1. Writing Partners Fifth grade is a new year and the expectations are higher. You are expected to do more as writers and you are expected to do more as writing partners. I read an article once that talked about people’s ability to change their bad, unhealthy habits. The doctors found (and this is a little shocking) that no matter how much people wanted to change bad habits, they usually failed. But here’s the thing, they didn’t fail if they had a support group, partners with the same goal. Your partner will be your support group.

2. Today I want to teach you that when you write personal narratives, it’s important to put yourself inside the skin of the main character(the character is the writer, of course, just in a different time and place), and then tell the story through that person’s eyes, exactly the way he or she experienced it.

3. The term that people use for telling a story through a narrator’s eyes is called point of view. So writer’s, today, think of the entry you will be writing today and think specifically how it will start. Remember that before you can write, you need to put yourself inside the skin of the person in the story, in that place. Think, where exactly, am I? What, exactly am I saying and doing? Be detailed. You are not going to the airport. You are unbuckling your seatbelt and hurrying to get out of the car with your luggage.

4. The best way to produce details that ring true is for the writers to dream the dream of the story, imagining and recalling all that happened in sequence with which it happened. Sensory details only work in a story when they are the details that a character (that’s you) really, truly notices in the moment of the story

5. Compare these two examples: Example 1- I walked up the walk and inside the front door. I had a snack. Then I went to bed. Example 2- I flung open the iron gate and threw myself through the front door. “I’m home!” I yelled. Then I remembered that it was Tuesday, the day my mom was at work. I stood in the hall, trying to catch my breath, and as always I began to feel small. I didn’t like being home alone in this big house.