SOLSC Classroom Challenge

Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 25 of 31

Anna Gratz Cockerille

Slice of Life_classroom image Black

It’s Day 25 Classroom Slicers!

In the book Crafting True Stories by Lucy Calkins and Marjorie Martinelli, part of the Units of Study for Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, small moment stories are the topic. What better place to look for inspiration for Slice of Life stories than a book about writing small moments?

One important strategy for a small moment writer is to write in scenes, not summaries. It is so easy to slip into summarizing when recounting a story: First I did this. Then I did that. Then this happened. 

But the most powerful stories put the reader right in the action, telling what happened bit by bit: “Watch out!” Sarah yelled. I looked behind me, and there, barreling toward me at full speed, was my brother. And he looked MAD.

Today as you write your Slice, think – am I summarizing? Or am I storytelling?

WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog.
SHARE a link to your post in the comments section.
GIVE comments to at least three other SOLSC Classroom bloggers.

Happy Slicing!

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Published by Anna Gratz Cockerille

Anna is a staff developer, literacy coach, and writer, based in New York City. She taught internationally in places such as Sydney, Australia; San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Auckland, New Zealand in addition to New York before becoming a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University (TCRWP). She has been an adjunct instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, and teaches at TCRWP where she helps participants bring strong literacy instruction into their classrooms. Anna recently co-wrote Bringing History to Life with Lucy Calkins, part of the 2013 series Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing (Heinemann). She has been a researcher for Lucy Calkins, contributing especially to Pathways to the Common Core (Heinemann, 2012) and Navigating Nonfiction (Heinemann, 2010).

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