Free writing in journals – I have a table set up with many writing prompts and story idea sources students can use if they choose to.
Lesson – Drafting, the second step in the writing process. I chose a writing prompt called “The Day I Shrunk.” We did a brainstorming graphic organizer to get our ideas ready (there was a lot of laughter as we thought of things that might happen if we were the size of an ant!) Then students dictated to me as I wrote down a rough draft and read it back to them. We discussed how the drafting step is just to get the ideas down and the general beginning, middle, and end of the story. It is not about perfection! There is time to improve it in the later steps of the process, which we will learn about in the coming weeks.
More Journaling/Story fill-ins For the remainder of the class, students were given the choice to continue working in their journals or to do a worksheet. The worksheet has a short story written with a lot of the pieces missing for them to fill in. This helps students who are having a hard time getting started or don’t like the physical act of writing but want to do the creative part.
