Save the best for last...

I must admit...this lesson was "borrowed" from a good friend and great 8th grade Langauage Arts teacher. I had never heard of this story before, but it is an amazing short story with an interesting view on kindergarteners and honesty.

"Charles," a short story by Shirley Jackson, is one of those stories that makes you laugh, cry, and cringe, all at once. It is about a kinderarten boy that tells stories of another student's misbehaviors to his parents. This causes the parents great concern, so they seek to find out more about this troubled child, only to find that no such child exists. You can find this story online at http://www.lordalford.com/9grade/ss/CHARLESbyShirleyJacksonSTORY.doc in its entirety. In the following mini lesson, I will use the story as a sort of writing prompt.

This mini lesson is appropriate for grades 7-9.

Read the story to the class.
Ask them questions about the story, like:
Who do you think did all of these bad things?
Why do you think Laurie created Charles and lied to his parents?
Do you think Laurie could have done things differently?

Next, each student is to write about a time that they may have lied to their parents about something they thought they could "get away with". They should include whether they were caught in the lie, as well as how they could have handled the situation differently and why. This story should be very detailed and will be revised and edited multiple times before presenting to the class/teacher.

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Writing Process Standard ~ Formulate writing ideas and identify a topic appropriate to the purpose and audience)

Poetry turned teacher

"Where the Sidewalk Ends," the poems and drawings of Shel Silverstein, is a book filled with funny, heartwarming, irrational, and, believe it or not, educational poems. Children of all ages fall in love with the words in this book. I have used this book in lesssons before, for reading, but now I would like to put it to use as a writing teacher.

This mini lesson is appropriate for grades 6-8.

Page 98 of the book holds a poem called, Point of View. Read the poem aloud to the class. Ask them to consider the point of view of the "subjects" in the poem. Read each section again, noting the points the author makes about the subjects' feelings.

Next, ask the students to pick one of the subjects from the poem and write a brief argument for their feelings. This is a quick and fun way to intoroduce persuasive writing (persuading the reader/diner not to eat the subject). Advise them that they will be using a combination of facts and opinions to validate their argument.

As a quick extension to the lesson, you can have students write on the other point of view...the diner!

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard ~ Recognize the difference between cause and effect and fact and opinion to analyze text)

Dancing with Beginnings...

"Dance at Grandpa's", by Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a wonderfully illustrated picture book. The book is fairly short and exhibits differences in sentence beginnings. Using this book to help teach students how to write using different beginnings to their sentences is a great place to start.

This mini lesson is appropriate for grades 2-4.

After students have written a writing piece (any type of writing), take a look at this book as a class.

Together with the students, write down all of the sentence beginnings from the book (1st 2-3 words). How many of these are the same? Note the many differences in how the author starts her sentences.

Next, ask students to do this same thing with their own writing sample. If there are sentences with the same beginnings, as them to create new beginnings for these sentences. Even if the sentence has to be completely rewritten, an attempt to make a change should be made. Once complete, start eh exercise over to be sure they haven't recreated a repetitive begninner.

As always, allow students to share their writing pieces and/or the changes that they chose to make to their piece during this exercise. Students often enjoy showing others how they have improved on something they have created.

(Ohio's Academic Content Standard: Literary Text Standard ~ Explain how an author's word choice and use of methods influences the reader, Writing Process Standard ~ Edit to improve sentence fluency, grammar and usage.)

Letters to the Chef...

"Some Friends to Feed: The Story of Stone Soup", by Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs, tells the story of a hungry soldier that tricks a village into sharing their food. It has been written and re-written. Many lessons can come from this for students of all ages.

This mini lesson is focused on grades 5-7.

Mini Lesson ~ A Letter to the "Chef"

1. Read the book aloud. Again, be sure to allow the students to see all of the wonderful illustrations. This is a great picture book and they should be shared!

2. Talk to the students about the book. Ask them to think about the following: How did it make them feel? Was the soldier right or wrong in his trickery? Were the villagers right or wrong in denying him food? Should the children have responded to the soldier in the way they did? What would you have done if you were the soldier? The villagers? The children?

3. Next, put the students in pairs and allow them to discuss the "rights" and "wrongs" as they see it. They should begin to take notes on their discussion to prepare them for their writing.

