Hello everyone,
I teach 3rd grade and every year I go through students writing stories about guns/violence or scary "not Halloween" stories. I teach in a rural area and students do hunt and we talk about the difference between writing a story with a gun that is about hunting or "video game" violence. Last year I had a child obsessed with writing scary stories and I eventually let him write but he could not share with the whole class because I had kids that would get scared. I am wondering how you handle this in your room. I don't want every story to only be a "happily ever after" story or stop them from writing but I need to have some limits. I just had a little boy write this story and he is SOOOOO excited and he wants to share it. I don't want to dampen his enthusiasm for writing but.. "Scary" is presumed here because they are Halloween prompts and we talk about the difference here as well. Although maybe I shouldn't even encourage this with the prompts. It began with a prompt I got from Laura Candler: No one was ever seen going into the old house at the end of the street. No one was ever seen coming out. So when my friends and I saw lights flickering in the attic, we just had to go check it out.. Here is what he wrote: When I went in I had to climb a creaky staircase. Creeeeeeeeek. Finally I got to the top. I looked over to the other wall. I saw a AK47. I grabbed it. When I looked back I saw..dancing skeleton dragging a chest full of candy. I ran up to the skeletons and said "eat led" BBBBBBBBBB Bones were scattered all over the place. I went home and ate all of the candy. Buuuurp. The end. Should I go back and help him think of "another way, without the gun to get the candy" Just not let him share it with the whole group. Let him share it and use it as a lesson about not using the guns- maybe have the class brainstorm other ways to get the candy. It is early in the year and I want to get this under control now. The other problem I have is kids writing something that happened in a movie or tv show. Sometimes I think they have a good story but when they read it to the class the kids are like.that happened on "blah, blah, blah"... HELP>>>> Sue _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
