The Writer's Song (Track 4)

The purpose of this song is to primarily act as mental rubric for students to refer to as they write. We have a saying in our class, "Writers are never finished." This saying is meaningless unless the students have a list of things to work on. By singing this song in their heads, students can self-monitor the quality of their work.

Here I will explain the meaning of some of the more ambiguous lyrics.

Can’t you see my topic sentence

Written to start the paragraph

I know, I know...topic sentences don't have to be the first sentence of a paragraph. The purpose is to give the struggling writers clear direction on paragraph organization. Young writers need to learn to write topic sentences in their paragraphs. Most topic sentences are found as the first sentence of a paragraph.

Can’t you see my unique details

Make you cry or laugh

This part encourages young writers to use details so the reader can "get into" the narrative.

And where did the dead words go?

"Dead words" are overused words. In our class we have a list of dead words and alternatives to those dead words. For example, "said" is a dead word in our classroom. Instead students are encouraged to use words like replied, announced, scolded, exclaimed, etc. After composing a writing assignment, students are trained to go back through their writing and make substitutions for dead words to enrich their vocabulary. The use of a thesaurus is also encouraged.

Singin’ “Quotes will make it real”

In this part of the song, students are asked to add in dialogue to their stories.

Descriptive words to make us feel

In this part of the song, students are asked to add in quality adjectives. Students are given a word list of quality adjectives so they don't have to think of them out of thin air.