Writing Targets and Mysteries!

My kiddos have been working on fictional narratives for a little while!  Since we’ve been diligently developing round characters through actions, dialogue, and by carefully choosing character traits that can impact the characters positively and negatively, I decided it was time to work on dialogue tags.  Some of my little peanuts are a little heavy on the dialogue in general… which is the next thing I want to tackle.  For now, we just worked on replacing “said” with dialogue tags that will reveal something about our character’s personalities or feelings so we can show and not tell.  

Last week, while reading Aisha Makes Work Easier, I pointed out how many different ways there were to say “said” that I found in the book. I had the kids work with a partner to search for as many examples as they could, and then we made this chart.  (The Writing Target and Peer Conference form are from my 19 pg. Writer’s Workshop: Writing on Target kit.)

 

Here’s a picture of a writing piece after a peer conference.  You can tell by looking at it, that I need to conference with this student about paragraphing next, but she is definitely on target for dialogue tags!

We also started our Super Sleuths: Mystery Unit today… unfortunately I didn’t get too many pictures.  I also had a “bad handwriting day as you can see on my chart.  We started by reading The Mary Celeste.

Lastly, check out our snazzy new books!  I love Donors Choose!  I had two book grants funded… and another for Author Studies on the same day! I’m still waiting to get my Author Studies books and a few that are on back-order.  I am continually amazed by the generosity of citizen philanthropists! If you aren’t signed up, you need to register for an account.  I don’t get any money from PTO or our school, so for me, it has been a financial life-saver.  Love it.