In writer’s workshop, we adopted Jon Scieszka as our mentor author. This means we read his books, look closely at the skills and strategies he uses, and then try those things in our own writing. We read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Frog Prince Continued, and The Stinky Cheese Man. We noticed he uses humor in his stories and loves to take stories that already exist and give them a fresh twist. These are often called Fractured Fairy Tales. We then brainstormed stories we could twist and fracture, adding our own sense of humor into the voices of the characters. Some students even began writing fractured tales.
We’re also reading another Fractured Fairy Tale by a different author during interactive Read Aloud. It’s called The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives and it’s by Michael Buckley. As we read this story, we’re making and modifying predictions. We’re also listing character traits to describe each character based on clues the author leaves for us in the text. And when we independently read, we’re remembering to use post-it notes to leave tracks of our thoughts as readers. We also began our book blogs, a safe online community for our classmates to learn about the books we are reading.
As a class, we’ve built our independent reading stamina up to 30 minutes. While most students read independently, some students are conferencing with Miss Mitton to create reading goals and reflect on reading strengths. We’ll continue to conference throughout the year.
We’re also reading another Fractured Fairy Tale by a different author during interactive Read Aloud. It’s called The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives and it’s by Michael Buckley. As we read this story, we’re making and modifying predictions. We’re also listing character traits to describe each character based on clues the author leaves for us in the text. And when we independently read, we’re remembering to use post-it notes to leave tracks of our thoughts as readers. We also began our book blogs, a safe online community for our classmates to learn about the books we are reading.
As a class, we’ve built our independent reading stamina up to 30 minutes. While most students read independently, some students are conferencing with Miss Mitton to create reading goals and reflect on reading strengths. We’ll continue to conference throughout the year.
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