During 2nd quarter, we spent MANY HOURS working on how to effectively write teaching books for our readers. We worked on countless moves smart writers make to ensure that their readers are interested, as well as informed, when they are finished. We talked about what questions to ask, how to add details with twin sentences, how to put details in the pictures and diagrams to help further inform our readers, how to include important text features like a table of contents and a glossary (and some even had an index!), as well as the importance of making our reading legible, understandable and readable by our friends. We worked on capital letters, ending punctuation, spelling word wall words correctly, spelling other words with enough sounds that our friends could figure them out, as well as making sure we didn’t have reversals or parts that were messy.
Once we were FINALLY finished with our masterpieces, we had an AMAZING writing celebration with our friends from Ms. Turken’s room next door. We often do things with them (including our recess every morning!), and we’re glad when they join in on our fun. Actually, we took turns with each others’ books–we went to their class and they taught us, then they came to our room and we taught them! What a great chance to share our expertise–and our amazing writing work–with our friends! This was a meaningful and exciting experience!
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 