Submitted by Kimberlie Peterson
Objectives:
Content:
Students will...
- explore one emotion in depth through a story that includes a beginning, middle and end.
Cultural:
Students will...
- be sensitive to the difference that may exist between their stories and their peers' stories based on their cultural differences.
Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...
- correctly use past tense as they write about a time when they felt their particular emotion such as: "I felt sad when nobody would talk to me. I was ecstatic when I won first prize."
- use connectors such as "then, next, later, in the end, etc" as they write to transistion from one event to the next. For example: "After, he ran down the hall." "Finally, she sat down and rested."
Language: Content Compatible
Students will...
- use non-threatening language when giving feedback to their partners during the peer-editing phase, such as: "What do you mean here?" "I don't understand this part? " "Who are you talking about?"
Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...
- Write a story complete with a beginning, middle and end using past tense correctly.
- Learn from each other as they go through a peer editing process.
Time Frame:
6 periods of 40 minutes each
Materials Needed:
- Copy of the story "Afraid" or your own story
- Overhead transparencies of the "Story Map": One for each group of three to four students. (print landscape)
- Handout of acrostic poem template
- Overhead transparency of Verbs and Tenses (print landscape)
- Peer editing
- Paper, pencils, computers with Hyperstudio or Power point
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
** Day 1 **
Collect Homework:
The teacher will collect the homework: the list of the top three choice of what emotion they would like to explore in depth.Pre-Task:
After receiving these slips, the teacher will open the lesson by sharing the story that s/he wrote or sharing the sample provided in the hand out section again.During-Task:
After students listen to the story a second time, the teacher will divide students into small groups of three to four students.Using an overhead transparency of the story map found in the hand outs section, small groups will talk about the story and decide together how to fill out the map. The teacher will circulate, helping groups where needed.
After 10 minutes, groups can share with the class, what they decided to write on their map. The class can help groups decide if things should be changed or added.
Post-Task:
Once the story maps are shared, the teacher will ask students to return to the original story. Each student will be handed a highlighter.The teacher will review what a verb is. Students can share some of their ideas and these can be written on the chart (which includes home language equivilant if known). (Verbs/tenses - see Handouts section below)
After the mini-lesson, they will be given one minute to highlight as many verbs as they can find. (Alone or with a partner)
After one minute, the teacher will write these verbs on the chart, asking students where they belong: Present tense? Past tense? Past Participle? etc. Keep this overhead chart and leave it up for students to refer to while they are writing.
** Day 1 **
** Before day 2, finalize the emotions students will be focusing on for their projects.
Pre-Task:
Review connectives such as before, later, after that, in the end, etc. with students. Ask students to again take one minute to go through the original story and underline the connectives that they find. (Alone or with a partner)Make a poster listing all the connectors students find as they share them with the group. Post it somewhere that students can refer to it while they are writing.
Talk about how connectors make a story flow better and easier for the reader to understand. If necessary, read the story to them without the connectors, and ask them to compare it to the original.
Task-Setup:
Explain the assignment: Students will write a story using past tense. It will be about a time when they felt a particular emotion. The three things they should focus on while they write are:
- making sure the story has a beginning, middle and end.
- using past tense correctly.
- Uses at least three connectives in the story: later, afterwards, in the end etc.
Announce the emotion students will be concentrating on.
During Task - The Writing Process:
Pre-Writing:
Give students 3 minutes to brainstorm times when they have felt ________ . They can list them in their notebook.Once students have written down some ideas, guide them to find the memory on their list that would make the best story. If they cannot think of a specific memory, they can use their imagination to create a ficticious story.
Writing:
Students are given 15 to 20 minutes of sustained quiet writing time, to get their ideas down on paper. Spelling, and other writing conventions are not the focus at this point. They should focus on the three focus areas.Homework:
Students who do not finish their story in class, should bring it home and be ready for the editing process to begin the following day.** Day 3 **
Note 1: Students bring their stories with them to class.
Note 2: Teacher should predetermine which students will be partnered together. Heterogenious pairs work best for peer editing. (for example: A student with more advanced language skills paired with a newcomer)Peer Editing:
Hand out the peer editing checklist (see handouts below). Review the peer editing process.
- Students edit/revise one story at a time. Both students focus on one story at a time.
- Student reads his/her partner's story aloud to his/her partner. Both students are looking and listening for unclear parts, missing information, grammatical mistakes, etc.
- Students should fix anything necessary to make a clear, understandable and complete story using a colored pencil.
- The editing process should take 10 to 15 minutes per story.
Students should read the collection of emotions books and stories that are available in the class( for the remainder of the time either in partners or individually).
While students are reading, the teacher can begin calling students up for a writing conference. Students will read their story aloud to the teacher. The teacher can make suggestions of things to add or take away, ask questions to help students think of pieces that may be missing.
Homework - Revisions:
Students should make any necessary changes to their story for homework.** Day 4 **
Students will use the word processor to type their story.
** Day 5 **
Post-Writing:
Students will share their stories with the class in a campfire style format.Pre-Task:
After the discussion, share with students the sample hyperstudio/powerpoint project that the teacher made highlighting the poem that they wrote for the assessment.Students will discuss parts of the poem and what is expected based on the poem shared. The teacher will then show the acrostic poem template and go over specifics of what is expected.
During-Task:
Students will spend the remainder of the time writing their poems.Post-Task:
Poems will be posted on the walls around the room or in the hall for others to see. Students will be given time to view the poems and then decide which one they like the best and explain why they like it to a partner or small group.
Assessment:
Stories will be assessed for proper use of the past tense. They will be corrected for errors prior to the presentation, but errors other than proper tense will not affect their overall grade.
Poems will be evaluated for descriptive verbs and evidence that students understood the template and organization of this poem.
References and Resources:
Attachments:
NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)Acrostic Poem
Peer editing Checklist
STORY MAP
VERBS - Tenses