This Lesson's Title:

The Sibling
Report

organizing a bad-situation-that-gets-worse story

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Dena Harrison. Check out all of Dena's online writing lessons by clicking here.

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

Check out Tub-boo-boo at Amazon.com.

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

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :

Pre-step…before sharing the published model:  Ask students to brainstorm "Things you might expect a news reporter on television to say."  Write them down on the board for later reference.  Discuss how certain jobs--like news reporters--need to use certain voices when they do their jobs.

Brainstorm other jobs that might have unique voices.

Step one (sharing the published model):  Margie Palatini has done it again!  Her Tub-boo-boo story is charming!  In it, she tells the story of a boy who gets his toe stuck in the spigot of the bath-tub.  Remember when that happened to Mary Tyler Moore on the Dick Van Dyke Show?  Palatini sets up a wonderful "bad-situation-that-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better" scenario as other characters, trying to help, get stuck in the spigot too.  Talk about embarrassing! 

What's even better is that the whole story is introduced (and reported on) by the older sister.  The sister stands on the front lawn and introduces us to the tale as though she is a news reporter breaking the story for the six o'clock news.  Charming, charming, charming!  And easily impersonated!

Share Margie Palatini's wonderful tale, Tub-boo-boo, with your student writers.  As they listen, have them actively think about two things:

1)  Listen for the voice of the narrator and ask, "When does she sound most like a news reporter?  What does she say?"

2)  Listen for the sequence of events in the story about the household accident.  The situation builds upon itself before it resolves itself.  What steps make up the sequence of events?

After sharing the story, have students talk about these two questions with each other, then report out loud to the class.

Inform students they will be writing their own bad-situation-gets-worse stories today, and they will borrow Palatini's idea of introducing the story as though they are the older or younger sibling who is introducing us to the story in the voice of a news reporter.

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 organization, because that's this lesson's focus, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's voice as well.

• We're looking for student samples for all grade levels for this prompt!  Help us get some, and we'll send you free books for your classroom!  Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive button choices on the Student Instructions Page can certainly inspire your students to begin generating ideas for this assignment, but you can certainly create a class brainstorm that accomplishes the same without being on the computer.

Pass out the graphic organizer and have students plan the parts of their stories before they begin drafting.  Encourage good sequencing and pacing by suggesting they give "equal time" to all the parts of the story. Suggest they not rush through certain parts of the story and spend huge amounts of time on other parts; remind them at a well-organized story gives equal time to all its important parts.

Once the graphic organizer is completed, allow students to draft their stories on their own paper. 

• Planning the parts of the story handout

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 Organization Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Voice 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 Margie Palatini's books
by clicking here!