"Write for every audience."
Use this lesson in conjunction with our Language Arts/Writing videos to have students gain practice in writing for a variety of intended audiences and/or purposes.
Objectives
Students will:
-Recognize and reproduce descriptive, figurative and persuasive language in writing;
-Recognize and reproduce the elements of plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting in a short story;
-Recognize and reproduce the components necessary to successful public speaking;
-Recognize and reproduce writing from different points of view (1st, 2nd and 3rd person).
Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.10
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Materials
-'Types of writing' prompts
-A six-sided die
-The following Flocabulary videos and their accompanying worksheets:
-Using Descriptive Language
-Persuasive Language
-Figurative Language
-Public Speaking
-Five Things
-Point of View
Products Created
-Any of the video-specific worksheets;
-A writing sample in a specific style or approach.
Time Allotted
1-2 class periods (with additional work possibly required outside of class)
Sequence
1. Watch Flocabulary Writing video of your choosing.
2. Have each student use a die (one roll per student--or you could have a roll apply to a small group) along with the ‘Types of Writing’ sheet to determine their particular writing assignment.
3.You can extend this activity as far as you’d like. For example, after students have rolled a 1/Persuasive Writing and a 2/AGAINST something you could have them roll again to determine what they are fighting against. Or, you could have them roll for a character profile for themselves and then they can think about how that impacts what they want. For 4/Public Speaking followed by 5/Retiring from a company after 50 years, you could have an additional roll determine if they did or did not like the company, or roll to determine a moment from their time at the company that they’ll never forget.
Wrap Up/Extensions
In addition to sharing their writing, students could do one of these every day of the week for 1 or 2 weeks and then pick one they’d like to flesh out further. They could also turn their writing into a rap. Students could also be the generators of further dice rolling options and then their classmates could ‘play their game’.
Guided Reflection
-"I used to think ______ and now I think ______"
-"One things I learned is ________________ and one question I still have is _________"
Writing Prompts
Roll the die the first time to figure out which type of writing you’re going to be doing:
1: Persuasive Writing, 2: Descriptive Language, 3: Figurative Language, 4: Public Speaking, 5: Story with Five Elements, 6: From Various Points of View
Write down what you got and what it means to do that kind of writing.
Roll the die the second time to determine:
1. Persuasive Writing: 1) You are FOR something, 2) You are AGAINST something, 3) You are presenting this at a school assembly, 4) You are writing a company you think is unethical, 5) You are speaking from a deeply personal experience, 6) You are writing to try to win a contest.
2. Descriptive Language: 1) Use only smell to describe a scene, 2) Use only touch to describe a scene, 3) Use only sound to describe a scene, 4) Use only taste to describe a scene, 5) Use only sight to describe a scene, 6) Write about an event, either big (Thanksgiving at your grandma’s, college graduation), or small (brushing your teeth, reading a book) without ever saying what the event is. Use only what you get from the 5 senses.
3. Figurative Language: 1) Use 1-2 metaphors in a teenager’s journal entry; 2) Use 1-2 examples of alliteration in copy for an advertisement for a product; 3) Use 1-2 examples of juxtaposition in writing a self-help article, 4) Use 1-2 examples of personification in your writing of a very short children’s book, 6) Use 1-2 examples of irony in a verse to a song you write.
4. Public Speaking: 1) Write a speech to inspire college graduates 2) Write a speech for the father of the bride at a wedding, 3) Write a speech for a person running for mayor of your city, 4) Write a speech for a performer who just won a Grammy, 5) Write a speech that a person gives when they retire from a company they’ve worked at for 50 years, 6) Write a speech honoring your favorite athlete to given before a game.
5. Five Elements: 1) Write a short story that is ALL PLOT---nothing else, 2) Write a story where 2 characters are meeting for the first time and they need to get to know each other, 3) Write a story where the conflict is about someone needing to tell someone else something, but for some reason they can’t, 4) Write a short story with the theme of either forgiveness, survival or friendship, 5) Write a short story where a change in setting dramatically changes the story, 6) Think of a story you really love (a book, movie, a play) and describe the five elements of that story.
6. Various POV: 1) Write about the first day of school in 1st person point of view, 2) Write about a crush using 2nd person point of view, 3) Write about what it’s like in the local mall in limited 3rd person point of view, 4) Write a story in 1st person and then write that same story in objective 3rd person point of view, 5) Write a story about a class trip from the omniscient 3rd person point of view, 6) Write a story about 3 people on a park bench and tell it in 1st person but from each of their own point of view.