This Lesson's Title:
You're on a Gigantic Roll
using quality details and strong verbs like Roald Dahl
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Kaycee Goman 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 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 16 of the book.
Check out James and the Giant Peach 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): After reading the story of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, reread chapter 16 in the section of the book where the peach's journey begins - once it has been freed from its stem by the centipede’s sharp jaws. As you read, emphasize the sights and sounds used. Explain to the students that they will be writing the same type of description focusing on idea development and word choice.
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Step two (introducing student models of writing): Inform students they will be writing their own large-object-rolling-through-something paragraph today. To inspire their thinking about this process, have students read and discuss the following two student examples. The students will certainly talk about the idea development in each of the examples, because of the post-it note that has been embedded on each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive buttons on the Student Instruction Page will help inspire your students to write their descriptive paragraphs. You can use the graphic organizer link below to help them come up with their own sounds and visuals to promote great idea development and word choice. First you can model it and then have them use it with the reading from James and the Giant Peach or other literature samples you may find. Then they will be familiar with it once they begin using it with their own writing. The students can use the button prompts by using the interactive button game , or they may choose their own setting and adventure.
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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 Roald Dahl and James and the Giant Peach by clicking here.
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