Larger Than Life Poem

After I read Larger-Than-Life LARA written by Dandi Daley Mackall, aloud to the class, Katie had an excellent idea in her post Lara at Laurelville.  She wondered what kind of poems Lara might assign to our students.

As I thought about her post, and looked back over some of Lara's poems, I thought this was too great of an opportunity to ignore.

Here are a couple of examples of Lara's poems:

Sara Rivers with the silvery voice,

Reach for the stars! It's still your choice.

You can do it, though it's scary.

Fear is so unnecessary.

Joey Gilbert, I'm not mad.

I just think you're very sad.

Maybe you still miss your dad?

Miss the love you never had?

Joey it will be okay,

If you try out for the play.

I could help you learn your part.

The backstage crew could use your art.

Don't pretend that you don't care.

You can do what you can dare.

Mrs. Smith, it's all okay.

Please don't worry for this play.

Things can always work out best,

Sometimes life is just a test.

I can understand--you bet!

Besides, I'll like to work on set.

So students, the assignment is to write a "Larger Than Life" poem.  Please be sure a lesson, or bit of kindly advise is given, and include interesting details.

Need some help with rhyming, check out Rhyme Zone.

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Why Student Blogs are So Valuable

I read Cassie's blog yesterday, and thought about it several times throughout the evening.  I woke up this morning and thought about it again.  She really nailed it.   She compared the meanness in Larger-Than-Life Lara with what she sees and feels some times at school.

As we work towards improving higher level thinking, and writing that supports ideas and opinions with explicit and intricate details, she  wrote a post that was extraordinary.  However, there were many mistakes in PUGS (Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling).  Her post shows how blogging will build writing skills, while pushing students to think, and reason, and consider themselves, their lives, and how people treat others.

Opinions are sometimes really mean like when someone talks about you.  When you talk about them and it is not nice but it could be nice sometimes. When people do that it is just like them talking about you. How would you feel if someone talked about you? It would not feel to good. 

That is why I don’t like it when my friends make fun of people to make them look cool. It just makes them look like a jerk.  I don’t like it when people talk about people. It is just really mean. I really think that if we don’t talk about people there would be no fights at school and for people who do talk about people need to stop.

Don’t talk about people because when people do it just gets back at them and they talk about kids. People don’t like it when you talk about them because all it does is  start a fight. So thats why I don’t but I’m not going to lie. I have talked about people but I quit.

This was a super job relating Cassie's life to the book I am reading aloud in Reading Workshop.  As her writing skills improve, great thoughts like these will be a topic for discussion and growth for her, and her classmates.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinhutton/86405062/in/set-72157605053379133/

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The Good Stuff

Recently students in Reading Workshop wrote about the "good stuff" that they see at our school. Sometimes people forget just how much positive goes on every day at school. The student responses serve as a reminder.

* People find money and put it in the lost and found
* People help each other
* Mr. McGuire bugs other teachers
* When our teachers tell us to get into groups no one is left out
* When we work in groups everyone works together
* Teachers are almost always happy
* Kids help other kids get on track
*Kids having good attitudes
*People are always smiling
* Everyone is respectful to each other
* There is a future for my friends and me
* We get to sing
* It's so much better than city schools where everyone always wants to fight
*You can act like yourself without being judged
* People work together to get things done
* Kids give 100% effort on almost everything
* The teachers are really funny
* Kids don't make fun of you, if you can't do what they can
* Teachers make it fun to learn
* No one really cares about looks
* People share stuff with other people
* When a person drops their stuff people help them pick it up
* Kids are happy to come to school
* Everyone can make the right choices and be smart
*People keep their promises
*People get along at recess
*Teachers are so kind-hearted
*Kids don't just eat with their friends
*People compliment each other
*A nice principal
*People encourage other people
*People get along
*Students help students
* Lots of technology
*Great staff, that has a big impact on the school
*People respect each others' differences
*Friends like me for who I am

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What Character Could You Be?

As we continue the read aloud of Larger-Than-Life LARA, written by Dandi Daley Mackall in Reading Workshop, the characters are coming alive. This book has a wide variety of characters, each explained in enough detail so that the reader can identify with them. In fact, Dandi makes it easy for the reader to picture him/herself in the book.

Laney, the main character was described in detail in the post Laney is Larger-Than-Life.

