Cultivating Writers

The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

~A. B. Yehoshua

Spring is the perfect time of year to think about what flowers and vegetables to grow in your garden.  It is also the perfect time to celebrate student’s growth and cultivate new learning.

Natalie Shaffer, 5^th grade teacher at Linn-Grove Elementary recently provided a 5^th grade Writer’s Workshop Conference for some students.  After working with Mentor Coach, Carol Kesl, they created a crime scene for students to write mysteries. 

Students traveled by bus from Linn-Grove to the Learning Resource Center on Linn-Mar’s main campus.  Students entered a room with clues and objects to observe.  This activity provided students with the challenge of drawing inferences from the scene and then creating a story that explained how they believe a make-believe crime happened.

The Door to the Crime Scene.

 According to Carol and Natalie, the scenarios were phenomenal.  The students far exceeded the teacher’s expectations.  The students drew so many inferences from the clues and came up with realistic stories and explanations. 

Students showcasing their writing skills.

Next, students had the opportunity to rotate through several centers that focused on different writing skills.  To end the writing conference, student’s acted out a reader’s theater to help them to work on the trait of voice.  Natalie’s mom joined the class and face painted the students for their grand performance.  As the students performed, Natalie recorded the performance so it can be shown to the entire fifth grade classes. 

The grand finale.