Writing Personal Narratives

Through Blogging:
3rd through 8th grade

Dave Kootman
 Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Lesson 1- What is a Blog? 3
Lesson 2- Modeled Pre-Writing 5
Lesson 3- Modeled Writing 9
Lesson 4- Elements of A Personal Narrative 11
Lesson 5- Writing the Narrative 12
Lesson 6- Time-Order Words 13
Lesson 7- The Attention Getter 16
Lesson 8- Adding Details 19
Lesson 9- Commenting 21
Lesson 10- Evaluating Classroom Blogs With A Rubric 23
Additional Considerations 24
Writing While Away from the Classroom 25
Teacher-Student Conferences 27
Student Motivation 29
Internet Safety and Security 29
Frequently Asked Questions 30
Definition of Terms 33
Appendix A- Notes for the Classroom Blogger 34
Appendix B- Grading Rubric 36
Appendix C- Time-Order Transition Words 38
Appendix D- Attention Getters 40
Appendix E- Tutorials 42
Appendix F- Student Samples 43
Appendix G- Sample Comments 48

1
 Introduction
This program is outlined in 8 sequential lessons. Some lessons may be repeated more than once
for clarity and effect.

Suggestions for what the teacher could say during parts of the lessons are given and can be found
inside dashed text boxes
.
Keep in mind that these are simply suggestions as to what a teacher can say and do. They need not
be repeated verbatim.

Also, within certain lessons are Mini-Lessons

These mini-lessons are meant to be quick (less than 8 minutes), but effective review and/or
introduction to key concepts of the larger lessons.

To begin, first read or skim through all of the lessons in the program. Get a feel for the final
project, as well as the scope of the activities.

2
 Lesson 1
What is a Blog?
Objective: The students will understand features of a blog and be able to describe when and why
they are used.

The teacher tells the class the objective of the lesson and explains what he/she is going to do.

For additional background on the definition and purpose of blogs, the teacher may want to view:
http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs

This year, we are going to be creating a special project. Tomorrow I’m going to go
into detail about this project, but I just wanted to get you thinking about what it could
be.

Has anyone heard the term “blog’?

Does anyone know what a blog is?

A blog is like a journal or a diary. The term itself is a shortened version of the term
web log. A blog is a website that you publish your writing on and it saves your
writing in chronological, or time, order. They can even have photos in them.

Blogs are easy to use, so anyone can start one and instantly publish their work on the
internet. People of all ages use blogs to communicate about anything that is
important to them. There are millions of blogs on the internet. Many of them are
written by kids like you!

The person writing a blog is called a “blogger.” Many people have become very
famous and even made a lot of money writing blogs that have become popular.

The teacher will then visit live examples of popular elementary blogs on the web. Sample sites to visit
are:
Kootman’s Class Daily Blog - http://kootmansclass.blogspot.com/
-A daily account of a fourth grade class in California

South Paris Collaborative Blog- http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=88116 –A classroom blog

with classroom updates and thought provoking writing prompts. Links to student blogs as well.

Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog- http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337 - A Canadian first

grade class blog written by the teacher with miscellaneous daily tidbits, photos and videos. Links to
student blogs as well.

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Mr. Stoeckly’s Classrom Blog- http://meadowviewintermediate.blogspot.com/
-A middle school blog written by the teacher highlighting daily news. Links to student blogs as well.

These are just some examples of relative blogs. Teachers or students can search for other examples
simply by Googling (www.Google.com) relevant phrases, using a blog search engine such as Technorati (
www.technorati.com) or by visiting classroom blog hosting sites, such as Class Blogmeister
(www.classblogmeister.com).

A relevant blog will contain many recent postings. The blog can be written by teachers, students or both.
Also, examine the blog closely to see if it is password protected, contains the option for readers to
comment and finally if the students maintain the blog entirely or if they write it and the teacher posts their
work. In this project, It is recommended that students write the blog text and the teacher publishes the
work him or herself. This maintains the security of the site while still allowing students freedom to
express themselves. Upper grade teachers may wish students to each have their own blog sites. See the
Frequently Asked Questions section for more information regarding this.

I’d like everybody to think of a specific example of why someone would

write a blog?
(possible answers include: to tell about their life (especially so people who live
far away will know), to show their pets, to write about politics, to give
information about a certain topic, to persuade someone to do something like
vote in a particular way, or be friendly to the environment, to find new friends,
share a poem, book review or piece of writing, to say what happened in their
classroom.)

What could you write a blog about?

Tomorrow we’ll talk more about what our classroom project will be.

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 Lesson 2
Modeled Pre-Writing
Objective: Students will review what a classroom blog is and develop an understanding of how it will be
used in their classroom.
Objective II: Students will understand how to use a note taking sheet to prepare for narrative writing.

Review of writing terms/vocabulary: audience, writing process

*Use previous lesson to review what a blog is.

The teacher will then review and explain the stages of the writing process. Prewriting, Drafting,
Revising, Editing, and Publishing.

Yesterday, we looked at a few blogs that were written about what goes on in other
classrooms during the day.

I’d like everyone to think of one quality of a blog that you remember from yesterday.

Remember that when we write, we talk about the term “audience” to refer to who
you are writing for. Who do you think would want to read a classroom blog?
Who is the audience for something like that? Possible answers include
friends, parents/family, other teachers…
Who usually reads your work?
Mom, Dad, your teacher, maybe it goes on the refrigerator? Not usually anyone else,
right?
What if you wrote something that the entire world could see?

This year we are going to be keeping track of the activities we do each day. We are
going to be writing them down in paragraph form. The interesting thing about the
writing that we will be doing is that we won’t be doing this writing on paper. We will
be writing a class blog. In the blog, we will write down all of the important things, or
major details, that happen during the day. This genre of writing is personal narrative,
as we will be describing events in order and even adding our personal opinions and
feelings on things.

One of the best things about writing our own classroom blog is how easy it is! I’m
going to teach you a format to follow that will make things really simple for you.

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The teacher will showcase the graphic organizer entitled “Notes for the Daily Blog.” (Appendix A)

In the prewriting phase, we gather ideas of what we want to write about and how we will plan
out our writing.

This is the graphic organizer that we will use to take notes for what we will write about.

Read the directions at the top of the page. Discuss the purpose for the organizer- to take notes for the
writing that will be done so students can remember what happened during the day.

The better the notes you take and the more details you include, the easier it will
be to write the next day. Remember not to use full sentences, but rather
phrases, key terms and ideas.

It must be stressed to students that the organizer is for notes only and not for writing out many complete
sentences.

Review “time and order words”.

Common Error: Sometimes students will want to use the same transition repeatedly, such as using
“Next” to start each paragraph. Let students know that there are a variety of different words and phrases
that they can use as transitions and that repeating the same word can become “boring” for the reader. This
concept will be detailed in the next lesson.

Note that the organizer refers to a grading rubric- this will be discussed later.

During the day today, I will be taking notes on what we do. I will list the
lessons in each subject and any interesting things that people would want to
know. Pay close attention to how I model this, as you will each have to do this
by yourselves soon.
Tomorrow, we will use these notes to write a narrative about the day.

