Universal advice to new authors seems to be: “Write what you know” so we thought this was a good place to start in 1A this week and write our holiday stories. This is something we experienced: we were there, we know how we felt, what was said and who was with us.
Students also agreed that, before we learn to write, we learn to speak and this is an important way to communicate. Students had support from the teacher, who did the writing and this allowed them to speak more freely, use more words and give a longer story than if they were asked to write immediately and by themselves.
Other ways to develop and extend the writing process are to use a photo and write a word list or write (with help) what was said, thought or felt. The story can then come to life with some extra support to edit and encouragement to chose adjectives. It is a long process so looking forward to working on these skills over the coming weeks!
We also read a very silly story and then tried to reconstruct it in a group. This is actually quite a complex task. In the whole group, we could re-tell the story and get the right order. In a smaller group it was a challenge to decide who did which picture and put these back in order. The groups did very well and videos are posted on Seesaw to show how they did.
Finally, the best part about this Unit, my favourite part is continuing to read and share stories together. Children learn much about life, solving problems, reading skills and the writing process from this but, above all, I would like them to simply enjoy reading and love stories!