"Thank Goodness It's Over!" {Party}

with Angela Harris

NaNoWriMo Ends!

On Saturday, November 30, National Novel Writing Month came to a close! Kudos to the Mosaic Texas students for their great work! Over the course of 30 days, six students wrote a total of 49,382 words!!! All novelists are still working on their stories and will be writing even more in the days and weeks ahead. Amazing job, everyone!

Today we started class by finishing up our NaNo TV interviews. We then announced the winner of the Sequence and Structure Challenge using the Langston Hugh's short story, "Thank You, Ma'am." The boys, Team WriMo, took home the victory as their re-arrangement of the story still maintained its original meaning. Nice work, boys.

Without further ado, we updated our in-class progress chart for the final time and started our novel-sharing. Each student read aloud the first two pages of his/her novel. I was so impressed with every story! I told the students my expectations were very high going into September, but they managed to surpass them! I am truly proud of these talented young people!

For the last 30-minutes of class, we broke into two workshop groups. Students traded novels and made constructive notes and comments on the first two pages of their partners' novels. 

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We then did what all good novelists do -- we celebrated with food and drink!

Homework

For homework, students should finish writing comments on their partners' drafts if they did not finish in class (see workbook page 87 for an example). Also, all students should fill out workbook pages 88-89, "Reader Review Worksheet."

Lastly, here's what students should bring next week. We will be continuing our work on editing for our last class. 

Re-type your first two pages. This time you should incorporate any changes your partner suggested (if they finished in class, otherwise, make no changes). Pages should be double-spaced, not single spaced, and Times New Roman, 12 pt. Please let me know if there are any questions about the homework!

Thank you and see you next week!