Writing

As the first quarter came to an end, so did our writing unit on Narratives. Students worked really, really hard on not just writing a story, but also revising a story.

After writing their first draft, students cut up the story into sections that could be paragraphs. Not all fifth graders write with paragraphs, so we worked on how to figure out when a new paragraph would start, and that we indent the first lines of paragraphs.

Once they'd cut it apart, they glued it into what we call a "Revision Booklet". The booklet allows students to make revisions/changes to the story with adequate space.  We had many lessons about how students could improve their writing including  writing better beginnings, using better words (including "Said is dead"), using dialogue, and using figurative language such as similes, metaphors or personification.

Here's an example of what a revision book looks like.

You will have a chance to see your child's revision booklet at conferences on the 21st. 

Once students were done revising, they met with a teacher to edit and refine before typing up their final drafts. Those will also be available for you at conferences.