Writing Awesomeness

In a previous post, I discussed how I like to co-create 'success criteria' with students...in other words, determine together the quality of a particular piece of work. We have done this thus far with our reading responses, and our math communication. This week, we are turning our attention to writing personal narratives.

Students have already written a 'baseline' narrative for me. I asked them to give me a sample of their 'best work'...but I did not give any other specific criteria. "Just tell me about a Life Event", I said (which can be a trip, a hockey game, an afternoon at the beach...). I wanted to see what students would naturally be inclined to produce. What is their starting point?

We set those aside, once completed, and then turned our attention to three samples I provided, each of a particular quality. I asked students to judge those pieces to determine which was better and why.

Students know quality work when they see it. The trick is defining what makes it of better quality.
Through that discussion process, we determined that these are the qualities of an awesome (or effective) personal narrative.

·      TITLE

o   Intrigues the reader, they have questions in their mind, they want to read on

·      STARTER SENTENCE

o   Intrigues the reader, they have questions in their mind, they want to read on

·      DETAIL

o   specific, descriptive, includes 5 senses (touch, sound, taste, sight, smell) as much as possible

o   should be easy to visualize/imagine

·      SENTENCES

o   are various (different types and lengths, not all the same)

o   not just simple and short ones. (Not just 'I saw the dog. The dog smiled')

o   Some are complex. (When I saw the dog, he smiled. In other words, use commas!)
has accurate punctuation

·      WORD CHOICE

o   interesting, different, and not boring

·      DRAMA

o   Uses dialogue and sound words like WHAP

·      FOCUS

o   is on one event, which is described in depth

o   each paragraph has its own focus

This will for the basis of the editing process. Students will next turn to their original work and see where they can improved, based on this checklist.