This Lesson's Title:
Scary
Somethings
writing an original story where a personified fear is conquered
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Shari Ashby at an SBC-sponsored inservice class. |
The intended "mentor text" to  be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Harry and the Terrible Whatzit by Dick Gackenbach. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
Check out Harry and the Terrible Whatzit 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): Stressing what author Dick Gackenbach has done well while sharing this book with the students will immediately help children relate to Harry and his dilemma with that scary old Whatzit. Point out Gackenbach's detailed description of the Whatzit will help the students use interesting details to describe their own fearful thing. Intriguing place details can also be pointed out, and students will be challenged to describe their scary thing's hiding place using details too.
Brainstorm what is scary together before writing. Model how you would use details to describe scary things and places, if you were writing to this prompt. Remind your students to be detailed as they draft their stories about conquering fears. Just like Gackenback does with his story about the Whatzit.
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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 idea development, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's organization as well.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive button game on the Student Instructions Page will give your students ideas for thinking up a Scary Something on which to base their stories.
The first page of the pre-writing worksheet below will help students begin to think of details for their stories. The second page of the pre-writing worksheet below will help them begin planning a story that has three organized parts.
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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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