Dover sixth-graders take novel approach
The top writers in Jessica Ranallo's sixth-grade class at DIS: (front row) Anna Mancino, Isabella Frankito, Kristen Evans; (back row) Julia Gonzalez Cueto, Emily Monachino, Riley Minear, Bella Puchmeyer, Luke Melikian.
Dover Intermediate School sixth-grader Luke Melikian typed his 50,000th word in class as part of a novel writing unit in his sixth-grade language arts class.
As part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, Jessica Ranallo’s students were working on their own novels. Luke typed his 50,000th word in front of the class. NaNoWriMo, part of the young Writers Program, encourages K-12 students to write a novel in 30 days. Last year more than 100,000 students and educators from over 9,000 classrooms around the world participated.
This year’s theme was “A Shot of Caffeine for my Creative Life.” Luke's story, "Mr. Allan," is about a man named Allan, a newly discovered reincarnation of Mr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, and his ongoing pursuit to finally destroy his antagonist, McDonald, who has an incredible headache.
Ranallo's students typed a total of 275,246 words in the challenge. Her top writers were:
- Luke Melikian: 50,000 words
- Julia Gonzalez-Cueto: 15, 046
- Riley Minear: 14,704
- Emily Monachino: 12,775
- Bella Puchmeyer: 9,707
- Kristen Evans: 7,500
- Isabella Frankito: 7,145
- Anna Mancino: 5,904
Students will spend the next few months working on revisions and editing their novels. They will have the opportunity to publish their novels into a paperback copy, complete with their own International Standard Book Number (ISBN).