4. Next, each student will write a letter to one of the characters in the book. They can choose any character they like and express their opinion through another chaaracter's voice. For example, if they choose to write to the soldier, they may be one of the villagers complaining about how he tricked their children and give supporting details as to why it was wrong. The letter is to be written in proper business form.

Extension: Students can share their letters by "mailing" them to one another. You could even separate the students into groups (i.e soldiers and villagers) and they can write to one another, justifying their side. Then, each student can respond, in writing, to another student's letter, fighting their own argument. This would be somewhat like a debate on paper.

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Writing Applications Standard ~ Produce letters that address audience needs, stated purpose and context in a clear and efficient manner)

How to...

Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon! by Pat Cummings, is a funny book about a kid that doesn't like to clean his room, but loves cartoons! What kid doesn't?!?!? It is a fun book to read, so I think it is a great book to teach with.

This mini lesson can be used for the primary classroom. (My daughter picked this out and she is in 2nd grade)

Mini Lesson ~ How to... (a lesson in sequencing)

1. Read the book aloud. As Always, be sure to allow the students to see all of the wonderful illustrations. They make the book so much fun to read!

2. Ask the students to consider the steps Harvey took to begin the cleaning process. (Putting dirty clothes in the hallway, clean under the bed, then the closet, etc.)

3. Next, each student should write in their journal a topic they would like to teach someone "How to" do.

4. Once the topic has been selected, ask the students to make their own list of the things they need to tell their audience about their topic. Allow students to partner up and help each other complete their lists after they have run out of ideas.

5. Then, the students should write out their ideas as a set of directions. Be sure to emphasize the importance of the SEQUENCE (proper order) of the directions.

6. Finally, ask each student to read their "How To" aloud. Students will enjoy learning new things and teaching new things! Happy learning!!!!

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Writing Applications Standard ~ Compose writings that convey a clear message and include well-chosen details.)

Teapots Full of Words

"I'm a Little Teapot" as told and illustrated by IzaTrapani is a simple book, reciting a basic Nursery Rhyme. These are some of my favorite books to use with young children. The pictures in this book are bright and fun and have the tendency to draw children in. This minilesson would be used with Primary students.

Minilesson: Rhyming and Writing

1. Start by asking the class to raise their hand if they are familiar with the nursery rhyme, "I'm a Little Teapot".

2. Read the book aloud to the class, while they sit and listen and take in the pictures the first time. Remember to be animated and give plenty of picture viewing time...kids love that!

3. Read the book to the class a second time, allowing them to spread out and "act out" the words of the rhyme. This is just a fun activity to get them excited about the book and the lesson.

4. Next, ask the class to help you pick out the rhyming words in the story. Go page by page and write the words on the board as the class comes up with them. Then, ask them if they know of any other words that rhyme.

5. Now the fun begins...come up with a topic that is CLASS friendly (ex. recess, vacations, etc.). Write the topic on the board so that it is easily revisited. Ask each student to write down a set of rhyming words that comes to mind when they think of that topic. Remind them that they can use any of their senses to describe the topic. What do they See, Hear, Feel, Taste and Smell when they think of this?

6. Once they all have their words chosen, each student will write 2 lines of a poem, using their chosen words, describing the topic and their feelings about or experiences with that topic. It is important for them to know that the rhyming words should be at the end of each of 2 lines (and this is the hard part for students). **Give them an example if necessary, but use a different topic so that they don't get stuck on your idea.

7. When all students have completed this writing, allow them to share their pieces with the class. It is like sharing a masterpiece!

Extension: To make the lesson come to life for the students, you can do many things. You can create a poster that combines all of their SHORT poems into one long poem about the topic. Seeing their work "published" like that will make the writing worth while to them.

OR, you can have the class help you put the pieces into an order that makes sense, thereby helping them to learn the organizational aspect of writing.

Though this lesson can be completed with any number of Nursery Rhymes, I really like using this book because of the wonderful illustrations and the great way you can get your class up and moving to get them involved.

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Writing Process Standard ~ Generate ideas for written compositions, Writing Conventions Standard ~ Spell grade-appropriate words correctly)