This Lesson's Title:

Launching a Fantastic Voyage

organizing the start of a
sci-fi-like adventure

This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Cathy Guild 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 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.

Check out A Wrinkle in Time at Amazon.com.

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

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :

Step one (sharing the published model):  Get a copy of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.  Read Chapter 6, which takes the characters on a journey to learn the secret to why their father has disappeared for so long.  Discuss how the chapter shows and tells the reader about the journey by using adjectives and verbs that make the writing interesting.  Ask you students what kind of fantastic journey they might go on and how they could make their writing interesting for the reader.

Create a list of strong verbs and interesting adjectives with your students to get your students thinking about how they can use these words to make their ideas come to life. Tell your students they will be writing a scene for a story in which the characters begin a journey to a destination that is somehow amazing, extraordinarily beautiful, terrifying or ominous.  They will need to use a mode of transportation in their writing, and even though it may be an ordinary mode of transportation, they need to find a way to make it unusual.  Have students use the Interactive Button Game to get ideas for characters, mode of transportation and destination.

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 idea development, because of the embedded discussion tool that comes with each set.  You might also have your students talk about the organization 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 their scenes and choices for characters, mode of transportation and destination.

This lesson comes with a pre-writing worksheet to help students launch and organize their ideas. We've also provided a drafting sheet with an embedded idea development checklist. After students have written a draft, have them rate their own use of the idea development trait.

• Idea Development & Organization Planning Tool
• Drafting Sheet with Idea Development Embedded Post-It

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.

• Sheet of 6 Idea Development Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Organization Post-It Notes

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 Madeleine L'Engle and
A Wrinkle in Time by clicking here.