Hi all, I told you I'd post an original lesson if I thought of something. The first part about bringing in objects for students to write about I believe comes from Robert A. Redmond, owner of Real Writing Teachers Listserve.
But the rest is original.....this is a popular children's book that many of might already have (otherwise inexpensive). I hope this might be helpful to somebody. Mem Fox Ideas In Mentor Texts, the authors say that if you have a book that you love and want to use as a mentor, you should go through it and look for all the potential writing lessons that it could be used for, so that students will have the chance to get very familiar with it. I know one of the most favored picture books on this listserve is Mem Fox's Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge....In an effort to prepare myself to use this book, not just at the beginning of the year, but through the year, I searched through this book today.....I hope what I find might be helpful to somebody else....I was excited by what I found.....it is gorgeously crafted with great rhythm and verb use: At the beginning of the year, the book can be used for an "Ideas" lesson..... Basically, the lesson involves bringing in common everyday objects (such as a bandaid, a pebble, etc.) that will spark different memories for different students. This lesson is in our files, and I am excited to try it in August or September with my students. Lesson 2: story structure I believe in Mentor Texts I'm thinking around chapter 2, the authors talk about bringing in books that will encourage students to write about their neighborhoods and the people they know.....Mem Fox uses what I thought was a great structure for describing people in your neighborhoods. I think one of the points from Mentor Texts was also that when we tell what characters DO, we can picture them. Here is a couple pages from the book: He liked Mrs. Jordon who played the organ. He listened to Mr. Hosking who told him scary stories. He played with Mr. Tippett who was crazy about cricket. He ran errands for Miss Mitchell who walked with a wooden stick. He admired Mr. Drysdale who had a voice like a giant. The thing to be noticed and imitated here, of course, is the repetition of the "He (verb) (person) who (action) pattern. I think this could be a great way for students to "shrink a century" in their writing (Barry Lane), which basically means cutting out unnecessary details, while still giving us pretty good information about a character....if we know what they DO, we have a pretty good idea of what they're like. Also, the rhythm is to be admired, and of course the point that verbs are stronger than adjectives becomes apparent. Certainly, a group story could be creating through shared writing that imitates this structure for parts of a narrative. Lesson 3: Tone/Voice/Word Choice/Repeated Structure When we want to show somebody's voice and tone, we can choose words that can show personality and mood. Wilfrid goes around asking people, "What's a memory?" Once again, there is quite a bit of repeated structure. Here are some of the responses, each slightly varied according to the character's personality, but using the same repeated structure: "Something that makes you laugh, my darling, something that makes you laugh." (The darling is supposed to show a sweet, happy personality. "Something that makes you cry, my boy, something that makes you cry." (The "my boy" shows the speech of a traditional older man..." Once again, there is a repeated structure here to notice. Lesson 4: Definition Writing Lastly, when poetry is studied, or (even expository writing) there is a definition structure in this book. The child wants to know what a memory is, and each of his friends gives him a different definition. Those on Middleweb listserve, might have had a chance to look at the poetry slam they do each spring. I believe it was Beverly Maddox's class (or Tena, was it yours?) who created some really neat definition poems, such as: Love is.... A sunset is... etc. This could also be used in social studies or science lessons: (Electricity is....) (War is....) I'd love feedback on any of these lessons, especially #3....is it clear? would students understand? I hope they might be helpful to some of you. I know many of us have this book! As I go through my other favorite books I'll share what I found....I'd appreciate it if some of you could do the same. Do any of you have "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street." I might go through that one next. _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
