Dear Upper Montessori Families,
I'd like to tell you about our next unit of study in writing workshop. We are moving on to fiction! While we did write fiction in November and December (Your great gift books...The Secret Knowledge of Kids!), we are taking a second look at the topic.
Although we are just getting ready to begin writing fiction in class, your children have been poised to write in this genre from the time they were babies. The experiences they’ve had--from listening to family stories being told over and over to getting lost in the world of fairy tales and the pages of picture books to creating worlds for their dolls and stuffed animals--have prepared them to write fiction.
For the next several weeks, your child will be working to write a realistic fiction short story. Children will mine the stories of their lives for an idea on which to grow a short story. They’ll spend several days developing characters for their stories. They’ll study traditional story structure and then will map plot lines for their stories. In those stories, the main characters will move toward a goal while facing difficulty or resistance along the way. As children write short fiction, they’ll also read it. They’ll read as insiders, learning techniques for writing fiction from their favorite authors.
You’ll notice that even though the class will be writing fiction for the next several weeks, your child will be doing many of the same things that he or she did in the previous units of study. After all, many qualities of great writing and processes writers use work across genre. This unit especially highlights the importance of planning and of large-scale revisions.
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