Draw attention to the subject sections of the organizer.

The teacher should then take notes throughout the day using the Word document copy of the “Notes for
Classroom Blogger” sheet.
Option 1: Use an LCD projector and simply type over the lines on the sheet. (*For ease of use, it may be
helpful to hit the “insert” key in the upper right corner of the keyboard. This allows the teacher to type
over the black lines, rather than type in front of them.)
Option 2: Make a copy of the Notes on a transparency sheet and take notes using the overhead projector.

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The “Attention Getter” should “have a strong hook that truly makes the reader want to continue. This
could be a strong statement, a relevant quotation, statistic, or question .”
The “Attention Getter” will be discussed in further depth in lesson 5.

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 Notes for the “Daily Blog”
Name ________________________________ Date_______________________ #____

This page is for taking notes. Later you will turn the notes into complete sentences. In your final draft, you do not
need to include something from each category and you can add other items that are not on this sheet. Only use items of
importance, main concepts that we learned today or things that were interesting to you. You should have at least 3
paragraphs with a minimum of 2-3 sentences in each paragraph. Please view the rubric on the other side to make sure
you will get an A.

Reminder: You can use “I”, but not too much. This is not just about you; it is about the class.
Audience: Your classmates, your teacher, parents, other people around the world…
Purpose: to inform, to entertain
Suggestions: ●Give examples of things we did ●Use quotes from the teacher
●Any books or stories we read ●Use synonyms for boring words
●Include your feelings on what was fun, easy or difficult ●Describe things well, use details
Time and Order words: Here are some ways you can begin paragraphs when you write your Daily Blog article:
●Next ●Then ●After ●Afterwards ●Following ●Finally
●Once that was done, ●Once we finished, ●When we finished, ●When that was over,
●At 2:00, ●In Social Studies, ●During math time, ●Lastly, ●While ●During
Also, use all your resources for other ideas and good synonyms.

Attention Getter: _________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Math ________________________________________________________

Reading ________________________________________________________

Writing ________________________________________________________

Science ________________________________________________________

Social Studies ____________________________________________________

Lunch/ Recess_____________________________________________________

Class Chapter Book _________________________________________________

Anything else? ____________________________________________________

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 Lesson 3
Modeled Writing
Objective: Students will see first hand how to write a personal narrative using the Notes Sheet as a
prewriting aid.

The teacher will explain that students will be writing the blog post as if they were doing it for homework
on the day that it happened. This means that even if the writing is being done the day after the notes were
taken, the student is still using words like “today” and “this morning.” This point needs to be reinforced
during the modeled writing, as it can be confusing to some students.

Mini-Lesson:
While using a word processor to type, try to include lessons on the
application (typically Microsoft Word). These are little bits of information
that the teacher will share with the class during the overarching lesson.
Explain terms/concepts like:
Font- the way the type looks, such as size, color, bold, underlined and style.
Italics- text that looks thin and slanted. Used to represent titles of books
instead of underlining.
Bold-thick, dark font used to show emphasis.
The “tab” button- students should be shown how to indent instead of hitting
multiple spaces.
Explain the proper way to capitalize a letter.

* When typing on a computer that is projected to the front of the classroom, it is suggested to enlarge font
size so students can easily view the type via the LCD projector. Mention to students that this is simply so
everyone can view it and that when adults type it is almost always in 12 point font.

The teacher will model writing the narrative, starting with an attention getter and then following up with
other events of the day in chronological order.

As most word processing programs will highlight or underline misspelled words, it is very important to
stress to students that the goal right now is to get our ideas down first.

If we see a misspelled word pop up, we will leave it and go back to it so it doesn’t
interrupt the flow of our writing.
First, we get our ideas down. Then we correct our ideas, add to them and make them
better. But we don’t want to lose our train of thought when we are writing.

After all of the ideas have been written down, it is now time to revise, and then edit.

It is now time to revise the work and move sentences around, add details to give the reader a better idea of
what happened during the day, use more descriptive words and make other revisions.
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 During this stage, it is important to remember that the reader may not have been in the
room with us. For instance, if we write “We did lesson 13.1 in math today.” We need
to revise that and describe exactly what lesson 13.1 was.

Revision is about clarifying, making sure it makes sense, changing wording and adding details. This point
is crucial because it forces students to think back to exactly what they did. It reinforces learning when a
student has to review a prior lesson. It is suggested that students go so far as to explain the concepts of
the lesson and/or define vocabulary in their own words. This is another example of fully comprehending
and synthesizing content. Additionally, it reinforces concepts for other students who will read the blog.
Adding details will be described further in Lesson 7.

Now that we have most of our thoughts organized, we are going to look for words that
are misspelled, letters that needs to be capitalized and other things that we can correct,
like punctuation.

It is still important for the teacher to “think out loud” during this stage of the writing. Let the students
know why items are being corrected.

The next step is to edit the work for spelling, grammar, punctuation and other conventions.

If your computer has automatic spell-check, demonstrate to students how to use it. Also let students know
that spell check does not know all words, especially proper nouns. Sometimes, the word you need to spell
may not even be listed as a suggestion.

After further revisions have been completed reread the writing once more looking for any final changes
that need to be completed. It is especially common for young students to want to simply be done without
ever proofreading their work.

Post finished work to Class Blog Website (see appendix E)

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 Lesson 4
Elements of a Personal Narrative
Objective: Students will identify crucial elements of a personal narrative.

Good stories can be told anywhere, about anything. They are as likely to occur in your classroom or
home, as they are in a jungle or a battlefield. Two students could write about the same day in the same
classroom. One may be boring, while the other is inspiring, humorous, informative and highly
entertaining.

The teacher will state the objective of the lesson to the class and begin discussion on elements of a
personal narrative.

The teacher may want to include class input to make a graphic organizer, such as a KWL chart, web or a
simple bullet list of the following elements:

 Written in first person

 Uses the five senses- touch, taste, smell, sight and sound
 Uses personal feelings and thoughts, reflection/ lesson learned
 Answers the “reporter questions” of who, what, where, why, how and when
 Occurs mostly in chronological order
 Has an introductory paragraph with a topic sentence or attention getter
 Is polished and has been proofread for errors
 Allows the reader to feel like he or she was actually there

Mini-Lesson:
Think of the cafeteria during lunch. I want you to write your own account of
what it was like yesterday while you were eating. Think of the sounds,
smells and other sensory details. What did people say? Who did you talk to?
What did you have to eat? Was it noisy? What else do you remember?

Your assignment is to write about your experience at your last school lunch.
I’m sure if we tried we could turn eating lunch into five paragraphs of its
own.
However, let’s try to make this about one paragraph, unless something very
unusual happened during lunch.

After students have an understanding of the components of a personal narrative begin writing the
prewriting for the next daily blog. Continue with the full writing process and post it when complete. Be
sure to think out loud and model proper writing strategies for students.

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 Lesson 5
Writing the Narrative
Objective: Students will contribute ideas to, and identify critical elements of a narrative that the class will
write together.

This lesson will combine all of the above elements, as well as once again model proper personal narrative
writing for students.

