This week students will shift gears from reading short stories to writing their own. They will engage in a variety of pre-writing activities at stations, including character "interviews", brainstorming setting details, and charting out plot events. Their written notes might also be accompanied by sketches of characters and/or storyboard thumbnails. Once students have moved through these stations, they will practice how to "show, not tell" the action of their stories, as well as how to accurately write and punctuate dialogue.
In addition this week, students will use their Monkey's Paw vocabulary words in sentences and play with them on quizlet. There will be a vocab quiz on Friday.
Finally, all students are reading another novel of their choice, and as these were chose early last week, I'm sure there are students who have already finished their books. If this is the case, I'm encouraging them to find a new one and read!
Homework:
Monday-Friday: read choice book with sticky notes to monitor your thoughts (clarifying, predicting, summarizing, visualizing, wondering/questioning, ah-ha! moments, learning new words, etc)
Monday: Choose 4 Monkey's Paw vocab words; write a sentence for each one.
Tuesday: Choose 4 other MP vocab words; write sentences; finish station #1 work as needed.
Wednesday: Write sentences for remaining 4 vocab words
Thursday: Use quizlet to play with words; QUIZ tomorrow!
Friday: Finish up station #2 work as needed.
Monkey's Paw Vocab Quizlet
Short Story Writing Instructions/Tracking Sheet
Short Story Summary Organizer
Pre-writing Organizers for Short Story
