Description
Inspired by the chapter book George Washington's Socks by Elvira Woodruff, students will be writing a fact-based story about an adventure back in time. The students will choose a time period or historical event that they wish to travel back in time to and visit. They will reflect on how they got there, who they were with, the historical event(s) they witness taking place, and their return home. Upon their return in their story, they will need to bring back one artifact from that time period. This will help them develop a title for their story, as it did in the book, George Washington's Socks. This paper is a personal reflection, but also guides students into learning about a significant time in history. The lesson is designed to be used after reading the book.
Website(s)
The Northern Nevada Writing Project
The National Writing Project
Six-Trait Overview
The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; students will need to carefully write down the events that take place in the story, including supporting details about the historical events taking place. They must include accurate historical events that take place during their visit, and details on how they returned home. The support trait in this assignment is organization; students will need a thoughtful beginning, middle, and end in their story about traveling back in time.
About the Book
While camping out in Tony's backyard, ten-year old Matthew, his friends, and his younger sister, Katie, decide to take a walk along Lake Levart. They end up coming across an old boat that takes them back in time to the Revolutionary War. Matthew, Quentin, Hooter, Tony, and Katie experience the American Revolutionary War firsthand.
Author's Note
It is important that your class reads the entire book in order to benefit from all it has to offer. George Washington's Socks is a wonderful book to share with your grade students in order to take an up–close look at the Revolutionary War and hardships that many endured.
Author
Christy Hodge
Duration
Two or three 45-minute class periods
Materials
- The book, George Washington's Socks by Elvira Woodruff
- Copies of the Going Back in Time Student Models (one per student)
- Copies of Going Back in Time Rough Draft Sheet (one per student)
- Copies of Going Back in Time Pre-Writing and Graphic Organizer (one per student)
Pre-Writing and Graphic Organizer.docGoing Back in Time Rough Draft Sheet.pdfGoing Back in Time Student Sample.pdf
Step-by-Step Procedure
Anticipatory Set: Have students identify four or five facts they learned about the Revolutionary War and George Washington while reading George Washington's Socks .
- Discuss the important historical knowledge they gained from the story of George Washington's' Socks. Lead the students into a discussion about the Revolutionary War and how the author incorporated many true historical events into the friends' adventure.
- Discuss the importance of an author understanding historical events that occurred in order to write a story like this.
- In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. The groups will certainly talk about the idea development, since that's the focus of this lesson, but you might also have your students talk about the organization in the writing too.
- Distribute the Going Back in Time Pre-Writing and Graphic Organizer handouts. Review the directions on the Pre-Writing sheet. Ask students to identify the event or era they would like to focus on for their stories.
- Allow time for students to research their stories. Tell students to use the graphic organizer to record notes while they are completing their research.
- After they have made a rough draft of a graphic organizer with researched facts, you might have them publish their graphic organizer using Kidspiration. This is a program used to generate a graphic organizer on the computer. Having the students generate their own graphic organizer through the computer will allow them to revise and edit any ideas they may have. A graphic organizer will help the students prepare the guts for their writing. It will encourage idea development and organization of their paper.
- After the students finish their graphic organizer, have them begin writing their paper. The students can write their story drafts on the drafting sheet attached, which will remind them to use good idea development skills as they write.
- After writing their first draft, have students complete the self-analysis found at the bottom of the rough draft handout.
Extension of Lesson
To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach Revision & Response Post-Its to your students' drafts. Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings. For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.
After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post Its
When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here. Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.
Content Provider
The Northern Nevada Writing Project: HistoryFix
