~ An Interactive Story Project ~ Adventures in Writing

~ About the Project ~ This Internet project is out of Canada and has twenty registered participating classes from Western Canada as well as classes from across the United States and one class even from Israel! Here's how this collaborative story writing project works: Alberta author, Carol Vaage, has written a story starter using her main character, Bibi, from Bibi and the Bull, which will be sent to two classes to initiate the beginning part of the interactive stories. The story beginnings will be setting the stage for the rest of the groups who will be writing middles and endings for their respective threads. Carol Vaage will also be contacting each teacher to participate in a brainstorming activity which will assist students as they work through the development of their part of the story. As well as a wonderful author, Carol is also a grade one teacher! We have been assigned the ending of our story! Here is some advice I received from the author: For ideas for the endings, you might start to look at the books you're reading to the class (or they're reading on their own) and start to note the types of endings that real authors use - eg solved the problem on their own, had help from someone, etc. If you chart those, you'll begin to see that there are not that many original endings, just theme endings that are specific to the story. Eg. helped by a cowboy, etc. Click here to read our ending, along with the entire story from our strand. Here is a message we received from author Carol Vaage about our work: Dear Grade 2's, I just finished reading your story ending, and you made me laugh with your ending. It was really good thinking to have them keep the horse on Grandpa's farm! And then you even remembered to include the bull... good joke, grade 2's! I especially like how you had Bibi's small fingers discover embedded thorns. This tells me two things - that you know children are capable of doing huge things that matter a lot, and that from a child's perspective, we can discover new things. This is a powerful message to include in a story! Every author tries to send an underlying message to the audience, and you have done it perfectly. What a success! Congratulations! Keep writing! Carol Vaage

~ Links to Learning ~ Adventures in Writing ~ Project Page Learn all about the project here. Story Gallery on the Adventures in Writing Website Read all the various versions of Bibi at the Horse Ranch To follow ours, choose B, then B2, then B2b, but be sure to check them all out! Carol Vaage ~ Author Learn about this great author who is also a first grade teacher! Six Trait Writing Links 6-Trait Writing Excellent and clear explanation and examples Six-Trait Assessment for Beginning Writers Making Six Trait Writing Fun Using Picture Books to Teach Narrative and Six Trait Writing Six Traits Writing A number of excellent links about the subject Six-Trait Writing ~ Course Materials Collaborative Writing in KidForum To our class website Window to Our World Background by Cute Colors Images by Graphic Garden