Writing Lesson Plans... That Don't Rush The Writing

Beautiful literature and awe-inspiring stories are essentially artistically patterned words. Color to the visual artist is what words are to the writer. So why would any creator want to rush through his masterpiece? But for some odd reason, student writers often want to race through their writing assignments in an attempt to be the first ones done so that they can yell - “Finished!”  Imagine if Shakespeare had taken this approach?

These lesson plans are designed to show students that the process of writing can be empowering, rewarding, and fun. Plant this idea in your students’ minds: The practice of good writing is like eating a delicious piece of rich, creamy chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries – savor each morsel and layer for lasting satisfaction. Don’t gulp it down and wind up with a bad stomachache.

Reward your students for not rushing. Set a timer. Tell your students, “No one should be finished with this first draft until after the timer goes off. If I see anyone finished before the timer rings, you don’t get (insert reward of your choice-a piece of cake, or fruit if your school has a no sweet policy)."

At the beginning of the school year, have students make posters that drive home this point. Have them make posters that say things like “Writing Well Requires Thought and Time," “Take Your Time to Write it Right” and “Writing is Not a Race." Refer to these posters when students want to rush through assignments.

The following lessons can help students enjoy the delicious experience of creating great writing by implementing brainstorming practices, constructing categories of genre, exploring descriptive vocabulary, and investigating revising techniques. You can use the techniques in these lessons to train students to write with thought, focus and style.

Language Arts Lessons That Can Make Writing Exceptional:

Writing Traits Instruction: In this lesson students discover the qualities that make a good piece of writing even better.  The teacher lists these traits on the board or overhead (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation). Students give scores to various examples of written work. This lesson reminds students that revision is the key to successful writing, and that the art of writing is indeed a process. This lesson gives students the opportunity to employ the art of critique as well. I would make sure that students are involved in creating the actual rubric scores to give them a firmer grasp of the style, and traits that make certain writing worthy of higher scores.

Short But Sweet: Writing News Summaries: Students work in small groups to analyze, compare, and contrast the articles of their choice. They learn about the steps, and criteria necessary for summarizing news stories. Students also write their own original news summaries. I particularly like that this lesson empowers students by giving them the opportunity to choose their own articles to summarize. As a warm up to this lesson I would have my students create their own mnemonic device to help them remember the necessary steps for summarizing. This mneumonic can not only be applied to this lesson, but to any future lessons pertaining to summarizing.

Prize Winning Prose: Developing Kid's Pulitzer's: This lesson provides students the opportunity to learn about the history of the Pulitzer Prize. They then develop criteria used to award “Kids Pulitzers." They will determine categories of writing and explain why certain writing was worthy of the “Kids Pulitzer Prize." I particularly like that this lesson empowers students by giving them the opportunity to choose their own articles to summarize. I would have a list vocabulary words, such as “criteria," “universality," and “subjective” on the board so that students could learn the meaning of these words, and refer to them throughout the lesson.

Putting It Together: Students examine samples from literature for elements that make excellent writing (leads, conclusions and descriptions). Students will implement revision in order to showcase their writing talents. They will practice descriptive writing and figurative language devices through fun, interactive, and interesting classroom exercises. I love examples of literature, and accompanying exercises that give young readers and writers the opportunity to first see what great writing is, and then practice getting to that point individually. I would also be sure to include examples from contrasting styles so that students would be able to clearly identify different styles. For example, Sandra Cisneros who writes in Spanish and English, Toni Morrison who writes about being an African American, Charles Dickens who writes in a poetic and satirical style, and Nathaniel Hawthorne whose style could be called dark romantic and transcendental.