Writing

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Launching With Storybooks

How to Write a True Story

Think of an idea
Touch and Tell your story across a blank story booklet
Sketch what happened on each page
Write what happened on each page

Revising your story

Rewrite important parts with detail.
Bring your characters to life by making them talk, think or by describing their exact actions.
Punctuation is powerful! Edit your work to make the most out of your punctuation.

Publishing your work

Doing a "quick publish"
Creating your About the Author page
Celebration!

Crafting True Stories

In this unit of writing, students will continue the work they began in our first unit, but will go deeper into strategies to use to think of ideas, develop stories, revise and edit. Talking to your child about favourite memories (happy or sad) can help equip them with ideas for writing during this unit! We also will begin using our "writer's notebook" for the first time! This is an exciting rite of passage for grade 3 writers as the notebook is introduced as a place to store ideas and to draft story beginnings.

Finding Ideas

Think of an important person. Make a list of small moments with that person. Chose a small moment and write about it!
Think of an important place that you know very well. Sketch out events that have happened in that place. Chose a memory and write about it!

To Write a True Story

Find story ideas that are focused and important to you and write lots of entries.
Make mental movie of what happened, telling it in small detail, bit by bit.
Remember your self assessments and goals.
Rehearse for your writing by storytelling the story repeatedly.
Try different leads for your story.
Write a flash draft, writing fast and furious, eyes on the mental movie.
Revise! Try what other authors have done. Develop the heart of the story.
Bring out the internal story...write what the characters wonder or think.

Writing with New Independence on a Second Piece

Becoming your own Job Captain...deciding what work you need to do today.
Writing from inside a mem
ory to use descriptive language to show not tell.
Revision: Balancing the kinds of details that bring a story to life vs. ones that bog down the story.

Publishing

Taking pride in your hard work as a writer is important! We will use our best printing to copy over our final True Story draft that has been revised and editing, thus completing the writing process for this piece.

Realistic Fiction

Students love this unit of writing as they get to flex some of their creative muscles! In this unit, we build on and combine the learning from our Crafting True Stories writing unit and our Character Studies reading unit to create stories about fictional characters. Students will learn to consider the story mountain and story elements ( main character, setting, problem, events, climax, resolution) to write their stories. I can't wait to see what they come up with...stay tuned!

How to Write a Realistic Fiction Story

Remember troubles you've had. Invent a character who encounters similar troubles.
Plan: What does the character do or say that show the start of the trouble, the trouble getting worse, and the trouble getting resolved?
Tell the story that goes on each page of your booklet. Think about what happens first, then, next. Try saying the actual words you might right.
Write! On the first two pages write the start, then on the next two the middle, then the end.

How to Revise Your Stories

Rewrite the important parts, bit by bit with details.
Write twin sentences.
Bring the characters to life. What did they say and do? Tell exactly what they did.
Become your own writing partner by rereading, questioning, and rewriting
Bring out the character's quirks.

Developing Characters Across a Series

Think deeply about the main character. Each book in a series will reveal a little more about that person.
Show what the character is like, not only by what the character does, but how the character does things.

Information Writing: What are YOU Famous for?

In this unit, students get to show off their expertise on topics they already know really well. Students will learn how to organize their writing in a way that teachers the reader something new. We will explore the use of text features in non-fiction writing.

Choosing a Topic

Information writers write about topics they already know really well.
We make sure we can write "long" about a topic before choosing to develop it.
Zoom in on a manageable subtopic to make the writing focused.

Getting Organized to Write

We can use a table of contents as a plan for writing our chapters.
Each chapter also needs a quick plan so that the information makes sense and is organized.

It's All in the Details

Make your story more interesting by adding a micro-story to explain your topic.
Stretch your story out by writing "twin sentences" or even "triplet sentences". These are sentences that go with the sentence you just wrote. It helps to say more about that one idea.
Use linking words to create a nice flow between your chapters. Try using "Another example", "The next type of" or "In this chapter" to begin a new chapter or section.
Text features make your writing fun and interesting to your reader! Try using:

headings
photos or drawings with captions
diagram with labels
bold words and glossary
maps
fact box or page

Introductions and Conclusions

Writers save introductions until the end of their draft, so they have a clearer picture of their story. There are a variety of ways to create an introduction. (check out the Resources tab under Writing Anchor Charts)
Conclusions sum up what your story was about! A conclusion reminds the reader of the information learned.

Persuasive Writing

In this unit of writing, students will learn the power of persuasion to create change in their world. We will begin by learning strategies for choosing topics, write many drafts and then chose our best draft to revise and publish.

Finding an Idea

Think about your environment...home, school, community. What are the problems areas there that you would like to fix? What are some solutions you would like to try out to make these problem areas better?
Think of a person who is deserving of attention. Can we convince others that this person is exceptional and should be recognized?

Strong Reasons

Convince your reader by thinking of 3 strong reasons that support your opinion.
Do your reasons appeal to your audience?
Use real life stories, examples, facts or counterarguments to expand your reasons.

Introductions

Be BRAVE and BOLD! Tell your reader exactly what your opinion is.
Try to hook you reader in...give a compliment, ask a question, list your reasons as a sneak peek or make it sound like a good idea for your reader.

Conclusions

My conclusion urges my reader to make the change.
List your reasons one last time to keep them clear in your reader's mind
Talk to your reader directly

Organization

Use transition words or phrases to take your reader from one reason to the next.
When you begin a new reason, you are starting a new paragraph.

Fractured Fairy Tales

This unit explores the rich history and traditions of the Fairy Tale genre. Students will notice common themes in familiar fairy tales and then learn skills to adapt these stories by adding their own personal twists.

Become an Expert on the Genre

We kick off this writing unit by reading as many fairy tales as we can.
While we read, we notice common themes in fairy tales by paying attention to characters, settings, language and plots.

Ways Authors Adapt Fairy Tales

Change the characters.
Change the events.
Change the motivations.

How to Write a Fairy Tale Adaptation

Know the classic story and tell it often.
Decide on a change to improve the story. Notice the change may lead to other changes.
Make a character with traits and wants who runs into trouble.
Tell the story in 2-3 scenes (small moments).
Figure out an ending that solves the character's big problems.
Give a backstory at the start to stitch scenes together.
Balance dialogue with character development.

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