1. Write a Story

2. Ursa Major Practice Companion p. 176

3. Elements of a Story Setting Character Plot
When and where your story takes place
Character
The people or animals that do and say things in the story
Plot
Has a beginning, a middle, and an end in which the characters face problems and find solutions

4. Characteristics of Stories
A good story…
is made up by the writer.
has characters that are people or animals.
includes a problem that the character must solve.
has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
tells events in the order they happened.
has a setting that tells where and when the story occurs.

5. Story Map Setting Characters Jenny Sonja, her friend Time: Night
Place: Planetarium
Problem
Plot/Events
Sonja doesn’t want to go, but Jenny wants her to enjoy the trip.
Jenny convinces Sonja to go, and so on…
Resolution
Sonja is amazed by what she sees at the planetarium and is thankful that Jenny convinced her to go.

6. Prewriting What is the purpose of your story? Who is your audience?
Record your ideas in your notebook.
Your topic should match your purpose and audience.

7. Choose a Topic Good or poor story topic?
Our classroom pet escapes from its cage.
Our classroom pet sleeps in the sun.
Our science teacher helps our soccer team to play better.
Our science teacher is washing the whiteboards.
Our dog runs away when we are on vacation.

8. Generating Ideas Clustering is one way to come up with ideas.
Clustering is like brainstorming.
It is a type of prewriting that allows the writer to explore many ideas as soon as they occur to them.
Let’s try one together.

9. Organizing Ideas Use a Story Map to help organize your ideas.
This will help you collect and organize your information.
Use your Story Map to tell your story to a partner. This will help you decide if you need to change anything.
You can use the information on your Story Map to help draft your story.

10. Drafting
Remember that every story has a beginning, middle, and an end.
The events in the story are easy to follow in a sequence that makes sense to the reader.
Use time-order words like first, next, then, etc. to help your reader follow the sequence of the story

11. Characters
Developing a strong main character will help your reader relate to your story.
Characters that seem real help readers care about them.
Your character should be special, memorable, and your reader should care about them.

12. Character Traits
You should tell your reader as much as you can about your characters:
What they do and say
What they think
What others think about them

13. Character Traits
Use strong action words that tell how the character acts
Instead of walked, use rushed
Be descriptive
Use the thesaurus
Use dialogue so your readers know what the character says and thinks
Use descriptive language

14. Vary Sentence Types
Writers use different kinds of sentences in their writing to capture and hold the reader’s attention.
Use all four sentence types – declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative
Using different kinds of sentences makes the writing flow more smoothly

15. Vary Sentence Length
A good piece of writing has a balance of longer and shorter sentences.
Arrange the sentences in a way that lets the language flow smoothly and naturally.

16. Revising/Peer Review The writer shares his or her work.
The reviewer tells what he or she liked about the work.
Next, the reviewer asks questions about the work.
Then the reviewer makes suggestions for changes.
The writer makes notes of the reviewers comments.
The partners switch roles and the process starts over.

17. Author’s Chair What did you find interesting or exciting?
What questions do you have about what you have heard?
What did you like? Why did you like it?

18. Editing Use the Editing Checklist to help you edit your story.
Remember to reread your story several times and look for one type of error each time you read.
Use proofreading marks to record your errors and changes.

19. Editing Checklist Organization
Does my story have a beginning, middle, and end?
Does it make sense?

20. Editing Checklist Ideas Is my story interesting?
Is there a problem to be solved?

21. Editing Checklist Voice
Can the reader tell I am interested in my story?
Does my story sound natural?

22. Editing Checklist Word Choice
Did I use descriptive language in my story?
Did I use strong nouns and verbs?

23. Editing Checklist Sentence Fluency
Do my sentences lead from one sentence to the next?
Are some sentences long and some are short?

24. Editing Checklist Conventions Did I spell all the words correctly?
Are all plural nouns used correctly?
Did I use possessive nouns in the right way?

25. Publish Final Draft
Review the Evaluation Rubric (Practice Companion p. 177)
Read each area carefully to evaluate how well you did.
Experienced writers go back many times to revise and edit their work.
Include any visuals you have prepared to help your reader understand your text.

26. Present Final Draft/Author’s Chair
What did you find interesting about the story we just heard?
What questions do you have?
What did you like about the story and why did you like it?