This Lesson's Title:

Inventing a New Word

and having two characters talk about the invention

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Christy Aker-Minetto for an
AT & T-sponsored inservice class for teachers.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Frindle by Andrew Clements. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 6 of the book.

Check out Frindle at Amazon.com.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

Inspired by the main character's actions in Frindle, students will be asked to reinvent an every day object with a brand new word.  They will need to imagine a character has reinvented their word, and then they will create a scene from a story where the character reveals the new word to a friend.  The assignment requires them to correctly (and interestingly) use dialogue and dialogue punctuation in their scenes.   Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is conventions; the writer's goal is to create a short scene that correctly uses dialogue punctuation.  The support trait in this assignment is word choice; not only will students play with words (as they create a new one), but they should be encouraged to use interesting dialogue verbs in their scenes.