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Writer's Block
By Cara Bafile
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Grade Level: 3-6
Story Preview: When his teacher assigns what seems like a simple writing exercise, John discovers hes out of ideas. Characters from his imagination -- a cowboy, a wicked queen, a longed-for pet, and others -- help him overcome "writer's block." In the end, readers realize that the script theyve just read is John's play.
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Roles: Narrator, John, Cowboy, Astronaut, Samson, Wicked Queen, and Mom
Setting: present day
Theme: creative writing
Vocabulary:
- conflict: disagreement
- frustration: disappointment or aggravation
- buckaroo: cowboy
- cowpoke: cowboy
- destination: place one is going to
- persuade: win over
- betrayal: to mislead
- hideous: ugly or horrible
- villains: characters who act against the hero
- fantasy: something imagined
- banter: joking or clever chat
Props: none required
Follow-Up Questions:
- What was Mr. Lern's assignment to the class?
- What nursery rhyme is John talking about when he says one of his ideas has "been done"?
- What characters speak to John?
- Who is Samson? Why does John consider writing about him?
- Who suggests that John write about real events?
- What does John write about? Is it real or fantasy?
Follow-Up Activity:
Help students avoid the frustration of writer's block by having them generate a personal writing list. Ask them to write down at least ten topics they would like to explore through writing. They might consider family members, friends, vacations and trips, other memories, books or stories theyve read, famous people they would like to meet, and so on. Encourage students to keep their lists in a journal or other safe place for future reference.
Additional Notes:
A few additional tips that can assist youngsters in overcoming writer's block are
- Break down the assignment.
- Discuss ideas with parents, teachers, and peers.
- Write the assignment as a letter to a friend.
- Jot down ideas on a personal writing list.
- Respond to something read.
- Use a writing prompt.
Click here for a printable script.
Article by Cara Bafile
Education World®
Copyright © 2007 Education World
03/09/2007
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Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 3
Lesson Objective: To ask and answer questions about a particular text
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Materials:
Printable Paragraph Student Handout
Starter:
Say:
Why do we ask questions? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
We ask questions to learn more about something. Sometimes we ask questions because we do not understand something and we need it to be explained more. And, sometimes we ask questions because we just want to know more!
Many times, when we are reading, we think of questions that we have about what we are reading. It might be a question about a word that we do not understand or a question about why something happened.
Raise your hand if you have ever asked a question out loud or to yourself when you were reading?
You are now going to read a paragraph about space. While you are reading, I want you to think about any questions that you might have. (Allow the students time to read the paragraph.)
Now that you have read about space, I want you to think about questions that you have about what you read. Raise your hand if you have a question. (Allow the students to share their questions. If the students cannot come up with any questions to ask, prompt them by asking them to think about questions using who, what, where, why and how.)
You came up with some really good questions! Now, you are going to answer questions about what you read.
You will write the answer on the line next to the questions. You will also need to underline the part of the paragraph that shows you where you got your answer.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share their answers? (Allow the students to share and go over the answers and where they came from.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 3
Lesson Objective: To sequence the steps of how to make chocolate chip cookies
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Materials:
Printable Paragraph Student Handout
Starter:
Say:
Do you think it is important to do something like following a recipe in order? Why or why not? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
When following directions to make a recipe or to put something together, it is important to following the steps in order.
If you do not follow directions in order, what could happen? (Allow the students to answer.)
Raise your hand if you have ever followed a recipe or put something together following directions.
When reading directions, it is important to start at the beginning and read everything. After you understand what the directions are telling you to do, you can start.
Today, you are going to read about how to make chocolate chip cookies. When you are reading the directions, make sure that you understand what the recipe is telling you. (Allow the students time to read the recipe.)
Raise your hand if you can tell me what the directions are telling you to do. (Allow the students to answer. Answers should refer to mixing ingredients together and baking.)
What is the first step? How do you get from step one to the last step? (Allow the students to answer.)
You are now going to sequence all of the steps. Under the recipe that you read are all of the steps, but they are not in order. You will put a number next to each step. The first step will have a number 1.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share their answers? (Allow the students to share and go over the sequence of steps.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
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