innovative? Karen Ditzler's WriteYourStory wiki has been organizing writers into collaborative groups for 2 years now. It's a simple pass the "paper" format as each class writes their own part of the story. Group one gets to pick the topic and start the story. Groups two through four continue. Group five writes the ending and adds the title. We all submit illustrations to correlate with the story parts. Lastly, students read the story using VoiceThread.
IMPACT?
1. Working Together as Writers- Usually writing is a personal assignment. This wasn't about our own ideas. It was about taking the thoughts of all those in the group and determining what we'd write for OUR part.
2. Piece of the Whole - Part of something more. Your piece is important - CRUCIAL for the final project.
3. Illustrations to Enhance - Pictures can offer more detail than the words. Illustrators have a critical job. Their role provides for visualization beyond the text. This time we held a contest.... the discussion of why each thought a certain picture was the best were interesting.
4. Conferences with Meaning - We were able to Skype with 3 of the other classes involved. One class in Australia we shared the VT about our school with. We shared predictions, endings, questions, and story parts with each other. Sure it's neat to wave hi and see the other students visually, but we were able to connect as writers.
5. Practice with Purpose - Fluency is often underrated or overrated. We weren't soley practicing to succeed with speed and accuracy on a DIBLES passage. Students were practicing to provide their audience with an entertaining story. Also, this part of the project gives the story the audio component for all levels of learners to be able to enjoy the story.
6. Audience Reaches Beyond - Where weren't working on this for our class, to post in the hall, or share with those at home? Sure, but we able to share this with "the world" through the collaborative wiki. Students worked extra hard to ensure they were working their best.
Fall 2010 Story #4
Spring 2010 Story #7
Fall 2009 Story #1... can't find code.
When I'd first heard about this project, I thought each class would not only be passing the virtual paper, wiki, for the next class of writers, but they'd be receiving another story to add too - participating in 5 stories total. Only the overachiever in me would think like that, but since I'd already shared that plan with my students, they wanted to give it a go in our own classroom. Below are last year's stories, we'll be starting ours next month and students will be working with their group without as much guidance and support.
Group #1
Group #2
Group #3
Impressed? We're excited about writing. The ideas of the group combined to create amazing stories. The ideas generated were transformed before our eyes as the stories took different directions than initially predicted!
Where do you find your inspiration 2 WRITE?
