4th - 6th Writing, October 3

Lesson:
We spent the majority of the class period reading aloud and commenting on the personal narrative paragraphs that students had turned in the previous week. Generally, I was quite pleased with what the students had written, and their classmates received their work with appreciation and encouragement, as well.

Based on student writing so far, we reviewed two issues that trip up some students: concluding sentences and word choice.

I restated the need to finish each paragraph with a final sentences that 'wraps up' the paragraph, giving the reader a satisfying sense of completion. The concluding sentence should not contain any significant new details, or else it would simply be another detail sentence. It should, however, summarize the paragraph, state an impression, or in some other way 'tie a bow around' the topic. A concluding sentence should reflect the topic sentence, like twin bookends holding the detail sentences in the middle together.

We created a list of overused "no-no" words, which so far includes:
nice
good
fun
a lot (or alot)
awesome (unless used for something TRULY worthy of awe, like God or the Grand Canyon)

We spent the last part of the class period addressing some ideas to make their writing more vivid and to connect with their readers in a more memorable way. I taught that good writing should "show, not just tell." Specifically, we discussed giving life to our writing by including the elements of life:
the senses
motion
emotion

Assignment:
Each student is to write another personal narrative paragraph, which will be a vivid recounting of some small but interesting slice of their lives. This incident must be true, and may be funny, sad, heart-warming, scary, embarrassing, exciting, etc. In particular, they are to include descriptions from at least two of the five physical senses, together with showing motion and/or emotion.