Well, it's the end of week two already and I have neglected to update this blog in the crazy rush to get NaNoWriMo 2010 rolling!
We spent two weeks in October prewriting, which went much more smoothly than last year. My eighth graders consistently griped and complained. We have to do this again?! Once we hit November first, the eighth graders were off and running, with double and triple their goals from last year, keeping pace without a problem.
My sevies are struggling a little more than my students did last year. I've started individual writing conferences and here's the problem: they are worrying way too much about their stories! Rather than writing a lot of nonsense, which is what last year's sevies did, this year's sevies are much more concerned about plot (as well as spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) Little by little, we're working them out of the worry. It helps a ton that I have an assistant and a student teacher as well as thirty or so volunteers. Oh, and a lot of Halloween candy! Daily wordcount challenges and Word Wars competitions for candy are boosting those wordcounts. We're entering the second half of NaNoWriMo slightly behind in our wordcounts (me included), but we're gaining momentum and excited for the upcoming week.
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