This Lesson's Title:
The Ultimate Survivor
a survival plan that explores organization
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Laura Tremaine at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers. |
T he intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 10 of the book.
Check out Hatchet at Amazon.com.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library. |
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Step one (sharing the published model): Hatchet is centered around a young boy that is flying home to see his father. The plane crashes and he is forced to live on his own for several days in a remote area. This book deals with the fears that Brian has as well as his well thought out plan to survive and be rescued. After reading the book aloud have the students reflect in journals at the end of each chapter. When you start this online activity, re-read the focus chapter 10 and have students visualize what Brian is going through. Remind them that Brian is struggling to keep the fire alive. He knows that the fire is a vital part of his survival and rescue. Have each student discuss with a partner the sequential order of what Brian did to keep the fire alive. Have them discuss the descriptive words the author uses to show how the fire burns during the day/night, etc.
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Step two (introducing student models of writing): In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. The groups will certainly talk about the organization, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might also have your students talk about the word choice in the writing too.
- We're looking for student samples for all grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Students will be asked to imagine they are stranded some place. They only have one item with them that will help them to survive. Ask them to think about different places of where they would or would not want to be. Also ask them to think of valuable tools that would help make their stay easier.
The first button on the Student Instructions Page generates some ideas of where the writer might be stranded. The second button above gives the writer an item that will assist their character as he/she tries to survive. Students should choose from both to start their stories. Remind students to give step by step instructions of how their character uses the tool they have selected, as well as the process in which they use the item (i.e. what they did first, second, etc.). Remind students as they write to use signal words, vivid adjectives and nouns to make their story even more interesting!
Students can pre-write using a story map graphic organizer to create their step by step plan and after they have brainstormed using this graphic organizer, students can begin to write their own survival story.
We have also included a drafting sheet with an organization checklist embedded on its second page; after students have written a rough draft, have them rank their own use of organization using the checklist.
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Step four (revising with specific trait language): To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts. Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings. For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.
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Step five (editing for conventions): After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.
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Step six (publishing for the portfolio): When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here. Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.
Interested in publishing student work on-line? We invite student writers to post final drafts of their original at WritingFix's Community of Student Writers. This is a safe-to-use blog for students and teachers. No writing is posted until it is approved by the moderator. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have questions about getting your students published.
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Learn more about author Gary Paulsen and Hatchet by clicking here.
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