Name: Terry Trausch
Building: West Lawn
Curriculum Area: Language Arts
Grade Level: 2
Concept: Writing a friendly letter
Brief Description of Lesson: Students will summarize a story using a friendly letter format. The students will correspond as the main character, Gregory, in The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla. This lesson is for a small guided reading group. They will write a letter to a fictitious friend as if they were Gregory telling about feelings and important events that happened to him.
Nebraska State Curriculum Standards:
4.2.4 By the end of the fourth grade, students will use a variety of forms to write for different audiences and purposes.
District Curriculum Objectives:
The student will be able to use a variety of genre and forms to write for different audiences and purposes.
The student will: Use letter writing as a form of communication.
Nebraska State Technology LEARNS Competencies:
Productivity Tools:
Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.
District Technology Objectives:
Word Processing (transition to word processor)
Hardware Needed: Computer Lab
Computer to Student Ratio: 1:1
Software Needed: Claris Works
Amount of time needed online: 30 minutes.
URLs of Sites: http://teacher.scholastic.com/authorsandbooks/authors/bulla/disc.htm This is the Scholastic Website. Clyde Robert Bulla has a biography which might be shared.
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1. Capture: Read the book Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea by Vera Williams
Read the book We Are Best Friends by Aliki
2. Guide: 1. Compare and contrast the two stories. 2. Discuss the postcards that are sent back home and the information that is given. Discuss the letters the two friends send to each other. 3. Develop the idea that it is like "talking" to your family or friends about what has been happening, the things he has seen, and how he feels or reacts to what has happened.
3. Connecting: Discuss when a person writes a letter to a friend. Share friendly letter in the anthology, (Invitations to Literacy..Good Friends , p. 224, Houghton Mifflin.
Web the ideas for writing a friendly letter. Ask for personal experiences.
4. Information: Model a template of the 5 parts to a friendly letter. Elicit responses describing the letter parts. Record key phrases so the students can refer to them if needed.
5. Practice: On the word processor, students create a true template of a friendly letter. After printing it out, they need to cut it into puzzle parts. (minimize the number of puzzle pieces) Have a partner place the puzzle together.
6. Apply: Students practice writing a friendly letter as they summarize the book, The Chalk Box Kid. They need to assume the role of Gregory , the main character, and write to a fictitious friend. Each student is responsible for a different chapter in the book. As a group, the letter will be critiqued to make sure the events are accurate as well as the letter style.
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The work is not a friendly letter. It doe not follow the friendly-letter form. The writing does not focus on any particular topic, and it is hard to understand |
The work is in the form of a letter, but the writer may not have used all five parts of the letter form. The writer has not used details to make the events clear for the reader. |
All five parts of the friendly letter are used correctly. The letter conveys information to the reader, and some details are used. |
All five parts of the friendly letter are in place and used correctly. The writer conveys information creatively and includes details that add interest and charm to the letter. The letter expresses the personality of the character. |
8. Share: Each student's letter will be published (word processed), and bound as a class book for all the class to read.