- Log-in to your own blog and type up your SHOW not TELL sentences. Remember this is YOUR work, so feel free to EDIT or change your work in any way. It does not have to be typed word for word from your book!
- Post a comment on someone else's blog
- Finish your planning for the writing about your special object
Welcome to the display centre for 'The Crafty Crew'. We are students who have been invited to participate in an extension writing programme at Lawrence Area School. We all have a passion and natural talent for writing, and range in ages from 7-13 years. Over the coming weeks we will be publishing work onto the blog and we welcome your comments/feedback regarding our writing as our aim is to become even better writers.
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Homework tasks - Wednesday 31st August
Hi there team, remember your three homework tasks for this week, to be completed by Monday:
Friday 26 August 2011
More exciting news - your very own blogs
Click on log-in (top right corner of the screen)
Click the drop down menu to find your username and then type in the password (it is the same password that you have to enter posts on this blog).
Post a comment when you have visited your page and clicked into your blog (of course we will have to show you how to post your writing onto your blog so DON'T MISS MONDAY'S SESSION!)
Click the drop down menu to find your username and then type in the password (it is the same password that you have to enter posts on this blog).
Post a comment when you have visited your page and clicked into your blog (of course we will have to show you how to post your writing onto your blog so DON'T MISS MONDAY'S SESSION!)
Wednesday 24 August 2011
EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!! Author visiting soon.....
Hey there Crafty Crew, here's some super exciting news......
We have a famous N.Z author coming to visit and work with our writing group very soon.
Each week we will add some new clues to this post until you can work out who our special visiting author is.
At any time you can add your guess to this post - let's see who is first to work it out!
Clue 1 - We have several of 'his' books in our library - both picture books and first chapter books.
Clue 2 - He lives at Millers Flat.
We have a famous N.Z author coming to visit and work with our writing group very soon.
Each week we will add some new clues to this post until you can work out who our special visiting author is.
At any time you can add your guess to this post - let's see who is first to work it out!
Clue 1 - We have several of 'his' books in our library - both picture books and first chapter books.
Clue 2 - He lives at Millers Flat.
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Show, don't Tell
Today we introduced the term 'Show, don't Tell' to our group and talked about what this might mean in terms of writing and how this technique can improve our writing.
Sometimes a writer "tells" as a shortcut, to move quickly to the next part of the story. By "showing" we are creating a vivid picture in the reader's mind and getting away from the repitition of boring and empty words. Secondly, showing is interactive and participatory: it forces the reader to become involved in the story, deducing facts for themselves, rather than just taking information in as they read.
However, a novel that contains only showing would be incredibly long; therefore, a narrative does need to have some telling as well. Tricky to get the balance just right!
One way to check our work for telling moments is to read through our draft writing for adjectives. Circle each one, such as "happy" or "tall." Analyse each one. Is there a way to pull the adjective out altogether and show it instead?
For example, if Larry is tall, show him stoop under the doorway as he enters the room. Or have his wife hug him, her nose not even reaching his chest. From those types of details, readers figure out that Larry is tall without you ever using that word—without you telling us that’s he’s tall.
Examples that we discussed today were:
TELL- The water was cold.
SHOW - AS I dipped my toe into the water a shiver ran up my spine.
TELL - The dog was mad.
SHOW - The dog's low growl and bared teeth greeted the paper boy at the gate.
TELL - I cried.
SHOW - I felt my eyes fill with tears and then tasted the salt as they ran down my face.
We then had a go at SHOWING that it was snowy outside without using the word 'snow'. Given that we've just had several days of snow with heavy snow still lying around the township it wasn't hard for students to try to paint a picture with their words on this topic. Here are our first attempts:
Sometimes a writer "tells" as a shortcut, to move quickly to the next part of the story. By "showing" we are creating a vivid picture in the reader's mind and getting away from the repitition of boring and empty words. Secondly, showing is interactive and participatory: it forces the reader to become involved in the story, deducing facts for themselves, rather than just taking information in as they read.
However, a novel that contains only showing would be incredibly long; therefore, a narrative does need to have some telling as well. Tricky to get the balance just right!
One way to check our work for telling moments is to read through our draft writing for adjectives. Circle each one, such as "happy" or "tall." Analyse each one. Is there a way to pull the adjective out altogether and show it instead?
For example, if Larry is tall, show him stoop under the doorway as he enters the room. Or have his wife hug him, her nose not even reaching his chest. From those types of details, readers figure out that Larry is tall without you ever using that word—without you telling us that’s he’s tall.
Examples that we discussed today were:
TELL- The water was cold.
SHOW - AS I dipped my toe into the water a shiver ran up my spine.
TELL - The dog was mad.
SHOW - The dog's low growl and bared teeth greeted the paper boy at the gate.
TELL - I cried.
SHOW - I felt my eyes fill with tears and then tasted the salt as they ran down my face.
We then had a go at SHOWING that it was snowy outside without using the word 'snow'. Given that we've just had several days of snow with heavy snow still lying around the township it wasn't hard for students to try to paint a picture with their words on this topic. Here are our first attempts:
- The cold, wet, white blanket lay ahead of me (Rylee)
- It looked like someone had painted the whole world white (Mac)
- The white blanket covers the land and little white flakes fall on the ground (Keegan)
- Icy crystal droplets cover the frozen land forming a powdery blanket of sparkling ice (Sam)
- Everything outside glared with a frosty white blanket covering the land (Autumn)
What makes a GREAT piece of writing?
Today we discussed how we know when we read a really GREAT piece of writing and then brainstormed the features of GREAT writing. So far we have come up with....
- descriptive vocabulary
- topic-specific language
- paints a picture in your head
- you feel like you are there with the people in the story
- correct punctuation so it is easy to read
- a variety of punctuation
- a title that suits the writing
- a storyline - it needs to have a point, meaning, or a theme for the reader to relate to
- keeps the reader hooked from the beginning to the end (you don't want to stop reading it)
Tuesday 16 August 2011
Snow Shoes???
What do you think your shoes would have thought of you today?
Did you you 'notice' your shoes while you were outside throwing snow and splashing through slush?
Were you kind and considerate? - leaving your shoes at home in the cosy warm, while choosing your more rugged gumboots instead?
Consider how shoes would have felt about a day in the snow and add these thoughts to your journal.
Did you you 'notice' your shoes while you were outside throwing snow and splashing through slush?
Were you kind and considerate? - leaving your shoes at home in the cosy warm, while choosing your more rugged gumboots instead?
Consider how shoes would have felt about a day in the snow and add these thoughts to your journal.
Tuesday 9 August 2011
Task 1 - Blogging your 'BIO'
The Crafty Crew Blog
Well team, we already have a blog address......
Give this site address to your friends and family.
Your first task is to start typing your bio on your page. Don’t forget to use the notes that you have made in your journal.
To do this you need to go to:
Sign in: using email and password you have been given (this is for The Crafty Crew group only)
<! ØEdit Posts
<! ØEdit Pages
<! ØClick on your page the word EDIT
<! ØBegin typing your bio.
Remember to keep clicking
<! ØSAVE AS DRAFT
When you have finished your session click
<! ØPUBLISH PAGE
Follow the same instructions to go back in and make changes, add more etc.
Don’t be scared to have a go – anything can be fixed at a later stage, so get stuck in and have a try.
Mrs May or Mrs O will help you load a photo onto your page next week.
Blogging Rules
As a blogger we agree to the rules below...
We will:
· Only use our FIRST name when writing and displaying our work.· Only use SENSIBLE and KIND words when commenting on the work of others
· Not write any of our DETAILS - this includes phone number, address and personal email address
· Be careful when putting PHOTOS on (we have permission slips signed by parents) - if you are at home, check with your parents before posting any photos on your blog page
· Be RESPONSIBLE when displaying our learning and giving feedback on our blog
· Try our hardest to get our SPELLING right
· Don't talk about or post things that are irrelevant (not on the topic)
· Don't make any changes to anyone else's work
· No gossip, bullying or pointless comments
Most importantly – have fun learning!!!!!!
My Shoes
Today we did a visualisation about what a day in the life of our shoes might be like.
We talked about 'personifcation' - where we take an inanimate object and give it human like qualities. We had to imagine what our shoes might think as say as they went through their daily routine of being our shoes.
We had to think about where they live and what it is like in there
When we come together again we are going to use all of the notes that we have made in our journal, and any drawings we have made as the basis of our plan for a piece of narrative writing.
Stage 2 - Writing:
Today we talked about some of things that we have been 'noticing' about our shoes, and especially the things that we have noted down in our journals.
We discussed what sort of personality our shoe might have; grumpy, friendly, laid back, up-tight etc
We talked about how we might begin our writing in order to 'hook our reader'.
Using our notes in our journal we began to write our introduction. Some people began by telling their reader that the character telling the story was a shoe, and others left it until further down the page before 'revealing' the identity of the voice to their reader.
We used a thesaurus as we wrote so that we could find the 'very best word' to use in our sentence. We talked about making good choices for words, rather than using too many or too few.
e.g. the beautiful, sweet smelling, pretty rose....
the lovely, fragrant rose.....
The dirty, stinky, smelling sock.....
The filthy, putrid sock....
We each tried to change two of more words within out writing by using the thesaurus.
We had to think about where they live and what it is like in there
- How they feel about being on our feet
- Where they have to walk during the day
- What things they might see or do
- What things they might love/hate doing
- How they might feel about other shoes
- and as many other things as we could think of
When we come together again we are going to use all of the notes that we have made in our journal, and any drawings we have made as the basis of our plan for a piece of narrative writing.
Stage 2 - Writing:
Today we talked about some of things that we have been 'noticing' about our shoes, and especially the things that we have noted down in our journals.
We discussed what sort of personality our shoe might have; grumpy, friendly, laid back, up-tight etc
We talked about how we might begin our writing in order to 'hook our reader'.
Using our notes in our journal we began to write our introduction. Some people began by telling their reader that the character telling the story was a shoe, and others left it until further down the page before 'revealing' the identity of the voice to their reader.
We used a thesaurus as we wrote so that we could find the 'very best word' to use in our sentence. We talked about making good choices for words, rather than using too many or too few.
e.g. the beautiful, sweet smelling, pretty rose....
the lovely, fragrant rose.....
The dirty, stinky, smelling sock.....
The filthy, putrid sock....
We each tried to change two of more words within out writing by using the thesaurus.
First Day! - Welcome
Today we got underway with our writers extension group at Lawrence Area School. We are a group of 9 students who all love writing, aging from 7 years old to 13 years old.
We began our session by discussing what we might like to get out of the group - and it was unanimous that we all wanted to write creatively through the genre of narrative.
We talked about what we might like to call our group and came up with the name 'The Crafty Crew.'
We were each given a journal that we can personalise at home. We can use the journal as we like to note down anything of interest that we see. We can write in our thoughts and ideas, we can write in our memories, we can draw in some plans - they are a tool used by good writers all over the world.
We began writing in our journals by jotting down all the things about ourselves that we would include in our 'bio' for our group blog.
We have established this blog so that we can share our writing with our friends and our families. We all agreed that we like to entertain with our writing, and that when we are particularly proud of a piece of work we like to share it with others. The blog seemed like a really good place for us to be able to do this.
We are responsible for the blog as a group and we will be able to publish our own work directly to the blog - so not only will we be improving our writing skills, but also our blogging skills. This means that we can be working on our own projects at home.
As a group we will be meeting at school twice a week. once during class time and once during a lunch time, and we will be working with Mrs May and Mrs O'Connell to develop our writing skills and craft our writing. It is a very special group to be involved in and we feel privileged to be invited.
We began our session by discussing what we might like to get out of the group - and it was unanimous that we all wanted to write creatively through the genre of narrative.
We talked about what we might like to call our group and came up with the name 'The Crafty Crew.'
We were each given a journal that we can personalise at home. We can use the journal as we like to note down anything of interest that we see. We can write in our thoughts and ideas, we can write in our memories, we can draw in some plans - they are a tool used by good writers all over the world.
We began writing in our journals by jotting down all the things about ourselves that we would include in our 'bio' for our group blog.
We have established this blog so that we can share our writing with our friends and our families. We all agreed that we like to entertain with our writing, and that when we are particularly proud of a piece of work we like to share it with others. The blog seemed like a really good place for us to be able to do this.
We are responsible for the blog as a group and we will be able to publish our own work directly to the blog - so not only will we be improving our writing skills, but also our blogging skills. This means that we can be working on our own projects at home.
As a group we will be meeting at school twice a week. once during class time and once during a lunch time, and we will be working with Mrs May and Mrs O'Connell to develop our writing skills and craft our writing. It is a very special group to be involved in and we feel privileged to be invited.
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