A lesson plan for teaching creative writing through trick stories to second graders

Lesson Plan

Developing Writing and Reading Skills for Second Graders

Standards and Objectives: The objectives of this lesson plan include: a) inspiring students to create ideas with light-hearted fun; b) learning to write creatively; c) learning to speak in front of the class with poise and clarity

Length of Lesson: Two full days of classroom work

Required Materials for Students: Paper, pencils

Required Materials for Teachers: A tricky story to read; scratch paper to pass out to students

Instructional Plan:

What will you do?

The teacher reads a humorous story to the class, using great emphasis and stopping at key points to ask the class what will happen next. The story is about a young boy who got confused on his way from school. He met a girl while coming home from school who asked if he had an apple in his backpack. "Yes I do," he said. "Well, I haven't had an apple in so many weeks," she said. So she offered to trade an orange for an apple. Jimmy had not eaten his apple during lunch -- he had a bag of potato chips instead of the apple his mother game him. He liked oranges so he made the trade. He took the orange home and when he tried to peel the orange he realized it wasn't really an orange. It was an orange-colored ball that came apart in his hands. Inside the hollow part was a note:

"You are going to go to the window now and look out to the sidewalk." Jimmy went to the window and looked out to the sidewalk and there was the girl he traded with. She was holding a big sign that read: "Get down on your knees and say APPLE, APPLE,

APPLE, while your eyes are closed." Jimmy did that and when he opened his eyes the girl was gone. He was tricked. He laughed out loud and planned his own next trick.

What will you all do?

The teacher instructs the class (now with paper and pencil in hand) to think of the time when an older brother or sister, or cousin or friend, played a trick on you. It can't be a mean trick, but a fun trick where no one was hurt. Alternatively, dream up a trick you can play on a friend or a brother or sister.

Developing Writing and Public Speaking Skills for Fifth Graders

Standards and Objectives: The objectives of this lesson plan include: a) finding and portraying happy ending incidents; b) learning "quick write" skills; c) learning how to stand, speak, and emphasize in front of a class that is not your own

Length of Lesson: Two full days of classroom work

Required Materials for Students: paper, pencils

Required Materials for Teachers: paper and pencils

Instructional Plan:

What will you do?

Today's assignment is to write a story with a happy ending, a positive ending. It can be something that happened to your family, something that happened to a friend or a relative. It can be a fictional story but it must be in good taste and must be able to be read in 2 minutes in front of the class. If the happy ending story concludes with a surprise, that makes the story stronger and is worth more points. Tomorrow we are visiting the 4th grade class next door and they will judge the best happy ending stories and the Fifth Grader whose story is judged the best happy ending story -- by the 4th graders -- will win a gift certificate for a new book at Brian's bookstore. Here is an example of happy ending story. True story: my cousin Betty lives in Joplin, Missouri, where they had the huge tornado on May 22, 2011. One hundred and fifty eight people were killed. Betty and her family were warned that a massive tornado was heading directly for Joplin and they left their home in a hurry, but before they left they could not find their little Chihuahua named Peter. They looked for him but the sirens were sounding that warned the tornado was just minutes away, so they had to leave without their sweet little dog. Betty is a single mom and her two children cried and cried because they didn't want to leave Peter, but their lives were on the line. The next day Betty and her children returned to where there home was, but everything was gone; only broken glass and twisted boards remained, and there was no Peter to be found. They stayed in a motel for a month, figuring they had lost Peter forever. But while driving her kids to school on a Friday Betty's cell phone rang. It was a high school student in Bentonville, Arkansas. He said, "Do you have a dog named Peter?" "Yes," Betty blurted out. "I found him limping through our neighborhood and the tag on his collar led me to you." The next day, Saturday, Better and the girls drove the 60 miles to Bentonville and retrieved Peter, who had a broken leg and was very thin, but he was alive. How he got there was a mystery.

What will you all do?

The teacher passes out paper and pulls out a stopwatch; the students have 14 minutes to write a rough draft of a happy ending. It can be bullet points or a quick outline.

What will students do?

More paper is passed out. The assignment is another 14 minute speed writing test, re-writing the rough draft of stories. The teacher moves around the class to look at every happy ending and makes edits, suggestions. The students are free for the last ten minutes of class to read their stories to each other. They take them home to final edit them.

Plan for re-teaching / accommodation:

The next day the students -- three at a time -- go into the 4th grade class and each student reads his short happy ending story (in two minutes or less -- a stopwatch is used and if a student goes over a whistle blows and he has to stop). Students in the 4th grade class number each presentation and give each a value, 1 to 10 (ten being the best). The number grade is based 70% on the quality of the story and 30% on the quality of the presentation. After all the stories are presented, the 4th grade teacher collects the evaluations and gives them to the 5th grade teacher, who uses a calculator to determine which happy ending story got the highest ranking.

Assessment Plan:

The teacher reads the best three happy ending stories. As she reads each one, the student that wrote it stands up and listens as the teacher explains why it was #3, and students are asked to comment in why they liked it or not. Finally, the top-rated story is read, and the teacher hands the gift certificate for a new book to the winning student.