In December, the students of Division 6 visited their buddies in Division 18. On this visit, their job was to learn about their buddy so that they could use that information to make their buddy the protagonist in a fictional story.
The process was as follows:
- Interview buddies
- Study picture books (form and structure)
- Brainstorm themes, characters and settings
- Create 3 possible story arcs
- Peer feedback session to determine which of the 3 story arcs meet the criteria and are interesting to our peers
- Work on writing effective introductions
- Work on developing the story and/or character
- Work on resolving and concluding our stories
- Take first drafts of stories to our buddies
- Use feedback from buddies to refine our stories
- Final peer assessment
- Final drafts
- Take completed stories to buddies so that we can co-create artwork for our picture books.
It’s a long process, but taking the time to listen to and provide feedback, as well as refining our work based on that feedback is an important part of the writing process.