The fifth graders are writing fiction! We started this unit by reading some short stories with a similar narrative arc. We analyzed how each author started the story, presented the problem, narrated several failed attempts to solve the problem, and how a solution was finally found. We took a close look at Marc Brown’s “Arthur Babysits,” which is about a difficult babysitting job. In the story, Arthur tries to implement 3 different strategies for calming two rambunctious twins. Only on the last attempt was he successful.
Today, we brainstormed as a class different pieces of advice he could have received in the book, and how implementing that advice could have gone wrong (like it did in the story). Then, after reviewing the formatting rules for writing dialogue, the students wrote their own pieces based on those ideas. The goal was to write a piece that could be inserted into the middle of the book. They were amazing! And super funny! The students did a wonderful job writing pieces that sounded like they could have been part of the book!
