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.
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Pre-Step (before sharing the published model):If your students are preparing for either a state test or a unit on personal narrative, you should spend some time early in the school year making "heart maps" or "neighborhood maps"; these ideas come from Ralph's companion book to his autobiography--How to Write Your Life Story--which is our OTHER Mentor Text of the Year for 2009-2010.
Right there in the first chapter of How to Write Your Life Story are write-ups for these two techniques, which also work marvelously as "getting to know you at the year's start" activities. Students create "maps" of their hearts to show what things in life are important to them, and/or students create maps of their neighborhoods that display where important things have occurred in their young lives. Once one (or both) of these maps is created, students can refer to them throughout the year when they need a topic to write about.
Ralph's neighborhood map example in How to Write Your Life Story, by the way, obviously inspired his Marshfield Dreams. After reading each chapter from the autobiography, it's kind of fun to re-examine the map of his childhood neighborhood to see how the map represented the chapter just read.
Step one (sharing the published model):This first step should be spread out over three days.
One of the best things about Marshfield Dreams, in our opinion, is the brevity of its chapters. Many of them, the chapter called "First Pen" for example, has pretty close to the same amount of text a student might be asked produced on Nevada's Writing Test Form. These shorter chapters from Marshfield Dreams are nice mentor texts for helping students see a well-written, short piece of narrative writing that would look and sound good for a state writing test.
The activity here, which cites the "First Pen" chapter from Marshfield Dreams, could be easily replicated with different, short chapters from the same book. See the replication notes at the bottom of this page.
Step 1/Day 1: Finding imitate-able skills in the published writing
Pass out Xeroxed copies of the chapter "First Pen" to your students. Read it aloud or have students read it silently. Ask them to read it a second time, this time looking for specific skills they see Ralph include in his writing; the skills they are looking for are ones they suspect a teacher would look at and say, "That's something a good writer does!" Ask them to avoid using trait names; if they say, "It has great voice," ask them, "What specific skill does the writer use that proves that to you?"
Create small groups and have students report to each other on the initial skills they each saw. The group's task is to combine ideas and create a list of three specific skills they:
can pinpoint in the text by underlining words or phrases or single sentences that represent the skill;
believe are imitate-able, which means the students can explain the technique in such a way that they can say, "I could do that too"; if students spot Fletcher's use of "vivid and memorable details," for example, remind them that this skill is imitate-able. More ambiguous skill explanations, like "it was funny," are harder to imitate without pinpointing specific things that added to the humor.
Have students write the three skills they have chosen (and can cite in the text) somewhere on the Xeroxed chapter. Put the chapter and the skill lists away for the day.
Step 2/Day 2: The "Writing Prompts in Reverse" Activity (as suggested by teacher Dena Robinson)
Bring out the Xeroxes of the "First Pen" chapter. Have students remind themselves of the skills they found in the text on the previous day.
Ask students to put on their imagination hats. Say, "I want you to pretend that Ralph Fletcher actually wrote this small piece of writing for his state writing test when he was your age." (If you are using this lesson but not using it as a state writing test preparation activity, you can simply say that Ralph wrote it in school when he was your students' age.)
Show students several examples of Nevada state test writing prompts, asking them to study the language and the number of sentences. Here are three example prompts from past Nevada writing tests:
"We all have to make many decisions in our lives. Think about a decision you had to make and what happened afterwards. Tell about the time you made the decision. Explain what led up to the decision. Tell what happened as a result of the decision."
"Good teachers are hard to forget. Think of a teacher you have had that you will remember for a long, long time. Was it a teacher at school, at home, or for activities or sports? Think about all the ways that person is special. Explain this teacher so clearly that your reader will know just what made him or her such a good teacher. You may use a real or made-up name."
"Think about a time when something special or unusual happened at school. It could be a time when something unexpected happened in your classroom. Or it could be any event at school that you remember well. Write about what happened and why it was special or unusual."
More past Nevada test prompts and other test resources can be found by clicking here.
Ask student groups to brainstorm what prompt Ralph Fletcher might have been given that made him write the short piece of writing they have read. Remind students that prompts are written so generally that ANYONE could write to them; "Write about a time you received a pen as a present" is too specific for this chapter, because many students have never had that experience.
If students are stuck, here are a few topic ideas that might be relevant to the "First Pen" chapter: a time you received a gift; a time your surprised yourself; a time you used your imagination. Remind student groups that their prompts should have two or three sentences in them, just like the examples did.
Have student groups share their prompts with the whole class, then have the class vote on the writing prompt that sounds MOST like a test prompt. Save the prompt for the next day.
Step 3/Day 3 : Self-Reflecting on the "Prompt in Reverse"
Post the prompt your students voted on yesterday where all can see it. Tell them, "Today, you will be writing to the same prompt you thought Ralph Fletcher wrote to when he wrote "First Pen."
Before they begin writing a rough draft, have them re-read "First Pen" once more. Have them circle one (or two) of the imitate-able skills they found in Fletcher's chapter. As they create a rough draft, they are to try and imitate the skill(s) they have circled in their own writing.
If students write their rough drafts on this two-page drafting page, they will be reminded to think about this lesson's focus trait--idea development--by using the checklist on the drafting sheet's second page.
Step two (introducing student models of writing):Before revising, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. Have them look for imitation of Ralph Fletcher's skills.
We're looking for student samples from grade levels not yet represented here! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Visit this lesson's student samples page for details.
Step three (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.
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.
Nevada 5th and 8th grade teachers: Have students write their final drafts on this Nevada Writing Test Form, to familiarize them with the actual form and the amount of space they are allotted to write.
Step six (replicating this lesson): There are a number of other short chapters from Ralph's book that could be used to replicate this writing lesson. Obviously, the different chapters would yield a different writing prompt (in reverse) and would--most likely--have students discover different skills used by the author.
If you end up replicating this activity with a different chapter from Marshfield Dreams, send us the name of the chapter you used, and the prompt-in-reverse your students voted on as your classroom's best.
Win an NNWP Print Resource! If your students, doing this activity, come up with a fresh, original-sounding writing prompt for a chapter other than the First Pen chapter, send it to us. We will be posting prompts from classrooms around the country this Fall. If yours is selected, we will send you a copy of one of the NNWP Print Publications! Send prompts to us at webmaster@writingfix.com. Send them soon!
