writing creative "biographies" for equations and graphs that just want to dance!
This lesson was created for WritingFix after being proposed by Northern Nevada Writing Project Consultant Holly Young.
This writing prompt inspired by
Great Disco Music!
Click here to do a Google search for the lyrics to "Shake your Booty."
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Pre-step…before sharing models of writing: You need to get your students laughing about crazy dance moves before starting this assignment. You can either have them all stand up, put on some old music, and make fun of the dance steps from past generations, or--if you happen to have access to YouTube at your school (or know how to download one of their videos to your I-Pod), you can show a video clip from the television show "Dancing with the Stars," using the link below. If you can't see the video link just below, you are on a computer that doesn't allow access to YouTube; you can certainly watch the video later on a computer that allows you access.
Once everyone has been warmed up with some dance exposure, students are introduced to representing polynomial graphs through disco dance moves to imitate the shapes of the graphs. End behavior is shown with respect to the placement of the students’ hands. Students dance to the Powerpoint of the Graphs using a popular disco song like "Stayin’ Alive" by the Bee Gees or "Shake Your Booty" by K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
Students fill out the“Dancing with the Stars” graphic organizer. The term “shoulder action” is used to describe graphs with multiple terms; these graphs have strange behavior around the x-axis, but the end behavior or the general shape of the graph is unchanged.
Step one…sharing published models:Students need to look over the written biographies of dancing stars from the actual "Dancing with the Stars" show. Ask them to discuss the types of details (idea development) that they see being shared in the introductions. How are the biographies organized, and introduced? What words--especially verbs and adjectives--stand out? Have the students discuss the writing.
Tell students they will be creating biographies for dancers on an imaginary new television show called "Dancing with the Math Stars!" Instead of famous actors, this new show will have equations and graphs dance against each other. The biographies the students create must creatively show mathematical knowledge of the equations and graphs. These imaginary biographies will need to look similar to the actual examples from above, but also look like the student samples we provide here.
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 should certainly talk about idea development, because that's this lesson's focus trait, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's voice as well. Where did the student writers creatively use math facts in their "biographies" the best?
Because this is a new lesson at WritingFix, 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: To get their minds back on the kinesthetics of dancing, students should be asked to dance their interpretations of the graphs one more time.
After some movement, why not have your students talk about dance vocabulary words? Ask your students to consider which vocabulary words from this four-page list might be applied to the mathematical concepts you have been studying in class?
Next comes their chance to choose a graph that they are struggling to remember. This is the graph that they will create a “Dancing with the Stars Biography” graphic organizer for, ultimately writing a draft of a biography for their "dancing graph or equation." Here is a list of twenty options your students might choose from when creating their dancers.
It might be a good idea to play disco music while students are writing and discussing what they are writing; some great music selections are Beethoven’s 5th (the disco version) and KC & the Sunshine Band's"Shake Your Bootie." If students are having difficulty coming up with personalities to assign their graphs, have them play with the interactive choice buttons on the Student Instruction Page until they find something they like!
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.
Click here for a great list of dancing vocabulary words to share with your students.
