I+went+walking+(lesson+plan)

Learning Goals Students will begin to build knowledge about the “idea” trait.

Ideas The ideas are the main message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the supporting details that enrich and develop that theme. The ideas are strong when the message is clear, not garbled. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative–often the kinds of details the reader would not normally anticipate or predict. Successful writers do not "tell" readers things they already know; e.g., "It was a sunny day, and the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy white …" Successful writers "show" readers that which is normally overlooked; writers seek out the extraordinary, the unusual, the unique, the bits and pieces of life that might otherwise be overlooked.

Activity type(s) Pre-Writing (structured to prepare students for writing and to activate their prior knowledge)

Brainstorming Start with an image of Rosie (the hen) from Rosie’s Walk, and a simple sentence, i.e., “She went for a walk.” Pose question: How can we develop an idea for a story? We ask questions—what does a sentence like this bring to mind? Offer some examples: “Where did she go? Why did she go on this walk?” “What did she see on this walk?” Students share/brainstorm a list of questions. Freewriting Using these questions, students will then add some life to the original sentence—details, description, etc. to help it become a “super sentence,” or the germ of an interesting idea for a story! Students start writing and just keep going, not worrying about mistakes or style.

Technologies Brainstorming: interactive white board (students will write questions on board in color—the original sentence will be black and white)

Freewriting: word processing via individual wiki page (students will freewrite on their individual pages to come up with their “super sentence”— or the germ of an idea for a story). This is something we can come back to as students build more knowledge about the “idea” trait (and other traits)