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This Lesson's Title:
The Secret Lives of Animals Poems
creating a poem about an animal's imaginary, unknown life
This original writing lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Regan Ringler Hartzell.
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T his on-line writing prompt is based on the poetry of Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot. Before writing to this assignment, students should hear and discuss the poetry of this great poet.
To our loyal WritingFix users: Please use this link if purchasing Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats from Amazon.com, and help keep WritingFix free and on-line. We thank you!
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| A note for teachers: These lessons are posted so that you may borrow ideas from them, but our intention in providing this resource is not to give teachers a word-for-word script to follow. Please, use this lesson's big ideas but adapt everything else. And adapt it recklessly; that's how you become an authentic writing teacher. |
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
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 Step one (sharing the published model): Share the poems "The Naming of
Cats" & "Gus: The Theatre Cat" from T.S. Eliot's book, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, or click
here and open the poems for printing on an overhead transparency.
These poems come from Eliot's collection, which covers thirteen
different characters as well as two additional poems that do not address
a particular cat but rather serve as an introduction and closing to the
book.
First read, "The Naming of Cats," and discuss with the students
how their own pets were named.
Then read "Gus: The Theatre Cat," and allow the
students time to sketch a picture of what they think Gus may have
looked liked (there is great imagery in this poem so this should not be
difficult).
Discuss with the students how Eliot uses rhyme and
alliteration to make his poems interesting.
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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. Encourage the students to talk about the
word choice in each poem, and then to talk about how voice was
accomplished by the writer.
 WritingFix Safely Publishes Students from Around the World! In 2008, we first began accepting students samples from teachers anywhere who use this lesson. Hundreds of new published students now go up at our site annually!
We're currently looking for student samples for other grade levels for this lesson! Help us obtain some from your students, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Visit this lesson's student samples page for details. |
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Students will now be asked to
draw a picture of a favorite pet. While drawing, the students should be
writing down words that describe the pet's mannerisms and behavior. If
students do not have a pet, or choose not to use a pet of their own,
they can use the interactive buttons on the student instructions page to make up a pet of their choice.
After the students have drawn a picture, and come up with some
describing words, the teacher can introduce the graphic organizer for
the student's use. Here, the student will assign human traits to the
animal and assign an occupation for the animal to have. Again, if
students are struggling with names, pet type or occupation, encourage
the students to use the interactive button tool.
Ask the students to
try alliteration on one line and r hyming on some other lines. Recall how
Eliot used both alliteration and rhyming without going overboard.
Encourage the students to play with the words they have written on their
rough drafts. After the students have some god ideas on their rough
drafts, reread "Gus: The Theatre Cat" to them again. Allow the students
time to work on a poem about their animal. Students can share rough drafts with a small group or a partner.
End your session by reading the book Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore to the students, which is a story about a cat who gets six meals a night by going to six different homes and being the pet to six different families. Compare Sid to Gus as a higher-level thinking activity.
 Share Original Graphic Organizers (for Pre-Writing)
from Your Teaching Toolbox.
We share graphic organizers with our peers, we find them in books, and we think we should also be able to find tried-and-true ones online at WritingFix. This year, if you create an original graphic organizer (or adapt one of ours) when you teach this page's lesson, and post it, we might just end up publishing it directly here at WritingFix, and we might just send you a free print resource from the NNWP for being generous.
- Original graphic organizers for specific lessons, like this one, can be submitted as an attachment at this link. Look for the "Reply to this Box" beneath the post. To be able to post, you will need to be a member of our free Writing Lesson of the Month Network.
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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.
 Share Original Revision Techniques or
Adaptations from Your Toolbox.
Inspired by Barry Lane's Reviser's Toolbox, the WritingFix website encourages its teacher users to adapt our lessons, especially the tools of revision we have posted here. If you create an original revision tool (or adapt one of ours) when you teach this page's lesson, and post it, we might just end up publishing it directly here at WritingFix, and we might just send you a free print resource from the NNWP for being generous.
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Original revision ideas from teacher users of WritingFix can be submitted through copy/paste or as an attachment at this link. Look for the "Reply to this Box" beneath the post. To be able to post, you will need to be a member of our free Writing Lesson of the Month Network.
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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): The goal of most lessons posted at WritingFix is that students end up with a piece of writing they like, and that their writing was taken through all steps of the writing process. After revising, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. The writing started with this lesson might become even more polished for final placement in the portfolio, or the big ideas being written about here might transform into a completely different piece of writing. Most likely, your students will enjoy creating an illustration for this writing as they ready to place final drafts in their portfolios.
Interested in publishing student work on-line? You might earn a free classroom resource from the NNWP! We invite teachers to teach this lesson completely, then share up to three of their students' best revised and edited samples at our ning's Publish Student Writers group. Fifty teachers a year who do this will receive a complimentary copy of one of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Print Guides.
To submit student samples for this page's lesson, click here. You won't be able to post unless you are a verified member of this site's Writing Lesson of the Month ning.
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Learn more about poet T.S. Eliot
by clicking here.
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