Pre-step…before sharing the published model: Play the song “10:15 on a Saturday Night” by the Cure for your students and discuss any poetic elements of the song that seem to stand out. Guide the discussion, if necessary, to the onomatopoeia. (“Drip, drip, drip, drip…”) Ask them what they think this dripping might represent. Guide them, if necessary, to the sound of a clock ticking and the tap dripping in time to the clock. The Cure uses this onomatopoetic technique to show the passage of time. Explain to students that onomatopoeia is a word whose sound makes you think of their meanings. See if students can brainstorm more examples of these types of words and write on them on the board.

Step one…sharing the published model: Put The Cure’s song lyrics on the overhead; use the Google link above (just below the picture of the album cover) to find a set to print on a transparency. Read through the song with your students as you listen to it again. You may also want to point out the fact that this is a free verse poem/song and the words do not rhyme. Explain to them that free verse poetry is a fun form of poetry because it is mostly patterned after speech and images. Another great thing about free verse poetry is that you have the freedom to use sound effects and shortened lines whenever you feel, without worrying about getting your words to rhyme!

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 post-it note that has been embedded on each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's (Word Choice) as well.

Two seventh graders share their "One Minute in Time" poems.

Step three…thinking and pre-writing: Remember, the focus trait for this lesson is Idea Development. Have the students get into groups of two and brainstorm some important events in life that you would count down to, where the last minute before might be significant. Check out the buttons above for a couple of seed ideas to get them going. For those students who are having trouble coming up with ideas, click below again for even more idea starters! Once they have come up with three or four, have them choose their two favorites. Choose a few students to share their ideas with the class. Students may either work together on this poem, providing two different perspectives of the same moment, or by themselves on just one view of the moment they chose.

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.

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