This Lesson's Title:

The Important Thing about Strong Writing: Details

four memorable details create an organized paragraph

This lesson idea was proposed to WritingFix by NNWP Teacher Consultant Kim Polson.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Check out The Important Book at Amazon.com.

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

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :

Step one (sharing the published model):  After reading some or all of The Important Book, point out the specific pattern the author used, but also take note of how specific the details were in describing each object.  As Brown proves through her writing, sometimes the most obvious details about items can make descriptions interesting, if the obvious details are written interestingly.  Brown chooses interesting verbs and nouns and adjectives to craft memorable details.

As a class, compose an original Important Book passage together.  Choose a topic all can relate to...perhaps "The Important Thing About Candy."  Students will most likely start out by suggesting simple details, like "It tastes good," and "I love candy."  Write simple details down on a section of the white board or chalk board called "Details that need to become memorable."

Model how you would revise one of their simple details.  Change "Candy tastes good" into something like "When it touches my tongue, pure happiness drips into my bloodstream."  Point out how strong verbs (touches and drips), interesting adjectives (pure), and precise nouns (tongue and bloodstream) are the foundations of memorable details.

In student groups, have writers revise the other details the need to become more memorable.  As they work, repeatedly stress these words: "Strong verbs, interesting adjectives, and precise nouns please."  Have groups share aloud, and celebrate how different some of their revisions will be.

Step two (introducing 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.

• Three first graders share their important passages
• Six third graders share their important passages
• Six fourth graders share their important passages
• We're seeking middle school and high school student samples for this writing prompt. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have samples and want to earn a classroom resource.

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): After you have read The Important Book with your students, talked about the obvious pattern on each page, modeled and tried writing some memorable details, and looked at some student samples, it's time to have each individual write four for practice.

Use the interactive button games above to inspire a detailed description of an item not on Brown's original book.  Students can attempt to write their own version of The Important Book with completely different items.  Remind them to be specific with details when describing the attributes of the object they are writing about.

• Revising Details: Example
• Pre-writing using memorable details

Step four (revising with specific trait language):   Two tools for revision are provided below.  You can use one or both, depending on how much time you have to spend on this assignment.

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 Margaret Wise Brown by clicking here.