Writing Letters as Expository Text

A couple students wrote to favorite authors:

Other students thought writing to authors boring:

Imaginative Story Process

Characters

Setting

Plot

Personal Narratives

Cover Art from Recent Personal Narratives



Peer Editing

Each class generates a list of things they would like to know from their reader. Here's what my first period class came up with:

1) What did you like about my story?
2) What hooked you?
3) What were you picturing as you read my story?
4) Describe my story in 5 words
5) Where did you get lost?
6) Are any parts boring?
7) Where do you want or need more detail?



The hardest part of this exercise is getting students to trust one another. This will start with me creating a safe environment-revealing how I trust them and they can trust me.

Best and Worst Moments

These are from a free-writing activity at the beginning of the year titled "Best & Worst." Students think of their best and worst moments in life, then choose one of each and write over both of them. Yes, these are all three from the same student.

I love the correlation between a few of these from one side to the other (ex: dog, Mr. Evans).

Worst Moment

Best Moment

To clarify, this student was not trying to suck up.

Personal Narratives

Beefing up our writing!

Shape Poems

Shape Poems are poems that take the shape of their topic. For example:

Good job guys!