Rhonda Fox June 27, 2001
OWP '01
Book Report #2
By
Lawrence Baines & Anthony J. Kunkel, Editors
This wonderful book of writing activities is compiled together by twenty teachers of all disciplines and grade levels. The forty-five lessons have been thoroughly tested and taught successfully by many "Bohemian Teachers." I use this word "Bohemian" because the philosophy of the book is based on the departure from the typical norm of classroom teaching. To be a "Bohemian" teacher one must be purposefully creative, making sure one is constantly implementing new techniques within the classroom. As teachers, we all want to make sure that our students get the proper skills and knowledge that they need within our classroom and that they will all complete the valuable assignments we give them. This book makes you think twice about those so-called "valuable" assignments and provides the stepping-stones for alternative ways to instill the skills and knowledge our students need.
The forty-five lessons are divided into nine sections. Each lesson provides the objective, type of activity, approximate time, materials, set-up, procedures, summary, an enrichment activity, and easy to follow instructions. These lessons are appropriate for grades 4th öHigh School and can be adapted according to your classroom needs. The following sections are:
q Starting Out- This section provides some interactive and creative ways to journal, write prose and sentence starter activities that paves the way for the students to write about their own personal experiences.
q Multimedia-I was impressed with the activities provided in this section that use videos, the Internet and performance to enhance a student's writing ability.
q Sentence Structure- Sentence reversal, adjectives, scrambled sentences and rapid transitions are some of the topics covered in this section through interactive writing activities.
q Enriching Vocabulary-This is definitely my favorite section. It provides instructions for games such as: Word Bingo, Vocab War, Synonym Scuffle, Thinking Sentences and much more.
q Nonfiction-The nonfiction section has a lot of interesting activities that fit in well with social study projects. These activities provide exercises in critical thinking.
q Creative Writing-Creating character and working with The Pledge of Allegiance in a poetic format are just a few of the creative writing assignments involved in this section.
q Point of View and Tone-Writing about point of view is not always an easy task for students, but this section provides some interesting lessons that use tombstones, the National Enquirer and other intrinsically motivating literature.
q Literature-This section calls upon the use of music, short stories, a recently read book and a letter from a slave.
q Poetry-Reflective research through self-portrait, poems, Onomatopoeic poems, Anglo-Saxon Riddles and soul poetry are some of the writing activities provided in this section of the book.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to all teachers who have seen in their classroom a need for change, something definitely "Bohemian" like, and in implementing this change, then maybe you will have your students waiting in anticipation for their next writing project.