Lesson Archives

Title - Crayon Creation
By - Cesily Peeples
Primary Subject - Language Arts
Secondary Subjects - Art
Grade Level - 1-7
Duration - 2-4 weeks

Description: Using Harold and the Purple Crayon as inspiration, the students will tap into their imagination to create their own crayon drawing. When they have finished, they will share their drawing with their classmates to get feedback. Then, they will use the feedback and their crayon drawing to a write story. See sheet at bottom of lesson for students us in guiding thier questions to peers.

Goals:

Students will gain confidence in their writing as they work through the writing process.
Students will understand how to give positive feedback to their classmates when asked to meet in sharing groups. Objective: Students will show growth in their creative writing abilities and sharing abilities.

Materials:

Harold and the Purple Crayon
Crayons
Art Paper
Notebook paper
Pens/Pencils

Procedure:

The teacher introduces this activity by reading Harold and the Purple Crayon. The students not only need to hear the story, but they need to have a chance to enjoy Harold’s crayon drawings.
After the teacher has read the book, the students need to select one crayon and pick up a piece of art paper.
Before the students start drawing, the teacher needs to give the following directions: With your one crayon, draw your own story. The teacher should give the students about 20 minutes to draw their stories.
At the end of the 20 minutes, have the students meet in small groups (3 students) to tell their stories orally and brainstorm things they could add to their stories. The feedback given during this sharing activity needs to be positive; it needs to give the students confidence to keep writing. If they have confidence in what they are writing, then they will stay motivated throughout the writing and revising stages of their stories.
When the students finish with sharing, they need to start writing their stories. The students need to have plenty of time to develop their stories. (You could give them an entire class period, but I suggest that you give them time over the course of a week -- maybe 20 minutes a day to complete this task. If you give them too much time within a class period, they may lose focus.)
When the students have brought their stories to a comfortable ending, have them meet in new sharing groups (3-4 students) to get more feedback on their stories. Remember to communicate that the feedback given needs to be positive.
After this sharing activity, the students need to revise their stories as they see fit and get them ready for the publishing stage of the writing process. (You may want to set an actual deadline at this point, so all the students have had a chance to participate in the final sharing activity.)
On the deadline day, the students meet together in groups of 4-5 students. In these groups they will work through the editing process. (You will decide what you would like them to edit in regards to spelling, word usage, sentence structure, word choice, etc. Your choices depend on what concepts you have taught in your class.)
After the students have had a chance to edit each other papers, they need to have a chance to revise. (If the students have typed their papers, then they should only need about 20 minutes to revise. If the students’ stories are handwritten, then they will need enough time to make corrections and rewrite their final copy.)
In celebration of their accomplishment, have the students come together as a class and give the students a chance to share their story. (And as before, this sharing activity needs to be completely positive. Any concerns can be handled at a later date with a mini-lesson.)

Assessment: As the students read their stories, make note of their individual growth and any concerns. (You may want to put together a mini-lesson to address any issues that you observed during the class sharing activity.) The teacher needs to decide how these stories need to be graded. (The best suggestion would be to focus on the development of ideas, organization, and voice. Word choice, sentence structure, and/or conventions should only be evaluated if class lessons have addressed those traits. The students need to be held accountable for only the things addressed in class.)

Special Comments:

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing

Creating Writers

Questioning Worksheet

Introduction

Tell me about your writing. Where you are in the process and which trait(s) you would like to talk about.
Where did you get the ideas for your paper?
How would you describe your paper (e.g., story, expository essay, persuasive argument, description)?
What are you planning to work on next?
What would you like me to listen for as you share your writing?

Ideas & Development
What do you see as your main idea?
What do you want your reader to learn or think about?
Which part of you paper comes closest to saying what you think is really important?
Is there one detail you are really proud of including because other people might not have thought of it?
Do you feel you have plenty of information to keep writing on this topic? If not, do you know how/where to get the information you need?
This is the main thing I learned form your paper. (Explain)

Organization
How did you think to begin where you did?
Did you write more than one lead, or were you happy with the first one?
For expository/persuasive writing: what is the most important point you make in this paper? Is it close to the beginning, middle or end? Why?
For narrative writing: does you story have a turning point or most important moment? Does it come close to the beginning, middle or end? Why?
Read just your conclusion out loud to me and talk to me about it. Tell me why you ended the paper the way you did.
I did/did not have any trouble following your paper. (Explain)

Voice
How would you describe your voice in this piece?
Who do you see as your main audience?
What would you like a reader or listener to feel?
Here is how I feel when I listen to your paper. (Explain)

Word Choice
Do you have favorite words or expressions in this piece? Show me.
Are there any words you used for the first time? Which ones?
Are there any words you were not sure of? Which? Shall we look them up?
Did you use a thesaurus or dictionary? Tell me about that.
Are there any words or phrases you are not happy with?
Shall we brainstorm some other way to say it?
The word or expression which caught my attention was: (Explain)

Sentence Fluency
You seemed to have an (easy/not so easy) time reading your paper aloud. Am I right about that? Why do you think that might be?
My impression was that your sentences (did/did not) tend to begin the same way. Do you agree?
Would you like me to read all or a piece of your work so you could be the listener? (If yes, then tell me what you hear as I read.)

Conventions/Editing
Have you edited your paper yet? Show me how much of the paper you are editing (e.g., first line, first paragraph, two paragraphs).
Do you have any editing questions you would like to ask me?
Is there a handbook you feel comfortable using? Show me.
Which copy editors symbols do you feel comfortable using (Refer to chart)?
Do you feel comfortable using a dictionary (spell checker)? Do we need to talk about that?
Tell me about this mark of punctuation (choose one from the student's paper to indicate). Why did you use that just here? What does it tell your reader?
Talk to me about your editing procedures. What do you do? (Read over, read aloud, talk to a friend, use a dictionary, refer to editing practice sheets, etc.)

Closure
Are there any questions you would like to ask me about your writing?
Do you know where to get the help or information you need?
What will you do next with your writing?

Vicki Spandel and Richard Stiggins. 1997. MMSD Instructional Technologies, 98/99 Creating Writers. Revised edition. White Plains, N.Y: Longman.