A Peek Into Our Week...
This year the 5th grade teachers decided to approach writing in a different way. Students are working together to brainstorm writing topics based around a central theme or idea and we are guiding them in choosing the appropriate writing genre to showcase their interest. This week we collected possible writing topics centered around our read aloud, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. (Hopefully you have heard a lot about this book! If not, ask your child about it. Reading this book together has been a wonderful class bonding experience and a GREAT way to start the year!) We categorized their ideas and students choose several that they found interesting to do quick writes about.
Having explored the ideas they were interested in, students were then able to narrow their interest and choose one topic they would like to expand into a story using planning, editing, revising, and drafting. So far, students have listed the ideas they have for a story and discussed them with a partner to get suggestions and feedback. Next week, they will conference with me individually and we will determine if their piece of writing should be fiction or nonfiction, and then which kind. Some students were interested in finding out more about the main character Auggie’s medical issues (craniofacial anomalies) while others choose imaginative topics like how the story would be different if characters switched roles.
Because they have had so much freedom (topic generation, genre, etc), I have not seen students hesitate to write or share their ideas. The only problem is that some of them have so many good ideas they can’t choose just one- a good problem to have!
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