thefriendlymoth

You Say Tomayto, I Say Tomahto: An Intro to American Dialects

This week we are learning about dialects in Frog Hollow, American dialects in particular. We started by talking about how many different words there are for the same thing, and how people from different places speak English differently, and how they are all “right.” Then we took a class survey. I asked them a wholeContinue reading “You Say Tomayto, I Say Tomahto: An Intro to American Dialects”

The Lists Game

Humor is a great teaching tool. That is one of the reasons that games can be such a great way to learn something. One of my favorites is the Lists Game. It is a pass-the-paper game, along the same lines as Exquisite Corpse, but instead of making crazy stories, it makes silly lists. Because youContinue reading “The Lists Game”

Exquisite Corpse

One obstacle that keeps children (and everyone) from writing is their own perfectionism. Frustrations with spelling, Saying Something Important and Getting Things Right can freeze kids up. I like to approach this problem in two ways. One is to make the work I ask the kids to do be real and beautiful and meaningful —Continue reading “Exquisite Corpse”

Working with Challenged Writers

Learning to write is hard work for most children, but for kids with learning differences it can be especially difficult. Often with those children, there are a few aspects of writing that lag far behind their general understanding of language. Maybe their spelling looks like some kind of code. Maybe they don’t read yet. MaybeContinue reading “Working with Challenged Writers”