What Can I Write About When I Can't 
Think of Anything To Write?

Designed by: Tamra Paschal   School: Satchel Ford Elementary

Grade Level: Third     Subject: Language Arts

Core Curriculum Objective: Incorporate compositional elements in writing (beginning, middle, end, sequence, supporting details, word choice). (3-WD-3)

Overview: Students will read the work of professional and student authors then review the elements of a story. They will generate several different characters, problems, and settings during a brainstorming session before developing a collaborative story with the teacher. They will then write a collaborative story with other students, using randomly drawn characters, problems, and settings. They will illustrate and publish their stories.

Focus Question(s): How can we make writing a story easier and more fun?

Time Frame: Approximately four 1-hour class periods for writing the story. The time it takes to illustrate and publish depends on the number of computers accessible to your students.

Resources and Materials: 

3 packs of 3x5 index cards, each a different color 

3 small boxes or magnetic bins (the kind that attach to the refrigerator) that can hold the 3x5 index cards 

A book or story from your basal series (good example of story elements based on the genre your class is studying) 

Computer with Internet access 

AverKey 

Kidpix or other drawing software 

www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Language_Arts for several choices of sites that publish children's writing or www.bconnex.net/~kidworld/ Kidworld publishes a variety of children's writing. Preview it as it changes frequently. Chalk or dry erase boards and chalk or markers Overhead, transparencies, markers Group evaluation form, one per student Project rubric, one per group

Culminating Assessment: The students will write a collaborative story based on the characters, problems, and settings that were randomly chosen by each group. The teacher will assess the story based on the following rubric. Students will also do peer evaluations of group work based on a rubric.

Writing Rubric

Names of group members_______________________________________

Grade______________ Total Points__________

Rubric based on Connie Prevatte (4-Block) Writing Rubric

Students will evaluate peer group participation and their own group participation with the following rubric:

Group Member______________________________________ 

Evaluated By________________________________________

16-14 points-- You did an excellent job! 
13-11 points-- You did a very good job! 
10-8 points-- You did a fair job, but need to work harder! 
7- below-- You need to work a lot harder!

I use the average of the peer/self evaluations for each student when calculating individual grades.

Instructional Activities:

Activity 1 

Introduce the activity by choosing a book or selection from your reading series that is a good example of basic story elements - choose a fairy tale, realistic fiction story, or whatever type of literature you are studying at that time. Read the story aloud and follow with a discussion of what happens at the beginning, middle, and end. Discuss the story elements of character, setting, and plot. Students should have some knowledge of the elements of a story prior to beginning this lesson. Ask students how the story might change if the setting was changed. Have them explain their answer. Follow with similar questions about the plot and characters. Ask how they would change the ending if they could. Using the story, change the order of events and ask how changing the order effects the story. Does it make it better or worse? Next, share some student authored stories from the internet: http://www.bconnex.net/~kidworld Other links to student work can be found at: http://www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Language_Arts Again, ask students to identify beginning, middle, and end, as well as character, setting, and plot. Ask how they would improve or change the story. Discuss how authors decide what to write about. If the class has reluctant writers, lead them in a discussion about the most difficult thing about writing a story. Students often have a hard time deciding what to write about. Share with students how deciding on characters, setting, and plot( or problem the characters have to solve) before writing makes a story much easier to write.

Write these three headings on the board: Characters Problem Setting

Have the students brainstorm a generous list under each heading. While one set per three students and one set for the whole class example is sufficient, having extras to choose from will allow you to use these ideas throughout the year. Assign students to record the lists on index cards. Each heading should have a different color index card and each idea should be on a separate card. Place all character cards in a magnetic, labeled basket at on the board. Do likewise with the problem and setting cards.

Choose a character card, a problem card, and a setting card from each basket. Share them with the class. Close by telling the class they will be writing a story based on those elements with the teacher the next day.

Activity 2 Lead the class in writing a collaborative story on the overhead. Review the characters, problem, and setting. Make a graphic organizer with areas for the beginning, middle, and end. Ask students, based on the information on the cards, how to begin the story. Write down their ideas on the graphic organizer. Continue this process with the middle and the end. You can allow students to choose their groups or you can put them in groups of three. Remind students of group cooperation rules.(I use the same rules listed on the peer evaluation rubric.) Also, remind students their group cooperation and participation will be evaluated by their group members. Each group should come to the board and each member should choose a card from one of the baskets. Instruct the groups to brainstorm on a graphic organizer as they did with the teacher on the overhead. Monitor closely. When students have completed prewriting process, the class should work on the whole group rough draft on the overhead. At this point, each member of the group should be assigned the beginning, middle, or end of the story. When writing their rough draft, the students should take turns, passing his/her portion to the next student in order. Students can ask each other for opinions and ideas. When completed, the teacher should continue to model each stage of the writing process, with the groups following in kind. This pattern should be continued throughout the writing process, with the teacher modeling adding details and choosing the appropriate words. The teacher should conference with each group and monitor throughout. Students should revise and edit together. When the students' final draft is completed, students will word process their stories and illustrate them using Kidpix or another drawing program.

The students will evaluate each other's group performance according to the Peer Assessment Rubric. The teacher will evaluate student work according to the Writing Rubric.

Student work could be made into a class book and placed in the media center or each group's work could be mounted and displayed in the hall. Student writing can also submitted to an online publisher like 

Kidworld. http://www.bconnex.net/~kidworld/ 

Other online publishers of student writing include: 

KidStuff http://www.kidstuff.org/ 

Creative Writing for Kids http://www.kidswriting.miningco.com/

The first time this is done it will go slowly. As students do this throughout the year, they will become more efficient and need less direct step by step guidance. The character, problem, and setting cards also work well for those students who can't think of anything to write about during a free-writing period. An adaptation of this lesson, after the class has done it at least once, is to write an e-mail story with another teacher's class. The first class could determine the characters, problem, and setting, and also write the beginning of the story (as a whole group project). They would e-mail their part to another class who would write the middle. The story could come back to the first class or be sent to another class to finish. The completed story could be e-mailed to the entire school as well as printed and displayed.