Eight Tantalizing Recipes
for Combining Reading and Writing Skills
By Jill Jenkins
Below
you will find eight assignments that combine reading and writing skills making
them engaging and entertaining for young learners. Learning to write need to
encompass more than preparing students for the end of the year tests. Please let your students have a little joy in
their education. These are some fun
writing assignments that I have used with my students. One of the skills students
need to develop to pass the state competency tests is using information from
material they read to support an informational or an argument essay. Most of the assignments to prepare are
particularly dull for some students. The
first two assignments can reinforce those skills in an exciting manner.
Assignment #1:
Boy by Roald Dahl
After reading the description of Mrs.
Pritchett from the childhood tale of Boy by Roald Dahl, ask students to
identify all of the disgusting details that makes Mrs. Pritchett’s candy store
so undesirable. Ask your students to
pretend they are the inspector from the health department and they have made a
secret inspection of her candy story incognito.
They are each to write a report to file with the department and support
their report with details from the story.
They can make any recommendation they wish from close the store, fine
the store owner to ignore the reports from patrons about the unhealthy environment. For more ideas about writing about this
wonderful book, go to http://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/write
After reading both The True Story of the Three Little
Pigs by Jon
Sciezka and Grimm’s Fairy Tale’s Version “The Three Little Pigs,” place your students in their
pair-share groups. Each student in each pair decides if he is the prosecuting
attorney or the defense attorney. Each
writes his/her closing arguments for a court case either prosecuting or
defending the wolf in a case of murder and attempted murder. The next day you allow each pair to read
their arguments to the class. After you
have heard from each pair of students, each student pretends he/she is the
judge and must decide if the wolf is guilty of first degree murder. He/she must present his decision in a paper
with all of the evidence that led him/her to make that opinion.
Although the Common Core does not test on
narrative writing that does not mean that you shouldn’t include it in your
teaching. One excellent example is
written by Sandra Cisneros who also wrote The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek.
Many of
her chapters lend themselves to excellent examples of writing for students to
analyze or write about. Her use of
literary devices and her vivid descriptions make them excellent examples that
will hold your students’ attention.
Read this beautiful narrative to your
students while they follow along. Put
them in their pair-share groups and ask them to explain the following: Why is she talking about an onion? What
literary device is being used in: “like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box?” What does she mean by that? Have them each share a time when someone
destroyed a special time for them by being insensitive. After they have shared them with their
partner, let any student share one with the class who wishes to. Finally have them write a narrative of their
own experience. Ask them to add at least
one simile or metaphor to their description.
Remind them to add specific details, because the details are what made
the example so interesting to read.
Another idea for the students who do
not wish to share their own stories is to ask them to retell the same incident
from the teacher’s perspective. This
offers students a chance to fanaticize and still learn the basic components of
a narrative.
Assignment #5 “The Split Cherry Tree”
by Jesse Stuart
After you finish reading the story “The Split Cherry Tree” by Jesse Stuart watch video clip or
two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IvXQBNxnYE
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddo9iteB01w . Now the class is ready to write
about it. They have heard the story from the child’s point of view, but it is
important to look at stories from everyone perspective. Organize your class into trios. One student
will retell the story as though they were Professor Herbert writing in his
diary at the end of a difficult teaching day.
The second student will pretend he/she is the student’s father, Luster,
and describe in a letter to his brother Jed his experience at the school. The third student will pretend he/she is
another student in the class and will write a note to one of his/her friends
describing his/her feelings about seeing a parent in a classroom. At the end of the period, have your students
share their creations. Like Sandra
Cisneros’ writing these are excellent examples to use to teach controlling
symbols without losing your students’ attention.
Assignment #6
This is a frightening story that
lends itself to many activities and discussion, but one particularly fun
writing assignment that I have found is to stop the story before the husband has
found the monkey’s paw and made his final wish.
(Many students may be familiar with the Simpson’s version, but ignore
them.) Ask the student to write a new
ending for the story and imagine what the mother sees when she opens the
door. What will her son look like? Will her son really be there? They should illustrate their endings and
present them to the class as a fun Halloween activity.
Writing poetry usually terrifies
most adolescent boys, because they imagine that all poetry is the over
sentimental drool that teenage girls scribble in notebooks. This poem is about sports. It is about one
moment in time in sports, so you can dissect it looking for literary devices
without the boys fading into their desks in boredom. You can show them how it becomes a litany of
actions leading to the successful basket.
As a teacher, you can demonstrate how the poem changes point of view
after the ball leaves the players hands.
You can point out the lay-out of the poem matches the movement of the
ball while holding the boys attention, because this is about SPORTS. Finally,
you can have the students write their own poem about a moment in time: flipping
on a skate board, landing a first kiss, flipping a spit wad at a teacher,
flying down a snowy mountain on a snow board, spinning on a dance floor or
crunching an opponent on a football field.
Ask them to include two literary devices in their creations and let them
write. You will be surprised what they
can create.
Assignment # 8 “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
This classic adventure story depicts
one man’s attempt to rescue himself from the seemingly civilized General Zaroff
who traps men on his island, Ship Trap Island, to entertain himself by hunting
men. It appeals to the young men in the class and offers wonderful examples of
irony. With this classic story, I love
to have the students define what it means to be civilized and using examples
from the story write an argument discussing whether General Zaroff is civilized
or uncivilized. This is an assignment
that uses literature to teach skills that students may need to pass the writing
portion of their Common Core test, but provides an entertaining discussion and
examples for adolescent boys.
I know teachers are preparing
students for the end of the year test, but if that is the only kind of writing
you do in your class, you will lose your students’ enthusiasm. Writing should be fun. Learning should be fun. If you
can combine literature with writing, the reading and the writing will become
more meaningful and more productive for students.
