creating a scene and a character while establishing a mood with word choices
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher MarieAffinito 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 novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 2 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:
Step one…sharing the published model: Chapter two of The Great Gatsby introduces readers to the character of Myrtle Wilson and builds on the previously introduced character of Tom Buchanon while at the same time establishing the narrator’s attitude toward both of them. Provide students with a copy of the passage that begins “So Tom Buchanon and his girl . . .” and ends with “Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of whisky from a locked bureau door” (which can be found on pages 31-33 in our copy of the novel).
As you read the passage aloud, students should underline or highlight every word or detail that causes them to form an opinion, either good or bad, of Tom and Myrtle. After reading, have students share with partners what they highlighted and why, noting how details create specific impressions. Hand out the graphic organizer and have students do as much as they can together, then continue completing and discussing the graphic organizer as a class. When you finish this, at the bottom of the graphic organizer, students should write a statement that describes how they think Fitzgerald wants them to feel about the characters and why. Have them share and compare these statements for accuracy, and remind them that details to create characters and mood are carefully chosen.
Step two (introducing teacher or student model): 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 lesson. Encourage students to think about how the students used methods of characterization to develop their characters. You may want to use a similar t-chart to discuss student models. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
We're looking for student samples for all 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…pre-thinking and pre-writing:The interactive buttons on the Student Instructions Page will certainly give your students ideas for characters and settings they might create to complete this writing assignment.
Students will be using this activity to describe a person or character in a scene or situation by using details that create an impression and establish an opinion. Ideally, students should choose real people and places by observing and taking notes. This could be assigned as homework. Other options include basing the writing on a picture in a magazine, a scene from a movie, or completely fictionalizing it. Whether they use a real or fictional person, they should use the graphic organizer as a guide to note details and impressions and the overall mood they want to create. Next, student should write a paragraph, poem, or song lyrics that convey a mood and an opinion of a character or person by using precise details that show rather than tell.
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 about author F. Scott Fitzgerald by clicking here.
