First Meeting

A restaurant where stories are served.

Whoa, was it a joy to see everyone again and safely in person this time around! I think we can all agree that we had a great time playing and learning together.

In this first meeting, we delved into the underlying codes that create great writers, including thinking about the author’s purpose for writing in the first place and beginning to use the writing process to craft great stories.

Our outdoor classroom under the pavilion was surprisingly comfortable and definitely added some life to our lesson. We began by observing some of the creatures around us and imagining what a fantasy day would be like for them. The kids turned into quite the interesting little dragonflies as they wrote a Warm Up journal entry in the creature’s voice. Next, we looked at three reasons why authors write (Author’s Purpose), namely to entertain, to educate or inform, and to convince or persuade. We put that knowledge to practice with our First Activity. Since the kids all enjoy Chik-fil-A, I split the group into two. Half of the kids wrote to educate, teaching their reader how to make a chicken sandwich. The other half wrote to persuade, taking on the voice of the cows who try to convince you to eat more chicken instead of beef. In our Post Activity Discussion, the kids noticed the differences in style and tone between the two groups. Those who were educating had a simple, clear, and straightforward tone. They tended to write very neatly and in steps so that people could understand their instructions. Those who were seeking to convince us had a stronger, more demanding tone. They used humor and warnings to make their point and try to change our minds. Our Second Activity got us into the writing process. First we did a quick overview of the writing process - Prewriting, Drafting, Editing, Revising, Publishing. We used our classroom space story to notice how long and confusing a story can get if we don’t take the time to plan it first. The kids used the organizer tool included on the Members Page (www.uselove.org/members, password: ‘writingrocks’) to plan out their own version of our space story. Finally, we previewed how we will fold and make physical books for the final step of the writing process, the publishing step.

Much more to come!