1. 9/18/17 Bear Time: Copy the Free Write Rules Into your Notebook
1. Write. Just write. Keep your hand moving (The only way to do free writing wrong is to not write or to quit early.)
2. Experiment with spelling, punctuation and grammar.
3. Go wherever your writing (thinking on the page) takes you. (If a story comes to mind as you are writing – go for it!)
4. Be specific.
5. “You are free to write the worst junk in America” (Goldberg, 1990, p.4).

2. 9/19: Bear Time – Free Write
Follow the Free Write Rules that you wrote down yesterday.
Write until the timer goes off.

3. Mini-Lesson: Anchor Chart: The 5 W’s and H Questions
WHO was in the experience?
WHAT happened?
WHEN did it happen?
WHERE did it happen?
WHY did it happen?
HOW did the person or people change?
This Strategy will help you gather ideas for your fictional personal narrative!
Answer the following questions….

4. Writing Workshop: Answer the 5W’s and H Questions in your notebook
I went outside. The smell of hot cocoa flowed throughout the house. The fire crackled in the small red and brown bricked fireplace. My mother was stirring the beef soup. My two year old brother was quietly playing with wooden blocks that had little letters carved in them. My father sat playing a slow, sad song on his beautiful country guitar. I took off my jacket and hung it on the brass coat rack. My mother gave me a bowl of hot beef soup and cocoa. The broth felt warm running down my throat. The feeling of warmth spread all over me. Life was much better then. That’s how life used to be before the terrible accident that ending in me losing my father.

5. Answer the 5W’s and H Questions in your notebook
Unpacking even just the few things in her brown suitcase, always seemed a waste of time to Gilly. She never knew if she’d be in a place long enough to make it worth the bother. And yet it was something to fill the time. There were two drawers at the top and four larger ones below. Moving from foster home to foster home was hard on the girl. She put her underwear in one of the little ones, and her shirts and jeans in one of the big ones, and then picked up the photograph from the bottom of the suitcase. She looked at the picture of her mother holding her and she smiled.

6. 9/20: Bear Time – Free Write
Follow the Free Write Rules that you wrote down yesterday.
Write until the timer goes off.

7. Answer the 5W’s and H Questions in your notebook
I watched myself begin this horrible deed. My hand seemed to suddenly have a will of its own. It picked up the milk carton. The spout was already open. My arm extended over Carla’s head, tipping the carton. The liquid poured in a slow, steady, thick unending stream down through her long blonde hair, soaking the back of her clothes and running onto the floor. As the milk reached the floor I shifted the spout slightly to begin another long milky journey down the front of her. It poured over her forehead, in the eyes, running in rivers down each side of her nose, converging on the chin and splashing into her plate. Her food was soon awash and the milk poured over the edge, and ran into her lap. An still I poured on – it was too late to stop now. The rapture of it all. Oh, sweet revenge.

8. Answer the 5W’s and H Questions in your notebook
We boarded the small ship anticipating the parasailing adventure. The guides gave us instructions on how they would hook us up in the equipment, and because the machine was automated, there were some very precise instructions. I just hoped I could remember everything I was suppose to do so that I did not get injured like the guide mentioned. We were the second couple to ride tandem, and so we eagerly watched every move that the other couple made. Finally, it was our turn to fly. We helped each other get hooked in the harness, sat down on the back of the boat, and suddenly we were lifting into the air. Being in the air, soaring through the sky, was incredibly fun. As I looked down, I saw giant sea turtles swimming through the crisp, bright blue water with a pod of dolphins playing nearby. It was almost soundless except the fluttering noise of the wind blowing past my ears and the parachute above. I wondered, Is this how birds feel as they fly through the air? Flying like a bird, feeling more than human, was a truly incredible moment.

9. Answer the 5W’s and H Questions in your notebook
We boarded the small ship anticipating the parasailing adventure. The guides gave us instructions on how they would hook us up in the equipment, and because the machine was automated, there were some very precise instructions. I just hoped I could remember everything I was suppose to do so that I did not get injured like the guide mentioned. We were the second couple to ride tandem, and so we eagerly watched every move that the other couple made. Finally, it was our turn to fly. We helped each other get hooked in the harness, sat down on the back of the boat, and suddenly we were lifting into the air. Being in the air, soaring through the sky, was incredibly fun. As I looked down, I saw giant sea turtles swimming through the crisp, bright blue water with a pod of dolphins playing nearby. It was almost soundless except the fluttering noise of the wind blowing past my ears and the parachute above. I wondered, Is this how birds feel as they fly through the air? Flying like a bird, feeling more than human, was a truly incredible moment.

10. 9/20/17 Writing Workshop: The 5 W’s and H Questions
This Strategy will help you gather ideas for your fictional personal narrative!
Return to your fictional personal narratives and answer the following questions…. After you have completed the 5w’s and H question strategy, use them to add more details to your draft.
WHO was in the experience?- My mother, father, brother, sister and I
WHAT happened?- Hurricane Irma destroyed our town and our family home
WHEN did it happen?- It happened last week.
WHERE did it happen- In the Florida Keys
WHY did it happen?-Climate control/Global Warming
HOW did I change? It changed my life my family has to repair our home and get a new car.

11. 9/21: Bear Time – Free Write
Follow the Free Write Rules that you wrote down yesterday.
Write until the timer goes off.

12. 9/21 Mini-Lesson: Anchor Chart Peer Feed Back
Turn to the back of your note book and create an anchor chart for peer feedback.
What are some ways to start off your comments to your writing partners?

13. 1st: Make five suggestions on your partners paper.
9/21 Writing Workshop
1st: Make five suggestions on your partners paper.
2nd: Accept AT LEAST two suggestions from your partner and change them in your story.

14. Post up your partner’s BEST suggestion.
9/21 Summarizer
Post up your partner’s BEST suggestion.

15. 9/22: Bear Time – Free Write
Follow the Free Write Rules that you wrote down yesterday.
Write until the timer goes off.

16. Personification Figurative language Compare vs. contrast Alliteration
9/22: Vocab test - 8th Grade Milestones Terms: Unit 1 Reading Literary Texts
Personification
Figurative language
Compare vs. contrast
Alliteration
Resolution
Allusion
Inference
Point of view
Theme
Plot
Simile
Genre
Metaphor

17. 9/22
WWTW List 1 Test

18. 9/22/17: Author’s Spotlight
On a notecard, write the following:
Your name and today’s date
The topic and date of your writing
What did you like about it?
How would you improve it?
Do NOT use: “Add details”, “Make it longer”, “Finish it”, or “Write More”
Try: develop my ideas, increase my sentence variety, increase my formal vocabulary, use a formal style…..

19. Post up your partner’s BEST suggestion.
9/22 Summarizer
Post up your partner’s BEST suggestion.