This Lesson's Title:
Animals Not to [Verb] with...
writing four four-line animal poems to make your reader giggle
This lesson idea was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Michelle Dow at an SBC-sponsored inservice class.
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The intended "mentor text" to  be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Don't Take Your Snake for a Stroll by Karin Ireland. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
Check out Don't Take Your Snake for a Stroll at Amazon.com.
Washoe County teachers, click here to search for this book at the county library. |
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Step one (sharing the published model): Writers love to imitate this book's structure. Says Michelle, "Writing can be as easy as one, two, three! While reading the book, teachers should point out the author’s use of grabbing the readers’ attention with a fun idea applied to everyday situations."
The interactive activity on the Student Instruction Page attempts to follow Ireland’s pattern by having students create their own fun-filled adventures with not-so-common pets. Before having students write on their own, be sure to model writing one of these imitations of the book. Let your students help you write it. This also makes a great assignment for students to accomplish in pairs or small groups.
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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 sentence fluency , because of the discussion tool that has been embedded on these models. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Use the attached graphic organizer to have students brainstorm words and fluency techniques as they plan their four four-line poems..
After students have completed their graphic organizers (both sides), and before they start composing their rough drafts, have them analyze the sound and the flow of the three teacher examples below. Place the three poems on the overhead and have students--in small groups--decide which version sounds best to their ears.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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