This Lesson's Title:

Unlikely Diary Keepers

reporting on learned facts with an unusual "Dear Diary" scenario

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

The ideal "mentor text" that can be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. 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 writer will assume the role of a living creature (like an arthropod) or an abstraction (like a fraction).  Writers will do research on what they have chosen as their roles, and learn new facts about these roles.  The writer will compose a 5- or 10-day diary, from the point-of-view of his/her role; each entry must contain a reference to a newly learned fact, and some entries should try to include humor (just as Cronin does in her book). Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; students specifically work on putting learned facts into their own words as they create their diary entries.  The support trait in this assignment is voice; attempting to capture the "written sound" of a creature or an abstraction while using humor is an excellent exercise for students who are still discovering their own written voices.