Brandi's Place

  Suppose your child is brilliant at crunching numbers and can memorize facts like nobody’s business, but they aren’t making much headway on their reading comprehension scores. And maybe you’ve been thinking, “What’s the big deal?”    And I am here to tell you that reading comprehension may not seem very important now, but will make learning increasingly difficult as the child gets older if they show little to no improvement.    All information is passed on from teacher (or parent) to the child through language. If the child does not fully comprehend what they are hearing, then they do not obtain the knowledge that a teacher is attempting to pass on to them. There are also numerous studies that link poor language development to behavior issues. Here is one such study: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/language-development-and-literacy/according-experts/literacy-outcome-language-development-and-its As you can read from this study, there is a...

(A note to the teacher: The goal of this exercise is similar to every other writing assignment; only we are basically asking them to take the creative writing process in reverse to break down a book in order to a good enough understanding to write a review. This assignment also reinforces reading comprehension, a necessary skill for all elementary subjects.) Have you ever read a really good book and wanted to tell someone all about it? Or what if the book wasn’t very good and you want to explain why you thought so? Today we are going to learn how to write a book review to tell someone about a story we read and discuss our opinion about it! Let’s review from last week. What is an OPINION ? An opinion is how you express your feelings or unique point of view regarding a subject. On the other hand, a FACT is a statement of information. Opinions can be arguable, facts, in general, are not arguable. Now let’s talk about a book you have read. You will need to have the book ...

Opinions and Facts: A Writing Project for Elementary Students Hey Students! Did you ever experience something so out-of-this-world that you just had to tell someone about it? Sometimes it is difficult to describe to someone everything that happened so that that person really understands everything you experienced. Let’s do a writing project together to helps us tell about what we know using both facts and opinions. First, let’s talk about what is a fact and what is an opinion. An OPINION is how you express your feelings or unique point of view regarding a subject. On the other hand, a FACT is a statement of information. Opinions can be arguable. Facts, in general, are not arguable. For example, let’s look at this picture of a kitten:  If I say, “This is a white and grey kitten lying on a pink blanket next to a white flower.” All of those statements are facts, not opinions. There is no argument. But if I say “This adorable kitten is lying on a pretty b...

Every new story begins with a brain storm ! Today we are going to brain storm an idea for a brand new story. Have your student start with a blank sheet of notebook paper, label it “setting”. Number the paper one through three on the side leaving at least three lines in between. Older students may want to write down more ideas and increase the amount of space needed for writing. Directions for the student: #1- Describe a place you have visited before and might like to write a story about. #2- Describe a place you want to visit but have never been to and you want to write a story about what that might be like. #3- Describe a fantasy place that exists only in your own imagination! Now it is time to populate your story with interesting characters. Get out a clean sheet of paper, or flip your current paper over. Label this paper “characters”. Again, number the paper 1-3 with a few lines in between. Directions for the student: #1 – Name and give a litt...

This creative writing activity employs the use of the creative writing process in order for your student(s) to create a story. All of my writing activities are appropriate for use either in a classroom setting or in a homeschool setting usually at the elementary school level but could be easily adjusted for older students. As a refresher, here is a graphic to remind you how to progress through the 5 steps of the creative writing process.  Okay, today we are going to have your student write a story about a valiant knight. Note: if your student is a girl, it is important not to change this assignment to say “princess” or something with a female character. Children can learn even more by writing about a character that is not exactly like them. We can do a project with a female character on a different day for which it will be important that boy children participate equally with girls. Here is your writing prompt: The main character is a valiant (brave) knig...