This Lesson's Title:
"I Never Knew That!"
writing a revelatory narrative about a loved one
This lesson was proposed for WritingFix by NNWP Teacher Consultant Phil Harriman. |
T he ideal "mentor text" that can be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the novel To Kill a Mockingbord by Harper Lee. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 10 of the book.
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. |
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
Step one (sharing the published model): Harper Lee vividly develops a variety of short stories  within her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, providing wonderful models for idea development in narrative pieces of writing.
Chapter ten of To Kill a Mockingbird emerges as a splendid model of a story that centers on a child’s changed perception of her father. The lawyer Atticus Finch must reveal that he is a crack shot with a rifle to his two children; the children never have imagined their peace-abiding father to have the ability to do this before, but it happens right in front of them as chapter 10 plays out. Read it aloud to your students, then--perhaps--show them the brief scene from the motion picture. Celebrate Lee's written details and her marvelous characters.
Ask your students if they believe there is any interesting facts about one of their parents (or any loved one) that they don't know yet. Ask them to imagine how them finding out might play as a scene in a movie.
Tell them they will begin the process of a) discovering something about their parents previously unknown to them by writing their parents a letter, and then b) writing a narrative scene--like a scene from a movie--where they imagine themselves discovering the revelation in an imaginary narrative.
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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 discussion tool that has been included with each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's organization as well.
- 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.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The first interactive button on the Student Instruction Page will help your writers think up questions they might ask their loved ones in a friendly letter. The second interactive button on the page will give your students ideas for descriptions they might use to begin or sustain their narratives they will ultimately write.
As students prepare to write their friendly letters to their parents or loved ones, you can use the friendly letter model below to ensure that they produce a correctly formatted letter.
As students prepare to write their creative narratives, the second attachement will help them organize their stories into three distinct parts.
The third attachment is a two-page drafting sheet that comes with an idea development checklist for them to use when they have completed their drafts.
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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.
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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.
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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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Learn more about Harper Lee by clicking here.
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