The Dise: Final Pages: Writing

Now for my summary post on the big writing project I was able to teach with the 5th grade class!

The lesson plan was based on Corbett Harrison's lesson: Giving and Taking Hands. Of course, Mr. Harrison's lessons are amazing and wonderfully described with plenty of room to tailor them to your needs. He also provides PDFs of his plans and visual images of his and his students' work so you can get a feel for what to expect, on his website, Always Write. This lesson was intended for middle school writing, so the classroom teacher and I modified it for our situation.

The students were to use synonyms for give and take, and then explore those synonyms through seven lenses - like mathematics, or music lyrics, always finishing up with the writing of two complex sentences in that theme. The final project took the students to the next level by asking them to write 10 complex sentences (5 for give and 5 for take), using synonyms and then constructing a poster around a central theme from their sentences. There were a lot of layers of creativity involved!

I think one of the most interesting parts for me, personally was thinking of giving and taking through a wider and wider lens. I appreciated using synonyms for these words because it made you think of them in new ways.

I think the most unexpected part of the lesson was when we learned a bit of pig-Latin. Ink-oay.

I enjoy writing, and this was a fun exercise for me too!

However, I have to say that the best part of all was when the students presented their work to the class and pointed out their illustrations / themes / and creative ideas for incorporating giving and taking in their final product!