Thursday 8-28: EDITING

After a warm-up editing activity, we were eager to get to work on the 4th stage of the writing process on our own writing-- Editing and Proofreading.

This is where we really get to use a fine-toothed comb to scour our writing for any spelling, grammar,  punctuation, or usage mistakes.   Some tools we employed to do so included:

• Spell Check
• "Human Check"
• "Speak Selected Text" in Pages to listen for possible missed errors
• Reading our writing backwards to focus on each word individually
• Our teachers, our classmates, and an adult proofreader (at home tonight) to help us find all mistakes
• The rubric, to remind us of the project's expectations and guide us in additional fixes before we publish tomorrow!

Wed. 8-27: Revise

"There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing."
~Mrs. Norby and Mrs. Morrow

Published authors sometimes go through hundreds of revisions before they are ready to publish.  All writers can benefit from revisions made by yourself and suggested from someone else.

Today we used the acronym ARMS to revise our drafts.

Add
Remove
Move
Substitute

We used the comments feature in Pages to offer revision suggestions to our classmates.

Our writing is improving!

Tuesday, Aug. 26: Drafting Day

Today was our day to write our first drafts.  After Mrs. Morrow shared her first draft with us as an example, we opened up a blank Pages document and JUST WROTE! It was nice not to worry about spelling, grammar, or other less that perfect parts of our writing.

We won't forget to bring our finished first drafts to class tomorrow so that we can proceed to the next stage of the writing process.

Monday, Aug. 25: The Writing Process- Prewrite

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.  ~Tennessee Williams 

 This week we will be learning and experiencing the 5-Step Writing Process: one step each day.

Today was PRE-WRITING

We read a selection from Boy's Life by Robert McCammon and used that as an anchor test.  To pre-write for our bedroom writing we brainstormed a list of bedroom treasures in our Writer's Notebooks and then completed an idea web to organize and expand on our ideas.

Our Six Word Stories

We wrote our first stories this year! ENJOY!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kmorrow/sets/72157646267631499/

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014

Today the goal was the start of our very own blogs.  We discussed what we thought blogs were and how they worked.  Then we watched a video from Common Craft to learn more about blogging.

We all agreed to our blogging rules and signed an agreement to practice responsible posting. 

And we can't wait to start our very own blogs tomorrow!

Wednesday, 8-19-14: The North Star

We listened to Peter Reynold's amazing allegory The North Star (You can also read it online here: http://www.fablevisionlearning.com/northstar/read/)

We used the app to create our own constellations: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/north-star-smart-stars-survey/id553016515?mt=8

And we set some incredible goals for our learning journeys this year!

Tuesday, 8-18-14: What will your verse be?

Everyone has a passion. A new idea to share. A stanza to add to the world's story.  What will your verse be?

http://www.apple.com/your-verse/