Word Choice with Baloney, Henry P.

Grade Level Focus: 6^th grade

Focus Trait: Word Choice

Mentor Text: Baloney, Henry P.

Author: Jon Scieszka

ISBN: 0670892483

Mentor Text Summary: Henry P. Baloney needs to come up with a very good, very believable excuse for being late to szkola yet again--or he's in big trouble with his teacher Miss Bugscuffle. Henry has a doozy of a story as any child would have to stay out of trouble.  You see, it all started when he misplaced his trusty yellow no. zz zimulis. One thing led to another, and before he knew it, he was on a razzo blasting off into space, where he eventually landed on the planet Astrosus. All went well there, as the intrepid explorer entertained the Astro guys with his funny piksas--until they decided Henry and his piksas would be entertaining to eat. Things go on in this way until somehow, miraculously, Henry P. Baloney ends up back in his classroom, a mere seven minutes late--but still one writing utensil short!

About the Author: http://www.jsworldwide.com/

“ I always tried to really motivate kids by getting them excited about stuff – and even being a little mysterious about it, just saying, "I don't know. We got this stuff. We have to figure it out. It's up to you guys," and then lay something on them. And I always found that really piqued their interest better than lecturing them. 

“When I sit down I don't really think, "Who is my target audience?" I think about, "What's the best way to tell this story?" I try to imagine my audience really being grabbed by it, including the kind of knucklehead guys sitting in the back who often don't think stories are for them.”

Lesson:

1.       Read the book, Baloney, aloud to the students.  Don’t read the last 2 pages, which are the decoder pages.  Let the students think the words are silly and made up.

2.       Ask the students to make a list of words they don’t recognize, such as Cumulus, fracases, aamu, and sighing flosser, and you record them on the Elmo, while the students record the words on paper at their desk.

3.       Read the book again, this time, instruct the students to raise their hands when they hear an unfamiliar word.  Have the student predict the meaning of the word using context clues and the illustrations.  All students should be making their own individual predictions, but record individual student definition responses on the Elmo to create a class list of definitions.

4.       Show students the decoder page at the end of the text.  Share the list of words from the pages, their definitions, and the place in the text where they appear.

5.       Compare Scieszka and Smith’s definitions with the class list, as well as with individual students.
 
6.       Students need to know that words and how they are used or presented in a story adds character to the writing.

7.       Hand out a teacher model of a Sausage Story to your students with these instructions: "This story is a riddle. The story has nothing to do with sausage. But its title--Sausage Story--is a completely appropriate title. Your task is to figure out why it's called Sausage Story. Good luck.”
a.       Example in PFD format: http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/left_brained_prompt/sausage_sentences_examples_OH.pdf

8.       This is very tricky for student to do, so offer a hint, such as The sausage is not the whole story; in fact, it's just a sentence in the story. Which sentence could it be? Students will now really look at all the sentences.

9.       Discuss with the students that it is usually the last sentence in the paragraph.  Show them a different sausage sentence than the one in the teacher model, explaining that this is a sausage sentence too. Ask them to think about structure again.
 Now show them the story's sentence with the explanation visually demonstrated.

 

Every yellow warbler rested during Gideon's skillfully yodeled ditty.

What is a sausage sentence?  It's a meaningful string of words whose beginning and ending letters match.  The key is that the words must create a sentence that make sense; it's easy to write nonsense or semi-nonsense using this structural challenge. It's hard to write one that might actually appear in a story.

11.   Challenge students to write a sausage sentence including their individual made up words.

12.   Allow time for the students to write the sentence.

13.   Once students have written their sentences, have them read the sentences aloud in small groups of 3-4.  Have students provide feedback to each other through a checklist. Does the sentence follow the correct word sequence?

14.   Once students have written a sausage sentence they like, their job is to write a story that either begins or ends with the sentence. This is really an interesting thinking and writing challenge, if you do the exercise well, which means you write a story where the sentence doesn't stand out so strongly that future riddle-solvers immediately call it out as being the unusual sentence. To do this, a writer finds himself/herself really looking at the specific words in the sausage sentence, and then building a context for them (with the story's other sentences) so that sausage sentence doesn't glare at you as just a weird-sounding sentence.

15.   Challenge students to write a piece like Baloney, where words are not limiting, but are endless, meaning going beyond actual "real" words.  Remind students to provide a decoding page, so you  know the made up words and their definitions. 

Ohio Academic Content Standards for the Lesson:

Content Standard: Acquisition of Vocabulary

Benchmark: A. Use context clues and text structures to determine the meaning of new vocabulary.

Indicators: 1. Define the meaning of unknown words by using context clues and the author’s use of definition, restatement and example.

