SOLSC Classroom Challenge

Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 5 of 31

Anna Gratz Cockerille

Slice of Life_classroom image Black

Welcome to Day 5! We at Two Writing Teachers are in awe of the level and variety of student writing that is coming our way via the Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge. There are students posting from all over the globe, from first grade through high school, and from many different backgrounds and cultures. One thing I noticed as I’ve been reading is the variety of formats students are using to share their Slices. Of course, a Slice of Life Story is at its heart a story, not information piece, like an article or a report. But some students are choosing different ways to structure their Slices.

Take, for example, this student’s Slice, which has an essay structure:

http://barshadullah20.blogspot.com/2014/03/sol4-do-over-moment-of-my-life.html

The Slice is about a do-over moment in the student’s life. The student would like to play the alto saxophone instead of the trumpet. The Slice tells why by listing what is essentially a thesis and reasons.

And check out this stunning Slice of Life written as a poem:

http://kidblog.org/SliceofLifeChallenge/9a2ce151-c9ad-47f1-a7d7-3764cda28c46/sol-4-minga-laba/

Of course, many Slices are written as small moment stories, ones that put the reader right in the middle of the action, such as:

http://sb-sas42624.blogspot.sg/2014/02/slice-of-life-swimming-lesson.html

For more on what a Slice of Life Story is and isn’t, see Stacey’s lovely info graphic.

Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Click on this image to enlarge & to learn more.
Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Click on this image to enlarge & to learn more.

Useful Links:

Published by Anna Gratz Cockerille

Anna is a staff developer, literacy coach, and writer, based in New York City. She taught internationally in places such as Sydney, Australia; San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Auckland, New Zealand in addition to New York before becoming a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University (TCRWP). She has been an adjunct instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, and teaches at TCRWP where she helps participants bring strong literacy instruction into their classrooms. Anna recently co-wrote Bringing History to Life with Lucy Calkins, part of the 2013 series Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing (Heinemann). She has been a researcher for Lucy Calkins, contributing especially to Pathways to the Common Core (Heinemann, 2012) and Navigating Nonfiction (Heinemann, 2010).

26 thoughts on “Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 5 of 31”

  10. I once again forgot to link up my class since we are not in school. Yikes, I better not forget tomorrow. The link above to our site “Slice of Life Challenge” on kidblogs is my student from last year. She has come back to slice again even though she is no longer in my class. Now that is a testimony to the SOLC. Some of my students have been writing from home. We’ll definitely hit it hard tomorrow! http://kidblog.org/SliceofLifeChallenge/

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