Sixth Grade Publishing Party

Sixth graders held their first “Publishing Party” of the year, focusing on personal narratives. Parents were a great audience as they visited small groups of student writers, where each student read aloud two of their best stories.

 

During the writing process, students learned many strategies to make their true stories meaningful and engaging to their audience. The goal was to powerfully present the narrator’s point of view by using exact words in dialogue, including precise details to describe the action.

 

One technique used, to bring out the heart of the story, was to constantly ask, “What is my story really about?” Students kept revising their stories to make them more engaging and meaningful.

 

Another technique used helped students track both external and internal events. They created story arcs of the main events of their story to show during any given event what the main character was thinking and how he/she was feeling.

 

Students elaborated on important scenes by zooming in and zooming out of the main story through the use of flashbacks and flashforwards. Flashbacks look back on earlier events to bring out their importance to what is happening currently. And flash-forwards look to the future when meaningful lessons are realized.

 

Another tool used, which helps build tension, was slowing down a scene, telling the story bit by bit. By building tension, writers were able to reveal their deeper meaning, and this strategy made their piece much stronger.