Aloha Friday!

100 Word Challenge: Finishing Touches  Before we publish this week's 100 Word Challenge, take another moment to carefully review your writing. Does your story flow naturally from beginning to end? Do you use descriptive words and sensory details? Do you skillfully incorporate dialogue? Do you carefully review your spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar? Do you make sure your verb tenses are consistent and that you have employed correct and varied sentence structures? Please make sure your piece of writing is good as it can be.

100 Word Challenge: Publishing Now it's publishing time! Copy your story from your Google Doc and then login to Kidblog. Make a new post. Give your story an appropriate title. Paste your story. Consider adding a picture. Finally, click 'Publish' and copy the link to your published story. Make sure, however, that when you publish that you make your post "Public," so people around the world can read your story. 

Now it's time to share your story with the 100 Word Challenge. In order to login, I will provide you a working Username and Password. Next, fill out the form similar to the one below, making sure to include the link to your Kidblog story. Click 'Submit' when you're done. Congratulations! You are now an internationally published writer!

Once you have published your story, you are welcome to comment on other stories. Your comments, however, should be respectful, specific, and helpful. If you liked something about someone's writing, explain what specific aspect of their writing you appreciated. For example: I loved your use of descriptive details! If you have a tip about how a student could improve their writing, make sure to share in a way that is helpful and not hurtful. For example: I really liked your story, but I thought you could have used a few more sensory details.

Author's Chair  I would like to invite those of you who are interested to read your stories to the class today. You may want to practice a few read-throughs before you read aloud from the front of the room. Please pay attention to intonation (by making sure your tone changes to match what is being read), phrasing (by reading smoothly and using punctuation to tell you when to stop, pause or emphasize), and expression (by using your voice to express the feeling of what is being read).  

It takes a lot of courage to get in front of a group of people. During a reading, the audience should remain attentive and respectful, and afterwards should try to offer positive and constructive feedback. (Some "response stems" for feedback can be found below.) 

Kahoot! Activity: Sentence Variety Review  Over the past several weeks we have been focused on what a complete sentence looks like, including simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences, as well as how to avoid fragments and run-ons. Today, let's also use Kahoot! to practice understanding sentence variety in order to prepare for a quiz you will have next week.