Friday Afternoon With Time to Kill

It's Friday afternoon and the rain is pouring down.  Inside my classroom, my students are vibrating from the novelty of the rain (Southern California - very dry winter) and the weekend soon to come.  We are finished with our academics, and it is no time to start something new.  What am I going to do with the afternoon?

It's time to pull out an oldie but goodie that I haven't used in years...

I have each of my students pull out a piece of paper and I ask them to write the title of a story that they would like to write.  Some students know exactly what they want to say, while others look around in confusion.  "Just write a title,"  I say.  It doesn't matter, anything you want.

As soon as everyone is ready, I ask them to pass their paper to the person on their right.  I tell them to read the title and begin writing.  This is the beginning of the story, so their job is to introduce characters and setting.  We want to get to know their characters, so they need to include character traits into their writing.  I let them write for about three minutes, then I asked them to finish their sentence and put down their pencils.

With all pencils down and eyes on me, I explain that we are going to pass the stories to their right again.  This time they will need to read everything that has been written and then they will continue the story.  Their job is to continue establishing characters and setting, then introduce a problem.  Again I let them write for about three minutes before I ask them to finish their sentence and put down their pencils. There is a lot of giggling erupting.

We pass the stories again, now the giggling becomes gleeful.  The kids are loving this activity, and they are enjoying the interactive writing.  This time the students need to make sure that a problem has been introduced and then they need to begin to build suspense.  They want to add events and details that compound the problem or add to the situation.  It seems no one can write without a giggle escaping every now and then.  At this point, I extended the writing to five minutes, because the kids were so in to it!

With the next pass the students were asked to build the suspense to the climax of the story.  The classroom is silent except for the sound of pencil scratching on paper and the occasional "te he" or "sigh".  They have so much to say, no one is looking around the room or staring off into space.  They have a story to write!

The next pass is the final one before the students get their own paper.  They need to make sure that the story has reached its climax and then they need to begin writing the resolution.  All lose ends need to be tied up, all questions answered.

Finally, the students get their own story back.  The giggling when they read their own stories fills the room.  Their job is to clean and fix their stories in anyway they want.  Edit, revise, etc.

Then we shared some of the stories.  So many wanted their stories read aloud, but there were only time for a few.  I told them we will continue to share them this next week whenever we have time.

As we venture into Common Core waters, it is important to remember to dust off some of those oldies to keep the joy in learning!