Writer's Workshop

Prewrite, draft, revise, edit, then publish! The five steps of the writing process are first applied to personal narratives and imaginary stories. Readwritethink provides hundreds of interactive resources, from comic creators and story maps, to activities that boost vocabulary. Click the photo above, or right here to explore.

Storybird

Which creative styles below speak to you?

Part of Chase Street's language arts program encourages students to "read the pictures." Storybird offers an engaging opportunity for kids to do just that. Choose from hundreds of artists, sequence a set of illustrations as you wish, then write a narrative that matches the images.

Storybird also allows pairs of users to collaborate. Students will receive their usernames and temporary passwords soon, but if you're feeling creative right, now click here to get started on your own.

Writing Prompts and Symbaloo

Symbaloo organizes websites and lets users share collections from any computer with an internet connection. Click the image above, or right here to explore a mix of upper elementary writing prompts crafted by Luke Neff and other creative souls.

Alter Ego Narratives

The class is wrapping up narrative writing with frightening tales of alter egos let loose upon Athens. Check back to read the published pieces here.

White Tiger's Adventure

Inspired by read-along books of the 1970s, the students will create sound tracks complete with bell sounds signaling readers/listeners to turn the pages of the Flipsnack book above.  Once written and edited, they will publish a recording of themselves reading aloud.  Each interpretation will be posted here alongside the book.

To make a Flipsnack, click here.

Lena's Work Shared With the World!

Two of Lena's narratives have been published on the KidsBookyBubbles blog.  Click the image above, or right here to experience her creative adventures.

Fall Narrative Gallery

A World Where Sharks Swim in the Forest and Somehow you Find Yourself Lost in the Woods, by Lena

      

     Imagine. Just imagine a world where sharks roam in the forest, and somehow you find yourself lost in the woods. Well, that’s my home. I’m forbidden to go outside, ecpecially not in the woods. I’m Maxamillian, and this is my tale.

     Well, one day, I decided I’d go to the woods. My mother didn’t let me, but I didn’t know what the big deal was, so I went.

     The moment I stepped into the tightly woven trees, I forgot everything. My mom, where my house was, everything. All I could do was gape. All around me, the trees wove together so no escape was possible. Ahead of me, three flesh hungry, floating sharks were staring straight at me. The first one lunged.He just barely missed me. I was trapped in a place where time was warped, I had no idea what to do and at the very least I had a polymorphing  idea of what to do, and three blood thirsty sharks were right in front of me.

    Meanwhile, at home, a week had passed. My mom had called the hospital and an ambulance had arrived. “My baby has gone into the woods!” my mom screamed. “We will go after him ma’am.”replied the ambulance driver. Which they did. They sent the bravest, toughest army soldiers into the woods.

    When they entered, they too lost all sense of direction. But they still remembered their mission. To save me.

    After a bit of searching, they found me. I was locked in a fight with the meanest shark of the group. Since he was distracted, they finished him off quickly. The other two sharks were pretty easy to handle too. “Are you okay?” asked the army soldier. I was scraped up and bleeding. “Yeah,  I’m fine.” I said.

     Since we had killed the sharks, the trees unwound and we went home. After that, I never went into the woods again.

     So that’sthe story of the scariest moment of my childhood. I don’t really have much else to tell, so good-bye, and don’t let the sharks get you!

The End!

The Room Messer Upper, by Lena

The Room Messer Upper

One day, Joe was going to work. It was a usual day, first get up at three a.m., then eat breakfast, and get in the car and go to work.

          When Joe got there, he was late as usual. The usual yelling from his boss, “What made you late?” etc., the usual excuses to stay out of trouble, and the usual everything.

When he got to his room, he cleaned it and organized it because it was inspection day.

After that, he hopped in the car and drove home. 

Meanwhile, at the office, something was going on. The Room Messer Upper [a legendary monster known only in fairy tales] arrived at the office. He disabled the security cameras and alarms, and snuck into the office. He undid all the hard work Joe had done that afternoon. [and very possibly made it even worse]

The next morning, Joe drove to work and saw that his room was atrocious.”What happened?!?!”he exclaimed.”Well, might as well clean up.” he said. So, he cleaned it up and put it into neat stacks again.”If this happens again, I’ll contact the authorities!”he said.

That night,  the Room Messer Upper came back. But this time, somebody was waiting for him.It was the Vacuum Cleaner! The Room Messer Upper’s official arch- enemy!

The fight had begun! The Vacuum Cleaner slashed and hit, the Room Messer Upper dodged and avoided. This went on for a while, until the Vacuum Cleaner played his ace. He sucked up every last bit of the Room  Messer Upper. That fight was recorded in books and talked about worldwide!It was recorded by the not-so-disabled security cameras.

Everybody in town watched the tremendous fight on a movie theater-sized screen. And to make a long story short, nobody ever had problems from the Room Messer Upper again. 

The End!

Andreas' Spooky Settings

Photographer Andreas S. lives in Norway, and travels around Europe taking photographs of derelict places where people once lived and worked.  Setting is so important in narratives, so this week's morning messages feature images of places begging for stories to be told.  Click the photo above, or here for more haunting photos.

Storytellers Unite!

The class identifies narrative elements in interesting photos and drawings, then creates illustrated narrative storyboards.  Each small square offers so many ways to describe characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.  The next step is drafting.

Right click and print the graphic organizers below to create at home.

Narratives on Display

The first quarter narratives are now on display outside the classroom.

First, the students chose an interesting image and identified the narrative elements.  Next came a storyboard to organize and develop the beginning, middle, and end.  Finally, they wrote rough drafts to revise and edit, then publish.  Click here for a post with downloadable graphic organizers for narrative writing.

Writer's Workshop, Week 9

October begins with the quarter one writing assessment, when the students are given a prompt to write about.  Time is allotted to brainstorm, prewrite, draft, edit/revise, publish and proofread.  Students who take their time and use the strategies we practice in class score the highest.  

Click and print the graphic organizers below to practice narrative writing at home.

Readwritethink provides hundreds of interactive resources, from comic creators and story maps, to activities that boost vocabulary.  Click here to explore.