Writer's Notebooks
Writer's notebooks are notebooks where writers write down memories, things they observe, unforgettable stories, lists, potential story ideas, literature that inspires them, or their reactions to things that have happened in their lives. Writers keep writer's notebooks so that they have a place to store ideas for later use.
One reason I'm having students keep writer's notebooks is to help demystify the process of generating ideas for creative writing. I want students to see that their favorite authors don't have stories magically beamed down to them from some unknown place. Many stories start off as a tiny idea that needs to grow and be developed. Writer's notebooks are a place to collect those tiny ideas.
On Monday, students learned what writer's notebooks are and why writers use them. They made their own writer's notebook out of card stock, loose-leaf paper, a rubber band, and a pencil. Later on in the week students added the first two entries into their writer's notebook - memories and mind pictures. Each week, students will learn about one or two different types of entries to add to their notebooks.
Author Visit
On Wednesday, Mitali Perkins, author of the books Secret Keeper and Monsoon Summer, came to Chenery Middle School for the day. In the morning she spoke with the entire 7th grade. During her humorous and lively presentation, Ms. Perkins told the students what it was like growing up in India and moving to the United States when she was a child and how the experiences of growing up with the influences of many cultures impacted her writing.
In the afternoon, Ms. Perkins met with Team 7-1 and led a writing workshop in which students practiced creating engaging settings and characters. Ms. Perkins shared some of the students' writing and I was amazed at the creativity of the work they completed. You should check in with your child to see what he/she thought of the day!
Reading The Old Man and the Sea
Throughout the week, we continued reading The Old Man and the Sea, a novella by Ernest Hemingway that we started the day before spring vacation began. As we read, students are analyzing the main character, Santiago; responding to the text through questions, comments, or connections; reacting to quotes of Santiago; and answering little questions and big questions about the text. We will complete The Old Man and the Sea by the end of next week.
Returned Assignments
Students got back their "Where I'm From" poems during Friday's class. For this 25-point writing assignment, students were required to write a "Where I'm From" poem (like they did during the first days of school), but this time students wrote as if they were the main character from a novel the they read for Independent Reading Project #3. I hope you get a chance to see you child's work!
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