solving an original character's problem with voice and emotion
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Northern Nevada teacher
Annalisa Walker.
The intended "mentor text" to use when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
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):A Bad Case of Stripes will intrigue a broad range of ages...from 9-99! This book has an underlying message to all people: if something is important to you, then just DO IT, and don’t worry about what other people think! This picture book, written by David Shannon, does a fabulous job of addressing a very real, ordinary problem in many people’s lives, but it approaches the problem in a very unique, unusual way.
As the teacher reads this wonderful story aloud, discuss two interesting, trait-based techniques. First, discuss how the author has taken a common problem that many children can relate to, and developed a story with VERY unique ideas about what happens when someone has this problem. Second, the story successfully conveys Camilla's emotions as the story unfolds. Unique ideas supported by emotional narration is something David Shannon is very good at. Thoroughly talk about these two things before taking students to the interactive prompt below.
It would probably be helpful to--as a class--chart a list of "Ordinary Problems Kids Experience." Let this class-generated list, alongside the game below, inspire unique and emotion-filled stories from your students.
Step two (introducing 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 will certainly talk about the idea development, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's voice as well.
We're looking for student samples for all grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you free books for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing):The interactive button choices on the Student Instructions Page can certainly inspire your students to begin generating ideas for this assignment, but you can certainly create a class brainstorm that accomplishes the same without being on the computer.
Once students have a title and an emotion chosen, have them plan their story in three parts:
Introduce the character
Introduce the problem
Solve the problem
Encourage students to plan their stories with equal attention to these three parts; this will help them have a thorough story. As they plan each part, encurage them to choose and use strong details that will do two things: 1) be easily remembered by the reader; 2) make the reader feel the emotion they have chosen.
When students are done planning and ready to write, you can have them use this drafting sheet, which comes with an idea development checklist for them to fill out when the draft is done.
Step four (revising with specific trait language): Two tools for revision are provided below. You can use one or both, depending on how much time you have to spend on this assignment.
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 David Shannon's books
by clicking here!