We are going to take notes for the blog together today. Remember, these are
only notes and not compete sentences. They are just to help us recall what
happens today.

Begin by informing the students what the objective of the lesson is. The teacher will be writing the
narrative from beginning to end with student’s input. Students have the task of brainstorming unique
ways to integrate figurative language, such as similes and metaphors into the writing.

Using the LCD projector (or overhead projector with the notes sheet as a transparency) the class will
contribute to the notes sheet throughout the day. The teacher must make it a point to stop periodically and
record details after each lesson.

Today we are going to turn our notes sheet into descriptive paragraphs. Let’s begin
with the attention getter.
What was one of the most unique things that happened yesterday? It could have been
something funny, out of the ordinary, a holiday, or a quote that someone said. You
can even ask a question to the reader, as long as it is relevant to the day.

The following morning, the notes will be turned into a complete personal narrative.

Take student responses and choose one to use.

It is important to remember that there is no specific length for a paragraph. Some may
have 6 sentences, others may have only one. A paragraph represents a group of
similar ideas. The length of your entire blog is based on how many different things
we do that day and how well you describe them.

Follow up by turning all of the details into paragraphs. Use student volunteers to contribute ideas. The
ideas should be the students, but directed and modified by the teacher where necessary.

Revise, edit and proofread when finished.

Post finished work to Class Blog Website (see appendix C)
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 Lesson 6
Transition (Time-Order) Words
* This lesson is very similar to the previous lesson, as the concept needs to be modeled many times before
students begin writing independently.

Objective: Students will identify crucial elements of a personal narrative, with focus on time and order
words for transitions.

Begin the lesson by stating the objective to the students and telling them what they will be learning.

The focus of this lesson is on using a diverse array of transition words to create effect and unique
transitions between events of the day.

The teacher will define for the class what a time-order word is:

The class will use a graphic organizer (perhaps a simple “t” chart) to brainstorm time and order words.
The students will contribute a word or phrase and will then specify which column it fits in, either “time”
or “order.”

See Appendix C for sample transition and time-order words

Mini-Lesson:
Combine these two sentences using a transition word:
Tommy went sailing. Jimmy played the piano.
Sara ate lunch. Diana cleaned the dishes.
We ate dinner. We watched a movie.
I used the bathroom. The commercials were on TV.

Once again the teacher will explain that students will be writing the blog post as if they were doing it for
homework on the day that it happened. This means that even if the writing is being done the day after the
notes were taken, the student is still using words like “today” and “this morning.” This point needs to be
reinforced during the modeled writing, as it can be confusing to some students.

The teacher will model writing the narrative, starting with an attention getter and then following up with
other events of the day in chronological order.

As most word processor programs will highlight or underline misspelled words, it is very important to
stress to students that the goal right now is to get our ideas down first.

13
 If we see a misspelled word pop up, we will leave it and go back to it so it
doesn’t interrupt the flow of our writing.
First, we get our ideas down. Then we correct our ideas, add to them and make
them better. But we don’t want to lose our train of thought when we are writing.

After all of the ideas have been written down, it is now time to edit and revise.

Now that we have most of our thoughts down, we are going to look for words
that are misspelled, letters that needs to be capitalized and other things that we
can correct, like punctuation.

It is still important for the teacher to “think out loud” during this stage of the writing. Let the students
know why items are being corrected.

After editing the writing for errors, it is now time to revise the work further and move sentences around,
add details to give the reader a better idea of what happened during the day, use more descriptive words
and make other revisions.

During this stage, it is important to remember that the reader may not have been
in the room with us. For instance, if we write “We did lesson 13.1 in math
today.” We need to revise that and describe exactly what lesson 13.1 was.

Proofread the work out loud; perhaps by calling on a student or two to read it aloud.

Post finished work to Class Blog Website (see appendix E)

14
 Transition Words (Time-Order Words)
Definition: Transition words link related ideas. They show related ideas and show the time and
order that events occurred. They help the reader step from one sentence or paragraph to the next.

Remember- these words are frequently followed by a comma.

Example: Before class began , we played basketball.

Examples
Time
noon 11:35 am this morning
last night today tomorrow
during math in lunch at recess

Order
first afterwards immediately
while besides already
second after when
next an hour later later on

already meanwhile in the meantime

then before until

Conclusion
finally ultimately eventually
in conclusion to wrap up last
lastly to sum up at the end

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 Lesson 7
The Attention Getter
Objective: Students will review the concept of attention getters. Students will be able to define what an
attention getter is and create their own for a random school day.

The attention getter is one of the most important elements of a personal narrative. It is the first thing the
reader reads. A good attention getter motivates readers to continue viewing the rest of the work.

You are going to write an essay today. It will have about five paragraphs and
will explain what our day in class was about. Please do your best work.

Is everyone excited or what? (sarcastic tone)

What if I said:
Today you are going to be famous! Many people will know who you are and
what your life is like! You are going to write about our day in class and you get
to be as creative as you want. Tomorrow, people from all around the world will
be able to read what you wrote. Because your writing will be available to
everyone, everywhere, you will need to give it your best effort and be as
thorough and original as possible.

Are you more interested now?

The teacher will explain the importance of a good attention getter and note how a poor or missing
attention getter may cause a reader to lose interest in a student’s work. You could also find some great
openings to books they read – there are good ones and boring ones.

A good attention getter should make the reader feel as if he or she cannot wait to read the writing.
An effective attention getter can be:
 A relevant quotation
 A piece of dialogue from class
 An amusing short story
 Something out of the ordinary
 An interesting question for the reader
 A unique fact
 An interesting comparison – a simile or metaphor

The teacher may want to view examples of student created attention getters from online work, such as
www.kootmansclass.blogspot.com (see Appendix G for more samples from actual students). Ask students
to identify the attention getter in the work and if it fits into any of the categories just mentioned or if is
something else. Does it make them want to keep reading or is it just boring?
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 Mini-Lesson:
First, at the top of your paper I want you to define, in your own words, what an attention getter is
and why you would want to use one.

Think about something we did in class this week that could be an attention getter. Take a look at
the possible examples of attention getters and see what you could use as an attention getter if you
were writing a personal narrative about that day.

I want everyone to come up with his or her attention getter and write it down. It should be about
one to three good sentences long. It can be funny, but make sure that it relates to our day.

Review student responses

Possible student error: Students may tend to over generalize attention getters to other genres of writing.
Point out that a personal narrative allows authors the freedom to use such literary devices, however genres
like a research report or summary would not want to start out with a question for the reader or an amusing
short story.

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 Attention Getters
Love is in the air! Valentines day will raise your hair! Thursday through Monday no school! But before we
can talk about that we have to start from the beginning.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dodgeball time! I love dodgeball! The last time I played I was the last person playing.

DIVISION MATH QUIZ!!!!!!!!!!oooohhhh nnooooooooo!!!! Wait... division, peace of cake!

Hey, it's April Fools Day; you should watch out for the .....PIE .....just kidding.

NOOOO! Spring break is over!!

OH NO! The report cards are coming!

