Chapter 4 Introductions and conclusions
I seem to spend a lot of time on this as a classroom teacher. I love having some new ideas to present to students, particularly the one about sharing a secret. I can see that one really catching fire with my 3rd graders. Another good idea was the "What if.." lead. That lead adds the element of fiction to non-fiction writing and makes for a sort of story.
I also appreciated the remark that alot of the text books, Scholastic News, etc. do not model the art of writing a conlcusion for the students. The writing just stops. If the kids aren't reading them, how can they begin to write them? And how can I point out good examples if there aren't any?
Finally, I noticed that many of the strategies for leads and conclusions might also apply to fiction writing as well. For example, the conclusion "lingering questions," makes me think of all the stories I've read where the villain doesn't quite get away.
Your comment about text books not being strong examples of conclusion writing has me thinking. It makes think about how important it is to read nonfiction aloud to kids that we want them to emulate. I typically don't use nonfiction as read alouds and I think that is something I need to be more intentional about.
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