Moment of Silence for Haiti

We had our think-a-thon for Haiti today.  The letter I wrote to students sums it up.  At the bottom of the letter there is a list of words.  After the 45 minutes were up, each student shared a word that expressed how they felt during the 45 minutes.  You'll find those at the bottom of this post.

Community Writers Series III: Paul Sagawa, Sammy's Dad

by Sammy and Henry G.


Keywords
confident, research, proud, audience, careful, persuade, trust, descriptive



What We Learned

• You have to be confident about the article you write.
• You really have to consider who you are writing for.
• If you are not confident about your article the people that read your article won't feel confident about it either.
  
  

Community Writers Series II: John Seabrook, Harry's Dad

by Harry and Devin


Keywords
instincts, voice, details, relate, precise


What We Learned
We learned that writing is really no different from talking.  John taught us about putting a voice in our writing, a voice that is exactly the same as how you talk.  A voice that is made up by what facts you include in your writing, what you write about, what questions you ask, who you're interviewing, in what order you write, how you interest your reader--overall, how you write in tandem with your opinion creates a voice.  John said this was probably the most essential one of the three things that make writing good--your "fingerprint," as he called it--the others being story and details.  

Community Writers Series I: Raphael Rubenstein, Rosa's Dad

by Rosa and Lyndsey


Keywords
fun, organization



What We Learned

• We learned that authors take notes in little botebooks and sometimes on index cards to help them stay organized.
• We also learned that authors keep files for everything they write.  The files have magazine clips, newspaper articles and much more in them.
• It takes a lot of preparation to write an article.
  
  

Community Writers Series

As you have probably heard, our Community Writers Series began before vacation.  Eight (eight!) family members volunteered to come and talk to the class about their writing.  Each writer is talking about how they go from brainstorming to published work.  Each writer is also sharing a piece of his or her work, and the students are examining it to see what they can learn about writing.  At the end of each visit, the students ask the community writer questions.  So far we've had two visits, and can't wait for the remaining six!  Stay tuned for more...