Writing about Myst

Day 7 & Day 8

The time had come. We had done so much talking about Myst and written lots of key vocabulary, had a go at writing paragraphs, it was now time to write about the story so far.

I explained to the children that today they were going to be using the skills they had learned yesterday about paragraphing to write about Myst. We talked about what the paragraphs would be. The task a few days earlier helped them to identify the four events - arriving at J'nanin, the chase, the steps and the house.

I showed the children the clip starting at Atrus' study from the point that Saavedro stole the Releeshahn book. We discussed the journey.

They came up with some amazing vocabulary to describe what it felt like, such as they were on a roller coaster, how the book sucked them in. I talked through the scene using lots of rich vocabulary then modelled the paragraph on the white board. The children then wrote their paragraph. I repeated the same process for the following three paragraphs.

Marking their work I was extremely amazed, not only at the quantity but the quality of vocabulary they had used. It had been such a struggle to get these children to write and here they were with 3 - 4 pages in their A4 books! Wow!!!


Ash's work ....

Just when Saavedro had stolen Releeshahn I swayed through the strange looking rocks. It was very scary. I thought I might crash into the warm ocean. I could hear the whistling rocks as I flew past.

I went as fast as the speed of light up the steep ladder and ran across the bridge, very carefully as well. It was too late. Saavedro had rushed in the house. The door slammed and then locked. I tried to open the door, but it was stuck. I looked everywhere for a door, but there were no more doors.

I decided to look around for a secret door so I went to see if I was right. I walked down the steep ladder that was like coat hangers. When I got to the bottom of the ladder, I got to another ladder. I climbed down the ladder to the path of golden sand. Suddenly I spotted out of the corner of my eye a stone pair of stairs. As I got closer, the whistling got louder and louder until I got to the house.

I shivered across the bridge because I was scared I might fall on the fire marbles. The house was connected to the building Saavedro ran into and locked. I was very excited I might get Releeshahn, the very important book. I opened the colourful door. It made a loud noise and I just stood there having a good look around.