Our second grade writers have been busy researching information about plants. We have gathered facts from observations, articles, books, interactive sites and videos. Today we took all of our research and sorted it into chapters. Students will work with partners to plan, write, edit and publish their chapter for our class research report.
Our focus will be on writing real facts including sizes, examples and descriptions as well as including text features to help inform our readers. Looking forward to sharing their work with you in the next couple of weeks.
Our second grade writers are venturing into a new genre of writing…. Realistic Fiction, pretend characters who have REAL problems. We have brainstormed story ideas, thought of what kind of characters we would have, planned the story with a problem that gets worse before it is better, all while using “juicy” transition words and a storyteller’s voice. Their stories are amazing and we were able to share them around our virtual campfire!
This week we also also used our vocabulary word, summarize, to help us think about the important parts of our stories. Next week we will be looking at creative ways to hook in our readers and leave a lasting memory.
Our second grade writers are learning from other authors by noticing what they do in their books and then trying it in their own writing. Some of our mentor authors (teachers) have been Cynthia Rylant and Jonathan London.
We can also notice what our friends are adding in their stories and challenge ourselves to “TRY IT!”
This week we learned that we need to rehearse our stories MANY times before we actually begin writing the story.
This past week we practiced using a storyteller’s voice by including our thoughts, feelings, what the character’s were saying, BOLD words, and telling the story bit by bit as if we were playing a movie. Yesterday we had a virtual campfire that we sat by and told our stories as a storyteller might tell them. We were able to “roast” some marshmallows to share our success. Keep up the great work writers.
Today we celebrated our writing with second grade friends from other classrooms. We were able to share all of the craft in our stories including catchy leads, show not tell, adjectives, adverbs, dialogue and strong endings. Cynthia Rylant was a great mentor for our writers and she definitely helped us grow! Of course, we had to end our celebration with a toast to one another and to all of our hard work! Next week, we will begin to investigate informational writing.
As we enter into our second month of second grade, it is AMAZING to see the growth our writers have already made. They are using details, details, details in their writing as well as “catchy leads” and memorable endings. We discussed how readers want to hear ALL of the juicy details of the story.
Hooking our readers with a “catchy lead” creates a senses of urgency and excitement that all readers love. Now that we are second grade writers, we are going to move from ending our stories with “THE END” to being a creative storyteller and using our hopes and wishes to “wrap up ” our writing treasures.
LOVE THESE WRITERS!