Endings are super important! They are the last chance you have to connect with your reader! Your last chance to get your message across comes at the end!
The book Charlotte’s Web has an awesome ending I want to read to you. (Read p. 107 italicized)
That ending makes you really think hard. It can even make you see things in a new way, in a new light.
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Goal
Our goal today is to learn how to leave your reader with something big at the end. Good writers think back to what they want their readers to really get, and make sure it is in the ending.
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What is your story REALLY about?
If you can answer the question above, you are well on your way to writing a good ending.
I want to show you how Sandra Cisneros asked herself that question, and focused her ending with the lesson. Look at how the ending connects to the introduction of the story.
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What is your story REALLY about?
Sandra thought about what it felt like to be 11 and focused on how you are all the ages that come before that for the rest of your life.
Do you see how she thought back to what was most important and communicated that message?
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Activity
Now it is time for you to revise YOUR ending to fit the message you are trying to communicate to your reader.
Look over your ending. Then talk to your partner about how you can change your ending to communicate your most important message.
Once you have discussed it with your partner, you may start writing.
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Conferencing
I am coming around to see how well you are writing your endings.
If you have trouble, remember that a good ending is like tying up loose ends. Things get resolved, and things are revealed that are important for the reader to have a sense of closure at the end.
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Share
Today we are going to tell an ending poem together. So let’s get in a circle with our endings in hand, ready to read.
Now pick 1-4 sentences of your ending that you’d like to share.
One person at a time will read his or her lines from his or her ending. Once the person next to you reads his or her line, you read yours, until everyone in the circle has read.