Writing a class Story

NOTE:  This is NOT TPRS!!

We've been trying to figure out activities that might work better for the class I'm subbing in.  By "work better", we mean finding something that they're motivated to do as well as helps them learn something valuable.

In a collaboration between me and the para who's been working with these kids for a while, we came up with an activity we're going to test out this week and I'm really excited about it.  As this is a language lab to support native English speakers with their language arts skills, we're not trying to promote fluency, but rather get them the skills they need to succeed in their regular classes.

Originally, this started as a way to get the kids to buy-in to the paragraph edits that we've been doing with limited success.  The kids just seem like they're in agony over them.  Rather than giving a copied off paragraph activity, we're going to have them work together to write a class story to edit.  Not only do we achieve our original goals, but hopefully we'll do even better by correcting the errors that the students are making while helping develop their creative writing skills.  Even better?  The way we're going to do it will make it so no one knows what the other person wrote.

I've simplified this down to four parts of the story to focus on Monday through Thursday (Setting, Characters, Problem, Solution) and then read the stories and edit them on Friday.  On the first four days, we will discuss that story element and how we can write about it, then the students will write a paragraph about that part consisting of at least 15 words and 5 sentences.  They won't put their names on them, and, after I check that they've been completed satisfactorily, I'll collect the papers.  The next day, we'll do the same thing, except the students will randomly get stories that they haven't written on yet.  Each story will be a surprise effort by four students.  On Friday, I'll pick the best story (based on interest, appropriateness, creativity, and how well it will work for edits) to display on the board and we'll edit it, including grammar rules, clarity, and word choice, etc.  And, no one will have to be worried because no one will know who wrote anything other than their own part!

I'm excited to kick this off today - I'll update about how it goes!