Buy some magazines, come on, I know you want to. We are selling magazines for a fundraiser, we can get a
lot of prizes.

Our class was lucky to get three of our students in the school spelling bee! Deisha even went on to the
district bee!

PARTY IN THE HOUSE SAY WHAT? WOO THERE IT IS!! Today, we had a band named Crew come to
our school. Before school started, we got to see them see them set up on stage.

Today, I saw a grown man running through a playground toy!

I did not know we were famous!!!!!! 1,2,3.... HOW many people are gonna walk through the door! The
superintendent of Fallbrook schools and two principals came to our room as well as a special person named
Ms. Lucy.

My class couldn't believe it! This morning when everyone went to go inside the bells didn't ring, the class
still thought it was time to play. The bells have already been off for a week.

Hello! Our day started when Mr.Kootman told the class about our new helper!!

HELP! HELP! we got locked out of out of the classroom today.

Man, that smell is still there! It's the heater! It smells worse than a couple dozen skunks! Something must be
wrong with it.

Yesterday, Mr. Kootman called in sick. Everybody thought he made an excuse just to get away from us kids.

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 Lesson 8
Adding Details
Objective: After learning about the importance of details, students will construct detailed descriptions of
a single event that happened in the classroom.

Begin the lesson by stating the objective to the students and telling them what they will be learning.

Today we are going to focus on adding details to our writing.

Sometimes we can add some specific images using nouns, some very specific
active verbs or a few good adjectives to add details to our work. Other times,
we need to add additional sentences and clauses to make our work more
interesting and descriptive.

Listen to this sentence: “The dog barked.”

How could we make this sentence richer? Could we jazz it up?

Write the sentence on the board.

Students should volunteer suggestions.

Possible revised sentence could be: “The old gray dog barked loudly at the cat from behind the fence.”
Or, even better: “The neighbor’s small, tan, Chihuahua ran right up to the big, black Rottweiler with teeth
barred, yapping as loudly as his little lungs could bear.

Now we have the same sentence, but do you have a clearer picture in your mind
now?

We can do the same thing with paragraphs.

Use a word processor and LCD projector to write “Today we learned about nouns in language arts.”

Next, use students’ input to turn that single sentence into a complete paragraph that describes nouns.

A possible example could be: “Today we learned about nouns in language arts. A noun can be a person,
place, thing or idea. When a noun names someone or something we capitalize it and it is called a proper
noun. We even made a web together about all the nouns we learned. I suggested “table.” Tomorrow,
Mrs. Jones says we are going to learn about adjectives, which are the part of speech that describe nouns.”

19
Students should realize that the reader will need to know:
1. The topic of the lesson
2. What the class did to learn it
3. Who did what (what the teacher did/ what the students did)
4. Examples of what you learned and any vocabulary words
5. Personal thoughts, feelings and reflections on the lesson

Mini-Lesson:
Students will think back to the most recent math lesson. The teacher may refresh their memory by telling them
the page number in the math book. Emphasize that it is OK to look back at the book.
Students will write a descriptive paragraph on the math lesson using what they know about adding details to their
writing.

Review the students work and make revisions or suggestions if necessary.

Suggest to students to pretend they are orally telling a friend what happened. That way it becomes easier
to articulate. This helps simple sentences become detailed paragraphs!

Continue the lesson using the same procedures as the previous lesson, focusing on using clear details that
accurately describe the day’s activities.

Post finished work to Class Blog Website (see appendix E)

20
 Lesson 9
Commenting on Class Blog Posts
(The really fun part!)
Objective: Students will read a previous blog posting and make original, constructive comments about it.

One of the most beneficial elements to this project is allowing students to read and comment on their
classmate’s writing. All writer’s need feedback and students especially value feedback from their peers.
These are fun for students to write, as well as very rewarding for students to read on their own posts.

When students who have used classroom blogging were asked about why they enjoyed it, the number one
motivator was to receive comments. Additionally, they provide an authentic dialog between the reader
and the writer, that can occur indefinitely. Finally, the comments not only offer constructive feedback to
the writer, but force the reader to consider what makes “good” writing… “good.”

It is very important that students are taught how to correctly and appropriately respond to other’s writing.
When this concept is not explained properly, students tend to be overly simple and mundane, using
comments that go no further than “Great writing!” or “Awesome job!”

Let students know what they will be doing today. They get to be the teacher for their classmate’s writing.
They are going to write about their friends’ work. However there is a special way to do that with writing
that is online.

Using the LCD projector, navigate to the page where the previous day’s blog post is online. Ask students
to read it silently, looking for concepts they learned throughout the past few lessons or even any explicit
concepts they learned in language arts. Elements may include: similes, metaphors, personification,
transition words, attention getter, descriptive adjectives, descriptive paragraphs, onomatopoeia and more.

When students have finished reading, ask them to choose one or two of the concepts in the writing that
stood out most to them. On a sheet of paper, have them write a short paragraph to the author of that blog
posting.

Pretend you are writing a friendly letter to the author. Just tell him or her what you saw
and what you liked. Be specific and be positive. If you saw a simile, say something like
“I enjoyed the simile you used about the class lining up like a herd of cattle in a
stampede.” You can even quote what you saw. Use a few details from the work.

Remember to follow the Golden Rule though; if you would be hurt if someone said it to
you, don’t say it to them. Sometimes there is a kind way and an unkind way to point
something out.

21
After students have written out their own comments, have them share with a partner and compare to see if
they recognized any of the same things.

Finally, model a proper comment of your own for the students and post it online.

Allow students to go online and post their own comment to the blog. (See page 21 regarding online safety
and security)

Tell the students that you will be monitoring all comments and will not allow any hurtful or nonsense
comments. Anything inappropriate will be deleted and the student will have wasted their time typing the
comment. Remind them that parents and others will also be viewing their comments.

As a general rule, the teacher should also try to comment on every post.

22
 Lesson 10
Evaluating daily blogs with a rubric
Objective: Students will complete the entire process of writing a personal narrative about a day in the
classroom. They will become familiar with the grading rubric for the assignment.

Materials: One “Notes for Classroom Blogger” sheet for every student.
One Grading Rubric for every student.
*It may be helpful to run those copies back to back on a single sheet.

Tell the students that they will be graded using a rubric. They will see the rubric shortly. Ask students to
state some important things that the teacher will be looking for when grading. Accept responses and write
down appropriate ones on board or word processor via LCD.

Show students the grading rubric on the overhead projector and then hand out individual copies. Review
it with students and answer any questions.

Today is the day that you are each going to create your own blog posting. You are
going to take notes during the day on all of the activities we do and tomorrow you will
begin typing in paragraph form.

I want everyone to do their best at taking notes because the more details you take
down, the easier it will be to write the next day.

Everyone’s work will be graded and I will choose one person to have theirs published
on our real blog. Anyone has the potential to have their next work published so make
sure you give it your best.

Because we all get caught up in the day, it is important that we help each other out by
reminding our classmates to take notes when we finish an activity.

You will each have a copy of the rubric that you will be graded on and I want you to
look it over once more before you turn in your assignment.

