#2692. Teaching Logical Order in Writing

Reading/Writing, level: Middle
Posted Fri Sep 20 04:11:06 PDT 2002 by Debbie Keller (dekell@rfsd.k12.wi.us).
Meyer Middle School, River Falls, WI USA
Materials Required: paper, pens or pencils
Activity Time: 40 minutes
Concepts Taught: organizing writing into logical order

When studying organization in writing, we discuss logical order. Every student has blank piece of paper and something with which to write. Teacher puts sentence on board: "All of a sudden, the principal's voice boomed over the intercom." Students copy sentence and add one more that makes sense logically. Students pass notebook to next student, and that student adds sentence that is in logical order. And so on and so on until time is up. At end of class, student gets original notebook back and adds one paragraph telling whether or not his/her story is in good logical order. Good culminating activity for this concept. Eighth graders loved it! Hilarious stories emerged.