My room was essentially controlled chaos today since my students began publishing their picture books. Paper cuttings were everywhere by the end of the day, as were markers, pens, pencils, and a myriad of other art supplies. I'm still at work (5:55 p.m.) since it took me awhile to straighten-up for tomorrow since there's two… Continue reading They’re publishing their books! They’re publishing their books!
Category: fiction
Scenes from a Workshop Workshop
Well, really just a scene from today's Writing Workshop, but I wanted to do a take-off of the Billy Joel Song. 😉 Anyway, I taught a great minilesson today on character development in Writing Workshop that I got from Georgia Heard's book The Revision Toolbox, which I turn to nearly every time my students have… Continue reading Scenes from a Workshop Workshop
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Short Fiction Rubric
I finally sat down and created a short fiction rubric for the picture books my students are going to "publish" this-coming week. If you're in the market for a rubric that provides space for students to self-assess their performance, then click here.
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Revision: Dialogue
The active engagement of today's minilesson ran a little longer than usual since my students felt as though they needed to help me revise my dialogue after studying the way another author used powerful dialogue in another text. I think that their suggestions helped me write something more believable that just needs to be folded… Continue reading Revision: Dialogue
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Ideas for Creating a 3-D Character from Today’s M.L. Active Engagement
First, I have to say that today's lesson I taught, which was adapted from Session 11 of Calkins & Cruz's Book on Fiction Writing in Grades 3 - 5 is AWESOME. It's all about revising with different lenses. My students read my story yesterday and commented on it, which was helpful to me. One thing… Continue reading Ideas for Creating a 3-D Character from Today’s M.L. Active Engagement
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A short list of the texts my students went for to help them revise the endings of their stories today…
One of our readers, Kelly, asked me to share the list of texts my students went for when looking for mentor texts to help them revise the endings of their short fiction pieces today. Here's the list of texts they used: Fly Away, Home by Eve Bunting "Josie's First Allowance Day" by Rosie Perez Knuffle… Continue reading A short list of the texts my students went for to help them revise the endings of their stories today…
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Endings
Good thing tomorrow's minilesson in writing focuses on using touchstone texts to improve the ending of a story. I just finished the ending of my short fiction piece for this unit of study. Quite frankly, I think it's awful! Want to give me some feedback before I show this to my class? (I would LOVE… Continue reading Endings
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Writing Fiction? Take the next step!
My son loves-loves-loves books. This steals my heart. It also allows me even more time to read children's books. What I've noticed is my desire to dive in and write fiction. I know many people are in the midst of fiction with their students. (It seems to be a good way to keep the grey… Continue reading Writing Fiction? Take the next step!
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Cybils 2007 Awards Have Been Announced
I was honored to have been part of the Fiction Picture Book Judging Committee for the 2007 Cybils Awards along with Mitali, Barb, Nikki, and Gail, which was led by Jules. As I was browsing for picture books when I was at Brookline Booksmith yesterday, I realized that I hadn't posted a link to the… Continue reading Cybils 2007 Awards Have Been Announced
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Why all the photos? Where’s WNW?
I've been hard at work on this piece of fiction writing for my classroom demonstrations during Writing Workshop. Hence, other than the writing I've been doing online (which is quite a bit), I haven't been able to wrap my head around a charge for Writer's Notebook Wednesday (aka: WNW). WNW WILL be back soon, but… Continue reading Why all the photos? Where’s WNW?
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Time to Write the Entire Draft
My colleague Kate and I were remarking that this unit of study on fiction is taking our students longer (i.e., longer for their drafts to come together). Hence, I decided that it's time for ME to get a full, working draft of my story together so that I can really use it as a touchstone… Continue reading Time to Write the Entire Draft
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Writing Fiction
I haven't been blogging much lately since I've been drafting my short fiction story that I'm writing alongside my students for the unit of study we're in right now. This is the first page of my first draft.
