Thomas shared his work in Author's Chair. I described the strategy he used, and he shared excerpts from his story. Students provided him with feedback.
I chose to use the Author's Chair today for the conclusion of the lesson because I had been using partner share a great deal in the first two weeks of the unit. Because students were drafting, I wanted to reinforce the strategies that would be important for them to use as they continued in the drafting and revising stages. I could have asked Thomas to describe the work we did in the conference, but I did not have a chance to rehearse this with him. I wanted him to be as explicit as possible so the kids could leave the workshop with a clear picture of his strategies "in action."
| TEACHER: |
Thomas is going to first share a part that he stretched out. He stretched out by visualizing the actions and his story is about when he went to the haunted house and he was really brave. He was nervous about it and he's going to read you the part where he went up to the door. And he didn't just write, "So then I went up to the door." Instead he stretched out those actions so the reader could really feel like he or she was there.
So would you nice and loudly read us the part where you stretched those actions out. |
| STUDENT: | So I went up the house. I rang the doorbell. It said, "Oohhh." The door screeched open. A man who wore a vampire suit with red rings. |
| TEACHER: | How many people here can really picture that man? Yeah, me too. It felt like I was there. I know. I can tell some of you feel like you're there. Then I was talking to Thomas about his feelings because we know that during the important parts it's really helpful to share our feelings with the reader so they know how we're feeling and why this is so important to us. And because this story is about Thomas facing his fears we talked about him adding in his feelings at some important parts. And not just adding in feeling statements, like I was scared but actually showing us what he looked like when he was feeling a certain way, giving us those clues. So would you read that part and then if you can think about what feeling he had, give me a thumbs up. |
| STUDENT: | And I was shivering and my legs shaked like [ice cream] and my hands, arms froze. |
| TEACHER: | Can anyone infer what feeling he was having by that description? Brian? |
| STUDENT: | Scared. |
| TEACHER: | Is that correct? |
| STUDENT: | One more. I was feeling two feelings. |
| TEACHER: | Oh, two feelings. Okay, scared. Dennis? |
| STUDENT: | Afraid. |
| STUDENT: | Scared and nervous. |
| TEACHER: | Oh, scared and nervous. Those are all synonyms. They mean something a little bot different. Careful word choices. Well, who has a compliment for Thomas? Eve? |
| STUDENT: | Instead of just saying that there was a vampire there, he said there was a man. And he told the different things that made him look like a vampire. |
| TEACHER: | Right. So Thomas was doing so much. I didn't even point that out. Thanks for pointing that out, Eve. He gave us clues to the character. He described the character instead of just stating who the character was. You did a lot of hard work. Thank you, Thomas. Does anyone have a suggestion, a way Thomas - or a question. We're going to use suggestions, wishes or - suggestions, wishes or questions right now. If you have a compliment, you know now at lunch and recess, this is something you can tell Thomas. Who has - Chelsea? |
| STUDENT: | Add a little more details to the important part when you were facing your fears. |
| TEACHER: | Right. Okay, she would like maybe if you could add some more details right when you were feeling like you were facing your fear. So maybe that's something you could think about. Okay. Because I know Thomas actually was thinking he wants to add more details. He's not sure where. So maybe at a response group time that's something that one of you could work with him on to help him figure out where to put his details. Thank you so much. What kind of applause would you like? |
| STUDENT: | Round of applause. |
| TEACHER: | Round of applause. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you so much for being so brave by coming up and sharing your great work. We can learn a lot from him. Thank you. And our writer's workshop for today is now over. You did such [disappointment]. You did such a great job. I am inspired by all of you. I can't wait to read your books. |