Are your students writing bed-to-bed stories? You know - the ones that start when they wake up and give you every detail, right down to the brushing of teeth before they pull up the covers at the end of the day...yawn. Sneed Collard has the perfect prescription in one concise Minute. Have students read Telling their Story and watch their writing get better - and your reading get easier! |
English/Language Arts
Explore lead sentences - question
Not only does author Collard start out this Minute with a question (add this to your list of question leads), he also gives young writers advice about how and why you need to grab your reader’s attention. Have students compare the anecdote about the snake that he suggests with the opening line of their own personal narrative. Should they give it another try?
Explore Writing Seeds
Author Collard is generous with his ideas for writing seeds - he give your students a great start to a list. Spend some time in your classrooms brainstorming more ideas for focused personal narratives. Try a heart map (a great Georgia Heard tip) where students fill a heart with all the things that are close to theirs. Or check out the New York Times blog with 500 writing prompts to get your students started.
Explore multiple text structures in a single piece
Use this Minute as a mentor text to show students what an embedded text structure looks like. The Minute starts and ends with a descriptive structure, but the author has embedded a list in the third paragraph and a compare/contrast analysis in the fourth. Authentic examples of the multiple text structures that can exist within a piece provide valuable models for our students.
Explore genre - memoir in contrast with autobiography
Author Sneed gives his readers a great comparison between two genres - memoir and autobiography. If you are assigning personal narrative writing to your students, have them refer to this Minute to clarify what it is - and what it is NOT.
Explore focus in writing
Focus is a critical component for avoiding an unreadable personal narrative. Author Sneed talks about developing a thematic element to provide focus. Spend some time having kids brainstorm possibilities for focus before they write. Consider trying out Georgia Heard’s Heart Map, or put Sneed’s list on the board and challenge your students to expand it by working against the clock in table groups. Spending some time in the planning and pre-writing phase is well worth the time investment.
Explore character development
Author Sneed gives kids some great advice about character development. Give your students some time to explore the characters they decide to include in their personal narratives. Do a Google search for character graphic organizers to find one that works for your level.
Explore lead sentences - question
Not only does author Collard start out this Minute with a question (add this to your list of question leads), he also gives young writers advice about how and why you need to grab your reader’s attention. Have students compare the anecdote about the snake that he suggests with the opening line of their own personal narrative. Should they give it another try?
Explore Writing Seeds
Author Collard is generous with his ideas for writing seeds - he give your students a great start to a list. Spend some time in your classrooms brainstorming more ideas for focused personal narratives. Try a heart map (a great Georgia Heard tip) where students fill a heart with all the things that are close to theirs. Or check out the New York Times blog with 500 writing prompts to get your students started.
Explore multiple text structures in a single piece
Use this Minute as a mentor text to show students what an embedded text structure looks like. The Minute starts and ends with a descriptive structure, but the author has embedded a list in the third paragraph and a compare/contrast analysis in the fourth. Authentic examples of the multiple text structures that can exist within a piece provide valuable models for our students.
Explore genre - memoir in contrast with autobiography
Author Sneed gives his readers a great comparison between two genres - memoir and autobiography. If you are assigning personal narrative writing to your students, have them refer to this Minute to clarify what it is - and what it is NOT.
Explore focus in writing
Focus is a critical component for avoiding an unreadable personal narrative. Author Sneed talks about developing a thematic element to provide focus. Spend some time having kids brainstorm possibilities for focus before they write. Consider trying out Georgia Heard’s Heart Map, or put Sneed’s list on the board and challenge your students to expand it by working against the clock in table groups. Spending some time in the planning and pre-writing phase is well worth the time investment.
Explore character development
Author Sneed gives kids some great advice about character development. Give your students some time to explore the characters they decide to include in their personal narratives. Do a Google search for character graphic organizers to find one that works for your level.
© Karen Sterling, 2017 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission