Promote Accountability During Your Writing Time!

Part of writing is having accountability for your own work. After I've written anything, I always feel so accomplished! I want to pass that on to my students. I have created these fifteen writing stations {Writing Editing Stations} to hold my students accountable for completing their very best writing. Not only does this touch up on some important skills that get over looked, but it also gets your students developing good writing habits. We are building better writers! Each station has a task or tasks for their friend to complete. I have put the writing utensils needed on each poster to make stations easier to setup for the teacher, yet simple to follow for the students. For example, in the picture below, your students will need a green marker as shown on the poster. You can laminate and hang these posters up for the entire year, or you can set them out in each station as they are being used like I've done in the photo. These stations are an excellent tool in preparing your students for standardized testing all year long. They provide routine and promote good writing habits that need to be practiced on a regular basis. Teaching your students to edit their writing will help their first drafts tremendously as they will try to eliminate or avoid having to correct these areas after editing. If you like this product and are looking to improve your students' paragraphs, check out my Editing Boring Paragraphs Task Cards here! This activity was a hit in my classroom! The best part was, I was able to reference this activity for the entire school year. It was the perfect reminder or model of how they should be writing detailed paragraphs! For more information, read my blog post here!

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Sticky Note Editors

What teacher doesn't have a stack of these hanging out in their desk drawer?!

My students tend to say "Yes, Miss Murphy, I reread my paper and checked for mistakes." However, I really know this just means they are trying to make me happy by saying they checked their work. Not only do I want them checking for any errors, but I want them to check their writing as a whole. Does it fit the topic? Did I use persuasive words? Did I use fitting evidence from the text? Have I been descriptive enough with my characters or scenery? Do I have a solid story structure? How could I make this better? What do I LOVE about my writing?... These are the questions that I want my students asking themselves. 

I had my students partner up (I strategically gave them partners to balance out my students) to read each others essays. When they were finished, they each had a sticky note to write a piece of advice and a compliment for their partner's writing assignment.  This was perfect for my students! They were more engaged and interested in what they were publishing and reading from their classmates. It's a quick way of implementing student interactions and a positive classroom environment. Yes, they need improvement, but they also get to see that they are successful writers by the compliments they receive. It doesn't get any easier than pulling sticky notes out of your drawer! :) Grab my Lined Paper Freebie here! 

If you like that, you can purchase the full version here, Lined Paper Pack or Version Two here! Enjoy! :)

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Mischievous Elf {A Narrative Writing}

Good evening! Are you looking for fun and engaging writing activity for your students? With upper elementary,  I rarely have time for my students to do time consuming crafts. In that case, I have incorporated a writing activity that gives your students an outlet to be creative, yet productive.

Your students will draw/design their own Elf Scene {where their Elf is doing either something funny, mischievous, or just plain silly}! Graphic organizers and questions are included to get your students preparing/thinking about the writing portion of this project.

Everything you and your students need is included, from planning pages to lined paper to a rubric. Finally, the best part, this product is on SALE for $1.00 until November 23rd! Grab it right here in my store! Be sure to checkout some of my other holiday/seasonal products!

If you like this product, you will love my Freezy the Snowman Narrative Writing Activity!

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Editing Boring Paragraphs!

I have been working on Narrative writing with my students over the past week. One BIG thing I am having them focus on are details. We can always use practice on being more specific, detailed, or descriptive. Sometimes getting students to write paragraphs, can be related to pulling teeth! These task cards, were anything but pulling teeth for my students. 

At first, I introduced the activity along with our goal for the day: adding details. I encouraged my students to replace any boring or dull words and add in detailed descriptions. The paragraph had to send the same message, but it should be more specific. For instances, when you are writing about apples, you can't change the subject to oranges. 

I made this a partner task, where I assigned the partners. You can have them do this activity in a group, individually, or partners. It's very versatile and completely up to you! They were each given an answer strip. Once they finished one, they were to sit it on their desk. This allowed me to see their completed work to help them make any changes. Some were exactly wonderful, others needed a little more guidance. It was perfect for differentiating while others kept working. 

In about 45 minutes, they had completed 3-4 paragraphs. This is a time consuming task. I stressed that with my students before hand so that I was getting quality work during this time. When the activity ended, I had them go back to their seats, read over all of their paragraphs and choose the BEST one to turn in for a grade. 

Overall, I was very impressed with their new paragraphs. I had not seen this level of quality from my students, until now. This was the perfect engaging activity for my students. For the teacher, this is definitely a time saver as well. NO PREP is needed! Just print, cut, and begin your lesson! Grab my EDITING BORING TASK CARDS HERE FOR $1.00!

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