This Lesson's Title:

Ain't Gonna Rain No More

creating new verses for an old campfire and blues song

This lesson was created at WritingFix after NNWP Co-Director Jodie Black shared Karen Beaumont's wonderful book with us.

The ideal "mentor text" that can be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Click here to view this book 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:

The writers will study the rhythm of the old campfire and blues song, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," and they will study how Karen Beaumont borrows the rhythm for her book I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!  The writers will brainstorm words that rhyme with grammatically proper helping verbs (Since ain't ain't a word).  Finally, the writers will create their own lyrics that can be sung to the original song.Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is sentence fluency; the writer will experiment with sentence rhythm in order to create a lyric that can really be sung to the original tune.  The support trait in this assignment is word choice; asking students to use internal rhymes within the lyrics will encourage them to try out new techniques of word play.