This Lesson's Title:

Start with What Isn't There

setting moods in setting descriptions

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Corbett Harrison. Check out all of Corbett's on-line lessons by clicking here.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Caves by Stephen Kramer. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Check out Caves at Amazon.com.

Washoe County teachers, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

The writer will describe a setting, attempting to set a mood for his/her reader in two paragraphs.  Borrowing a technique from Stephen Kramer's two-page introduction to Caves, the writer will begin with a paragraph that explains what isn't in a setting.  The second paragraph will describe things that are present. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is voice; the writer's goal is to set a mood with the words he/she chooses.  The support trait in this assignment is idea development; strong details are encouraged through the graphic organizer that comes with the lesson.

Recipient of the NNWP's
Excellent Writing Lesson Award:

Because of the quality of its resources and ideas, this WritingFix lesson was selected by the Northern Nevada Writing Project as February 2008's Writing Lesson of the Month. It was e-mailed to thousands of teachers who are members of the NNWP's Writing Lesson of the Month Teacher Network.

To quickly access all the WritingFix lessons that have been chosen as "Lesson of the Month," click here to visit the NNWP's archive. You can have a link to a high-quality writing lesson sent to you every month.