This Lesson's Title:
Nash-ing the Animals
wordplay for writer's notebooks with Ogden Nash's inspiration
This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Dena Harrison. Check out all of Dena's online writing lessons by clicking here. |
T his on-line writing prompt is based on the poetry of Ogden Nash. Before writing to this assignment, students should hear and discuss the poetry of this great poet.
Click here to learn more about this poet.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for a collection of works by this poet that you can check out from the county library.
|
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
|
Three animal poems by Ogden Nash
The Panther
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.
The Cow
The cow is of bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other is milk.
The Eel
I don't mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.
|
Step one (sharing the published model):
Ogden Nash wrote many poems in his lifetime. He is known for his pun-like writing style and the fact that some of his words are purposefully misspelled for comic effect. Some of most popular were about animals. Share a few of the amusing, short poems he wrote with your students and discuss what makes each so fun and silly. They should notice his inventive rhyming words and creative spelling through their giggles.
|
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; two can be located on the bottom of the Ogden Nash handout from above. Encourage the students to talk about the word choice in each poem, and then to talk about how idea development was accomplished by the writer.
- We're looking for student samples for all grade levels for this prompt! Help us get some, and we'll send you a free resource for your classroom! Contact us at publish@writingfix.com for details.
|
Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Once the models have been shared, have students get out their writer’s notebooks. Now it is time to start generating a few fun animal names on the board to help get everyone thinking. If students can’t seem to find one that grabs them, have them click below on the interactive button above until they find one.
The next step involves using rhyming dictionaries or www.rhymezone.com to generate lists of words that rhyme with their animal. Have them try out two line, three line or even longer poems until they find one that makes them giggle gleefully! Repeat as desired. Encourage your students to try more of these in the future, or even include one in an original story.
|
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.
|
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 poet Ogden Nash by clicking here.
|
