Deena Seifert,M.S., CCC-SLP[/caption]
Beth shared The Puzzle Method with us, which helps writers develop main ideas and key details. I've borrowed her puzzle idea and started using it with my elementary school writers who are writing sentences to describe pictured situations. Sometimes students are overwhelmed with the many actions in a picture and don't know where to start.
"Taking a page" from Beth's strategies, I make a photocopy of a picture and cut it up into puzzle pieces. The student puts the puzzle together, determines the main idea of the picture and creates a topic sentence.
After writing the topic sentence, the student chooses one of the puzzle pieces and writes a sentence about it, and so on with each puzzle piece until a sentence has been formulated about each puzzle piece. Finally, we work on formulating the concluding sentence.
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This method can be used to create compound and complex sentences by using 2 or more puzzle pieces:
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Breaking a picture up into defined puzzle pieces, breaks down the activity for the student and decreases the frustration that can be caused with a multi-step writing activity.
Perfect, Deena. For example, the student might connect "the boy is leaning against the tree eating an apple" with "the teenagers are unpacking the picnic lunch" using the word, "while". Great extension idea!
ReplyDeleteI love it! This is a wonderful idea!! Thank you both for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWriting main idea sentences is so hard for some students. I often call topic sentences "umbrella sentences" because everything fits under them. If the student has trouble, they could put the different puzzle pieces under the "umbrella sentence" and see if it fits. If not, the umbrella sentence has to be broadened. For example, if her topic sentence is The kids are eating outside. You could put the puzzle piece of the skateboarder under it and ask if it fits under the umbrella.
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestion, Alissa! We will incorporate that! Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI have been using this umbrella technique with several students and it is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBeth