Hello! I am starting a new position this year. I will be working with the most reluctant readers/writers in grades 7-9. My task is first and foremost to create a passion for reading and writing in these students - though, I suspect my administrators will be happy if I am able to inspire less apathy within my students. One idea I would like to try is to create an Exquisite Corpse. However, I am concerned that if I do this only with my students, it will not be as successful as I think it could be. This is where I need :help:. My idea is to find a class (or two, or ten even) to use as writing partners. I think the easiest way to arrange it would be to alternate chapters - One of my students would write the first chapter (to be completed by a set date), then I could send you that chapter which you would pass on to one of your students. Your student would then write the second chapter (to be completed by a set date), which would be sent back to me. I would pass ONLY the second chapter to a new student, who would write the 3rd chapter by the due date. Then, you would give ONLY the third chapter to a new student, and so on, and so on. Ideally, a partner class would be in a similar range (7th-9th grades) but I am more than willing to partner with a class a year or two in either direction - which is why I am posting this in gen. ed. and not specifically secondary. If you are interested or have questions, please reply to this or PM me.
I'm intrigued. So the student who is writing would only have access to the chapter immediately preceding the one they are to write, not anything earlier? I know that some of my students would be interested in this--we don't start school until after Labour Day though.
That's right. Only the previous chapter - or another option would be to have the 1st chapter be teacher written and lay all the groundwork so that things would be cohesive from chapter to chapter and then let all students read chapter one and the previous chapter - so the chapter 10 writer would read chapters 1 and 9. Start date isn't an issue - I am willing to work around almost any obstacle in order to get a partner class. If you go to the library of congress website, they have an exquisite corpse with 22 or 23 chapters so far and authors like Jon Sciezka, Gregory Maguire, Lemony Snickett, Kate DiCamillo, and Katherine Paterson. My 13 year old son, who hates all things school related right now, wanted to know if he could transfer into my class when I told him about this project!!!
Thanks for the link; I'm going to read tomorrow. I need to sleep on it, but think that I would be interested. (My class last year would have been "all over" this--they loved to write!)
That is a pretty interesting idea. I wonder if it'd be beneficial in my fifth grade classroom. Thanks for the link.
MissNikki I'm interested. We are 5th grade. MizAich..are we too young to work with your class? I have some fantastic writers in this year's class.
I have three sections of fifth grade and am not sure how the pen pal aspect of this would be beneficial. I have to think about this. It's an intriguing idea.
MissNikki - This is definitely something that you would be able to do in your own classroom. My thinking behind having penpals is that if we are writing with another class, or even two other classes, the students wouldn't be able to do much comparing from one chapter to the next since we would only be writing one portion of the story. WindyCityGal - if you are interested, but would rather be with your own age group (and don't find a group here to exchange chapters with) I have some local 5th grade teachers who would probably like to partner with other classes. Let me know and I will start making some calls.
I've been reading this today--it's interesting to see the very differing styles of the authors. I know that my students will really enjoy being involved in this kind of project.
I will be teaching 8th grade English this year (first time for me). This project really intrigues me. I would be interested. I'll have to find time to go to read the sample from your link.
