One of our school-wide goals at Blair is helping students to develop and extend their ideas for writing.
Over the last few weeks, the primary students at Blair have been writing their own Pete the Cat stories. The students started with a character (Pete) and style of writing that they were familiar with from the books and then added their own touches and adventures for Pete to have. Some of our students told their stories in pictures while the more experienced writers often chose to make their own little Pete the Cat books.
What was being assessed for these writing tasks was for the student to come up with an idea and develop it in his or her story. We didn't go back and proofread the writing for spelling, punctuation or grammar errors for these stories in order to keep the focus on the students' ideas.
Some of Division 11's Pete stories:
The Kindergarten students drew their stories and then Mrs. Grisdale and I asked the students to "tell" us their stories and we wrote their words down on the back of their drawings.
Some of Division 10's Pete stories:
The Kindergarten and Grade 1 students in division 10 told their Pete the Cat stories in a variety of ways. Some stories were a series of pictures and others were little books with some words included to help tell the story. Some of the students played with the language from the Pete the Cat books in their own stories.
Some of Division 9's Pete stories:
Can you find Pete the Cat in this picture? (He's heading out into space in a rocket!)
This student included a little preview on the back of her book to get the readers of her book
thinking about what it might be about!
These grade 1 and 2 students from division 9 told their stories in drawings with captions and in little folded books.
Some of Division 8's Pete stories:
In this class, many of the students told their Pete stories by using a map!
Many of the more experienced writers in this class of grades 1 and 2 chose to create a book cover for their story and then focused mostly on telling the story with words.
Some of Division 7's Pete stories:
The grades 2 and 3 students of division 7 had fun playing with the language from the Pete books. The students' personalities, interests and sense of humour really came through in their own Pete the Cat stories. The students also demonstrated a strong sense of story development and flow.
Some of Division 6's Pete stories:
The grades 2 and 3 students of division 6 told their Pete the Cat stories in lots of different ways - drawings with text, mini-books and comic strips.
~Ms Novakowski
