My portfolio is a black, softcover notebook that you can zip up. Uncle James gave Ellie a very similar but smaller book a few weeks ago. This gave Ellie the idea to write her own article and print it out to put in her own portfolio. So we sat down at the computer and Ellie wrote an article about butterflies. She dictated everything she could remember about them while I typed, and when she wasn't sure about a fact, we put the standard placeholder TK and looked up the information online to add it in later. After she said all she wanted to about butterflies, she chose a full-color picture to add to her story. She was a real reporter.
When we finished printing the page and putting it in her portfolio, she brought it to my office for a job interview. I asked her a few preliminary questions. First I asked, "Do you think if you didn't know the answer to a question you could look it up and find out? (Yes)" Then, "What sorts of topics do you know a lot about? (butterflies, cats, dogs, and spiders.)" Then I asked to see her portfolio and she unzipped the pouch to show me her one article. I thought the article was very interesting and told her I'd learned something from it. I also enjoyed the picture. Then I told her I would get back to her next week and we shook hands.
Here's her article about butterflies. She started writing her next article last night, which will be about cats.
Butterflies
by Ellie
First the mama butterfly lays its eggs. It can lay up to 100 eggs. It is a caterpillar when it is just born and for up to six weeks after. Caterpillars eat leaves and other foods. Then it makes a cocoon. It stays in it for a couple of weeks. Then it turns into a butterfly. Butterflies do not eat. They drink, and they can taste with their feet. They drink nectar. Some can be colorful. Others can just be plain. If they have a design on one wing, they will have the same design on the other wing.
4 comments:
She's on her way, our little reporter. How very darling.
I learned something too! I can't wait to learn more about cats from her next article. Tell her she can use Aunt Lalie as a resource.
What an extraordinarily well organized paragraph! Did she copy it from a book, or is it her own ideas? That's better than some of my third graders' writing!
She wrote it all herself and actually insisted on the wording when I tried to give her a little editing. So it's all her. We did have to fill in some facts and change a fact or two once we looked them up.
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