52 W.O.P. & Pinspired: Week 4 - Author's Purpose Writing

I'm doubling up here today folks!  Not only am I going to tell you about my 4th week in the 52 weeks of Pinterest, I'm also linking up with Learning in Wonderland's Pinspired Linky.  Might as well get two birds with one stone!  This week we are finishing up our Author's Purpose and Perspective unit and I wanted to end with a fun twist!  I saw this lesson on Pinterest (obviously) and loved the idea!  I tweaked it a little bit to fit the older students but it worked out just great and I got to make a big fish to decorate our hallway, so all is well :o).

After two weeks of studying author's purpose in every form of media we could find, and I mean every form, I wanted to have the students write their own author's purpose.  I started off by walking around and telling students they were going to pick a letter out of the bag and hold it.  Don't ask any questions and you can't trade.  I didn't say anything the whole time I was walking around but by the time everyone got a letter they were starting to catch on.  Once everyone had a letter I asked them what they thought those letters represented.  All hands went up and they knew it was PIE: Persuade, Inform, Entertain (so proud!).  Next, I told them I was going to give them a mystery object and they would become the author and write about the purpose that they chose for that mystery object.  Needless to say they got VERY excited waiting to find out what they had to write about.

At this point in the year my kids know that I LOVE enjoy food and love like incorporating food into our lessons, but bless their little hearts they still act surprised for me when I pull out the mystery object = goldfish!  I go on to tell them that I want creative, inventive, surprising, fifth grade stories and essays.  Some asked what they write about and I said, "Whatever you want.  As long as it has the mystery object and it fits your purpose."

These are some of the best papers I've ever had turned in to me!  I had some students try to persuade you NOT to eat the goldfish because they were unhealthy for you (that didn't stop me though, lol) and some leaning the other way.  A boy trying to persuade a girl to switch his snack pack for her goldfish at lunch.  The stories ranged from goldfish trying to escape the bag to goldfish in the ocean.  For informative, kids used the information on the bag, commercials they had seen, their website and more!  I was beyond impressed and they loved it, it was evident in their writing.  I also got to make a sweet gold fish for outside our classroom to display their work.  Meet Gold E. Fish!

This activity was definitely worth it!  The kids loved it and I loved what they produced.  It was a wonderful way for my kids to really apply their author's purpose skills outside of reading comprehension passages.  Happy pinning!

Sabra