Lesson: writing and responding
Unit: The Lorax project
Materials: Journal responses, paper, and pencils.
Age Level: 3rd-6th
Space Requirements: classroom
Time: 50 minutes
Objectives:
· Students will learn basic aspects of letters, monologues, dialogues,
speech, and stories
· Students will learn how to respond to their peers writing
· Students will share their journal entries with each other
Goals: To teach the students about the specific writing forms: Letter,
monologue,
dialogue, speech, and story. To teach students about responding to each
other's
work.
Plan: 20 minutes: Mini lessons on each type of writing.
Tell the students that they will be polishing a journal entry in to
one of these
forms. Split students in to 5 groups. Assign each group a form of writing,
and
have them write down what distinguishes this form from the others. Give
students about 8-10 minutes to work this out. Then have each group present
to
the class. After each presentation have a discussion where other students
and
the teacher can add things they didn’t have. Show example of each.
[Letters: personal vs. professional. Include greeting, point of letter,
conclusion, and signature.
Monologues: specific audience, specific speaker, inner thoughts of character.
Dialgoue: Multiple speakers, conversational language.
Speech: Main point, proof to back up point, reasons for audience to
agree
with you. Short, to the point.
Story: Beginning, middle and end. Introduce and develop characters.]
15 minutes: Mini lesson on peer responding.
Discuss aspects of peer responding, go over sheet, and do a response
as a group.
[Things to remember: Say things in a constructive way. All comments
are
only suggestions, and do not have to be used. We are just trying to
help
each other. During the first responding session, do not worry about
spelling and grammar. Follow peer responder sheet. Give honest and
detailed answers.]
15 Minutes: Peer response groups
Split in to groups of four. Have each student pick their best journal
entry and
share it with his or her group. Their homework is to use that journal
entry and
write it in the specified format. Tell them that starting Monday they
will meet
with their groups and do peer responding, so they have to have their
first draft
done by Monday.
What teachers will do during the week:
Monday: Have students get in to their peer responding groups and trade
papers with one
person in their group. They should use the peer response guide.
Tuesday: Give students time to revise their writing using the response
their peers gave
them.
Wednesday: Have students meet in their groups again and trade their
papers with a
different person in their group. Respond to each other's writing.
Thursday: Give students time to make a final draft of their writing.
[Throughout the week, encourage students who are good writers and/or
really enjoying the project to revise more of their journal entries
in to final drafts. Encourage the groups to not all polish the same
journal entry, we are looking for entries in each category.]
