Creating a great friendly letter by brainstorming great questions
This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Shannon Mullen at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers.
The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from pages 14-30 of the 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 (before sharing the published model): Prior to sharing excerpts from Dear Mr. Henshaw, the teacher should give some background information about this text. This is a story of a boy who begins writing to an author in second grade. As his own life becomes more difficult, he continues to write to this author. One letter asks a series of questions for an assignment in school. The author, Mr. Henshaw, then replies with his own series of questions. This idea is the springboard for this assignment.
Step one (sharing the published model):Read pages 14 – 30 in Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Throughout the reading, stop and discuss the details that Leigh uses to respond to the questions. He does not simply answer the questions asked, but extends to add details to help create a picture of his life. Ask questions such as: What does this give the reader? How does it help create a picture in your mind? What does this help us understand about the character, Leigh?
Re- read one or both of the letters dated November 24th (pg. 20) and/or November 26th (pg. 23). Have students summarize the information Leigh provides in these letters.
Tell students as they prepare to write friendly letters to their own authors, they will first imagine a series of questions that an author might ask them, and they will use these imagined questions to introduce themselves in the first half of their letters.
In the second half of their letters, students will ask interesting questions of the author, explaining their interest in knowing the answers.
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 organization, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might also have your students talk about the idea development in the writing too.
We're looking for student samples for all grade levels 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 Button Game on the Student Instructions Page will get your students thinking about authors they might write, and questions they might answer about themselves as they prepare to introduce themselves to their author.
Before students write, create two class charts of interesting questions. The first chart should be interesting questions that an author might ask them. "What grade are you in?" isn't very interesting, but "What do you like best about being in the fourth grade?" is. If students suggest a less-than-interesting question to add to the class chart, help them revise it before you write it on the chart.
The second chart should be interesting questions that they might ask an author. Again, don't accept uninteresting questions; help your students revise and create powerful questions.
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 Beverly Cleary by clicking here.
