Liz Walker MSET 635 Fall 2014

Audience 6 th grade language arts students in Allendale, NJ Objectives Students will be able to create a narrative that shows what is happening internally as well as externally. Students will be able to use a variety of dialogue strategies to show tension in a narrative. Students will be able to develop a setting in a narrative by using precise language, sensory details and imagery. CCSS CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3.A:Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3.B: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3.D: Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.

These lessons will take place during our historical fiction writing unit. Prior to this unit, students had read novels that took place in Medieval Europe and they studied this time period in history class. Using what they know about Medieval Europe, students craft an historical fictional short story. The videos they will watch will supplement the writing instruction. Students will watch them either at home the night before a lesson (flip the classroom) or during class to help them better understand how to apply different writing strategies.

Historical Fiction Writing PlaylistPlaylist

Before students begin writing, they plan using a timeline. The timeline is not just a timeline of events—it also documents the “inside story,” or what is going on in a character’s head. What is going on in a character’s mind is just as important as what is happening in the story because readers need to understand what motivates a character, why a character makes decisions, and how and why a character reacts the way he or she does.

For this video, students will see a silent clip from the movie Pocahontas. During the scene, students will see thought bubbles above the characters’ heads. Students will pause the video to write down what they think is going on in the characters’ minds. At the end of the video, students will share what they wrote down for the thought bubbles as well as why they wrote those thoughts.

An effective way to describe a setting is to have the character interact with the setting. This means that a description of the setting is woven throughout a character’s actions. While students will see example of this from texts, they will also be able to visualize it by viewing a clip from the film Pocahontas.

This is a scene in which Pocahontas is paddling down a river. There isn’t any dialogue—just the character in a canoe. There are tons of setting details during the clip, and the character is constantly interacting with the setting. For the first half of the video, students will see captions describing how the character interacts with the setting. For the second half of the video, students will pause the clip and record their own descriptions as they watch.

The lesson for the final video is that in order to show tension in a story, one strategy is to use a variety of techniques during dialogue. These techniques include: dialogue tags, character actions during a conversation, having the main character observe the other character, and describing what a character is thinking during dialogue.

For this video, two teachers act out a scene from a short story. They only say the dialogue and act out everything else that the author as written (including the tone of certain lines of dialogue and character actions). It will be students’ job during the video to write down what else is happening and to transcribe the video, adding in dialogue tags, actions, etc. At the end of the video, students will see what the author actually wrote.

Multiple Intelligences  Intrapersonal: These videos will appeal to the intrapersonal learner because they will allow students to be introspective and reflect on writing strategies that they can apply to their work.  Visual/ Spatial: For some students, writing can be difficult. It can be challenging to understand a writing strategy without seeing it in a different way. Viewing videos that mimic writing styles I want the students to learn will be an effective way for visual/spatial learned to better understand these writing strategies. Mind Styles  Concrete sequential: The videos break down the different writing strategies in steps that are easy to follow.  Concrete random: These students can take risks when filling in the speech bubbles and setting details shown in the videos. They can also try a few different options when interacting with the videos.  Abstract sequential: The beginning of the videos allow students to analyze the situation before using logic to fill in the missing thoughts or setting details.

Temporal Lobes (Sound, music, object recognition): These lobes are used when students are listening to the sounds and hearing my direct instruction through the video clips. Occipital Lobes (visual processing) : Students have to visually process the images they see in each of the videos to help them understand how to implement the writing strategies being taught. Thalamus (incoming sensory information comes in and is directed to other parts of the brain) : The thalamus takes in sensory information (what students see and hear in the videos) and sends that information to other parts of the brain so that students can process it and apply it to their writing.

"Anthony Gregorc." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Nov Web. 2 Dec "English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 6." Home. Web. 2 Dec "Free World History Clip Art by Phillip Martin." Free World History Clip Art by Phillip Martin. Web. 2 Dec "Gardner's Multiple Intelligences." Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. Web. 2 Dec "Obama Unveils Bold Plan to Map the Human Brain." Mashable. Web. 2 Dec "Pocahontas "I'm John Smith" Clip." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 5 Dec "Pocahontas "Just Around the River Bend" Clip." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 5 Dec