This Lesson's Title:

Imaginative Home Movies

letting a funny title inspire a story a child might tell

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 The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially chapter 5
of the book.

Check out The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 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 long, humorous title of Chapter 5 of Christopher Paul Curtis's Watsons book, students will think about silly things that children do and create a titlethat rivals chapter 5'd title. Inspired by their titles, students will then plan and create a short story where a child--like Byron in the book--pretends he's creating a movie but ends up in trouble. Student will use details and humor in telling their original stories. Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; the writer's goal is to create a short scene that correctly uses dialogue punctuation.  The support trait in this assignment is voice; 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.