Writers' Workshop in the computer lab

Making our story maps was fun because we were learning how to write stories. - Dasia

My story map was fun because I got to write about the story that I wanted to pick, called The House on Maple Street. - Dylan

We had to talk about our characters, like describe them if they had glasses. After we were done, we got to print the story maps. - Lexi

The story map was good because we got our first choices of what story we wanted. - Braylin

Our story maps had a button on the screen where you click on it and it goes to settings, character, and the conflict, and the resolution. When we get to write our guys, we get to make names for them and we get to write how they solve the problem, and how they act, and how other people act around them. - Cam H.

After choosing which one of the amazing pictures from Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick they wanted to base their stories around, I brought the students into the computer lab, so they could begin using the interactive story mapping tool (which I wrote about a few days ago - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/storymap/) to create the 'bones' of their tales. We didn't get finished today, but the students worked hard, and I was very impressed by some of the ideas they were coming up with. Coming up with the structure of a piece of fiction can be difficult for some students (often times, they find it easier to write about the experiences in their lives), but it was exciting to see them follow the prompts from the planner to create their characters, the setting, a conflict, and a resolution. I'm looking forward to seeing what our own 'Van Allsburgs' come up with!