ELLEN
BERG
Diary #8
Why Our Character Sketch Unit Worked
Student Writing Samples
<> <> <> <> <>
My
Revenge from Ms. Cage
By Shanell J.
In the beginning of the school year she showed favoritism toward me. When there would be a situation between me and another student, she would always believe and take up for them, instead of being fair and on both sides, for the wrong and the right. I felt like she hated me for no reason at all. I didn't treat her that way, so why was she treating me this way? She never picked me to do anything, and when she asked a question and wanted an answer, she'd look at me and roll her eyes and skip right over me.
Days, weeks, and months passed by like a blink of an eye. Later in the year, things started to change. I had enough of her bull...I wanted revenge against Ms. Cage.
"Good morning, Ms. Cage," I said with a sneaky grin. Ms. Cage was puzzled with what I had said. Since day one, I'd never said, "Hi," or "Good morning."
"Ms. Cage, Ms. Cage," I shouted.
"Excuse me, but you know we do not yell in class."
"You do it all the time," I said with a smart mouth.
"But you're not me now, are you?"
"I don't know, am I?"
"That's enough," she said angrily. Great, just how I planned, to make her mad. 555-3487, she dialed my phone number.
"She's at work," I said happily.
"Don't think you're getting off that easy," she said. She walked across the room and handed me some paper.
"Wait, I know you ain't expecting me to write no sentences, right?"
"Absolutely wrong, you are going to write sentences for me, one hundred times."
I broke my pencil into two pieces. "Ms. Cage, I don't have any pencils to write with."
"You're in luck, I have plenty," she said as she took out a pack of pencils from her desk. "Here," she said.
"I walked up and snatched the pack of pencils from her, ran to the window and opened it up, and threw the pack of pencils out of the window. "Now you don't," I said, and gave her a vengeful look.
Chelsea
By Byron M.
(Note: This is about the author's younger sister.)
One day Chelsea came home and went into the kitchen. I followed her and said, "Chelsea, what are you doing?"
"Nothing," she said, and closed the door, "and you can't come in."
I said, "Don't make me go and get the key!"
She said, "So what?"
I got the key and opened the door, but she would not tell me what she was doing. Chelsea said, "Get out fo' I smack you!"
I yelled, "Mom, what is Chelsea doing?"
"I don't know," mom replied. "Chelsea, what are you doing?"
"I'm not doing nothing," Chelsea said. "Byron needs to shut the F up," she mumbled.
"Chelsea, what did you say?" asked Momma.
"Nothing Momma."
"Uh-un, she said the F-word," I yelled. "Chelsea's always getting treated like a baby," I complained.
This was written by one of my special education students. We had a long discussion about whether to include the hint of the profanity, and he believed it was important to keep it to show his sister's character.
My Great Grandma
By Nathaniel G.
She will always buy shoes and clothes. When you open her closet--watch out! A box of shoes might fall on you.
She knows the number to the lottery better than she knows our names. When she doesn't win the lottery, she starts to curse and says, "You cheating rat." This young man is reading on the third grade level and was highly unmotivated when I met him this summer. Now he asks questions about craft and calls himself a writer. I think he grasped the concept of describing a character to show their personality very well. There's something about this piece I just love.
Comment on these writing samples
