Writing

The students have been learning how to improve narrative writing. We've been looking closely at Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson.  We began with our tiny topic notebooks and the students have been adding some great writing ideas.  I taught the students how to take a topic and let it grow in your mind.  Students were taught how to tell the whole story across your fingers until is seemed right.  Then they wrote a key word or two at the top of each page so they could plan their story across five pages.  Then they write a beginning, middle and end of each part on every page. You would be so impressed with all of their writing. On Monday and Tuesday, the students have been zooming in on the small moment so they can write with lots of details.  Today, the students learned about powerful endings. The students tried to write a few different endings for their stories.  Tomorrow the students will be rereading their stories like detectives and making sure the writing makes sense and sounds right.  The students will be looking at punctuation and spelling and fixing up their rough drafts. Check out a few of our anchor charts that students can refer to during writing time to help them improve their writing.