Room 12 Paraphrasing Practice

The sixth graders are learning about how to avoid plagiarism. After we discussed the skill of paraphrasing (and the need for a good vocabulary ... or at least a thesaurus!), the students wrote original sentences and then paraphrased each other. Here is some of their work:

Original: I went to the basement and felt like someone was watching me.
Paraphrase: I felt like someone was stalking me when I was in my basement.

Original: One time I downloaded an app that detects ghosts. When I opened the app, it detected a ghost in my house.
Paraphrase: I downloaded an app and found a ghost.

Original: I like to see turtles.
Paraphrase: Watching turtles is enjoyable.

Original: The tiger pounced onto a nearby gazelle. The gazelle then attempted to escape the tiger's strength, but it was too weak.
Paraphrase: The tiger crushed the gazelle with its weight.

Original: The zoo animals were roaming around their pens.
Paraphrase: The zoo animals were walking in their enclosure.