Raise your hand if you have ever passed out a sheet of all sorts of transition words to your students and asked the kiddos to pick out words for their own writing. Okay you can put your hands down now. ;)
F.Y.I., my hand was up there along with most others.
I'm not saying this strategy could never work. This strategy just does not work for me for the simple fact that my kids all either have an IEP or are placed in my Basic Skills classes for needing a little extra help with learning.
(Mushy side-note...I've been teaching for about seven or eight years and it wasn't until I started teaching to the special ed. demographic three years ago, that I felt I really learned how to teach. These kids have helped me just as much as I have *hopefully* helped them.)
Anyway, what I have found works for me is to provide my students with one or two options for transition words per essay. For each new essay, some transition words might be different, or some the same from past essays. But usually my students will learn about 4 transition words per purpose (e.g. to introduce, to conclude, etc.) by the end of the year. I'm okay with my students not having a huge toolbox of words to pick from. I'd rather them have a small toolbox, in which they know each and every one of the contents well and know just what to pick out for each situation.
Are you readers thinking enough with the metaphorical toolbox already? If so, I read your minds! ;) Here is how I outlined my students' first essay of the year. Sometimes I provide a print-out of an outline for students, sometimes it's an anchor chart, or sometimes...it's a big outline on my favorite blue chalkboard.
F.Y.I., my hand was up there along with most others.
I'm not saying this strategy could never work. This strategy just does not work for me for the simple fact that my kids all either have an IEP or are placed in my Basic Skills classes for needing a little extra help with learning.
(Mushy side-note...I've been teaching for about seven or eight years and it wasn't until I started teaching to the special ed. demographic three years ago, that I felt I really learned how to teach. These kids have helped me just as much as I have *hopefully* helped them.)
Anyway, what I have found works for me is to provide my students with one or two options for transition words per essay. For each new essay, some transition words might be different, or some the same from past essays. But usually my students will learn about 4 transition words per purpose (e.g. to introduce, to conclude, etc.) by the end of the year. I'm okay with my students not having a huge toolbox of words to pick from. I'd rather them have a small toolbox, in which they know each and every one of the contents well and know just what to pick out for each situation.
Are you readers thinking enough with the metaphorical toolbox already? If so, I read your minds! ;) Here is how I outlined my students' first essay of the year. Sometimes I provide a print-out of an outline for students, sometimes it's an anchor chart, or sometimes...it's a big outline on my favorite blue chalkboard.
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