Writer's Workshop
Personal Narrative Writing
Writer's workshop for fourth quarter began with a review of personal narratives. What is a personal narrative? It is a true story and you are the main character! The goals for this writer's workshop were to first develop Wynn's style and second, develop his voice. This was done through several different exercises that helped him hone his craft and fine-tune his work. To begin, Wynn created a heart map: a visual containing eight possible writing ideas which he generated. (Pictured right). From the heart map, Wynn selected a few of his favorite subjects and "narrowed them down to a seed". This was an exercise in which he took a broad subject and narrowed it down to a moment of time. His favorite "seed" story was "Making Candles at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center". After choosing a seed story, Wynn practiced writing four leads: action, dialogue, question, and sound. His favorite lead was the action lead (pictured below). Action: The smell of beeswax filled the air as I gave the string second degree burns by dipping it slowly into the pot of melted wax". Sound: "Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound of beeswax dripping from the string filled the air". Question: "Have you ever wondered how candles were made 150 years ago?" Dialogue: "Five minutes til candle making time", the park ranger shouted. "Do you want to make a candle?" my mom asked. "Sure! Let's go!" I said. This planning and writing process meets the following I can statements: I can write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. I can produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. I can plan, revise, edit, rewrite or try a new approach in my writing with some help from peers and adults. I can write with stamina for short time frames or over a longer period of time depending on my purpose, audience and topic. |
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Opinion Essay Writing Wynn's second writer's workshop project for the quarter was writing an opinion essay. As with all writer's workshops, this started with a good graphic organizer to generate ideas (pictured right). After sharing his ideas with peers, and asking them to vote for their favorite writing choices, they chose Newport Beach being his favorite place, and wanting karate lessons. Wynn took their suggestions to heart and settled on "Why I Should Have Karate Lessons" as his main topic. For the next assignment, Wynn developed his topic with a strong opinion statement and coupled it with reasons and examples (pictured below left). Subsequent lessons included: writing a strong lead; addressing opposing arguments; evaluating paragraphs for good topic and concluding sentences; using transition words; and writing a strong conclusion. His final essay is pictured bottom right. I Can Statement: I can write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information |
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Reading and Responding to Literature
After reading through The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) by Roald Dahl, Wynn was asked to respond to the book in a creative way. He chose to write a newspaper article on one specific event in the book (pictured left). He used the Five Ws and an H (who, what where, why and how), and a mentor text (real newspaper article) as a guide. He then created a telly-telly bunkum box (that's giant speak for a "television") and reported "live from London" by reading his article behind it. His written article meets the following I can statements:
I can write a basic newspaper article including the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and an H (how). I can summarize text that is read aloud or information that is presented in diverse media and formats. I can read grade-level texts with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. I can summarize fiction and nonfiction texts in my own words. |
Sign of the Beaver
The last chapter book of the school year (we will still read during summer) is Sign of the Beaver. What a book! I really like how Attean helps Matt survive in the wilderness. Matt does a lot for himself like hunt and chop wood and catch fish and he is not much older than me. -- Wynn Wynn was asked to compare the novels Robinson Crusoe and Sign of the Beaver since there are many similarities between the characters Crusoe and Friday and Matt and Attean. Pictured right is the venn diagram. This meets the I can statement: I can compare and contrast stories in the same genre. |