writing about an animal's dilemma from start to finish
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher LisaLarson 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 Call of the Wild by Jack London. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from pages 17-18 of the book.
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): Introduce the idea of animals dealing with problems by playing the song "High Hopes" for your students from your classroom I-Pod. Tell them you'll be reading a passage today from a famous book where an animal--like the ant and the ram from the song--has determination, but the animal also uses creative problem solving techniques.
Step one (sharing the published model):Share the 3-paragraph excerpt from The Call of the Wild. Says Lisa, "In my copy of the book, it begins at the bottom of page 17 and ends on page 18." The first sentence is That night Buck faced the great problem of sleeping, and the third paragraph ends with …though he growled and barked and wrestled with his bad dreams. This excerpt shows how Buck was presented with a problem and how he eventually solved it.
After reading the excerpt, discuss with the students London’s use of “big words.” Use the first half of the graphic organizer to record London’s great adjectives, nouns, adverbs and verbs, either in pairs or small groups. Copy these words onto the board and talk about how they paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Introduce the concept of word choice and its influence on the text.
Next, talk about Buck’s problem and how he tried several possible solutions and eventually solved his problem through trial and error. Make a timeline of events on the board of the things he tried before reaching his final solution. Introduce the concept of idea development and how London took the reader through each step of the problem.
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 should certainly talk about the idea development, since that's the focus of this writing assignment, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
We're looking for more student samples for most grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing):The Interactive Button Game Lisa designed on the Student Instructions Page is designed to get your students thinking about possible animals, settings, and actions that might lead to problem solving situations.
Says Lisa, "In London’s piece, the story was broken down into three distinct parts: the who – Buck, the where – the Yukon, and the what, or the problem – looking for a warm place to sleep. Direct students to the interactive buttons for these three parts. After selecting one from each button, have the students brainstorm a timeline of events for their story, as well as interesting words that they might use in their own writing. They are now ready to begin writing.
"If your students struggle to get started, or get focused on the naming of the character (like mine did!), and forget what they are supposed to be writing about, have them use London’s first line and replace the name and the problem. I found this was very helpful for my extra-creative students who wanted to explain every little thing."
Students will plan word choices and a story line before writing using the bottom half of this lesson's graphic organizer.
To promote deeper thinking about idea development while students draft, you can have your students draft their writing on WritingFix's 2-page idea development drafting 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.
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.
Learn more about author Jack London by clicking here.
