Let's Write!

4th grade had a party last Friday! Why?

1) As a class, we read over 10,000,000 words since October in our Accelerated Reader program.

2) We made a book!

To celebrate our accomplishments, we busted out the M&Ms and had a reading/writing party. 

Here it is - our very own book!

Creating our book was a long process, but the end product was fabulous!

Round 1: Students were in groups of four. Each had a picture of a funny monster and had to begin a story about that monster. After a minute or two, the students passed on their story and monster. The following student continued the story. A couple of minutes later, the students passed the stories again, and so on and so on. 

Round 2: Students proofread their collaborated stories, adding transitions, conclusions, and making sure the stories flowed and made sense. 

Round 3: Students made a final draft and turned in stories.

Round 4: I graded the stories using a rubric and realized they needed a lot more work. 

Round 5: Using their rubrics, students analyzed their stories, pinpointed areas they needed to improve, and proofread it again. We discussed what good stories need and used some of our favorite books as examples. We worked on a class example and added and took away things until we had it perfect. The students realized writing can be a very long process. 

Round 6: Students traded stories and proofread each other's papers. 

Round 7: We spent five days in the computer lab typing the new and improved stories. I ran around offering suggestions and dealing with computer drama - students can't log on, their paper didn't save, their computer doesn't work, etc. 

Round 8: Stories were printed and made into a book.

Round 9: Students proudly read their stories aloud to the class during our party. 

Some of the stories were quite hilarious and had the whole class - including me - dying of laughter. Some students wrote stories that were clearly about themselves, while other stories were clearly inspired by Godzilla and Monsters Inc. As they swung their legs back and forth, others nervously read their stories and then blushed with pride as their classmates clapped and cheered for them when they finished. I snapped pictures and clapped the loudest of all.

A very proud teacher, three excellent students, and our Monster Book