Show, Don't Tell & Vocabulary Organizer

This morning in Writer's Workshop students learned the importance of "Show, Don't Tell!"  First I presented a couple of examples of how published authors "show" a character's emotion or describe a scene without telling:

"The boy was nervous" is plain. "Sweat trickled down the boy's face. His stomach tightened into a hard knot." (from Keeper of the Swamp by Ann Garrett) is much more interesting.

"She is old." Is ordinary. "She is hunched over, crunched up, bent, like an empty soda can" (from Girl Coming in for a Landing) is more interesting.

"She was sad" is boring. "…a misty grayness crept inside her and would not go away." (from Loud Emily, by Alexis O'Neill) is infinitely more interesting!

Then students were to try showing one of the following emotions by writing a paragraph in their notebooks.

 Next, students picked a green slip of paper with an emotion written on it.  They taped the paper into their notebooks and wrote a scene showing the emotion.  Tomorrow they will finish writing a final copy of this paragraph as well as drawing and coloring a picture that also shows the emotion!

Students paired up with a spelling buddy to practice their word sorts and quiz each other on their five Words to Learn words. 

In Reader's Workshop, I modeled how to complete a Vocabulary Organizer in order to write a summary.   Soon students will be reading nonfiction texts, completing the organizer, and writing a summary.