Being a Writer

We are now deep into our first unit of the program, Being a Writer.  During this unit we will work on the following four goals:

Building a caring community and getting to know each other as writers and readers:

As we share our writing ideas, we are learning to listen carefully to one another and to support each other in our writing.  As we move forward, we will be editing each other's work and giving constructive feedback.  Learning to be caring and compassionate in our interactions throughout the writing process is critical to helping our class grow as a writing community.

Getting ideas for writing from read-alouds:
Reading books by and about authors Jon Scieszka and Patricia Polacco has helped us generate ideas for writing.  Mr. Scieszka's works had us brainstorming how we could retell fairy tales from another perspective and Ms. Polacco's stories of her childhood helped us think about how ordinary (and not so ordinary) events in our own lives could result in stories.  Reading about Ms. Polacco and her family also reinforced the text-to-self comprehension lessons we are learning in Making Meaning.

Establishing procedures for silent writing time:
Professional authors know that writing takes time and dedication.  Many have a quiet place where they go to work uninterrupted on their writing.  We are building our writing "muscles" by extending the time we spend focused on our writing.  In this way, we can get our thoughts down on paper without disruption.  This can be a challenge for naturally chatty fifth-graders!

Writing freely:
During the first unit of Being a Writer, the focus is on building up a collection of rough drafts.  Many of these are incomplete pieces spurred by one of our brainstormed ideas.  We will return to these and our brainstormed lists of writing ideas over the course of the year, selecting those we want to expand and turn into published works.  We are also trying out new prewriting techniques such as starting with a given sentence, writing from a favorite quote/sentence, or making lists.

I am very excited about this year in writing.  We are already writing more often than in the past and drawing our inspiration from the work done by professional authors.  Being a Writer is a great addition to our writing program in Room 209!