Welcome to this Lesson:

Same-Theme/
Different-Story Stories

exploring a good book's many themes, then writing a new story that teaches the same theme

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Corbett Harrison. Check out all of Corbett's on-line lessons by clicking here.

The mentor text:

Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore tells the story of a clever cat at his neighbors who don't talk to each other, all feeding him and unaware of the others' actions. See what happens when Sid moves to a neighborhood where the neighbors talk.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

After enjoying the charming and well-paced story of Six-Dinner Sid, students will work in small groups to generate possible themes that the book is trying to teach its readers. Themes will be shared whole-group, and a class list of the best themes will be posted for all to choose from. Students are then challenged to create a completely original story that teaches one of the class's chosen themes. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait for this writing assignment is idea development; to plan and then write a story based on a pre-determined theme is an excellent way to learn about idea development.  The support trait in this assignment is organization; writers are challenged to begin their original stories with an intriguing first sentence.