Published!

Writing Circle Teasers

Publication can take many forms.  Read alouds, gallery walks, blog posts, and bulletin boards are all vehicles for taking a piece public.  Sixth grade composition students publicly shared their writing circle pieces this week outside Room M314.  But, displaying writing on a bulletin board has its challenges.  Typed documents often have minimal visual appeal, and when there are 18 of them stapled in a 6' x 4' area, most passersby are loath to stop.  Taking a page from the entertainment industry, the authors created teasers for their pieces.  They carefully combed through their writing looking for the exact words or phrases, that if pulled out and read separately, would make a reader want more.  After applying stylistic touches, the phrases were combined with QR codes that link to the piece in its entirety.  Students are excited for peers and visitors to scan and read.

Students took a field trip to First Stage on Friday to watch a performance of To the Promised Land.  In the play, Ruth, an African-American girl living in Milwaukee during the civil rights movement, finds herself inspired to continue going to school while reading the story of Golda Meir, the first female prime minister of Israel. The play dovetailed perfectly with the literature student's completion of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, as students heard about racial inequality and the escape from Southern sharecropping.

While literature students began studying Greek mythology on Tuesday, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry will be officially completed when book projects are presented next week.  I am excited to see how the kids will demonstrate their understanding of the themes of the novel. Conferring with them certainly revealed a wide range of creative and unique choices.  Newscasts, sculptures, paintings, photo collages, skits, movies, and songs are just a few of the projects I can expect to see!