5th Grade Writing

Maybe you've heard of Shirley Jackson, the author who wrote The Haunting of Hill House and the famous story The Lottery. She also wrote a great story called Charles that was the focus for a fifth grade AIG reading group.

In this story, a young student makes up a character to hide his atrocious actions at school. Sorry for the plot-spoiler! Students were asked to write letters from Laurie's teacher to his parents as a culmination of our reading. Here are a couple of them. You should note there are no last names in the story, so there's some creativity in filling in.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Washington,

Laurie has had some difficulties in the first couple weeks of school, but is definitely adjusting. He needs to learn to work with other kids and he definitely needs to learn to respect adults. He has had to be smacked some times and can definitely improve. Moving past all these naughty things, he is now mostly a helper. What I must ask though, is where did he learn such language?!?!?!

Sincerely,

Medusa Gorgon

P.S. I think you should get a reservation at a Juvenile Delinquent program😟

(I particularly like the reservation request!)

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hodgepodge,

Your son Laurie is very… interesting.  It seems as if  Laurie has taken on a fake identity. In your home, you two call this devious troublemaker  a terrible and scary name… Charles.  You two must be very gullible to not see what was coming when we met.  When he stayed after school and, due to our talk while we had cake, (by the way, that cake was delicious) everybody stayed with him - don't you think that was kind of weird?  Anyway, that boy needs two months worth of time out and twice the amount of spankings.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Hodgepodge

(Gullible, something no parent wants to be!)

This student took a different tact, writing from the parents to the teacher:

Dear Laurie’s teacher,

I am so sorry about how our  son has been acting.  He has just started acting like this.  We have not been aware of his actions.  He has been telling me that all  his misbehaviors have been committed by an imaginary boy he made up named Charles, so we have been not able to punish him. I was unable to attend the  first PTO meeting due to my daughter being  sick, but I would have liked to know this sooner.   My son is being punished and  I assure you that he will not act like that again.

                      Sincerely,

   

  Laurie’s Mother

Look for work samples to come home this week. Ask your kids about our new story by famed American author Richard Peck. His many novels for young readers are some of my very favorites:

A Year Down Yonder, A Long Way from Chicago,  Death of the Librarian, Fair Weather