A note: This month is on me. For everyone. I want to be able to show and share what members of the Moving Writers Community experience every month. As is our custom, we are offering one year of full membership free to any student teachers or first-year teacher
Thank you for this inspiration! I remember the executive functioning unit from last year but I'd forgotten about it over the summer. I'm starting with 100 Word Memoirs from the NYT Learning Network contest with my sophomores, and I went through & added the EF Skills & AI ideas. Thank you! For Christina or others looking for a similar unit with a different writing product, here are my slides: feel free to take & adapt! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bQJ-_iRM_22j47d-AHdLo3mB3La0wFjXW1Ny99RQOug/edit?usp=sharing
Would love to know more about the hexagonal thinking component of this. Did students build and explain connections between their hexagons based on their answers to slide 8 or elements of their own identity? Thanks!
I love this unit and the focus on EF! These are such important skills I hope to fold in and return to throughout the year with my 7th graders. I've been thinking a lot about revising my opening writing unit. We have done "25 Things about Me" a la People magazine in the past. It's a nice way to get to know kids and we focus on different types of sentences, but to be honest, the mentor texts don't have great sentences as models. I was going to replace it with a 100 memoir, but I haven't fully committed yet. How many things do you have the students list for their versions? Also, I love the AI and ChatGPT component, but we aren't allowed to have our students using it because of privacy issues with the platform. Such a missed opportunity! Hoping this changes soon since we need to address AI. Thank you so much for sharing such thoughtful work as always:-)
The kids and I negotiated the number of items their lists will have. We decided on 20 as a minimum, but we talked about making 20 GREAT ones.
I’m not allowed to have students use AI either, which is why I used it to generate the “robot essay” and then gave them the AI version to edit and make more like the mentor text. I also wish we could teach them the ways to use it as a tool rather than a crutch.
Thank you for this inspiration! I remember the executive functioning unit from last year but I'd forgotten about it over the summer. I'm starting with 100 Word Memoirs from the NYT Learning Network contest with my sophomores, and I went through & added the EF Skills & AI ideas. Thank you! For Christina or others looking for a similar unit with a different writing product, here are my slides: feel free to take & adapt! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bQJ-_iRM_22j47d-AHdLo3mB3La0wFjXW1Ny99RQOug/edit?usp=sharing
So generous! Thank you!
Would love to know more about the hexagonal thinking component of this. Did students build and explain connections between their hexagons based on their answers to slide 8 or elements of their own identity? Thanks!
elements of their own identity! https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2021/08/start-the-year-with-hexagonal-identity-one-pagers.html
I love this unit and the focus on EF! These are such important skills I hope to fold in and return to throughout the year with my 7th graders. I've been thinking a lot about revising my opening writing unit. We have done "25 Things about Me" a la People magazine in the past. It's a nice way to get to know kids and we focus on different types of sentences, but to be honest, the mentor texts don't have great sentences as models. I was going to replace it with a 100 memoir, but I haven't fully committed yet. How many things do you have the students list for their versions? Also, I love the AI and ChatGPT component, but we aren't allowed to have our students using it because of privacy issues with the platform. Such a missed opportunity! Hoping this changes soon since we need to address AI. Thank you so much for sharing such thoughtful work as always:-)
The kids and I negotiated the number of items their lists will have. We decided on 20 as a minimum, but we talked about making 20 GREAT ones.
I’m not allowed to have students use AI either, which is why I used it to generate the “robot essay” and then gave them the AI version to edit and make more like the mentor text. I also wish we could teach them the ways to use it as a tool rather than a crutch.
I am really interested in exploring this more. Even at the high school level, upperclassmen are struggling with these skills--especially since Covid.