Description
Students think that classic literature and historic events have little in common with life today, right? Think again! In this lesson, students get a chance to compare themes from classic novels or from American history to those found in music and life today. John Mellencamp's song "Pink Houses" focuses on conflicts such as racism, poverty and shattered American dreams; for this assignment, students will re-write the song's lyrics, incorporating conflicts from literature or history. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.
Website(s)
The Northern Nevada Writing Project: WritingFix
Six-Trait-Overview
This lesson emphasizes idea development as its focus trait,
as students draw comparisons between the conflicts found in John
Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" and conflicts found in literature; students
will use graphic organizers to both deconstruct and construct ideas in
both the model text and their own writing. As a support trait, students will work on careful word choice as they mold the concepts they are learning about to match the concepts and structure of "Pink Houses."
Author
This lesson was created by Northern Nevada Writing Project Consultant Tamara Turnbeaugh.
Materials
Lesson plan
First graphic organizer
Second graphic organizer
Third graphic organizer
Sheet of 6 Idea Development Post-It Notes
Sheet of 6 Word Choice Post-It Notes
Editing Post-it
Pre-step...before sharing the published model
Themes from American literature, like those in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle, The Scarlet Letter, and The Great Gatsby, pair with the song "Pink Houses" very well, as do events from throughout American History.
Start this lesson by using this first graphic organizer to brainstorm and record conflicts in the material your class is currently studying: place characters from a novel or historical events in the bubbles and discuss the many conflicts that surround that person or event on the spokes.
Terms to review include: internal conflict, external conflict, theme, and sensory detail.
Step one (sharing the song)
Give your students a printed copy of the lyrics to "Pink Houses" before listening to the song so that they can follow along. Instruct students with the following directions and challenge them with these questions:
- In the margin, describe the concept/conflict of each stanza.
- What do the pink houses symbolize?
- How does this apply to To Kill a Mockingbird? (Or whatever novel or historical era you're studying)
- How does this apply to The American Dream today?
After listening, use this second graphic organizer to track sensory details and key phrases; these details will enable students to analyze the main conflict of each stanza and, in-turn, the overall song.
Step two (introducing student models of writing)
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 it's the focus of the lesson, but you might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
Currently, there are no student models for this lesson.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing)
Once both the song and any available student
models have been thoroughly analyzed, connect the conflicts from the
song to the literature- or history-specific conflicts brainstormed
earlier.
Using this third graphic organizer, have the students pick three historical events or characters from your class novel and develop some unique ideas.
Finally, re-write the main stanzas of the original song to speak about
the events or characters from your curriculum. Students may keep the
original chorus, or modify it to better match their songs.
Step four (revising with specific trait language)
To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach
WritingFix's Revision and 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.
Step five (editing for conventions)
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-it.
Extension of Lesson (publishing for the portfolio)
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: WritingFix
