End of Year Project-Part 3

As our newcomers' course comes to an end, I began thinking of ways to make time and space for students to demonstrate their full potential. One way students, regardless of their English proficiency, can be by creating something to demonstrate their ability to put together all the skills and elements we've learned for several weeks. 
When I think about students creating something, the first resource & platform that comes to mind is WriteReader. 
I've used WriteReader for years. I've used it with elementary students and now with high school students. It's a student-friendly platform and easy to use for teachers. Once you create your teacher account, you add students to your class list. 
So, as a culminating course project, my newcomers were to write their own mystery/suspense story after reading a couple of  stories from Saddleback - To read about the lessons that lead to this final project. You can read blog post #1 HERE and blog post #2 HERE. 

Lesson #3 - End-of-Course Project

The idea for this project was to provide an opportunity for students to show understanding of the story elements we had learned over several lessons. Elements such as characters, settings, problems, solutions, character development, and plot.
These elements may seem like a simple list for students to learn, but the key here is to use the elements in English. To be able to understand and respond using the English language.

I didn't want to overwhelm my students with so many instructions and/or rubrics for this project; though I believe a rubric would've been great to hold them accountable with all the required elements. Instead, I gave students a list of elements to include in their story. All the elements listed were items we had analyzed in previously read stories, so I knew they would have not struggled to understand and following the list. 

Click HERE for a copy of the elements checklist for students' story

Click image to open your own copy

Each student received a copy of the checklist to use as self-check for what they needed to include in their story.  
I showed students my own suspense story and highlighted every element in the checklist. Because the platform is student-friendly, it didn't take long to show them and explain how to create their book. 
Several students shared their excitement to invent their own stories. Some talked about writing a suspense story based on a personal event. I thought this idea was fantastic. Using funds of knowledge is a great thing in our classrooms. It's just what we want our students to do - to use background and personal experiences to demonstrate their full potential.  

Publishing Our Stories: 
It didn't take long for students to begin writing their stories. I even had a student complete her story in 24 hours!
The day our project was due, I read aloud each story. As I finished reading each of their stories, I complimented them and praised them for their hard work. We went through each student's checklist to ensure they had all the required elements.

It was so much fun reading their stories.

​If you'd like to read their mystery/suspense stories, please do so and share your thoughts. 

Yocnaly's story: Amelia's Last Night 
Yaquelin: What's Behind that Door
Abi: The Cabin 
Citlali: What's in that Room 
​Guadalupe: What Happened to Everyone 
Luis: The Mysterious Parota
Dixon: Mente
Yousef: Missing Money
Samantha: Abigail's Reality
Leslie: Mikey's Graduation 
​Athalia: Fear in the Dream 

Students were encouraged to use an electronic translator or write in their home language. As I read each story, I provided feedback edit ideas.  All students published their work in English. I even had a couple of students whose stories were so long - They shared with me how excited they were about publishing their own stories and that once they started writing, they couldn't stop.

It was amazing to see how into writing they all were. Even my virtual students were super engaged!

I appreciate platforms like WriteReader that allow students to discover their love for reading and writing.
I also love having books like Saddleback books that not only helped developed my students' reading skills.

Have you used any of these resources? If so, share with me how you've used it. I'd love to add tools to my toolbox.

I cannot wait to show these books to my students next school year. I'm so proud of their hard work.


Thank you for reading!