Picture this: a classroom of fourth graders, hard at work, bent over Chromebooks, busily writing. An excited hum pervades as children exchange ideas, read pieces of their work to each other, and ask to try out bits of dialogue on each other. This is my classroom, hard at work on their end of the year historical fiction journals. They are able to use this tool to comment on each other's work, thereby strengthening both their own and their classmates' writing.
Creating a historical fiction journal is hard work, and I have found that using a chrome book to write helps my students to revise, edit, and share their work. Fourth grade is all about New York City history in my classroom. We engage in our study through reading, trips, learning from visiting experts, building models, role-playing and finally, through writing. Learning about historical events is grounded in a deep study of the lives of the various peoples who lived in and around New York. The study then goes on to examine the interactions between these different groups of people and the impact they had on each other. In the last few months of the school year, students use all they have learned in reading, writing, and social studies to create an original character who might actually have lived in or around New Amsterdam in the 1600s. They incorporate historically accurate details, dialogue, and information to write a series of letters which tell a simple story that teaches about the time period. The use of a chrome book to complete this project greatly enhances student's ability to organize, revise, and edit their work.
About my class
Picture this: a classroom of fourth graders, hard at work, bent over Chromebooks, busily writing. An excited hum pervades as children exchange ideas, read pieces of their work to each other, and ask to try out bits of dialogue on each other. This is my classroom, hard at work on their end of the year historical fiction journals. They are able to use this tool to comment on each other's work, thereby strengthening both their own and their classmates' writing.
Creating a historical fiction journal is hard work, and I have found that using a chrome book to write helps my students to revise, edit, and share their work. Fourth grade is all about New York City history in my classroom. We engage in our study through reading, trips, learning from visiting experts, building models, role-playing and finally, through writing. Learning about historical events is grounded in a deep study of the lives of the various peoples who lived in and around New York. The study then goes on to examine the interactions between these different groups of people and the impact they had on each other. In the last few months of the school year, students use all they have learned in reading, writing, and social studies to create an original character who might actually have lived in or around New Amsterdam in the 1600s. They incorporate historically accurate details, dialogue, and information to write a series of letters which tell a simple story that teaches about the time period. The use of a chrome book to complete this project greatly enhances student's ability to organize, revise, and edit their work.
Read more