201: Highly Recommended: Penny Kittle's "Beautiful Words" Project

This week I’m sharing an idea from Penny Kittle that is so lovely and adaptable, I’m sure you can find a wonderful way to use it - the "Beautiful Words" project. 

Penny Kittle often shares strategies that involve looking to writing for inspiration and beauty. I’ve learned a lot from her about how to make mentor texts valuable, and how they are EVERYWHERE.

One of her prompts to students is that they search out beautiful words as they read the books they're reading in book club, and write them down in their notebooks. She shares vivid examples of students who have drawn out their beautiful words with striking representations in color and sketching. 

I recently tried this project out for myself and loved it. It’s endlessly adaptable. Here are just a few ways you could use Penny’s idea:

• Give students five minutes to find and sketchnote the most beautiful words they can from the reading prior to a whole class discussion, then invite pairs to share with each other and then someone to share with the whole class to begin a conversation around the writer’s style and word choice

• Invite partners to find and illustrate beautiful words from the whole class text to put up on the wall, then use them as writing prompts to practice different types of sentences or writing strategies

• Let the search for and sharing of beautiful words operate as a check-in and conversation starter to accompany book club reading, independent reading, or summer reading

• Run a beautiful words contest in your school library and put all the entries up on a gallery wall and let people vote secretly for their favorites

However you use it, I highly recommend Penny’s “Beautiful Words” project!

See examples from Penny Kittle's website here. 

And here's my example...

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