We have moved onto the next stage of the writing process- generating ideas. In order to gather ideas for potential memoirs, I asked the kids to make personal connections to a variety of mentor texts. I modeled the expectation by sharing my own personal connections and telling stories from my childhood. It was fun to share these stories and the kids loved hearing me embarrass myself!
After the mini-lesson I asked the kids to write long about one of their ideas. The results were fun and detailed. We ended class by sharing our short, but meaningful memoirs. I am loving watching your children blossom as writers each day. We will spend the next few days generating more ideas before selecting a final idea to publish. Stay tuned!
DISCLAIMER- Please don’t forget that as we generate ideas, our focus is not on spelling and/or grammar. This will come later as we work toward publishing pieces. At this point of the writing process we just want to get our ideas down, even if it looks/sounds messy!
This writing process is an excellent example of how we use the guardrails to drive student learning. I cannot wait to talk with students about their memoirs!