Writing Trait/Strategy:

Word choice; poetry tool

Mentor Text Suggestions:

• A Twister of Twists, A Tangler of Tongues and Busy Buzzing Bumblebees and Other Tongue Twisters by Alvin Schwartz
• All About Arthur—An Absolutely Absurd Ape by Eric Carle
• Alligators All Around by Maurice Sendak
• Alphabet Annie Announces an All-American Album by Susan Purviance and Marcia O’shell
• Animalia by Graeme Base
• Dinorella: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Faint Frogs Feeling Feverish and Other Terrifically Tantalizing Tongue Twisters by L. Obligada
• Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke by Pamela Edwards Duncan, 1995.
• Six Sick Sheep: One Hundred Tongue Twisters by Beverly Collins and Stephanie Calmenson
• Some Smug Slug by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• The Awful Aardvarks Go to School by Reeve Lindbergh
• The Biggest Tongue Twister Book in the World by Gyles Brandeth
• The Wacky Wedding: A Book of Alphabet Antics by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• The Worrywarts by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Toad by Ruth Brown

Description:

Alliteration is the occurrence in a phrase of two or more words having the same initial sound (e.g., wailing in the winter wind) It is a tool frequently used by poets to create rhythm and music.

Activities:

• Give each student or pair or students some sticky notes. Ask them to brainstorm as many words as they can that begin with an assigned letter and write one word on each sticky note. Then have them manipulate the sticky notes to compose a sentence/poem/story using as many of the words as they can. Allow them to use extra blank sticky notes for “glue words” such as the, and, or, etc.
• Write an alliteration class alphabet book. Use Animalia by Graeme Base as a model.

Writing Trait/Strategy:

word choice; sentence fluency

Mentor Text Suggestions:

Most poetry collections will have examples of poems that use repetition

• "Things" by Eloise Greenfield
• Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack
• The Sunsets of Olivia Wiggins by Lester Laminack
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
• In November by Cynthia Rylant
• The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
• Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
• Momma, Where Are You From? By Marie Bradby

Description:

Repetition is the repeating of a word, phrases, lines, or groups of lines to add rhythm or emphasis. Read aloud poems and picture books that have examples of repetitive words and phrases. Discuss the impact the repetitions have on the overall feeling of the text. When using repetition in their poetry, students should always go back to reread the poem aloud often. This is the only way to tell if the repetition works in the poem. Guidelines: Use repetition to stress an important word, phrase, or idea, and to add rhythm. Avoid using repetitions that sound awkward or that are in too close proximity to each other to be effective.

Student Sample:

We also call this activity “Look at a ________ through a poet’s eyes.” Choose a subject. Things from nature or every day objects work well.  Have students use ordinary words and phrases to describe the subject. Then have them look at the subject in a different way and use metaphor and simile to describe it (Heard, 1999). Here is an example of one that my students did while looking at this conch shell:

Writing Trait/Strategy:

word choice/word awareness

Mentor Text Suggestions:

• Fancy Nancy series by Jane O’Connor
• Donovan’s Word Jar by Monlisa Degross
• Miss Alaineous by Debra Frazier
• Max’s Words by Kate Banks
• The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter

Description:

Read aloud one or several of the listed mentor texts. Designate a bulletin board, chart paper, or section of the chalkboard for students to record new, interesting, or unusual words. Set aside a few minutes daily to discuss these words. I especially like to focus on synonyms for overused words. Many of these words surface during read aloud time. I introduce the words naturally in the context of the story: “’Dilemma. That’s an interesting word. Does anyone know what that means? It’s a fancy word for ‘problem’.” We add it to our Fancy Word board, and I encourage students to use the word in context in their speaking and writing throughout the day. We also keep special lists for words like “said” and “went” that have many more interesting synonyms. The students become very excited about finding these words in their independent reading, during read aloud, and during conversations. A study on word learning in the elementary grades suggests that this intentional focus on words has great impact on students’ overall word learning (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982).

I have also used the phrase “rice cake and salsa words” to help remind students to be intentional in their word choice. I give each student pieces of bland rice cakes and sample-size cups of mild salsa. As they taste each, we talk about how we want to use salsa words, not rice cake words in their writing. We open up our writer’s notebooks and look for examples of rice cake words and try to replace them with salsa words.