Grade 6 Writing Workshops 2014-2015
As part of our focus on narrative writing from grades one through nine in our district, I have had the great pleasure of working with the grades six teachers and their students. During the months of February and March 2015, I have conducted weekly workshops with students to help them learn about the different aspects of narrative writing and work with them to experiment with these different aspects and develop their skills in the this area. The following information and images represent the great work that our grade six students did as they participated in the writing workshops.
Check out the fantastic things that are going on in our grade six classrooms at Nipisihkopahk Elementary School.
Check out the fantastic things that are going on in our grade six classrooms at Nipisihkopahk Elementary School.
Character Development
The first step to writing narrative stories was to think about main characters - protagonists and antagonists. The students engaged in the development of protagonists that they would use in the next story they would write. During this workshop, they considered the physical and personality traits that this character would have, and then visually depicted them as they visualized their characters in their minds.
The following are some of the characters that were developed at this phase of the workshops:
The following are some of the characters that were developed at this phase of the workshops:
Ms. Kent's Class
Ms. Hejnar's Class
Setting Development
Once students worked through creating a main character that they could use in a story, they were invited to consider where that character might be at the time that their next story would take place. Students were encouraged to "write about what they know" and consider places that they have been before so that they could accurately place their fictional characters there and then come up with a story line that could occur there as well.
The following are some of the settings that were created by the students for their stories:
The following are some of the settings that were created by the students for their stories:
Ms. Kent's Class
Ms. Hejnar's Class
Plot Line Planning
This component of workshops actually spanned multiple classes. Students learned about the different components of a plot line structure, such as introductions, conflicts, complications (rising action), climaxes, resolutions (falling actions or denouement), and conclusions. From there, they were able to map out their stories according to the different aspects of a plot line as part of their planning and preparation for writing stories with purpose.
Here are some examples of plot line plans that they completed to ensure that their ideas fit within a standard plot line structure:
Here are some examples of plot line plans that they completed to ensure that their ideas fit within a standard plot line structure:
Ms. Kent's Class
Ms. Hejnar's Class
First Draft Stories
Here are some examples of the students' first attempts at writing stories using the characters that they created, in the settings that they considered, and according to their understanding of a basic plot line structures: