This month, CRWP teacher consultant and leadership team member Lyndsay Young (@Lyndsay01363908) presented her “Choose Your Own Adventure” writing activity, designed for Google Slides, in our December webinar. Lyndsay is an elementary educator from North Branch Area Schools, and an expert at integrating digital literacies into her ELA curriculum.
She began with her contentions about the teaching of writing, which include the necessity of authentic texts, student choice and inquiry, and opportunities to write in multiple genres. Then, she walked through how she might introduce the unit to students, giving the chance to experience “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories from two options: a zombie apocalypse story or a storm chaser’s story.
By using carefully planned scaffolding, she guided participants through several lessons and activities to demonstrate how she has students brainstorm, research, and ultimately begin to draft their own choice adventure story which incorporates informational writing with an animal native to Michigan. She also discusses the importance of not simply giving students questions to research, but having them figure those questions out for themselves. Lynsday also utilized Pear Deck with her own Google Slides to make the presentation more interactive, suggesting that tool as both in-person and virtual teaching options.
Here is the link to Lynsday’s presentation and session recording, as well as her “Mini Choose Your Own Adventure Planner” Google Doc.
The Chippewa River Writing Project is a site of the National Writing Project at Central Michigan University. Currently, our site is supported only through grants and professional development work. Teacher consultants involved in the webinar series are donating their time, talent, and energy to these events.
If you appreciate the ideas that these teacher consultants are sharing, and are willing to support our work, please visit <giving.cmich.edu> and select “Chippewa River Writing Project.” If you are interested in having us work with your school or district, please contact our Director, Dr. Troy Hicks <troy.hicks@cmich.edu>. Find out more about CRWP at <chippewariverwp.org>.
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