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WritingFix: Writing Lessons Inspired by Classics of Literature and Poetry
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Literary Excerpts & Poetry Classics Inspire 6-Trait Lessons
 29 free-to-use lessons and prompts created by Northern Nevada teachers

In the summer of 2007, a small group of Northern Nevada Writing Project Consultants worked together to create the first few lessons found on this developing page at WritingFix.

Inspired by the popularity of WritingFix's Picture Book Lessons Collection and the Chapter Book Lessons Collection, these NNWP Consultants began crafting 6-Tait writing lessons inspired by excerpts from literature and the great works of classical poetry.

In November of 2007, the NNWP hosted a new inservice class for teachers in Northern Nevada: Inspired by the Best...Creating 6 Trait Writing Lessons Inspired by Literature. For the first time, the lessons on this page were shared and workshopped with teachers from many schools. As part of the class, these participants each proposed a lesson idea based on a piece of literature or a classic poem not yet represented on this page. The best of these proposed lessons will become new lessons that we will post here.

We plan to offer this new inservice annually, under the leadership of NNWP Teacher Consultant Tamara Turnbeaugh, so that this collection of lessons grows each year. We hope you enjoy the lessons we have already published here.

For Which Writing Trait Do You Seek a Lesson?
(click on a trait name to jump down the page to trait-specific specific lessons)

14 Idea Development Prompts and Lessons:
Lesson title: A Monster of a Metaphor

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (excerpt from chapter 5)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.
Lesson title: Little Toy Friends (or tales my teddy bear never told me)

Lesson's Mentor Text: Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, "The Dumb Soldier"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.
Lesson title: Tilbury Town #1:
Why, Cory? Why?

Lesson's Mentor Text: E. A. Robinson's poem, "Richard Cory"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.
Lesson title: Ulysses: Time Traveler

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: A Time Traveler's Log

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (excerpt from chapter 4)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Tillbuy Town #2:
The Butcher's Tale

Lesson's Mentor Text: E. A. Robinson's poem, "Reuben Bright"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Four Ways of Looking at __

Lesson's Mentor Text: Wallace Steven's poem, "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: "I Never Knew That!"

Lesson's Mentor Text: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (excerpt from chapter 10)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Mechanical Monsters

Lesson's Mentor Text: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (excerpt from pages 24-27)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Showing Creative Problem Solving

Lesson's Mentor Text: Call of the Wild by Jack London (excerpt from pages 17-18)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Come Hither, Stay Away

Lesson's Mentor Text: Christopher Marlowe's poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Writing About a First Impression

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (excerpt from chapter 2)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: A Poem for Two Voices for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide by Robert Louis Stevenson (short excerpts from chapters 1-6)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Hat Trick

Lesson's Mentor Text: The Pearl by John Seinbeck (excerpt from chapter 4)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

   
2 Organization Prompts and Lessons:
Lesson title: Tasting an Oxymoron

Lesson's Mentor Text: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (excerpt from chapter 17)

Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Hubris at the Bat

Lesson's Mentor Text: "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

4 Voice Prompts and Lessons:
Lesson title: Same Setting, Different Moods

Lesson's Mentor Text: Lord of the Flies by William Golding (excerpts from chapter 3)

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency


Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: So Much Depends Upon...

Lesson's Mentor Text: William Carlos Williams' poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Just Because Poems

Lesson's Mentor Text: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Focus Trait: Voice
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

 
Lesson title: Mob's Voice vs. Hero's Voice

Lesson's Mentor Text: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

4 Word Choice Prompts and Lessons:
Lesson title: Naming the Pets

Lesson's Mentor Text: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Focus Trait: Word Choice
Support Trait: Voice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Nashing the Animals

Lesson's Mentor Text: Various short poems by Ogden Nash

Focus Trait: Word Choice
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Serendipitous Personification

Lesson's Mentor Text: "The Railway Train" by Emily Dickinson and "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer

Focus Trait: Word Choice
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: HATE to LOVE Sonnets

Lesson's Mentor Text: "Shall I compare Thee..." sonnet by Wm. Shakespeare

Focus Trait: Word Choice
Support Trait: Conventions

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

4 Sentence Fluency Prompts and Lessons:
Lesson title: Painting Places with Words

Lesson's Mentor Text: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Poems of Apology

Lesson's Mentor Text: William Carlos Williams' poem, "This is Just to Say"

Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: Poems of Condition

Lesson's Mentor Text: "If" by Rudyard Kipling

Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency
Support Trait: Idea Development

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

Lesson title: How Do I Love Sonnets

Lesson's Mentor Text: Sonnet #43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

1 Conventions Prompt and Lesson:

Lesson title: Antonyms and Comma Splices

Lesson's Mentor Text: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (excerpt from chapter 1)

Focus Trait: Conventions
Support Trait: Word Choice

Click on the lesson title or the image to read an overview and access the entire lesson and its resources.

 
Propose your own Literary Classics Writing Lesson using our template.
Click here to open the template.
   
   

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