On Thursday of last week (1/27/11) we were reading our chapter in the book "Stuck in the Principal's Body" and after we finished reading, had the discussion about what we had read to help with comprehension, we still had some time. So I walked up to the board and wrote "If I Were A Snowman I would..." and ask them to finish the sentence as well as create a story of what it would be like to spend a day as a snowman.
After the groans and getting the paper and pencils all set we started talking about what it would be like and rather than have the students write it I had them "dictate" their individual stories to a peer tutor to do the actual writing.
This was a great success. The peer tutor was not allowed to change the word choice, the sentence structure or grammar, they were there to just document what the student was saying and try to at least get some sentences with some punctuation.
This process freed up the students to use their imagination, especially after having more "snow days" than "school days" in this winter month of January. Their stories were great and they were very proud of them as the peer tutors read them aloud, one by one.
Everyone participated. Everyone enjoyed the process and all became "writers for that day." One young man decided to take the "art" time after we had finished to illustrate his story - and several notebook pages later we had a complete story and illustrations.
I think I'm going to try to get him to work on it again and we will craft it into a book format using the technology available. This would be a big boost to him and for his classmates.
Don
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