#1538. Imaginary Essay

Reading/Writing, level: all
Posted Sat Jan 29 09:29:11 PST 2000 by Eli (lbbirky@dpc.net).

This lesson is for those teachers who need to ignite a flame for those students who do not like to write.
Have each child place an idea for a free writing topic in a canister.
For example, "What it is like to live on Mars,"
"I opened the door and...," "Don't drink that! It's..."
Each week I have one student pull a topic out of the jar. We talk about the title and good writing habits,
like brainstorming, prewriting, and revising. They have one week to write an essay on the given topic.
I have a rubric that I grade each essay by. The top 5 essays are anonymously read to the class and voted on.
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners are placed on a bulletin board and given a token for a free essay day.
My fourth graders really love the idea that they get to pick the titles of the essays and it gives them a start
to writing.