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Writing
Projects
~ Overview
Authentic
learning experiences support the development of students'
writer's voice. Not only does the Hidden Villa field trip
offer students concrete information and experiences to
write about, the excitement from these experiences often
acts to heighten students' motivation to write.
Writing
Projects
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Friendly
Letters
SUMMARY: Students
write thank you letters to their Hidden Villa guides,
sharing their favorite experiences and acknowledging
how their guides helped them. DURATION: 2
to 6 days GRADES: 2nd-3rd, can be adapted to 4th-5th
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Personal
Narratives
SUMMARY: Students use the excitement of their Hidden Villa field trip to facilitate learning the personal narrative writing style. As part of this particular unit on personal narrative, students learn to analyze what they learned from their choses experience. This project can be extended into a very powerful family-school activity (separate unit). DURATION: 1
to 3 weeks GRADES: 2nd-5th
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Fiction
Stories
SUMMARY: Students
use the familiar Hidden Villa habitats as the setting
for their fiction stories. Each student selects
an animal from one of these habitats as the main
character of their story and uses scientific
information about this animal to support their
character and plot development. DURATION: 2
to 4 weeks GRADES: 2nd-5th
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Poetry
SUMMARY: Students
use their experiences at Hidden Villa as inspiration
to write poems. This unit offers many concrete
ideas about how to teach the multifaceted genre
of poetry. DURATION: 1
to 3 weeks GRADES: 3rd-5th, can be adapted to 2nd
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Information
Reports
SUMMARY: Students
use the information they learned at Hidden Villa
to learn to write informational essays. The common Hidden Villa experiences allow for extensive teaching modeling and facilitate peer support during the writing process. This project also offers significant review and deepening of the science and social studies standards introduced during the field trip. DURATION: 3
to 5 weeks GRADES: 4th-5th, can be adapted to 3rd
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Family
Writing Activities
SUMMARY: Students share their final, published Hidden Villa personal narrative with somebody in their family. Then students guide this family member through each of the writing steps to produce his or her own published personal narrative. (An adaptation for fiction writing also included.) DURATION: 4
to 6 weeks GRADES: 2nd-5th
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