This Lesson's Title:

Historical Journal Entries

big history from a smaller character's perspective

This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Dayna Ayers at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from Pedro's December 25 journal entry.

Check out Pedro's Journal 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:

Pre-step (before sharing the published model):  Prior to using Pedro's Journal as a class read aloud, the teacher should explain the format of this book.  It is a journal, written from a boy’s point of view.  The boy never existed.  The historical event did.  Says Dayna, "Pam Conrad invites readers to experience an important part of our history through the eyes of a young boy who journals his journey with Christopher Columbus."  The interactive button game on the Student Instruction Page is a follow up to the story, which attempts to inspire students to research and write about a time in history that they would have wanted to participate in. 

Step one (sharing the published model):  Pedro's Journal: A Voyage with Christopher Columbus, August 3, 1492 - February 14, 1493 has a wonderful format.  It is a journal, written from a boy’s point of view.  Obviously it is a work of fiction, based on researched facts.  Rather than being in a typical non-fiction report format (essay, article, or research paper), the book conveys its history in the form of an imagined character's journal.  Isn't this an interesting way to require students to report on history?

Share several journal entries from this detailed book, perhaps as a read aloud with your class.  Throughout the reading, use good teaching strategies, such as predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. 

Focus on the journal dated December 25. Talk about the author’s choice of words as she grabs her reader’s attention.  Discuss how sensory words assist her in painting a clearer picture for the reader.  Example:  “Last night, after midnight, all alone and with my own two hands, I sank the Santa Maria.” and “I was listening to the crash of the surf on a barrier reef. And then the sound of a coral reef punching holes in our hull.”  

Explain that your students will be writing their own journal entry.  Their journal will have them to look at a different era of history.  They will be mixing both fact and fictional sensory details to convey history.  The interactive game below will give them choices of historical events to research.  Students who like their one-entry journal should be encouraged to turn it into a longer journal, made up of multiple entries.

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, because of the post-it note that has been embedded on each model.  You might prompt your students to talk about each model's voice as well.

• 5th grader Paige shares her Harriet Tubman story
• 5th grader Alex shares her 1906 Earthquake story
• 5th graders Allison and Eily shares their Titanic stories

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive button game on the Student Instruction Page will inspire your students to create interesting characters and topics for historical events, but students can certainly find successful ideas for this writing prompt through discussion and brainstorming away from the computer.  This lesson comes with two pre-writing resources.  Use the sensory detail brainstorming sheet when having students research their historical event.  Use the plot planning sheet to encourage your students to think deeply about how witnessing a historical event can be more than a passive experience for their characters; like Pedro, encourage your students to involve their character in the history...not just observe it.

• sensory detail brainstorming sheet
• plot planning sheet

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.

• Sheet of 6 Organization Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Voice Post-It Notes

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.

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.

Research your historical era in your library or at Yahooligans.