Writing

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 * __ Writer’s Workshop: Our Writing Journal __**

Third Quarter: Non-Fiction "All About Books" and Persuasive Writing

During the second quarter, the students are writing realistic fiction stories using characters they have created. As a class, we created our character named Chip Troy Flat (a relative of Flat Stanley), but we call him Troy because he goes by his middle name. He has many likes and dislikes as well as many problems. The students are working with me and we are sharing the pen to create a skeleton story for Troy. Independently and in small strategy lesson groups, the students are creating their own skeleton stories for their characters. They are doing a fantastic job!
 * Second Quarter: Realistic Fiction and Fairy Tales **

During the first quarter, the students were taught how to write small moment stories. A small moment story is like a seed in a watermelon. The watermelon represents the big story like going to Disney Land or spending the day with your family. These “watermelon” stories are too big and it’s difficult for students to add details and elaborate on their ideas because they have so many ideas. The students are learning how to take one “seed” of the “watermelon”. The seed is a 10-15 minute window of time when one event occurred. The seed would be going on our favorite ride at Disney Land or having the picnic with our family while we spent the day together. The students learned to take that one “seed” and stretch it out. The goal was to have the students write using multiple details, a clear beginning, middle and end, elaborate on ideas and show, not tell. The small moment stories carried over into our next unit called Authors as Mentors. We read books by Ezra Jack Keats and studied the techniques he used in his writing that we admired. The students were challenged to use these techniques in their own stories such as similes, ellipses, onomatopoeias, instead of words and many more. The students have made tremendous progress! They are building their writing stamina and they are developing a love of writing.
 * First Quarter: Small Moments and Stretching Small Moments **