This Lesson's Title:

Launching a Fantastic Voyage

organizing the start of a
sci-fi-like adventure

This lesson was created by Northern Nevada Teacher Cathy Guild.

The ideal "mentor text" that can be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially excerpts from the first seven chapters.

Click here to view this book at Amazon.com.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

Just as Madeleine L’Engle wrote her characters their own fantastic journey in A Wrinkle in Time, students will write about a fantastic journey from their own imaginations.  Students will choose interesting characters, an unusual mode of transportation, and a destination that is somehow amazing, extraordinarily beautiful, terrifying or ominous.  This assignment requires them to use details to create a balance of showing and telling skills as well as incorporating interesting adjectives and strong verbs to keep the sentences compelling and interesting to read. Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; the writers goal is to create sentences that use a balance of showing and telling skills as well as choosing interesting, high-quality details when describing their characters, setting and mode of transportation.  The support trait in this assignment is organization; the graphic organizer has students brainstorm ideas and plan purposeful paragraphs before writing.