writing centers

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Home : 2002 : November : 17

writing centers
By Brenda

Gel pens are great with dark paper. It's true that all centers require training, but time invested in the front end saves grief in the tail end.
It also helps to let them write to actual authors who do write back,
such as Jan Brett, or Eric Arle. Their snail mail addresses are posted on their homepages.
Another fun activity is interactive writing as part of a fairy tale genre study. Read Cinderella or other such univerisal fairy tales and talk about the 6 elements of a fairy tale.
1Begins once upon a time,2. Has a good character,
3. Has an evil character, 4. Usually has a special number,

5. There is a magical event,6. Usually ends with...they lived happily ever after. We talk about what the story has that meets the elements. I then model writing what they say...exactly. I then reread exactly, we talk about whether or not it sounds right, makes sense, looks right. Roles: One student is to give the sentence. A second student is to use one finger to space words...two fingers between sentences. Then students tell me a sentence, they write, We edit as we go. At least six different students write six different sentences and each needs to contain the one of the elements.
Later I put up the paper (chart paper). Leave markers there and they interactively write a fairy tale. Roles: One student is to give the sentence. A second student is to use one finger to space words...two fingers between sentences. I usually don't want more than 3 Ss at a center.