This Lesson's Title:

So Much Depends Upon...

sixteen-word imagery poems to inspire stories and poems

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Dena Harrison. Check out all of Dena's online writing lessons by clicking here.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Check out Love That Dog 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 both William Carlos Williams and the main character in Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, the writer will create four original 16-word poems that capture interesting images.  The writer will then choose a favorite 16-word poem and ask, "Why would so much depend upon that image to someone else?"  The writer can then create a short story about an original character who might have written the 16-word poem.  Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The sixteen-word poem portion of this writing assignment will focus your students on the focus trait...voice; the goal of the short story is to write a realistic-sounding explanation from an imagined character's point-of-view.   When students use their best 16-word poem as part of a longer story, they will be focused on this lesson's support trait...word choice; carefully considered words will lead to stronger imagery in these short poems.

Recipient of the NNWP's
Excellent Writing Lesson Award:

Because of the quality of its resources and ideas, this WritingFix lesson was selected by the Northern Nevada Writing Project as March 2008's Writing Lesson of the Month. It was e-mailed to thousands of teachers who are members of the NNWP's Writing Lesson of the Month Teacher Network.

To quickly access all the WritingFix lessons that have been chosen as "Lesson of the Month," click here to visit the NNWP's archive. You can have a link to a high-quality writing lesson sent to you every month.