Hooked on Writing

The following book was written in a fourth grade classroom at Roosevelt School during the 2016- 2017 school year.  


I would like to thank the students who wrote this book and who have showed bravery in sharing their pieces. You will, doubtlessly encounter errors as you read, for them, I am responsible. I needed this book to be a real snapshot of how the students wrote at that time. I hope you can see the charm in them, and in doing so, see through them to the dramatic, humorous, and sometimes frightening stories the children are telling you. Each line was written, edited, and revised by the children in collaboration with each other.

I would like to thank the parents of these wonderful, 9-10 year old children who agreed to share these unique pieces too.

As students developed their voices and ideas for the stories, they considered concepts that are not in the print such as, “What motivates this character? What music do they listen to? What books do they read?” to help them flush out how the character was motivated and driven to the choices that the made in the story.. We selected fictional narrative pieces because our focus this year is on creatively solving problems in all academic areas such as math, science, technology, engineering, and social studies. Each character is faced with a problem. Some of the characters solve their problems while others must learn to come to terms with it.

We invite you to look for parts of the stories that use “show, don’t tell” language and spot our golden lines. The stories may not be perfect but they are the product of each student’s hard work as they developed a love for crafting their writing.

We hope that you enjoy these short stories and chapter books.