Out of this World! Class Summary 3/7/16

with Michelle Cameron

Poetry Reading

Because I’d like to hold a reading with your young writers at the end of the session, and because poetry is such a natural for reading aloud (especially when standing) I decided that it was a good time for them to begin to practice.

We talked about speaking loudly, slowly, and with expression. We did have some very dramatic readings! It was hard for some of them to pick their heads up and some huddled over the pages. We’ll do this a couple of times before the official reading to get them used to it.

Of course, we also critiqued their poems together. Some were quite remarkable! Thanks to all the parents who helped with this exercise.

As they worked on their next piece, I called most of them over for a brief one-on-one conference. If your child didn’t get a chance to talk to me, it was mainly because their poems were in their writing notebooks. If those students would type up their poems so I can review them , that would be helpful.

Everyone else should have some small suggestions to work through on their poems for next week.

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Fairy Tales Retold

This week we talked about fairy tales and the fact that all of them are told from the point of view of the heroine or hero – none from the villain’s perspective.

We discussed the fact that people don’t wake up in the morning with the idea that “I’m going to do something bad today.” Even villains have a reason for what they do. And sometimes telling a story from a side character’s point of view – such as the pumpkin coach in Cinderella – can make the story totally new.

They then started writing their fairy tale from another character’s point of view. Because I met with them on their poems, they may have already finished their story in class. If so, they get to focus on the work on their poem.  But if they haven’t finished, they should go ahead and do so for this week’s homework.

They were already excited about what they’d written at the end of class and even started sharing with their friends. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve done!

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