LARA is new student at Paris Elementary School. No matter how mean someone is to her, she is nice. She responds to meanness by being kind with a friendly poem. She thinks independently, and always has a smile. She is huge, so fat that she blocks the light around her coming into the door, and needed a special chair and desk.

Joey Gilbert is a leader. Laney does not like him, but he is a hero to the other boys in the class. He is the class bully. He is mean to LARA and picks on other people. He is a good baseball player, but he won't let the girls play.

Wayne is the class clown. He laughs the loudest, and thinks everything is funny, even when he doesn't know what is going on. He is Joey's sidekick.

Maddie is the class princess. She has pretty blonde hair, and thinks she is all that. She wears all the latest styles, dressing like the high school girls. She wants to be the center of attention. She wants everyone to know who she likes and who she doesn't.

Sarah is a follower. She is insecure and usually doesn't think for herself. She wants to fit in with the popular crowd. Every decision she makes is based on what Maddie says and does.

The brothers (Laney's) are mean, skip school, don't like Laney or appreciate what she does. They argue and fight constantly.

Laney's dad has a bad temper, hates his job (and his life). He drinks way too much.

Good readers can relate to characters based on one trait, or many. To enjoy a book though, the reader must understand the characters. Frequently, one characteristic shared between the reader and someone in the story creates involvement and connects the reader to the story.

What character are you connected to? How are you connected?
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Laney is a Larger-Than-Life Character

After reading a few chapters from Larger-Than-Life LARA, written by Dandi Daley Mackall, I am so interested in Laney.  The book is written in first person from Laney's perspective.   Dandi does an amazing job of bringing this character to life, which  we discovered as we discussed it in class, and students wrote about it in their Online Journals.

The things we know about Laney include:

1.  Tomboy
2.  Poor
3.  Not always nice
4.  Sarcastic
5.  Actress/liar to stay out of trouble
6.  Blurter
7.  Has a mom's responsibility at home (because her mom left)
8.  Runs fast (athletic)
9.  Likes plays, especially Shakespeare
10.  Loves baseball, but the boys will not let her play
11.  Lives in old rundown house with peeling paint on the outside, that is dirty and all lime green on the inside
12.  Three mean brothers that beat her up, and skip school
13.  Tough, can stand up for herself
14.  Mom left and never came back and Laney wonders about her
15.  Has a shoe glued to her bedroom wall from when she won a race and everyone cheered for her
16.  Has to deal with her dad that is a drunk, has a bad temper, steals cable TV, fights all the time
17.  Likes to write
18.  Good imagination
19.  Her bedroom is in the attic which she shares with her dad, cut in half with a blanket as a curtain, with a mattress on the floor
20.  Low self-esteem
21.  Digresses (can't stay on topic)
22.  In the back of the crowd, on the edge, wants to fit in with only one "sort of" friend
23.  No real role model
24.  Collects books, some that the library was throwing away
25.  Doesn't ride the bus because Joey and other kids are mean to her
26.  Family has a bad reputation
27.  Mature for her age, takes care of herself
28.  Fourth grade
29.  Lives in Paris, Missouri
 

So far in the book (after only five chapters), I think Laney has become Larger-Than-Life.  We know so much about her that it seems like we know her well--even that she lives with us.

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A Dandi Presentation

Author Dandi Daley Mackall visited Laurelville Elementary on March 18-19. She has written over 400 published books in a variety of genres, including one of her latest, an adolescent realistic fiction, Larger-Than-Life Lara. Dandi spoke to the entire student body at an all-school assembly to kick off her visit. Over the rest of the two day period, she met with classes to discuss writing techniques and her experiences.

Dandi did a writing workshop session with the classes. She went through the process of creating a story. Her advise was to always begin with a character. According to Dandi, "If the reader identifies with and/or cares about the main character, they will care about the story and want to read it." She says you need to know the character so you know how he/she will act in story.

She also told students to be sure to begin their stories with action. Here is an example of a story starter done both the wrong way, and then the right way.

Wrong

Dasia is a sixth grade girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She is 5' tall. She likes to read and chat with her friends on the computer. Her best friend's name is . . .

Right

The minute Dasia got out of bed this morning, she dreaded going to school.

About the writing process, Dandi said, "I write and I write, and I rewrite and I write, and I rewrite probably at least 12 times."

Amber C., a sixth grade student said, "she tells interesting stories." This makes it easy to see where she gets her ideas for books.

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