I checked back with Thomas at the end of independent writing time to see how his work was going. I noticed that his work demonstrated use of strategies related to character development. Because this was a great way to reinforce the work from the mini-lesson, I asked him to share his writing in Author's Chair.
I try to remember to check back with students to make sure they have continued to do the work they were working on when I left them - developing their writing with the new thinking they have about their work. In this case, Thomas had added more description of his feelings, and I asked him to share. I was able to use his work to reinforce the strategy introduced during the mini-lesson and through the share-out opportunity. This demonstrated a strategy that other writers could try out in their writing in the future.
| TEACHER: | Wow, what description! Excellent, Thomas. Would you mind sharing in Author's Chair? Could you share two parts? Could you share this part because I think a lot of writers would benefit from this part when you stretched out - where was that part? Oh, when you when up to the house, you rang the doorbell and it says, the door screeched open. Could you share from this part to here? And then would you then after that share the part about how you showed that you were scared? |
| STUDENT: | [inaudible] |
| TEACHER: | And then I'll stop and explain what you did here and I'll have you review the sharing part. Okay. Why don't you practice reading those parts to get ready, OK? Thank you, Thomas. |