Creative ways to teach paraphrasing???

[figaromeetsmarie]

Can anyone help me think of any creative ways to teach paraphrasing??
I am at a lose for this!!
Thanks

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I'm not sure how much help this is, but I will throw it out here anyways.

I teach first grade and each year the kids have to write "All About Books". This means they need to take facts from non-fiction books and then write about their topic in their own words. I find that they always just want to copy the information right out of the book. What I had them do this year was make an information web for each specific section. Then, when they drafted, I didn't let them have the book that day.

For example, a "Where Ants Live" web might have "mud", "dirt", "sand", "houses", etc. that the child got from the book. Then, they would have to write a sentence for each "spoke" on their web when they did their draft.

I'm not sure if this is the kind of idea you are looking for. It's not particularly creative but it did keep most of the kids from copying directly from the books.

 

[Northstar]

How about a Telephone-type game?

Give each person a different quote from a source, on a sheet of paper. Each person has a minute to write a paraphrase. Then, fold the paper so the next person can't see the original quote, only the paraphrase. Pass the papers to the person next to you. Read the paraphrase, write your own paraphrase, fold the paper down. Pass to the next person...

At the end, unfold the papers and read all the quotes and the paraphrases. Discuss... did the meaning get lost in translation? Are there any where the paraphrases returned towards the original wording? Which of the paraphrases sounds best to you?

Should be fun, anyway.

 

[Cindy B]

What grade level?

If you get older students, you can do something like what one of my college professors did.

He got some interesting quotes from various people like Jocelyn Elders, Langston Hughes, Rev. Jackson and Malcolm X. (it was not the usual Gettysburg address type things)

We were put into groups of four and we had to paraphrase the quote. We had to colloborate and then write the final product on an overhead transperency. We then had to share the transperency with the entire class and had to accept critiques/suggestions.

 

[disney junky]

I teach seniors. I have them read a passage, then put the passage away and rewrite it, otherwise they tend to use the author's words which is technically plagiarism.
I find this an excellent resource.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/02/
Hope that helps.