Today is the day for writing!! When students enter today, our first step is to create a rubric by which their writing will be graded. I really want students to examine the leadership qualities in the people we've studied as well as in themselves to help them understand that they too possess characteristics that will allow them to be a leader in their world.
So, we quickly write the rubric. I type it on the computer so we can just print out the number of copies we need and they get quickly to work.
Once the rubric is made, I instruct the students to use their own T chart, the T chart we did with MLK and Gandhi, the chart we've created together about leaders, and the chart we've created together about characteristics to create this paragraph investigating the qualities necessary to be a good leader.
And they begin to work while I facilitate answering questions about sentence structure, spelling and punctuation. I can't wait to read these and see the characteristics my students think they have and what they need to work on.
I must make sure to leave enough time here to share, so I stop my writers and begin the wrap up process. I ask for volunteers to read their paragraphs in front of the class. It is amazing the amount of energy they put into synthesizing the information from all the people- including themselves into this!! I've never been more excited about a writing assignment!!
I collect the papers and send my little leaders onto lunch!!