What does On Demand Wednesday look like?

Good evening!

With our fourth On-Demand Wednesday in the books, we wanted to share what the day looks like. On these Wednesdays, we do not trade for our core classes and spend the day focusing on our writing. Today, we refined our narrative skills. All three teachers and classes agreed that this Wednesday was the best ODW yet! :) Below are some pictures from our day. Over the next dew days, we'll post writing samples for you!

We started out reviewing our knowledge of narratives, brainstorming individually and as table groups. We then played a round of quiz, quiz, trade!

After reviewing our knowledge, we had a mini-lesson on using the active voice in our writing. Rather than saying, "The boy sat in the chair and played the game." we might say, "Sitting in the chair, the boy was playing his handheld game." Using the active voice helps to engage our reader and allows them to 'jump-into' the narrative's action. We took mini-paragraphs written in the passive voice and edited them to be in the active voice. Then, we used SU, HU, PU (stand up, hand up, pair up) to share our more engaging paragraphs.

Working in small groups, we also had some fun responding to picture prompts. These picture prompts help us practice telling an imagined story {narratives can be real or imagined}.

With our narrative review, quick writes, and mini-lessons complete, it was time to show what we know about narratives. Our timers were set for 30 minutes and everyone went to work!

Mrs. Stillwell, Mrs. McNees, and I spent several hours this afternoon blind-scoring the narratives, and we'll begin to review the results in class tomorrow and Friday. These narratives will be hung in the hallway next week and will make it home the following week. :)

-Ms. Wintuska