Oral Writing to Genius Ladder...how does it all work?

We have talked about several aspects of writing, but now how do you implement them and in what order? It's always good to get good ideas, but then we take them home and wonder, "how does this really look in my room...tomorrow?"

So this is how it feels to me right now. Don't forget that this is a totally new, fluid process,  this is right now, but that may change in the next few months.

I started with Oral Writing (OW) on the first day of school. We did some easy questions that they would know the answers to, and would have more than one sentence answers readily available in their summer zonked brains. I have since done OW with every possible scenario from "How do we walk to lunch?" to "What is a declarative sentence?". Whenever I want them thinking with a neighbor, we're doing it in the OW fashion. It can only help them be better thinkers!

That same day I introduced the Genius Ladder (GL). It's been a ride every day since. I really thought that I would have trouble coming up with the sentences, but I'm keeping them pretty simple and going from there. These two features are similar, but different. They both practice the concept of OW, but the GL really takes them to the next level.

Now you add 10 Minute Writing in there and you have the concrete writing aspect that so many of us feel we need to have...why? Tradition mostly...but I do know that we need to write, it's just that with these first two elements you get so many more practice sessions/repetitions per minute of in class time.

Try these three pieces out all at once, or add them in slowly like the seasoning on a good steak.

Power to the Teacher!