Criswell - Writer's Workshop (Section Thur 5)

Instructor
Mrs. Meridith Criswell
Department
Language Arts
Terms
2019-2020 School Year


Assignment Calendar

Course Description

 

Class Title:

Writer’s Workshop

Code:

E325

Text:

Various Resources

Rating:

3

Prerequisite:

None

Grade:

5-­6

Fees:

None

Max:

15

Can be repeated? Yes

 

Description: Students will have fun using language to paint a picture with their own words. Students will engage in activities that will help them access their own creativity. This class will take a progressive approach to effective writing, in which students will start with sentence structure, word choice, and basic grammar, and then move into elaboration techniques, figurative language, and paragraph writing. Possible projects may include personal narratives, journaling, expository writing, fiction and poetry.

Posts

Homework

In class, students started revising their previous stories to add "show, don't tell" to describe emotions and feelings. If you didn't finish in class, rewrite at least one "telling" emotion from a previous story so that it "shows" the feeling in 2-3 descriptive sentences. Complete this on your "Show, don't tell" handout from class.
 
 
**Please remember to keep all your writing organized in a binder or folder so that you have access to it during class each week. We will often pull out old stories to work on revising as we learn new writing techniques and skills.

Homework

Please finish your "Show, Don't Tell" organizer from class. For each telling statement on the left side, write 2-3 sentences to show the emotion instead. For example:
Telling: My brother was angry.
Your SHOWING revision: My brother clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes at me. His face turned as red as a tomato at he screamed, "Give me back my toy!"

Homework

Please finish the storyboard picture plan (beginning, middle, and end) that you started in class for your personal narrative. Then, write the story. Be sure to skip lines and try to aim for at least 4-5 sentences for each picture in your storyboard.

Personal Narrative Idea List Example
This week students brainstormed ideas for "small moment" personal narratives by making a list of important people and places in their lives. Then they added 1-3 small moment story ideas for each person or place. This will serve as an idea bank as we continue to work on personal narratives and memoirs over the next couple of months. If you didn't finish your lists in class, do so for homework. See the attached picture for an example.

First Day Reminders

It was a great first day at Apex! Students wrote their first personal narrative today to give me some baseline information and so we can see how much we grow as writers by the end of the year. They should finish it at home and bring it back next week if it was not finished in class (this should be done without parent assistance).
 
Also, just a reminder for students to bring a 2-pocket folder and a have a section in their binder for this class.