Click on the following the read more:
- Week 1 – January 4
- Week 2 – January 11
- Week 3 – January 18
- Week 4 – January 25
- Week 5 – February 1
- Week 6 – February 8
- Week 7 – February 15
Week 1: January 4
SUMMARY: What are Pourquoi Tales? What is narrative writing? This week, we listened to a couple of examples and learned to “listen like an author” as we noticed literary elements (e.g., beginnings, endings, vocabulary, language formality) in the stories. We brainstormed different animals and their unique characteristics to begin thinking about our very own Pourquoi Tale.
Week 2: January 11
SUMMARY: This week, we reviewed that Pourquoi tales are creative narratives that tell us how/why things came to be. In Pourquoi Tales, the protagonist (otherwise known as the main character) has a “reversal” in a feature character trait. Typically, the protagonist starts off without its known trait and then through conflict, events (rising action), a climax, and a resolution at the end, ends up with the unique trait we know them for. For example, a Koala starts off with a long tail and then ends up with a stumpy tail.
Students shared some animals they brainstormed over the last week and the unique traits they want to “reverse” in their Pourquoi Tale. We then took some time to explore the elements of a plot. We viewed a video that pulled examples from Disney and Pixar movies, as well as used the universal tale of the Three Little Pigs to analyze the plot diagram.
RESOURCES:
- Pourquoi Tale: How the Whale Got His Throat
- Plot Diagram:
FOR NEXT WEEK (January 18): Brainstorm your characters and setting (the exposition), the conflict of the story, and some events that will occur as part of the rising action. You do not need to write the story! Just brainstorm some ideas.
Week 3: January 18
SUMMARY: Students broke off into breakout rooms today to share the ideas they brainstormed for their own Pourquoi Tale. After some peer discussion and feedback, we came back together as a group to make a checklist to keep in mind as we continue to add details and finalize our brainstorming. Today’s big focus was understanding how Pourquoi Tales follow the plot diagram, and identifying elements that must exist in Pourquoi Tales. For example, the “reversal” (where animals look differently than what we know them to look like) must be revealed at the beginning of the story and then changed back (to what we are familiar with) at the end of the climax. We talked about how this is usually as a consequence to their own actions (e.g., because they are lazy or greedy). We also discussed how there are “Great Beginnings” that introduce Pourquoi Tales as stories that happened a long time ago.
Week 4: January 25
SUMMARY: Students broke off into new breakout rooms today to continue sharing the ideas they brainstormed for their own Pourquoi Tale. Our writing focus this week was exploring the purpose of transition words and learning how to apply them to our writing.
FOR NEXT WEEK (February 1): Begin the rough draft of your Pourquoi Tale. In complete sentences, introduce the setting, characters, and the conflict of the story. Try to keep the introduction short and simple with no more than 2-3 paragraphs. Feel free to continue writing (past the conflict and onto the rising action) if you want to!
Pourquoi Tale of the Week:
Week 5: February 1
SUMMARY: Students learned about making good word choices to make their writing more descriptive. We learned about the acronym “FAAVS” to help them with this.
For next week:
- Work on finishing your rough draft.
- Revising your rough draft (while keeping in FAAVs and COPS (capitalization, organization, punctuation, spelling).
Million Dollar Sentences:
- Figurative Language
- Adjectives that sparkle
- Adverbs that shine
- Verbs that strengthen
- Sense words that sizzle
Types of Figurative Language (including a definition, example, and videos)
List of idioms – https://examples.yourdictionary.com/idioms-for-kids.html
Adjectives
Adverbs