Grading Note:
When you receive a class set of essays, it is advisable to choose a few that you think may qualify to be
posted and grade them first. Choose your “winner” and then post that one. The blog entry should be
posted as soon as possible. The remainder of the class may be graded at your leisure.

After this lesson you are ready to let individual students write their own posts on a daily basis. Continue
to refine their writing and incorporate what you are learning in language arts, such as grammar, figures of
speech and descriptive language.

Example: Now that we know what a conjunction is and how to use it, I want to see
23
you practice that in your next blog post!
 Additional Considerations
 It may be difficult to keep up with the blog every single day. Remember, the blog may be a daily
account, but it does not have to be done every single day. A few times a week would be just fine .
The goal is to have students write as frequently as they can.

 One way to make the process easier is to print out many copies of the Notes For Classroom
Blogger sheet and keep them in a folder somewhere convenient. Then everyday, the teacher can
write the Blogger’s name on the board so he or she knows who’s taking notes that day. If the
teacher posts the Blogger’s names too far in advance it may serve to decrease motivation, as
students thrive on the possibility that they may be chosen the next day. I find it best to keep them
guessing.

 Once the students get rolling on the daily blogs, it is fun to include the whole class from time to
time. Just announce that “Today everyone will be taking notes for the blog and we will all be
writing our own!” Let them know that you will choose one or two to post on the actual blog and
that the rest will become part of their writing grade.

 It is also advisable to have “Go-To” students as classroom experts. If the writer has a problem or
issue with his or her work, they can ask the designated student helper. These student helpers may
be knowledgeable with writing, computing or both.

 After students have become used to the Notes For Classroom Blogger sheet, there is less of a need
to print out a formal sheet for them each time. Simply have them record their notes on a blank
sheet of paper and proceed as usual.

24
 Writing while away from the
classroom
Students who may not be in the classroom for a given time period can still participate in the daily blog.
Sometimes, students will be absent, take family vacations or be given an independent study. A great way
for these students to remain connected with the classroom is to have them write their own daily blog about
their day wherever they may be.

If there is time to prepare ahead of time, send a copy of the Notes sheet and Grading Rubric home with
the student. Let him or her know the expectations and perhaps even ask a parent to do the initial grading
with the rubric.

See student sample on the next page.

25
 A sample student posting that was done about a day the student
was not in school. (Written after surgery for removal of tonsils and adenoids)

April 19, 2008- by Jonathan (from HOME)

Ice cream for breakfast! A perfect Saturday so far!

The day started having Gatorade and vanilla ice cream for
breakfast. My brothers and I have to eat soft foods for about a
week. That was great except for the fact that Tylenol with
codeine followed. Tylenol with codeine is a medicine with a
horrible taste.

After breakfast my family watched TV for about a half an hour.

There was something good on NFL Total Access HD. My brothers sometimes prefer
Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or Disney channel though. And they won. We watched Fairly
Odd Parents.

My dad had to go to my soccer teams fundraiser. I wanted to go but unfortunately on Wed.

I got my tonsils and adenoids taken out. My dad was sorry I couldn't go. My soccer team
does lots of fundraisers.

Jell-O was for lunch. It was ok until I threw it up. My brothers have to eat the same foods
for they had their tonsils and adenoids taken out to.

My dad came home after lunch and he said my team raised a lot of money. There were
only three people there and they made about $500! I was surprised there were only three
people. In fundraisers there is usually maybe five to fifteen parents. Good thing my dad
went to help!

My dad told me to rest. I lay in bed for an hour or more. My family watched a movie
without me. The movie was a new one that my dad bought.

When I woke up from my rest we watched the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks. In the
movie there are three chipmunks that have their tree taken away. When they end up in a
city full of humans they go to a house with a man that wants them out. When the man
hears the chipmunks singing outside his house he makes a deal with them. The deal was
that if they sang for him (his job is to write songs) they could live with him. This was great
until a man who wanted to be rich bribed them to work for him. They accepted this offer.
After mistreatment from this man the chipmunks went back to their old "roommate".

After the movie we got ready for bed. And that was it for the day.
26
 Teacher-Student Conferences
While the student is typing the piece of writing, it is advisable to check in periodically and make sure
he/she is on the right track. If edits need to be made, it is better to make those corrections in one
paragraph, rather than the entire work.

This is a great opportunity to do one-on-one teaching with a student about particular aspects of writing.
As with all student feedback, it is advisable to praise the positive before making corrections or
suggestions. Comment on content and clarity before commenting on spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Example of a teacher sitting down with students at the computer:

Teacher: Well Maria, I noticed you working very hard on this writing. When I read your
attention getter it really does make me want to keep reading. I found it pretty exciting how
you mentioned the fire alarm going off. You did a great job of explaining exactly what
happened and how everyone reacted. Do you think that the way you wrote it would require
an exclamation point?

Are there any parts you aren’t sure of that you want to ask questions about?

Maria: Well I wasn’t sure if this part about math makes sense – will you read it and see if I
need to explain it more?

Teacher: You could put some more explanation about how to do percentages –so that if
someone who was absent missed the explanation they would know how to do it.

Maria: Ok I will, then I’ll have Theresa read it to see if it makes sense

Teacher: good idea, I’ll check back in with you. Keep up the good work.

Conferencing can be done either by printing out the work and making corrections the traditional way or
by sitting next to the student at the computer. If the teacher chooses to sit at the computer with the student,
it is advisable to sit on the student’s right side to have access to the mouse if necessary.

Spell Check- The spell-check feature on most word processors is very useful. The student should use it
before conferencing with the teacher. Students must be taught how to use it. A common student error is to
click on “Add to dictionary” when the proper suggestion does not appear. Students need to know that the
computer may not know all words, especially proper nouns. Also, if a student mistakenly spells a word
vastly different than the intended spelling, the computer may not recognize it.

Peer editing- It is helpful to have other students read the Daily Blogger’s writing before the teacher sits
down to conference with that student.

27
Once the writing is fit for publishing, work with the student to add one or two photos or graphics. Insert
these appropriately in the blog to make it more appealing. For simplicity, it is advisable to take these
photos from the web. Sometimes, the cover of a book that the class read can be found, other times an icon
or clip art can be used. Get creative with the student and find something the will pique the classes
interest.

28
 Student Motivation
Typically, students will be intrinsically motivated to write, mainly to express themselves and see their
work published and commented on by others. From time to time, it may become necessary to add a little
extra motivation to the mix. Here are some quick methods teachers may want to use:
 Contact parents, other teachers, other classes (within your school or elsewhere), a local university
where new teachers are taking classes, or anyone else and let them know of the classroom blog.
Encourage them to post a few comments, especially at the beginning. Parents will almost always
comment on their own child’s post if they have internet access.
 Give random rewards (small prizes, classroom money, homework passes…) to writers of
comments that follow proper guidelines.
 Showcase the blog entry or comment in front of the class.
 Create a dialog by commenting on another student’s comment or asking a question.
 Go to another teacher’s classroom website and leave a comment there. Frequently, teachers or
other students will reciprocate.

Internet Safety and Security

We’ve all heard horror stories about the internet being a dangerous place for minors. Unfortunately,
many of these problems occur simply because children were not taught how to behave online.

