Day 2: Imaginative Narratives

On the second day of Imaginative Narratives, we sketched out our two main characters first through shared writing. We discussed how we wanted our characters to look making sure that we were very descriptive. As students shouted out their ideas, we quickly started sketching. Then, we discussed what kind of characters we wanted them to be by describing their personality. We wrote these words around the characters. We also discussed how these characters needed to sound realistic and jive with out story line. Once, we were done with our characters for our class story, our students set off to work sketching and describing their characters from their story map. Our students had a lot of fun doing this and were eager to share their ideas. By spending the time doing shared writing with the class, there is more ownership and excitement about writing. Below you can find our lesson and a student's notebook entry:

Be sure to come back and see what we did next...

xo

Imaginative Narratives

I've had so much fun in 3rd grade launching a new writing unit on imaginative narratives. While the stories are imaginative, I wanted them to be realistic. I may have them write another story in the genre, but as a fantasy, perhaps as a revision unit...more thoughts on that later.

Before we started, they read and talked a lot about the genre in reading workshop. We began our work in writing workshop with shared writing. I used a story map to help get them thinking about a plausible story line between two main characters in a realistic setting, with a problem and solution. They helped me brainstorm our class story on chart paper on the first day. Then,we moved into the Writer's Notebooks where they were to begging brainstorming their own stories by applying what we did together as a whole group. Below you can see the beginning stages of our story taking shape.

The next day we moved onto characters.

Come back to see what we did as a whole group and what a student did in her notebook 😀

Blogging Club Update!

So...I have been HORRIBLE at keeping my promise to blog weekly with my Bloggers. We did have a week off for Spring Break in there...my excuse for the other weeks....hmm give me time to think. J/k! I am very proud of my students  that continue to show up week after week. I have had a few quit, but I figured that would happen with such a big class. I can't lie and say that I wasn't disappointed in the fact that they'd rather do something else, but I won't take it personal, it just wasn't their thing. Anyways...back to the students that do come...I've been so impressed in how they have been helping one another and how they have taken charge of their learning. One week a student asked me, "How do you put in a link?" I responded, "Great question. That will be what I teach you next week!" (It was at the tail end of class and rather than just show him, I figured the rest of the class would like to know, too.) Then last week, I wanted to teach them how to create their own avatar for their page; however, once I got to class, I discovered that the 5th graders had actually learned that in computer lab that week. So, I did what any WISE teacher would do, and I said great, "Nick you're going to teach the rest of the class how to do it and while you're at it, create one for me, too!" He did a great job! All of the students were able to customize their own avatar to look as much like themselves, or not, as they wished. This week's lesson will be on: How to Comment on Blogs. I have allowed them to view one another's blogs and comment, but it has turned into a chatting message board. With that being said, we need to discuss how to leave constructive criticism and comments. I will let you know how it goes :) 

Check out my avatar:

What do you think? lol

Have you started blogging with your students yet?