Framing Our Essays

Today the students and I framed our essays for drafting. I really liked the lesson. I had the students work on the floor and it seemed easier to work with them today. Usually, I let them choose where to sit. They seemed to be focus better closer to me. At the end of my morning block a few were still struggling with the framework of boxes and bullets and I color coded the process of writing the frame and it seemed to help. My afternoon block has more writers who struggle so not only did we take it slower, but I introduced the color coded organizer before I sent them to write. I was very pleased with their thesis statements. Over all they are very simple, but I keep telling myself that it isn't about depth of the subject, but that they are authentically writing and writing on a topic they chose. Tomorrow we will begin the organization and, hopefully, composing mini-stories. I will try to remember to take a picture of the boxes and bullet frame color coded and post tomorrow.