Making School-Bookstore
Partnerships Work
Keeping
a school-business partnership viable requires a lot of communicating. We have
set up a partnership committee among our faculty to ensure this happens.
Among our partnerships is a unique one
with a nearby independent bookstore. The storeowner, whose children attended
our school years ago, was looking to reconnect with us. The store is a short
distance from our school, so several classes have taken walking field trips
there. While at the store, students participate in interactive literature
activities.
The bookstore and school have teamed up
for many other events. Last year we had a "Kids Love a Mystery Night"
at the store. The owner arranged to have the local high school's drama class
act out short mini mysteries for the students. Students played an interactive
role in the skits and had to solve the mystery based on the clues.
The bookstore also displays students'
stories. It is a real thrill for students to take their parents to the
bookstore to see their books on display. The bookstore arranged for the drama
students to return to act out skits.
The store recently rented out a movie theatre
to host a discussion about the movie and book Holes. Families attended the
private screening and discussion.
Focusing
a Narrative in the Classroom
Personal narratives are best when they capture a
moment in time and help the reader to experience it fully. The challenge for teachers is helping students to narrow their
topic so that they don’t write a “bed-to-bed” story.
After
students chose a day they wanted to write about, we used a clock face as a
planning tool. Students broke the day into 12 one-hour segments. Then students
starred one of the hours that was most interesting. Using another clock face,
they broke the hour into 4 fifteen-minute segments, and again starred one
segment that was most interesting.
Next,
we taught a “slow motion writing strategy” to slow down even a short amount of
time. For example, we had each student write down, “They threw the
ball.”
Students
were asked to rewrite the original sentence, adding more detail based on what
they saw in slow motion. One student wrote “He quickly glanced at the catcher,
cocked his arm back, aimed with precision and let the ball fly off his finger
tips.”
Finally
we had students think of a simple action they might include in their personal
narrative, i.e. “I hit the piñata.” Then they practiced envisioning it in slow
motion and rewriting it with greater descriptive detail, i.e. “I gripped the
bat tightly, threw my hips into it and swung at that stubborn piñata with all
my might.”
Using
the time continuum (12 hours to 1 hour to 15 minutes to 1 slow motion minute)
really made sense to the students and helped them to write a focused but rich
personal narrative.
Pass
The
Plate
Pass the Plate is a quick, engaging way to have students
generate lots of ideas about a topic.
1.Put
students into groups of 3 or 4 and provide each group with a plastic picnic
plate and a transparency marker. (Paper plates work, too.)
2.
Tell students that they will be given a word to write in the middle of the
plate, and then they will pass the plate around their group, adding ideas, for
2 minutes. They will be given points for every idea on the plate, (I usually
give 1000) and bonus points for any idea they have that no other group wrote
down (5000.)
3.
Rules for Pass the Plate - spelling does not count, they may not use resources
(other than each other), and they may not skip a turn.
Teachers,
like students, enjoyed the friendly competition and were very engaged with the
activity. When you are finished sharing ideas, simply hold the plate under the
water faucet and it will rinse right off!
