At the end of the dock

Sometimes when you are in school it is hard to think of something to write about.

Shuswap Middle School Grade 7 teacher Chelsea Verney and Jenna Schmidt, who is in her final practicum as a student teacher and who is working with Verney, gave their students a “conversation starter” to help with a recent assignment. They posted a photo of a person at the end of the dock and asked them to write, in as much detail and description as they could, about that.

Here are some of the results:

To read the stories above please click on photo

Verney explains the assignment is part of a memoir writing unit. The first step is to be able to write, in great detail, about a single moment in time, so that students learn to write with their senses and so that the reader feels as though they are actually present in what they are reading.

She says that’s where the dock/sunset photo comes in. “Some of my students were struggling to write about a single moment.” She commented they did a good job on the dock writing exercise and now, the memoirs the students are writing are much more detailed and powerful. 

Many parents may not be aware that SD83 uses the B.C. Performance Standards to assess student learning. For more information check out the B.C. Performance Standards here or the Grade 7 performance standards here.