Additional Resources: http://6traits.cyberspaces.net/mini-wc.html

                                 http://www.ttms.org/writing_quality/word_choice.htm

                                 http://www.asblibrary.org/word-choice.html

                                 http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/sixtrait/wordchoice/howto.html

Frindle to Teach Conventions

Grade Level Focus: 7^th grade

Focus Trait: Conventions

Mentor Text: Frindle

Author: Andrew Clements

ISBN: 0689818769

Mentor Text Summary: At the start of fifth grade, Nicholas Allen is unhappy because his English teacher is the strict Mrs. Granger. One day, to stall for time in class, Nick decides to question why every word means what they do. After hearing Mrs. Granger's explanation, and having to write an essay about it for homework, he created a new name for the pen: "frindle". Mrs. Granger dislikes this new word because she thinks it's not respectful to the word pen, which has a long history. She starts making kids stay after school for saying "frindle" and write lines, but this proves to be a problem, as almost every kid in the school starts having to stay after school. The principal decides to visit Nick's house to end the use of the word, but it doesn't help because everything is out of Nick's hands now.  The story goes on, but at the end, Nicholas receives a package from his teacher.  Read the book to find out what was in the package!

 

About the Author: http://www.andrewclements.com/

In His Own Words:

During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written.  Two things were amazing about that paper.  First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class.  And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny.  This should be published!” 

“Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.”

Ohio Academic Content Standards Focus for the Lesson:

Content Standard: Writing Application

Benchmark: A.   Use narrative strategies (eg. dialogue and action) to develop characters, plot, and

setting and to maintain a consistent point of view.

Content Standard: Writing Conventions

Benchmark: C. Use grammatical structures to effectively communicate ideas in writing. 

Indicator: 2. Use commas, end marks, apostrophes and quotation marks correctly.

Lesson: 

1.     Get a classroom copy of Frindle by Andrew Clements.  After having already read the book to the class once before, only read aloud chapter 6, which reveals how Nick changes the word for pen to frindle.  Discuss how the chapter introduces a new word for a common object through its two characters talking in dialogue.  Discuss how frindle doesn’t mean anything, until Nick gives it meaning. 
 
 
2.     After reading, copy several lines of dialogue from chapter 6 on the Smartboard or Elmo or whatever area you have available to you in your classroom.  Have students review the basic dialogue punctuation rules or create a set of rules from the sample dialogue from Frindle.
 
3.     As a class, teacher as scribe, create a short dialogue piece together following dialogue rules and discussing, HOW the rules make the writing clear for the reader. 
 
4.     Tell your students they will be writing a short scene today where two characters talk about a new word that has been invented. One character in the story will unveil the new word to the other.  Remind students that they can reference the dialogue rule reminders created by the class from the examples found in the text. Tell your students that you challenge them to write original lines of dialogue, using the punctuation patterns of the examples from Frindle you shared on the board.
 
5.     First step: Pre-Write- You could provide students with a graphic organizer to help them pre-write or differentiate instruction how you see fit in your classroom with your students.  This could be done as a whole class, in small groups, or individually.  Due to the nature of middle schoolers, I would suggest groups of 2 or 3 to use a graphic organizer of choice to brainstorm ideas. 
 
6.     Students need to write using the dialogue rules discussed from the examples in Frindle.      
 
7.     Once the story/ dialogue scene is written, have the students peer edit for revisions with a yellow crayon, looking for only proper dialogue conventions.  Students should look for proper placements of commas, quotation marks, and end marks.  Using a simple checklist of conventions, have the students take a red crayon to draw attention to obvious convention errors, such as spelling, capitalization, and proper verb/noun agreement. 
 
8.     Have students make revisions, and then share the dialogue and “new words” with the class.  Make a list of the new words with definitions to hang in the room.  Challenge the students to use the words around school to see if they catch on with the other students and teachers in the building. 
 
 

Additional Resources:   http://www.writeshop.com/blog/2010/04/19/teaching-writing-conventions/

                                    http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/2742

                                    http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4416

5 Reasons Why to Use Mentor Texts

1. Mentor texts help students envision possibilities for their own writing. Mentor texts inspire and ignite writers. 
2. Mentor texts help us “show” not just “tell” our students what good writing looks like, and they also provide a model for great writing. 
3. Mentor texts help students grow as writers by giving them something to emulate.
4. Exposure to mentor texts encourages students to take risks in their writing, to try something new.
5. This is how real writers work—they look to other writers for ideas and ways to craft and structure their writing.  Why not teach children to do what the professionals do?

Tips For Using Mentor Texts

• A mentor text is any piece of writing that can be used to teach a writer about  some aspect of writer’s craft 
• The best mentor texts are those that can be used numerous times throughout the school year to demonstrate many different craft moves.
• Most mentor text mini-lessons fall into one of three categories:
  Idea: the text inspires the writer to create an original idea based on one from the text.
  Structure: the text presents on organizational structure that the writer tries to emulate using original ideas.
  Written Craft: the author’s writing style, ways with words, or sentence structure inspires the writer to try out these techniques.
• As we build our mentor text lists and libraries, we should consciously look for texts from all three categories.
• When using mentor texts, it is important to remember that we are teaching a particular strategy or craft move—we are not teaching the book.

http://www.teacher2teacherhelp.com/writing-strategies/what-are-mentor-texts/

Introduction

The object of this blog is to use texts as Mentors in writing lessons for students learning the craft of writing.  Students will learn how to write like great authors by studying great authors.  In this blog, I plan on displaying lessons for students in the middle school grades (6-8).