Backstory

I've decided that the students haven't been given enough exposure to different writing opportunities, and I'm still wrestling with the limited time I have to offer the many important components to an effective writing workshop:

• Strategy lessons to improve metacognition (thinking about thinking) 

• Writing warm-up activities

• Authors chair- to share and support each other in the writing process

• Time to Write!

For today, I'm planning the following 3-minute video segment that portrays one moment in time for each individual playing a part in this collaborative video piece created by Radiolab and NPR titled Words:

Then I'm going to give each writer a picture from a book I have called "The Children of the World" in which children from different parts of the world are captured on film doing many different things.  I will then ask the kids to try to write a "Backstory" or a story about the kid(s) in the photo that they chose.