It is of vital importance to teach students how to react when browsing the internet and submitting material
that may be viewed by others.

In terms of this project, students should never use last names. They can post by either first name
only, first and last initial or some other type of unique identifier, such as student numbers.

Some blogs hosting sites may link to other blogs. Caution students about visiting sites that are not related
to class activities. Usually students will listen and follow directions when they know that the consequence
is losing computer privileges.

29
 Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I host my blog?
There are many free blog hosting sites. They all offer similar features that you may want to explore for
yourself. These are some great examples and do not include advertisements. They are all web-based so
teachers can post from anywhere.
Blogger- www.blogger.com - by Google, simple and popular
Edublogs- www.edublogs.org -
Class Blogmeister- www.classblogmeister.com - easy setup for entire class of individual blogs
Word Press www.wordpress.org – for advanced users, set up a blog at your own domain name
21 Classes www.21classes.com
EPals www.epals.com
School district provided sites- many school districts have a server just for things like blogs. If your school
subscribes to a website creation service, such as SchoolWires or EdLine, you may already have a blog
feature on that.

Should I password protect my site so only people I select can

view it?
One of the great features about the comments is that eventually people from all over the world will find
the blog and comment on the student’s writing (be patient). A password will certainly add more security,
however it may stifle motivation due to limited readership and commenting. The choice is up to the
teacher and district policies.

How can I moderate my comments?

First of all, remember to teach students responsible commenting. This alone will make the job easier.
However there will be times when inappropriate comments will sneak by. Most blogs have a setting that
enables all comments to be approved by the blog administrator before appearing live online. This is a
very secure way to deal with the issue of poor or inappropriate comments. It may take a lot of effort to
moderate all comments if you receive a high volume.

Fortunately, most students will post only appropriate comments when they find out that inappropriate
ones will simply be deleted. At this point, the comment moderation can just be turned off and have the
latest comments emailed to the teacher so you can read them yourself and intervene for any negative ones.

Finally, if you are receiving spam or nonsense comments, they may be generated by malicious computers.
Many blogs have a “CAPTCHA” setting that forces users to enter skewed letters from an image to verify
that they are not a computer/robot.

30
 A sample “CAPTCHA” verification

Should my blog entries be completely free from errors before I

post them?
While published work usually implies a very well polished piece of writing, it may not always be totally
perfect. Somewhere in the blog’s description, readers will know that the work was created by an
elementary school student. It is only natural that a few errors will appear in the final product.

As with typical revising, focus on the most important items that need correction. As with any good
teaching of writing, try not to overwhelm the student by nitpicking many, many items. This process may
become easier if the teacher proofreads the work early on and then returns when the work has been
finished.

What should my students use to type their writing before

posting?
Some blog hosting sites (or “blog engines”) will allow authors to type and save their work on the site
without publishing. Then when the work has been finalized, the teacher can simply hit a publish button.

Another option is to type the draft in Microsoft Word or another standard word processing program. Then,
just copy and paste the document on the blog site and insert photos. Word 2007 has a feature that allows
direct posting of a document right into the blog!

Online word processors are also available to type your work. Google Apps for Education is very useful for
this purpose.
http://www.google.com/apps/edu/index.html#utmsource=educators2&utm_medium=et

Lastly, a transportable word processor product, such as AlphaSmart’s NEO can also be useful, especially
if students wish to work at home.

Can my students type their notes instead of hand writing them?

This is a judgment call for the teacher, based on what you know about your students. The notes should be
taken quickly and concisely, with minimal distraction from the mainstream school day. When students
type notes, the computer may become a distraction. In addition, some students may not have the typing
speed to get back to the regular classroom activities quickly enough.

31
Can I have more than one posting per day?
This idea can work very well. A title like “Take II” or Tommy’s Perspective” could be used for the
second posting. This is especially useful for large classes. Just make sure the two students are close in
ability levels, so one student does not feel inferior.

Can multiple students collaborate on one posting?

This is up to the teacher.
Good questions to think about are:
 Can the students not handle the posting by themselves?
 Will you group homogeneously, heterogeneously or by another method?
 Will you allow the students to choose their partners?
 How will the students work together? I.e.: One paragraph each? One person is the typist?
 How will the teacher ensure that the work is distributed equitably?

Should I delete my classes postings at the end of they year?

Why delete the work? One of the great features of a blog is that they never run out of space and the work
will persist until it is deliberately deleted. Students can go back and see their work even in a few years. It
can be really fun for them to see how they have progressed. Also, previous blogs serve as examples for
the new class. Finally, brothers or sisters may enjoy seeing previous blogs.

The older posts will become “archived” and only the number you specify will appear on each page.
Viewers can always find the older posts via the typical “archived posts” link that will appear on the side
of your blog.

My students will just sit there without writing, even after

they have their notes. It’s like a giant case of writers block!
Students need to be taught to get the sentence or idea in their head before getting it on paper. Say to
yourself what you want to write, then type or write it out. Think: what did we actually do and how would I
tell a friend? What questions would a friend ask? Then answer them.
Some students may need to hand-write the posting before getting to the computer.

Additional Questions?
Check out the Daily Blog Forum at:
http://www.nabble.com/Daily-Blog-Program-f33676.html

Email the author at: davekootman@yahoo.com

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 Definition of Terms
Blog. Short for “web log.” A blog is traditionally a free online journal, typically in chronological fashion. It has

the ability to let users’ post text, links and images, as well as respond to other user’s posts with comments.

Blog comment. A published response to a blog posting by a reader of a blog. Typically included at the bottom of

the blog posting.

Blog Post. A single entry in a blog site. May be a few sentences to many paragraphs on a single topic. Usually

contains a time/date stamp for recordation.

Blogger. One who writes a blog.

Blogger/Blogspot®.www.blogspot.com One of the most popular free blogging websites.

Blogosphere. The collective blogs found on the internet.

Language Experience Approach. A model of language arts instruction where the student engages in a meaningful

learning situation. The student then records his or her observations, with teacher assistance, and then reads

and rereads them to build language arts proficiency.

Motivation. The reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior. In terms of this project, motivation refers

to the intrinsic or extrinsic reasons a student has for writing. Intrinsic reasons refer to a student’s desire to do

something based on his or her own feelings and beliefs of what he or she needs to do to satisfy him or

herself without external incentives. Extrinsic motivation refers to factors external to the individual that

produce the desire for a specific action, such as rewards, promotions and praise from others.

Personal Narrative. A genre of writing; usually characterized as a true story told from first person point of view

based on the writer’s experience or memories.

Narratives: A genre of writing characterized as a fictional story.

Prior Knowledge. Any information that a student brings into an academic lesson or experience that allows him or

her more easily assimilate new content by relating it to previously learned content.

