Remember at the beginning of the year how I posted my blank “Use your writing VOICES” board? Well, we have made our way through “Ideas” and “Organization” and are now onto “Sentence Fluency”. I thought I would share the results of a fun activity we did the other day.
The task is to use a single die to help you write a story. The topic can be anything you choose. The catch – whatever number you roll, you must have that many words in your sentence. This is great for lower level writers, because they really needed to think about what constitutes a full, complete sentence. Higher ability writers loved the challenge, especially when they rolled a “1”.
One ELL student had an “AHA” moment when she realized the elements that make up a sentence. By forcing her to create a complete thought out of a certain number of words, she finally understood period placement. I was so proud!
To differentiate, I purposefully passed out dice that were 6, 9 and 12 sided. Here are a few example pieces from 30 minutes of writing time with no editing afterward. They typically would have a higher writing output, but I like how this activity really forced them to think about the words on the page.
Fish!
By Sydney
I have three breeds of fish. Danios, bettas and goldfish. OMG! My goldfishes names are Clarance, Gidian. Fish rock! Bettas will fight. Goldfish are cute. Bettas will eat bloodworms. Danios will eat anything they find. So I feed them fish flakes. Female bettas are grey. Male bettas are colourful and big. Betta poo is huge!! Ew! Yuck!
The Best Sleepover Ever
By Calie
“Hey. I’m throwing the best sleepover ever. Want to come?”
“Awesome that sounds great!”
“Epic. Bring a sleeping bag please. We’re having pizza for dinner.”
“Hey BFF. What up? We’re going to stay up late!”
Skateboarding
By Colton
Skateboarding is a very hard sport. What you do is you stand on a board. You have to turn by leaning. You have to wear skateboarding gear. If you don’t, you may break lots of bones. Lots of people break bones by not wearing gear. There are lots of different skate parks. There are lots of cool jumps in skate parks. Sometimes, you even do races. Another dangerous thing is to ride behind a car. Fort St. John even has a skate park. My friend has a skateboard. It is pretty fun. Sometimes it hurts when you fall. When you are a beginner, go slow! Skateboarding is a very dangerous sport. If someone hits you, don’t get angry. The end!
