Writing Checkpoint 1: Memoir Rough Draft

On Friday, you turned in the rough drafts of the memoirs about your favorite recipes.  After reading through them, it looks like we still need to work on adding in details.  We need to focus on showing the reader what the moment was like, rather than telling.  We will continue to work on that this week.  Lots of positive things are happening during our workshop time as our routines take shape and we begin to understand the writing process.

We are proud of the way you have embraced the idea of making your ideas better through the writing of several drafts.  Many students began to notice that their rough draft was looking like a "sloppy copy" by the end of the week, as we continued to add more and more detail.  We also did a check to see if we were following the rules of writing (i.e. using appropriate capitalization and punctuation).  In many situations, being sloppy is a bad thing.  The messier your room is, the more unhappy your parents will become.  But in writing, having a "sloppy copy," like the example pictured, is a good thing.  It means you're thinking about how you can make your writing better, more clear, more detailed, and more grammatically correct.



Some of us can make changes to our writing and update our "sloppy copies" all on our own, but most writers need feedback.  We learned how to get feedback from peer partners by E.E.K.K.-ing!!!  Have you told your family about your eye-to-eye, knee-to-knee peer conference?  Have you thought about the compliment and suggestion your partner gave you?  Do you agree with their feedback?  Why or why not?  Check out these students getting feedback.

We will give your notebooks back tomorrow in class, and we are excited to spend this week adding more details.  However, we will also be moving on to two new concepts:  Engaging Beginnings and Reflective Closings.  We look forward to seeing your second drafts improve after these lessons.  Keep that rubric we discussed in class last week close by your side, and you will have no problem meeting the expectations for this first writing assignment.  In case you like to keep your rubric at school, here's a copy you can view at home.

Name__________________________     #_________  Score:______

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Nonfiction Narrative/Memoir Rubric

Narrative Element	Description of Narrative Element	Self Assessment	Peer Assessment	Teacher Assessment
Title & Focus	Related title is used and recipe is mentioned
Engaging Beginning	Characters and setting have been introduced in an engaging manner
Story Structure & Sequence of Events	Beginning, Middle, and End that follows a chronological sequence of events
Details	True, exact details are used to create a picture in the mind of the reader
Closing	Ending wraps it up and reflects on lesson learned using an engaging format
Editing: C.U.P.S. & Paragraph Form	Corrections have been made to a 3rd grade standard in capitalization, awkward wording, punctuation, spelling, and paragraph form

Author’s Comments: 

I am proud of__________________________________________________

I need to work on_______________________________________________

You won't be expected to meet all the elements of this rubric until we turn in the final draft in a few weeks, but at this point you should be thinking about each element as it's introduced in class.  So far, we have discussed the use of details in a recipe related story that follows chronological order.  The story should include a lesson of some kind, and it should be a true story from your life.  One student was brave enough to share her rough draft as an example of someone who is meeting the guidelines thus far.  How does your story compare?  We can't wait to see her final draft, as her story continues to grow and change!