Biographers have been hard at work during literacy time. First they chose a famous Vermonter to research and used appropriate tools and elements of a biography to take notes about different categories they would include in their informational writing.
Students have learned a lot about their person's childhood, education, challenges, and accomplishments. They have also been looking for character traits to describe their person. We have been supporting that work during our read aloud time by reading biography picture books and looking at the way the author structured his/her text. Using mentor texts helps to inspire writers to push the level of their thinking.
Another way to push your writing is to understand the goal of the writing genre. To do that work students have been looking at what makes a quality lead, strong organization, and elaboration in an informational writing piece. They are currently aiming to have:
* A lead/introduction that hooks their reader by telling an important fact, uses a quote or gives a big picture idea. The lead also lets the reader know they will learn about different parts of this person's life.
* They are looking to organize their writing into logical categories that stick to one topic/idea throughout the paragraphs. For some sections they are aiming to have multiple paragraphs.
* Writers are aiming to elaborate each section by giving specific details like dates, names, and examples that teach the reader even more.
Next week we will edit our pieces and begin to add visual elements like timelines, photos with captions, and other nonfiction elements to create a strong presentation for our culminating event-The Mosaic Vermont History Museum. The museum will be "open" for you to visit on the morning of February 2 from 8:00-8:45. We will send home a formal invite this week and we hope that you can all make it to the museum and learn from your students' hard work.
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