This Lesson's Title:

What Got
Stolen?

using excellent details to launch organized, original mystery story

This lesson idea was proposed by Northern Nevada teacher Jenn Potter at an SBC-sponsored inservice class.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Grandpa's Teeth by Rod Clement. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Check out Grandpa's Teeth at Amazon.com.

Washoe County teachers, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

The writer will plan a scene from a story where a character confronts another character about something that has been stolen.  Descriptive details need to take precedence in this scene, as only a limited number of dialogue exchanges will be permitted.  At the scene's conclusion, a surprise ending (like that from Grandpa's Teeth) should be encouraged by the teacher. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; strong details that use action verbs and interesting adjectives should be encouraged.  The support trait in this assignment is organization; this writing prompt comes with a graphic organizer that will require writers to pre-plan paragraphs that have a purpose.