When she is done, she asks the students for P. Q. P. I have NO idea what this means, but her students respond easily. They’ve obviously had practice with this, and are anxious to critique their teacher’s story.
· P is for Praise (This lets the author know what you noticed was really strong about their writing.) - They like the beginning of her story, she helped them understand who and what the story was about. They noticed she included details in the middle. This is something they’ve been working on and recognize as a strength, as well.
· Q is for Questions (Questions from the audience will help the author to think about what things she might want to include in her story to make it clearer or easier to understand.) – They wonder why her son had a headache. They wonder why she was even at the practice, in the first place. (When she tells them she’s the coach and they are in awe!)
· P is for Polish (Suggestions for polish help the author think about how to improve or make the writing stronger.) – Mallory has this one! She’s been ready for several minutes – “You didn’t stay in the same place. You told your story in two places. You started at the PACC and ended at the middle school.”
Ah, that’s the point Mrs. K wants to emphasize today! When you’re telling your SMALL MOMENT story, keep the story in one place, “stay close to your story”, don’t go driving off somewhere else. f you’ve read much primary level writing, you probably know that “Then we went home,” can be an extremely prevalent and unsatisfying story ending. Mrs. K. has noticed her students struggling with this prior to Christmas, and has chosen to focus her teaching on this topic recently.
Soon it’s off to writing! These kids write, write, write!
Mrs. Kostynick has developed special paper to help first graders remember the important elements of story beginnings, middles, and endings. (You can see it in the samples posted above.) The paper helps to raise both the quality of student writing and the level of independence. “If they decide to publish a piece,” she tells me, “They can just cut the prompts off with a scissor.” Honestly, I think this paper is just plan amazing!
Today I observe Blake, who his teacher later tells me has never written so much on a page, carefully going through the prompts on the bottom of page one, checking his text over for each element and crossing them off as he finds them. I ask the kids at his table how the paper works, “Do you need to include all five things in every beginning?”
Anya answers without hesitation, “No,” she says, “A strong beginning will have at least 3 parts, but it might have 4 or 5.” She clicks the numbers off on her fingers for me while she’s talking. Clearly not her first day in the writing workshop!
At the end, the class reconvenes in their circle on the floor for share time. Mrs. Kostynick asks Blake to share the beginning he’s been working on so hard. Blake reads. Again, she calls for P.Q.P. His story is about spearing fish in the fish house. This topic is of great interest and the praise and questions come easily. Blake lets a slow smile spread across his face during the conversation. There is little doubt in my mind that he is realizing the ultimate reward of writing . . . he has connected with his audience!
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