Digital Storytelling 101: Christmas Story

I’m desperate for a new idea.  We are slogging through Little Women.   (Sophie’s the only girl.   She and I are the only ones in class who love the book.)  We’ll still take fifteen minutes each class to review components; however, I need a better writing project.  We’re going to write Christmas stories.  The story can be a retelling of the Nativity story or a family Christmas story.  Here is a video module with the basics.  I used Share Your Story last year.  This document has step by step instructions.  Here are examples for Digital Nativity Stories.  Here is another example.  Kids can retell their own Christmas story with family photos, too.  I’ll keep you posted.

Longman Classics

 This past Saturday, we hosted a group of friends for lunch.  One friend, Rick, was discussing his grandson’s reading issues.  I was showing his a copy of Longman Classics. (Here are more Longman Classics.) These have chapter summaries.  There is a Longman for Little Women, I lent to one of the kids in my Composition class, who is struggling with the book.  The kids in the Co-op class either read or listened to Little Women.  However, they struggle with writing, too.  The Longman series is abbreviated or has four graded stages or levels of reading.  I find these abbreviated books to be very helpful for students who are overwhelmed with longer books.  Abridged, leveled, or graded books can help enormously if your child struggles with reading.  The teen will have a good synopsis.  I think the focus should be on success.  An abridged version is still a version of the book.

Combine assignments!

Many families focus on core subjects at the elementary level: English, math, history or geography, and science.  Usually, families must pour most of their energy into English and math.  Let’s combine more subjects!  For example, don’t make handwriting practice a separate subject.  Instead incorporate handwriting into lapbooks, composition, math reasoning, or spelling.  Practice cursive writing with a story.  Use science to add more reading.  Have you heard of Start with a Book?  Look at Bug Studies and Weather Wonders for inspiration.   Head to the library and borrow an armload of books on bugs or weather.  Create a simple journal; there are templates in the packet.  Better yet, make your own book.  Work as a family to create a lapbook.  Make sketches and add art!  Last night, Rob and I subbed for the high school Confirmation class.   They are studying the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Bible lessons are great for combining assignments.  We read from the Bible and reviewed the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit with this cryptogram and then did some art with this crayon resist craft.  See?  We added a bit of art seamlessly.  Combine and conquer.

11/13 What are we doing?

 I took screenshots of tomorrow’s plans and photo prompt.  Take a look.

Little Women: Cat Story

 I’m using Little Women—A Retelling.  In it is a creative writing exercise instructing kids to rewrite the story about Laurie returning the March cat.  The incident is in Chapter 3, when Jo and Laurie meet at the ball.  I like to do these assignments along with the class. Here’s mine.

Slice and Dice!

I look at every resource through a conservative world view.  I just posted Little Women resources.  Am I using all of this material?  Nope.  I’ll read parts of the Britannica biography about Louisa May Alcott.  I’m using this resource because many of the questions examine Little Women in the context of the time period and prevailing social norms.  Our class is part of a Catholic Co-op.  We bring in our faith—which I found confusing in Little Women because of its Transcendentalism influences.  We’ll discuss morality lessons in the novel.  However, I am careful to select questions which are objective or focus on the book and its characters.  The last thing I want to do is try to impose contemporary values to a classic novel written and published in the late 1860’s.  That’s why I share so many resources.  I might find only one exercise or two good questions to use for class.

Book vs Film: Little Women

 This year, we’re doing the kids’ favorite books: Holes, Little Women, My Side of the Mountain, and Number the Stars—so far!  The first book is Little Women.  There are movie versions from Little Women 1994 vs.Little Women 2019.  There is a PBS series available on tubi, too.

It’s fun to compare the book to the film.  It can be even more fun to compare different film versions.  Which one captures the book better?  I use a literary guide to help kids do some analysis before we write five paragraph essays.  Below are some links. You could spend a month on this unit.

1.  Younger kids may want to have questions to answer for each chapter. Here are some questions to help kids read more closely.

2. Here is a novel guide.  This one is a series of worksheets.  My current class benefits from this style of guide.  They need critical questions and writing prompts.  I’m going to use Little Women, A Retelling and Britannica’s brief biography.

3. Some classes respond to book clubs.  Here is a reader’s guide (with a recipe for Apple turnovers) for a book club.

4.  Great Books uses a ‘shared inquiry’ approach here with deeper questions, such as ‘Why does Jo  give up her writing career to raise children and run a school with Professor Bhaer? 

5. Do you want to do some serious analysis?  Try  this study guide from the Center for Lit.

6.  Little Women—Teach with Movies has some good questions to adapt.  For example, the novel is semi-autobiographical.  Which parts of the book-film seem the most real?

7. General Maxims of Teaching is just one of the resources from The Orchard House.