embedding an original character's ten-item list in a story that shows voice
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 chapter book Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 4 of this book.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
Pre-Step (introducing the word decalogue early on in the school year): A decalogue is a list of ten statements that its writer personally believes in. In ye olde days, decalogues were mostly about religion and morals (The Ten Commandments, for example). Today, they can be about any topic. In the spirit of left-brained pre-writing, we believe every writer should compose a personal DECALOGUE from time to time. Early in the school year, ask all your students to create a decalogue in their journals or writers' notebooks. Good topics: 10 things I know about myself as a writer; 10 things I know about myself as a student; 10 things that make me different from everyone else. I use this graphic organizer when assigning decalogues to my students; it requires them to use complete sentences that start with different words, and my example (page 2) shows what that looks like.
Step one (sharing the published model): Get a copy of Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Read aloud the last few paragraphs of chapter 3, then read all of chapter 4. Talk to your students about how the fourth chapter is a list of ten interesting facts being talked about by two characters. Some writers might have been satisfied keeping the information as a simple list of ten things, but DiCamillo has her two characters interact as one of them shares the ten things with the other. Ask your students to remember details on how the two characters talk. Ask them to recall what interesting new things we learn about all the characters based on this interaction.
Step two (introducing student 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 voice, because of the post-it note that has been embedded on each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's organization as well.
We're looking for student samples from high school for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive choices on the student instruction page might help your students to think of many possibilities on which to base their decalogue stories, but students can certainly find successful ideas for this writing prompt through discussion and brainstorming away from the computer. Each student's task is to imagine a character who might make an interesting decalogue, then create a story where a character reveals his/her decalogue (through dialogue and interactions) to another character.
Step four (revising with specific trait language): 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.
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.
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.
Learn more about author Kate DiCamillo
by clicking here.
