• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Meet the Teacher
    • Disclosures
    • Professional Development
  • My Classroom
    • Back to School
    • Differentiated Instruction
    • Distance Learning
    • Management
    • Organization
    • Technology
  • 1st Grade
    • Art
    • Daily Five
    • Guided Math
    • Reading/Literacy
    • Science
    • Writing
  • 5th Grade
    • 1:1 iPads
    • Book Displays
    • Community Building
    • ELA
    • On Demand Writing
  • Shop
  • Blog

October 31, 2013

SPAM It!

In 5th grade, we SPAM…on the daily. As a writing team, we only teach On
Demand. In our district, 5th graders do not write ‘pieces’ (memoirs,
personal narratives, poems, etc); rather, we focus  on On-Demand writing or ‘real-world’ opportunities
to write. We teach under the idea that by the end of the year, students should
be able to sit down, be given real-world writing prompt, and thoughtfully
respond in 30 or 90 minutes. Right or wrong? I am not sure…but it’s what
we do.
What I do know is that the writing part of 5th grade state
testing consists of 2 On-Demand pieces. One 30 minute stand-alone piece (that
means it does not have an article with it), and one 90 minute text prompt (that
has at least one text with it, usually 2).
So, the first part of our On-Demand time is spent SPAMing. When we SPAM,
we analyze and pick our prompt apart. When broken down, SPAM looks like this –
 
Situation – What is going on? What background information do you have?
Purpose – Why are you writing? Are you writing to inform/explain, to
give your opinion, or to narrate.
Audience – To whom are you writing – the school council, the public, the
principal, a new student?
Mode – What are you writing – letter, article, email?
This week has been SPAM week, so we started out learning and chanting
SPAM. We took notes, make anchor charts, and practiced raps.
Then, the past two days have been spent practicing and analyzing sample
prompts (you can grab our prompts here). Students used the Kagan structure, Rally Coach, to team up with a
friend and analyze different prompts I found through our Department of
Education. After students had time to analyze the prompts, we projected them on
our SMART Board and annotated the texts.  Finally, students were ready to analyze the prompts
by themselves.
Although I was surprised to see that it took us 3 days to SPAM,
I really love seeing my kids take a prompt and instantly know how to break it
apart. As we transition to writing whole On Demand pieces (rather than a paragraph at a time), the SPAM road-map will be really helpful.
So, I’m curious – do you teach On Demand, writing pieces, or a
combination of both? Do you use SPAM or another organizer? I would love to
know! 🙂

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Related Posts

  • On-Demand Opinion Writing {Motivating Students}
  • Paragraph Writing in 1st and 2nd Grade
  • Work on Writing IdeasWork on Writing Ideas
  • Narrative Writing Mentor Texts

Filed Under: 5th Grade, On Demand Writing Tagged With: Anchor Charts, Common Core, On Demand, Writing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bridget S says

    November 1, 2013 at 3:27 am

    This is a great idea! Do you think you could use SPAM to also analyze why author's write? (change the "I" to "the author")

    Bridget
    Literacy Without Worksheets

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 2, 2014 at 11:17 pm

      Absolutely, Bridget! If that works for your students – go for it. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in my 8th year in elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

Read More

Find it Fast!

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Don’t Miss These!

Working together to meet a goal builds classroom community & encourages teamwork. As a PBIS school, check our our 20 favorite nonfood, low-cost rewards!

20 Positive Behavior Rewards that Aren’t Food

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Guided Reading: 1st Grade Style

Weekly Lesson Planning Routine

Overwhelmed by math centers? Check out these SIMPLE ideas for create predictable patterns and routines that allow for streamlined planning!

Managing Math Centers

Wordless Picture Books

Categories

Archives

Footer

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: There is no connected account for the user 856217913 Feed will not update.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

The Brown Bag Teacher © 2021Built with and Genesis Framework by Bellano Web Studio