33
Appendix A

34
 Daily Blog Article : Grading Rubric
Student Name:________________________________ Room:________________ Student #__________

Teacher Name: _______________________________ Date:______________

2- approaching
CATEGORY 4- Above Standards 3- Meets Standards standards 1 - Below Standards Score
The introductory The introductory The introductory The introductory
paragraph has a paragraph has a paragraph has an paragraph is not very
strong hook or strong hook or attention grabber, interesting or is not
attention grabber that attention grabber. but it is weak, relevant to the topic.
truly makes the reader This could be a rambling, Attention getter may
Attention want to continue. This strong statement, a inappropriate for be missing.
Grabber could be a strong relevant quotation, the audience, or
statement, a relevant statistic, or boring.
quotation, statistic, question
or question addressed to the
reader.
All sentences are well- Sentences are well- Most sentences are Most sentences are
constructed with varied constructed with well-constructed not well-constructed
Sentence structure. The writing varied structure. and there is some or varied. Sentences
Structure flows well. Smaller Author uses time varied sentence may be pattern
sentences are and order words and structure in the sentences.
combined in an conjunctions. essay. Sentences
original way may start the same
way.

Author makes almost Author makes few Author makes 3-5 Author makes several
Capitalization, no errors in errors in errors in errors in
Punctuation, capitalization, spelling capitalization, capitalization, capitalization, spelling
Spelling & or punctuation, so the spelling or spelling or and/or punctuation
Formatting writing is exceptionally punctuation, so the punctuation, but the that catch the
easy to read. Great writing is easy to writing is mostly still reader's attention and
organization of read. Solid easy to read. interrupt the flow.
paragraphs paragraphs with Includes May not have
grouped ideas. unorganized individual paragraphs.
paragraphs.
Author does great job Author does great Author summarizes Author summarizes
of summarizing the job of summarizing most main events minor points of the
daily activities of the the daily activities of of the day. Needs day and may omit the
Content day. Author focuses on the day. Focuses on more details. At main events. Few
major events and major events and least 7 sentences descriptions or
things learned. Use of things learned. Use are used. details. 5 or less
rich details. At least 11 of details. At least 9 sentences are used.
sentences are used sentences are used

Typed with good Typed or neat Messy cursive Not in cursive or very
Penmanship formatting or very neat cursive. sloppy.
cursive.
Writing is incredibly Writing shows the Writing has some Writing really needs
Voice/ Interest unique and interesting. authors unique style. unique qualities. to be jazzed up and
factor Very informative and At grade level. Needs more. more interesting
entertaining
level
AT grade
column is
This

Total Score
Out of 17

35
Appendix B

36
 Notes for the “Daily Blog”

Name ___________________________ Date_______________________ #____

This page is for taking notes. Later you will turn the notes into complete sentences. In your final draft, you do not
need to include something from each category and you can add other items that are not on this sheet. Only use items of
importance, main concepts that we learned today or things that were interesting to you. You should have at least 3
paragraphs with a minimum of 2-3 sentences in each paragraph. Please view the rubric on the other side to make sure
you will get an A.

Reminder: You can use “I”, but not too much. This is not just about you; it is about the class.
Audience: Your classmates, your teacher, parents, other people around the world…
Purpose: to inform, to entertain
Suggestions: ●Give examples of things we did ●Use quotes from the teacher
●Any books or stories we read ●Use synonyms for boring words
●Include your feelings on what was fun, easy or difficult ●Describe things well, use details
Time and Order words: Here are some ways you can begin paragraphs when you write your Daily Blog article:
●Next ●Then ●After ●Afterwards ●Following ●Finally
●Once that was done, ●Once we finished, ●When we finished, ●When that was over,
●At 2:00, ●In Social Studies, ●During math time, ●Lastly, ●While ●During
Also, look in your writing folder for other ideas and good synonyms.

Attention Getter: _________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Math ________________________________________________________

Reading ________________________________________________________

Writing ________________________________________________________

Science ________________________________________________________

Social Studies ____________________________________________________

Lunch/ Recess_____________________________________________________

Class Chapter Book _________________________________________________

Anything else? ____________________________________________________

37
Appendix C

38
 Transition Words (Time-Order Words)
Definition: Transition words link related ideas. They show related ideas and show the time and
order that events occurred. They help the reader step from one sentence or paragraph to the next.

Remember- these words are frequently followed by a comma.

Example: Before class began , we played basketball.

Examples
Time
noon 11:35 am this morning
last night today tomorrow
during math in lunch at recess

Order
first afterwards immediately
while besides already
second after when
next an hour later later on

already meanwhile in the meantime

then before until

Conclusion
finally ultimately eventually
in conclusion to wrap up last
lastly to sum up at the end

39
Appendix D

40
 Attention Getters
Love is in the air! Valentines day will raise your hair! Thursday through Monday no school! But before we
can talk about that we have to start from the beginning.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dodgeball time! I love dodgeball! The last time I played I was the last person playing.

DIVISION MATH QUIZ!!!!!!!!!!oooohhhh nnooooooooo!!!! Wait... division, peace of cake!

Hey, it's April Fools Day; you should watch out for the .....PIE .....just kidding.

NOOOO! Spring break is over!!

OH NO! The report cards are coming!

Buy some magazines, come on, I know you want to. We are selling magazines for a fundraiser, we can get a
lot of prizes.

Our class was lucky to get three of our students in the school spelling bee! Deisha even went on to the
district bee!

PARTY IN THE HOUSE SAY WHAT? WOO THERE IT IS!! Today, we had a band named Crew come to
our school. Before school started, we got to see them see them set up on stage.

Today, I saw a grown man running through a playground toy!

I did not know we were famous!!!!!! 1,2,3.... HOW many people are gonna walk through the door! The
superintendent of Fallbrook schools and two principals came to our room as well as a special person named
Ms. Lucy.

My class couldn't believe it! This morning when everyone went to go inside the bells didn't ring, the class
still thought it was time to play. The bells have already been off for a week.

Hello! Our day started when Mr.Kootman told the class about our new helper!!

HELP! HELP! we got locked out of out of the classroom today.

Man, that smell is still there! It's the heater! It smells worse than a couple dozen skunks! Something must be
wrong with it.

Yesterday, Mr. Kootman called in sick. Everybody thought he made an excuse just to get away from us kids.

41
 Appendix E
Tutorials and Additional Resources
How to create a blog with Google’s Blogger-
http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/files/Blogger_Creating_a_Blogger_Blog.swf?TB_iframe=true&heig
ht=560&width=800

Additional tutorials- http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/tutorials/

How to create a new post using Google’s Blogger

How to post a comment

Support Blogging.com- A teacher based website/wiki that details how and why to use blogs with
students.

Forum for teachers using the Daily Blog Curriculum:

Daily Blog Forum
http://www.nabble.com/Daily-Blog-Program-f33676.html

42
 Appendix F
Student Samples
*Remember, students’ work will vary greatly. It is natural to have a bog with some short posts and some long
posts. This also holds true for overall quality of writing.
. For more student samples, please visit: www.kootmansclass.blogspot.com

March 13, by Kerry

LEPRECHAUNS ATTACKING! LEPRECHAUNS

ATTACKING! St. Patrick's day is coming on March 17th. I
can't wait until St. Patrick's so I can pinch people and they
can pinch me. Hey, come closer, closer,closer o.k. stop... if
you hide your green-shirt, and somebody pinches you, you
can GET double pinches.

