We are learning that there are different purposes in writing. The most common that students use is to inform where students explain what they have learned and can teach this information to others. This is very useful practice but there are times when we want to be creative and have fun with our writing...just to entertain. So to celebrate the Halloween season, students are doing creative writing using a list of requirements. First, the stories must include suspense. We have modeled different ways to create suspense with word choice. Students must also use dialogue so that the reader can more easily identify with the characters. Next, students must use onomatopoeias to help bring the story to life by sound. The reader should be able to imagine themselves in the story. The students are writing narratives and are following the structures of beginning (introduction to characters and main setting), middle (introduction to the problem), and ending (solution of the problem). Students are enjoying this type of writing. I cannot wait to see all the finished products! Who knows? We may have a future best selling author among us!
We have been working on putting our ideas down on paper. First, students conducted a short research project on a famous structure making a flip book and poster of interesting information. These will be on display for parent teacher conferences in the hallway outside of our room.
In teams, students generated ten questions reviewing concepts we learned about during the first quarter. We will use these to play a game show next week in a fun competition. Some of the questions are tricky! Lastly, students are writing a short paper defending their ideas regarding school lunch. They must consider multiple points of view when arguing their perspective. Furthermore, they must provide strong facts, or evidence, to support their beliefs. I told them it is their job to convince me to eat lunch at school! :) Seriously though, they are considering cost, allergies, time, personal preference, etc. I'm anxious to read their final reports! |
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February 2016
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