Help!
I am a new fourth grade teacher in North Carolina. We have a writing test in March. Our district is using Lucy Calkins and Fountas and Pinnell. I cannot read 10-15 pages of her books each night for my lesson plans.
Who has ideas for mini-lessons or books that I can use to teach my children how to write personal narr. and imaginative writings?
The above books are very confusing and are going nowhere for my class.
Thanks for any help.

Sophie, Try the book, "The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever." This is by Barbara Mariconda (scholastic)
Also, type in what you are looking for on the internet. For Example: I typed in "Writing with a voice" There were many web sites for this that will help you. As a matter of fact, I found this site through searching. Ask your other 4th grade partners and lower grades to see what resources they are using. Sentence structure is very important and that mean conventions (punctuation, capitilization, subject/verb) There are web sites and resources that can help you. Almost forgot, go to dpi web site and they have lessons for 4th grade writing. I hope this helps

[mrshall]

Hi I have used this following link to help me organize myself for teaching the traits. I have shared it with many colleagues and it has be quite helpful.
I am reading the Tomie DePaola series 26 Fairmount Ave and the others. It is a narrative writing at its best.
Each chapter is about a clear moment in his life . The link below will tell you about a clear moment too.
I have used the analogy
Write about you summer vacation

Think about the summer vacation as a pizza pie

Write about all the things you did in the summer. One piece of pizza for each memory.

Now select one piece of pizza and write about that one moment, one day, one clear moment.

You must simplify it to make it the best writing.

You have mentioned great ideas. Do you know of any links that may help me get more info. about narrative writing?
Thanks for the tips...

I found that the website learnNC is a very resourceful tool for ALL areas of the Curriculum. I use this all the time and find it a good place from which to pull lessons. Just put in your search, LearnNC and it will come up.

[teacher4]

http://www.learnnc.org/

[angelangst]

My school in NC uses the empowering writers series. It has a writing diamond that the children can follow which is great for both types of narratives. Go to the empowering writers web site, they have a great teacher's manual with great mini lessons. It would be a bit hard to try to fit it all in now, we are just writing whole stories this week, but it would be great to put into place for next year.

When I taught fourth we did two formal personal narratives. One was stated above, the summer vacation. Another we did was a compare and contrast piece where writer compared himself/herself with a friend or family member. They always liked these, and if they're good in the computer lab they look nice typed. Parents loved these.

The Tommie DePaola was a good new reference for me. I have used Cynthia Rylant or Patricia Pollaco to model personal narratives.

Our school uses a combination of "empowering writers" and "write from the beginning." Using DPI requirements and these resources, we have developed a rubric for the kids to use. I supply my students with lists of synonyms, transition words, sound words, and many other helpful hints from those 2 writing sources as well as DPI training manuals. I read lots of books with "I" as the main character and get on DPI website and share those samples with them. Teach, then practice one section at a time:beginning, then middle, then ending. explain reflections or thinking back. I try to create prompts from reading and social studies and science. Also I often write while they are writing and share my stories. Good luck! March 4 is almost upon us!