How to Use Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer & GIVEAWAY!

I'm very excited to share with you how we have been using Ali Maier's book, Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer, throughout the last few weeks of school.  As you may remember, I first mentioned this book right before Christmas break.  This book is about twins, Maggie and Max, who are challenged by their mom to write 12 journal entries together during the Summer.  The twins analyze a different event, situation, or activity for each chapter (or journal entry) which makes for a great book to focus on analyzing, comparing, or contrasting perspectives.  You can read my initial review here.

Here are my suggestions for using the book in your classroom:

Ways to Read in the Classroom:
- Provide individual copies for students to read independently.
- Read with a partner (one student reads Maggie's part while the other reads Max's.)
- Read whole class (teacher reads main text and chooses a student to read Maggie's comments and another to read Max's.)
- Project for the class to see so they can follow along with all Maggie and Max's commentary.

Using the Book to Teach Comprehension Strategies:

- Analyze characters and setting.

- Locate humor and descriptive details within the text.

- Create a list of Maggie and Max's character traits.

Initially, I recorded every student suggestion.  Then, students looked back, and debated whether or not each character trait really fit the characters.  If not, we crossed them out, and added a better fitting trait.

- Analyze perspectives.

- Compare and contrast Maggie and Max's experiences, perspectives, likes, and dislikes

Below, students compared and contrasted Maggie and Max's experiences at a hotel.

Journal Writing
- Analyze the genre of journal writing.
- Use this book as an anchor text to model positive characteristics of good journal writing.
- Use this book to launch an in-class journal writing center where students write back and forth to one another in the same fashion as Maggie and Max.
- Launch an at-home journal writing activity over an extended break (Christmas, February, April, Summer, etc...)

Want to snag a copy of this book for your classroom?  Enter using Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lastly, be sure to check out Ali Maier's website for more resources and information!

Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer REVIEW

I am always on the look out of new books to share with my fourth graders so you can imagine my delight when I was invited to review a copy of Ali Maier's Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer.

 I dove into reading the second this book arrived (for free) at my doorstep.  It didn't take long to realize that this book would be a huge hit with my students.

So what is it about?  A sister and brother (twins) are forced by their mother to write in a journal together over the summer.  There are 12 entries and each twin takes a turn writing their perspective of a specific event or topic as well as commenting on their sibling's entry.  The font for the twins, Maggie & Max, stand out so you can easily tell who is writing.  Maggie's is lighter, my "girlie" and has dots the letter i with a heart.  Max's font is bolder and more masculine. 
 

My students immediately fell in love with Max's sense of humor and Maggie's quick wits. Both are lovable characters who hook you into the storyline.

This book lends itself well for introducing journal writing to your class, as well as analyzing perspectives.  There is an amazing website that accompanies the book (and future books) containing helpful links, resources, and fun stuff for children, adults, parents, and teachers.

I began reading this book with my class last week and can't wait to complete it before Christmas break.

Check back in a few weeks to see how I use this amazing book in my classroom and for a chance to win a copy for yourself!

Shared Writing Journals and More . . .

I'm linking up again this week with Tara for Monday Made It! 

This week, I finally had time to put my own spin on the shared writing journals Tara posted a few weeks ago.  I created some of my own covers for the journal, printed them out, and glued them to some composition books that I found at Walmart.

I plan on having students use them during reading and writing centers or as an activity for fast finishers.  Students will grab the journal of their choice, write about the topic on the cover, and read what other students have written.
I packaged my shared journal labels, along with some fun writing prompts and character and setting dice here at my TpT store.

This week I popped into my local library and snagged some read along books, the kind that come with both a picture book and a CD to listen along.  I downloaded the stories onto my classroom iPods and then started to work on the packets to go along with them.  The first one I finished up is for the book, The Emperor's Egg, by Martin Jenkins.

It includes worksheets and activities (some for fun and some for state test prep) for reading, listening, and writing.  You can download it here at my TpT store.  Look for plenty more to come in the near future as I plan on making one for each of our listening passage books...and we use a different one for each week of the school year.

Check out Monday Made it for more Made it Fun!

Don't forget, there is still one more day for the Back to School Sale at TpT.