using a "Prompts in Reverse" technique to inspire your writers
This lesson was built for WritingFix as part of its Mentor Text of the Year Program; Marshfield Dreams is serving as this text for the 2009-2010 school year.
The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Marshfield Dreams by Ralph Fletcher. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from the chapter called "First Pen."
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.
Special Note about this Lesson: This lesson is designed to be used with any student writers who are working on short personal narratives, but this write-up has some specific ideas for teachers whose students are asked to write narrative responses on a state test. In Nevada, our fifth and eighth graders will be asked to do this type of writing on this year's January/February State Writing Test, and we believe this lesson shows an authentic way to better prepare our students for the test's expectations.
Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:
Students read one of Ralph Fletcher's chapters from his autobiography, then work in groups to list three (or four) specific "craft skills" they see in Fletcher's writing. Next, students imagine that the chapter they've read was Ralph's submission for his state writing test when he was younger, and they work in groups to "prompt in reverse," which means they compose a two- or three-sentence prompt that they believe must have inspired the writing. The class votes on which group's prompt sounds the most like an actual test prompt, and then all the students write individual responses to the prompt they've voted on; as they write, they try to use one or two of the "craft skills" they found in the original chapter. Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan and have access to its handouts.
6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:
The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development;
students will certainly discover (and find easy to imitate) the following idea skills in Fletcher's writing: using vivid and memorable details, balancing showing and telling, and enhancing descriptions with action words. The support trait in this assignment is voice; students will certainly discover (and find easy to imitate) the following voice skills in Fletcher's writing: using words that convey emotion and passion to the reader, sounding like an actual person/child who is writing, and using subtle alliteration.
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 September 2009'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.
Because of the quality of its resources and ideas, this WritingFix lesson was selected by the Northern Nevada Writing Project as September 2009's Writing Lesson of the Month. It was e-mailed to thousands of teachers who are members of the NNWP's 
