I'm back...with narratives to share!

Hey all! I know, I know...I have been completely MIA for quite sometime! But it was spring break...and the fam and I headed out on a beautiful, magnificent, relaxing 7 day cruise and my computer was thousands of miles away! Thought I'd share a little bit of the fun with my blog family below :)!

As you can see, Flat Stanley joined in the fun. Our third graders do an activity with him each year, so I brought him along for one of the kiddos to document our adventures!

Needless to say...relaxing is over...and it is back to business here. Thought I'd share a quick lesson with you all tonight that I recently did with my students as a way for them to share their published personal narrative pieces they just finished up! 

So first off, here is an example of one of the finished products. My kiddos had the option to choose an event, place, pasttime, etc. that was important and close to their heart. They created a cover with the title of their piece, illustration, and author name...

then they used the writing paper provided to neatly write their piece! We stapled/glued it all together to create this adorable little masterpiece.

I must admit this piece took quite sometime for the kids to take through the entire writing process, thus, as much as I adore author's chair, I was pretty ready just to knock out the sharing in one day if possible because we have a schedule to stick to!

Thus, I came up with a little "writing museum/post-it activity" that worked just splendidly. Each of my kids received 3 post-its. On two post-its they wrote a "C" in the corner for "cumplido" or compliment. In one they wrote an "M" for mejorar or something that could be improved upon in a piece of writing. 

We discussed how all comments should be helpful not hurtful and constructive as their friends put a lot of time and effort into these pieces and we also brainstormed some ideas for effective comments.

Then I asked the kids to place their writing on their desks and gave them about 15-20 minutes to walk around the room reading their peers' pieces and leaving comments as they thought necessary. I encouraged them to leave post-its on pieces that may not have one yet or that they were really impressed with so that everyone received at least one. They did a really wonderful job with it and made some stellar comments!

Here are some examples:

"compliment - I like how you used a lot of periods."

"improve- I would like you to use more adjectives"

They really got into it...and it gave them an opportunity to share they writing (in a speedy way!) and still receive productive feedback!

Does anyone else have any creative ways for sharing student writing? I'd love to hear them!