At ~ 8:45 every morning,we do math. The lesson we

did was: 20.1 the first lesson of the chapter. The lesson was
on ADD & SUBTRACT DECIMALS. For some people in my
class, the lesson was review. Mr. Kootman was angry while he was teaching the
lesson. Some kids just don't understand how math is really important in life! But I do.
Afterwards, we did our math packets. Some of the problems from the math packet
were: $23.67-$15.16=; $45,83+$56.20=m Or something like those problems. After
the math packet, we took a quick test on what we learned from our math book and our
packet.

Once that was done, we reviewed a lesson from our CLAS book. CLAS stands
for Comprehension Language Arts Skills. The lesson we did was "Double Negatives
& Contractions." Instead of doing the lesson we reviewed it as a whole class. We
reviewed the lesson on our smart board. A smart board is really smart.... it's almost
like the Internet, and a paint section on one whole board. Double negatives are like He
doesn't have no homework. Which means he really has homework.

43
 Once we finished our CLAS book, we did
reading. The story we did in our Open Court
Reading book was, Anne Frank: A Diary Of A
Young Girl. The story, Anne Frank: A Diary Of
A Young Girl is about Anne Frank and her
family who had to moved to Holland just to
escape the Nazis. So, they went to a man
named Mr. Van Daan's building office. They
stayed there for 2 years. Afterwards, they
stayed in a building called the Secret Annex. Their room was messy.... well, they
thought it was messy, so Anne Frank and her daddy decided to clean the attic. Nobody
ate because they thought that their room was messy and they wanted it to feel just like
home.

Next, we went out for recess. Every time the 4th-6th graders go out for recess,
most of the time the boys play football or basketball. But lots of boys from
Mrs.Perry’s class play handball. And they did the same thing at lunch recess too. But
that's fine with them of course. If Mrs.Gilstrap (our Principal) see someone playing
with a football on the black top, they will be in trouble, or they will be kicked out of
school.

After lunch recess, we always read our class book. This time our class book is
called The Report Card by Andrew Clements. To my class and I, his books are really
interesting. Sometimes his books is a text to self connection because some kids in the
world get very bad grades. This book is about a girl named Nora that is really smart.
When Nora was 3 years-old, she knew how to do an 500 piece puzzle. No 3 year-old
can do a 500 piece puzzle. But at school she was the only smart kid in her class, but
the only thing Nora wanted was attention. The thing that Nora did was she got bad
grades on purpose so she wouldn't be different.

When we were doing Minerals, (in

our science book). We learned that
diamonds are the hardest mineral ever.
Also, nothing can scratch a diamond, only
a diamond can scratch a diamond. Kids in
my class have lots of rocks, like: hard,
shiny, soft, and lots of others. If you want

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to see some rocks go outside and look for some.

In Social Studies, we shared our mission projects. Only three people shared their
mission. A mission is like a church. But it doesn't look like a church you always go to
every Sunday. I did mine on the 18th mission. The 18th mission was San Luis Rey de
Francia. This mission was one the last missions to be founded. The person that
founded this mission was Fermin Lasuen. Three kids in my class did an amazing job.
The kids were, Maria, Andy, and Jack. Andy did San Luis de Francia the 18th
mission. Jack did Santa Cruz the 12th mission. Mr.Kootman was shocked when he
heard some amazing presentations from his students. He said, " Hey guys... I'm... so
thrilled that you remember all that information. And also, you guys made some good
missions. I was actually, about to cry." Everybody in the whole classroom was so
amazed, when Mr.Kootman said he was about to cry.

After Social Studies, my class and I went out for P.E. The game we played was
war-ball. If you don't know what war-ball is it's like dodge-ball. So if you want to play
a game then, go outside,with your family or friends, and play some war-ball (dodge-
ball). HAVE A GOOD ST.PATRICK'S DAY!!

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November 1, (the day after Halloween)- by Rob

EAT HEALTHY, EAT HEALTHY!!!! Isn't it funny we had an

assembly about eating healthy after a night of eating candy for
dinner (ha-ha)? Today we attended an assembly about eating
healthy and eating at least one of the foods from all five of the food
groups (protein, grains, calcium, vegetables, and fruits). We played
a game in which the students had to place the food in the right food
group. In some cases students didn't get it right. But we all learned
a lot of important things.

Following the assembly, in math, we finished our Excel

worksheet. This is the one which the answers to the problems add
up to a certain number provided. Then we learned about line graphs, double bar graphs, and stem
and leaf plots. We learned that line graphs progress over a period of time; that double bar graphs
provide for two sets of data; and that stem and leaf plots show groups of data arranged by place
value. Normally we would do yoga after math, but because of the assembly it was canceled. Miss
Swanlund is our yoga teacher.

After snack, we read our class story for language arts. In the story, there are two main
characters, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, the founders of the American Express Company. It
was neat to learn about one of the biggest banks in our country. During writing class we learned
about "ou", "oi", "oy" and "ow" sounds. Finally the long morning was over and it was time for
lunch. It was loud in the lunch room, as usual!!! Some things in my lunch were healthy and some
were not. After eating we went out to the playground and I played with my friends.

When we came inside, we read our class chapter book called Worth. Nathaniel throws a
book out of his window and John picks it up and tries to read, but he can't read it because he never
went to school. Mr. Kootman reads the book to us. He is good at making us see the picture in our
minds. Today we started science. I've been waiting all year for us to start science. It's one of my
favorite subjects. We are learning about plants and how they grow. Plants make oxygen for us and
we let off carbon dioxide for the plants to use.

Finally, we all packed our books in our backpacks. Everyone walked or got on the bus to go
home - it was really crowded on my bus.

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January 26, by Sam

This is what Ms.Betty says about room 40’s line,”Mr.Kootman’s class has one of the greatest lines in the
whole school.” That takes a lot of work putting 35 kids together in one huge line!

Well at the beginning of the day, we did a Quick Review (it’s a small review on what we’ve done so far). After
that we did a math lesson on the mean of a number. Let me explain it to you, the mean, or average, is the number
found by dividing the sum of a set of numbers by the number of addends. Don’t worry, I had troubles with this at
first too, if you didn’t get it that quickly. Next we did a spelling pretest on the /ch/ sound. Most kids thought it was
easy as pie, but some thought it was as hard as Mr.Kootman’s rules!

Afterwards, we did a clues chart on the story The New Doctor. I accidentally traced my hand (where we write
stuff down on what the story could be about) like a Gorilla’s hand! When we finished that, we did some
vocabulary words. On my vocabulary side of the sheet it was a little boring.

In Social Studies, we learned about how people lived in early California. Then we all rushed to line up for lunch
and lunchtime recess. When we got back from lunch, we read A Week in the Woods. In A Week in the Woods,
Mark is trying to be nicer, but that is not working out for him. Right after Mark tries being nice, his parents leave
for a few weeks. Wow, he may be rich, but very lonely. When it was almost time to go, Mr. Kootman was nice
enough to give us all Social Studies activity books to keep. Then we all went home.

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Appendix G-Sample Student Comments

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