered in such categories. - Powerful; stimulation and learn best when using larger muscles; helps visual/spatial learners to see related words organized in clumps àparagraph; participate in the activity.	- Grades 1-3 - Captures youthful imagination and uncovers a trove of rich voc - Kinesthetic learners	1.   Write on the finger (which no worries about spellings or penmanship) 2.   Teacher does comments and respond 3.   Write on the board & ease the words on their hands 4.   Repeat the reading-and-praising process and add the new words to the others on the board.
Skinny to Steroids	- Emphasizes adjective and adverbs. - challenge students to transform minimalist sentences into something more. Note: - It’s a stand-alone activity that you can do in two mins which can be worked before the bell rings and at the beginning of class. - Ask students to work in the small groups	- All class or groups	1.   Write a mind-bogglingly simple sentence on the board. e.g.: “The cat eats.” 2.   Leave big spaces between the words 3.   Ask students questions 4.   Give suggestions like “black” 5.   Continue asking for suggestions. 6.   Squeeze words in, put them on stilts above the sentence, and hook them on from below. 7.    Read aloud
Empty Your Head	Writing about a historic event, a character in a read-aloud book, creative topic, Note:    -Although all the words are related to the major topic, the linked words belong together in robust sentences or paragraphs. - Help visual/spatial and kinesthetic learners organize their ideas before starting writing.	-Prime students - Individual or groups - Visual/spatial, kinesthetic learners	1.   Outline of head (on board, chart, handout…) 2.   Ask students to write all the words that come to mind about the designed topic 3.   Keep writing until noting else comes out. 4.   As finishing, ask them to count their words and circle the most interesting ones. 5.   Give students a set of markers, reviewing the words, choosing one and drawing a line from it to all the words that go with it. 6.   Using different colored marker and link another set of words.
Annotated Drawing	To help students warm up for a writing assignment, have them sketch the topic’s main ideas. Note: - Similar to Empty Your Head, but it plays on the strength of visual learners.	- Visual learners who think in pictures.	1.   Giving a topic 2.   Have students surround each sketch with a halo of words that elaborates on it. 3.   The final product resembles a thought diagram that can be used as a starting point for constructing sentences, paragraph or a longer piece.
Listen and Draw	Helping students grasp the picture-making power of words		1.   Have students draw pictures that capture what they’re seeing in their heads as you read aloud. 2.   Make simple sketches, stick figures, abstract lines, shapes of emotions, sound or action or note taking. 3.   Read vivid material and ask students what they saw in their minds and what words the author used to make those pictures come alive 4.   When students cite a passage that created a picture for them, reread the relevant parts while they hold up their drawing. 5.   Write some words that the author used around the edge of their pictures to make a border or frame connecting the words to their images.
Writer’s Hats	Being playful about writing eases anxiety in reluctant writers and announces that this is a special time of day when creativity and individualism rule. Note: - Writing tool - Hats can block out visual distractions and focus young writers on the world of ideas inside their hat.		1.   Encourage students to bring in a favorite hat to wear whenever they write.
From Your Lips to Their Pens	Show students how to listen for the writer at work behind the words. Note: - Read-aloud session can be repeated - Search for literature rich in visual imagery and emotional content - Students improve their writing by listening to you read aloud because they hear new words in context, so their vocabulary grows. - They internalize the sentence fragments which the author used.		1.   Before starting reading, asking students to listen for excellent sentences or unusual words and to try to visualize pictures in their heads. 2.   After an exceptional passage, ask questions: what pictures did you see in your head?’ What words did the author use to make those pictures? What was your favorite part? Why? What was a great word that you heard? What phrase or sentence did you love?